January 2014 - Eat Your Broccoli!

January 28, 2014

Asian Style Spicy Coleslaw With Steak

Ah, the parade of the leftovers. Today it is leftover cabbage, from the awesome meal hubby made last week. What to do, what to do…

Asian Style Spicy Coleslaw with Steak

Adapted from originally from Food and Wine magazine via kalynskitchen.

This recipe makes 10 servings, but can be easily cut in half.

Dressing:
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
3 T fresh lime juice
3 T Asian fish sauce
3 T water
3 T sugar
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 t Sriracha sauce

Salad:
2 pounds green cabbage, thinly sliced (about 12 cups)
3 medium carrots, grated
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
3 T chopped cilantro
15 mint leaves (I used about 1/4 cup chopped mint)
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
salt and freshly ground pepper

Steak:
2 T soy sauce
2 T Chinese cooking wine
1 t Worchestershire sauce
2 steaks, inside round/sirloin/ribeye

Whisk together peanut butter, lime juice, fish sauce, water, sweetener, garlic and Sriracha. In large bowl, toss together sliced napa and red cabbage, carrots, peppers, cilantro, mint, and peanuts. Toss all steak seasonings and meat in a dish. Cover. Marinate the steak for at least a couple of hours. Bring steak to room temperature and sear both sides. Cook until desired doneness, but rare is best. Rest for 10 minutes. Slice and toss into salad. Toss salad with the dressing and season with salt and pepper. Serve right away. If you plan to eat some later, don’t add the dressing until just before serving.

January 28, 2014

Mucho Burrito

I don’t often review chains. This would be a first on this blog. I was craving a Mexican food experience like the one I had in Hawaii, at Maui Tacos. I love fresh food with toppings that you can put on yourself. So my friends and I paid a visit to the one in the Beltline. It’s a standalone restaurant with some kitschy Mexican decor. All well and fine, how was the food? It was actually pretty good. Think of it as a Mexican Subway. Order the basics (taco, quesadilla, salad or burrito) and go crazy with the fillings and toppings. I ordered a regular chorizo burrito. Not pictured, as how can you take a good photo? I topped it with Mexican rice, black beans, pepper, medium salsa, cilantro and sour cream. It was extremely filling. I didn’t have to chug a litre of water afterwards which means it wasn’t overdone with salt. Next time, I would order the small instead.

My friends had the taco salad and tacos, as seen below.

January 28, 2014

The Bison

If there is one restaurant in Banff that I will come back to, time and time again; it’s The Bison. Well crafted, rustic and hearty food. Suitable for an après-ski dinner.

I was in the mood for some hot soup. The oxtail was fall-off-the-bone and flavorful. The crispy bacon hit the spot. The broth tasted like it was cooking for days.

BRAISED OXTAIL SOUP poached egg, grilled focaccia, root vegetables, bacon — BRAISED OXTAIL SOUP
poached egg, grilled focaccia, root
vegetables, bacon

The bison ribs also tasted like they were stewed for days with the same fall-off-the-bone tenderness. The dish stayed hot throughout the meal thanks to the cast iron. The portion sizes are definitely on the larger size, considering we were hungry skiers and split dessert. I had enough for lunch the next day.

CARMEN CREEK BISON SHORT RIBS baby potatoes, carrots, turnips, mushrooms, bacon — CARMEN CREEK BISON SHORT RIBS
baby potatoes, carrots, turnips, mushrooms, bacon

The crème brûlée was heavenly. There were chunks of apple underneath the caramelized topping. The gingersnap twirl was a nice touch.

CREME BRULEE apple cinnamon spiced, gingersnap palmiers — CREME BRULEE
apple cinnamon spiced, gingersnap palmiers

Service was good, although slower towards the end of the meal. Reservations highly recommended, especially on a Saturday night.

January 28, 2014

Green Bean Heaven

Sometimes you buy a large bag, of say green beans because they were on sale? What to do?

Green Bean and Grape Tomato Salad

Recipe courtesy of The Vegan Chronicle.

Orange Sweet and Sour Stir Fry

1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut in half
1 large orange, cut into supremes
1 small onion
1 box grape tomatoes
1/4 C fresh ginger, sliced into sticks
1 tbs corn starch
2 tbs ketchup
2 tbs Chinese red vinegar
2 tbs orange juice
1 tbs soy sauce
water
salt and pepper to taste

January 15, 2014

Curry Ramen Noodle Soup

I finally have enough ingredients to make a recent favorite of mine, curry ramen noodle soup. I made some Chinese style char siu and medium boiled egg. I also made some pork broth. Originally I wanted to make tonkotsu broth, but I didn’t have the patience to clean the pork bones and boil the broth for eight hours. So I settled for pork broth.

To make the soup for the ramen, I used a piece of the Japanese style Glico curry. I know; next time I will try to make the curry roux from scratch. I dissolved the block into the broth. Also sliced some nori and green onion.

To my surprise, the ramen developed better flavour sitting in the fridge overnight before cooking. It actually tasted like ramen this time.

Pork Broth

2 lbs pork bones with some meat on
3 dried Chinese mushrooms
1 large onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic
several small chunks of ginger
handful of dried wakame seaweed
handful of dried black fungus

Simmer the pork bones and mushrooms in a large pot of water for 2 hours. Transfer to a 6-7 quart slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients and top up with water. Cook on low for 8 hours or high on 4. The longer the better. Cool and strain. Reserve bones with pork for eating.

Credits to Joanne for helping me with the cooking, taste test and the photos.

January 15, 2014

Vina Pizza and Steakhouse

On this cold Saturday night we didn’t want to venture far for dinner. We went to an old standby, Dairy Lane, but the wait was 2o minutes. Not wanting to wait, we decided to try Vina’s next door.

Vina’s is a family run neighborhood restaurant. It was busy, but we were seated quickly. The menu is pizza and classic favorites. I decided on the Chicken Souvlaki. It came with a side salad and garlic bread. The portions were generous and the food was satisfying. The food came out hot which is always a good thing. The roasted potatoes were nicely done and so was the chicken. The only thing was the vegetables looked like they were from frozen.

The service was friendly and quick and the prices were good value.

January 5, 2014

Homemade Ramen Noodles

I’ve always loved ramen noodles. This was born from my days in elementary school when I would run home for lunch to have Mom serve me gong jai mein, the Doll brand of instant noodles. My tastes are now more refined and I prefer non instant forms of ramen.

I had the urge to make these noodles for myself. I put to good use the pasta roller attachment that I got for Christmas. Also the bottle of Koonchun kansui that has been sitting in my cupboard since summer.

Makes enough noodles for 4 bowls

2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon Koon Chun Potassium Carbonate & Sodium Bi-Carbonate (kansui)

Batch 1:

Needed an additional 2/3 C water for dough to form together, as it was so dry that it crumbled. Also added another ½ tsp of Kansui but it didn’t turn yellow. I live at 3500 ft. I suspect that may have something to do with it. The noodles had some of the expected chewiness, but still were more like spaghetti than ramen. Next time, more Kansui. The noodles were so dry that I didn’t need any additional flour to prevent sticking.

Batch 2:

Used 1.5 C of water to 3 tsp kansui. Also increased flour to 3 cups. The dough colour was a little more yellow than the last batch. I rolled the sheet on 3, but set the last pass to 4 before using the spaghetti cutter. The noodles were a little thinner, I think I could set the sheet to 5 next time. The noodles were also a little more curly. The taste was more like ramen than the last batch, but it could still use some improvement. I needed to douse the pasta sheet with flour before rolling as this batch was more moist than the last. Also, because of the amount of water, the dough separated into chunks rather than crumbs in the mixing phase. Good thing I have a 800W mixer, my Kitchenaid would not stand a chance with this dough. But it’s pretty good for pasta making.

I cooked the ramen the next day after leaving it in the fridge overnight. The taste actually improved with resting. The consistency is still a bit firm, although it might have been due to under cooking.

I’ll leave this as an unfinished post, as I plan to make more batches and tweak the recipe. Half the fun, is playing with the ingredients.

I followed the directions from this blog.

One bowl would be two servings of the small noodle or one of the large

Cooked lo mein style. Plan to refrigerate for tomorrow so soup not an option.