Today in the bargain bin I found a pack of Tasmanian beef tenderloin.  As I already had potatoes at home tonight’s dinner was shaping up to be a simple one!

First I cut the tatters into wedges and boiled em for about 5 min.

Season the tatters with a clove of garlic, a Tbsp sea salt, a tsp pepper, and a tsp crushed dried rosemarry.

Toss with a Tbsp of oil and roast for about 15-20min.

Trim up the green beans and blanch them in boiling water for about 1-2min.  When ready to serve toss with a Tbsp of garlic oil, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4tsp fresh ground black pepper.

Last but not least was the Tasmanian beef tenderloin.  The wifey and I like our steaks medium rare…a bit more on the rare side.  If you like you steaks more or less done simply adjust the cooking time!  For medium rare I cooked the tenderloins for about 2.5 min per side and let them rest for a minute before serving.  Prior to cooking I soaked each side with seasoned salt, fresh cracked pepper, and oregano.

Yum, Yum.  Keep on Eatin’!

Let me begin by stating that the picture you see to the left here is a play on a caprice salad.  What I actually did was make mozzarella from scratch, then create a delicious gazpacho and make it into “grape tomato” shapes.  Then added the fresh baby basil and a balsamic reduction.  The end product….simply delicious.

Enough with my childish attempts to create molecular gastronomic pieces of art.  The following is a great way to give a child of around 6 months a healthy meal all made from scratch!

Ingredients:

150gms Carrot (Peeled)
150gms Zucchini
150gms Salmon

Diced all the ingredients:

:

Steam for 15min:

On a quick side note…I HIGHLY recommend purchasing an all in one steamer/food processor if you’re interested in making baby food.  My life wouldn’t be complete without my son….my son wouldn’t eat without my Advent food steamer/processor.  Now, I don’t know if it is the best one out there, but I am in love with it!  (This is not a paid advertisement…simply a chef turned father preaching his opinion.  But if any supplier would like a few nice words said about them let me know )

Serve and enjoy!

This is not Junior’s first encounter with salmon or carrot…but it was the first time to add the zucchini which I think he loved all the more.  Horray!!! My son is a healthy eater…so far…

Keep on eatin’….at all ages

I started playing with ramen around the time I was in 6th or 7th grade.  At the time I realized I was no longer satisfied with 1 pack of noodles so the first thing I tried was simply eating a second pack.  This worked for a time or two, but then my mind began to wander.  Now, I don’t suggest eating a lot of instant noodles as they really aren’t that great for you.  Yet on the occasion when you find your self being drawn in to their simplicity keep this post in mind.

Now that I live in Hong Kong there are quite a few more options for instant noodles and I have found a new favorite, but this can be done with any pack you prefer.

My pack of choice is the Ajisen Ramen.  The flavoring packs have a deeper taste to them and the noodles tend to have a nicer bite.

They also come in a two pack so it’s great for couples!

We simply begin by ignoring all of the cooking instructions and boil a pot of water.  (For a healthier version boil a pot of your favorite stock instead and ditch all the flavoring packets!)

Dump out the flavoring packs into a good-sized bowl that you’re planning to eat out of.  When the water (or stock) comes to a boil add about 1/2cup to your seasonings and stir to combine.

Dump your noodles into the boiling water and cook them until they just start to get tender.  Trust me on this one, if you wait until they are cooked through by the time we’re finished here your just going to have a pile of mush in the bottom of your bowl!  Remove the noodles from the water but keep the water in the pot either using chopsticks or a noodle spoon.

Top your noodles with a handful or 2 or greens.  Dark leafy veggies are an excellent source of nutrition and they are darn tasty as well!  You and boil up some asparagus, broccoli, choy sum, or bok choy ahead of time and add it at this stage as well for an even healthier treat.

My favorite thing to do when playing with ramen is to add an egg.  Today I decided to poach my egg as I’m feeling quite lazy and don’t want to dirty another pan but you can scramble, over easy, or sunny side up if you’d like!  Another option would be to have some hard-boiled eggs on hand.  They make a great snack as well!

If you’re going to poach keep the noodle water, add a teaspoon of vinegar, stir your water, drop in the egg and let it cook for about a minute to a minute and a half.

Scoop out the egg, top up your bowl with water (or stock) and enjoy!

*Side note* You may notice my ramen flavor today is pork bone broth.  This is about as close as this lazy chef was getting to a roast crown of pork to celebrate today’s holiday.  Happy roast crown of pork day!

Happy Frozen Food day!

When I first read that today was frozen food day I instantly wanted to have a junk food fest: Pizza rolls, extra buttery popcorn, burritos, and top it all off with a microwave cake.  Then I had to take a step back and try to have something a little healthier.  I’m not sure if “ding ding” dim sum can be called healthy…but it’s better than what I was planning!

What’s your frozen comfort food?

I have still chosen something in the chip category:

So on half of nutrition month and cheese doodle day I ate half a bag of Sun Chips…cheddar flavored.  It’s as close as I would let myself get to cheese doodles today after realizing that it is nutrition month.  We’ll try to have a healthier focus in the posts for the next few weeks.

January 17th is hot buttered rum day.  Unfortunately I had to work the night shift yesterday so was unable to participate until the wee hours this morning and soon there after passed out.

Having learned from my previous experience with ordering obscure beverages at restaurants I decided it was worth the wait to make it myself.  Also, having done so I can supply you with the recipe:

55g Butter
100g Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp ground nutmeg
1 dash ground clove
Rum of choice

Cream the ingredients together and return to the fridge until ready to serve.

Serving:  Take one heaping tablespoon off the butter/sugar mix and plop it into a coffee mug.  Add 1 and 1/2 ounces rum (my rum of choice was Captain Morgan’s).  Fill the mug the rest of the way with boiling water.  Stir until all the sugar has dissolved and enjoy.

Simple as that my friends and it was quite delicious if I do say so myself, and of course I do say so myself.

Happy hot buttered rum day!

So wait, shop, cook, and have a meal ready in 4 1/2 hours….AND make it special!?!?  I have to admit, I panicked for about 15 minutes until I decided to grab little miss cupcake, head to the store and hope for the best of luck.

The following is what happens if you put me on the spot:

We’ve collected a few mini bottles of vodka and had been meaning to do a side by side comparison tasting for weeks now so I decided it would be a perfect time to bring these out.Of course you can’t just taste a bunch of vodka without anything to eat so our first course was a cheese and charcuterie platter:

The platter consisted of sweet chorizo, parma ham, crottin de chavignol, aged gouda, goose liver pate with sauternes, water crackers, and baked goats cheese stuffed figs wrapped with parma ham (not pictured).

Next up was the “salad” course with salmon 3 ways. (ceviche, pan fried, & smoked)

The mixed greens were tossed in a bit of the ceviche liquid.  The smoked salmon was wrapped around avocado slices and asparagus spears.

Next we had the red course.

Marinated, pan-fried lamb chop.  Oven roasted cherry tomatoes. Seared beef cubes stuffed with roasted garlic and toasted pine nuts topped with homemade demi-glace

Last but not least was a veggie course.Asparagus spears sauteed in butter and black garlic, topped with lumpfish roe.

Of course cupcake pitched in and made us two wonderful desserts.Strawberry & basil parfait.

Follow by the piece de resistace…A sponge cake layered with fresh strawberries and strawberry basil cream.  YUM!!

So after the 20 minutes of panic dinner turned out to be just fine.  In fact, it was pretty good if I do say so myself….and of course I do say so myself.

**FYI** Happy pound cake day!

Gluhwein is probably exactly the same thing as mulled wine but I can’t say for sure as I was a bit too young to consume it then and have created a recipe that I know as mulled wine but the taste is quite similar to what I remember.

Mulled Wine

1 bottle red wine (whatever you were going to drink next is fine…unless you’ve got expensive tastes…then save that one for later and go pick up a decent bottle of pinot noir or merlot)

1 large orange
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/4cup (60ml) brandy
1/2cup sugar (100gms)

Get 6 good size pieces of orange rind off the orange by using the tip of your knife to just cut the skin into 6 equal sections and pulling them off in strips.  Juice the meat of the orange and set aside.  Remove all of the white part (pith) from the orange skin and pierce with a clove.

Put the wine, brandy, sugar, and orange juice in a pot over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is completely combined.  Add the orange peel and cinnamon stick, lower the heat to low and allow the mixture to simmer for 30 minutes.

Strain out all the chunks, fill up a mug and enjoy.  To save for later simply allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, put in a container with a lid and refrigerate.  You can keep it this way for up to a week.  Simply fill a mug and pop it in the microwave for about 2 minutes and enjoy!

Happy mulled wine day!

Unfortunately this day was full of production so my camera didn’t come out a whole lot.

A banana cream pie in its most basic is simply crust, a layer of sliced bananas, custard, and topped with whipped cream.  My family missed out on the last layer of today’s celebration as I completely forgot to whip some cream and by the time we were ready to eat pie I was way to tired to do it.  So just use your imagination on this one!

Happy Banana Cream Pie Day!

To celebrate I sent a request to my personal pastry chef (yea, I said personal pastry chef…be jelous) for a peanut butter inspired dessert.  Here’s what she came up with:

A simple yet perfectly prepared and well balanced dessert.  Peanut butter shortbread stuffed sweet shortbread cigars with chocolate drizzled strawberry, vanilla ice cream, and a rich chocolate ganache.

Are you a peanut butter lover?