Marinated Flank Steak with Asian Stir Fry

I tend to stay away from making Asian inspired meals as I usually don't want to go out and purchase a bunch of ingredients necessary to pull them off. I'll keep the typical soy sauce around.. and garlic and ginger are cheap to pick up... But the fish sauces, hoison, rice vinegars, chili pastes, dried shrimp, etc... etc..... Seems too much! Recently a friend of mine was moving and needed to get rid of everything in her kitchen - so naturally, I jumped on it! She unloaded a bunch of asian pantry items on me so - it was time to figure out a good stir fry recipe. One of the ingredients I was really wanting to base a recipe around were the Somen noodles I was given. They take only 2 minutes to cook! 2 minutes!@$ Thats amazing! Plus - they are 98% whole wheat, so they're healthy to boot! Now I think traditionally these noodles are supposed to be served cold... which I was wanting to do, but instead ended up throwing them into a stir fry and serving them hot.
I should also disclose the fact that I cheated in this recipe. I rarely ever cheat, but I'm on a budget this summer and it was more cost effective to purchase the Trader Joe's Soyaki marinade rather than making my own teriyaki marinade. But! If you want a good recipe for a teriyaki marinade I'm sure you could easily create one with some soy sauce, lime juice, pineapple juice, worcestershire, garlic, ginger.... etc etc... I just didn't feel up to it. Plus the TJ version contains pretty much those same ingredients and no weird unpronounceable ingredients you've never heard of.

Marinated Flank Steak with Asian Stir Fry
serves 4

For the Steak:

• Teriyaki marinade (your own recipe or I used TJ's Soyaki)
• 1.5lb flank steak

For the Stir Fry

• 1 8oz package Somen Noodles or some other kind of asian noodle (Or you could use angel-hair pasta)
• Assortment of Stir-Fry veggies: mushrooms, bell pepper, broccoli, snow peas, carrots - I would say use your judgement on what would feed 4 people because I didn't measure these ingredients! I used 1 broccoli crown, half a container of cremini mushrooms and half of a red bell pepper to feed 2 people.
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
  
• 3T soy sauce
  
• 2T hoison
• 2T rice wine vinegar
• 1t minced ginger + extra to throw in with veggies
  
• 1t minced garlic + extra to throw in with veggies
  
• 2t cornstarch
• sesame oil (I used a little for flavor at the end, but this is not necessary)
• safflower or canola oil
• salt/pepper
• sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Put flank steak in a large ziploc bag and pour enough marinade in to cover steak. Place in fridge and let marinate for 3-4 hours, turning over every once in awhile.
2. Make stir-fry sauce by combining soy sauce, rice vinegar, hoison, cornstarch, minced garlic and ginger, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Heat a large pot of water to boiling while working on everything else.
4. Heat a large non-stick skillet over med-high heat with a tablespoon or so of safflower oil. Once pan is hot, pull steak out of bag and place in the skillet. You can do this on a grill or cast iron skillet if you prefer, but we chose the method that would not smoke up the whole house! Sear the steak over med/med-high heat for about 3-4 minutes. Check to make sure the pan isn't so hot that the sugars in the marinade aren't burning on the steak. Flip steak over and sear other side for 3-4 minutes... making sure it isn't burning. At this point, I flipped it over on each side again for another minute or two, depending on the thickness of the steak. I like my steak med-rare, so 5 minutes per side was plenty. Pull steak out and loosely cover with foil and let rest while you make the stir fry.
5. Wipe out the skillet you cooked the steak in if it has burned pieces in it - otherwise, you can reuse this pan to add a little more oil to and throw in your veggies to heat. A word of advice with the veggies - think about the size of them and how long they take to cook. I try to cut things like carrots quite small as they take longer to cook, where as mushrooms and peppers take less time, so they can be a little bigger. You may also want to start with the veggies that take longest to cook and add the others a little later to try and keep them evenly cooked. So to start off, heat the oil over med heat, add a little bit of the extra garlic and ginger you chopped up earlier to flavor the oil. When the oil gets hot - don't let the garlic burn!! Begin adding your chopped veggies and maybe turn up the heat a bit so they cook up quickly, but don't burn. Once the veggies are almost done - its time to throw those 2 minute noodles into your boiling pot of water!
6. Once noodles are done cooking, I used a pasta spoon to pull them from the boiling water/slightly drained and then tossed them with the veggies I had stir-frying. At this point, take your stir fry sauce and add it to the hot skillet and let it boil up and cook for a few minutes. The cornstarch will help this turn into a nice thick glaze to coat all your veggies and noodles. Remove from heat. At this point, you can drizzle some sesame oil over for a little extra flavor.
   
7. Slice your flank steak, against the grain, into nice thin pieces. I like to cut it at a slight angle so the pieces are a little bigger.
   
8. Lay your stir fry noodles out in the center of your plate, top with slices of steak and garnish with scallions and sesame seeds.
   

There you have it! Simple meal that takes maybe 30-45 minutes to completely pull off!
Plus - its relatively healthy - bonus!

Enjoy
Lauren

Orecchiette with Broccoli, Roasted Garlic, Mushrooms & Caramelized Onions

and toasted pine nuts, fresh basil, in a lemon butter sauce.......

Figured the name of the pasta was too long to be a title, because all ingredients are important in this pasta, not just the 4 main ones.

Well I was trying to come up with a pasta to make with Orecchiette and Broccoli - something light and vegetarian.. I was having dreams of the orecchiette and broccoli rabe dish I'd had from Savarino's Cucina (a little italian place in Nashville) and wanted to take the concept but make it something different. So after a little internet research, I came across a few ideas and ended up with this dish. It's a tad time consuming due to the nature of the ingredients, but it's super easy and very tasty and I've already made it twice this week!

Orecchiette with Broccoli, Mushrooms, & Light Lemon Butter Sauce
serves 4

• 1lb orecchiette pasta
• 2T veg. oil - or olive oil
• 1-2c broccoli, cut into bite size florets (depends on how much broccoli you like)
• 1/2lb cremini mushrooms
• 1 small vidalia onion (or sweet onion if you're not a southerner)
• 1 head of garlic, roasted*
• 1/4c pine nuts
• 1 lemon
• 2-3T butter
• a small chunk of parmigiano cheese
• fresh basil
• salt & pepper

1. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast pine nuts, about 5 minutes. WATCH THESE CAREFULLY. If you walk away and forget - you've ruined your pine nuts. You want them to turn a nice golden brown.
2. Chop up your onion into medium size pieces. Using the same skillet you toasted the pine nuts in, let the pan cool down a little and then add about 1T of oil to the skillet and throw in the onions. Season with some salt & pepper (I actually add about a 1/2t of sugar to help with the caramelization). Cook the onions until they start to get nice and soft and a nice golden color. While these are cooking, wash and slice your mushrooms.. Once the onions have started to turn a golden color, add a little more oil and add in the mushrooms. Season again with salt & pepper. Continue to cook for about 10 minutes, so mushrooms have caramelized with the onions.
   
3. While you're cooking the onions & mushrooms, heat up your pot of water for the pasta and in a smaller saucepan, steam the broccoli florets until tender. Once the water for the pasta has come to a boil, salt the water generously and add in the pasta. Cook until al dente (about 13 minutes). Drain pasta and return the pasta back into the hot pot. Zest the lemon over the pot, throw in the butter, and squeeze half the lemon over the pot - you may use more if your lemon is small, but I found I didn't want the lemon to over power the dish, so I only used half a lemon.. Stir together until butter has melted. If you want, you can save 1/4c pasta water and add it in, it will help make the sauce a little "thicker". At this point, grate some fresh parmigiano cheese over the pasta - about 2 tablespoons should suffice. Stir to melt the cheese. Chop up the roasted garlic and add it to the pasta - also add in your broccoli, caramelized onions/mushrooms, and toasted pine nuts. Chop up some fresh basil and add it in as well.

*to make your own roasted garlic, you can take a whole head of garlic, slice off the top of it to expose all the cloves within.. drizzle olive oil over it, wrap it in aluminum foil and put it in a 400 degree oven for roughly 30 minutes - may take more time depending on the size. The cloves should be soft when you press it. Let cool until you can safely handle it and then ease the cloves out of their skin... you can usually squeeze them out.
OR can you cheat (like we did) and buy whole cloves of roasted garlic in the prepared foods section at whole foods.


So yeah - its just kind of a cook a bunch of things then throw it all together into a pot and there's your pasta. Its pretty tasty! Well worth the effort.
Oh and don't forget to enjoy it with a nice glass of refreshing wine. mmmmmmmmmmm pinot grigio.....

Enjoy!
Posted by Lauren

Penne with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes

Here's a recipe that's one of my go-to recipes for week nights as it's quick, light, and fresh.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces penne pasta
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups (about 9 ounces) cherry tomatoes (preferably heirloom tomatoes)
  
• 1 cup shelled fresh peas
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 lemon, zested
  

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta water.

While the pasta is cooking heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large saute pan. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the asparagus, season with the salt and pepper, and cook for 3 minutes until slightly soft. Add the cherry tomatoes and peas. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour the chicken stock into the pan and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook until the tomatoes start to burst and the stock is reduced by half, about 3 minutes.Take a microplane out and zest the lemon on top of the pasta. Stir to mix.

Add the cooked pasta, ricotta, and 1/2 of the Parmesan to the saute pan with the vegetables. Toss well, adding reserved pasta water, if needed, to loosen the pasta. Garnish with the remaining Parmesan and chopped basil.

Buon Appetito!
- Lindsay

Mmmm . . . Meatballs

So they say a way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right? Well I typically stick by that rule so my man sticks by me. Honestly though, nothing makes me happier than seeing Zach clean his plate after one of my meals and then turning to me to see if he can scrounge up what I didn't finish. I kinda stole this title of this post from a restaurant Zach and I went to the other night. They had a pizza which they quite rightly named, "Mmmmm Meat." But to hear Zach order it with such enthusiasm was really the best part as I'm sure most diners just say, "I'll have the meat pizza, please."

One of Zach's favorite meals, behind 24 oz homemade chocolate shakes and matzo ball soup, is meatballs and spaghetti. I was never really a fan of meatballs growing up simply because I never really ate it. However, I realized that this really is a simple and satisfying meal. Even better, I usually have most the ingredients on hand so it's cheap and easy to make too.

When I make this I pretty much throw the ingredients together depending on how much I have on hand or how I'm feeling. A lot of it I feel is simply based on personal preference of how seasoned one like their meatballs or how fluffy or dense they prefer them to be.

Ingredients:
nocoupons

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (pork, turkey, veal, or a combination thereof works too)
  
• 3/4 cup of dried bread crumbs
  
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 extra-large egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup minced onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
• Vegetable oil for cooking
  

Directions:

Place the ground meat(s), bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, onion, garlic, and egg in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have roughly 12 meatballs.

Pour vegetable oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.

Here you can either choose to make your own sauce (which if I had the time to do all of the time I would all of the time) or you can just add your favorite jarred marinara. I decided to deglaze the pan with some red wine I had on hand to scrape up all the yummy brown bits and then add the meatballs back to the pan along with the sauce and a touch of water to keep the sauce for hardening. Cover and simmer the meatballs on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the they are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

Buon Appetito!
- Lindsay