Quick Summer Dinner- Grilled Peach Salad

This is barely a recipe, but it was so tasty and quick I figure I'll throw it out there. Last summer I fell in love with grilled peaches. So, the first time I saw some nice peaches in the store, of course that's what I immediately thought of.

This is as easy as it gets... I grilled a Trader Joes Kobe-style burger I had around, threw a peach on at the same time, and served the whole thing with arugula, gorgonzola, and a few toasted walnuts, all drizzled with balsamic vinegar. For a 10 minute meal it absolutely hit the spot!

Old Favorites

I have had a couple requests to pick some of my favorite recipes from the archives, so, here goes...

Vegetarian Dishes:
Rosemary Chickpea Couscous Salad: this is probably the dish I have gotten the most good feedback about, from a variety of sources, so it goes first!
Roasted Cauliflower, Bulgar, and Pumpkin Sauce: so good on a cold night. very hearty.
Potato Crusted Quiche: the main revelation here is the potato crust, which can be adapted to a lot of different recipes. You can then throw whatever is in the fridge in the body of the quiche
Balsamic Gorgonzola Wheatberries: This is the recipe that got me addicted to wheatberries
Spinach Sweet Potato Adzuki Bean Soup: This is delicious, and probably responsible for the most hits to my blog (other than an old post about the children of the corn, which is mysteriously popular).

Meaty Dishes:
French Lentil Salad: this is really delicious either as a warm dinner, or the next day as a cold salad.
Balsamic Lentils: Similar in core ingredients to the French Lentil Salad, the flavors are completely different and very delicious.
Korean Fusion Tacos: This has become a complete staple at all summer events around here.
Slow cooked chicken chili: This is an easy meal to toss in the slow cooker.
Asian style shredded beef: another slow cooker meal.
Rosemary Lemon chicken: good, and also a good way to marinate chicken in general.

Dessert:
Beyond Decadent Coconut Cupcakes: O.M.G.
Margarita Cupcakes: need I say more?
Coconut Sorbet: light and delicious.
Peppermint Krispies: a classic.

Most Fun:
pita bread: This may be my absolute most favorite thing I have ever made, ever.

Most commonly occurring in the Yellowfish Kitchen Daily Rotation:
Squash soup- an old favorite.
Roasted Brussel Sprouts- this made me into a person who likes brussel sprouts.
Huevos Rancheros- sometimes, I eat this every night for a week.
Beer Bread- fasted way to get to fresh baked bread with little chance of failure.
Green smoothie- a breakfast staple here, don't be scared of the spinach.
Granola- cheap and easy addition to breakfast.
Stealthy Joes- vegan sloppy joes made with lentils
Peanut noodles- this can go together pretty quickly and is very satisfying.

Korean Beef Salad

I posted a few months ago about my Korean Fusion Tacos- inspired by the many L.A. taco trucks and helped along by Trader Joes- since then they've become a staple feature at our barbecues and are always a hit.

The first thing I want to tell you are a few modifications I've made since the original post... the core of the recipe is still the same- TJs Bool Kogi Beef, and some flatbread. There is a subtle difference in the toppings, though... the broccoli slaw is still fine, but I've taken to using English/hothouse cucumbers which I slice thin using a grater. Toss on some rice vinegar, a little sesame oil, and some red pepper flakes. In a seperate bowl, thinly slice red onions and marinate in the same stuff. Then chop a little cilantro. And... assemble!

Now we have: Tacos, 2.0

What we have here are day after remnants, in a sort of deconstructed taco, salad-like form. It was pretty much just a way for me to use up the leftover meat and cucumber, but actually, it was delish. I warmed the meat a little because this meat is just not that good completely cold, but that contrasted really well with the chilled tart cucumbers. This would be a really nice summer meal (or, if you live here, and its 90 in October, a really nice meal for a blazing hot fall evening). Try it!

Korean Fusion Tacos- Trader Joes Style

Here in Los Angeles, sometimes it seems like you can't go 3 feet without running into a trendy lunch truck. You can't go 5 feet without one of those trucks selling some kind of fusion taco (like Kogi and Calbi and Bool). I initially had mixed feelings about this, in a city chock-full of awesome regular taco stands (which I partly love because they feed my very severe horchata addiction), but recently I've come around.

Given the profusion of Korean fusion tacos we, as a city, have been experiencing, its no surprise that when I saw Bool Kogi Sesame Marinated Boneless Beef Ribs (no, I'm not a paid advertisement), the first thing that popped into my head was tacos.

A delicious component of these tacos is some kind of vinegary slaw... to make mine, I used Trader Joes (of course) shredded broccoli slaw and some very thinly sliced red onions. I marinated these in seasoned rice vinegar and a tsp or so of sesame oil. (as a side note... my favorite cucumber salad is just thin sliced English cucumbers and rice vinegar- so refreshing!).

I was not in a tortilla kind of mood, so to continue with the fusion theme, decided to use the Trader Joes (you're getting the theme now, yes?) Middle Eastern flatbreads, which are soft and delicious. I lightly toasted them, but you don't have to. You can basically use any wrap-like material that you like.

Now, at just about this point, I realized my grill is either out of gas or in some other way non-functional, which was a shame. I was in too deep to give up, so decided to steal my my Mother's method for cooking meatballs- basically, take a cooling rack, put it over a baking pan, and put the meat on that. I used the broiler, she uses the oven. It works well because the fat is able to drain out as it would on a grill (see exhibit A, below. I apologize to my vegetarian friends for the meat close-up):

All thats left? Assembly!

 

 I served mine with corn (upcoming post) and the remainder of the slaw. I don't eat a lot of red meat, but when I do I like to eat it like this, in a scenario where there can be minimal meat in the context of a lot of veggies. This was really good! I don't know that it'll put the taco trucks out of business, but it would definitely be an interesting twist to throw at your next BBQ!

Slow Cooked Asian-style Shredded Beef

Ok, so this recipe deviates from the usual in 2 ways,
1. it involves beef!
2. it involves a crock-pot/slow-cooker!

It is, by the way, also delicious. I found it because I've been meaning to get more into the idea of slow cooking (previously seen here in the super easy chicken chili). One issue I've been having is that a lot of recipes cook for 4-6 or maybe 8 hours. Unfortunately, whatever kind of job it is that allows you to leave for work, get there, work, and get back in 6 hours, is not the job I have. So, I was searching for long-slow-cooked meals, and came up with this, from over at 'A Year of Slow Cooking').

Basically, I made some modifications- some of them are because I'm a slow-cooker newbie and didn't trust the idea that you could cook it all day with relatively little liquid in there and not end up with a burnt disaster when you got home. Here is my version...

The stuff:
2-2.5 pounds boneless beef*
1/4 cup low sodium free soy sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
6 tablespoons ketchup (or, one giant squirt, if you're me)**
4-6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons Chinese 5-spice powder (I used allspice)
3 teaspoons pre-minced garlic from a jar***
2-3 teaspoons crushed ginger, also from a jar***
3/4c water (this was added when I panicked about the volume of liquid)

optional: juice of one orange (also added when I realized I didn't have enough honey, and was still panicking about liquid. I do think it added something, and diluted the strong flavor of the allspice and hoisin)
optional: a bunch of scallions- half chopped and added during cooking, half chopped and added half hour before serving
optional: red pepper flakes

*caveat, I know jack about buying beef, so I'm not even sure what kind I bought (I picked based on whether it was on the Ralphs Club Special), but mine was possible a bit too fatty for my taste, so, go lean if you can- there is plenty of sauce to make it moist.
*ALSO- I froze my meat over night, so it would take longer to cook.
**FYI 2 tablespoons=1/8 cup, if that helps make measuring less boring
*** feel free to use fresh, but I was being lazy

Stir up all the sauce ingredients, pour over meat. Sprinkle on scallions and red pepper flakes. Set on low, and leave it be!

So, I arrived home, having gone to work, worked at work, worked out, and battled the L.A. traffic in 2 directions, so about 10 hours after I left. Let me tell you, it smelled pretty good! The meat immediately was shreddable and very tender and moist, there was also a LOT of sauce. I turned it on warm, and probably ended up eating it 12 hours after I started it so it completely met my uber-slow-cooker needs.

There are a couple of ways to serve this- first, you can put it over rice, I used brown rice. You can also incorporate cole-slaw mix or shredded cabbage in a couple ways- either by stirring it in and cooking it for the last little bit, or by serving the meat on top of the fresh cabbage which would be a low-carb version. I did a halfway version, serving it on top of a combo of brown rice and uncooked cabbage, and I liked it that way. By adding the extra liquid I made it a little more saucy, and immediately after taking this picture ended up having to transfer it to a bowl to avoid disaster (technically, I moved it to the bowl after one minor sauce disaster by me and one by my co-diner).

Anyhow, this was good- the flavor is good, the sauce was yummy, I liked the cabbage/rice combo, and I would totally make it again!