Lamb Shanks with Spiced Lentils

I had some already browned on the grill, but uncooked, lamb shanks in my freezer (newly rediscovered!) and decided it was time to cook them. This dish was adapted from Braised Lamb Shank with Coriander, Fennel, and Star Anise recipe at the epicurious.com website. I used a slow cooker instead of the oven to cook the dish and made some additions to the ingredients; the most significant being lentils. This makes a nice meal for a cool Fall or Winter evening.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Shiitake Mushrooms with Tomatoes (番茄冬菇鷄, Faan1 Ke4 Dung1 Gu1 Gai1)

 

This recipe was updated on 10 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

The last of my home grown tomatoes went into making this dish. It’s really just a recipe of chicken, mushrooms, and tomatoes with a mild sweet and sour sauce, and the dish, of course, goes well with steamed rice. The tomato wedges are added at the last minute with the sauce to keep their shape intact.

Enjoy!

Grilled Teriyaki Beef Rib Steak with Vegetables

Here’s a simple recipe for grilling and smoking a beef rib steak medium rare. The steak is first marinated using Kikkoman’s Teriyaki Marinade and Sauce together with sake (both ingredients can be found at your local supermarket), together with some crushed garlic. After being marinated, the marinade is discarded and then oil and ground pepper is rubbed into the steak. The beef is grilled first uncovered, producing the grill marks on the presentation side of the steak, and then covering the grill to smoke the steak. Grilled and smoked mushrooms and corn accompany the steak.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chilpotles Chili Chicken Green Chile Enchiladas

After making the Grilled Chilpotles Chili Chicken recipe (found here), I wanted to make enchiladas. This is actually a very easy dish to make and a great way to use leftover chicken. I usually use a red chile enchilada sauce, but I wanted to do something different, so I used a green chile sauce instead. The enchiladas are tasty no matter what color sauce you use, but it’s easier to find the red chile sauce at your local supermarket, while both the red and green chile versions can be found at Mexican supermarkets.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chilpotles Chili Chicken

Chilpotles peppers have a smoky and spicy flavor to them, and come canned in adobo sauce. I used the peppers and adobo sauce as the basis for a chicken marinade. I also added chilpotles pepper sauce to marinade to reinforce the flavor. The chicken was smoked with mesquite wood and then grilled.

Enjoy!

Grilled Mesquite-Smoked Garlic Rosemary Lamb

This recipe was updated on 3 Sep 2013. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added. There is another butterflied leg of lamb recipe using an Asian based marinade which can be found at Grilled Butterflied Lamb Leg.

I couldn’t resist buying a 2 lb. boneless leg of lamb on special at the supermarket (I already had something else planned for dinner). With the bone already removed, the lamb was already butterflied, and all I had to do was remove any excess fat and sinew (don’t remove any outside fat from the lamb). I seasoned the lamb with a rub of olive oil, garlic, and rosemary (from my garden). I grilled the lamb over direct heat to brown it first, and then smoked it with mesquite wood using indirect heat. I left the lamb on the grill a little too long (time has been reduced in the recipe), but it was still very delicious. Leftovers will be made into sandwiches!

Enjoy!

Cloud Ear Salmon Chow Mein (雲耳鮭魚炒麵, Wan4 Ji5 Gwai1 Jyu4 Caau2 Min6)

 

This recipe was updated on 06 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

I was in the mood for noodles and had some salmon in my refrigerator. I thought about the Cloud Ear Salmon (雲耳鮭魚, Wan⁴ Ji⁵ Gwai¹ Jyu⁴) recipe and decided that with some modifications, the ingredients would make a great chow mein dish. The major recipe changes are the use of green onions instead of fuzzy melon, and for the sauce, substituting oyster sauce for soy.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb.	500 g.	Salmon (鮭魚, gwai1 jyu4), cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Corn starch (粟粉, suk1 fan2)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
10	10	Whole dried black or cloud ear fungus (雲耳, wan4 ji5), rehydrated with stems removed
3 stalks	3 stalks	Green onions (葱, cung1), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
1 lb.	500 g.	One package chow mein noodles (炒麵, caau2 min6)
		Oil for cooking

 

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Lee Kum Kee brand premium oyster sauce (蠔油, hou4 jau4) or equivalent
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)

 

Equipment

		Garlic press
14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

 

Lee Kum Kee Brand
Premium Oyster Sauce
(蠔油, hou4 jau4)

Preparation Instructions

1. Take the salmon out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking. Prepare the salmon by removing any bones, and cut the meat into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces. Marinate for at least one hour with the ginger crushed in a garlic press, corn starch, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.
2. Pour boiling water over the dried black or cloud ear fungus in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the fungus for at least one hour. Remove the fungus from the rehydration liquid, discard the rehydration liquid, remove the stems from the fungus, and cut them into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces if desired.
3. Crush the ginger and garlic in a garlic press and put into a small bowl.
4. Wash and cut the green onions into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal.
5. Prepare and mix the sauce in a small bowl: add the Lee Kum Kee brand premium oyster sauce or equivalent, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.

Cooking Instructions

1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package and until the noodles are al dente. Drain the noodles and set aside. If using thawed, ready-made, or fresh noodles, “fluff” the noodles to separate them (i.e. you don’t want put a single mass of noodles into the wok).
2. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil and then the salmon. Stir fry the salmon until brown by placing the salmon skin side down in the wok and leaving the salmon alone for a while before flipping it over to brown the other side. You may have to stir fry the salmon in batches, so be sure to reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil. Transfer the browned salmon to a bowl.
3. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the black or cloud ear fungus. Stir fry the fungus to brown them. Add the bowl with the ginger and garlic mixture, and then some oil to the mixture. Quickly stir fry all the ingredients until the ginger and garlic mixture becomes fragrant. Transfer the contents of the wok to the bowl with the salmon.
4. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil and then the noodles. The wok should be very hot before adding the oil and then the noodles. Noodles cooked in a restaurant wok (over much higher heat than that available in your kitchen) are served slightly burned, which gives the noodles an extra added flavor.  To try to emulate slightly burned noodles, try to put the noodles in one layer in the hot wok and add some liquid (water, stock, or Shaoxing wine; but not too much liquid otherwise you’ll steam the noodles) to facilitate the heat transfer from the wok to the noodles, and leave the noodles alone. You want the noodles to get burned before adding more oil to the noodles and turning them over, repeating the process.
5. Add the green onions and the contents of the bowl with the salmon back into the wok, and stir fry all the ingredients together. Add the sauce ingredients to the wok and mix the ingredients together. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish and serve immediately.