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.

Zesty Chicken

So after mixing together the Zesty Chops, I decided I was not done making food Zesty. However, using the same marinade to make pork and chicken Zesty was not to be had. I had to Zesty it up even more!







Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken Breasts
Caesar Salad Dressing
Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
Lime Juice
White Wine
Italian Herb Mix
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Ground Black Pepper

I began by trimming the Chicken Breasts and slicing them lengthwise in half. I then turned my attention to the marinade. I used 1 cup Caesar Salad Dressing and 1 cup Honey Mustard Salad Dressing. I topped this off with a 1/2 cup of White Wine and a heavy dash of Lime Juice. Mix together.

Add in the 1/2 cup Italian Herb Mix, dustings of Garlic Powder and Onion Powder, and as much Ground Black Pepper as you want. Mix. Once mixed, add in the Chicken. Let sit for about 30 minutes.

Use a saucepan with medium heat. Once it is heated, add in the marinade and Chicken. Cover.

Make sure to stir every minute or two to make sure the Chicken cooks properly. It should be done in about 10-15 minutes, I cut them open to check out done they were. If not done, cook some more!

I took them off and served with some spicy rice I cooked up in my rice cooker. Enjoy.

Broccolini!

I have never heard of Broccolini until I came to Texas, where I was informed within the past year or so of it's existence. Obviously this meant I would have to cook it.








Ingredients:
Broccolini
Sun Dried Tomato Herb Butter
White Wine
Ground Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Italian Herb Mix

Sauce Mix:
2 tsp Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
2 tsp Italian Caesar Salad Dressing
1 tsp Lemon Juice

I began by putting about a 1/3 of a stick of the Sun Dried Tomato Herb Butter into a large saucepan with the heat on medium. Once the butter mostly melted, I added in about a 1/2 cup of White Wine.

I put in about a 1/4 cup of the Italian Herb Mix and a light dusting of the Ground Black Pepper, Garlic Powder, and Onion Powder. On top of all this, I put in the Broccolini. I stirred things around to make sure everything was coated with the marinade present in the saucepan. I then covered it and let it cook for about 5 minutes, whereas the liquid mixture was almost gone.

I took out the Broccolini and created a simple sauce/dressing for them as well, which was simple stirred together. Enjoy.

Beefy Burgers

Yesterday when out food shopping, I picked up 4 'ranchero' burgers from Central Market. This is one of their pre-made burger patty recipes that I wholeheartedly endorse. It appears to be a basic mix of beef, red onions, and jalapeno peppers. So tasty.

Ingredients:
4 Ranchero Burger Patties
4 Wheat Hamburger Buns
Shredded Cheeses
Spicy Mustard
Butter

I chose to cook these in my saucepan since I do not have a grill and the smoke from my cast iron pan is intense. I then put in about 1/2 a stick of butter into the saucepan, which I turned the heat to medium on, and let it mostly melt.

I then put in 2 burger patties at a time to make sure I had enough space to move them around when I flipped them. I flipped them about every 2 minutes to make sure there was an even cook through them.

I did this for probably 10 minutes, which I then cut open 1 patty to check if it was cooked properly. It was, so I served up the 2 that were cooked and put the other 2 on.

Once I took the 2 off, I had 2 of the Wheat Burger Buns waiting, which I cut in half already and put some Spicy Mustard on them. So, it went from bottom to top: burger bun, mustard, burger patty, shredded cheeses, and topped off with the top bun. Such a tasty way to cook burgers, so enjoy!

Tangy BBQ Sauce

I meant to post this the other day, however time got away from me once again. I attempted to make my own BBQ sauce....I say it's a success.

Ingredients:
1.5 cup Ketchup
1.5 cup Red Wine Vinegar
0.5 cup Water
2 Tsp Spicy Brown Mustard
2 Tsp Ground Cumin
2 Tsp Ground Tumeric
1/4 cup Ground Black Pepper
2 pinches Oregano
2 pinches Sage
2 pinches Thyme
2 pinches Basil

Pretty much just get a mixing bowl and add the ingredients in starting from the top of the list. You can adjust the rest of it to your own tastes. Also, using a blender or food processor could help out.

Side Note: Potatoes are great with this BBQ sauce!

Indian Spice, Oriental Nice

So in addition to the Portobello's cooked tonight, I found some large White Button mushrooms causing trouble in my kitchen. They had to be cooked unless total anarchy break out!

I grabbed my cutting board and quickly severed the stems from the mushrooms by hand, placing the stems on the cutting board and caps to the side. Once this was done, I grabbed one of my kitchen knives and proceeded to chop up the stems into small pieces.

At this point, I grabbed my large saucepan (freshly cleaned for some odd reason?) and lined up the liquid portion of what they will be cooked in...sake, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, lime juice, and a small portion of spicy mustard. This all goes into the pan right as I turned on the burner to just above medium. Add the spices in and stir to make sure it mixed properly. Give it about thirty seconds before next step.

Add the diced up mushroom stems, stir into mixture of spices and such.

Leave the stems alone in there and grab your mushroom caps. Place these all gill side down. Cover saucepan. Proceed to have a drink or water (or something stronger perhaps?) because cooking is hard work!

Ok, your minute is up. Now uncover the mushrooms and flip them over so the gills face upwards. Leave it uncovered and enjoy the aroma fill your kitchen and beyond.

Let them cook this way until they are spongy, then take off to serve. The stems you mix in with the caps either on top of them or to the side, either way they will be tasty.

Spice Mix:
Oriental Hot Mustard Powder
Ground Tumeric Powder
Ground Black Pepper
Curry Powder
Shredded Tarragon Leaves
Smoked Hot Spanish Paprika
Garlic Salt

Doppelbock Portobello's

Tonight brought about another experiment at using beer to pair with food. I chose to use a local beer, Rahr Brewery's The Regulator, which is a Doppelbock.

So I used a mix of spices which mainly consisted of Hot Oriental Mustard Powder, Ground Tumeric, Ground Black Pepper, Garlic Salt, and Smoked Hot Spanish Paprika.

I had a metal mixing bowl filled about 1/2 way with Rahr doppelbock, then put the mushrooms in for about 20 minutes.

After that I started up the burner for my large saucepan. In this went the mushrooms, gill side down, and most of the beer they soaked in, about 1/2 way up on the mushrooms.

Then about 1/2 the spice mix on the mushroom caps.

Wait about 2 minutes, flip mushrooms, then put rest of spice mix on top.

Wait about 2 minutes, they should be close to being done. You can tell this by checking if they are all spongey, if so they are done. If not, keep cooking.

OPTIONAL: the stalks of the mushrooms you can dice up and just add into the mixture. Also, topping with shredded cheese is always a nice way to add a little extra.