Beef Stir Fry

My family went to Maryland to visit friends two and a half weeks ago and I completely left my laptop power supply and cord at our friends house.  It was torture.  I had to read and send emails on my phone and auto correct made it impossible to write intelligible emails.  When it comes to my recipes, I couldn't upload my photo's and edit them and post on my blog.  I am so sorry for not posting sooner. Thankfully, my friend brought me my cord and I can now leave my computer power rationing behind me and post all the recipes that I have ready to share.  Hopefully the recipes I have to share make up for my absence, be brutal, you can chastise me if these recipes don't hold up to what you expected from my absence.  Okay, now that I have explained and given my pathetic excuse for not blogging, here you go, the moment you have been waiting for.  

This recipe came about after a night of wanting to make an easy dinner, and no I didn't photograph it. My husband took the leftovers to work and he and his co-worker shared them.  The co-worker being Fernando, you remember him right?  Anyway he said, this is very good stir fry.  She's gonna post this right?  To which I said, no I didn't photograph the process, and he said well then you have to make it again.  Finally, I made it again, and photographed my process.  This is a simple stir-fry, as in a few ingredients but with a lot of flavor and color.  I love stir-fry's because of the color and all the vegetables you can cook together.  Stir fry is like the Chinese equivalent of the American casserole but a lot faster and maybe even healthier?  Who knows, anyway recipe time.

 I have an extreme need to create a rainbow when stir-frying, the taste and textures worked well.

Ingredients for this recipe are:

2 lbs. Stir fry Beef (Yes, that's right I let the butcher cut the beef, and it was at an Asian market, so I figured I was good to go.)
1 Yellow Crookneck Squash
1 Zucchini
1 Crown of Broccoli
2 Carrots
1 Yellow Bell Pepper (If you can get red, use red)
1 Package of Baby Bella Mushrooms
5 Green Onions
2 tablespoons Better than Boullian Beef Flavor
4 tablespoons Soy Sauce
4 tablespoons Toasted Sesame Seed Oil
4 tablespoons Chinese Spice Sauce
1 1/2 cups Water
Cornstarch
Vegetable Oil

Combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seed oil and 2 tablespoons spice
sauce in a small bowl and whisk together.  Place beef in a large bowl, pour sauce onto beef and stir.
Allow beef to marinate for 20 minutes on the counter.

Rinse all vegetables.  Cut squash and zucchini into half moon slices, 1/4 inch thick.  Cut carrots at a slight angle and into slices.  Cut bell peppers into 1/4 sticks.  Cut mushrooms into slices.  Cut green onion also at an angle and include white part.  Place harder vegetables, carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers together.  Place softer vegetables together, the squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and green
onions.  Organizing the vegetables will allow you to stir fry them more quickly and also reminds
 you which vegetables will need to go in first since they take longer to stir fry.  

A word of warning, stir frying is accomplished in a preheated wok at the highest temperature
your burner can provide.  Turn on exhaust fans and open windows, this will be a very smoking
 hot process.

Mix the rest of the soy sauce, toasted sesame seed oil, and spice sauce

Once you have everything you need next to your wok, you can start, I mean everything.  You need
all ingredients, the remaining sauces/oil mixed together and of course a wok spatula.  Preheat the
wok over high heat.  When you begin to see smoke add 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and half
 the beef. We don't want to crowd the beef, we want to sear it quickly.  Continually move the beef around the wok, one layer.  When you see an even seer all over the beef immediately remove the
beef to the bowl you had at the ready and repeat with the remaining beef.

 That beef is done.  Yes, you will create a lot of smoke, hence the need for excellent ventilation.

Place the wok back on the high burner.  Add another 2 tablespoons oil and the hard vegetables:
broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers.  Stir and add 1/4 cup water, cover with lid and allow to steam just until the vegetables are bright and slightly cooked.  Stir fry vegetables are NOT MUSHY, really they aren't.  My husband dislikes mushy vegetables thankfully.  Remove lid and add mushrooms, zucchini, and squash, stir fry until softened.  Add the sauce and stir.

Bring back the beef, and add the water, stir until thoroughly combined.  Mix a cornstarch slurry with cornstarch and cold water, start with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and enough cold water to create
slurry.  Move the stir fry enough to create a small opening to see the sauce, when you see it is
 bubbling, add the cornstarch and stir.  When the sauce is your desired thickness it is done.

 Add the green onions and serve over steamed rice.

  

Enjoy!

Beef Stir Fry

Printable Recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Stir fry Beef (pre-sliced beef stir fry)

1 Yellow Crookneck Squash

1 Zucchini

1 Crown of Broccoli

2 Carrots

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 Package of Baby Bella Mushrooms

5 Green Onions

2 tablespoons Better than Boullian Beef Flavor

4 tablespoons Soy Sauce

4 tablespoons Toasted Sesame Seed Oil

4 tablespoons Chinese Spice Sauce

1 1/2 cups Water

Cornstarch

Vegetable Oil

Process:

Combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seed oil and 2 tablespoons spice sauce in a small bowl, whisk together.  Place beef in a large bowl, pour sauce onto beef and stir.  Allow beef to marinate for 20 minutes on the counter.

Rinse all vegetables.  Cut squash and zucchini into half moon slices, 1/4 inch thick.  Cut carrots at a slight angle and into slices.  Cut bell peppers into 1/4 sticks.  Cut mushrooms into slices.  Cut green onion also at an angle and include white part.  Place harder vegetables, carrots, broccoli, and bell pepper together.  Place softer vegetables together, the squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and green onions.  Organizing the vegetables will allow you to stir fry them more quickly and also reminds you which vegetables will need to go in first since they take longer to stir fry.  

A ward of warning, stir frying is accomplished in a preheated wok at the highest temperature your burner can provide.  Turn on exhaust fans and open windows, this will be a very smoking hot process.

Mix the rest of the soy sauce, toasted sesame seed oil, and spice sauce

Once you have everything you need next to your wok you can start, I mean everything.  You need all ingredients, the remaining sauces/oil mixed together and of course a wok spatula.  

Preheat the wok over high heat.  When you begin to see smoke add 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and half the beef. We don't want to crowd the beef, we want to sear it quickly.  Continually move the beef around the wok, one layer.  When you see an even seer all over the beef immediately remove the beef tot he bowl you had at the ready and repeat with the remaining beef.

Place wok back on the high burner.  Add another 2 tablespoons oil and the hard vegetables: broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers.  Stir and add 1/4 cup water, cover with lid and allow to steam just until the vegetables are bright and slightly cooked.  Stir fry vegetables are NOT MUSHY, really they aren't.  My husband dislikes mushy vegetables thankfully.  Remove lid and add mushrooms, zucchini, and squash, stir fry until softened.  Add the sauce and stir.

Bring back the beef, and add the water, stir until thoroughly combined.  Mix a cornstarch slurry with cornstarch and cold water, start with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and enough cold water to create slurry.  Move the stir fry enough to create a small opening to see the sauce, when you see is bubbling add the cornstarch and stir.  When the sauce is your desired thickness it is done.

Add the green onions and serve over steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Ratatouille

Remember Ratatouille, the cute rat Remi who loved to cook and dreamed of working in a French restaurant? His culminating dish being Ratatouille.  I have been fascinated by the simple French dish ever since and finally felt inspired to make it as my contribution to a dinner my family was invited to attend. We were invited to someone else's apartment for dinner! Truly miraculous, our Chinese teenager was surprised too, he even remarked that this was the first time we were invited and he was able to come to someone else's home for a meal. We have friends over often for a meal in our apartment, but more rare for us to go to someone else's home.  It could be because we are a large family of seven.  Or, as Sarah the friend who invited us over remarked, because she is intimidated by my cooking.  Thank you Sarah for inviting us over.  She had a few food issues that I tried to address when I picked a recipe.  She is allergic to shell fish and soy and her stomach has trouble digesting a lot of fat.  When I went shopping last week I picked up the cutest small eggplants and then at my favorite Asian market I bought the other vegetables.  This is a wonderful vegetable side dish.  My husband loved it.  Sarah also enjoyed it.  Now I can say I have made ratatouille, and it was delicious.

 This is how vegetables should be eaten.

Ingredients:

1 Yellow Crookneck Squash

1 Zucchini

3 small Eggplants

6 Campari Tomatoes

1 Red Bell Peppers

1 Orange Bell Peppers

2  Shallots

6 cloves of Garlic

1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher Salt

Olive Oil

Preheat Oven to 500 Fahrenheit

Wash and cut squash, zucchini, eggplants, and  bell peppers into 1/2 inch chunks.

Peel garlic and shallots and mince very small.

Put all the cut vegetables into a large bowl.

Pour olive oil to coat the vegetables, sprinkle salt and stir until all the vegetables are coated with oil and salt.

Place vegetables on one or two sheet pans depending how big your sheet pans are.  

The vegetables should be one layer high.

 Roast vegetables for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are browned.

Remove vegetables from the oven and place in large serving dish together.

Wash and quarter the tomatoes and place on the other vegetables. 

Enjoy!

Ratatouille

Printable recipe Found Here

Ingredients:

1 Yellow Crookneck Squash

1 Zucchini

3 small Eggplants

6 Campari Tomatoes

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 Orange Bell Pepper

2  Shallots

6 cloves of Garlic

1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher Salt

Olive Oil

Process:

Preheat Oven to 500 Fahrenheit

Wash and cut squash, zucchini, eggplants, and  bell peppers into 1/2 inch chunks.

Peel garlic and shallots and mince very small.

Put all the cut vegetables into a large bowl.

Pour olive oil to coat the vegetables, sprinkle salt and stir until all the vegetables are coated with oil and salt.

Place vegetables on one or two sheet pans depending how big your sheet pans are.  

The vegetables should be one layer high.

Roast vegetables for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are browned.

Remove vegetables from the oven and place in large serving dish together.

Wash and quarter the tomatoes and place on the other vegetables. 

Enjoy!

Chinese BBQ Chicken & Stir Fry

I really like Chinese food, and since we have a Chinese son (at least while he goes to school) it has been really fun to make Chinese food and get his opinion on how well the food tastes.  Today, Sunday, we ate left overs and our left overs included Rotisserie chicken.  When I asked my husband what he wanted with his chicken (he didn't like my idea of waffles and chicken) he said he wanted chicken, rice, and stir fry.  I wanted to make my own Chinese Barbecue Sauce.  Since it was precooked chicken, I wanted to make a Chinese shredded chicken barbecue sauce to reheat it in.  I made up a sauce recipe after looking at a lot of recipes.  I think my recipe comes pretty close to the barbecue sauce you would see in a Chinese restaurant minus the red color and some other mystery ingredients.

 Does it look like real Chinese take out? Better right?

 Ingredients for the Chinese barbecue Sauce are: 5 cloves of fresh peeled garlic, 1 inch piece of peeled ginger, 1 cup Hoisin Sauce, 1/2 cup Soy Sauce, 1/2 cup Agave Syrup, Piece of Cinnamon (2 teaspoons ground cinnamon will also work), 2 teaspoons whole peppercorns (2 teaspoons ground pepper), 2 teaspoons whole cloves (2 teaspoons ground cloves), and 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

 Add spices to a spice (coffee) grinder and grind until...

 It looks like this.

Grate your ginger with a handy Chinese multi-tool with grater or finely mince it.  This bottle opener, peeler, and ginger grater was a gift from one of our Chinese Exchange students we had two years ago.

Mix ingredients of sauce together.  The sauce needs something, the tang you find in Barbecue
sauce, it needs...

This,  add 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar.  If you have Rice Wine Vinegar that would be good
(I ran out).

I wanted some sesame flavor too, so I added 1/4 cup Sesame Oil.  Perfect!

Mix the sauce.

Ingredients for Chinese Barbecue Shredded Chicken are: 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken, and Barbecue sauce.

Ingredients for vegetable stir fry are: 1 zucchini, 1 cup baby carrots, 1 head of broccoli,
2 green onions.  You may add more vegetables as you like. 

Slice everything up.  I chose to slice the vegetables on the bias for the carrots and green onions
and sliced and quartered for the zucchini.  The broccoli I sliced into smaller florets.

Add enough sauce to coat the chicken in a saute pan and cover with lid.  Set burner to medium
and let the chicken heat up and absorb flavor.

Time to Stir Fry!

To stir fry, have everything ready to go.   This is a fast cooking method.  Preheat your wok on High.  Be sure to turn on your vent above your stove and also if need be, a fan in a window to draw out the smoke.  Yes this will be a smoking hot process, and that is the way you achieve Chinese Stir Fry properly.  If it wasn't so windy and cold I would use my propane camping stove outside so as to not have smoke indoors and to have a much stronger flame.  Use Peanut oil, it has a high smoke point (as in it can be heated as high as stir fry needs to be cooked and won't burn).  Are you ready to get smoking hot?  When your wok begins to smoke, add the oil, about 3 tablespoons.   It will smoke, but
keep going.  DON'T STOP NOW!!! Add broccoli, carrots, and 3 tablespoons of water.  Stir and
cover with lid. 

Let cook for 3 minutes.

The broccoli and carrots are a vibrant green and orange, so pretty.

Add zucchini and green onions, stir fry for a couple seconds.

Add Chinese Barbecue Sauce to coat, stir and...

When the zucchini is tender but not overcooked stop and turn off the burner, YOUR DONE!

We ate our Chinese Barbecue Chicken and stir fry over steamed brown rice.

Enjoy!

White Bean Vegetable Soup

Today it has been really cold and my fridge/freezer is still broken so I need to use a lot of vegetables all at once.  What better way than to make my own vegetable broth and soup.  Good news I'm going to explain the quick brining method for beans too.

Soup and flaky layered biscuits (recipe found here), what else could you possibly want to
eat on a cold day?

 Ingredients for brining small white beans are: 4 quarts boiling water, 3 tablespoons coarse salt
(Kosher Salt will also work), 1 lb. white beans.

 Add salt to boiling hot water in a large lidded container, stir to dissolve.  Add beans and let
sit for 1 hour, VOILA.  You now have brined and soaked beans.  Remove half the beans and
save for a later day.  I'm trying to not make soup for an army today.

 Ingredients for vegetable broth are: Dried onion (or 1 whole fresh onion if you have one),
2 tablespoons whole peppercorns, 2 tablespoons salt, 1 pint of Baby Bella mushrooms,
3 stalks of celery, 2 bunches of green onions, 1 1/2 cups baby carrots or (4 regular sized carrots),
and 8 cups water.

 Cut mushrooms into quarters.   Cut celery into 4 inch pieces.   Cut roots off green onions and
cut into 4 inch pieces.  Add all ingredients to the pot of a pressure cooker or a large 6-8 quart
stock pot with lid.  Set pressure cooker to high for 15 minutes, or cook on stove in pot for 1 hour.  Allow vegetables to steep in broth if you have the time for at least 2 hours.

 Drain beans and put back into lidded container.  Place colander lined with cheesecloth or
coffee filter.  Pour vegetable broth onto beans, press vegetables with back of spoon to release all the broth you can.  Now place beans and vegetable broth in pressure cooker and set to high for 20
minutes, or on stove top in 6-8 quart stock pot with lid and cook till beans are

 tender (about 1- 1 1/2 hours).

 Vegetables for our soup include, but are not limited too: 1 zucchini, 2 ears of corn, 2 potatoes,
1 cup baby carrots (2 large carrots), 2 stalks of celery, and 2 cups whole tomatoes in puree.

 Cut corn off cob, dice carrots and celery, peel and dice potatoes, and using scissors or a knife
dice the tomatoes.

 Add vegetables to cooked beans and broth in pressure cooker pot or 6-8 quart stock pot.
Cook soup on high for 1 minute, or on stove top till vegetables are tender.

Again I ask you, (if you happen to be experiencing a cold day) doesn't this meal look delicious?

Enjoy!

Lasagna

My daughter likes lasagna, my husband likes it, and when I made it a couple of weeks ago, I was asked by a friend for the recipe.   So here it goes.  Today's lasagna was amazing, and really big.  You are welcome to make it as big as my friend's pan that I used, but you don't have to unless your feeding a crowd of ravenous long distance runners carbo loading before a track and field meet.  Well, it doesn't have to be a crowd of long distance runners, any crowd interested in lasagna will do.

 Garfield would envy this massive lasagna.

Ingredients for sauce recipe are: 1 #10 Can tomatoes (San Marzano if you can get them, my Costco
sells them), 2 lbs. ground beef, 1 lb. Hot Italian Sausage (Costco sells it), 2 zucchini,
2 yellow squash, 1 yellow onion, 1 head of garlic, salt and pepper to taste.

 

 Look at these beautiful tomatoes from Italy. Blend tomatoes with immersion blender, 

crush with hands, or puree in blender and pour into large non-reactive stock pot.

 

  Brown ground beef with salt and pepper, remove hot sausage from casing and brown with
diced yellow onion and garlic pushed through garlic press.  Add cooked meat to sauce in pot.
Place over medium heat until it boils, then reduce heat to simmer and cook for half an hour.

 Dice yellow squash and zucchini and add to sauce and simmer till squash is cooked.

Preheat oven to 375 Fahrenheit.

 Ingredients for lasagna recipe are: marinara sauce, sauteed mushrooms, 2 lbs. fresh lasagna pasta
(I made my own with the recipe I posted here), shredded mozzarella cheese, 5 cups homemade ricotta
(I made my own with the recipe found here), and shredded Parmesan cheese.

 First pour several ladle fulls of sauce in bottom of pan.

 Add pasta, more sauce, mushrooms, then ricotta and mozzarella cheese.

 Repeat three more times.  After the last layer of everything, add grated Parmesan cheese.

Place lasagna pan on large cookie sheet if you can or place aluminum foil on shelf below
middle shelf.  Put lasagna in oven above aluminum foil or cookie sheet, bake uncovered for
45 minutes, or until cheese is brown.

Look at that beautiful lasagna.   It was delicious, perfectly seasoned, not salty, delicious.

Enjoy!