September 25, 2022

Tequila, lime, and garlic flank steak

I made this to use in tacos, but it will go well as fajitas or with your choice of sides. As often with my marinades and sauces, I didn’t really pre-measure. I based the other ingredient amounts on how much juice I got from the fruit. Ingredients 3 limes, both zest and juice 1 lemon, both zest and juice (or one more lime) 6 cloves of garlic, grated or finely diced 2-4 hot chilies (Habanero or Jalapeño or Serrano) roughly chopped 1 teaspoon cumin powder 1 teaspoon Harissa powder (or 1/2 tsp paprika and 1/2 tsp chili powder) 1 Tablespoon fresh ground black pepper 3/4 cup tequila 1/4 cup soy sauce 1/8 cup neutral oil 1 pound flank steak Directions Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl Add marinade and flank steak in a resealable bag, squeeze out the air Marinate from 6 to 24 hours I prefer to cook the marinated flank steak on a grill over medium high heat, 3 minutes on one side, rotate 90 degrees (for hash-shaped grill marks) for 3 minutes, flip and do the same on the second side.

April 4, 2022

Beef and Broccoli

I make this at least twice a month. I’ve found no better version than this, and wanted to make sure I stashed a copy here… Original came from: https://thewoksoflife.com/beef-with-broccoli-all-purpose-stir-fry-sauce/#recipe I did some editing and minor changes to simplify measuring and cooking, and my flavor/cooking preferences… Ingredients For the beef and marinade: 1 pound flank steak (sliced 1/4-inch thick). Hint, take flank steak, cut 3 equal slices with the grain, then cut each slice against the grain at an angle.

April 2, 2022

Kimchi

You can add/delete/swap pepper types, add other veggies that ferment/pickle well. Think of it as a starting point to adjust to your local ingredients and taste preferences. Napa cabbage is most often used, but I’ve successfully used a regular head of green cabbage like you’d use for sauerkraut, but cut into larger pieces instead of shredding. For brine, add 1 Tablespoon per quart of water (1/4 Tablespoon per cup). 1 pound of cabbage will be a little more than will fit in a 1/2 gallon Ball jar.

January 10, 2022

Cilantro-lime dressing

Made this as a cooling drizzle for a spicy enchilada casserole I made. Turned out so well, writing the recipe down. Would go well on just about anything cilantro would, salad, seafood, and steak. Ingredients: 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup Greek yogurt 1/4 cup lime juice 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 bunch of cilantro, leaves and stems 4 cloves of garlic Salt & pepper to taste Directions: Put all ingredients in a food processor, blend until it reaches the consistency you’d like.

September 3, 2021

YABS (Yet Another BBQ Sauce)

Another relative recipe. If 1 unit is a teaspoon, this will make about 2 cups of sauce. 60 Ketchup 30 White vinegar 12 Bourbon 9 Sugar 3 Worcestershire 3 Ground Pepper 1.5 Dried mustard 1 Liquid smoke 1 Chili powder 1 Ground white pepper 0.5 Ground corriander 0.5 Cayenne

September 3, 2021

Dry Rub (chicken)

This is an excellent poultry dry rub. Rather than specific measurements, I’ll use relative ones. If one unit is a teaspoon, you’ll end up with about 6 ounces of rub. You need about 1 ounce per chicken thigh sized piece. 8 sugar 8 paprika 4 sea salt 4 celery salt 3 chili powder 3 onion powder 2 dried mustard 2 granulated garlic 1 cayenne pepper

April 26, 2021

Honey-Lemon-Garlic Chicken

These proportions make a very tart sauce, which I loved. Halve the lemon juice, or add more honey to taste. Ingredients: 2 boneless/skinless chicken thighs 4-6 cloves of garlic chopped finely (depending on size) 6 whole cloves of garlic Equal amounts of lemon & honey (about 1/4 cup). This made it tart, which I loved, but if you want it on the sweeter side, use more honey, or less lemon juice!

January 17, 2021

Steamed Tofu and Pork

Came across a recipe for this (Steamed Tofu with Ground Pork - Delightful Plate), and loved it so much, we have it several times a month. As always, I changed the basics to suit my tastes. I highly recommend a bamboo steamer for this recipe, otherwise you have the problem of moisture condensing and dripping on the plate. This dish has the great advantage that you can prepare up to steaming, move on to preparing other dishes, and 15 minutes before they’re ready, put this in the steamer.

October 5, 2020

Spicy Harissa Wings

I love chicken wings. I started learning to cook by working on a series of wing sauces from mild to scorching, but all with the same flavor profile. I’ve come to mostly make them on the grill, then toss with sauce. I finally tried a deep fryer, and do enjoy them fried as well. My favorite method now is probably smoked, then fried, and if I don’t have time for smoking, then grilled and fried.

June 7, 2020

Miso dressing

Miso dressing test notes. Combining ingredients from several found recipes, and adjusting them for my tastes and getting the texture I wanted. Tasting note, this ends up being a thick dressing, and enough for 4-6 individual salad servings. I also doubled the recipe to store in the fridge for a couple weeks, since we have a lot of salad. Items in italics are still being refined. Last version used some sweetener, but I didn’t like the result, so I’ve removed sweetener from the list.