June 3rd- Quinoa Stuffed Potatoes

 

     potatoes are awesome, awesome things, right?
     They'll always be a hearty part of most dinners and its hard to get sick of something you can cook in so many ways.
     I wanted to stuff them..well, because usually all my potatoes are sliced in some way or another, but I'd never, ever actually taken the time to stuff them before. However today I had nothing but time. I wanted to break away from my potato slicing ways, but in a house without butter, a baked potato is just no good.
     I needed a way to get moist juicy flavor into each and every bite.
     I decided to use Quinoa.
     And if you've never heard of it, well...you really really should.

     quinoa is like a miracle grain. Its a seed, actually. And its so diverse you can cook almost anything with it. It will eventually be included in a lot of my recipes. As healthy as it is, it would be criminal to exclude it from my diet.
     It can go along with sweet, savory, and most things in between.

     For this recipe I used steak and vegetable fried quinoa. It's a bit of an effort but its great and can be cooked to stand alone, as well as used for this stuffing.

Here's What You'll Need!!

3 Medium to large golden potatoes
Dashes of Rosemary
1/2 Cup Quinoa
1 1/3rd cup water

1/2 Lb Organic Sirloin Steak
1/3rd Cup Sliced Onions

1/4th Cup Snap Pea
1/4th Cup Brocoli
1/4th Cup Baby Bok Choy
1/4th Cup Scallions
1 Large Egg
Sunflower Oil
Salt

     It's kind of a long ingredient list, but worth seeking out for this very tasty combination.
     If you sub any ingredients, you're going to want to do it carefully. The flavors in this dish will change quickly with any new, or missed ingredient.
     But all in all, it isn't that hard.

Let's Get Cooking!

First- Soaking the Quinoa
     Simply rinse your Quinoa (even if it comes pre-rinsed.) and soak it covered in water for 20 minutes

Second- The Potatoes!
     Peel the potatoes.
     Save the  peels! Put them in some water.
    Then hollow out the potatoes, leaving about a centimeter or a bit more of actual potato intact.
     Sprinkle lightly with rosemary, oil, and salt on both sides, Set them hole side up in the toaster oven and bake them for 40 minutes at 350. Turn over the last 10 minutes and add a bit more oil and a sprinkle of salt.

     Third- More Quinoa preparation
     Drain the quinoa, bring 1 and 1/3rd cups water to a boil, and add them both together. Reduce the heat to a simmer.
     In the mean time, have your steak slices as thin as you can get it. salt lightly. If you really want to, you can use pre-cut chip-steak but I really don't recommend it. it will take a lot away from the meal.
     Slice your onions very thin as well. I like to cut mine into thin half-rings, and if I got my measurments just right, you should have about as much onions as steak in volume once they're spread out.
     If not, that's what you should be going for.
     Oil your pan, set it to high and once the stove is nice and hot, toss in your steak. Seer it well.
     Add your onion in and cook until caramelized. Mix often so the already seared steak does not burn.

     Once the steak is done, give the vegetables (Chopped) a quick and hot saute. You want them to be cooked but just until the broccoli is radiant green.
     By this time, your Quinoa should be nearly done. Treat it like rice. It's finished once it's absorbed all the water and is no longer difficult to eat.
     Now bring your vegetables, meat, and quinoa  out on the side, and get a hot pan ready once again.

     A little oil, and add your quinoa. It will pop and jump. Stir constantly for about 40 seconds. Do the next few steps in fairly quick succession.
     Add your egg, mix just until it appears the egg is almost completely cooked in.
     Add in your steak, add in your veggies, 40 more seconds of mixing, and take it off the burner.

     Finishing up-
     the 40 minutes should be up, and your potatoes tender. Stuff them full, but don't serve just yet. Get out those potato skins.
    Dry them off, Fry them up in oil, salt them up and burn em a little. Top the filling with those crunchy delicious potato bits and serve hot!

      My neighbor had the luck of being out on the porch when I finished this.
     I have a new fan :)

December 30th- Ultimate Seaweed Soup

     First and foremost I appologize for taking nearly an entire week to post. I wanted to post two days ago but I had computer trouble. It probably wont happen again in the near future.

     Soups are so often overlooked. It's not a main course and not quite as refreshing as a salad for an appetizer. But if made right, there's nothing that packs more flavor than a well built soup.
     Though I won't lie. Originally this recipe was never supposed to become a soup. I was making a broth for my steak fried quinoa, but I made the flavors to strong. It would have made my dish far to potent to eat easily, though not essentially bad tasting.
     But I'm not ashamed of a little botch in the kitchen as long as I can turn it into something equally as good. I think it's one of the things that defines a good cook. Sometimes you need to be able to bend without breaking.

     When I served this to my girlfriend, I didn't think I would be posting this recipe on the site. I have a bad habbit of looking down on soup when it really is a great food.
     In the end I'm glad she made me agree to post it. And from now on I'll try to pay more  attention to soup in general.
     The real key here is the seaweed. When added to a soup it just about doubles the flavor. I use it in all of my soups even if it's just to dip briefly and throw away.

Here's what you'll need!

5 cups water
.75 lb sirloin steak
2 tbsp Oil (I used sunflower)
2-3 scallions (cut in half)
1/4th cup White Onion
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
4 small dried shiitake mushrooms
1/3rd cubanelle pepper
1/2 tbsp salt
Several sheets of seaweed ( One for each bowl)

     The reason I call this 'Ultimate' Seaweed soup is the amount of work I put into the broth for such a simple outcome. Luxurious is a good word to describe it.
     By the way I don't expect everyone to go buy a  steak in order to make a broth. Go ahead and use bones or gristle, but come on guys, no bullion cubes. that's just taking the easy way out and it doesn't taste as good.
     If you want to make the soup bigger, you can probably add 2 cups of water without changing the flavor to much. but if you add any more than that you may want to increase the other ingredients as well.

Lets get cooking!

     Once you figure out what you're going to use for your soup, the actual process of making it isn't difficult at all.
      Add your water to a large pot and bring it to a boil. Add in all of your ingredients, in the order listed or all at once.  Let boil for 5 minute then reduce to a simmer. Let simmer covered for at least an hour.

     Now strain out your vegetables and meat, and pour your broth into bowls. Just before serving, rip up a sheet of seaweed into each one and give it a quick mix to get all of the seaweed under.

     That's really all. It isn't any more filling than a soup normally is, but its a very satisfying soup and definitely worth making for those cold winter nights.

December 2nd- Hawaiian Style Chinese Dumplings

     When you bite into a Chinese dumpling, aka Pot sticker, the last thing you expect is the bang of ham, pineapple, and cheddar cheese! Though the reactions people gave me upon trying it said that it was anything but unpleasant.

     I've been rolling this recipe around in my head for nearly a month now, and I decided today would be the day that I finally tried it.
     I LOVE making dumplings. it's a lot of work and takes a long time but something about it keeps dragging me back. Crafting every single one right down to the dough has a way of making you care that every single one gets eaten and appreciated to its fullest.

     This batch of dumplings was extra large because I felt that the filling being so much more American, needed a bigger bite. I made them twice the size of your average dumpling and about 2 or 3 alone make a satisfying meal.
     I almost used American cheese, figuring it would blend well with the other ingredients, but I opted for a sharp cheddar that would stand out instead.
     This recipe makes 18 of them. But be sure to make a little extra filling just in case.

Here's what you'll need!

Dumpling dough-
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups just boiled water (cool for about 2 minutes)
1 egg yolk
Filling-
1 1/2 cup ham, chopped small
1 1/2 cup pineapple, also chopped small.
3/4ths cup sharp cheddar cheese, chopped small
18 spinach leaves
Other-
Olive oil or Sesame Oil
Black cracked pepper

If you don't have them, you may also want to invest in a rolling pin, a dough cutter, and a steamer of some sort. I just use a strainer over a pan of water.
Alright.

Lets get cooking!

Make the skin-
      First comes the dough. Boil you water and put your flour in a bowl. Once the water is boiling, take it off of the burner and let cool for about 2 minutes.
     Add the water and egg yolk to your flour and mix it into a dough. You'll likely need to use more flour than I listed. Just keep adding more as you knead until you get a nice soft dough that doesn't stick to your counter or hands... Which should also both be well floured, by the way.

Make the filling-
      Set the dough aside in a covered bowl, and in wok or pan mix your ham, cheese, and pineapple. Stir under low heat until the cheese begins to melt.
     Take the filling off of the burner and set aside and Take your dough back out.

Make the dumpling!-
      Knead the dough briefly and add a bit more flour only if needed. Cut the dough into 3 pieces, then cut those in half. and then cut THOSE into 3 pieces. You will end up with 18 medium sized dough balls. Try your best to cut evenly! (If you want to make traditionally sized dumplings, cut all of those in half one more time.)
      On a surface that should still be well floured and kept that way, form the balls into circles, squish them down your your hand. then roll them flat with a rolling pin. They will get pretty big once they are flattened out. do your best to keep them in a round shape.
      Once all your dough balls have become dumpling sheets, take out your spinach and lay one leaf (slightly smaller than half of the dumpling sheet ) on one side of the sheet, leaving a half inch of room for pressing closed.
      Add a small amount of filling ( 2 tbsp is a good estimate, but feel free to experiment until you've found an amount that will easily close but still makes a mouth full )
      Fold the skin over and press down hard to seal. use fork prongs if your fingers wont do the trick. or a dough cutter as a last resort.

     Now comes the easy part, Just steam them for 12 minutes. Once they're all steamed, break out a frying pan and coat liberally with oil. sprinkle in your preferred amount of black pepper and fry on both sides until golden brown. (I use a lot of pepper and fry 3 or 4 at a time. it only takes maybe a minute and a half for both sides to get done. )
     Be careful not to burn them. they will burn FAST with all that hot oil underneath them!

     As delicious as they are, don't forget to share. They're most fun eaten in groups.

Of course...that doesn't mean you shouldn't get the most!