Category: Meats and Poultry

Spicy Anchovy Eggplant with Ground Pork

Spicy Eggplant with Ground Pork

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 2 eggplants (long eggplants, quartered length-wise and then cut in 5-7cm/2-3" pieces)
  • 450 g ground pork (~1 lb)
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
  • 3 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
  • 1 cm piece of ginger (peeled and julienned or shredded)
  • 1 Tbsp anchovy paste
  • 1 red bell pepper (cored and sliced thinly)
  • 1 tsp shaoxing wine
  • 1 tsp red wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp hot chili bean oil
  • 1/2 cup water
  • salt and white pepper (to taste)
  • 4 green onions

Instructions
 

  • Cut the eggplants into quarters length-wise, and then chop them into pieces, around 5-7cm/2-3" long. Core and slice the red pepper thinly. Peel and mince the garlic and ginger. Keep eggplant, pepper, and ginger and garlic separate.
  • Cut the whites of the green onions away from the greens. Chop the whites into small pieces. Cut the green into 2cm pieces. Keep the whites and greens separate.
  • In a medium bowl, mix the ground pork well with the cornstarch and a sprinkle of salt, and set aside.
  • In a small bowl, mix the water, wine, vinegar, soy sauce, and chilli bean oil.
  • Heat a wok or large frying pan on just below high heat and add 2 tablespoons of the of vegetable oil and 1/2 tablespoon of the sesame oil to the pan and heat until just smoking. Add half the eggplant, stirring constantly and cooking until some of the edges and sides have browned and the pieces have started to soften. Remove to a dish and repeat the process with the second half of the eggplant pieces and add the second set of eggplant pieces to the dish with the rest.
  • Reduce the temperature to medium-high heat. In the empty wok, add remaining 2 Tbsps vegetable oil. Add garlic, ginger and whites of onions and cook until fragrant. Next, add the pork, and stir constantly until pork is mostly cooked, about 5 minutes. Add red peppers and anchovies and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
  • Add the liquid mixture and cook, stirring, until the liquid has fully coated everything and has started to thicken. Add the eggplant back into the wok with everything else and stir all together. Cook until eggplant is soft, but not falling apart. Add the greens of the onion and cook for another 30-60 seconds.
  • Serve immediately with rice.
Keyword Eggplant, Peppers, Pork, Soy Sauce

And now for the details…

Well hello friends. It has been a long time. Like… a really long time. I am so happy to be back with you and I apologize for the hiatus… but… life. *shrugs*

My return back on the scene comes with a dish that is a personal favourite. Delicate, velvety pieces of smoky eggplant, in a salty, umami-rich and slightly spicy sauce. Some strips of barely-cooked red pepper for sweetness and ground pork for both bite and to amp up the umami-ness? Heaven.

This dish is one of my favourites when we go for Peking duck as a side dish. Which is somewhat hilarious that we order it as a side, since it is quite hearty and is easily a meal all on its own. I did my best to recreate it at home with this recipe, but admittedly, it is not quite the same as the bubbling earthenware pot of deliciousness that comes to the table when we are out for dinner. However, when heading to the restaurant just isn’t a possibility, this is a great meal that comes together fairly quickly, and all it needs to wrap it all up is some steamed rice.

Let’s get to cooking, shall we? Now one of the biggest things for this that I found is that you really need to have everything ready BEFORE you start the actual cooking. The beauty of a wok is that things come together quite quickly, with the high temps and fast stir frying. But because of those high temps and the need to have almost constant attention on the food in the pan, there is little time to turn away from the stove and finish chopping that one last piece of veg, or grab that last ingredient from the pantry to mix into the sauce. That is my usual style in the kitchen… so I am definitely speaking from failed experience when I say that prepping and having everything ready first will mitigate burning, drying, or inconsistent cooking of the ingredients.

First first… if you are planning on having this with steamed rice… NOW is the time to get that rice in the cooker! The rest of the cooking process is going to be moving quick, so get the rice rinsed, in the cooker and hit the button now so it’s ready to go when the dish is done! (Am I speaking again from experience and needed to wait 20 minutes for the rice to be ready after the food was done? Maybe. *blushes slightly*)

So let’s prep. I like to get my aromatics prepped and set to the side first. Peel and mince your garlic, and set aside. You have a couple options for your ginger. You can either shred/mince it like you did the garlic, or you can julienne it into small pieces. The julienned ginger will introduce that occasional fruity, pungent hit of ginger in a bite of the finished product, while the shredded will meld more homogeneously throughout the dish, so chef’s choice depending on your taste preferences. For the green onions, you are going to separate the whites from the greens. The whites, you can chop finely and set aside with the ginger and garlic (those three will all be hitting the wok at the same time). The greens, you are going to cut into larger pieces, about 2-3 cm long.

For the eggplants, we are using a long eggplant, sometimes called a Chinese or Japanese eggplant, which is going to give us more surface area of the skin of the eggplant, and less seedy flesh. In a pinch, I have used a globe eggplant for this dish, and just cut it into chunks. It did work out, but had a slightly different result. To cut and prepare the long eggplants, I find it easiest to quarter them lengthwise down the centre into four long pieces, and then cut those into the long bits into smaller pieces about 5-7cm/2-3″ long.

The final step in our veg prep is the bell pepper. Core and quarter the pepper, then slice into long, thin-ish pieces. The pepper I used this time was fairly small, so if you have one of the giant monstrosities I have seen and purchased more recently in the grocery store, a half of a pepper is probably MORE than enough!

In a bowl, mix together the ground pork, cornstarch, and salt. This helps to preseason the meat slightly, and the cornstarch will help the pork crisp up slightly while cooking, and will also be a thickening agent for the sauce once it hits the pan.

Final step before heating up the wok and starting the fry up is to mix together the sauce. The shaoxing wine, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, chilli oil and water all get mixed into a small bowl and set aside. If you don’t have shaoxing wine in the pantry, cooking sherry is a decent replacement. But if you have a chance to pick up some shaoxing wine, I would highly encourage it. I hadn’t understood the missing element to so many Chinese recipes I would try until I came across a post about shaoxing wine on the Woks of Life. I hunted it down in my local asian grocery store and they were not kidding. The taste difference that it makes in those same recipes is mind blowing.

Let’s heat up that wok and get cooking! Heat up the wok to medium high heat. Add about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (canola, safflower, peanut, corn, or any vegetable oil with a high smoke point will all work here) and 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil. Once the pan is heated up, and the oils are quite runny, add half the eggplant pieces to the pan. We want to cook them in batches, or else the pan will get crowded and we won’t get the right cook. Stir almost continuously, working to coat all the eggplant pieces with the oils, as well as to maintain a consistent cook through the pieces. Because the primary heat source is at the bottom of the wok, regularly stirring to give all the pieces a little love is important. The eggplant is ready to come out of the pan when it has softened slightly, and there is a light char on the edges of the vegetable. That little bit of char will give that slight smokiness we are looking for, and if we cook for too long, the eggplant will turn into a soggy mess. The flip side of that, though, is not cooking for long enough, which will result in chewy, slightly astringent piece of eggplant, so make sure they have softened, and are not still raw when you take them out. We will have a little more cooking time at the very end for the eggplant, so a slight undercook is better than way too soft. Set the cooked eggplant aside in a dish, then add another 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and the last 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil, and cook the second batch of eggplant. Once done, transfer into the same dish with the first batch of cooked eggplant.

Next, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil into the pan, and add your aromatics (the ginger, garlic and whites of the green onion). We are going to cook these quick, only until you can catch a good whiff of them cooking, around 30-60 seconds. Add the pork in with the aromatics, and cooking, stirring constantly. You may need to break down pieces if needed as you go; we are trying to keep the ground pork from cooking into large chunks. Continue until the meat is fully cooked through, I find this takes around 5 minutes.

Next, add the anchovy paste, mixing well into the pork, and then the red pepper pieces. Because the red pepper is so long and thin, you will need to be gentle as you stir it in to cook, so you do not break up the pieces too much. We are only cooking the red pepper for about a minute before moving on to the sauce. For the anchovy paste, if you have actual anchovies, and want to cut them into small pieces and add, this will totally work too. The traditional version of this dish uses Chinese salted fish. If you can get your hands on some of that, and rinse, chop, and add that instead, nice work! I bet your dish will taste AMAZING. For me, I have found that the fillets of salted fish are pretty huge for what I can find, and I never manage to use it all within an appropriate amount of time, so I go with the anchovy paste for ease of use.

We are almost at the finish line! Add the pre-mixed sauce in with the meat and red pepper, stirring well. With the cornstarch already in the pork, and the high heat of the wok, this should start to thicken fairly quickly. Once it starts to thicken, add the eggplant back in the dish (and any liquid that may have collected with the eggplant in its dish), stirring well to coat the eggplant with the sauce. Continue stirring and cooking until the eggplant is at just the right level of doneness for your preference. Add the greens of the onion, and stir, cooking for another 30-60 seconds, then immediately transfer to a serving dish. Time to eat! Serve with the steamed rice, and enjoy!

Happy eating.

An Easy No-Cook Protein for Dinner: Tuna Poke

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Tuna Poke

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Course Appetizer, Main Course, Snack
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 400 g fresh, sushi-grade tuna (~1lb) chopped in small cubes
  • 3 Tbsps light soy sauce
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger peeled and shredded
  • 1 clove garlic peeled and minced
  • 1 small shallot peeled and sliced thin (or half a sweet onion)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1/2 Tbsp sambal olek
  • sesame seeds and green onions (garnish)

Instructions
 

  • Chop tuna into small cubes, around 1-2cm big. Mince or shred the garlic. Peel and shred the ginger. Peel and slice the shallots quite thin. Add all the ingredients into a small bowl, mix well and serve immediately, topping with seeds and sliced green onions for garnish.
Keyword Onions, Poke, Sesame, Tuna

And now for the details…

Hello dear friends. It has been some time since I have posted. Life is definitely busy right now and finding the time to put together a post has been hard pressed. If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen all the photos of my food adventures, but I have not been able to take the extra time to share those recipes online. Luckily, I managed to find a little bit of time and will be sharing more food with you in the near future!

This recipe I am sharing today is one of the all-time favourites in our home. We have this quite a bit for dinners, usually at least once a month, more often when the weather starts getting hotter outside and I do not want to heat up the house by turning on the stove or oven. Not only is it fast and easy to put together, but it is also just so flavourful and filling. Options on how to eat this could be to serve it with a side of fresh made rice, or you might jazz it up with a bunch of sauces and accoutrements in a poke bowl, similar to my previous poke bowl recipe, or, my favourite way to eat it, you can scoop it up right out of the bowl with crackers or crisps.

Poke is a Hawaiian dish, and is a marinated fish dish. Tuna poke is definitely one of the more widely known versions of poke, but visit a poke shop in Hawaii and you will have tons of options, all kinds of fish and seafood, like octopus, crab, shrimp, lobster, salmon, and even combinations of these and others. I have visited poke shops in Hawaii, and it can be overwhelming to try and decide what to get, like visiting an ice cream shop and trying to choose only one or two kinds. I can attest that I enjoyed EVERY one that I did try.

For this particular recipe, we are going to just focus on tuna. In regards to the fish, I have talked about “sushi grade” fish in past recipes, but the important thing with this recipe is to ensure you have tuna that has been prepared appropriately to be eaten raw. While we often use the term “sushi grade”, the fun fact about “sushi grade”? It’s not actually a grade at all, at least not in how we think of graded meats. In both the US and Canada, there is not regulating body sending out people to inspect the fish to ensure it is the right “grade”, like what we would see for grades of beef or chicken. What “sushi grade” does mean is that the fish has been held at a particular (cold) temperature for enough time to have killed off any parasites that might exist in the flesh of the fish, so that it is safe to consume without bringing it up to the necessary heated temperature to kill those same elements off. If you are not sure, feel free to ask your local grocer or fishmonger if their fish is sushi grade, and only buy your fish from an establishment that you trust to have handled the fish properly.

Now we get into prep. All you will really need for this recipe is a small bowl, a cutting board, a knife and a spoon. How is that for minimal kitchen effort!

For the cutting board, since we are cutting raw protein, I have a special cutting board that I reserve strictly for cutting meats, fish or poultry. It’s a red coloured cutting board to differentiate it from everything else so both my husband and I know what it was used for and make sure it runs its cleaning cycle through the dishwasher or with high heat water and lots of soap to clean off any uggedy (yes, I said it, uggedy) bits to ensure no cross-contamination of other foods later.

In no particular order, choose what works for you, we will prep the alliums and ginger. Peel the garlic, and mince finely, or you may choose to shred the garlic, and place in the bowl. Peel the shallot and slice it thinly, also placing it in the bowl. For the ginger, a friend of mine gave me a hot tip for peeling the root, which he was taught by his family who make a LOT of ginger beer, so it’s a gooder! Instead of trying to peel the skin off with a knife, use the edge of a spoon and scrape the skin off. It will help release the skin for from all the little knobby bits without running risk of cutting your own fingies. Plus, since its just with a spoon, this might be a good place for kiddos to step in and help if you have any who hover around the kitchen during prep just wanting to be a part of the process! Once peeled, shred the ginger into the bowl, either using a fine grater or a shredding plate.

Cut the tuna into small cubes, about 1-2cm wide. No need to be finicky about exact dimensions here, just cutting the fish to roughly the right size. If your fish is fully thawed, it may be a little… floppy… and it can make this step a challenge. To make it easier, you can put the fish in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to make the fish a little firmer, and then chop. You will also want to make sure that the knife you use it quite sharp. A dull knife will just tear the fish, instead of give you some nice, clean cuts. Place the fish in the bowl with everything else, and give it all a stir.

Finally add the soy sauce, sesame oil, and sambal olek to the bowl, and give the mix one final stir so everything is equally coated. I personally prefer it best if served immediately. If you let it rest a bit before you eat, make sure it is covered and in the fridge. I also find that the longer it rests, the more the fish soaks up the liquids that were added. If you do end up waiting before serving, just before you serve, splash the mix with a little more soy sauce and a little bit of olive oil (maybe about 1 tsp of each) and give it a good stir. Just before serving, top with sesame seeds and sliced green onion for garnish.

Happy eating.

The Ultimate Sweet Hickory BBQ Rub

Sweet Hickory BBQ Rub

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Tbsp chili powder
  • 1 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 Tbsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp rosemary, ground
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
  • 1 tsp hickory powder
  • 2 tsp turbinado sugar

Instructions
 

  • Mix all ingredients together and use as a rub on beef, pork or other proteins. Store unused rub in an airtight container in a cool, dark place for up to two months.

And now for the details…

Well folks, it has been a bit since I have posted and I am going for a hella easy recipe to post here. Does it take less than five minutes to make this? Is this only a rub and not a full recipe for a final dish? Will there be a follow up recipe on how and where to use this? The answer to all these questions is definitely yes.

I created this recipe because I tried making beef tongue for the first time last weekend. It was freaking glorious. I used this beef tongue recipe by Jess Pryles to cook the meat initially, but I wanted a spice blend to rub onto the sliced meat with before I pan seared them. So after I had cooked, skinned, and cut the tongue in slices, I applied this spice rub fairly liberally and did a quick sear on high heat in a cast iron pan to get some caramelization going. The flavour I was going for was sweet, smoky BBQ. Thus, this recipe was born.

My typical preference for BBQ flavour is not heavy on the smoke, which is why I am using hickory powder. This powder just screams sweet BBQ. Y’know that very gentle smoky, yet slightly sugary smell that hits your nostrils when opening a bag of BBQ potato chips? This is immediately where my brain goes when I smell hickory powder. It is definitely not the hit to the back of your throat that I find you get from liquid smoke, just an amiable enticement that gets the salivary glands going. If you do not have access to hickory powder (I found it at one of our local specialty grocers, Sunterra, and I have also since found it online from multiple sources), you could trade out some of the paprika for smoked paprika to still get some smokiness. The flavour profile will be a bit different, and lean more into the savoury than the sweet, but would still be tasty. I would not trade out all the paprika, max out at 50/50, depending on how heavily smoked you like things.

What to use this spice rub for besides beef tongue? This spice blend would be great for lighter flavoured meats, like pork ribs, chicken thighs or fish. Remember my Instant Pot Pork Ribs recipe? You can always ditch the spice rub mix listed there and go for this instead 😉 I have also shaken it over some salmon before throwing it on the grill. Because this spice is not too potent, feel free to apply it fairly liberally to whatever protein you are cooking to get those flavours to fully shine.

Try a Terrine Tonight! Duck, Pork and Hazelnut Terrine

Duck and Hazelnut Terrine

Print Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Time in Oven 2 hours
Course Appetizer, Main Course, Snack
Servings 1 Terrine

Ingredients
  

  • 2 duck breasts
  • 1 set duck giblets (organs from 1 whole duck)
  • 450 g ground pork
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and shredded)
  • 10 peppercorns
  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 2 shallots (peeled and minced)
  • 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts
  • 1 cup fresh parsley (chopped)
  • 1 egg
  • 3 Tbsps panko crumbs
  • 3 Tbsps sour cherry preserves
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsps duck fat
  • 2 Tbsps cognac (or other brandy)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400ºF/205ºC. Separate skin from the duck breasts. Lay the skins along the bottom of the terrine mold/loaf tin.
  • Add the ducks breasts, giblets and pork to a food processor and pulse until mostly broken down and mixed, leave some of the pieces of meat intact.
  • Using a mortar and pestle, grind the peppercorns, mustard seeds and cloves together.
  • Mix together the meat mixture, spices, garlic, shallots, parsley, egg, panko crumbs, salt, duck fat, and cognac. Fold in the hazelnuts and cherry preserves. Spoon this mixture over the skins in the terrine mold, press it down and smooth out. Cover with foil, place in a water bath in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
  • Turn off oven, but leave terrine in the oven for 2 hours without opening the door. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Slice the terrine and serve with crusty bread. Remaining terrine can be re-covered and stored in the fridge.
Keyword Duck, Duck Breast, Duck Giblets, Hazelnut, Pork

And now for the details…

I am sure I am not the only one, but I have been dreaming and reminiscing of travelling a LOT lately. One of the ways I have been trying to feed my travel bug is through food. I have been doing this a number of ways, like finding new and imported foods (I tried Spanish Lomo for the first time that I got from our local Italian grocer, soooo yummy), getting takeaway from different restaurants (for those in Calgary, I would be remiss to not recommend Bar Von Der Fels, UNA Pizza or Myung Ga), and the last way I have been feeding my travel bug is through trying to recreate foods that we have had when we have been travelling. That last case is where this recipe came from. I was reminiscing of our trip to France several years ago; in particular the spread we would set up for ourselves in the late morning from the goodies we picked up at the local marchés. One of the items I fell in love with there were the terrines. There would be a selection of different terrines, and could including a wide variety of meats, like duck, pork or rabbit. I would simply tell the vendor how thick of a slice I would like and they would cut off the generous slab of terrine and wrap it in thick butcher paper, and hand it over for us to take home. We would pick up baguettes on the way back to where we were staying and then have the terrine with the fresh, crusty bread and a generous dollop of mustard. Oh boy. I am drooling.

If you have never had a terrine before and are looking at the ingredients and thinking “this looks a lot like a meatloaf”… yep! Think of a terrine as a cousin to the traditional North American meatloaf. After all, they are both meat dishes made in a loaf pan and baked in the oven. But the terrine differs in a few ways, one of them being the type of meat used. Terrines often use a mix of different meats, and often use organ meat. In this case, we are using duck and pork, which leaves the delicacy in flavour profile to allow the spices and nuts to also shine. Another way that the terrine often differs is in the fat content. The terrine is usually higher in fat, which is one of the reason why it has some spreadability when smushing it over a piece of crusty bread, or scooping it up with crackers. In our case, we are getting some of the fat content from the pork, but also from the duck skin and the duck fat that is being added to the mix. Finally, terrines are usually served cold or at room temperature. I like to serve it on a plate with other delicious charcuterie bits with mustard and fresh bread, trying to mimic the experience we had (which seems so long ago) in France.

So let’s get to making this thing.

First things first: preheat the oven! Always a good first step, so we do not get to the end of preparation, and then need to wait for the oven to catch up. We are going surprisingly high heat here, 400ºF/205ºC.

Next step, let’s get to the ingredients. The good news: since we have a decent amount of fat here, there is no need to grease the pan! We start by separating the duck skin from the duck breast. The easiest way to do this is to start at an end that the skin is already “floppy” off the meat. You should be able to pinch the meat with one hand, and pinch the skin in the other and start to pull them apart. There will be some connective tissue, so when it starts to pull at the skin a bit too much and you see the skin tearing, use a small knife and cut through the piece connecting the skin to the meat, and then continue to pull apart. Place the skins in your loaf pan and spread them out so they are covering most of the bottom of the pan.

The next step will be to get our spices ready. If you have a spice grinder, feel free to use that, I have an ol’ fashioned mortar and pestle, so that is what I went with. Grind the mustard seeds, peppercorns and cloves until mostly broken down, but leaving a couple little chunks. I feel they add some character and make the dish a bit more charmingly unrefined.

Our next step is to get the meat ready. I got my pork ground so I did not have to mess with a grinder. For the duck, I threw the giblets and duck breasts all together in a food processor and gave them a few whirs to break them down mostly, but leaving a few chunky bits, to try and get that coarse element to the terrine.

The last step is to mix all the ingredients together. I left the hazelnuts and cherry preserves for last, and mixed everything else quite well with my hands. Then, I folded the nuts and preserves in so the preserves did not fully mix in with the rest and you could get occasional bites where the cherries shone through. Pout the entire mixture into the pan over the skins, and press it down.

Finally, it is time to cover the loaf with foil and place in the oven. We will be placing it into a water bath, or bain-marie, to keep the cooking consistent. Place the loaf pan in a larger pan, and fill the outer pan with boiling water until it comes at least halfway up the pan with the terrine. Make sure you do not overfill, we do not want water coming into the terrine pan! Bake the terrine for one hour, then, NO PEEKING, turn off the oven and let the terrine rest for another two hours without opening the oven door.

If you want to go really traditional, this last step is for you! Take the terrine out of the oven, and place a heavy weight directly onto the meat while it cools to room temperature. Some terrine pans have the press included, but there are other DIY options. You could use another loaf pan that is the same size, placing it on top and adding in some weight. You could wrap some cardboard in tin foil and put the weight on top. Or, I have even seen a suggestion to use a brick! What to use as the weight? You could use canned goods, literal hand weights or anything you can find that weighs a few pounds (Julia Child recommends up to 5 pounds!) and you can balance on top of the terrine and press while it cools. The purpose of this step is to compress the terrine as it cools to keep it from forming air bubbles, contracting, and losing its consistency.

Once the terrine has cooled, you can either cut it right out of the pan (this is what we did, no dinner parties for us right now, so let’s just eat!) or flip the terrine onto a plate to serve.

Happy eating

Thai Red Curry with Chicken, Leeks and Peppers

Thai Chicken Red Curry

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 4 chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, cut into bite-sized pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (canola, safflower, peanut, avocado, etc.)
  • 2.5 Tbsps red curry paste
  • 1 inch piece of ginger (or galangal, peeled and grated)
  • 1 clove garlic (peeled, grated)
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 800 ml coconut milk
  • 6 makrut lime leaves
  • 4 small potatoes (washed and sliced into medallions)
  • 1 Tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 bell pepper (cored and cut into large chunks)
  • 2 leeks (white only, sliced into 1" thick pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp lime juice (fresh, from about 1/2 lime)
  • 1/2 Tbsp sugar
  • salt (to taste)
  • 4 cups steamed white rice (to serve)
  • chopped fresh cilantro or Thai basil (to serve)

Instructions
 

  • Heat the oil in a wok or large pot at medium-high heat and add the garlic, ginger and curry paste, and stir until fragrant.
  • Add the coconut milk, broth, and makrut lime leaves. Stir until the curry paste is mixed into the liquid and it comes to a simmer.
  • Reduce the heat to medium and add the chicken pieces, potatoes and leeks, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
  • Add the fish sauce, sugar, and peppers, stirring in well, cover and  cook for 5-10 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked.
  • Take off the heat, squeeze in the lime juice and serve with rice.
Keyword Chicken, Curry, Thai, Vegetables

And now for the details…

Hello dear friends. I know it has been quite a long time since I last posted a recipe, and I apologize for that. Computer screens have been a bit of a nemesis of late, and I have been restricting my time in front of them in order to cut down on my headaches and dizziness spells. Here is to hoping that my brain will be able to better manage these going forward! Especially since it is really hard to create media online when one needs to limit the time in front of a computer screen 😛

Let’s talk about Thai curries. Like most Thai foods, it’s focused on a balance of flavours: spicy, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. If you hear the word “curry” and immediately think of Indian curries, Thai curries will be quite far from what you are picturing. The spices used tend to differ quite significantly, and the texture of the curry itself is quite different. I would use words like “rich”, “hearty”, or “spiced” to describe Indian curries, while I would use “vibrant”, nuanced” or “bright” to describe Thai curries.

The interesting thing that I found while researching for this post is that the Thai word “kari” for curries is specifically used when referring to Indian style curries, or Thai curries that have used Indian style spices. Gaeng or Kaeng are usually used to describe what we in the western world call “Thai Curry”. I am not sure when we as Westerners decided to use the same word to describe what I have experienced as very different types of dishes; I think I need to go for a more in-depth research on the etymology…

In this recipe, we are going to create a red curry with chicken, potatoes, leeks, and bell peppers. You probably noticed in the photo that the curry itself is not super “red”. The “red” in the name comes from the red curry paste we are using, which uses dried red chillies, along with a number of other ingredients, like ginger, garlic, galangal, shallots, coriander and cumin. The paste itself is a deep red, and it becomes the more orangey colour you see in the photo with the addition of the coconut milk. You can find a fairly wide variety of curries pastes in asian grocery stores, and I have found that a lot of western grocery stores now carry curry pastes as well.

Let’s get started.

I am going to start by stir frying my chicken. You have a Choose Your Own Adventure option here. You can also start with the chicken, or you can wait until the curry is formed up and made and add the chicken toward the end. The main difference is that you will get the caramelization of the meat in the “dry” stir fry (known as the Maillard reaction) if you cook the chicken first. Whereas if you wait until the end to add your chicken, there will be no Maillard reaction and the chicken will be cooked by simmering in the liquid of the curry. Cook’s choice if you want that browning/caramelization and are going to join me now, or add the chicken later 🙂

If you are going to stir fry the chicken, add the vegetable oil to your wok or large frying pan and heat up on medium-high heat. Then add your chicken, and stir, cooking just until the outsides are slightly browned, but the chicken does not need to be cooked all the way through. We will be adding it back to the curry later to finish off the cooking process. Transfer the chicken to a dish to the side until we are ready for it later. You may notice in the photos that my chicken is still a little bit frozen when I added it in. It is so much easier to cut chicken when it’s a little bit frozen. So if you are taking it out of the freezer to use for this recipe, cut it just before it’s fully thawed to make your life easier! If you have fresh chicken, you can put it in the freezer for around 5-10 minutes until it partially freezes to make the cutting process easier.

Next, we move on to the curry itself. If you have opted to not cook your chicken first, now is where you add the vegetable oil to the pan. For those who cooked the chicken first, there should be some residual oil in the pan, but add a little bit more if the pan is quite dry. If you want to be a bit more authentic, you can use some of the coconut cream skimmed off the top of your coconut milk instead of using the vegetable oil.

We are going to keep the heat at medium-high. Add the curry paste, garlic, and shredded ginger to the pan, smooshing (yes, we are getting very technical) the paste, garlic and ginger together and around the pan. As it heats, these ingredients will become very fragrant, at this point (about 60 seconds), add the coconut milk to the pan and stir well so the paste mixes fully into the milk and you pick up any caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan (you may need to scrape your spoon a bit along the bottom of the pan to do this). Next, add the broth and makrut lime leaves and stir until the broth is fully mixed.

I have talked about makrut lime leave before, but I am going to take a moment to talk about them again. Words are hard to use to describe the aroma that these little leaves provide to your dish. They are floral, citrusy and add a layer of complexity to the taste that cannot be replaced by a different ingredient. I have had a hard time finding makrut lime leaves lately, but often they can be found at an asian supermarket. If you cannot find them, you can omit them. The flavour will still be good, it will just have one of the layers of flavour out of the picture. If you cannot get lime leaves, use a bit more lime juice and a little bit of grated lime zest at the end of the cooking to help amplify the citrusy flavour you will be missing from the leaves. I have tried using dried makrut lime leaves as an alternative and I do have to say that they are basically as useless as dried basil. The aroma from the fresh leaves seems to be lost almost completely as they dry, so I would say it is probably best to just omit if you cannot find the fresh leaves. I have heard that you can find frozen lime leaves as well. I haven’t tested this, but I would imagine they are much more flavourful than a dried counterpart. I should also note that, unlike basil leaves, the makrut lime leaves are quite tough, and are typically removed before/while you eat, similar to bay leaves.

Moving on, we are going to allow the liquid to heat until it comes to a simmer, then lower the heat to medium. Add the potatoes and leeks, pushing the ingredients into the liquid so they are submerged. If you did not brown your chicken at the beginning, you will also add your chicken to the pan at this point. Cover the pan, and allow these ingredients to cook for 5 minutes. You can lift the lid every couple minutes to give the curry a stir to keep the ingredients from sticking to the bottom fo the pan.

Next, add the bell pepper, fish sauce and sugar. Stir well, cover the pan back up and cook for another 5 minutes.

For the folks who opted to not stir fry their chicken first: Check the ingredients for doneness. If the chicken is fully cooked and the vegetables are cooked to your liking, you can remove from the heat. Cook for another few minutes if the ingredients need a bit more time to be done.

For the folks who stir fried their chicken first, now is when we add the chicken back in, stirring into the liquid. Cook for another few minutes until the chicken and vegetables are fully cooked, then remove from the heat.

Squeeze the fresh lime juice into the curry and stir in, then serve the curry immediately with steamed rice, topping with some fresh cilantro or Thai basil.

Happy eating.

Zoodle (Zucchini Noodle) Lasagna Stuffed Peppers

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Zoodle (Zucchini Noodle) Lasagna Stuffed Peppers

Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 6 peppers

Ingredients
  

  • 1 small zucchini
  • 6 medium bell peppers
  • 1 cup ricotta
  • 1 cup arugula or spinach (loosely chopped)
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (shredded)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)
  • 3 mild italian sausage, uncooked (vegetarian option of 1-2 cups cooked orzo)
  • 2 cups pomodoro sauce
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC. Trim ends from zucchini and slice into long noodles (zoodles) using vegetable peeler or mandolin. Cut top off peppers and scoop out any of the seeds/core. Remove sausage from casings and place in a frying pan and cook on medium heat, breaking the meat apart with a spoon as it cooks. Once cooked, add the Pomodoro sauce to meat, stir well until fully mixed and sauce is heated through, then remove from the heat and bring to prep area (vegetarian option: add sauce and cooked orzo to a pan, heat through, then remove from heat). In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta, parmesan, egg, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Fill the pepper in layers: start with a small layer of the meat sauce, layer of zoodles (1-2 thick, cut zoodle to size to fit), small layer ricotta mix, layer zoodles, repeat until pepper is filled. Fill all peppers the same way. Sprinkle top of peppers with mozzarella cheese. Place in oven for 40-45 minutes, or until heated all the way through and cheese has browned. Serve.
Keyword Lasagna, Peppers, Stuffed Peppers, Zoodle, Zucchini

And now for the details…

Have you seen the beautiful piles of peppers at your farmers markets recently?? Oodles of peppers of different sizes, shapes and colours. Everything from little globes of crimson cherry peppers, to the long pale chartreuse Hungarian wax peppers, to the little orange lanterns of habanero. Now for the people that know me well, this waxing poetic about peppers is going to come as a bit of a surprise. I don’t like peppers. Or at least I didn’t. But I have managed to expand my horizons.

What I don’t like? Green peppers. They’re like the bitter, obnoxious guest in your meal. From the first whiff of your food, they come barreling in with a distinct aroma and flavour. “HEY!!! I’M HERE! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!” There is very little room for pleasant or quiet conversation when the green pepper is invited to the party. They speak loudly, bowl over any other ingredient that is trying to talk, and they stick around to the very end, sometimes returning after you’ve ended the meal and everyone else has gone home (ever burped after eating something with green pepper? Blech.)

But I have come to appreciate the many other peppers out there that aren’t so boorish or demanding. Where the flavours are a bit more refined, sweeter, and nuanced. The peppers that compliment the other ingredients and make them better. And in the case of this recipe, those are the types of peppers I decided to pair up with the cheesy, tomatoey, unctuous flavours of lasagna.

This recipe comes together surprisingly quick. If you have more mouths to feed, or want to set yourself up for leftovers, you can easily size this recipe up (or down if you don’t want as much!) and since it reheats really well as leftovers the next day or day after, it’s a great weekday option!

First thing’s first: preheat your oven to 350ºF/175ºC.

We start the creation off by getting our fillings ready. The sausage/sauce is first. In this case, for the Pomodoro sauce, I had some homemade in the freezer that I pulled out for this recipe. If you don’t have any in the freezer, you could be extra and make some, as it does come together pretty quick, but a good can or jar of sauce goes over just fine.

Remove the sausages from their casings and place the meat in a frying pan. This might seem inherent to some people, but when I was first learning to cook, I did not realize that removing sausage from casings was something that could be done. The meal-makers of my childhood (predominantly mom, but also grandma’s and aunties) were all fabulous cooks, and we usually ate meats that they had prepared from scratch. The only sausage that I was familiar with was the occasional kubasa (Ukrainian garlic sausage) and hotdogs. I didn’t know that sausages came uncured and raw. For this recipe, when purchasing your sausage, make sure it is of the raw, uncured variety. You’ll be able to tell quite quickly if that’s true with a quick poke through the packaging. Raw sausage feels, well, raw. It’s soft and squishy, much like poking raw ground meat. To get it out of the casing, snip the tip off one end, pinch the other end tightly between your fingers, and then push the filling from the pinched end down, like you’re trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube. Alternatively, there are some places (check out your local Italian market) that will sell the sausage loose, without the casings, if you feel a bit squeamish about handling the sausages.

In the pan, fry up that sausage over medium-high heat until slightly browned and fully cooked. In my photo here, I have coarse-ground sausage. Yours might be a bit finer, so don’t fret if is doesn’t look quite like the photo. Break apart the sausage as it cooks, to get smaller pieces of meat that will be easier to fill the pepper with (big chunks of meat will make the layering of the “lasagna” quite a bit more challenging). Once cooked, add that tomato sauce in, and stir well.

For the vegetarians in the crowd: you’re going to complete skip the entire meat-cooking step (okay, so that part is probably obvious). This fabulous idea for a vegetarian alternative came from my friend Zoe: cook some orzo according package directions, drain, return to the pot with the Pomodoro sauce, stirring well and heating until the Pomodoro sauce it heated through.

Next step is the ricotta cheese filling. In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta, arugula, egg, parmesan cheese, a pinch of nutmeg and some salt and pepper. This will seem like a shocking thing for a saltaholic like me to say, but don’t go too heavy on the salt. We are already getting salt in the dish from the sausage, pre-made Pomodoro and parmesan. If you’re worried about it, mix everything but the egg and give it a taste-test, then mix the egg in when you’re happy with the flavour.

The last thing to do before assembly is to make zucchini “noodles”, i.e. zoodles. If you have a fancy mandolin, you could definitely use that, or if you’ve got some serious knife skills and can cut the zucchini thinly, that is also an option. I went cheap and easy and used a vegetable peeler. If you’ve not made zucchini noodles with a peeler before, there are a few videos out there you can use as examples. Basically: trim either ends of the zucchini, and run the peeler down the length of the zucchini, and voila! You’ve made your first zoodle! Repeat the peeler step over and over until the zucchini has been converted to zoodles. A lot of the videos/blog posts will tell you not to use the center, but that’s probably because they are making a dish where they are sautéing the zoodles. In our case, the zoodles are forming the “noodle” layer of our lasagna and won’t be moved around during the cooking process, so the centre bits are a-okay. I like using the zoodles instead of pasta noodles to avoid the extra step of cooking regular lasagna noodles. And extra pot to clean and an extra cooking step? No thank you. Another advantage: any of the zoodles you don’t use can just be chopped up quick, thrown in a sealed container in the fridge and added to a sauce, soup or stew later that week.

Are we ready to assemble? Heck yeah!

Cut and core the peppers (thank you Martha!) and lay them in a baking dish. I did a couple different kinds of peppers here. For the typical bell pepper, just cut around the top (stem side) like you would with a jack-o-lantern and pull out the core. Turn it upside down and tap out any extra seeds, and if there is quite a bit of the white inner pieces, just tear them out with your fingers. I also did a long, sweet red pepper, and since it can’t sit upright, I cut out one of the sides instead of the top (the piece I cut off got chopped and tossed in with the sauce to avoid any wastage ;P).

Your first layer will be the sauce (add around two tablespoons per pepper), smoothing the sauce across the base as evenly as possible. Then place some of the zoodles over the sauce, then the ricotta mixture (again, a couple tablespoons per pepper and smoothed out evenly), more zoodles and back to sauce. To get the zoodles to fit, cut them to approximate lengths and layer them on top of each other so that they somewhat cover the layer underneath. We are working with weird shaped here, not a typical rectangular lasagna pan, so don’t worry about getting the layer perfect. Repeat the sauce, zoodles, ricotta, zoodles order over and over until you fill the pepper.

When you’ve filled the pepper, make sure a zoodle layer is the last, top-most one, then top with the shredded mozzarella. Put the peppers into the pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the filling has cooked all the way through and the cheese is golden and bubbly. Serve immediately.

If you’re wanting some for leftover, let the pepper cool completely, then place in a sealed container in the fridge for up to three days. You could go through the effort of reheating in the oven, but to be honest, the microwave worked just fine for us.

Happy eating.

Grilled Italian Meatballs with Pomodoro Sauce

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Grilled Italian Meatballs with Pomodoro Sauce

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 12 Large Meatballs

Ingredients
  

Meatballs

  • 1 lb ground lamb
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and shredded)
  • 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1 small onion (peeled and shredded)
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1/3 cup panko or bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tbsps parmesan cheese (shredded)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

Sauce

  • 400 g canned tomatoes (14 oz)
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1/2 cups fresh basil (chopped)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Mix together the lamb, beef, shredded garlic, buttermilk, onion, dried spices, panko crumbs, eggs, parmesan, salt and pepper. Form into large balls, about 2-3"/5-8cm wide. Heat BBQ to medium heat. Place meatballs on the grill (recommended to use a grill mat). Cook for about 10 minutes, turning halfway through, or until the inside of the meatball is fully cooked. For sauce, place all the ingredients in a pot and place on the stove on medium heat. Bring to a simmer and reduce temperature to medium-low. Simmer for 20 minutes. If desired, blend sauce to make smooth. Place meatballs in pot with sauce, turning gently to fully coat and heat through if cooled. Place on plate, pour sauce over meatballs. Serve.
Keyword BBQ, Beef, Grill, Meatballs, Sauce, Tomatoes

And now for the details…

The weather is turning crisper, the leaves are changing colour and school buses can be seen driving past the windows all morning/afternoon. Not to mention that Pumpkin Spice everything is available again. Fall is here folks. And I am not a fan. I don’t know what it is about fall, but I feel unsettled and uncomfortable. Plus, it means that summer (my favourite season) is officially over. And so, I’m gripping what’s left of summer with all the strength I have and squeezing what’s left out of grilling and sunshine.

And so, grilled meatballs.

Could you do these in the oven instead? Of course you can. But grilling allows that extra bit of charred oomph, and who doesn’t want to tszuj up their dinner a little?

We start out with the meatballs themselves. I have used ground beef and lamb for mine, but if you are not okay with eating lamb (I have quite a few folk in my life who are not), or don’t have it readily accessible, feel free to swap out the lamb for pork or more ground beef. But if you are using ground beef for the whole thing, I would recommend doing a 50/50 mix of lean and regular ground beef, since the lamb does contain a bit more fat than lean ground beef, and we want that fat for an added punch of flavour.

Place the meats in a large bowl, and add in the rest of the meatball ingredients: buttermilk, garlic, onion, spices, panko crumbs, eggs, parmesan, S&P. Options to switch out? Buttermilk can be switched out for regular whole milk. And while I haven’t tried it, if there is a dairy allergy in your household, I would imagine a non-dairy alternative could be used. If you do try that out, let me know how it goes! You can also switch out the panko crumbs for regular bread crumbs. If you end up buying the “Italian Style” breadcrumbs, go a bit lighter on the spices and salt that you add, since those will already be in the bread crumbs.

Next, we mix all that good stuff together. Similar to in my burger recipe, I am going to recommend you do this with your hands, not a spoon or spatula. Because like that recipe, we are going to try and minimize how much we handle the meat. And the reason? Same as with the burgers, the more we mix and push ground meat around, the more we compress it, resulting in a tough or chewy meatball. No thank you. I want my meatballs juicy and tender. Using our hands allows for a gentler touch, and overall helps reduce the likelihood of overmixing. (Holding myself back from adding “that’s what he/she said” was really difficult through this entire paragraph folks, I hope you appreciate my restraint)

Once it’s all mixed together, form them up into relatively even-sized balls, about 2-3″/5-8cm in width. We are going a bit bigger here than say, Swedish-style meatballs, since they are going on the grill and we don’t want them falling through! Again, a light touch here, just enough to have the meatballs hold together, but not squishing them like a vice.

And then we get to the cooking. (Before we really get into grilling, you can always skip to the sauce and have that going on the stove/bbq burner at the same time you’re cooking the meatballs.) Preheat your grill to medium heat (somewhere around 350º-400ºF/175º-205ºC). I would strongly recommend using a grill mat for the cooking of the meatballs. This will help avoid any sticking to the grill (and the resulting breaking apart of the meatballs!) as well as keep the fat from dripping all over your grill, which could cause flare-ups and over-charring of the meatballs (plus the mess of cleanup is contained to the mat). We are going to cook the meatballs for about 10-12 minutes total. Our goal is to get the insides of the meatball fully cooked, which means it will register at about 160ºF/71ºC if you poke the middle with a thermometer. We will also be flipping the meatballs just over halfway through the cooking process to brown both sides. Be extra careful when flipping. This is probably the most likely point for the meatball to fall apart. I used a fork and a set of tongs to carefully flip mine over.

When the meatballs are done, remove them from the grill to a plate and set aside.

The sauce is nice and easy. We are going to put all the ingredients for the sauce (canned tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, S&P) into a pot on medium-high heat and bring it up to to a simmer. Once it starts to simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot and let it bubble away for about 20 minutes, stirring every now and again. If you like a smooth sauce, after the 20 minutes, blend it up (transfer to a blender or use a handheld blender in the pot). Finally, transfer the meatballs into the pot with the sauce. This is another place to be careful. Don’t stir the bejeezus out it, or the meatballs will break apart. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can skip straight to serving, but I like transferring the meatballs with the juices into the sauce to add a bit of extra flavour and to get the meatballs and sauce to the same temperature. Turn the meatballs gently in the sauce to get them nice and fully coated.

Finally, we are ready to eat! Transfer the meatballs to a serving dish, and pour the tomato sauce over top. Serve with your favourite pasta, or with some bread to mop up all that tasty tomato sauce.

Happy eating.

Instant Pot Bò Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew)

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Bò Kho (Beef Stew)

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g beef shank (1 lb, but into 1.5cm thick pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 4 garlic cloves (peeled and sliced)
  • 2 small onions (one chopped loosely, one sliced thin)
  • 2 Tbsps Shaoxing/Shao Hsing cooking wine
  • 10 cm piece of ginger (peeled and cut into thick pieces)
  • 5 Tbsps tomato paste
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 4 whole star anise
  • 4 cm cinnamon stick
  • 1 lemongrass stalk (lightly pounded and cut into 1" pieces)
  • 6 cups beef stock (low sodium or unsalted)
  • 2 large carrots (peeled and cut in large pieces)
  • 2 large potatoes (peeled and cut in large pieces)
  • 2 Tbsps fish sauce
  • Fresh basil (for serving)
  • Fresh cilantro (for serving)
  • Fresh lime wedges (for serving)
  • 4 bánh mì (Vietnamese baguettes) (for serving)

Instructions
 

  • Melt the butter in Instant Pot on "Sauté" setting, add pieces of beef shank in batches, browning the pieces, then setting aside. Add garlic and the one onion cut in large pieces, stirring to cook until browned and onion softens. Add Shaoxing and stir. Make a packet using a piece of cheesecloth, and wrap the bay leaves, star anise, cinnamon stick, and lemongrass pieces, tying tightly. Add packet to the pot with the ginger, tomato paste, and stock. Stir well until tomato paste has mostly dissolved. Add carrots and potatoes and place the meat back in the pot, ensuring it is covered in liquid. Close Instant Pot, sealed on "Meat/Stew" setting and cook for 50 minutes. Release pressure, add fish sauce, stirring well. Ladle into bowls and serve with thinly sliced onion, basil, cilantro, lime pieces and baguette.
Keyword Beef, Beef Shank, Soup, Stew, Vietnamese

And now for the details…

This post is an ode to my mother in law. Of the many delicious Chinese and Vietnamese dishes that Mama makes for us, Bò Kho is one of my absolute favourites. And because Mama knows it’s my favourite, she makes it for us fairly often. However, during COVID isolation, we were cut off from Mama and Dad, as they are older and we wanted to make sure they were safe. And not only were we cut off from seeing them in person, we were also cut off from Mama’s delicious cooking! Which meant… I needed to figure out Bò Kho at home. I tried to get this recipe as close as I could to Mama’s, and it’s fairly close, but it’s still not a true replacement for the bowls of love she sends home with us 🙂

This stew is perfect for the type of weather we have outside right now. It’s fall here, and it’s cloudy, raining (oh god, it just started to snow) and there’s a distinct chill in the air, perfect for a nice, warming, well-spiced stew that seems to heat you up from the inside.

I have had different styles of Bò Kho at many different Vietnamese restaurants. The broth will range from thin to thick (the thick being similar to what one would expect from a western style stew), the spice combinations are often slightly different at each one, and the cut of beef used varies from shank to chuck to brisket. My favourite, of course, tends toward the style that Mama makes, which is a thinner (but very flavourful) broth and nice pieces of beef shank.

The shank is an extremely sinewy piece of meat. It comes from the leg of the cow, and because it is such a well-used muscle, it has quite a bit of connective tissue (collagen) marbled in with the meat. If you’re used to your beef being primarily for steaks, you might look at this cut and think “yuck, that is going to be one chewy piece of meat.” But stay with me here, because cooking this connective tissue low and slow (and in liquid) allows it to break down so that is becomes this rich, velvety bite. TBH, I like this cut in the stew for that soft, tender bite, even more so than the meat itself.

Finding beef shank in your local grocery store is likely not going to happen. I found ours at our asian supermarket, but in most western grocery stores, this cut is not frequently found. You can ask the butchers behind the desk to see if they can bring it in for you, or find a local butcher or specialty grocery store to get this cut of meat. This if often sold with the bone-in as well, but I prefer the boneless for this stew. Make sure to cut the pieces across the grain, as shown in the photo above to get the right “bite” once the meat is done cooking.

Let’s get into it, shall we? We start by heating up our Instant Pot to “Sauté” and melt the butter. Cook the beef pieces, turning halfway, to get a nice browned piece of meat. We will be cooking the beef pieces in batches so we don’t overcrowd the pot, setting aside the meat onto a plate after it has browned and adding the next batch. The reason we do not want to overcrowd the pot is we want to brown the meat, and get that richness to add to the stew, rather than the steaming that would result from having too many pieces in the pot. Don’t worry about trying to cook the beef pieces all the way through, we just want them to brown. They will be spending a lot of time in heat with the stew, so we do not need to worry about cooking them through just yet.

Once the pieces of meat have all been browned and set aside, add the garlic and one of the onions (that has been loosely chopped) to the pot. Stir until the garlic has just started to brown and the onion have started to soften. Then add the Shaoxing wine, stirring to help stir up some of the browned bits of meat on the bottom of the pot into the liquid, and cook until the wine is almost fully reduced.

Shaoxing wine is a rice wine originating from the city Shaoxing in China. You will be able to find it in most Chinese markets, or possibly in your own grocery store if you have a decent selection of asian cooking products. If you cannot find it, substitute with dry sherry or Marsala instead. If you want to know more, The Woks of Life blog has a great post about it! And to make it easier, here is a link to their post about Shaoxing Wine 🙂

Next, add the meat pieces back into the pot and pour the broth over top, stirring well to bring up any additional browned bits into the liquid. Beef, chicken, pork, or veal broth can all be used in this case. You can turn the pot off for now, because we are going to get our aromatics ready for the stew. In this recipe, we have quite a few aromatics helping to flavour the broth: star anise, lemongrass, cinnamon, bay leaves and ginger. When you are buying the ingredients for this dish, so not confuse star anise with anise seeds. They are actually from two different plants, and while they are very similar in smell/flavour, star anise is a quarter-sized, star-shaped dried fruit that imparts its flavour to the broth over time, and the recipe would not be quite the same with 5 little anise seeds 🙂

I ended up not wanting to use a whole cinnamon stick for this recipe, so I just snapped a cinnamon stick in half to get the appropriate length.

Because the majority of these aromatics are not something you want to chew and eat once you’re done the stew, I chose to wrap them in a little bundle of cheesecloth so I could easily pick it out once the cooking was done. You can also just add them right into the stew as is, and pick all the bits out later. But I am lazy, and while Mama typically picks these ingredients out for us before serving (yes, we are that spoiled), I wanted to make it as easy as possible to remove them before eating. I cut a 15 cm/6″ piece of cheesecloth and wrapped up the bay leaves, anise, lemongrass and cinnamon stick together, then secured the bundle with a piece of cooking twine. I threw the ginger into the stew on its own, outside of the bundle, because I actually enjoy the bites of ginger pieces. But if you are not interested, you can make a larger cheesecloth bundle and add the ginger in with the rest.

Now’s the time to get that stew cooking! Add that tasty little bundle and the ginger into the pot with everything else. At this time, we are also going to add the tomato paste, stirring well to mix it into the broth, and then the carrots and potatoes. If you want to try something a little different, you can use taro root instead of potatoes. It is a root vegetable very similar to potato in texture, and Mama has used this instead on a number of occasions.

Next, close and seal up your Instant Pot, setting it to “Meat/Stew” setting for 50 minutes. Now, you can always do all of this without an Instant Pot. The sautéing bits would be done on medium-high heat, and at this point, we would turn the heat to a low simmer on the stove (pot covered). But you are going to need to increase the cooking time to at least 3 hours in order to get the flavours to fully meld and for that beef shank to become tender instead of chewy.

Once done cooking, release the pressure and open up that glorious pot of deliciousness. One last thing to do before ladling the soup into bowls: add the fish sauce and stir well. You can always add the fish sauce before closing up and cooking, and still get the umami-hit, but you will lose the complexity and added flavour that the uncooked fish sauce provides.

Serve up the bowls with the fresh basil, cilantro, onion and lime wedges on the side. This allows folks to add however much of these fresh aromatics as they would like (especially the cilantro, since we all know someone out there who can’t stand the taste :P). Dig in, dipping torn pieces of the bánh mì into the broth as you slurp away at the stew. For extra authenticity and to match exactly as Mama serves it, mix together fresh squeezed lemon juice, salt and white pepper in a small, shallow dish and dip the beef into the mix as you eat.

Happy eating.

BBQ Pork Ribs in the Instant Pot

Instant Pot BBQ Pork Ribs

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 1 rack of ribs

Ingredients
  

  • 1 rack St. Louis style or spare pork ribs (membrane removed)
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 Tbsps chilli powder
  • 1 Tbsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp chipotle powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp hickory smoke powder (optional if hard to find)
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 Tbsps sugar
  • 1 cup beer (alternatives: pineapple juice, cola or chicken broth)
  • 1.5 cups BBQ sauce

Instructions
 

  • Mix together all the herbs, spices with the salt, cornstarch and sugar. Rub this powder into the ribs. Set the rack into the Instant Pot, pour the beer into the bottom. Roll the ribs into a spiral and set onto the rack of the pot, bones vertical. Close and seal, cooking on "Meat" setting for 25 minutes. Remove and slather with BBQ sauce and either place on high temp grill or under a broiler for 3-5 minutes per side to caramelize. Serve with extra sauce.
Keyword BBQ, Grill, Meat, Pork, Ribs

And now for the details…

Okay, so this is another one of those recipes that almost seems too easy to share. The Instant Pot has changed my life when it comes to cooking ribs. Remember that previous method of boiling or baking the ribs for several hours to try and get them tender? NO MORE! The Instant Pot makes this SO EASY, and so fast, that ribs on a weekday are not only a possibility, but a preferred option because of how simple it makes your evening meal.

If you want to make these even faster, you can do what I do and mix up a large batch of the rub and store it in a Tupperware container, so you can even skip measuring out spices when it’s time to make these.

Speaking of the rub, that’s where we start out recipe. In a bowl (or Tupperware), mix together the garlic powder, chilli powder, cumin, oregano, chipotle powder, hickory smoke powder, salt, cornstarch and sugar. If you cannot find hickory smoke powder, just skip that part. I know it took me a long time to hunt it down, and I’ve been treating that stuff like it’s powdered gold. Again, you double, triple, quadruple, or more the amount of those measurements, and just have the rest sitting in a container for the next time you make the ribs.

Next, it’s time to get those ribs ready for cooking! Before you rub everything in, tear off the membrane, also known as the silver skin, on the back of the ribs. It’s not the end of world if you forget this step, but the ribs will have this membrane on them when you eat, and it’s a little chewy and ropy. There are plenty of videos and info out there showing you how to do this, I found this video has great info on how and why to remove the membrane (skip to 1:30 to see the technique ;P).

Next we’ll take that rub and… well… rub… it into the rack of ribs (if you’re storing extra, make sure to set that aside so that you don’t cross-contaminate the spare rub with those ribby fingies). Get right in there and massage the rub into the meat on both sides. To save on using extra dishes, I actually do this right on the packaging the ribs came in 😛

Next, it’s time to cook! Pour the beer into the bottom of the Instant Pot. If you’re not a fan or don’t want to cook with alcohol, you can replace the beer with juice (I recommend pineapple, but orange or apple would work too), broth, or even cola or root beer.

Next, curl the ribs into a spiral and place them so the bones are vertical in the pot. In my case, unfortunately the rack was cut in half in order to fit the packaging, so I just kinda half-circled them around the outside of the pot. I have tried doubling the recipe, and a spiralled double rack JUST fits into the pot. Cover the pot up and set the lid to “Sealed” position. We are going to pressure cook these on the “Meat” setting for 25 minutes.

Once you have that set, we wait. You basically have 25 minutes of your life back. So many options on what to do here. You could make some pretty impressive sides to go with those ribs. OR. You could kick up your heels and enjoy the rest of the can of beer, since there’s more that 1 cup in a can 😉

Once the ribs are done, unseal the lid and let the pressure come back down, then open up that lid and expose the gloriousness that is the cooked ribs. Lay them on a tray and slather them with your favourite BBQ sauce (both sides).

Now you have two options here: you can either finish these off on the grill or in the oven. On the grill, set your heat to medium-high, or in the oven, set your broiler to medium-hi. Either place the ribs right on the grill or under the broiler, and cook them for a few minutes on either side, just long enough to get some darkened, caramelized bits.

Remove from the heat, and either serve up directly with your extra BBQ sauce on the side, or slather on a bit more sauce just before serving.

Happy eating.

Get Ready for Grilling! Juicy BBQ’ed Burger Recipe

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Juicy Grilled Burgers

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Main Course

Ingredients
  

  • 700 g lean ground beef (1.5 lbs)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 shallot (peeled, finely minced)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 4-6 burger buns
  • burger fixings

Instructions
 

  • Mix the raw ground beef with the egg, Worcestershire, mustard, shallots, salt and pepper until fully mixed. Split the meat into 4-6 parts (6 will be 1/4 lb burgers, 4 will be 3/8 lb), forming into patties. Press a small indent into the middle of the patties with your thumb to avoid "puffing" of the middle. Place on a grill heated to ~400ºF/205ºC. Cook on each side for 7-9 minutes, flipping only once, until fully cooked in the middle. Serve immediately, with buns and fixings.
  • (Burger in photo: caramelized onions, peanut butter, bleu cheese, spicy mayo, onion jam, tomatoes)
Keyword BBQ, Beef, Burger, Grill, Ground Beef

And now for the details…

I’m not sure what the weather it is like in the part of the world you are in right now, but for us here in Calgary, Canada, spring is in the air, which also means its time to get back to grilling. There are a few brave souls who grill in the winter, but needing to shovel snow to access our grill is not something I’m interested in…

And what better food to kick your grilling into high gear than the hamburger? A nice big, juicy burger, topped with your fixings of choice? Yum.

In this recipe, I am using all lean ground beef. I have heard/read about adding in some fatty ground beef to up the juiciness factor, but to be honest, I am too lazy to get that specific. If you want to give it a try, please feel free to give the suggested 80% lean / 20% fatty method a whirl and let me know if the effort fo measuring/mixing is worth it in taste 😛

We start everything off by mixing the meat with the egg, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, shallot and salt and pepper. I did not measure the S&P, that’s up to your preference. For ours, I used about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the same of pepper. Keep in mind when you’re adding your salt that the Worcestershire is already fairly salty and we are adding a full tablespoon of it to the meat. Best method to mix all these ingredients? By hand. You could use a mixer or wooden spoon if touching raw meat grosses you out (I have a few friends who are anti-touching raw meat), but by hand allows you to get a good mix in without overworking the meat. Yes, it is possible to overwork ground beef. If you mix too much, it will actually cause the meat to compress, giving the patty a tougher, rubbery-like texture.

Next is time to form up your patty. You can divide the meat up into four or six roughly-even parts, depending on how big you want your burger patties to be (and how many people you’re serving!) Six parts will give you six quarter pounders. When you are forming the patties, it is the same as when we were mixing, don’t squeeze the hell of out of the meat when you’re forming the patty. Just use a light squish to make sure they stick together; it’s not an attempt to beat the Hydraulic Press Channel… Use your thumb, and press a little dimple or divot into the middle of the patty. This will help to keep the patty from “puffing” in the middle while its cooking, and result in a more even burger.

Next is grill time. Preheat your grill to medium heat, somewhere around 400ºF/205ºC. Place your patties on the grill, close it up, and let them cook for 7-9 minutes. Avoid the temptation to press the patties with your spatula/flipper, which presses/pushes the fat and juices out of the meat, resulting in a drier burger. Once the first 7-9 minutes are done, flip the patties and let them cook for another 7-9 minutes, or until the internal temperature registers at 160ºF/70ºC. I know some people are fans of a pink inside to their burgers, but I like them well-done. Really, unless you are grinding your own beef and have full control over the handling of the meat and sanitizing of the equipment, I don’t know that I would go with a pink inside.

Finally, assembly time. Tons of options here, you could have all the fixings ready, and leave it up to the folks eating, like a burger buffet, or you could preassemble and serve. While the typical fixings are ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. might I suggest toppings a bit off-course? The toppings on ours were inspired from a burger I had in Ottawa, Canada a few years ago. They called it the “PB & J” burger, and I’ve been mildly obsessed with peanut butter on burgers ever since. In this burger, I used a caramelized onion jam for the “J”, and crumbled pieces of bleu cheese, but I’ve tried it with fig preserves, or with grape jelly, and both were also delicious. I would recommend adding the PB as soon as the burger comes off the grill. It get a little melty and oozy and is so good. I also used a little spicy aioli under the patty before placing it on the burger bun.

Top the burger off with some caramelized onions and tomatoes and you are ready to consume!

Happy eating.