Who needs take out?

I love to slow cook meat.  It makes the entire house smell wonderful, and it is little to no effort what so ever, I can chop & drop my ingredients and pop in my dutch over or slow cooker and come back a few hours later when I am ready eat and it is all set for me.  This is a recipe for Asian short ribs.  Brian (my boyfriend) came home from Costco with enough short ribs to feed an army, so we divided them up into freezer bags and them promptly began to come up with different flavors and idea's for each serving.  The Asian short ribs came out so flavorful and tender -- they were salty, spicy, sweet and honest to goodness tasted like I had slaved in my kitchen, when in reality I just watched netflix all afternoon.  A great twist on a Sunday meat supper!

Start by adding 1/2 lb of boneless short ribs cut into medium size cubes to a dutch oven or a slow cooker.  To this we are going to add in our cold braising liquid, you want the meat and liquid to come up to temperature together.

Braising Liquid - I used foodnetwork.com and made my own additions to the recipe
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 (5-inch) stalk lemongrass, halved and smashed
1 tablespoon peeled and minced ginger
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 quart water (I used chicken stock instead of water)
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
I added 1/2 of frozen mango, 1/2 cup of frozen pineapple

Pop in the oven at 325* for about 3 hours covered and about 1 hour uncovered.  The soy and brown sugar will start to reduce and get really sticky and sweet, it is awesome!  When you have reached the 4 hour mark, start to shred your beef using two forks -- I am a glutton for punishment and used my fingers, but that gives me the opportunity to lick my fingers.  Place the shredded beef back in the braising liquid and continue to cook stove top to reduce liquid if necessary.  Serve over rice or you can take a healthy approach and use ice berg lettuce leaves and voilaaaa you have Asian lettuce cups!  The cold crunch of the lettuce gives the dish a whole other element of surprise in your mouth, I would strongly suggest it.

No meal is complete without a side dish.  I made an Asian coleslaw to go along side (or on top) of the short ribs.
1 cup of carrot cut in thin shoe strings
1 medium red onion thinly sliced
1 small red pepper in thin strips
1 small yellow pepper in thin strips
All tossed in a homemade sesame dressing (1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter, 1 tablespoon of garlic minced, and if you like it spicy add some crushed red)  The dressing is going to be thick, but remember it is a slaw and you want the dressing to coat and stick to all the veggies! [This recipe gave us about 4 meals]

until next time..eat, laugh, love and enjoy! 

This recipe gave us about 4 meals

Seared Scallops, a dinner that won't flounder

My name is Megan, and I LOVE SCALLOPS but I am afraid to cook them.  There I have admitted it. I never would have thought I would let a protein get the best of me, but I first fell in love with scallops just about 8 months ago when I had the most perfectly seared scallops at my favorite celeb chef Alex Guarnaschelli's restaurant Butter, and decided that one day I would get up the courage to make them myself.  Well this past Sunday was the day and let me tell you.  Scallops aren't scary!  So what, they are like crazy expensive and if they over cook they turn to rubber and it is money wasted.  I had to take the  bull by the horns (sorry I just can't think of a great seafood pun) and do it!

I went over to my local Whole Foods and picked out 4 fat chubby scallops and 10 perfect sized shrimp for my tex mex inspired seafood dinner:  Seared Scallops with mango jalapeno salsa and lime marinated shrimp quesadillas.  This is an easy preparation and tastes like a million bucks.

I marinated my shrimp in this kick ass lime marinade that can literally be used for anything.  I keep this stuff in a bottle in my fridge.  It is the perfect quick marinade because it has so much acidity that it will tenderize the protein with little to no time.  I am telling you, once you make this stuff it will be like crack!  It is sweet, spicy, tangy --  not only have I marinaded with it, I tossed it in with an Asian pasta salad and it was AMAZE-BALLS! Take a look below for the recipe

Lime Chili Marinade
1/2 cup of Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Tablespoons of Sesame Oil

2 Tablespoons of white sugar
juice of 2 limes
zest of one lime
heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
3 large pinches of crushed red pepper flakes (I went heavy because I am a spice whore, but adjust to your taste)

Marinate the shrimp for about 5 minutes per side.  This is going to go quickly because the acid will start to cook the shrimp and we are not making ceviche we are making quesadillas.  After about 10 minutes grill your shrimp about 2 minutes per side until the marinade has caramelized and the shrimp have gone from opaque to a pretty shade of pink.

To make the quesadilla, add a pat of butter to a hot skillet and put in the tortilla.  The butter is going to give you a nice brown crust on the outside of your quesadilla.  Sprinkle with cheese of your choice -- I went with a queso fresco and a Mexican cheese blend, when the cheese has started to melt add in your grilled shrimp (chopped for a more even distribution -- I want shrimp in every bite!) and fold over until cheese has melted fully.

Now it is the moment of truth -- SCALLOPS!  My amazing boyfriend was a huge help in the preparation, he has had some professional cooking experience and is the most handsome and wonderful Sous Chef I could ask for ... with that being said, we preheated a skilled and added in our olive oil.  Now the amount of olive oil will vary depending on the pan size, so what your are looking for is enough oil that when your drop your scallops the oil comes to about 1/8 of an inch high around the scallop.  This helps create that great sear.  The important thing is to not touch the scallop.  You need be patient and let the crust form otherwise the scallop will stick and tear when your try to flip.  For our chubby scallops we gave them about 2-3 minutes per side.  The great thing is that the color of the scallop changes so you can kind of tell when it is time to turn them.
When both sides are seared to perfection, drain the excess oil on a paper towel and plate on a bed of mango jalapeno salsa.  I hope you love it.  Until next time... eat, laugh, love & enjoy!

Mango Jalapeno Salsa
2 mango's diced
1/4 of a ride onion minced
1/3 cup of chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lime
1/4 of a jalapeno minced
pinch of salt