Thai Skirt Steak & Basil Fried Rice

I had a skirt steak to cook for dinner so the natural ideas that came to mind were either fajitas or steak with chimichurri sauce. But I've done those recently and wanted to do something different. I looked around the fridge to see what I had on hand and this is what I came up with.

Thai Skirt Steak printable recipe
Ingredients
2 T lime juice
2 T fish sauce
2 T oyster sauce
1 T sesame oil
4 each dried red chile peppers, seeded and chopped
1/4 c peanut oil
15-20 basil leaves, fresh chopped
1.5 lb skirt steak (you could substitute flank or flat iron steak)

Instructions
Mix the first seven ingredients for a marinade. Marinade the steak for 4-6 hours in a zip lock bag.

Remove the steak and place directly on a rocket hot grill. Rocket hot? I was running the Big Green Egg between 550f and 600f. You could also broil in the [cough cough] oven if you don't have a grill at your disposal.

Be careful and use a mitt and long tongs when you first put the steak on, because the marinade will fall into the hot coals and flare up temporarily like this.But closing the lid once you get the steak on will quickly control the fire. That's one of the nice things about a quality grill/smoker. You can control the air flow enough to get the heat up but control flame ups at the same time.

Grill the steak for 4-6 minutes a side until you reach the desired internal temp. On this cook, I went 4 minutes on each side, shut the vents and let it rest in the Egg for another 6 minutes. Next time I'd grill longer and maybe even skip the roast period. The outside of the steak didn't have as much of a "char" as I like and the inside was more done than I like.

Slice thinly across the grain and serve.

Basil Fried Rice
Ingredients
2 ea eggs, whisked together
3 c jasmine rice, already cooked and chilled
1/2 ea onion, diced
1/2 ea red bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 c soy sauce
20 basil leaves, cut in half, stemmed.

Instructions (sort of)
Heat a few tablespoons of oil in the wok. Cook eggs like an omelet, remove from wok and dice.

Add onion, pepper, and garlic, cooking until softened.

Add cold rice, stir frying. (Stir, let it sit for 15 seconds sizzling, stir, repeat).

When the rice is browning and appearing close to being done, add the soy sauce/sugar mixture, and toss. When done, remove from heat and add in cooked egg and basil leaves.
For something I threw together it was very good. I was surprised that the meat didn't have more heat so next time I might add more dried chilies or sriracha sauce.

Hope you people have a great weekend!

When you knew you were a foodie

When did you first realize that you were a foodie?Maybe you didn't even realize it at that time, it wasn't until later.

Here's mine. It was February 1973. I was 5 and 1/2 years old.I'd stolen the entire basket of corn bread from the dinner table and slunk off to the den, where I sat on the magazine rack and proceeded to begin eating said corn bread. In the picture I am wearing the devil suit that was part of my Halloween costume in 1972 and some bad ass sunglasses.

So. When DID you first realize that you were a foodie?

Wolfgang Puck's Special Spaghetti and Meatballs

This is adapted from Live, Love, Eat! a Wolfgang Puck cookbook that I received as a Christmas gift from our neighbors in 2003. It has become one of my more used cookbooks because it is not just a collection of recipes. It teaches you HOW to do certain techniques, such as the difference between a julienne and a chiffonade. I like Joy of Cooking for the same reason. I recommend it and you can still buy it at the link posted.

I admit this was a partial "fail" and it's my fault. I thought that I would cook the meatballs on the Big Green Egg and then put them in the sauce to simmer. I didn't add wood and only used lump coal, but the end result was that the smoky meatballs were a distraction, not an addition to the overall dish. It was still good but next time I'd just simmer them in the sauce as called for.

Wolfgang Puck's Special Spaghetti and Meatballs
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients
4 T butter, unsalted (1/2 stick)
1 ea medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced [*1]
4 slices Italian bread, crusts discarded, cut into small dice
1/4 c whole milk
2 pounds lean ground veal [*2]
1 ea egg, slightly beaten
1/4 c parmesan cheese, freshly grated [*3]
1 T parsley, fresh chopped
1 T basil, fresh chopped
1 t thyme, fresh
1 t salt
1 t sugar
1/4 t black pepper, fresh ground
5 c "My Favorite Tomato Sauce" (see recipe)
1 pound dried spaghetti

Instructions
Saute the onion and garlic in the butter until soft but not browned. Remove and let this cool. We put ours in the freezer for about 10 minutes because we were in a hurry.

Make a panade by combing the milk and bread in a large mixing bowl.

Add the onion mixture, ground meat, egg, cheese, spices and herbs to the mixing bowl. Mix it together to get it fully tossed but try not to overwork it.

Rinse your hands with cold water and roll 1/8th of the mixture into a large even meatball. These are going to be big, almost baseball sized. Repeat to get a total of 8 huge balls.Heat the tomato sauce in a large pot. Once it is simmering, lower the meatballs [*4] into the sauce. Adding the cold balls to the sauce will drop the heat. Once it's back to simmering, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile cook the spaghetti noodles.

Service
Remove the meatballs from the sauce. Mix the sauce with the cooked noodles and divide into 8 bowls. Top each with a meatball, some fresh chopped basil, and shaved parmesan reggiano.

Wolfgang Puck's Favorite Tomato Sauce
makes 5 cups
Ingredients
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
2 small onions, peeled, trimmed & minced
6 cloves garlic, minced [*1]
2 T tomato paste
4 lbs roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced[*5]
2 c chicken broth
16 ea basil leaves, washed, dried, and chopped into a chiffonade
12 T unsalted butter, cut into T sized pieces
salt
pepper

Instructions
Saute the onion in the olive oil over medium high heat for about 5 minutes until soft. Add garlic and keep cooking for another minute.

Add the tomato paste and tomatoes, cook for another 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock. Simmer briskly for about 20-30 minutes, waiting for the sauce to thicken. The book recommends passing through a sieve for a finer consistency. I just stuck in an immersion blender.

Stir in the basil. Whisk in the butter, piece by piece (yeah, I know, seemed odd to me but it worked).

Season to taste with salt and pepper.Our substitutions:
[1] - used roasted garlic that we made (as taught by the book in another section)
[2] - used 1 lb each of ground beef and ground pork
[3] - used parmigiano reggiano instead
[4] - this is where I erred by cooking them on the grill first.
[5] - used technique showed in the "basics" section of the book to make Tomato Concasse

It was a solid dish, but next time, I'd add oregano, bay leaf, and some red pepper flakes to the tomato sauce, just because that's what we like.

Minestrone di Cipolline

I've always been a big fan of French Onion Soup.

But to be honest, I never cared much for how the French tell me that, "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." (If you don't get it, just skip ahead while a bang these to coconut halves together.)

So today I made Minestrone di Cipolline or Italian Country Onion Soup from the cookbook Ciao Tuscany, a collection from the PBS series Cucina Toscana. (Win a free copy of this cookbook here!)

Minestrone di Cipolline
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 each yellow onions, thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced (I roasted several bulbs today and used the pulp from 3 cloves)
1/2 cup tomato puree
6 cups vegetable or beef broth
kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste
7 ounces vermicelli, broken into 1" pieces (let your kids do the breaking, it's fun!)
1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano
croutons

Instructions
Preheat a soup pot and then add the olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and cook for 8-10 minutes. Add the tomato puree and roasted garlic and simmer for 2 minutes.

Add the broth and bring to a boil while stirring. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Taste and then season the soup with salt and pepper. I found it needed almost no salt and added maybe 1 T of pepper.

Bring to a boil and add the pasta pieces, cover and cook until the pasta is al dente (6-8 minutes in our case).

Serve topped with shaved parmigiano reggiano pieces and homemade croutons.Alexis and the boys loved this, devouring it like wolves. Wait, I'm not sure I've ever seen wolves eat soup. They devoured it like....like...wolves with a broken jaw and straws (sorry Greg).

I made this as the first course to Wolfgang Puck's Spaghetti and Meatballs (post forthcoming) but I think it would be better suited to a hearty beef dish. The flavor and texture were satisfying but made my mouth want to eat more!

Don't forget! Enter my giveaway to possibly win your copy of this cookbook. All it takes is a link and it's for a great cause!

Review: Smoketown USA BBQ Louisville KY

Don't miss out on your chance to win the cookbook Ciao Tuscany...it's as simple as a link in a post and benefits MDA.

Smoketown USA BBQ

1153 Logan Street
Louisville, KY 40204
(502) 409-9180

http://www.smoketownusa.com/about_us.htm

Date of visit: 07/19/2009

Atmosphere: 4 out of 5 (casual)

Service: 5 out of 5

Food: 4.5 out of 5

Value: 5 out of 5

Overall: 4.6 out of 5

“I’m a Jewish, redneck, massage therapist,” I heard a strange man dressed in overalls say to my wife as I walked back into the restaurant.

That strange man turned out to be the owner, Eric Gould. Wait, that sounds bad, Eric really isn’t strange per se, just a bit different! This whole place is just a bit different and in a fun way.

There are two very interesting things about this restaurant that stand out.

First, it is housed in a pair of antebellum buildings that Eric and his wife Lynn bought in 2002. It’s a former grocery, feed & seed store, and a livery. They spent 5 years restoring it and in 2007 opened up the bbq restaurant Smoketown USA.

Second, the place is for sale. Well not the restaurant, but everything in it is. Smoketown USA is what happens when a BBQ Restaurant collides with E-bay! Lynn is an avid garage sale enthusiast and the place is stocked and decorated with a wide range of styles. So you can literally buy the chairs you are sitting on, the salt/pepper shakers on your table, or any of the wall decorations that catch you eye. It’s really a unique approach and fun.

Service is a major plus at Smoketown USA. What you see in the pictures on their website is what really goes on. Not only did our server visit us, so did another server, Eric and the pit master that day, David. They are all friendly and a bunch of cut ups. It felt like we were hanging out on a friends deck while they finished up getting dinner ready.

When David found out I was a BBQ enthusiast, I got a tour of the kitchen and more importantly the two wood fired smokers out back. They were loaded with chicken and rib tips at the time. He talked about each cooker, their good qualities, their hot spots and possible future modifications on one of them. We discussed our personal smokers at home, our preferences for cooking Q for ourselves, and I knew I was in for some authentic BBQ.

The online menu is limited compared to what you can really get. The daily chalkboard menu contains many more options. A bit unusual, this BBQ joint has actual valid vegetarian options, not just sides. Yeah, I know, it's like a vegetarian restaurant offering rare prime rib! Ok, it's not that drastic but still.

Alexis ordered the Cuban (a very liberal bbq spin on a Cuban that is) and mixed greens while I opted for the “Flintstone ribs” (HUGE BEEF RIBS), tex-mex pintos, mac n cheese, and jalapeno corn bread. While we were waiting for our meal, David brought out a sample of their off the menu “lamb stew” which was hearty and full of flavor.

The pintos, mac n cheese, and corn bread were all good. The mixed greens recommended by the server had that perfect mustardy bite you expect. I took a bite of Alexis’ Cuban and it was the best I’ve ever had.

But the highlight of the meal had to be the beef ribs. These things were huge, big, and ginormous. David told me they give them a simple rub of salt, pepper and just stay out of the way, letting the meat & smoke do their own magic. They had a crisp bark covering the smoke ring yet the meat melted in my mouth. They were like a chuck roast on a bone! And did I mention they were huge?!? (Excuse the crappy mobile phone pics)

I didn’t get to sample their ribs, butt or chicken because our order itself was so filling. But when we come back in fall, we’ll definitely check out the rest of the menu because what we had was so good.

If you find yourself in, near or around Louisville, do yourself a favor and check out Smoketown USA. It’s a great little BBQ joint! And I mean real BBQ.

Chicken Parmesan Piccolinos & a Contest Giveaway

If you clicked on the link because of the title, then I sort of lied to you. I am posting a recipe for this dish but this post is not about that. But play along, I have a blog contest I am running in which you could win a cookbook!

Let's be honest. In this economy, it is hard to give up your hard earned cash for someone else. But what if you get something in return? Yeah, not so bad, right? So here's the deal.

This Thursday, July 30th Carrabba's is hosting the "Mix It Up For MDA" event to raise money in the fight against Muscular Dystrophy. One of my wife's cousins has MDA so I take this a bit personally.

Carrabba’s Italian Grill “Mix it up for MDA” Event

What: “Mix it Up for MDA” Event, a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association

When: Thursday, July 30^thfrom 5 p.m. to close

Cost: $15 a person

Admission includes a sampling of four food items from the new Mr. C’s Bar Menu and, for guests 21 years and older, one of three signature cocktails (Blackberry Lemonade, the Italian Lemon Drop or Blackberry Fields Martini) or another drink on the Mr. C’s list. In addition to monies raised from event admission (your whole $15 goes to the MDA) , Carrabba’s also will donate $1 to MDA for each of the three signature drinks sold from July 30 – August 6.

Where: To find Carrabba’s locations near you, visit http://carrabbas.com/locator.aspx

Contest Give Away
Up for grabs: The cookbook Ciao Tuscany provided by the good folks at Carrabba's themselves
My Contest Rules: (And yes, this is MY contest and MY rules, Carrabba's has nothing to do with this so don't blame them if you aren't happy with the results.)

1) Entries:
1 entry ticket = post THIS LINK in a post in your blog with a clear mention of the purpose of their event.
10 entry tickets = post the link AND a picture of your attempt of Chicken Parmesan Piccolinos. Creative license and substitutions freely permitted.

2) Posts:
All posts must be made and entered in the comments section, between now and the end of their event on August 6th 2009.

3) How to Enter:
Leave a link to your qualifying post in the comments section.

4) Drawing:
The qualifying entries will be placed in a non-reactive mixing bowl and the winner drawn at random. How do we know it will be random? We are going to put the paper slips into the bowl, spin it around and stick it into Ollie the Wonder Chinchilla's cage. The first one he pulls all of the way out of the bowl is the winner (will post the video just for fun).

Carrabba's Chicken Parmesan Piccolinos
INGREDIENTS
8 oz breast split Chicken breast, pounded thin (1/4 inch)
* Kosher salt and black pepper (to taste)
1 Beaten egg
2 Cups Seasoned breadcrumbs
2 oz Olive oil
4 oz Hot pomodoro sauce***
1 oz Grated romano cheese
2 slices Mozzarella
4 slices Italian mini sandwich bread

METHOD
Season chicken on both sides with the kosher salt and black pepper. Dip chicken breast into beaten egg and then coat with the seasoned breadcrumbs.

Heat olive oil, medium heat in a Teflon-coated skillet. Make sure the oil is hot before placing breaded chicken into the pan otherwise breading will absorb oil and not brown properly. Sauté chicken breast on both sides until golden brown.

Place chicken on a baking pan. Spread the pomodoro sauce evenly over the chicken and sprinkle with romano cheese, and top with mozzarella.

Melt cheese under broiler until lightly browned.

Cut to size and serve on Italian mini sandwich bread.

***I didn't get a recipe for their pomodoro sauce so you could try this one from Tyler Florence.

So please consider stopping by your local Carrabba's this Thursday. If you find yourself there the following week, order one of the new menu items. Or if you can't, at least consider making a donation to the MDA.

Avocado-Tomato Toss

I received my August issue of Southern Living magazine this week.

I remember "discovering" Southern Living when I was about 16 spending a summer vacation at my grandmother's farmhouse in North Carolina. It was a dry afternoon and the only "air conditioning" was a box fan propped up in an open window of the old home. It was one of those afternoons that was so hot you could hear the heat because even the bugs were quiet and still. In an effort to remain cool, I spent an afternoon minimizing activity by reading a few years worth of back issues of Southern Living.

I specifically remember reading about the difference between chicken fried steak and country fried steak. I am pretty sure that was the first day I ever wrote down a recipe to try, it was a flank steak with equal parts of oil, red wine, and soy sauce. But from then on, I was curious about food and how I could make mine better.

Sorry, I drifted off there for a minute. Now I get Southern Living every month courtesy of my parents. It is one of my favorite Christmas presents because I get it 12 times! Tonight we wanted to do something easy and quick without making a mess in the kitchen, so we tried the Avocado-Tomato Toss. We halved the recipe.

Avocado-Tomato Toss
Makes: 6 servings
Prep: 15 min

Ingredients
1/3 c cilantro, fresh chopped
1/4 c olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T lime juice
1/2 t salt
2 c cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 c red onion, thinly sliced
2 medium avocados, halved and cut into chunks
4 romaine lettuce leaves

Instructions
Whisk the oil into the cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, and salt in a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, red onion and avocados, tossing gently to coat. Serve over the shredded romaine.

I messed up by tossing it all together with the romaine but it turned out alright anyway. I also added a little cracked black pepper.Alexis and I both loved it. It has all of the hallmarks of a good salad for me, varied textures, a little sweet, and a little bite. A little pedestrian, perhaps, but like I said, we were aiming for simple. If you don't like cilantro, this one isn't for you because I think cilantro is what gives it the signature flavor.

Some of the other recipes I have marked in the August issue to try are:
Chicken and Green Chile Enchiladas
Grilled Fingerling Potato Salad
Maque Choux (a dish we've previously enjoyed from Sharlene)
Bourbon Marinated Pork Tenderloin
Fiesta Brisket

So what are some of your favorite media sources for recipes?