Sautéed flank steak beef strips in a honey-orange-spice sauce

I bought a pack of frozen pierogies on the recommendation of a neighbor who took us grocery shopping as we don't have a car of our own yet. Sweet right? Pierogies are of Polish origin and are something similar to Raviolis, a dough covered dumpling, and the filling would be predominantly mashed potatoes. Other variants would include sautéed onions, cheese with the potatoes. More info on wikipedia: Pierogi.
I bought the one with potatoes and onions. As the flavour would be on the blander side, I wanted to make a side that would complement it with a good kick!

 So I made these sautéed flank steak beef strips in a honey-orange-spice sauce with onions, cabbage and red pepper. I know it sounds like a lot of ingredients but its easy to make. It was inspired by a show I watched long ago on the travel channel, called Everyday Exotic. It was an episode devoted to the spice Star Anise, and it was used with beef strips and had a honey orange sauce. But my version is totally different.

Ingredients:

Beef steak cut into thin strips (similar to the cut in Philly Cheese Steaks) - use flank or sandwich steak

To Marinate:

Garlic - 1 tbsp, chopped
Ground black pepper - 1 tsp
Star anise - ground - a pinch
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Lime juice - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Other Ingredients:

Orange juice - from one clementine
Honey - 2 tbsp
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Ginger - 1 inch (optional)
Onions - 1, sliced
Red pepper - sliced lengthwise (same length as beef flanks)
Shredded cabbage - 1/2 cup.
Cheese - grated (optional)
Butter - 2 tbsp
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) - 2 tbsp

A box of Mrs T's Pierogies.

Method:

Mix the beef strips with the marinade ingredients and leave for an hour.
In a bowl, mix soy sauce, honey and orange juice. Heat a frying pan and add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of EVOO.
Add the beef strips until its just  cooked. Dont mix it around too much if you want a nice carmelization to happen. Add the orange juice mixture into the pan. This is called deglazing. Allow the sauce to thicken and dry up a little. Keep aside.
In the same pan, add another tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of EVOO. Saute thinly sliced onions with a bit of salt till its light brown and caramelized. Now add red peppers, chopped ginger (if using) and shredded cabbage and sprinkle freshly ground black pepper. When its cooked, add the beef strips and combine well.

Pierogies can be boiled in hot water, or baked, or sautéed in oil or butter.
I boiled it as per the instructions on the box, then added gave it a quick toss in the same frying pan the beef was cooked, to get its edges browned a little.

All in all, it was fun!

Read More

Chicken Spring Rolls

These are an all-time favourite starter for me. I dream of these lovely juicy crispy rolls that we used to order from the famous Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurant in Riyadh. The chicken spring rolls with that sweet and light tomato sauce was something to die for!! So I've been having this craving for quite some while now, and I've been disappointed by all the spring rolls I've had from India so far.. maybe I have not been trying them at the right place, but they're usually very small, thin and dry without any of the goodness that the Chinese ones in Riyadh had. I've done a bit of googling to find the ultimate recipe. Instead I've found more than one good recipe and kind of tried to use all the ideas I liked in them. So these were my inspirations to my final product:

1. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-spring-rolls-recipe/index.html
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenandvegetables_89282
3. http://food.sify.com/nonvegrecipes/ingredient/Chicken_Spring_Rolls-131329

My Recipe:

Ingredients:

For the filling:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon grated ginger
2 carrots, julienned
5-10 French beans, julienned
1/2 or 1 cup very finely chopped cabbage
2 large spring onions, finely sliced lengthways
1 - big capsicum (very finely sliced)
2 ounces rice stick noodles, blanched and chopped
1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken breast
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce (I used mushroom soy)
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

Wrappers:
1 package frozen spring roll wrappers, thawed
1 egg, beaten
Vegetable oil, for frying

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok. Add minced garlic and grated ginger first. Before it turns brown add the cabbage, carrots, french beans, spring onions and capsicum. Toss till the cabbage starts to wilt (is just limp). Add the noodles and chicken; continue to cook until heated through. Sprinkle pepper. Stir in the hsoy and oyster sauces, toss to coat the mixture. The filling should be moist but not wet. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Toss in the chopped coriander.
Lay a spring roll wrapper on a flat surface on an angle so it looks like a diamond. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the filling near the bottom corner of the wrapper and fold up to enclose the filling. Fold in the 2 sides. Paint the top seam of the wrapper with beaten egg. Continue rolling up to form a tight cylinder.

Pour about 1-inch of oil in a skillet and heat to 350 degrees F. Fry the spring rolls for 2 minutes, turning to cook all sides. Drain on paper towels before serving. Serve with spring roll sauce. I used the readymade one but you can make your own too. Below recipe is from: http://www.thaifood.food-recipe-cooking.com/spring-roll-01-th-nv.htm

I havent tried it out yet, but hope to try next time I make spring rolls.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 fresh red chilli
1 tablespoon tapioca powder

Procedure: First of all take the chilli and grind it well. It should disintegrate into very small pieces and not be ground to a smooth paste, now keep the ground chilli aside. Next, take an empty cup and put two tablespoons of water in it, add the tapioca powder to this water and mix it well.
Add 1/4 cup water to a pan and then add the sugar, ground chilli, salt and vinegar, mix all the ingredients well. Now put the pan on a low flame and allow the mixture to boil. As the mixture starts boiling add the tapioca water into the mixture and stir well. Allow the mixture to boil for around 30 seconds more, then turn off the flame. Your dipping sauce is now ready and should be allowed to cool to room temperature.

My notes: I think its very important to not have any of the filling exposed through holes in the wrappers especially at the edges. Because if oil gets into the filling and makes it very oily, its not going to be worth eating. So if its difficult to cover it all using one wrapper, add a second wrapper on it. I couldnt tell which had two wrappers and which had one as they were tightly wrapped.
I also think that if the egg coating doesnt help in sticking the wrapper's edges, a paste of cornflour and water could be used. I stuck to the beaten egg but next time I would try the cornflour paste (my mom used to seal it with cornflour paste as far as I remember).
The sauce that was served in GRCR (Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurant) was like a very dilute tomato ketchup like sauce. I have no idea how they made it but could not find any recipe on the net after 5 mins of research. If anyone who bothers to read this blog finds one, please let me know.

PS: I know I dont have all that many readers or followers for this blog. Just 3 followers, out of which one is myself :P, the other is my sis and the other one is my bf lol! But I know I get a few hits from other countries such as the US, Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, even Germany, UK and Thailand!! Thank you all for visiting, please feel free to leave in any comments about what you think of this blog or even suggestions. Thank you again, you silent readers! I know even I dont really bother to always leave comments on the blogs from which I get inspired and use as credits here, but sometimes I do.

Read More

Cabbage-Carrot Thoran

This is a very common dish that I prepare at home. Super easy too. There are 2 different ways of cooking it, and I'm listing both here. But I usually use the second method because I dont need an extra bowl to combine the ingredients first and then add to the pan.

Credit: Giniann's blog

Ingredients:

• Cabbage shredded into small pieces- one small or half of a big cabbage head. I usually cut the whole cabbage into 4 or 8 small quarters, and then slice them at an angle into super fine shreds. My mom is an expert at shredding it by hand. Nowadays I use my food processor for this - give it a quick pulse.
• Carrot 1 small ,cut or shredded into small pieces. Use grater or food processor
• Coconut 1/4 cup shredded
• Shallots - 1/4 cup or 1 large onion diced 
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Greenchillies 5-6( add more or less to suit yr level of spiciness)
• Jeera/cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
• Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric 1/2 tsp
• Oil 1 tablespoon
• Curry leaves one sprig
• Salt to taste

Method:

Method 1: 

Combine the cabbage, carrots, coconut, salt, crushed green chillies and cumin. Use your hands to mix them well. 

Add oil to the hot pan. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the onions and stir for 2-3 min. Add the ginger and curry leaves now.Then add the turmeric powder and fry for about 30sec. Then add the cabbage mixture, mix everything well and then close the pan with a lid. After about 2 min, remove the lid, give a light stir and return the lid. Remove the lid and stir the cabbage every 2 min. After about 6-8min, the thoran should be done. There is no need to add any water at all…use a nonstick pan for this recipe. The cabbage will retain some of its color, have a bite to it and wont be all mushy.

Method 2:

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.When they pop up add chopped onions , green chillies, ginger and curry leaves. Saute well till they are soft and onions turn translucent.

Add turmeric powder and mix it well. Stir in the chopped carrots and cabbage (I usually grate them in the same bowl and combine them together before putting them in the pan, but you can toss it in the pan as well). Add salt and toss it well. Sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of water and simmer it covered for 7-9 minutes , until they are cooked and the raw smell disappears, stirring occassionally so that it wont stick to the bottom. Stir in the grated coconut and cook it uncovered for another 5 minutes.

Serve warm.

  

Read More