August 29, Flank Steak Taco

Make sure you get 1 pound flank steak

Mix the following ingredients together:
2 tablespoons garlic salt
2 tablespoons cumin
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Mush the spices together with a mortar and pestle or a spice jar in a coffee mug until all the spices are well mixed.

Sprinkle one half of the spice mixture on one side of the steak, and one half on the other side.

I heated a large cast iron pan on high until shimmery hot. I added the meat and cooked it for roughly 8 minutes on the first side and 4 minutes on the second side or until cooked through.

Sliced thin and put on flour tortillas with fixins, you’ll be a happy flank steak taco eater indeed.
(Serve with refried beans and James’ rice)

Your Patience is Appreciated

What happened there was that life happened there.

I will write the updates and
list ingredients and
post the picture.

But I became caught up in a whirlysurlysort of celebrations (whirly) and administration (surly).

And the email folder with “Business Friendlies” is filling up fast.
Hello Hatch Print.
Hello Wedding Invitations!
Hello blog fixeruppers.
Hello email campaigns!

I have been saying yes a lot more.
Which means I’ll get back to this here blog in two shakes.

August 26, Tomato Soup and Chopped Salad

See, what I done on Sunday, was defrost the other half of the tomato soup recipe. See, I freeze the tomato mixture before adding the cream and sherry. Then I heat it up in the pan and add the cream and sherry.

I make my chopped salad with the vegetables that are on the counter lately.

Ingredients

4 lemon cucumbers (they look almost like round squash), peeled, de-seeded and chopped into tiny cubes
3 lipstick peppers from River Dog
2 carrots sliced into matchsticks on the mandoline of doom
1 kohlrabi, peeled and chopped into small cubes
1/2 red onion, chopped so tiny, it almost looks minced
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

Add Creamy Garlicky Green Dressing and toss until gently dressed.

Summer meals are the best, aren’t they?

August 26, Clare’s Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup

Although she didn’t need to, my sister prepared a five course dinner for us. Last year, she took a class at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School, you know, in Thailand.

My sister has grand adventures.
I love that about her.

She started with Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup.

She used the peppers I liberated from Bryce’s garden. And man, those peppers were hot!

Happily, we sweated and slurped as we enjoyed flavors not previously enjoyed in the Hearn House.
Lemongrass! Yum!

Clare’s Thai Hot and Sour Soup Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups washed peeled and deveined prawns — (Save the peelings! Weird! But it works!)
3 cups chicken stock
6 crushed cloves of garlic
3 shallots, chopped fine
2 stalks of lemongrass — bottom 1/3 cut into 1 inch pieces
1 package button mushrooms, cut in half
2 tomatoes, each one cut into eight pieces
15 small green chilis, chopped fine, seeds and ribs removed
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped fine

Directions

Bring the chicken stock to a boil with the shrimp peelings in it. Strain the shrimp shells out of the broth and bring back to a boil. Add the garlic, shallots and lemongrass and bring to boil. Then add the mushrooms and tomatoes and bring back to boil. Add the chilis and fish sauce, cook over medium for 2 minutes and then add prawns. Cook prawns for roughly 1 minute. Turn off heat and stir in lime juice. Serve garnished with the cilantro.

Make sure you eat around the lemongrass or you’ll be sad.

Clare followed the Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup with a Cool Pork Noodle Salad which cooled my mouth and refreshed the face.

After that, we celebrated the perfection with Green Curry with Eggplant and Chicken and Pad Thai, guzzling down our tasties with Mumm DVX. It was a great evening. In fact, I think Clare should stay with us a little more often.

White Bean Turkey Chili Recipe

I make this many times in the winter.
And it’s good in the summer too.

(Not too many recipes can lay claim to that.)

It’s great on nachos, it’s great in a bowl, it’s great straight covered in Monterey Jack with lots of cilantro sprinkled about.

On Tuesday, I pulled a container filled with chili from the freezer. By Thursday, it was thawed. We heated it on the stove and served it with delicious cheese quesadillas slathered with homemade salsa. Anne had the great recommendation to use ground chicken. You could try that too.

Helen Jane’s White Bean Turkey Chili Recipe

Ingredients
1 lb dry Northern beans
1 large or two medium chopped up onions
4 minced garlic cloves
1 lb ground turkey
4 cans of chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 thick tablespoon cumin
1 thick tablespoon coriander
2 thick tablespoons oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 can chopped jalepeno peppers (I prefer to buy ‘em whole and chop my own but I’m sure you can buy the diced kind and it’s just as good)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
salt and pepper

Garnishments

sour cream
hot sauce
chopped cilantro
chopped green onions
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded.

Directions
The night before:
Dump the beans into a big bowl and cover the beans with water–maybe two or three inches over the top of the beans.
Take out your crock pot and put on the counter.

Chop the onions.
Mince the garlic.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium high and add the onions and dried oregano. Stir and saute for about 4 minutes.

Add the turkey. Brown turkey for about oh, 6 or 7 minutes–you know–until it’s brown. Add garlic and saute for a minute more.

Place mixture into a bowl, bring to room temperature and put into fridge for the night.

Cuddle up with your bad self and some trashy movie and think lewd thoughts about Mark Ruffalo.

Before you leave for work:
Plug in the slow cooker and push the 8-10 hour button
(whichever one you have, my slow cooker runs hot so I always choose the 10 hour button)

Drain the beans and put into the crockpot. Open the chicken stock and pour in.

Add cumin, coriander, cayenne and bay leaves.
Add the jalapeno peppers.
Add the bowl of turkey/onion/garlic/oregano mixture from last night.

Cover the slow cooker and let it do its thing while you’re at work.

When you come home, stir up the chili, taste and add any extra hot sauce, salt or flavorings you might think it needs. Remove the bay leaves while you’re at it.

Now chop up all your Garnishments and put those on the table.

Stir 1 cup of the shredded Monterey Jack cheese into the chili just before serving and voila!

It’s good, it’s good for you (also, with reduced fat cheese, okay for South Beach Diet Phase 1), it cooks while I’m at work, James likes it and did I mention it’s an excellent cheese vehicle?

Also, good to package up and freeze for many delicious frozen dinners like the one we had tonight.