Holiday Party - Leg of Lamb with Potatoes

I hosted the Christmas party for my family this year and made it pot luck. There was only the five of us so nothing too crazy but it was a fun time. I made leg of lamb.

One 4.5 lb leg of lamb (bone in)
some dried crushed rosemary
salt and pepper
three cloves of garlic.



This recipe that I found online was so easy, I figure it was the safe thing to do. I chopped up the garlic and mixed it in the rosemary, salt and pepper. Rubbed it all over the lamb and stabbed small slits in the lamb to push the garlic pieces in.



Then it was just the matter of cooking it. The recipe I found saids to cook it low and slow. 250 for four hours covered and 2 more uncovered. It is not going for medium rare. It is cooking it til it falls apart. I like this kind of cooking; it is kind of like the pulled pork and the lamb shank that I've cooked before. I like both of those.

After 6 hours of cooking the lamb and my condo is smelling delicious, tear the meat apart, rip the bones out, and let it sit. The lamb should be tender enough where you can use two forks and rip the meat apart. I actually cut them into slightly bigger than bite size pieces(chopstick friendly size) with my brand new kitchen shears because we are having it Chinese family style. The meat soak up some of the juice that the meat have sweated out. Moist meat is good.

It's time to make the potatoes.

5 small red potatoes
Lots of salt
Some dried rosemary
A little garlic powder (not pictured)
Enough olive oil to cover all the potatoes



I quartered (cut into fourths)the potatoes with my brand new santoku. Did I mention I bought a brand new knives set? It is sweet. The knife glided right through the potatoes with no effort. Best purchase of 2007 for me.

Throw the chopped potatoes in a baking pan and add the rest of the ingredients. I mixed it all up by hand make sure every pieces are covered. Bake the potatoes at 450 for 30 minutes, toss them a bit at 15 to make sure all sides get a bit of browning.

The lamb kind of cooled a bit so I put everything on the plate and put it all back into the oven a to keep warm as the oven cool back down from 450. About 10-15 minutes later, it was nice and warm and ready.



It was a pot luck and my parents brought sticky rice and Chinese broccoli. My brother brought desert, chocolate dipped strawberries. Dinner was awesome.



Happy Holidays!

-a

Chili

I just thought it's about time I learn to make chili. It's winter time, there is nothing better than coming in from the cold to a hot bowl of chili. ...Well, I can think of a couple things, but this blog is about food.

2 pounds of grounded beef/pork combo
1 big red bell pepper
1 white onion
1 jalapeño
1 cubanelle pepper
2 cloves of garlic
28 oz can of diced tomato
10 oz can of kidney beans
10 oz can of black beans (later added)
6 oz can of Tomato paste (later added)
grounded pepper
salt
chili powder
cumin
a bottle of sam adams winter lager



First I seasoned the meat with cumin, pepper, and salt, then brown the meat in a big pot on high heat. Take the cooked meat out but leave the meat fat in the pot. Finely chop up the vegetables and in the pot they goes. Cook the vegetables on medium heat season with chili powder and more cumin, salt and pepper. When they start to smell good, put the meat back in and stir. Oh this is important, when chopping the jalapeño and cubanelle, take the middle guts and the seeds out and throw them away. That is where the death heat are. You don't want any of that.

Then I pour in the beer, diced tomato, and kidney beans and bring to a boil.



This was originally all the ingredients I had. The consistency seems off. It was too thin. So I made a quick run to the store for a can of tomato paste. I also picked up a can of black beans to add. I added the new extra ingredients and now it looks right.



I keep tasting to test and season accordingly. I let it simmer for about an hour and a half and it's done.



The chili was good. For a first time chili, I was please with what I made. Just the right amount of heat. The proportions of meat to sauce to beans to vege was just right. Good job Alex!

Chili is one of those things that can be adjusted every time until the perfect mix is created. So I will definitely make chili again sometime and change it up a bit next time.

-a

Pan-seared scallops

This one I saw on TV once and it seem easy to do.

a pound of big sea scallops
non-stick canola oil spray
salt and pepper
mango salsa, I bought store bought stuff because I'm lazy and these store bought ones are actually fresh and good.
shredded carrots for garnish
a lemon for juice



Defrost and rinse the scallops, pat dry. Sear each side for about 2-3 minutes with the non-stick spray on medium high heat. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on each wide while it cook.



THAT'S IT!. The rest is just garnish and side stuff. Put it on a plate with the salsa on the side and carrots the half lemon for juice. Easy.



This is one of the more fancier dish for the effort. This is good if you like scallops like I like scallops.

-a

Knife Skill Class

Last week I went to a Knife Skill class at the Chopping Block. My bro gave me a gift certificate from there for my b-day a while back and I finally get to use it.It was a nice class, taught me how to use a chef's knife and learn about other knifes. Now I'm dangerous. I've been holding a knife the wrong way all this time. This class also let me know that my knifes at home sucks. I will be getting new knifes hopefully soon.

-a

Curry Chicken

OK it's been a while. Lately, I've been repeating recipes and been busy haven't updated in over a month. And I've been lazy, I have 2 dishes with pictures and I just haven't written about them. Here is one I repeated, Curry chicken. Last time i made sauce and poured them on a cornish hen. This time I do it properly, bite size chicken pieces and heated in the sauce.

About 2 pounds of chicken thighs cut into small bite size pieces
Salt
Curry powder
2 cans of coconut milk (I only used one in the picture and decided I needed both later)
1 large onion
1 large potato
chopped carrot and celery
a couple slices of ginger.



First marinade the chicken with just salt for a day. Bake the chicken at 350 for a half hour. After that, drain the chicken, set it aside for a little bit.

Chop up and boil the potato for about 10 min. Chop the onion and ginger and sizzle in a pot with oil for a minute. Pour in the coconut milk and add about 1 and a half table spoon of curry powder. Drain the chopped potato and add to sauce. Add the chicken after about 15 minutes. Let the potato pieces break down a bit to thicken the sauce.



Cook everything for about another 15 min and it's good. I served it with rice.



I liked this, I'm glad I made a lot and this fed me for a few days. This time the vegetables was a welcomed addition. Everything in a sauce was better than pouring the sauce on top. Will do this again. Next time more potatoes.

-a

Steamed Cod with Bok Choi

This is a something my mom would make. Not sure if cod is really used in Chinese dishes, but steaming is how Chinese cook fish. I always liked steamed fish.

1 lb of cod filet
a couple slices of ginger
a couple stems of green onions
oil
some bok choi
a clove of garlic



Put the ginger on top of the fish and put it on a plate and steam it for 30 minutes.
While that is cooking, make the bok choi. Just cut it up and put it in a pan with oil toss it a little, toss in the garlic, and put a lid on it let it cook for about 6-7 minutes. Easy.

After the fish have been steaming for 30 minutes, take that out and drain it. Chop up the green onions and put that on top of the fish. Put some soy sauce on top of it. Heat up some more oil, make it hot, pour that on top of the fish. This will semi cook the green onions just barely.



This is freaking delicious. The fish is tender, falls apart when you try to take it off the plate.



It is a very subtle taste, this whole dish is not about rich flavors. Good stuff though.

-a

Eggplant Parmasan

I've been so busy at work lately that I haven't been able to put much thought into making new dishes. I have been repeating stuff so not much new stuff to write about.

Here is a vegetarian dish. My first for the blog.

1 big eggplant ( I forgot to take the picture before I cut the thing)
a bunch of mushrooms
a jar of tomato-based pasta sauce, I used one with olives
a lot of mozzarella, a lot of parmasan cheese
bread crumb and crackers



I didn't bother with using egg to make the bread crumb stick, i decided to just make it like a pastaless lasagna.

I coated a oven tray with non-stick spray and layered the cut-up eggplant on th bottom. Then next layer is mushrooms, then breadcrumbs and crackers. On top of that I poured on the mozzarella. I had a bunch leftover from the mac and cheese from that last entry, so i used a lot of it. Pasta sauce is next. I didn't intend to use the whole jar, i wanted to cover the entire tray and it just worked out that way. On the very top I added parmasan cheese, also leftover from before.



I baked the eggplant parmasan for an hour at 350.



Looks good. Taste pretty good too. Lots of cheese, lots of mushrooms, I like that. The sauce is really nothing special though. Maybe next time I'll try to make sauce from scratch and add some crazy ingredients to it.

I've always stayed away from vegetarian stuff before because I thought it would take some creative seasoning. Well, it didn't just go buy some pasta sauce. Haha. OK next time I won't cheat and make my own sauce. First vegetarian dish is a success.

-a

Ai Quattro Formaggi (Mac n Cheesex4)

I wouldn't put mac and cheese on here unless it is half fancy. So here is my 4 cheese mac and cheese:

1 lb of penne pasta
3 cups of cream
approx 1 cup of mozzarella
approx 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
approx 1 cup of sharp cheddar
approx 1 cup of a "3 pepper" cheese
a clove of garlic
a handful of parsley
some butter
bread crumb



First cook the pasta in water with salt until it's cooked. Then drain and dump it in a buttered baking pan.

Then make sauce. Heat some butter in a sauce pan and sizzle the garlic and parsley for a little bit. Add the cream and the cheese and heat it until it's all melted and become sauce.

Pour the sauce over the pasta and mix it good. Throw some bread crumb on top and add more cheese on the top. Put it in a 350 preheated oven for 30 minutes and smell the awesomeness. Sniff it in. yea..



The mac and cheese is so much better than kraft pre-made, package stuff. The baked crust is great, everything else is great. Not gooey enough, but i just made more sauce and that's solved.



Ohh man, and filling too. I have enough to feed me for like three, four days.

-a

Curry Cornish Hen

I had one more Cornish Hen that was frozen in my freezer, time to use it.
I always like curry chicken, this will be the first time I ever make it.

One Cornish Hen cut in half, marinaded in salt and pepper.
a can of coconut milk
one and a half tablespoon of curry powder
a small onion
a bit of ginger
a potato
Rice as a side



Internet recipes all cut the chicken in pieces and cooked in the curry. I'm using a Cornish Hen and my knifes sucks, so I'm cooking the chicken separately and pouring the curry sauce on top of it.

Throw the chicken in the oven, 450 for 30 min. I want it crispy, I covered the chicken with olive oil and bake at high temp. Man, I need better ventilation in my condo, I got the place smokey.



Skin and chop the potato into cubes and boil it for 10 minutes. Put oil in a pot and brown the onion and ginger for a few minutes then pour the coconut milk in. Add curry powder and some salt. Drain the potato and dump that in too. Let that simmer for about 15 minutes. The house is starting to smell.



When everything is done, take the chicken out, rice on the side and pour the curry sauce all over the chicken and rice.



It taste pretty good, not enough salt. I added more salt and it taste great. It's the kind of food that I don't really want to use the effort to eat the meat off the bone. I understand why I should have used boneless small chicken chunks. Not too spicy, kinda sweet. This is good stuff. After venting the condo with open windows for an hour, I'm very happy with this dish.

-a

Soy Sauce Ribs

I messed up my ribs last time, this time I'm redeeming myself. I have help this time. I got a recipe from my parents. This one is from my homeland, Mother China. Soy sauce ribs, aka 1-2-3 ribs you'll see why.

1 tblspn wine (I used sherry)
2 tblspn of vinegar (forgot to include this in the picture)
3 tblspn of sugar
4 tblspn of soy sauce
a bit of oil
a couple stems of green onions
a couple slices of ginger
2 lbs of spare ribs



First in a pot, add the oil and sizzle the green onions and ginger for a few minutes. Then mix the sauce ingredients. Throw in the ribs and sauce and brush the sauce all over the ribs. The recipe said to simmer for about half an hour. The juice from the ribs made the sauce light. That's not suppose to happen.



Oh well, I'll taste it anyway. It's a lot of ribs, I'll just have half of it. I'll continue to cook the other half.



It is blandish. The ribs itself is a little tougher than I like too. Let see how the other half turns out.

I cook the ribs until the juice almost all evaporates. the sauce is now dark and thick.



I had the ribs the next day and this is how it is suppose to be. Good stuff, taste sweet and soy saucy. More tender than yesterday too. So the idea is to cook it until the sauce is thick and dark, skip the recommended time in recipes. Judging my eyes is how to do this.

-a

Empty the Fridge Beef Stew

I have accumulated a lot of vegetables in my fridge and it's time to empty the thing.
Time to make stew, I'll only have to fill in th blank with a few things. The rest are in my fridge.

2.5 lbs of cubed stew beef
4 stalks of celery
2 cloves of garlic
2 yellow onion
2 potatoes
a box of mushrooms
2 jalapeños
3 sticks of green onion
some fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
Curry powder
4 cup container of beef broth
Dried rosemary
some red wine...
yes. this will last me a while.



First, I was suppose to brown the beef and sauté the onions and celery. I tried, but the pot I have is not that big. Oil and beef and onions and celery in the pot, medium/high heat. Some of it got brown, other parts kinda cooked, other parts starting to burn. It's time to move on. I dumped the broth and other stuff in. Other stuff includes everything but the potatoes and the mushrooms. If I had carrots, that would wait too. Simmer for about an hour and a half, the beef needs to get tender. After that put the rest of the ingredients in. and simmer for another hour.



The stew should get thicker and the beef and potatoes should be falling apart just a bit.

The taste test:



It was ok... , but a lot of the earlier vegetables like onions and celery melted. The jalapeños is a kick in the butt. Something is missing. It needed more salt. I added more salt and it was still kinda goodish.. I added too much, but still better than before.

Overall it was decent. If I do a better job of adjusting the salt,it would've been very good. It does seem like a bit of a waste of vegetables when so much of it melted and the taste is so full that it's hard to detect each taste. I think the secret to stews is to keep it simple and not throw everything in. That way you know what you're eating. Mystery stew is not a good thing. Oh, and use lots of salt but be careful how much to use.

-a

Cornish Hen with Honey Orange Glaze

Tonight I made Cornish Hen. I like the fact that I'm cooking the whole animal. Makes me feel caveman.

1 Cornish Hen, I had 2 but 1 was enough, the other one is gonna freeze
Sea Salt, Grounded pepper
Honey
Orange Marmalade



First chop the chicken in halves lengthwise, rinse the chicken and dry it with paper towel. Rub salt and pepper on all sides. Mix the honey and orange marmalade together. It was kinda thick so I threw a splash of raspberry vodka on it. Yeah, I just wanted some alcohol. It thin out the glaze some and it's easier to brush on the chicken.

Spread the glaze on all sides of the chicken. Bake it at 400, brush the chicken with the juice every 15 minutes. Bake for a total of 45 minutes.



I also made some rice as a side. It looks delicious.



Taste pretty good too. I think it can use a little more spice, maybe a little charred skin would make it crisy. That would be even better. Good nevertheless. The breast is kinda dry, but not as bad as bigger chicken. The next bird sitting in the freezer right now will get some chili pepper treatment. I'll up the temperature and maybe shorten the time.

-a

Chicken with mushroom cream sauce

I make chicken all the time but alway with dry spices. This time I'm gonna try making sauce.

3 Chicken thighs
A bunch of mushrooms.
A Bit of flour
Some milk
A pinch of chicken broth cube crushed up
Butter
Green onion
a clove of garlic
Cheap white wine

I marinade the chicken in the cheap wine and some green onions. I meant to do this overnight, but something came up and I ended up marinaded the chicken for 2 nights.

I had extra mushrooms so I baked the mushrooms and the chicken together. 350 for 40 minutes.



To make the sauce, I cook the mushrooms in butter until it's a nice soft. Then I put in the chopped up green onions and chopped up garlic. After a while, I put in the chicken broth crumbs and a bit of water. Stir it a bit and pour in the milk and flour. Keep stirring and heat in low heat until it's thick.



When the chicken is done, pour the sauce on the chicken and eat.



The chicken tasted a bit bitter from the wine. Not the best, I have to use a different marinade next time or just don't do it for so long. The sauce tasted good, but again, not perfect. Need more experimenting with sauce. Totally ODing on mushrooms. No more for a couple weeks.

-a

Pulled Pork with Baked Beans

I like pulled pork. When they're good, it melts in your mouth. I looked up how to do this and it seem easy. Lets do this.

3 lb pork shoulder roast
2 cloves of garlic
a big can of baked beans as side
chili powder
salt and pepper
1/2 cup of barbecue sauce, I like Sweet Baby Ray's.
1/4 cup of vinegar



First take the roast and spread salt, pepper, chili powder, and minced garlic all over it. Put it a oven pan and cover it with foil. You got to make it bake in its own sweat or it'll dry. Bake the roast at 350 for 4 hours. Yes, it takes that long to break down the meat so it will be tender. Meanwhile, just chill.

After the 4 hours, let the meat sit and resoak some of the juice back into the meat. Then use two forks to shred it. The meat should just fall right off.



Do this in the oven pan so it can soak up the rest of the juice that got baked off. I then put it in a pot to mix with the vinegar and BBQ sauce over low heat. Just mix it well, add more chili powder, pepper, whatever you want.

Throw the beans in another pot and just heat it up and you got a side.

You can put the pulled pork on buns for a sandwich, but I'm not a big bread guy. So I eat it with a fork on a plate.



This was absolutely delicious. I love it. Plus I got enough to last me a couple more meals. Shoulder roast have just enough fat on it to make it melt. Ohh man, foodgasm..

-a

Lazy man's Seafood Gumbo

I had toothache and didn't feeling chewing much. I'm making gumbo!
I looked up how to make gumbo from scratch and just didn't feel like doing all the work. I bought some gumbo mix, a bunch of vegetables and went to work.



1 pack of Zatarain's Gumbo mix. (They're so good it doesn't make sense to make it from scratch)
a few stalks of celery
a yellow onion
a stem of green onion
a couple mild peppers (I'm not sure what kind, below is a picture of it, maybe you know what kind)
a can of crab meat
about a dozen oysters (thanks mom)
Random dashes of Louisiana hot sauce



I threw everything except the crab and oysters in a big pot, add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for ten minutes and throw in the crab and oysters. Simmer for another 15 minutes and it's ready.



I was good. The oyster goes great with the gumbo. Everything was perfect. Yeah, using prepackaged mix might be cheating considering that I'm writing a cooking blog about it. It was good and I don't care.

-a

Pan seared ribeye steak

Simple steak, I've done steak before and did them quite well. But this is a new method that I'm trying out. Usually, I throw a steak and a pan and cook until done at medium rare like I like it. This time I'm going to just sear the outside at super high heat and finish it in the oven. It is suppose to create a caramelized outer crust that is gonna be tasty. Here it goes!

Ribeye steak, about 2/3 pound, an inch thick
sea salt
fresh grounded pepper
oil
frozen broccolis as a side



First I rub the salt and pepper on both sides and let the steak rest until it's room temperature. Then I heat the pan at high heat for a few minutes. Add the oil and let that get super hot. Meanwhile the oven is preheating to 275.

Throw the steak on, 2 minutes a side. It already look delicious. Throw it in the oven. I think this part need some adjusting. I was busy doing laundry and other stuff and lost track of time here. So I don't know how long it was in there for. Frozen broccolis are being microwaved now too.

Put everything on th plate for picture time.



This steak probably could've ben good, but I overcooked it. I like steak at medium rare and it came out medium well.



I had to use steak sauce to chew down this shoe leather. As thin this steak is, I probably could've skipped the whole oven part. The caramelized crust thing was good though. The outside of the steak was actually excellent, just the dried and tough overcooked inside that I didn't like. I've done better steak before. This kinda suck.

-a