Asian Steak and Noodle Salad

January 26, 2013 by · 7 Comments

I am trying to give you all some flavorful and healthy recipes this month – because I know everyone is trying to be good right now:-). This is a salad that I could eat once a week. It is an adapted recipe from Pioneer Woman and Iowa Girl Eats and possibly Epicurious.

I made a very similar recipe last year and I could have sworn that it was from Epicurious. However when I went to dig up the recipe I could not for the life of me find it! I knew it had flank steak, noodles and spinach. It was also Asian flavored. But for whatever reason I couldn’t find the darn recipe. So, I searched through some of my favorite blogs and found two recipes – one here and the other here.

I think what I love most about this recipe is that it is a noodle and green leaf salad. I get my pasta and my salad all in one meal! The sweet/salty soy dressing and marinated flank steak is just perfect and somewhat addicting – especially when you kick up the heat a few notches with the sriracha – YUM!

You can serve this with all of the ingredients cold or you can serve it while the steak and noodles are still slightly warm. This wilts the veggies a bit which I love.

As I am writing I am thinking about the different combinations you could do with this. You could swap out the flank steak for chicken or even tofu. You could swap out the green onions for some fried onions or even some thinly sliced red onions. I might also like this with some cashews or water chestnuts. Wow, I am getting hungry and I need to stop thinking about this salad.

Seriously, you need to try this one – sooo good!

Asian Steak and Noodle Salad
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 Asian Flank Steak Recipe – Prepared
  • Dressing:
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon teaspoon honey
  • 1 Tablespoon lime juice
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
  • Salad
  • ½ bag of baby spinach – washed
  • 12 oz angel hair pasta
  • red or yellow pepper – sliced into thin 2 inch strips
  • 3 green onions sliced thin (white and green parts)
  • Chopped Cilantro
  • handful of sunflower seeds
  • Sriracha

Instructions
  1. Cook flank steak according to directions here. Slice into thin strips.
  2. Combine dressing ingredients and set aside.
  3. Cook pasta according to directions on box.
  4. Slice peppers and green onion. Chop cilantro.
  5. To put salad together place spinach in the bottom of your salad bowl and then add pepper and green onions. Place pasta and steak on top of your vegetables. sprinkle with cilantro, sunflower seeds a sriracha if desired. Add dressing and toss to coat evenly.
  6. Enjoy!

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Asian Grilled Flank Steak

May 7, 2012 by · 7 Comments

Asian Grilled Flank Steak

This is my go-to flank steak recipe.  Sometimes I will  double the marinade and heat it up while the steak is cooking and then serve both the steak and marinade (and some broccoli) over rice.

As I mentioned in my other flank steak post you definitely want this steak to marinate for a while and it works really well when you score it before grilling.

Flank steak is one of the more lean cuts of beef and this particular recipe tastes great in a salad, too.  It is really versatile.

We almost always grill this, but if it is a rainy day, we might throw this on top of our cast iron stove top griddle with equal success.

If you have never had flank steak before give this recipe a try.  Enjoy!

Asian Grilled Flank Steak
 
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Recipe type: Main

Ingredients
  • ½ cup soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1 flank steak (1.5 – 2 pounds)

Instructions
  1. Combine all marinade ingredients in a resealable plastic bag. Add flank steak and ensure that the marinade is evenly distributed throughout the bag. Close and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
  2. Remove steak from refrigerator about 30 minutes before grilling. Lightly score steak in a criss cross pattern on both sides.
  3. Heat grill to a medium high heat and grill for about 6 minutes on each side.

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Slow-Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

March 12, 2012 by · 9 Comments

Happy St. Patrick’s Week!

I’m not Irish, but I went to a Catholic university which is where my love for St. Patrick’s Day started. People would head out to start celebrating bright and early in the AM (or right after their classes ended) and it was a truly fun day. Now that I’m a “few years out of school,” the holiday is more about the food and of course my kids (who do have some Irish in them.)

I’m pretty sure my mom often made corned beef and cabbage in March, but I’m not sure if I appreciated it as much as I do now (like many foods.) This is her recipe and the slow cooker is a great way to make it. The corned beef gets fall-apart tender and it makes a wonderful broth which you can make into gravy.

She also makes a horseradish sauce and I’m not completely sure how traditional it is, but I can’t have my corned beef without it. The sauce is great with roast beef, too. It’s a simple recipe, but I will post it for you all tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
 
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Serves: 2

Ingredients
  • 3 carrots – 3 inch pieces
  • 3-4 lb. corned beef brisket with spice packet
  • 2-3 onions, quartered
  • 1-2 cups of water
  • 1 small head of cabbage

Instructions
  1. Place carrots and onion in the slow-cooker with the corned beef and spices on top. Pour water over corned beef and cook on high for 5-6 hours or on low 10-12 hours (I do mine on low.) After 6 hours on low or 3 on high, cut the cabbage into quarters and place in the slow cooker (you don’t need to use the entire head.) Push cabbage down into the broth a little bit.
  2. When corned beef is done remove about 1½ to 2 cups of broth. Add a chicken or beef bouillon cube and heat over medium high heat in a small saucepan. Add some cornstarch that has been diluted with a little water to the simmering broth. Turn up the eat and bring to a gentle boil whisking constantly adding more diluted cornstarch if you want to make the gravy thicker.
  3. I serve this with boiled red potatoes and pour the gravy over top. Also, I sprinkle my cabbage with malt vinegar.

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This post has been linked up to Cuisine Kathleen’s St. Patty’s Day Blog Crawl

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Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine

January 25, 2012 by · 10 Comments

 
I know last week I said that Flank Steak is my favorite cut of beef. However, I have to say that short ribs are right up there….I mean, maybe I was wrong last week. Because truly, it’s hard to compare a steak that is cooked quickly over high heat to a chuck roast or a short rib that you cook low and slow in a gravy made from red wine and veggies. It’s kind of like comparing a chicken wing to Coq Au Vin.

So this, my friends, is one of my other very favorite cuts of beef. Short ribs have a decadence that you just can’t compare to a steak. The meat melts in your mouth and it’s totally rich, too.

The entire bottle of red wine that you use for this dish produces an amazing gravy that is only made better with the addition of some fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary and oregano. I ate just the gravy with some roasted carrots and potatoes at least twice after this meal and I savored every bite.

Seriously, if you have never tried short ribs, you need to. They are so worth the tiny bit of effort that this dish requires.

Ok, now for some details here.

1) This recipe is from Bon Appetit and it truly is hard to mess up. Short ribs, like a chuck roast need to cook for a long period of time to break down the connective tissues.  As long as you do the low and slow thing these will turn out fine.

2) If you want to lighten this dish a bit you may want to consider cooking this the day before you are going to eat it. Put it in the fridge and then the next day, take it out about an hour before you want to eat and scrape the hardened fat off the top. Heat the meat back up and it will taste just as good as the day before. I know you can also skim some of the fat off the top on the day that you cook it, but this is so much easier and effective in my opinion.

3) You could probably replace the wine with beef broth, but the flavor would be different. The red wine produces such a nice rich gravy and it probably has some contribution in tenderizing the meat. I probably wouldn’t skip the wine…and use a decent bottle, right? I know the whole bottle seems like a lot, but it cooks down quite a bit. It’s not too much, trust me.

4) Use fresh herbs if you can. They add some very nice flavor to this dish. If you don’t have all of them it won’t hurt the dish too much to swap out or leave one out, but do try to use fresh herbs.

5) Take a look in your meat department’s marked down meat section for short ribs. I always see them marked down about 50% at my local store and they have always been wonderful. Just throw them in the freezer if the expiration date is near or cook them that day. Apparently short ribs don’t sell? If they look brown or tired you won’t want to get them, but the ones I have found always look just fine.

We served these with some roasted potatoes, carrots and celery. I will post those tomorrow and honestly you can’t get a much more gourmet tasting meal than this. Between the roasted veggies and these wonderful, decadent short ribs you have yourself a wonderful meal fit for any Sunday.

Enjoy!

Source: Bon Appetit

Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine
 
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Recipe type: Main

Ingredients
  • 5 pounds bone-in beef short ribs, cut crosswise into 2″ pieces
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3 medium onions, chopped
  • 3 medium carrots, peeled, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 750-ml bottle dry red wine (preferably Cabernet Sauvignon)
  • 10 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
  • 8 sprigs thyme
  • 4 sprigs oregano
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 fresh or dried bay leaves
  • 1 head of garlic, halved crosswise
  • 4 cups low-salt beef stock

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Sprinkle ribs with salt and pepper. Heat oil over medium high heat in a dutch oven and brown meat on all sides. This might take a few batches. Transfer ribs to a plate and drain the oil reserving about 3 tablespoons.
  3. To the dutch oven add the carrots, celery and onion and cook until veggies are softened and nicely browned. Add the flour and tomato paste and cook stirring constantly for several minutes. Stir in the wine and then add the short ribs with their juices. Bring to a boil and the reduce heat to medium high heat and let the wine reduce to about half. Add the herbs and garlic to the pot. Stir in the stock and then boil. Cover and transfer to the oven.
  4. Cook for about 2-2½ hours until the short ribs are nice and tender. strain sauce into a good-sized bowl and then skim fat from the top and discard. Season with salt and pepper. If you cook the ribs a day ahead you can put them in the fridge once the dutch oven has cooled instead of straining the juice and skimming the fat. The next day take the ribs out about an hour before serving and scrape the fat off the top. It should come off quite easily. Heat the ribs through until heated thoroughly over low to medium heat.

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Grilled Flank Steak

January 15, 2012 by · 12 Comments

If you think that a good juicy steak can’t be a part of a healthy diet, then I have a great recipe for you. While I think it’s probably wise to limit your red meat consumption to once, maybe twice per week, I do think that the flank steak is a great option if you are trying to shed some pounds and want some beef. Flank steak does have some saturated fat (like any red meat), however it has a LOT less than most other cuts.

Flank steak is pretty fibrous and has a lot less fat than say a ribeye or a chuck roast. Because of that, there are two key things that you need to do with it. First, it needs to marinate. I usually try to marinate mine at least 4- 6 hours, but ideally overnight. If you don’t marinate a flank steak it will be tough. Fact. We didn’t marinate it one time and quite honestly I didn’t think it was edible. Second, you need to cut it across the grain and we even lightly score it crosswise before marinating (you can see the scores in the picture pretty well.) If you do these two things I promise you that your flank steak will taste just as good as a strip steak or a ribeye. You also don’t want to overcook it – please leave a little pink if you know what is good for you and your steak:-)

We usually do an Asian style marinade like this which is wonderful and very versatile. I wanted to change things up a bit so I went with this recipe from Gourmet. It was still simple, but I wanted to use some of the rosemary that is still prospering in my garden so this was perfect! We let it marinate over night. We usually grill it (which is my favorite way to cook it), but since it was rainy out, we used my pampered chef grill pan. We didn’t get the grill marks we usually like, but it was still excellent and so flavorful!

So try a flank steak today. You will soon find that it is possible to enjoy a good steak without all the guilt!

Enjoy!

Source: Gourmet via Epicurious

Grilled Flank Steak
 
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Recipe type: Main

Ingredients
  • 1 flank steak (mine was about 1.5 lbs)
  • ⅓ cup white-wine vinegar
  • ¾ cup olive oil
  • 1½ tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions
  1. Score the flank steak crosswise lightly with a knife. Mix together remaining ingredients and put the steak and marinade in a large resealable plastic bag. Seal steak and remove any air from the bag. Let marinate at least 6 hours and up to 1 day.
  2. Grill steaks over a medium hot grill. Cook about 12 minutes for medium rare and turn once during grilling.

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