Happy cooking with the Gourmet Balabuste

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Grilled strip steak with thai slaw fried rice

I admit, we are all human and we do make mistakes. But I absolutely love when such mistakes happen and I create a new recipe that will stay in my favorite side dishes category! Originally I was supposed to make my regular thai slaw recipe (see bellow), but by mistake i poured too much sesame oil and soy sauce so it became too saucy. That's when I came up with the idea, why don't I just mix it with some steamed brown rice and call it a thai slaw fried rice? And trust me when it came to serving it to my friend, they did not think for a second it was a recipe created by mistake. For a prettier presentation I left some rice plain and i layered it up so it looks like I worked soooo hard to make two kind of side dishes.... Enjoy!

Strip steak

Marinade:
1/2 cup oil
1 T paprika
1 T montreal steak seasoning
1 T salt
1 T black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a ziplock bag, place strip steaks inside and let marinate for at least half hour up to 24hours

Heat grill pan (in better weather on the grill! cant wait!), Take out strip steak from marinate and shake off all excess oil. Grill it 5 minutes on each side or if you like it more well done than leave it for another minute or two. Remove from grill pan and let it rest for a few minutes before serving.

Thai broccoli slaw

Ingredients

1 bag of broccolislaw
1 bunch of scallion thinly sliced
2 T sesame oil
2 T canola or vegetable oil
2 T soy sauce
1 T sugar (or substitute)
1 T vinegar
1 t ground ginger
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups cooked brown rice (optional)

Heat oils in sautee pan, add scallions and sautee for 2-3 minutes. Add broccoli slaw and let it soften for 4-5 minutes while mixing it. Pour soy sauce, vinegar, ginger and sugar over, mix well and let it cook for additional 15 minutes. Before removing it from heat sprinkle and mix with sesame seeds.

If you want to serve it as a fried rice add another 1 T of sesame oil and soy sauce to mix and before serving mix with brown rice or serve separately

Bon appetit

French onion chicken wrap with acorn squah chips and two tone coleslaw

There are those nights when you want just a light sandwich and some salad or chips on the side. This combination is really a healthy and nutritious supper (minus the mayo dressings...), I used wholewheat wrap, but of course you can use any other kind. The acorn squash chips was a try out that will probably become one of my favorite snacks, after kale chips obviously. So crunchy, sweet and salty the same time, a real low fat and low carb treat! Enjoy!

Acorn squash chips

Ingredients
1 medium acorn squash
olive oil to drizzle

Preheat oven to 250
Spray a cookie sheets with oil. Cut in half the acorn squash and scoop out all the seeds. Slice the squash crosswise about 1/16 inch thick using a mandoline or knife.

Drizzle with olive oil and toss. arrange on the baking sheets in a single layer and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 50 minutes than flip over the slices and continue baking until browned, about 15 more minutes. Transfer the chips to a rack to cool.

French Onion chicken cutlets

4 slices of thin sliced chicken cutlets
2 Tsp mayo
1 cup of French's fried onion crushed to crumbs

French Fried Onion (OU hechsher)

Preheat oven to 400

Dip chicken cutlets into mayo and than into french fried onion crumbs. Place cutlets on a greased cookie sheet and bake it for 20 minutes.

To assemble wrap
You can use a variety of toppings, I used romaine lettuce, shredded carrots, and a honey mustard drizzle. And of course my delicious juicy cutlet.

Mushroom pepper sweetbread

Whenever I see sweetbread on the fancy restaurants menu I always wonder what could be so delicate that they charge as much as a nice piece of steak? Than came last shabbos when I ate by my friend and she served this dish. It's so moist and creamy, you just want to clean off your plate until the last drops of the sauce is gone. I figured if it's not so time consuming I would try out the recipe. Didn't think it would be so easy! As a first time experience my lesson learnt for next time, don't add salt to the recipe, the sweetbread itself is very salty! Once it's all cooked taste the sauce and if you feel it needs more than add. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 lb beef sweetbread

2 T oil

1 onion diced

1 small red bell pepper thinly sliced

1 14oz can mushroom

1/2 t black pepper

Place the sweetbread in a pot covered with cold water, cover and boil it up. Once water is boiling lower the flame and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and run cold water over the sweetbread. Once its cooled slice sweetbread to small pieces (remove any membranes)

While sweetbread is boiling, heat oil in a large sautee pan and add onions and peppers to sautee for about 6-8 minutes. Add mushrooms and continue cooking on low for another 10 minutes. Add sweetbread pieces and cover pan. Simmer on low for additional 15-20 minutes until sweetbread pieces are soft and saucy.

Bon appetit!

Hot 'n spicy chickpea soup

Chickpeas is such a diversified ingredient in a variety of recipes. Could be pureed, marinated, cooked even fried for a crunchy garnish. I never tried it in a soup though replacing other kind of beans. So one day i figured how bad could it be? I used my hawaij spice to give it that real middle eastern flavor. The house was filled with the spicy aroma that reminded me of those spice stands in any Israeli shuk (market). As always this recipe is quick and easy and the flavor is just unbelievable! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

The main ingredients

3 T oil

1 leek thinly sliced

1 T crushed garlic

3 celery sticks thinly sliced

2 sticks of carrot chopped small

2 sticks of parsnip chopped small

1 bunch parsley ( wrapped in food mess saver bags)

1 bunch fresh spinach

2 15oz cans chickpeas (rinsed)

1 28oz crushed tomatoes

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1 T hawaij spice

1 t sriracha sauce

1 t crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup stelline pasta (optional)

Heat oil in large pot, add leek, garlic, celery, carrot and parsnip, mix well and sautee for 10 minutes. add chickpeas and spices mix well, Add crushed tomatoes, stock and parsley (in wrap n boil bag) and cook it covered on low for 1 hour. Add fresh spinach and pasta (optional) and cook it for additional 15 minutes uncovered.

Bon appetit!

Mushroom pepper steak with baked cabbage leek "latkes"

This is my version of pepper steak. Its not the classic recipe, but its a guaranteed way to avoid any leftovers. The cabbage leek recipe I once saw by a chanuka party where it was obviously pan fried and oily. I figured I'll try to come up with a healthier version and honestly it is finger licking good!If you dont like leek you can replace it with scallions or onions or skip it altogether, but don't expect the same delicious result! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 lb pepper steak
2 T oil
1 onion diced
1 t crushed garlic
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 14oz can of mushroom, drained
1 15oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
2 T beef soup mix
1/2 T montreal steak seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in pan, add onion and garlic and sautee for 5-6 minutes. Add peppers and sautee for additional 2-3 minutes. Add pepper steak slices and mix it until all pieces are browned. Add mushrooms, crushed tomatoes, water, soup mix and spices.Let it simmer covered on low for 90 minutes.

Oven baked cabbage leek latkes

Ingredients

1 bag of shredded green cabbage (16oz)
1 leek thinly sliced (only white part)
3 eggs
3 T flour
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400
Mix all ingredients. Spray out muffin pans. Scoop in mixture to each pan, filling it halfway up.
Bake for 20 minutes or until all "latkes" are golden brown.

Bon appetit

Upside down peach kugel

This kugel recipe could be used as side dish, dessert or just like a cake next to your coffee. Its moist and light, could be done with canned pears or mangos also, but the visual effect works best with peaches. It's quick and easy to make, perfect for your last minute guests . Enjoy!

Ingredients:

10-12 peach slices from can (leave some for garnish
1 T lemon juice
1 T sugar

Batter:
2 eggs
1 stick margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1 scoop vanilla sugar

Preheat oven 350
Arrange peach slices in a round 9" greased baking pan. Mix lemon juice with sugar and pour over peaches. Combine all batter ingredients and pour over the peach slices. Bake for 10 minutes uncovered and than for 1 hour covered.

Bon appetit!

Three bean beef chili with fried egg on top

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil

1 large onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 green pepper diced

2 t ground cumin

1 pound ground beef

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

2 cups water

1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce

2 teaspoons adobo sauce from the can of chipotles

1 t cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

1 (15.5-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15.5-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15.5-ounce) can navy beans, drained and rinsed

Heat the oil in large pot, add the onion and peppers. Cover and cook it until the vegetables are soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add the cumin and cayenne pepper and mix well. Add ground beef and make sure you break up the meat with spoon until all pieces are browned. Add crushed tomatoes, water, chipotle chili and sauce and cook it on low heat for 45 minutes. Add beans and continue cooking on low for additional 20 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

For the fried egg garnish, spray with oil and heat up frying pan. Place a round cookie cutter in pan and pour egg inside the circle.

To get an evenly cooked fried egg, the trick is to keep the air circulating. The easiest way to achieve that is to cover the egg and create a "steaming area". Cook for 2 minute and than lift the cover to check on the egg. The white should be perfectly cooked and yolk a little loose , when you cut into it should be runny. Remove it very carefully from pan and place it on top of your chili

Bon apetit!