Summer steak with thyme, garlic and lemon

I've been on a quest to find a great marinade for steak.  My oldest son told me that, although I have a way with chicken, I really need to improve my grilled meat repertoire!

Here's a light marinade that's just perfect for summer. 
 

I find that sirloin could benefit from a few good slams once in a while.

Sprinkle meat with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Mash garlic with some salt using a mortar and pestle.

Spread mixture on both sides of steak.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with thyme. Add some chopped onion and lemon juice and nestle in a bed of lemons.

                                                                 

Summer Steak

1 lb. sirloin steak

4 garlic cloves mashed with salt, or crushed with garlic press
2 TB olive oil
1 TB chopped red onions

1/4 tsp. dried thyme

1 1/2 lemons, sliced – reserve remaining ½ lemon for juice

salt and freshly ground pepper

Give the meat a couple of good slams on each side with a meat tenderizer.  On both sides of steak, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme, and spread on the mashed garlic. Place half of the lemon slices and chopped onion in dish, add meat, squeeze juice from remaining half of lemon on top and place remaining lemon slices and onions on top. Place in refrigerator and marinate overnight. 

Remove meat from from refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Discard lemons and remove garlic spread from meat. Grill 3-4 minutes on each side until steak is done to your liking. 

In creating this Summer Steak recipe, I was influenced by a lemon and garlic marinade for flat iron steak that was featured in the May 2012 issue of Food & Wine.

Serving suggestions: 

Simple, boiled, red potatoes topped with unsalted butter, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley...

Summer squash - cooked down to deliciousness - sauteed with vidalia onions and sprinkled with fresh basil...

  

And a nice, colorful salad.  Nothing complicated here, just spinach and greens with tomatoes, red onions, red peppers, celery and kalamata olives.  Drizzled with lemon juice & olive oil, and sprinkled with salt & freshly ground pepper.

It would not be wrong to serve this meal with a lovely, crisp rose.

If I were to go shopping for the perfect wine to complement this meal, I would choose the Vega Sindoa Rose, a Garnacha from Navarra, Spain.

Otherwise, I would drink whatever I happened to have on hand that I like!

I recommend you do the same.

Cheers!

In pursuit of the perfect pound cake

Because I am so dedicated to sharing with you the best possible recipes, I have taken it upon myself to make and taste three different pound cakes in the last three weeks.

I tasted them once, tasted them twice, and tasted them once again.  The conclusion?  I'm now three pounds heavier and I still can't decide which one I like best!

First, there's Lemon Pound Cake

This one has a real burst of lemon
from a generous amount of juice and zest in the glaze.

Next, Pineapple

An unusual-looking, but tasty glaze 

A soft and fluffy texture

 And finally,
 a Traditional Pound Cake

Dense, buttery, and simply delicious.

With a beautiful, crunchy top.

Served with strawberries.

 Slice strawberries into a bowl, squirt with lemon juice,
and sprinkle with sugar.

Let rest for a bit and serve with plain pound cake.

I'm sure that your guests would appreciate any one of these cakes after a meal.

Lemon Pound Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 c. sugar

3 large eggs, beaten slightly

3 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. buttermilk (or 1 TB white vinegar & enough milk to make 1 cup - let rest 5 minutes)

2 TB fresh lemon zest

2 TB fresh lemon juice

Grease a 10-inch tube or bundt pan, line with waxed paper, grease again and lightly flour.

Using an electric mixture, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add beaten eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition.

Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  Beat in zest and juice.

Pour batter into pan, and bake 1 hour or until the cake tests done. 

Place cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and gently peel away the waxed paper. Set cake back on the rack, and place waxed paper underneath the rack to catch the drips when you glaze the cake while it’s still warm.

Lemon Glaze

2 c. confectioner’s sugar

4 TB unsalted butter, softened

3 TB fresh lemon zest

1/4 c. fresh lemon juice

Cream together butter and sugar in mixer.  Add lemon zest and juice and beat well.  Spread on warm cake, letting it drizzle down the sides.  Cool completely before serving.

Adapted from a recipe featured in the Boston Globe Magazine during the 1980’s.

Carrie’s Pineapple Pound Cake

From Jackie Powell, March 1998, on The Yankee Kitchen

1/4 c. shortening

1 c. butter

2 3/4 c. sugar

6 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 c. milk

3/4 c. undrained crushed pineapple

In mixer, cream shortening with butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time with vanilla and beat after each addition.  Combine flour and baking powder, and add to the creamed mixture with the milk and undrained pineapple. 

Pour into a greased & floured 10-inch tube pan.  Place in a cold oven, then turn to 325F.  Bake for 1 hour and 15 or 30 minutes.  Begin testing after 1 hr. 15 min. with toothpick to see if it comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan on wire rack. Remove from pan and glaze while still warm.

Glaze

Mix together 1/4 c. butter, 1 ½ c. confectioner’s sugar and 1 c. well-drained pineapple.

Glaze cake.  It will firm up as it cools.

*Note: For a prettier cake, I would suggest using the glaze recipe for the Lemon Pound Cake, substituting 1/4 c. pineapple juice for the lemon juice.  Do not add lemon zest or crushed pineapple.

Traditional Pound Cake

4 c. flour

3 c. sugar

2 c. unsalted butter, softened*

3/4 c. milk

6 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

Place all of the ingredients in the order given in a large mixer bowl.  Beat at low speed for 1 minute, and then 2 minutes on medium.

Pour batter in a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan.  Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done.  Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool completely.

*You can successfully soften butter in the microwave by putting the 4 sticks of butter – still in their wrappers – in the microwave for about 10 seconds.  Press with a finger to see if it’s barely softened.  Add another few seconds if necessary until you just leave an indentation when touched.   

Based on a recipe from Southern Living Magazine.

Thai Chicken Basil

I can actually call this one award-winning!

A recipe of my own creation, I won first place in a competition

with a dozen other entries for "best main dish".

Saute 2 pounds of chicken breast with crushed garlic and cook until chicken is done.  

Add some chili paste, soy sauce, and sugar

Now a generous amount of fresh basil

Stir for a few seconds until basil is wilted, and TA DA!  A hit! 

Easy and delicious, it's good with plain white rice, cantaloupe, and refreshing iced tea.

Thai Chicken Basil

2 TB vegetable oil

2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, cut up

3 large garlic cloves, crushed

2 heaping teaspoons of chili paste

1 TB sugar

10 shakes of low salt soy sauce - low salt does make a difference

2 cups packed, washed & dried fresh basil leaves

freshly ground pepper

Heat oil.  Stir fry chicken, and before its completely cooked, add the garlic and cook until chicken is browned.  (You don't want to brown the garlic, but you don't want it raw either.)  Stir in the chili paste, soy sauce and sugar.  Add basil and stir until wilted.  Finish with a little freshly ground pepper.  Serves 4.

  

Auntie Mimo's Recipes

Thanks to the efforts of Arlene, we have more of Auntie Mimo's recipes that were popular back in the 70's.

It took a rainy day to get Arlene to go through 50 years of recipes to find this Auntie Mimo favorite!

Here is the long-awaited Spaghetti Sauce recipe that we've been searching for.



Hearing about Arlene going through her recipes opened the door to a flood of memories.

I remember sitting with my mother, listening to the Yankee Kitchen, and helping her write down recipes on index cards.  My mother's filing system consisted of cardboard boxes filled with recipes.  But, when she was determined to find that one recipe, she'd find it! 


Auntie Mimo's main dishes, and others like it from the Yankee Kitchen, are just the kind of meals I grew up with. 

My mother definitely would have made this Spaghetti Sauce on Wednesday, because, as you know, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day! 

Here's another of Arlene's finds: Auntie Mimo's recipe called Very Quick Beef Skillet that is certainly "comfort food".

  

Happy Cooking and

 Happy Memories!



Oh, and one more thing ...

Never, ever give up!

Anita

Will the real egg roll please stand up?

I’m sorry to say that the egg roll   

going by the name of

 "Yen’s Vietnamese Egg Roll"

 in the April 19th post,is,in fact,

 an imposter! 

It is not Yen’s Egg Roll, nor has it ever BEEN Yen’s Egg Roll!   It is a Chinese Egg Roll! 

“That’s not MY recipe!" said my sister-in-law, Yen. "It has soy sauce in it!”  

Now how that recipe ever got into my files under Yen's name is a mystery.  Let's just blame my sister Marcia!

The good news is, we now have the original, tried and true recipe for Cha Gio (pronounced something like "Ji'-ya"with the long i sound).  And they are spring rolls - not egg rolls.

Yen occasionally makes these with a mixture of shrimp and pork. The recipe below is just pork.

Let me just say that once you get going on wrapping up these little guys, you'll never want to stop!  :)

Cha Gio

(Vietnamese Spring Rolls)

Makes 100 spring rolls

These ingredients are readily available in Asian supermarkets

2 lbs ground pork

2 small onions finely chopped

1 c. eartree mushrooms drained and chopped after soaking overnight in cold water  

1 cup of clear noodles drained, after soaking rinse with water and cut to a smaller length

1 egg

1 TB cornstarch

1/2 lb. bean sprouts

Salt & pepper
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. accent 

For wrapping:

1 extra egg, stirred with fork for sealing egg rolls

1 package spring roll wrappers – TYJ Spring Roll Pastry “Spring Home” brand recommended.

For serving:

Lettuce leaves, mint leaves, and Vietnamese dipping sauce (Nuoc  Cham).

Mix all ingredients together.  Place spring roll wrapper on a plate.  Place less than 1 tablespoon of filling near the edge of one corner.

  

Fold corner over filling, turn in both sides.  Wrap up roll.  Dab egg onto corner, then seal.

Check out this demo that Yen was trying to do for me.

WARNING: The audio portion is an example of real life with THE SISTERS!

Fry spring rolls in a generous amount of oil on medium high.  Make sure oil is hot before adding the rolls.  Keep turning them as they fry to a golden brown in about 5-8 minutes. 

 

 

Wrap a piece of lettuce and mint around the spring roll and dip into sauce.

This past Memorial Day, we had a marathon spring roll wrapping party under the tutelage of Yen.

We made - no lie - about 200 spring rolls!

Marcia's dutifully holding up the spring roll wrapper for picture taking.

Here's my sister Dottie who is
serious about the task before her.

We made one batch...

After another...

After another...

And here is what the finished product looks like.  All crispy brown and ready to eat!

If you make them, I hope you like them as much as we do. Happy wrapping!

Anita

Comments? E-mail me at ykconnection@gmail.com