Miso-Ginger Salmon

Earlier this afternoon, I was running on the treadmill when a cooking show came on. The hosts included Michael Symon, that guy from What Not to Wear, that crazy (but endearing) chick from Top Chef, and a bunch of other people.

They were making doughnuts. 

And they were hilarious.

I had this stupid grin on my face. Then I started running all lopsided and almost fell off the treadmill. So I slowed it down to a speed-walking pace, and kept marveling at the doughnuts and laughing out loud. 

If you were my gym buddy, you would probably disown me right then and there. Luckily, Mr. Bear can't do that. 

So I ditched the treadmill and came home for some salmon.

What? You thought I was going to make doughnuts? Oh silly, you know I don't do deep-frying around here. 

Plus, I already had 2 nice fat pieces of salmon waiting for me in this marinade:

To simplify what's going on in that bowl, let's call it a miso-ginger sauce. So the end product is called, well, miso-ginger salmon. I kind of borrowed that from Bobby Flay. 

The sauce turned out to be very good with rice or quinoa.

P.s. After doing a little bit of research, I found out that the show is called The Chew. 

Miso-Ginger Salmon

Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay on the Food Network

2 salmon steaks, 1 1/2 - 2 pounds total

1/4 cup miso paste
1/4 cup mirin
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp minced cilantro stems or green onions
1 1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp sesame oil (I used a spicy sesame oil)

2 tsp white sugar 

A little bit of water
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Before applying it to salmon, taste to see if it needs adjustments. Different types of miso paste will affect the final taste of the marinade. Mine turned out very intense and salty, so I added a little more sugar and water to dilute it.

2. Add the marinade to the salmon and let sit in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes (no more than an hour).

3. Preheat oven to 400F. 

4. Bring a skillet to medium heat. Add olive oil to the skillet. Take the salmon steak out of the marinade and shake off excess. Lay the salmon steak flat on the skillet and sear until it is nicely browned, about 1 minute on each side. 

5. Transfer salmon to baking dish. Add all the marinade to the dish, and bake for about 15 minutes or until meat is flaky.  Serve immediately.

Braised Short Ribs with Couscous

I kid you not, these short ribs were labelled as "chicken" in the Asian grocery store. I wish I took a picture of the packaging to show you! 

I know, they look funny and are not "short ribs" in the most American sense of the word, but hey, I figured if I braise them long enough, no one would care.

Plus, you really can't go wrong with the holy trio of veggies, half a bottle of wine and 2 cans of stewed tomatoes.

(note: the wine was opened for 5 days and I was not in the mood for sangria)

After 4 hours of braising, the meat was super tender and falling off the bones.

Of course, you are more than welcome to use normal looking ribs. I'm sure they will turn out just as flavorful and much more elegant than mine. 

ps- workout of the day included reptile burpees, side planks, jump lunges, knee ups, and a few sets at the thigh toning machine. I kind of just did whatever came to my mind.

Braised Short Ribs with Couscous 

Makes 3-4 servings

1 package of short ribs (about 8-9 pieces)

1/2 cup flour 

3 stalks celery, roughly chopped

2 big carrots, chopped into big chunks

1 large onion

1 cup Beef broth or water

1/2 bottle red wine

2 cans of stewed tomatoes 

4 cloves of garlic 

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 bay leaves 

1 cup couscous

1. Preheat oven to 300F.

2. Drench short ribs with flour. In a large skillet, brown all sides of the short ribs. Transfer to a dutch oven or oven safe pot.

3. In the same skillet, briefly brown vegetables. Add to the short ribs.

4. Deglaze the skillet with beef broth or water. Scrape all the bottom bits and pour all the liquid into the short ribs/ vegetables mixture. 

5. Add tomatoes, wine, paprika, cayenne and bay leaves to the pot. Make sure that all the ingredients are submerged in the tomatoes/ wine/ beef broth. 

6. Cover pot and transfer into the oven. Braise for 4 hours. Check occasionally to make sure that there is enough liquid to cover all the ingredients. Add more broth if necessary. 

7. Right before ready to serve the short ribs, prepare couscous according to packaging instructions. You will not need additional flavoring for the couscous as there will be plenty of braising liquid! 

Baked Pork Chops with Carolina BBQ sauce

It's Sunday afternoon and I have been sitting on the couch all day watching back to back football games. I have a bottle of Sam Adams sitting on the coffee table and I'm all by myself.

I know, I have problems.

I might have been a dude in my last life.

That might explain my obsession with large portions of meat.

And large portions of carbs.

(I added some kale in there to make myself feel better about the large portions of meat and carbs.)

Hey, at least I have not resorted to pizza delivery while watching the games. That's something to be proud of, right? ;)

Baked Pork Chops with Carolina BBQ sauce


For the brine:
3 pieces of pork chops (with bones)
8 cups of water
3 tbsp of salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
A handful of black peppercorns (I used ground black pepper)
Optional: a few cloves of garlic, bay leaves

For BBQ sauce:
See Bobby Flay's BBQ sauce on Food Network 
Note: I made half of the recipe for two people and still had a lot of leftovers. It was very delicious and could be stored in a Tupperware for a few days in the fridge.

1. Mix all of the brine ingredients and leave pork chops in the brine in the fridge for at least 1 hour, up to overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 385F.
3. Drain pork chops and pat dry. Heat a skillet on medium-high and sear both sides until light brown, about 3 minutes on each side.
4. Place pork chops onto a baking dish and cook for about 25 mins. In the meantime, prepare BBQ sauce.

Baked potatoes
Wash potatoes thoroughly. With a fork, poke holes around the potatoes. Lightly coat potatoes with olive oil and salt. Bake at 350F for 1 hour and 15 minutes. When they are done, use a knife to cut a slit and push on both ends of the potato to open.

Sauté Kale 
1 bunch of fresh kale, stems discarded and leaves roughly chopped
A few cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper

Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add olive oil and sauté garlic for a minute. Add all the kale and cook until all the leaves are wilted, about 5 minutes. Add lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Steak burritos

I really, really, REALLY love steak burritos. I like them with black beans, rice, the spiciest salsa, cheese, a little bit of sour cream, guacamole, and lettuce. In that order please, because that's how the Chipotle assembly line is set up.

When I go to Chipotle, I hoard the Tabasco sauce like it's my job. No sir, you can't take it because I will need it until I'm done. See, I add hot sauce after every single bite to get maximum spiciness. Get it? Now go away.

I never order burrito bowls. That defeats the purpose of eating a burrito. I also never take anything to go. Because who wouldn't finish such a delicious burrito in one sitting? Taking anything to go, especially at Chipotle, is for wimps.

This obsession doesn't end at Chipotle. I have extended it to my home kitchen...

So I can find good marinades for steak.

AND enjoy a delicious burrito (or two) right in the comfort of my apartment after a long workout.

I also improvised and added this onion relish, which was ah-mazing.

And of course, a very spicy salsa.

And when you start putting everything together, you will start to face the harsh reality that no matter how good your homemade burrito taste, you will never be able to wrap it around neatly like Chipotle does.

So I just ate it like it was a big ass taco. Worked for me!

Steak Burritos
Makes about 4 medium sized burritos

1 piece of flank steak or rib eye steak, around 1lb
1 can of black beans
4 whole wheat tortillas

For steak marinade:
2 tbsp white vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lime, juiced
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
For onion relish:
1 white or yellow onion, chopped
2 tbsp white vinegar or lime juice
Dash of sugar
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
Mix well and let sit until other components are ready.

For salsa:
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
Few sprigs of cilantro, finely chopped (including stems)
1/2 lime, juiced
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
Pinch of white sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Marinade steak for an hour up to overnight.
2. Prepare salsa and onion relish. Heat up black beans in a small pot.
3. Heat a skillet to medium high. Cut steak into cubes and pan fry until desired doneness is achieved. Set aside.
4. In a separate, clean skillet (or the one used above but cleaned), heat tortillas on both sides until slightly charred.
5. Assemble all the ingredients together and serve immediately.

Homemade Lobster Ravioli

"My hobby is food."

Does that sound strange? Because whenever I have free time, I end up in the bookstore reading Italian cookbooks, in a new cupcake shop trying out A FEW different flavors, or in my kitchen testing new recipes. Who knew that the little chubby kid who loved over-eating and hiding food in her room would turn out to be a food fanatic? Weird, right? My parents used to tell everyone (and secretly hope) that I would grow out of my "eating phase" and turn into one of those scrawny teenagers that fit into size 0's. Well, as much as I love fashion, it never happened.

So this past week, I spent 3 hours in the kitchen, enslaved to a dough and rolling pin. Yes, you read that right. A dough. It's not grammatically correct but Mr. Bear said to keep it that way because it sounds funny.

And it all came from this:

In this situation, a rolling pin is your best friend...

Because I don't have a pasta machine and because I'm about to make some epic ravioli...

And there you have it. 100% homemade lobster ravioli!!! They don't look perfect, but I was pretty proud of myself!

Here's some pictures of the filling...

Andddddd *drumrolls* the final product.......!!

Homemade Lobster Ravioli
Makes 2 servings if you have a bear in the house

Dough from Tyler Florence for Food Network

I followed everything in the instructions and got really pleasing results. 

Filling

2 fresh lobsters, steamed in beer and old bay seasoning

2 cups ricotta cheese

1 green onion 

Salt and pepper

Sauce

1 shallot, sliced

1 bunch of parsley, chopped

1 cup of white wine

1 tbsp brown sugar 

1 tsp vinegar 

Olive oil

Prepare the sauce by sauteing the shallot in olive oil. Add wine and vinegar, let boil for 1 minute. Add brown sugar and reduce until sauce has thickened, 5 minutes. In the meantime, cook ravioli in salted boiling water, until floating. Toss sauce with cooked ravioli, and add parsley in the end to finish. Serve immediately. 

Yogurt Marinated Roast Cornish Hen

One of my favorite quotes of all times:

Not sure if I would put lemons in my Tanquery, but lemons and limes are definitely best friends with cocktails, beer, and food.

No, this post is not about cocktails. I had long given up on mixing fancy concoctions and pouring them into tall swanky martini glasses. These days, I just throw a couple of rocks into a short class, fill 1/3 of the glass with Tanquery or whatever I can get my hands on, and top that off with, again, whatever I can get my hands on. Yeah, I'm kinda a sloppy drinker.

What I am about to give you, however, is an amazing anything-but-sloppy marinade recipe for chicken. This marinade is my favorite by far, needs a couple of hours to soak into the meat, and gives you the best, juiciest, tastiest chicken you will ever eat. You can use it on a cornish hen (as shown below), or chicken pieces with or without bones. It's very flexible and you can easily adjust the amount to suit your needs. Seriously, try it now. You will not regret it!

Yogurt Marinated Roast Cornish Hen

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp sesame oil (I used the spicy kind)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder (optional)

1 tsp brown sugar 

1 tsp ground fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 

1. Rinse cornish hen and pat dry. 

2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix all the above ingredients together. Rub it all over the cornish hen, leave hen in the bowl and refrigerate for a few hours, up to over night. 

3. Preheat oven at 375.

4. Place cornish hen on a baking tray and roast for an hour, or until juices run clear.

5. When there's 15 mins of roasting time left, braise chicken with its own juices to make sure the skin stays moist. 

6. Serve immediately.