by TheLastWonton | Jul 1, 2012 | Asian, BBQ, Beef, Pork & Lamb, Hawaiian, Main Dishes, Recipes
Luscious Hawaiian-style grilling. Delectably tender, sweetly aromatic, crispy edged, Korean barbecued shortribs with a kicky hit of freshly ground black pepper and ha-cha-cha jalapeno.
Kalbi ribs always have and always will taste like Hawaii to me. Lucky me!
Over the years, we've sampled and resampled quite a few different variations of this rather classic recipe at home and of course munched our way through some delicious Korean BBQ at one delightful Island eatery or another. So far we've never met a Kalbi we didn't like. But, some are, absolutely, tastier than the others.
In a concerted quest for sublime Kalbi, I've tweeked here, and tossed a little of that, there, until I now end up with scrumptious barbecue goodness each and every time. These babies pow you right in the kisser with flavour on flavour. They are not timid.
Untraditionally I've added plenty of freshly ground black pepper and to shorten the marinating time and zip zap tenderness right into the beef, some mushed up kiwi.
Quickened marinating, a speedy flip flop or two on a hot grill and ta da! Easy peasy, spicy sweet, grilled goodness with a hint of Aloha in every tasty morsel. Lucky you!
Serve hot off the grill with sticky rice and macaroni salad. Or as we sometimes do, mix things up and serve with buttery, cheesy, mashed potatoes and tangy coleslaw.
SPICY KALBI RIBS – Serves 6
1 cup gingerale
1/2 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup fresh gingerroot, peeled and roughly chopped
6 plump garlic cloves, minced
6 green onions, chopped
1 fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 kiwi, peeled and mashed
4 pounds beef short ribs, cross cut (flanken) into 1/2 to 3/4 inch strips (Korean style)
In a large bowl combine everything but the ribs, whisking to combine. Transfer marinade to a jumbo resealable baggie. Add the ribs and seal them up tight. Turn the bag and mix the ribs around in all that flavour, so they are evenly coated. Refrigerate and let the ribs laze in all marvelous marinade for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours, turning occasionally.
Prepare barbecue to medium high. Lightly oil grill and grill ribs until cooked through and sizzling good, with slightly charred edges, 4-7 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Serve hot from the grill, with big mugs of ice cold beer. Okole maluna!
by TheLastWonton | Jun 10, 2012 | Appetizers & Snacks, Beef, Pork & Lamb, Breakfast & Brunch, One-Pan & One-Pot, Sides
Potatoes and bacon are such good friends, why deny them their togetherness? The bacon, unctuously addicitive. The tiny potatoes, with the whisper of a soft pop, burst earthy sweetness right into your mouth. Sumptuous BFFs.
It's late spring in the blossoming Okanagan. Which usually means, shorts and T's, long leisurely patio dinners, basking in copious amounts of soothingly warm Vitamin D and plunking camp chairs out under the night canopy to watch God's little lanterns blinking on and off in the heavens. Marvelous summery pleasures.
This year though, um, er, nope, not so much. This is the chilliest, rainiest June I can remember. These days we're pulling on the winter woolies, overhearing the next person in line at the grocery store exclaiming that their furnace is back on too, scanning the endless grey skies for promise of a patch of blue and getting comfy for rewatches of favorite old movies, whilst glancing longingly outside ……wishing.
The upside? Getting cozy and snuggling back into our comfort zones. And comfort food. Soothing soups, slow braised stews and as much soul warming munching as needed to stave off the shivers.
Which brings me to the best darn little, easy peasy appie I've made in…..forever. Gloriously petite, creamy, potato gems cloaked in delicious crispy, tender bacon. Ridiculously good.
Don't roll your eyes at me! I know what you're thinking. Sure, sure, this is just baked potatoes and bacon. Whoopie do, right? Noooo.
These, my friends, are hot, luscious little bites of texture, comfort and familiar seduction. They'd be a hit and equally as suitable at a Grey Cup Party as an Evening Cocktail gathering. And they're crazy simple dimple to make.
I use teensy tiny President's Choice "Golden Little Gems", which are barely an inch long, but any very small potato will work, of course. That said, if you are not able to find the really tiny potatoes you will need to adjust the recipe. Instead of cutting the bacon slices in thirds, cut them in half, in which case you will need more bacon for wrapping than is called for in the recipe below.
And I always use 'thick cut' bacon as it gives you a little more bang for your mouthful.
This time I was looking for mostly crispy tender bacon so I cranked up the oven for the last 5 minutes of baking and voila. If you like your bacon a little softer, just shorten the cooking time a bit. Either way, served hot from the oven with cool, indulgent sour cream on the side for swooping. Sublime.
I know right now that I am going to make these often. Very. In every season. Thanks Martha Stewart. You've always rocked.
BACON-WRAPPED CUTE LITTLE POTATO GEMS – Serves 6
8 thick-sliced bacon slices, cut in thirds
24 tiny little potato gems
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a large, rimmed, baking sheet with parchment paper. Wrap each bacon piece around a potato and secure with a round toothpick. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake until bacon is cooked and partially crisp, and potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, 35-40 minutes.
If you want to crisp up the bacon a little more, simply turn the oven up to 450F for just 5 minutes.
Serve with sour cream, ranch dip or blue cheese dressing on the side. Now that was easy for such fantastic results, wasn't it?
by TheLastWonton | Apr 8, 2012 | Appetizers & Snacks, Baking & Desserts, Breads & Sandwiches, Sides
Easy peasy, throw 'em together, heavenly soft, potently retro, seductively yeasty, warm-from-the-oven dinner rolls, boasting an ever so slightly crunchy, buttery bottom crust. Oh mama!
Did someone say, 'yeasty'? I'm there. Totally.
I don't know if I just simply love the flavour and texture of old-fashioned buns that were more deliciously commonplace back in the 1950's and 60's. Or if maybe they're so jam-packed with plump, warm memories from my Mom's kitchen that I can't resist.
Recipes, like this, that whisper of yummy, sepia-toned memories, of the cherished comfort of family gatherings long past, fill our tummies and our hearts. An irresistable combination. Probably why I have accumulated such a fine little arsenal of old-fashioned yeasty roll recipes that always get pulled out at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.
This time I tried a little different version of my usual Mom-style rolls that I found on For the Love of Cooking food blog. Thanks Pam. You're right, your Mom's dinner rolls are amazing. Thanks Moms!
Even though these rolls are definitively retro, they're so easy, because you just toss everything into the bread maker, on the dough cycle. Yippee!
Then a bit of play-with-dough-fun when you cut the silky dough into little pieces and pull down and around to make perfect little balls. Cute. Next plop your dough balls onto a heavily buttered cookie sheet, so you get that seductively crunchy bottom crust. Bet you didn't know it was that easy to make a seductively crunchy, buttery, bottom crust, did you?
But wait, more fun……. if you're going to use the rolls for sandwiches of any kind, you need to slap those dough balls firmly on their little round heads to flatten a bit. Go ahead do it one more time. Slap! Yeah, take that! Now, brush those babies with butter, let rise, and bake.
Each time I make yeasty buns I kind of think that this time I won't have one, hot from the oven, with a gouge of hard butter and a drizzle of golden syrup. Yup, I do think that every time. Before I bake them.
But really, you know, they do need to be tasted to make sure they're okay, before you serve them. Right? I mean, really. And if there's hard butter and golden syrup within reach, well, there's no other option. Forest Grump, on the other hand, doesn't hesitate to do a warm-from-the oven sampling and defiantly exclaims there is NO CHOICE but butter and peanut butter for the taste test. Comfort sweet comfort!
Which brings me to one of the all-time comfort zone foods, turkey. Mmmm.
So, I took a little more inspiration from For the Love of Cooking blog. Hot Turkey Sandwiches. But instead of waiting for turkey leftovers to make sandwiches, I did it up good, from the get go.
We didn't have the usual turkey dinner this time around, we had tender, delicious slices of fresh roast turkey heaped on an old-fashioned dinner roll with black pepper riddled, sausage bread stuffing and tangy cranberry sauce, swathed in the golden brown richness of hot, port laced, gravy. Yum-O!
My advice, make some of these retro dinner rolls soon. Whether you serve then on the side or make them the star of the meal, they're scrumptious. They look good too. People will see them, smile and say, "you have gorgeous buns". And they'll mean it. And you'll think so yourself.
When the buns are good, life is good. You can quote me if you want.
"Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying off all foods;
and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts."
~ James Beard (1903 – 1985)
OLD-FASHIONED YEASTY DINNER ROLLS – Makes 12-15 rolls
1 cup of warm water
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons traditional dry active yeast
3 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon sea or Kosher salt
1 large egg, beaten
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Extra butter for baking pan and brushing on rolls.
Pour warm water and 1 teaspoon of the sugar into small bowl. Add yeast and let sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast starts to bloom. Place flour, salt, the rest of the sugar, yeast mixture, beaten egg and butter in bread machine, in this order. Select dough cycle and press start.
Once the cycle is complete, heavily butter a large cookie sheet. Depending on how big you want your rolls, divide dough into 12 or 15 pieces. Pull and shape into balls. Place evenly spaced, on buttered cookie sheet. If using for sandwiches, press top of rolls down firmly, to form more of a flattened roll. Brush with melted butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Bake rolls 10-15 minutes, until beautifully golden brown. Enjoy!
by TheLastWonton | Apr 8, 2012 | Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast & Brunch, Salads & Bowls, Sides, Vegetarian
A happy jumble of baby lettuces and spinach with gorgeous, sweet-tangy slices of sunset-hued blood orange, smooth, buttery avocado, crumbles of salty feta, and crunchy bites of candied pecans skulking about. ♫♪ You make me want to shout……♫♪
I have a crush. A big ol' crush. On blood oranges. Maybe it's for who they are. Maybe it's for what they do to me. Maybe it's because they're kind of rare, that it's not very often that we can find them in these here parts, so precious these orangeses become. (Sorry, I can't say 'precious' without Gollum popping into my mind.)
But, no matter what, no matter where……when I think maybe I eye-spy some blood oranges at the grocer's, or in a bin at a market, or just over there, stuff happens. My eyes light up, my pulse quickens, my feet disappear and by some power greater than all of us I am levitated and propelled, in the blink of an eye, to the treasure-packed orange orbs.
Eureka! Citrus sinensis.
Unassuming on the outside, you'd never guess the flavour packed beauty hiding inside. Just another orange, you might think. Tch, tch, tch, silly you. These little citrus darlin's pack deliciously sweet, juicy orange flavours and never disappoint with a bouquet of gorgeous sunset hued colours from bright tangerine streaked with jujube red, to a totally sumptuous deep crimson. And you never know what you're going to get. Surprise! Oh my sweetie pie blood oranges you've thought of everything.
Okay, enough. A girl can only rant so long on one of her most enduring crushes before people start to think, well you know……….nutty comes to mind.
Which brings me to my latest, favorite salad (where any nut will do) that I will be forever grateful to the wonderfully charming, Joy The Baker for blogging. Thanks Joy. You rock.
I changed Joy's salad up a bit. That's one of the best things about this simple, sublime salad, you can change it up and still come out with a masterpiece. And if you just can't find any blood oranges, grapefruit segments, or to push things to the tropics, mango slices drizzled with fresh lime would slip right into this salad with pizazz.
BABY GREENS BLOOD ORANGE AVOCADO SALAD
I've presented this recipe in a have-your-way-with-it style. So have your way with it! Play with how much goes with how much until you get your own perfect flavour, texture combination.
Simple Vinagrette:
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Sea or Kosher salt and a good whack of freshly ground black pepper – to taste
For the Salad:
Cleaned, mixed baby greens, including spinach
Blood oranges, peeled, sliced.
Avocados – peeled, seeded, diced or sliced
Feta, crumbled - I use goat feta
Praline/toffee/candied pecans, roughly chopped - I use the Praline pecans from Superstore
For the vinagrette: Mix all ingredients in a small mason jar and shake the bejeepers out of it.
For the salad: Use each person plop two good handfuls of baby greens into big salad bowl with orange slices and avocado. Drizzle with some of the vinagrette and toss gently, lightly. Scoop onto serving plates, top with crumbled feta and chopped candied nuts. Serve immediately. Indulge. Repeat.
by TheLastWonton | Mar 24, 2012 | Appetizers & Snacks, Breads & Sandwiches, Main Dishes, Sauces, Dips & Condiments, Seafood
Crazily crunchy, wham-bam spiced, fried shrimp, tucked into a crusty-outside-soft-inside French roll with shredded iceberg, heat jolted slices of fresh tomato and a generous slathering of homemade tartar sauce with a devil of a fever. Oh baby!
It all started very innocently.
There I was, just kicking back, totally digging a good listen to the soundtrack of an old favorite Dennis Quaid flick, The Big Easy, when, well, when something inside me snapped.
In a good way.
One minute I was happy groovin' to some fine Zydeco…..when FOOSSSHHH, a bright light flashed me and I was pinned up against a lightning bolt of thoughts. Bam! Bam! Bam!
The Big Easy. New Orleans. I still want to go there one day. A lot. Bourbon Street. Dingy, smoky basement blues bars. Voodoo. Potent, sweet Hurricanes (the drinks not the winds). Voodoo intrigues me. And those bottle trees. Bananas Foster. Shrimp Po' Boys. Brad Pitt (they're my thinks, I will if I want!) Thrumming Jazz. Beignets. Muffulettas. Emeril. Swamps. Mysterious, dangerously ominous swamps. Gators. Jazz riffs. Shrimp Po' Boys. Gumbo. Why haven't I ever made Shrimp Po' Boys?
I MUST MAKE SHRIMP PO' BOYS.
After that there was no stopping me. It was like some kind of voodoo had a spell on me.
In a good way.
I heeded the advice of several po' boy makers and reviewers. There's nothing complex here. It's a sandwich that will make your taste buds 'fais do-do' if you just use fresh, quality ingredients. And love, cher. 
Start with fantastic bread. The bread is equally as important as the shrimp. Be sure to get a fresh baguette or French roll with a crackling crust and a rustic, soft interior. Then plump shrimp, fresh lettuce, firm ripe tomatoes and a whimsy of bold spices. For the finishing touch, to bring this baby together, you need some kicked up mayo, a remoulade, or in my case a devilishly dillish, homemade tartar sauce. Oh darlin'.
A good shrimp po' boy is a brazen bundle of delicious textures. Oh honeychil'.
My advice? Make your own hunka, hunka, burnin' shrimp po' boy love soon. 'Cuz I ain't just a whistlin' Dixie.
SHRIMP PO' BOYS with Spicy Homemade Tartar Sauce – Makes 4 sandwiches
Spicy Homemade Tartar Sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
4 heaping tablespoons, finely chopped dill pickle
3 green onions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
1 generous teaspoon fresh dillweed, chopped – or 1/3 teaspoon dried dillweed
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon chopped – or 1/3 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 – 1 teaspoon sriracha or Tabasco (how hot do you like it?)
1/2 teaspoon each sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds large-ish shrimp (16/20 count), peeled, deveined
1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon granulated garlic powder
1 tablespoon granulated onion powder
1 teaspoon sea, Kosher or other salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 eggs
4 tablespoons canned evaporated or other milk
Peanut or vegetable oil for frying
2, 10-inch long French loaves, or baguettes, each cut in half – or 4 crusty French or Italian rolls
Butter
3 cups finely shredded iceberg lettuce
2 firm, red, ripe tomatoes, sliced and splashed with a bit of Tabasco and a sprinkling of sea salt
For tartar sauce: Blend all ingredients together in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, better for 4, so all the flavours have a chance to get to know one another, to seduce one another, to fall crazy in love and make happy.
Heat at least 1/4-inch oil in a large skillet or preheat deep fryer or oil in wok to approximately 360F degrees.
In a bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and cayenne. In another small bowl, whisk together eggs and milk.
Working with a few at a time, dredge the shrimp in the seasoned flour, then into the egg wash, then back into the seasoned flour, coating the shrimp completely. Fry the shrimp in the hot oil, in batches, until golden crispy, 2 – 4 minutes. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
Slice the French loafs or rolls in half and butter both cut sides. I quickly grilled my rolls in a non-stick skillet, but this extra step is not necessary. Slather both cut sides of bread or rolls with tartar sauce. Divide the shrimp evenly between the 4 sandwiches and top with the tomato slices and shredded lettuce. Press the sandwich together a bit and serve your 'c'est magnifique' shrimp po' boys with icy cold beer, Tabasco and a side of Zydeco, cher.
