Pepper Steak Stir-Fry

Once a month or so, I’m going to start posting recipes and stuff to correspond with the cooking videos I’m putting on YouTube. This is my version of pepper steak. It’s probably not technically stir fry if you were to ask someone from Asia. But it tastes good.

Here’s the video:

ANNOYING STORY

It seems like everyone on the internet gives an annoying story about why they cooked before the recipe. I decided to give it a shot.

I was hankering for a dish with black bean sauce. I first ran into black bean sauce back when I worked at Learjet, before going to seminary. I went to Lee’s Chinese Restaurant (in Wichita, KS) for lunch with a coworker who grew up in China, and he introduced me to the Chinese menu there. I don’t exactly remember what the dish was, but the black bean sauce was phenomenal. Afterwards, I found some black bean sauce at the store and made some tasty food with it. I tried to find it again, but nobody had the right sauce at the store. Sad days. Instead, I had to “settle” for my version of a Pepper Beef stir fry.

Pepper Steak Stir-Fry

Recipe by Fr. MattCourse: MainCuisine: AsianDifficulty: Easy
Servings

2

servings
Prep time

5

minutes
Cooking time

20

minutes
Calories

512

kcal

My version of pepper steak. It’s probably not technically stir fry if you were to ask someone from Asia. But it tastes good.

Ingredients

  • Stir Fry
  • a bunch of green onions / scallions (about 6oz by weight)

  • 1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped into 1-in pieces

  • 1 to 1.5lb beef, thinly sliced or shaved

  • 2 tbsp. butter

  • Sauce
  • a dash fish sauce

  • 1 tsp. oyster sauce

  • 1 tbsp. rice wine

  • 2 tbsp. coarsely ground black pepper (less if you are sensitive to spice)

  • 3-5 cloves garlic, minced

  • ginger, minced or ground (don’t know how much, just do what feels right, honestly, the ginger is optional for this recipe)

  • 2 or 3 tbsp. dark soy sauce

  • 1 tbsp. light soy sauce

  • IF YOU DON’T HAVE DARK & LIGHT SOY SAUCE:
    4 tbsp. all-purpose soy sauce (Kikkoman or something like that)

Directions

  • prepare all your ingredients before beginning to cook
  • prepare sauce by mixing all sauce ingredients in a bowl
  • heat the pan on high heat, the highest your stove can go
  • melt the butter in the pan
  • when the butter is bubbling and smells great, add the onion
  • when the onion is just starting to brown on the edges, add the beef
  • double check to make sure the stove is as high as it’ll go
  • stir the items in the pan a lot (It’s a stir fry!!!)
  • when beef is about 2/3 done, add the sauce and stir everything to combine
  • after sauce is stirred in, add the green onions on top and let it all cook for a minute or so before stirring
  • stir everything together
  • keep stirring frequently
  • when the beef is cooked and the sauce is nice and thick, you’re done!

Recipe Video

Notes

  • Makes 4 servings when served with rice or 2 servings when served alone

spinach and cheese omelet

I normally eat a one egg omelet breakfast during the week. I crack the egg into the pan, pop the yolk and then throw a slice of cheese on top. It’s yummy. On Saturday, however, I usually eat a two egger, and throw some spinach (or arugula) into it for some variety. They’re dead simple to make, but here’s a recipe anyway!

Ingredients:

  • 2 large eggs (I like the brown ones, but use whatever you like)
  • 1 big handful of spinach
  • grated parmesan cheese (or any hard Italian cheese)
  • 1/2 tbsp butter
  • salt, pepper, cumin, Sriracha

Get a nice non-stick pan, throw the butter in and melt it. Once it’s all liquid and foamy, throw the spinach in. While the spinach is cooking, I beat the eggs. I usually put in about a tablespoon of water, some salt, pepper and cumin with the eggs before beating them. I use a fork and try to get a decent amount air in the mix. Make sure the whites and the yolks are completely combined. The omelet won’t come out as nicely otherwise.

When the spinach starts to wilt, I add the eggs and make sure that they get all around the pan. When the eggs start to thicken, I add a bunch of yummy cheese. Once the eggs are mostly hard (e.g., cooked through), I fold the omelet. After I let it brown a little more, I flip it onto the plate, throw some Sriracha on top and chow down!

Sorry—no pictures for this one. I forgot, and I’m out of eggs.

meal plans

One of my major stumbling blocks in losing weight is that I go out to eat—a lot. I’ve found that when I make a meal plan for the week, I tend to not eat out as much. This is good for two reasons: eating out is not cheap—it is very possible to have homemade meals cheaper than anything from McDonald’s—and it’s not particularly healthy.

I don’t usually plan breakfast—my breakfast is too light to have a real plan. For a few months, I ate Nature Valley crunchy granola bars for breakfast. One packages has two bars and 180 calories. Lately, I’ve been eating one-egg mini-omelets with cheese. These add up to about 140 calories (70 calories from each component).

For lunch this week, I’ve planned salads. Salads are quick and easy to make, and they are very easy to change so that I don’t get bored. I have a salad recipe book that I purchased1  for ideas when I’m not feeling particularly creative. This week, I am eating a simple green tuna salad. The ingredients are: a handful of spinach; a handful of arugula; half a small onion, sliced; one can of tuna, drained and rinsed a few times; and some parmesan cheese on top. I make the dressing myself too: 3 parts grapeseed oil (I ran out of Extra Virgin Olive Oil…) to one part white wine vinegar, with a dash of salt and some herbes de provence to kick it up a notch. It’s a very tasty salad, and fills me up very well. Not bad for about 400 calories!

Supper is always the tricky meal. I have the most trouble eating my planned suppers. This week I plan to make a simple chicken stir fry, but I have already managed to not eat it once. The trouble I tend to run into is that I am not home many nights of the week. I won’t be home again until Thursday night, so we’ll see if I actually manage to get to my chicken stir-fry this week.

By keeping my meal plans simple and repeating the items throughout the week, I can buy ingredients once a week and everything averages out to rather low cost. A carton of eggs and a bag of cheese cost maybe $5 together if you buy the good eggs. That’s less than a buck a meal, because the eggs will cover two weeks. A couple of bags of salad greens, a bag of cheese (I’m lazy and grating cheese is a pain.), some onions and 5 cans of tuna cost around $15-$20, which is $3-$4 per meal. Not quite as cheap, but healthy and filling. My chicken stir fry is really cheap. The chicken was $6 for a 3lb bag plus about $3 for veggies. That’s around $2 per meal when you add in the rice and spice costs. Awesome.

footnotes

1. Twelve Months of Monastery Salads: 200 Divine Recipes for All Seasons. This is a very nice recipe book. Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette has quite a few very nice cook books—I’ve purchased three. Some recipes are duplicated between books, but overall they are all simple and delicious. I try to buy from my local Catholic book store, but they didn’t stock this particular book.

italian style lamb meatballs

1/3 lb of delicious meaty tastinessI like big meatballs.

I don’t want tiny meatballs that sit, dwarfed, atop a pile of spaghetti. I want meatballs that stand on their own—that don’t need a base of spaghetti to fill you up. I don’t even want spaghetti with my meatballs—that means that I’m just eating filler.

So, without further dramatization, I present my recipe for big meatballs. This time I made them with lamb, but they’re pretty much the same with any meat. The main difference is the spices, and even then not much…

I use dried herbs. Purists will probably insist on fresh. Fresh is fine if you get excited about mincing herbs and go through them before they go bad. Otherwise: dried is close enough.

I cook these in a tasty tomato sauce, so you get a bonus recipe here: zesty tomato sauce!

We need to make the tomato sauce first.

Tomato Sauce:

  • 2tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 can (14.5oz) diced tomatoes
  • 1 can (6oz) tomato paste
  • 1/2cup veggie/chicken/whatever stock (or water)
  • 2tbsp each: dried oregano, dried parsley
  • 1/2tbsp dried thyme
  • 1tsp sugar
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 lemon
  • 1tbsp Tabasco-type sauce

Step 1: Fry the garlic for about a minute in the nice, hot EV Olive Oil.

Step 2: Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste and stock.

Step 3: Add the herbs, sugar, salt and pepper.

Step 4: Squeeze all that tasty juice out of the lemon and into the sauce.

Step 5: Add the Tabasco. You could also add dried chili flakes or something else spicy. We’re really just doing this to give the sauce one last kick in the pants.

Step 6: Stir it all up. (I hope you felt inclined to stir as you added things, but it should be OK either way.) Set it to simmer while you prep the meatballs.

Meatballs:

  • 1lb of ground lamb
  • 1 egg
  • 8 Ritz-style crackers, crushed up into tiny bits
  • 2tbsp dried basil
  • 1tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2tsp curry powder (yes, really: curry powder)
  • salt
  • pepper

Step 1: Put it all in a big bowl and get dirty mixing it up with your hands!

Step 2: Fashion 3 MASSIVE 1/3lb meatballs. I said I like them big and I meant it. They may be just as tasty small, if you are so inclined.

Step 3: Place these meatballs gingerly in the tomato sauce, which should be slightly bubbly by now. If the sauce doesn’t cover the meatballs, add some water so that it does. Stir things up a little bit, but be careful not to destroy your works of art.

Step 4: Put a lid on the pan, and let it all simmer 20 minutes.

Step 5: EAT YOUR MEATBALLS. Make sure to ladle copious amounts of sauce on them. I had green beans (you just heat them…) on the side and creamy leek soup as an appetizer with my meatballs.

This should feed 3 hungry people, or 1 massive beast of a hungry person.

crema di porri–creamy leek soup

creamy and leekyThis is an Italian recipe for leek soup. I’ll be honest, I got it off another website and didn’t change it much. But my recipe has a picture and much more lively text.

Ingredients:

  • 3 average, ordinary, whatever your grocer sells, leeks
  • 2tbsp Olive Oil (Extra Virgin or Pure)
  • 2tbsp flour
  • 1 box (32oz) of veggie stock—if you get broth don’t add any more salt!
  • 1tbsp ground cumin
  • salt
  • 2c milk (I like 2%)
  • parsley, chopped (a nice sized pile)
  • parmesan cheese (don’t get pre-shredded—it shreds fast and easy and tastes better when you buy a wedge)

Step 1: Clean and chop the leeks. Leeks are somewhat annoying to clean. They are grown by piling sand/dirt up around them so they tend to have lots of dirt in the leaves. The easiest way is to cut the tops off about 1/2 inch below where the leaves all join together and then cut about 1/2 inch off the bottom (that’s just to get rid of the roots). Then cut some slits through about 12 of the remaining leek from the middle to the greener end. Open it up and you should see the dirt. Wash the crap out of these things. In fact, if you can, soak these for a while before proceeding. It’s worth it not to get yummy sand in your soup.

Chopping these things is easy. I just slice them. Since we quartered the thing earlier when cleaning it, it works out nicely.

Step 2: Heat up the Olive Oil in a big pot. (OK, maybe a medium pot works, but my pot is big.)

Step 3: When the Olive Oil is nice and hot (if it’s smoking it’s too hot) add the chopped leeks and fry them for a minute or two—just long enough to show those leeks you mean business.

Step 4: Add the flour and stir it up really good. You want the leeks to be thoroughly coated with flour so that it won’t make clumps when you…

veggie stock--it's unsaltedStep 5: Add the veggie stock. Stir while you add it to prevent flour clumps. I use this stuff:

Step 6: Wait 20-30 minutes. Stir occasionally. You want a simmer here. NO BOILING!

Step 7: Remove the pot from the heat and add the milk. Stir while you do this.

Step 8: If you want to blend it, this is where you would do it. I’m lazy, so I didn’t.

Step 9: Put the pot back on the heat for 5 minutes. Remember: Simmer.

Step 10: While simmering, add the chopped parsley and a bunch of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Step 11: Scoop it out into bowls and eat up!

This can serve 5 or 6 as a first course and 3ish as a main.

lemon butter cookies

DSCF2109

I found this recipe in a cookbook I own, and I didn’t make many changes to it. The cookies came out nicely. They aren’t hard, but they aren’t chewy—the best way to describe it is crumbly.

lemon disassembly in pictures

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Ingredients:

  • 1 c. butter (softened)
  • 3/4 c. sugar
  • peel of one lemon, finely shredded
  • 2 c. flour
  • powdered sugar (if desired)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the butter into a big bowl and mix it for 30 seconds to a minute on medium.

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Add the sugar to the bowl and beat it in.

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Add the lemon peel and then ad the flour in thirds. It will not seem very doughy, but just beat it until the flour is somewhat mixed in. At the point, mix it a bit with your hands or a spatula.

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Make little balls of dough (just grab some of the stuff in the bowl and roll it in your hands). I like to flatten them. The original recipe did not include that step, but I think they’re better when flattened.

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Bake them for about 15 minutes, or until the sides are just getting golden. Let them sit for about 5 minutes and transfer them to a wire rack or some other cooling surface. At this point, you can optionally sift powdered sugar onto the cookies. (The powdered sugar is definitely worth it!)

recipe for “hardcore” lent–koshari

DSCF2095I was watching No Reservations a few weeks back. It was the episode where Bourdain visited Egypt. There were several dishes on that episode that meet the requirements of "my “hardcore” Lent. One of these was a dish called Fül—it consists of mashed up fava beans and several other ingredients. I will post the recipe for it when I get it worked out.

The second dish was a dish called koshari. I based my recipe off of a recipe I found online. I made a few modifications, but kept it mostly the same.

Ingredients

  • 2 medium onions, sliced
  • 3/4 cup uncooked rice (white)
  • 3/4 cup brown lentils
  • 1 cup shell macaroni (elbow macaroni works too)
  • 1 cup cooked chickpeas (at least) dried work too, if you feel like cooking them
  • 4 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 tsp Sambal Oelek
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup white vinegar
  • vegetable oil
  • water (at last 4 cups)

The first day

I cooked the chickpeas the day before everything else. I bought them dry, because dried chickpeas are cheaper. Cooking them is simple. I soaked them in lots of while I was at work and running errands for a total of about 12 hours. I then drained the water. I then simmered the chickpeas in plenty of new and salted water for a little over two hours. When they were finished, I drained them and put them in the fridge.

Cooking the koshari (the second day)

In a saucepan, put the lentils in plenty of water and bring it to a boil. (Make sure it is salted.) Once the water starts boiling, drop the heat to medium-low and simmer the lentils for 25 minutes. Drain the lentils after they’re done cooking.

Add the lentils back to the saucepan, add at least four cups of water and the rice (and a little salt). Bring the water to a boil, drop the heat and simmer again. This time, simmer the rice and lentils for 20 minutes.

At this point, cook the macaroni according to the package directions. You will want to cook it until tender, not al dente.

In a skillet (or a saucepan), heat about 2 tbsp of vegetable oil until it shimmers. Add the garlic to the oil. After a minute or so, add the tomatoes, cumin, sambal and vinegar to the pan. Bring the sauce to a boil. Once it boils, drop the heat and simmer the sauce until everything is ready. Make sure to crush the tomatoes well when stirring the sauce occasionally.

In yet another skillet, heat some more oil. (You’ll want maybe 3 or 4 tbsp this time.) Once it’s ready, add the sliced onions and brown them. Once they are brown add some water and continue cooking the onions. You’ll want to repeat this a few times until the onions are caramelized.

At this point, you should have five separate dishes. These are traditionally layered in the following order: rice/lentil mix, macaroni, spicy tomato sauce, chickpeas and finally onions.

Enjoy!

Turkey and Rice Stew

I had some leftover turkey in my refridgerator and a bunch of veggies I needed to cook, so I decided to make a stew. I’ve formatted this recipe a little different. Enjoy!

Step 1: Gather the ingredients.

They include: Carrots, Scallions (Green Onions), Turkey, 2 cans of Low Sodium Chicken Broth, Chinese Five Spice, Ground Ginger, Thyme, Rosemary, Celery Seed, Salt, Minced Garlic, Pepper, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Cornstarch and Rice.

Continue reading “Turkey and Rice Stew”

spaghetti alla arrabiata

Long Pasta NoodlesI made this a couple weeks back. It was fantastic. It’s very, very good despite the fact that there is no meat in it. Arrabbiata sauce is a spicy tomato sauce–it’s probably my favorite no-meat red sauce. I’m sure mine wouldn’t count as a “true” arrabiata if you ask an Italian, but it’s still very tasty.

I will make this one night, and then eat it for lunch the next 2 or 3 days. This stuff is great reheated; the flavors seem to be mixed together even better! Continue reading “spaghetti alla arrabiata”