Cajun Styled Steak

I call this a Cajun Steak. I know there are a lot of people out there, most likely every chef known to humankind, that will disagree with my name for this steak. I call it that because I used a Cajun spice with this recipe. I ended up using a bit too much that caused it to be almost overpowering...although adding Mesquite seasoning to it might have emphasized the spicy flavor.

Ingredients:
1 lb NY Strip Steak
1 cup Vegetable Oil
0.75 cup White Vinegar
Garlic Salt
Celery Salt
Perfect Pinch - Cajun
Mesquite Seasoning
Italian Seasoning

First off begin by gathering all your spices.

Now I chose two of them to be more present than the rest. I'd say for I used twice as much of these two as the other spices used.

Place the spices in a Ziploc bag and pour in your Vegetable Oil and White Vinegar. You can use any kind of Vinegar instead of White Vinegar, but that is what I generally use for marinades. Seal bag and mix thoroughly so the spices don't clump up too much.

Now get your steak. It looks so pretty.

Put steak in bag and seal it closed. I pushed the air out and rolled the bag up around the steak so the marinade covered every part of it.

Now you can use a grill or a skillet. I chose a cast iron skillet since I do not own a grill. Living in an apartment does not provide a lot of use for a grill these days. Make sure your skillet is ready to go and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Once it begins to get warm to the touch...well hot to the touch, put the steak on.

I choose to flip it every few minutes for an even cook through. You can flip it every 5 minutes if you want, it's up to you.

I served it with it with some delicious Quinoa I made in my Rice Cooker, topped with Scallions. Enjoy.

Clams in Broth

Alright, so I am not really known for my taste for seafood. Today I decided to twist that up and cook up some Clams. I've done this once before and I love how easy it is to do.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb Clams
1 Yellow Onion
1/2 stick Butter
Garlic Salt
Garlic Powder
Perfect Pinch: Cajun
Ground Black Pepper
Italian Seasoning
White Wine

I began by putting my bottle of White Wine in the fridge. I then gathered the other materials. Make sure to scrub your clams with a brush or something since they most likely have some grit/sand/dirt on them still.

Dice up your Yellow Onion. I used about 3/4 of the Onion in this recipe. Put Butter in a saucepan and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Once the Butter starts to melt, add in the diced Onions.

I did my seasoning at this point as well. I did a healthy pinch of everything listed, with a little more emphasis on the Italian Seasoning and Garlic Powder.

Now grab your chilled White Wine.

Pour some in the saucepan once the Onions have caramelized.

Now find your clams.

Put them in.

Turn them every so often if you want. I did but I also have no idea if this helps them cook properly or not. When they are done, they will open up. Take them off pretty quickly once this happens.

I chose to serve them in a bowl along with a portion of the broth they were cooked in. Enjoy.

Beef Stir Fry

So the other night I decided to make myself some stir fry. I know, I know. It's nothing new and why is he posting this? Well, this time I changed it up a little bit.

Ingredients:
1 lb Stir Fry Beef
1 can Cut Baby Corn
1 can Bean Sprouts
1 cup Frozen Peas
1 cup Frozen Cut Green Beans
Sesame Seeds
Spicy Brown Mustard
Sesame Seed Oil
Sweet & Sour Sauce
Stir Fry Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce
Garlic Salt
Vegetable Oil

Alright, first step of course is to assemble your ingredients.

Now I chose to cut up the stir fry meat first. You don't have to do this but you would be left with huge strips of meat instead of size appropriate pieces. Cutting them smaller solves that issue.

Using a wok, pour in a spoonful of Vegetable Oil and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Add in your cut up Stir Fry Beef. Add in a few dashes of Sesame Seed Oil.

Add in some Lime Juice, Spicy Brown Mustard, Sesame Seeds, Teriyaki Sauce, and Garlic Salt. I used a good squirt of the Lime Juice bottle. Maybe a spoonful of Spicy Brown Mustard. A dusting of Garlic Salt. Go crazy with the Teriyaki Sauce, because why not!?

Once the meat is done cooking, which should be right when it turns that grayish brown color of being cooked. Strain the meat out of the wok and place in a bowl to the side. I put mine in the microwave to retain heat better.

In your wok you still have the liquid mixture. Add in your Frozen Peas and Frozen Cut Green Beans.

Some more Spicy Brown Mustard? I think so.

Add in a good sized amount of Sweet & Sour Sauce. About the same amount of Stir Fry Sauce.

Now mix it around. Get your can of Cut Baby Corns and Bean Sprouts. Open them up and drain them of all liquid. I chose to put the Baby Corns in first, then the Bean Sprouts.

Mix them around and let them cook for awhile. You can check when they are done by tasting a piece of the Baby Corns. Once those are done, everything else should be too.

Now that it's done, you get the Stir Fry Beef out and throw that back in the wok.

Mix.

Now give it a minute or two of cooking. Turn off heat and serve. Enjoy.

Simple Burritos

So I wanted something quick and easy to eat this weekend and I came up with Burritos. In the area I live there is a large influence of TexMex/Mexican/Latino cooking, which makes me very happy. So much good food around here that I have to try my hand at it quite often.

Ingredients:
1 lb Ground Beef
1 can Black Beans
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Jalapeno Pepper
Lime Juice
Tortillas
Garlic Salt
Shredded Cheese

I began by gathering my ingredients. This is a pretty cheap dinner to make, so keep that in mind for during the week when you want something tasty, cheap, and quick.

I then diced up the Peppers.

Now I opened the can of black beans and put them in sauce pot and turned the heat to MEDIUM so they are nice and hot.

Time to cook up the Ground Beef. Very simple process, make sure to dice it up finely while cooking if you can. I added Garlic Salt to the meat, along with a healthy dash of Lime Juice. Makes the meat tasty and unique!

Alright, now get your Tortillas. I put some Gruyere cheese down first. I know an odd cheese choice for this, however I like the twist on flavor that it does in a Mexican themed dish.

Now I have everything ready to go.

I put it together quite simply, all lined up next to each other. Topped off with a Monterey Colby Jack Cheese mix. The second one I made was not so pretty looking, and did not last long enough to take a picture. Enjoy.

Beef Yakiniku

So sometimes I end up at these Sushi restaurants, and I have to find something that I want to eat. Mind you, I am not the biggest fan of seafood or raw meat. I know, I'm weird like that. However there are always a few dishes listed that involve grilling/fire. Most places have something called Beef Tenderloin in Teriyaki Sauce or something like it. That's generally Japanese inspired, whereas I went for more of a Korean twist. Edohana Hibachi does an amazing one involving a few more ingredients than I had on hand, however I do know it was tasty!

Ingredients:
1 lb Beef Stew Meat
2 Poblano Peppers, diced
Teriyaki Sauce
Sweet Sour Sauce
Stir Fry Sauce
Lime Juice
Garlic Salt
Paprika
Ground Black Pepper
Butter
Sesame Seed Oil

Tonight I was unsure of what to do for dinner, so I delved into my fridge. I knew I didn't have it packed full of goodies, but was confident something in there would work. Lo and behold, Beef Stew Meat. I originally was going to make another beef stew since I love making it and of course devouring it really fast. Well, I looked at the Beef Stew Meat and noticed the Teriyaki Sauce. Well, an idea was born.

Now I haven't gone out to a Sushi or Asian style restaurant in some time, not including Ghengis Grill(mongolian stir fry), but I still remember Yakiniku. So I gathered my ingredients by searching through my kitchen.

Now that I had a solid group of ingredients to work with, I diced up the Poblano Peppers. I sprinkled the Sesame Seed Oil and Lime Juice in with them.

In a large saucepan I added about a 1/4 stick of Butter. Turned the heat to MEDIUM-HIGH. Now once it began to melt, I added the Beef Stew Meat in.

After about 1 minute, I added in Teriyaki Sauce. A lot of it as you can tell by the amount in the saucepan.

I let that cook for about another minute, then added in a healthy dose of Ground Black Pepper and Garlic Salt. After this part I also added in about 1 spoonful of Stir Fry Sauce and Sweet/Sour Sauce.

Once I mixed it up, I covered and let cook for about 2 minutes. I then uncovered the saucepan and mixed the meat up again. Then added the diced Poblano Peppers in.

Mix.

Let cook until Peppers are tender. Then serve.

I thought this was good but I think some more Pepper was needed.

Cast Iron Frittata

So I've made Frittata and posted on here about it before, however that was always done with just a skillet/saucepan. Now I used a cast iron skillet I've had around and I think it improved the flavor at least 10 fold.

Ingredients:
9 Eggs
1 Green Bell Pepper, finely diced
1 Poblano Pepper, finely diced
1 Yellow Onion, finely diced
1/3 stick Butter
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Paprika
Garlic Salt
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Gruyere Cheese
Monterey & Colby Jack Cheese

Alright, so first things first. Get your cast iron skillet ready. This took me quite awhile since I had not used it in a long time and it may have gotten a little rusty. So to clean this don't use soap. It causes headaches. I used Olive Oil and a paper towel to wipe it down until it was fixed. This takes awhile.

Once you have that done, cut up a stick of Butter to where 1/3 of it is in the cast iron skillet, along with some Olive Oil. At this point empty out your oven and turn it to 400 BAKE.

Now gather the rest of your ingredients.

First, dice your Onion up very finely. You can leave it chunky if you prefer that, but I like it finely diced so that's just what I did!

Second, dice up your Green Bell Pepper. I also diced up my Poblano Pepper after this but no picture since it looks pretty much the same just darker.

Turn on the burner your cast iron skillet is on, I set it at MEDIUM. Once it melts most of the Butter into the Olive Oil, dump your diced Onions in and move them around.

At this point I cracked the eggs into a mixing bowl and mixed them up together with a dash of Ground Black Pepper and Sea Salt.

Your Onions should be caramelized quite nicely by now.

Add in your diced Peppers.

Mix together and add a light dusting of Garlic Salt and Paprika.

Once the Peppers start to soften, turn off your burner. Add the Egg mixture to the skillet. Top it with however much cheese you want on top. I went crazy with it.

Into the oven it goes. Make sure to use an oven mitt or something similar since the cast iron skillet will burn you.

It takes about 10-20 minutes to cook properly. I like my eggs a little drier when I make Frittata so I left it in the oven for about 18 minutes. You can tell it is done by the edges of the Frittata mixture pulling away from the sides of the skillet.

Due to my large amount of cheese used, there was a large cheese bubble on top of my Frittata! Once it began to cool it went away, but still interesting to see.

I let it cool for about 5 minutes and then cut into pieces and served. Make sure to use a sharp object like a knife to edge around the Frittata, otherwise it might stick to the outside when you are trying to remove it for consumption. Enjoy.