scallion

Gorgonzola Gratinated Skirt Steak, Tomato & Aparagus On Naan

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Friday night’s dinner is one of these typical dishes that are only concocted when the hunger for a BIG dinner is already gnawing in our gut’s and nothing small and simple will satisfy the hunger disturbed imagination of what the next meal must be like. So here we go, a dinner that will satisfy even the biggest craving for hearty food 🙂
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Gorgonzola Gratinated Skirt Steak, Tomato & Aparagus On Naan

: Gorgonzola Gratinated Skirt Steak, Tomato & Aparagus On Naan

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Ingredient’s :

Skirt steak, marinated overnight in soy sauce, sriracha, & garlic paste
Naan, (substitute with bread of your choice)
Asparagus spears, (white or green, depending on availability and your preference), buttered and seasoned with kosher salt and cayenne pepper
Tomatoes, sliced thick, seasoned with kosher salt and cayenne pepper
Scallions, buttered and seasoned with kosher salt and cayenne pepper
Asiago cheese, finely grated
Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
Kosher salt,
Peanut oil,

Method :

Season steak with kosher salt, dust with a mixture of ap flour, cornstarch, cayene and garlic powder , saute in oil until bloody rare (or your preference. (See note below). Place naan on a baking rack. Top with steak. Sprinkle with asiago. Top with tomato. Sprinkle with asiago . Top with asparagus. Top with gorgonzola. Top with scallions. Broil until gorgonzola is melted and get’s a few golden spots. Remove from broiler, sprinkle with chili flakes. Enjoy a great meal ! 🙂

Note :
Remember the carry-over heat and the step of gratinating. Both will further cook your steak. Since I like most of my beef and lamb steaks to be medium rare, I removed it at bloody rare. By the time it was gratinated and ready to eat, it was a perfect medium rare.

Bon Appetit Life is Good !
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Stir Fried Vegetables, Egg and Walnuts

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Today I read this article about healthy living. One of the main paths to a healthy life is supposedly to refrain from eating animal protein. But, as you all know, healthy or not, I just love animal protein once in a while. Chicken, pork, lamb,beef, seafood, duck, goose, I love it all.
But, tonight I had a strong craving for rice and vegetables. Since Bella is usually my only dinner guest, I mostly get to decide on the menu all by myself. So today’s dinner came along that ” healthy path ” .
“Despite” being healthy, it was delicious and a joy to eat. But tomorrow – Steak 🙂

Fan ( Chinese steamed rice ) recipe HERE
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Stir Fried Vegetables, Egg & Walnut

: Stir Fried Vegetables, Egg & Fan

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Ingredient’s :

Broccoli, floretes, blanched
Bean sprouts,
Red radishes, quartered,
Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Chili’s, seeded, quartered
Onion, julienned
Eggs, hardboiled, Quartered
Walnuts, candied
Ginger, grated
Garlic, paste
Scallions, sliced
Cilantro, chopped
Hoi sin sauce,
Soy sauce,
Sesame oil,
Peanut oil, to saute
Chicken stock,
Corn starch slurry,
Kosher salt,
Cayenne pepper,
Chili oil,
Sesame seeds, toasted
Fan,

Method :

Saute walnuts in sugar until sugar starts to brown, set aside. Saute onions until translucent, add ginger and garlic, saute until fragrant, Add broccoli, shiitake, radish, scallion and chili’s and saute until heated through. Add chicken stock, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, salt and pepper, bring to a simmer. Add slurry, simmer for a few seconds. Remove from heat, add bean sprouts. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Add eggs. To serve, top with walnuts, sprinkle with cilantro, drizzle with chili oil. Sprinkle fan with toasted sesame seeds.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !

Imperial Fried Rice

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Time to get excited about fried rice 🙂
No, not the cabbage and soy sauce laden one you get for two bucks at your corner chinese restaurant. No, I am talking about my treasure chest of a fried rice which has a whole bunch of goodies in it. Each one (shrimp,chicken, lap cheong, ham, eggs, vegetables), fried on it’s own with rice would make a good fried rice, but here the combination of all of this stuff together makes it a truly memorable dish.
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Imperial Fried Rice

: Imperial Fried Rice

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Ingredient’s :

Fan (飯),   day old chinese steamed rice (Recipe Here)
Chicken,   cubed
Shrimp,   peeled, tail on
Ham,   diced
Lap cheong, fresh, unsmoked
Scallion,   sliced
Bean sprouts,
Red/green bell peppers,   diced
Onions,   diced
Kernel corn,   blanched
Green peas,   blanched
Eggs,   whisked
Garlic,   paste
Ginger,   grated
Kosher salt,
Cayenne pepper,
Sesame oil,
Peanut oil,   to stir fry

Method :

Season protein and vegetables with salt and cayenne pepper. Saute (stir fry) chicken in oil until medium, remove chicken. Saute shrimp, ham and sausage until shrimp are 3/4 cooked, remove. Saute vegetables, ginger and garlic until fragrant, add rice, fry until rice starts to puff a bit. Form a whole in the center, add more peanut oil, add the eggs. Styr fry until the eggs have set, return proteins to the rice and stir fry until rice starts to pop again. Add bean sprouts, season with sesame oil, salt and pepper. To serve, sprinkle with scallions and more bean sprouts.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Pasta & Chicken

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One of my own personal junk food’s, pasta and chicken.
Any time of day, any which way, as long as it’s juicy and tasty 🙂
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Ingredients :

Lasagna pasta, broken into large pieces, cooked al dente
Chicken drumsticks,
Crimini mushrooms, cleaned
White cabbage, sliced
Red bell pepper, sliced
Onion, sliced
Garlic, paste
Scallion, sliced
Parmigiano reggiano, thinly sliced
Parmigiano reggiano, finely grated
Italian parsley, coarsely chopped
Kosher salt,
Cayenne pepper,
Maggi seasoning,
Butter , to saute, substitute olive oil if you prefer

Method :

Saute seasoned chicken slowly in butter until golden, put on a rack and cook in oven until cooked through. Meanwhile, saute onion and mushroom in same butter until onions are translucent. Add cabbage, garlic and peppers and saute until garlic becomes fragrant. At this point your butter will be light brown. Add pasta and a bit of the pasta water, seasoning and the grated parmesan, mix until a fine film of cheese sauce coats pasta. Remove from heat, add chicken, scallions and parsley and mix. To serve, sprinkle with sliced parmesan and chopped parsley.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Insalata di Ciliegie

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I love these little mozzarella balls dressed with a nicely aged balsamic vinegar, a good amount of garlic, salt, black pepper and good quality olive oil. In this version of a classic antipasti dish, I have replaced the traditional olives with cucumbers and the basil with scallions and added grape tomatoes and finely diced onions. To me, this gives a more vibrant and fresh, crispy texture and taste. However, add whatever tickles your fancy, such as marinated peppers, pearl onions, different mushrooms, etc, or even as I sometimes do, good quality canned anchovies.
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Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Congee With Smoked Pig’s Tails & Vegetables

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Rice Porridge.
First thing that comes to mind is probably baby food or hospital gruff. Most folk’s would never think of ordering it from a menu in a restaurant, much less wake up and crave it for breakfast, if they hadn’t tasted or at least seen it before.

Now, let’s try again :
Congee. Lúgaw. Chok. Xifan. Juk. Okayu.
OK, that’s better 🙂

Sounds more interesting and exotic? These are just a few names given to rice porridge around the world. If there is a country or region which traditionally eats rice, then there is some form of rice porridge eaten.

Congee can be enjoyed as breakfast, snack, lunch or dinner. Congee most often contains rice, but other grains can be used. Ideally it is made with strong, tasty stock that infuses great taste and debt into the dish. But from there on, let your fantasy run wild. Congee can be made with seafood, meat, vegetables or a combination thereof. Then there are the toppings. Pickled vegetables, fried shallots, sliced scallions, pulled mushroom stems, crisp fried garlic, dried shrimps, 100 year eggs, cilantro, etc, etc. If you like it, put it on.
Below is a version I made on sunday for breakfast. The texture is more like a filipino Lugaw, with the rice VERY soft but still keeping it’s shape. At first I was not so sure about the smoked pigstails. I was worried they might be too overpowering. But not to worry. The taste was very rich with only a hint of smokiness. Another slightly unusual ingredient (served as condiment) was the freshly grated horseradish, although when you think of the japanese version Okayu, wasaby seems to be a fitting condiment. I prepare congee at home often, this version is definitely special and a great addition to my congee repertoire.
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All about CONGEE
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Previous CONGEE posts : 1 2 3
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Ingredient’s :

Jasmin rice,
Smoked pig’s feet,
Corn on the cob, cut into thick slices
Chinese unsmoked sausages, thinly sliced
Bell peppers, diced
Ginger, grated
Garlic, paste
Cilantro, chopped
Scallions, sliced
Salt,
Soy sauce,
Horseradish, freshly grated
Sesame oil,
Chili oil,
Peanut oil, to saute

Method :

Saute garlic and ginger in peanut oil until fragrant. Add water and pigstails. Simmer pigstails in unseasoned water for about an hour or until starting to become tender. Taste stock and if necessary season with salt and pepper. (Some smoked meats can be overly salted, so don’t season at first) Add rice and very slowly simmer for another hour or until the rice is close to the texture you desire. Now add the corn, diced peppers and sausages. Simmer for another fifteen minute. At this point, adjust texture and seasoning if necessary. If the congee is too thick for your liking, add some hot stock. If it is too thin, simmer longer or strain some of the liquid.
To serve, sprinkle with scallions and cilantro. Drizzle with chili oil.
Serve with horseradish and soy sauce. Acompanied by Oolong tea.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Seafood & Pasta Salad

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I came home from work early today and the
weather outside was just gorgeous . What better than
a book, ice tea and a cool seafood salad that can
be prepared in a few minutes. Great afternoon, recharged
my batteries and feel wonderfully relaxed.
Now it is time for a new post, then dinner and a movie,
“Ziti in Wodka Sauce” and “Kill shot” with Christopher Walken.

Life is Good !
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Ingredient’s :

Conchigliette, cooked, drained
Shrimps, poached, peeled, tails remove except three for garnish
Octopus, canned, drained
Straw mushroom, canned, drained
Tuna, canned, drained
Peppers, diced (3 colors)
Garlic, paste
Cilantro, chopped
Scallion, sliced
Cucumber, sliced
Egg, hard boiled, sliced
Mayonnaise, freshly made
– (it only takes a minute to make and it’s so much better than store bought)
Horseradish cream,
Lime juice,
Kosher salt,
Black pepper, freshly ground
Olive oil,
Vinegar,

Method :

Take 1/4 of the seafood and marinade with lime, salt,
pepper and olive oil.
Mix remaining seafood , pasta, part of the horseradish
cream, mayo, peppers, lime juice, salt and pepper. Adjust
seasoning to your liking. Place salad on bottom of bowl,
top with the marinated seafood.
To serve, drizzle eggs and cucumber with olive oil and vinegar,
sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve with some horseradish
cream to dip the shrimp. Enjoy 🙂

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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Vegetables In Fermented Black Bean Sauce

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By now my readers will have discovered that I am not exactly a vegetarian.
I love my meat and seafood and can’t imagine how one can miss this exciting
part of our culinary world.
However, once in a while, I have a sudden urge for rice and vegetables.
The first thing that usually comes to my mind during such a rare moment is
soup or fried rice of some sort. What usually makes me especially look forward
to a vegetable dish is the inclusion of fermented bean paste.
It gives the food such a special flavor that it is, in my opinion at least, the one
seasoning which can bring a vegetable dish to a whole other level of goodness 🙂

Here is what I have concocted for dinner today :
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Ingredients :

Asparagus, blanched
Snow peas, blanched
Mushroom, sliced thick
Grape tomatoes, whole
Onion, sliced
Scotch bonnet, thinly sliced –
( Careful !!! Extremely spicy ! Omit if you can’t stand the heat )
Mini Peppers, thinly sliced
Scallion, thinly sliced
Ginger, grated
Garlic, paste
Bean paste,
Oyster sauce,
Soy sauce,
Kosher Salt,
Vegetable stock,
Corn starch, slurry
Peanut oil,

Method :

Saute onion, garlic and ginger until fragrant,
deglaze with stock, add seasoning, add slurry.
Simmer for one minute, add all vegetables and heat through.
To serve, sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallion.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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” Smoked Goodies ” – Artisanal Smoked Fish

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I recently run into an old buddy of mine from the cruise ship day’s.
Much to my surprise, Greg is now following his dream of many years,
running a comercial ” Smoke Shack “.
On the weekend he surprised me with a few (too few 🙂 samples of his
selection and I was amazed by it’s taste and quality.
Unfortunately, his website is not up to the quality of his food, so as soon as
I have the time I will be helping him with it.
In the meantime, here are some of his delicacies which I enjoyed saturday
and sunday :
(Sides are : Sauteed potatoes, onion bread, wasabi, horseradish cream,
onions, grape tomatoes, boiled eggs, scallion, capers, chilies, radish, lettuce)

Captain Greg’s Smoke Shack

Smoked Fish Selection

Smoked Marlin

Smoked Salmon Filet

Smoked Salmon, Served Warm

Smoked Salmon, Sliced

Wahoo Filet

Wahoo Filet, Served Warm

Whitefish Dip

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !
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” Naan, Veal Ribs & Other Stuff “

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Last night’s dinner made me realize that I eat a lot of comfort food which does
not necessarily fall into a specific group or cuisine. Sometimes, just raiding the
fridge without a grand plan and simply putting some stuff together on the fly
does produce some great dishes. This was one of them :
” Naan with ribs, chilies, onions and yoghurt ”
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Ingredients :

Veal ribs, simmered, bones removed
Naan, Generously buttered and sprinkled with sea salt
Greek yoghurt,
Chilies, finely diced
Lime, juiced
Garlic, paste
Scallion, sliced
Onions, rings
Sesame seeds,
Oyster sauce,
Sriracha,
Soy sauce,
Teriyaki sauce,
Kosher salt,

Water,

Method :

Blend all ingredients except ribs and half of the chilies.
Put a bit of water into a small, rimmed pan, into which
the ribs just fit, one layer only. Add the ribs.
Cover ribs with the sauce, (the sauce should be very watery
at this point) cover airtight and bake in
a low heat oven until very tender, about 3.5 hours.
When the ribs are tender, the sauce should have thickened
and cling nicely to the ribs.
Arrange rib meat on hot naan, drizzle with yoghurt, add onion rings,
sprinkle with chilies, sesame seeds and scallions and serve with a
garnish of spinach salad and sliced lime.

Bon Appetit ! Life is Good !