Steak Fajitas

My Pinterest boards are beginning to overwhelm me.  I love going through it all the time and finding dishes that I would, under normal circumstances, not think to cook.  I'm also not a big fan of beef but when I happened upon a recipe for Steak Fajitas by Apples and Sparkle, I had an inspiration and memory of smell that motivated me.

Do you ever go to a restaurant, wonder what to order and then see a server walk by with these sizzling fajitas that smell so delicious?  More than once when I didn't order the fajitas I thought I really should have and tried to think of what made me change my mind.  I don't have an answer other than it felt safer to stick with what I know.  Not this time.. I took the quantum leap and decided to give it a shot.

1/3 c. canola oil 1/3 c freshly squeezed lime juice 1/3 c. low sodium soya sauce 3 cloves of garlic, minced 2 T. brown sugar 1 t. cumin 1 t. chile powder about 2 lb. skirt steak or flank steak 2-3 bell peppers, ends trimmed, cored and seeded, cut into a couple large pieces 1 large white onion, peeled and cut into 1/2-3/4-inch slices (keep the slices intact) 18 6-inch flour tortillas lime wedges  toppings of your choice such as, cilantro, salsa, cheese, sour cream, avocados or guacamole 1. Get the marinade prepared: Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Reserve about  1/3 cup of marinade for the vegetables. Place the steak in a gallon-sized ziplock bag. Add the remaining  marinade. Seal the bag, pressing out any excess air, massage the marinade into the meat a bit. Refrigerate  anywhere from 3-10 hours.  2. After meat has finished marinating, remove steak from marinade and wipe off excess marinade with paper towel. (I also cut the steak into a couple of more manageable sized pieces, for easier turning on the grill). brush the vegetables with reserved marinade. Heat your grill to high. Scrape the grill grate clean  and oil the grate. Add the steak to the super hot grill and grill, covered about 2 1/2 minutes per side (for medium/medium-rare), or until steak reaches desired doneness. Remove steak to a clean plate and cover with foil ,let rest for 10-15 minutes. Why was I so reluctant to make these at home?  They're so delicious and just as good as leftovers. 3. Add the peppers and onions to the grill and grill, turning occasionally until cooked, peppers should  take about 5 minutes and onions will take about 10. Remove from grill. Briefly add the tortillas to the grill,  a couple at a time and grill until warmed and lightly charred around the edges. Wrap the tortillas in foil  to keep warm.** ** I put them in a cast iron skillet to brown (vegetables too) and then into the oven for 10 min. at 425 F) 4. Thinly slice the steak, against the grain. Slice the onions in half and

Onion-Braised Brisket

I can't remember the last time we had company for dinner.  More recently, the idea of catching up to the household chores and making a dinner has seemed insurmountable.  So, we've been opting to go out for dinner with friends instead.  

A few weeks ago, I had a moment of denial (about the state of my house) and decided to invite a couple of friends for a pre-Passover seder.  I call it "pre-Passover"because we did it on Sunday night rather than Monday, after work.  Also, it wasn't really a seder.  We just ate a nice meal with some of the foods we'd traditionally eat at Passover and were motivated by knowing that our families would be doing the same thing in different parts of the world.  

There are a few things I love about Passover.  Yes, of course, they're mostly food related.  I love chicken soup with matzo balls.  I love charoset (with or without horseradish).  Last, but not least, I love horseradish and any dish that lets me indulge in my love for horseradish.  Food aside, I like the getting together with family aspect too, assuming those around the table have similar ideas about how long a seder should last.  

I recently received a sample of the second edition of The Healthy Slow Cooker.  After taking a first look through, I was immediately drawn to the brisket recipe.  

Onion-Braised Brisket

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

4 - 5 lbs. double beef brisket, trimmed

4 onions, thinly sliced on the vertical

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cracked black peppercorns

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 cup beef stock

2 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup beef stock

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley leaves

1. In a skillet, heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium-high heat.  Add brisket and brown well on both sides, about 6 minutes.  Transfer to slow cooker stoneware.

2. Add remaining tbsp of oil to stoneware (note: I think this should say skillet instead of stoneware).  Add onions and cook, stirring until they begin to turn golden, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, thyme, salt and peppercorns and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Add vinegar, mustard and wine and bring to a boil.  Cook, stirring and scraping up brown bits from bottom of pan, for 2 minutes.  Stir in tomato paste and stock.  

3.  Transfer to slow cooker stoneware.  Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours, until brisket is very tender.  

4.  Transfer meat to a deep platter, slice and keep warm.  Transfer sauce to a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce head and simmer for 5 minutes to slightly reduce.  Remove from heat and add cornstarch solution, stirring until sauce thickens.  Pour over meat and garnish with parsley.

Verdict: The brisket was a bit of a saga.  Not at all due to the recipe itself.  I had to do quite a bit of work to get the brisket.  Initially, I figured I would just get a brisket from the kosher butcher.  But then I saw the price: $58 for 1.86 kg (4.1 lbs.).   There was no way I was going to spend that much on a brisket, particularly if no one eating it cared if it was kosher.  So, then I tried a non-kosher butcher.  They were $6.99/lb.  The price was better, but I wanted to check with one other place -- the beef coop I  often order my beef from, Fitzroy Beef Farmers.  It was a bit of a long shot because the only way you can get beef from them at this time of year is to pick it up at their drop off locations (a random parking lot) on their predetermined drop off days.  But luck was on my side.  Their briskets were $4.50/lb. and they had a drop off scheduled for the day before my dinner party.  Sold!  I requested a 4-5 lb. brisket.  

My next challenge came upon pick up.  You don't always know what you're going to get size-wise.  So, when R came home with a 7.29 lb. (frozen) brisket, I was a bit nervous about doing it in the slowcooker.  

  

Since it was frozen, I really couldn't separate it.  The brisket couldn't even fit into my largest frying pan!

I quickly gave up hope of getting this thing in my moderately-sized slow cooker.  I took out the turkey roaster instead.

That may have decreased the liquid.  That, and the fact that I didn't double the other portions of the recipe.  There wasn't enough sauce leftover to do step four.  But, there was still plenty of flavour.  It ended up coming out like pulled beef.  Everyone loved it!  I would definitely make this again.  Sorry for the lack of a nicely plated picture.  There was too much going on to pull that together.

Aside from the brisket, we had potatoes, chicken soup and matzo balls, salad, matzo...

...and my other two favourite: charoset and horseradish.  I used this recipe for the charoset with some modifications such as using grape juice instead of wine and almonds instead of walnuts.  Aside from that, I added more cinnamon and played with the quantities a bit to get the flavour I wanted.

It was so nice to have these leftovers to enjoy all week.

We didn't have as much leftovers of the dessert my friend brought, but it was delicious too.

Batch Cooking

I've never been organized enough to have a weekly menu planned out.  At most, we come up with four meals that we're going to make throughout the week, when we create our grocery list.  The rest of the meals are either leftovers, something from the freezer or something simple like breakfast for dinner or grilled cheese.  But, realistically, this plan doesn't always pan out well.  Often, I am okay with R's meal idea, in theory, and we buy groceries for it. But, when R wants to make it for tonight's supper, I don't actually want to have another random lentil dish.  

When a friend mentioned having a batch cooking day, I was eager to join in.  My freezer has been a bit barren lately.  I think it's because it has been so cold here and most of the foods that I freeze are cold weather foods.  So, they're getting eaten up pretty quickly.  

Three of us got together.  Since we all have kids around the same age, we knew we couldn't do a marathon session, so we kept it moderate and made triple recipes of four dishes (took about 3.5 hours): lasagne, taco soup, slow cooker ribs and butter chicken.  

The lasagna was made according to how my friend usually makes it.  I won't write out the recipe, but want to make note of the differences so that I can remember it down the line if we end up really liking this approach.  She uses a very thick meat sauce.  She also only puts cheeses on the top layer.  Then she  uses a full container of cottage cheese and adds two eggs to the cottage cheese for a creamier consistency. 

I also need to remember to cook the ribs at 400 for 15 minutes on each side before putting the slow cooker on low for 6 hours.  I can also put the ribs back in the oven after slow cooking if I want things to be more caramelized.



Here's some of the math. It total, we spent $174 on the food.  From that, we got:

9 - 8X8 lasagna (estimated three meals/tray since the tray isn't very deep) = 27 portions

6 - slow cooker ribs (estimated three meals -- one rack per bag) = 18 portions

various container of butter chicken (6 portions given to each person) = 18 portions

various containers of taco soup (6 portions per person) = 18 portions

Total = 81 portions (27 each)

Overall cost/person = $54

Overall Cost/portion = $2.15

I think that's a pretty decent cost considering that each portion has meat.  The taco soup was particularly cheap.  I got all of the ingredients for $25 (already had the spices) -- so about $1.40/portion.



Beef Stew & Canada Agriculture and Food Museum

Every weekend, we make a grocery list.  About 80% of the grocery list rarely changes: milk, bread, salad fixings, bananas, grapefruit, etc.  Then, we come up with 3 dinner ideas and make sure that the ingredients we need are added to the list.  For the other days, we'll either have leftovers, something from the freezer or an easy meal (e.g., grilled cheese, breakfast for dinner).  

Among a list of regular meal ideas, stew comes up as a suggestion fairly regularly and I'm usually the one to nix it.  I'm so tired of the same old stew recipe.  So, I decided to try out a new stew recipe.  I went with a Jamie Oliver recipe -- you can find it here.

It was delicious!  The pictures don't do it justice.  I loved the flavour that the wine added to the broth and the texture and sweetness of the squash.  I'll definitely be making this recipe again.  Though, next time I'll probably use the slow cooker.

We also took advantage of the long weekend to visit the Agriculture Museum at the Experimental Farm.  The museum is part of a fully-functioning farm, with a variety of animals (cows, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, etc.).

Of course, I loved watching E pet the kid.  This is really the heart of the museum: up close and interactive opportunities for kids to be around farm animals.

The cows are regularly inseminated so that they continue to produce milk. This calf was just born.  I got a bit teary-eyed when I read that the calves are separated from their mothers after 48 hours.  At least they get the colostrum.  

Giz likes to make fun of how it'll be difficult for me to go back to work without singing nursery rhymes at inappropriate times.  But, tell me this picture doesn't make you want to break into "Mary had a little lamb"!

I'm looking forward to the opening of their new learning centre.  The Learning Centre will have an exhibition gallery, learning labs, lecture hall and improved visitor and group amenities.  

The museum is changing names and becoming the Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum, recognizing the museum's enhanced focus on food literacy. I'm really interested to see what types of food-literacy exhibits they'll have.  The inaugural exhibition for the Learning Centre will look at what would be involved in baking an apple cake if you had to produce all of the ingredients yourself.  Sounds very interesting!  I hope they can drive home a similar message with respect to meat.  

Parsley and Mint Meatballs

A while ago I had the pleasure of watching the Three Greek Sisters  create these Greek meatballs.  They just made it look so easy and the aroma while they were cooking was sheer heaven.  The friend I was with and I both agreed that this was a must try recipe and we've now added this recipe to our regular repetoire of "good things".

Follow the recipe to a "T" and you'll never be sorry with these entirely delicious and soft meatballs.  I've never used mint in a meatball recipe before but now I feel like "how can you make them without it".

1 lb. (500 g) ground beef, extra lean
1/2 yellow onion, minced
1/2 cup each fresh parsley and mint, chopped
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp oregano, dried
1/2 tsp salt Pepper, as desired

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly with hands. Let mixture sit in refrigerator for at least an hour. Shape meat into bite-sized balls and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Place in a preheated 450 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until brown and cooked through.

I didn't serve Tzatziki sauce but here's a great recipe from Jerry's Thoughts, Musings and Rants and lower fat too.

Tangy Meatballs

I'm quickly running out of time and still have so many posts in waiting. I'm clearly not going to get everything up on time. If you're looking for a quick, really easy, tangy dish to take to your celebration (or even if you're having guests over), this is it.




3 lb lean ground beef (veal, chicken or turkey would work too)

1/2 cup corn flake crumbs

2 eggs

3 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

3 Tbsp onion powder

Sauce

1- 14oz can jellied cranberry sauce

1- 10 oz jar chili sauce

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Combine beef, corn flake crumbs, eggs, soy sauce, ketchup and onion powder. Roll into meatballs and place on a foil lined cookie pan. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine cranberry jelly, chili sauce, brown sugar and lemon juice.
3. In a dutch oven, combine meatballs and sauce and cook on medium low for approximately 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

I call these my grown up meatballs. So delicious and they freeze really well.

Sydney, Australia: Part 2

So, it turns out that I have a tonne of pictures from Sydney that I want to share.  Personally, I'm not a big fan of blog posts that go on forever.  My attention span is just too short.  So, I'm going to have to split Sydney up into three posts, rather than the intended one two. You can read Part I here.

On our third day, we took a bus to Bondi Beach.

A beach that is packed in the summer is pretty much limited to the odd tourist and surfers in the fall.

;

We spent some time walking around the area, which has a mix of surf shops and cute locally-run shops (e.g., used bookstore, cafe, pet store, etc.) and beautiful homes that will set you back at least a couple million, each.

I read that Hurricane's Grill & Bar is the place to go on Bondi Beach.  Although their restaurant isn't open as much in the off season, they did have a take out stand, next door.  So we ordered our ribs and ate them on the beach.

Their ribs are goooood!  Lots of bbq sauce, tender and filling.

Only problem was the crazy-aggressive birds that harass you for food.  

After stuffing ourselves full of ribs, we walked along a path that takes you to various beaches.

The next day, we took a train to the Blue Mountains, named for the colour that is produced by the eucalyptus tree oil.  I spent, what seemed like forever, debating between an organized bus tour or just taking a train.  We decided to do the latter since organized tours seems to have mixed reviews and we didn't have any major goals for the Blue Mountains, aside from seeing the Three Sisters and doing some hiking.

We trained to Katoomba and walked (a couple of kilometers) to the Three Sisters.  Seemed reasonable, until we realized how freaking cold it is there.  I think I underestimated the warnings about the temperature difference in Katoomba.  Bring warm clothes (sweater, jacket, mitts, toque/hat, etc.).  R ended up buying a hoodie to wear under his rain jacket.  

But, when life hands you lemons cold weather, drink hot chocolate.

At first, I thought it was a cold-induced mirage. 

me:   Does that sign say chocolate?!?  

R: Probably not

10 steps closer

me: No, seriously, I think it says chocolate.  OMG - it says chocolate!  I bet you there's hot chocolate.  

Not just any hot chocolate, Blue Mountain Chocolate Company serves real hot chocolate.   Truth be told, I would have bought a cup even if it entailed pressing a plastic red button to get hot chocolatey sludge in a cup.  But, this stop was exactly what we need to recharge our batteries and convince us that it was wise to walk across town rather than take the tourist bus that takes you from the train to the Three Sisters.  The slices of pie were also delicious.  

After our stop, things were looking up.  Turns out that the chocolate shop is very close to the Three Sisters.

Here they are, the famous Three Sister rock formation. 

 I figured that the Blue Mountains had an unfair disadvantage, in our eyes, seeing as we had recently come from New Zealand, which has some of the most amazing mountain views in the world.   But, there are nice views to be had and various hiking trails.

After a few pictures, we walked toward Scenic World, taking pictures along the way.  

I was a bit skeptical about Scenic World.  Something about the name made me think that it was going to be cheesy.  But, it was actually a pretty good tourist site.  They have several different "experiences" for visitors to partake in.  One of which is the Scenic Railway, the steepest train in the world.

I love the signs in Australia and New Zealand -- much less formal that the stuffy (usually government issued) signs you see in Canada.  Yet, it did make me wonder what I was getting myself into.

Here's a video of our ride of the Scenic Railway.  For your viewing pleasure, I've cut out the cursing.

At the bottom of the railway, there is a network of paths that take you through the vegetation and mining history in the area.  

Back at the top of the railway, there are a variety of wild parrots, who return to this site to be hand-fed by tourists with endless handfuls of bird food.

Stay tuned for Sydney Part 3!