Home Alone Rib Steak

Fern is off to Hawaii so the first thing I do is treat myself to a nice rib steak. Asparagus was on special and so was sour cream so I bought both.  I fried the steak, steamed the asparagus and microwaved the potatoes. 

Super Quick Hollandaise

1 egg yolk in small sauce pot

1/8 cup butter - 1/4 inch slice from brick - melted but not hot

1 oz water

lemon juice

salt

Add lemon juice to water till it has a nice balance. Slowly add melted butter to egg yolk, whisking it in as you go. Add some water mixture and put pot on burner. Heat the sauce till it starts to thicken, add more water mixture to thin as needed. Plate. It takes less than two minutes with my induction burner. A pot of boiling water works just as well.

Plain old artery clogging sour cream on the potatoes. The meat is from Mitchell's and the flavour can't be beat. Getting tasty meat with the fat trimmed off makes the higher price worth every penny. I ate all I could and the dog finished  it, licking the plate clean. We both enjoyed this meal.

Cajun Chicken on Pineapple Sauce

Cajun chicken is no stranger to my stove but this time I finally made a sauce for it. I had pineapple pieces left over in the fridge and nothing to use them in.  Dinner was under control so I decided to try a sweet and sour sauce.  I put a slice of butter in a small sauce pan with a tablespoon of tapioca flour. If that sounds like too much, it was, but I'd never used the stuff so I went by feel. Wish I'd felt less. Anyway, I melted the butter and cooked the flour a minute then turned off the heat and started adding water, lemon juice and pineapple juice. I could have thinned it out to a quart or two of sauce. I turned the heat on to finish cooking it. It was too thick but didn't have the pasty taste of wheat flour in this kind of sauce. Fern ate it and the dog licked the plates so I guess it was good.

I simply salted and sprinkled cajun spice on the chicken. Browned it in a pan, turned it over and put the pan in the oven at 325F for 25 minutes. Basmati rice with salt and oil underneath and broccoli steamed, cooled and reheated in olive oil on the side.

Vinaigrette

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp canola oil

1-2 tsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

Whisk, toss and serve.

Rib Steak

How can you tell I'm home alone? Rib Steak! I got a beautiful dark red steak from Mitchell's and paired it with baked potato done in the microwave.  Broccoli steamed, cooled and finished in olive oil.  The mushrooms I fried in the steak pan first, took them out and cooked the steak then returned them to the pan in the final moments to reheat. The steak was seasoned with salt and black pepper and fried on the stove. 

I used the last of some Kraft dressing on the salad just to get it out of the fridge. Next time I get a free bottle of salad dressing, I'm leaving it in the store.

It was all really delicious!

Chinatown Pork Tenderloin

Kevin brought us this pork tenderloin from Vancouver's China Town. Someone's grandmother's favourite Chinatown butcher BBQ's it and it is spectacular! No idea what shop it's from but it's worth trying them all till you find it. All I did was reheat it in foil and serve with St. Hubert Beef Gravy. Steamed broccoli finished in olive oil and Green Giant Peaches & Cream Corn (which Kevin said was delicious). I almost forgot the mashed potatoes under the gravy. Mashed and finished with butter, salt and milk.

Vinaigrette 

1 tbsp olive oil 

2 tsp canola or corn oil

2 tsp red Balsamic vinegar (made from grapes gathered by virgins at dawn on the east facing slope of consecrated ground)

1/2 tsp salt

fresh black pepper

few drops Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 tsp dijon mustard

I keep a bin of iceberg lettuce with celery and cucumber sliced into it. Tear it all up so it doesn't go brown. If you cut it with a knife it will turn brown where the knife touched it. So I just grap a handful of salad for each person and toss it all. Add fresh chopped tomatoes and finish tossing.

This was a terrific meal, Fern and Kevin are scheming out how to make it at home. We'll see.......

Mitchell's Marinated Chicken Breast

I'm beginning to think Brian, meat manager at Mitchell's, has a chef's background. His souvlakis are wonderful and this marinated breast was fantastic! I like to season my own meat but when someone else does such a good job, I don't mind the help. Fern said he tasted sage in it. It was wonderful, I was too busy enjoying it to worry about what was in it. When I let someone else season my meat, I'm in a hurry and probably haven't eaten all day.

I did make the potatoes with butter, salt and milk.  The broccoli was steamed, cooled and reheated in olive oil.

Vinaigrette

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp canola oil

2 tsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

few drops Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 tsp dijon mustard

Toss with iceberg lettuce, half a stick of celery, quarter of an english cucumber and a diced tomato.

The chicken was the star but the rest was pretty good too.

Mitchell's Pork Cutlet

Now that I know why meat at Mitchell's tastes better, I'm more inclined to buy it over cheaper meat from Save On Foods. Chain stores buy bulk factory farm meat that is raised as cheaply as possible. That means no exercise and no exercise means no flavour. It's most noticeable with chicken. If you start with product that tastes great on it's own, it's a lot easier to make a fantastic meal.

Rice was cooked in the microwave with salt, lemon juice and olive oil. The broccoli was steamed then cooled under running water and reheated in olive oil and salt. The cutlet was breaded by Mitchell's and fried in olive oil. It didn't brown as nicely as the Save On cutlets but the flavour should be better so not to worry.

Vinaigrette

1 tbsp olive/canola oil

2 tsp red wine vinegar

salt

black pepper

dot of hot dog mustard

Whisk, toss the salad and serve.

It was great but the cutlet didn't have the impressive flavour I was hoping for. I think that's because of my cooking so I'll try them again.  The condiment on the meat is plain apple sauce.

Coconut Chicken Curry

Too bad the flavour doesn't come through the photo because this tasted amazing! I started with breasts from Mitchell's. I figured out why their chicken tastes good and Save On Foods or Safeway chicken doesn't. Muscles working is what gives meat it's flavour. Animals kept tightly penned and unable to get exercise produce meat with almost no flavour. Free range and free run animals will have flavour that factory farm animals don't get a chance to produce.

I diced up the chicken into bite size pieces, salted and coated it with flour. I also diced an onion, celery stick and orange bell pepper. First I sweated the onion till it started to take on colour then added the chicken and got a sear all around it. Then I removed the chicken from the pan to a bowl. I added the celery and pepper to the pan and put a few drops of Chinese fish sauce in it. That dirty sock smell rose from the pan telling me it is leaving behind delicious flavour. I sprinkled one to two teaspoons curry powder over all. Then I added a can of coconut milk, bring to a boil and start reducing the liquid. I bought sugar snap peas and podded them all so I had just the sweet green peas bubbling in the sauce. 

When the sauce has thickened I put the chicken back in to finish cooking. This way the chicken doesn't get rubbery. Serve over Basmati rice. We both pretty much inhaled this meal. Oddly, Storm didn't like the curry but he's a dog so more for me!