Easy Asian Style Steak Marinate

Ingredients:
1 lb of thinly sliced beef milanesa – cut into small pieces
Juice from 1 super sweet orange (has to be really really sweet)
2 stalks of green onions- chopped
Chopped white onion
3-4 Tbsp coconut aminos or wheat free soy sauce (tamari)
1 tsp pure sesame oil
1 tsp white pepper
1-2 tsp garlic powder

Directions:
1. Marinate the beef with all the ingredients for about 1 hour or overnight

2. Heat the skillet with avocado oil or your choice of high heat cooking oil in medium high.

3. Cook the meat briefly – since this is a thinly sliced meat, you do not want to overcook it. 30 seconds per side should be sufficient enough or as long you don’t see anymore blood.

4. Enjoy!

Feel free to experiment the marinate with thinly sliced chicken or any other protein type.

 

Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bo Kho)

I love cooking stew because it’s simple, easy and it tastes even better after the next day. When I saw Nom Nom Paleo posted her Paleo version, I was super intrigued to try it this weekend. And I also saw Wandering Chopsticks posted her own version of Bo Kho as well. One Two things I don’t have in my pantry as those ladies were the fish sauce and Vietnamese Madras Curry Powder (bummer!) But that didn’t stop me for not making it and it still turned out yummy!

Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bo Kho) (Adapted from Nom Nom Paleo and Wandering Chopsticks)
Ingredients:
3 lbs beef stew meat
4 tomatoes – seeded and peeled
1 white onion -chopped
1/2 jicama – cut into chunks
1 inch of ginger root – peeled
4 stalks of lemon grass – discard leafy part and cut into 3 parts and bruised
4 star anise
2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp five spice powder
salt
1 lb of small carrots – cut diagonally
3 bay leaves
1 tsp paprika powder
2 Tbsp coconut flour

Directions:
1. Peel, seeded and cut the tomatoes into chunks (I saved the seeds for other use but Hubby K decided to consume it instead)

2. Cut the rest of the ingredients. Please note I cut mine into big chunks because I am using a pressure cooker. If you use a regular pot, cut them a little smaller than mine

3. Wash and pat dry the beef stew meat. I had to cut mine into smaller pieces because they were big!

4. Drizzle 2 Tbsp coconut flour to the meat and mix until they are all coated evenly.

5. Heat 2 Tbsp avocado oil on the pot in medium heat – pan fry the coated meat until brownish. You might need to do this in batches. Set aside.

6. Heat another 2 Tbsp avocado oi, saute garlic, onion, tomatoes, lemon grass, bay leaves, star anise, ginger in medium high heat

7. Mix in the beef stew meat and jicama. Add all the seasonings. Pour in the water about 3/4 full.

8a. Pressure cooker: Cover and turn the heat up to high to bring up the pressure. Once you hear the hissing sound, turn down the heat to medium – cook for about 25 minutes then turn off the heat. Wait for about 15-20 minutes before opening the pot.

Open the pressure cooker, adjust the seasoning accordingly, then pour in the chopped carrots into the pot, cover the pressure cooker and cook for about 5 minutes then turn off the heat.

8b. Regular pot: Cook in medium low heat -let it simmer for about 1 hour. Adjust seasonings accordingly. Towards the end, mix in the chopped carrots.

9. Discard the lemon grass, star anise, jicama and bay leaves. Then you’re done!

 

Rawon (Indonesian Beef Black Soup)

When I discovered Indonesian Foods YouTube channel, I can’t wait to try most of the Indonesian recipes she demonstrated. Most of the dishes can be modified to Paleo as long as you omit the sugar, beef/chicken bouillon etc. And did I tell you that I finally bough my own Magic Bullet blender after seeing her using it to make her own herb paste?

After coupons, discounts and mail in rebate, this baby only costs me $16.00! BIG SCORE!
Anyway back to the recipe. I decided to try making Rawon (ruh-won) (Indonesian Beef Black Soup).

One main ingredient that you need is this keluwak/kluwak nuts.

According to Recipes Wiki:

Kluwak nuts come from the kepayang tree (Pangium edule) of Indonesia & Malaysia, a member of the flacourtia family (Flacourtiaceae). The oily, hard-shelled seeds superficially resemble Brazil nuts. Meaty seeds are edible after the poisonous hydrocyanic acid is removed by soaking and boiling them in water. Fermented kluwak nuts become chocolate-brown, greasy and very slippery. Cooked seeds are used in a number of popular Malaysian and Indonesian dishes.

When harvested from the tree, the kluwak is not ready to be used. It needs to be fermented for sometime, due to its poison. The process of fermentation is done after the kluwak is boiled in hot water for sometime and then they are buried in the ground. The humidity of the soil helps the process of fermentation. When ready, the meat of the kluwak will change from white colour into black, and the taste of the good and ready to use should not be bitter.

Apparently, the one I bought from 99 Ranch Market was the fermented version and ready to be used.

Rawon (Indonesian Beef Black Soup) – (adapted from Indonesian Foods)
Ingredients:
1.5 lbs beef (I used rump roast – cut in cube)
5-6 dried kluwak nuts
3-4 garlic cloves
1/2 white onion
5-6 shallots
1 inch of fresh turmeric root (or use 1 tsp turmeric powder)
1 inch of ginger root
1 inch of galangal root (white ginger) or used 2 dried galangal slices
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 stalks of lemon grass
Handful of fresh lime leaves
Salt
1/2 jicama

Directions:
1. Soak kluwak nuts in hot water

2. Make an herb paste by blending garlic, shallots, turmeric root and soaked kluwak in your blender.

3. Heat the pot with coconut oil, saute the herb paste with lemon grass, lime leaves until fragrant.

4. Add in the cut up beef, chopped jicama and water

5. Season with salt, cumin, and coriander. Turn the heat to medium low, cover and cook until the beef is tender. I used my pressure cooker so the entire cooking took about 30 minutes. Regular pot might take about 1 hour.

6. Discard the cut up jicama, adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve over cauliflower rice or any veggies of your choice! Taste even better after let sit in the fridge overnight. Enjoy!

Note: If you can’t find kluwak, you still can make this soup without it (the color might not turn as dark) but do not skimp on the other ingredients (lemon grass and lime leaves especially).

 

Bacon Topped Meatloaf

I’ve never made a meatloaf before but after I saw Nom Nom Paleo Super Porktastic Bacon-Topped Spinach and Mushroom Meatloaf recipe, I finally decided to give it a try. Since I didn’t have most of the ingredients, I ended up subbing majority of them and in the end created my own bacon topped meatloaf version.

Bacon Topped Meatloaf (adapted from Nom Nom Paleo)
Ingredients:
About 1.3lb grass fed ground beef
2 green onion stalks
3-4 garlic cloves
1 shallot
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup of Mushroom Gravy
2 eggs
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup coconut cream
1 cup of chopped cabbage
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mince the garlic, onions and shallot (I used my newly purchased Magic Bullet) – well mine turned into a puree instead.

2. Puree the chopped green onions with the coconut cream

No coconut cream? You can use coconut milk or hack your own (like me )
Refrigerate coconut milk for overnight.
Scoop out the top layer (careful, don’t scoop the liquid part)
Whip it using your hand mixer with whisk attachment
Voila!

3. Mix all the ingredients to the ground beef. Season accordingly.

4. I cooked a small patty on the pan to determine the taste.

5. Fill the meat mixture into a nonstick 9”x 5” loaf pan

6. Line the bacon strips on top of it. (I used Trader Joe’s brand Uncured Apple Smoked Bacon)

7. Bake for 1 hour in 350°F

8. Set to broil for another 5-7 minutes to crisp up the bacon strips

9. Remove from the oven. Drain off the excess liquid – careful don’t let the meatloaf slide out from the pan or your entire effort will be wasted!

10. Let it cool a bit before transferring it to a plate.

This meatloaf tastes even better when eaten together with Trader Joe’s Hot Chipotle Salsa sauce!

It’s Paleo friendly as well.
Ingredients:
Diced tomatoes, tomato puree (water, tomato paste), cider vinegar, onions, chipotle chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, cilantro, red peppers.

It might not look as pretty and neat as Nom Nom Paleo’s, but tastes amazing! My version was a bit crumbly probably due to the Mushroom Gravy Sauce. Well at least I figured out how to finish off the last batch without wasting it

Feel free to sub the ground beef with any protein of your choice! As usual, enjoy!

 

Zombied Out But It’s All Good

Happy (Good) Friday and Happy Earth Day everyone! Yesterday, Hubby K wasn’t feeling good (he had sore throat and lack of energy). Could be because he’s been lacking of sleep lately. So I gave him a glass of hot water with few slices of lemons and told him to go to bed early and I did all the clean ups. All this time I cooked and he did all the kitchen clean ups plus he usually cooked more stuff for him to bring. Usually I went to bed much earlier than he did and truth to be told I’ve never really knew what time exactly he went to bed.

So, last night I went to bed after he did…and …didn’t feel like I had a complete shut eye because..he SNORED.for. the. entire.night! Even with my ear plugs I still could hear it. I might fall asleep in between times when he stopped snoring. Anyway despite lack of sleep, I didn’t feel tired or cranky either (another good result from cutting out grains and gluten??)

Oh well, no grudge hold against him. In fact I even made him some breakfast! Lately I’ve been having sweet breakfast dishes (sweet potatoes, bo bo cha) so this morning I made bacon and eggs!

Hubby K wasn’t expected me to make him breakfast. Heck all this time I’ve never really made his breakfast (bad wife!). Another good news is he told me he felt much better and praised me for giving him lemon slices with hot water last night. His throat felt way better today and he felt more energetic as well. And he even brought extra lemons to work so he could drink them all day in the office.

Last night I made roasted kabocha with coconut oil. YUM!

I LOVE KABOCHA (who doesn’t?) and I tell ya I could devour the entire plate of roasted kabocha in one sitting and I am NOT joking. It’s just that good..even better than potato chips!

Last night dinner: Baked Chicken Leg with Caramelized Shallots, steamed asparagus topped with Mushroom Gravy sauce, roasted kabocha and steamed Chinese greens.

I packed similar stuff for my lunch today, only ended up not eating it because my co-worker L came by and asked me to go out for lunch. We went to Japanese tebasaki Restaurant, Furaibo.

Sorry no food pic because I didn’t want to appear ridiculous in front of him, taking food pic. I could tell you I ordered a lunch special: shredded cabbage salad with no dressing (the waitress looked shocked when I asked her for no dressing) and char-boiled sliced chicken breasts with honey mustard on the side (which I didn’t touch either). Lunch special was served with a bowl of miso soup, which I didn’t touch either. Good thing L didn’t notice it.

Was it filling? Not really. After I got back to the office I took 15 minute walk in the parking lot, came back to my desk and devoured the last container of bo bo cha cha (dang that stuff was so good!) – sorry Hubby K, you procrastinate too long to give this a try!

That curbed my appetite for the entire afternoon.

So apparently my today’s packed lunch became my dinner instead.
Steamed chinese greens, roasted kabocha, mushroom gravy sauce and 2 beef patties.

I also had my last strawberry batch (gotta get more from farmer’s market tomorrow), which originally for my afternoon snack.

Speaking of which, I just realized I haven’t made my homemade chicken stock for a while. So after dinner, I cleaned up the last chicken I had and cooking it in my pressure cooker now.

Do you have any plans for this coming Easter weekend? Do you celebrate Easter?

I am not a religious person although I was actually baptized as Catholic when I was 5 years old and had my first Holy communion when I was 8. Apparently, after I came to the US, I started to see things differently and I decided I don’t want to label my belief. Don’t get me wrong, I respect everyone’s belief, whatever it is. I would say I believe in spirituality, that there’s some forces out there which sometimes can’t be explained scientifically.

Anyway back in Indo when I was in grade school, we had Easter Egg hunt (real hard boiled decorated eggs, not plastic eggs filled with candies and chocolate like in the US), and of course went to the Easter Mass at the church. I don’t even know there’s Easter bunny until I got to the US.

I’m planning to experiment some recipe that I’ve come up with after reading various resources. Fail or success, we’ll see about that!

Have a good weekend and for those who celebrate Easter, Happy Easter!

 

When in Doubt

Ah, my weekend is almost over and tomorrow back to work..again (gotta bring in those paychecks otherwise won’t be able to afford those groceries to make yummy and healthy food).

Today I finally got a chance to cook another “exotic” veggies: Swiss Chard!

The first thing came in my mind was: stir fry. Yup, I’m very Asian and stir frying is usually fool proof, especially cooking a new type of veggies for the first time. So I gathered the usual stir fry staple ingredients: onions, oil (I used Applegate bacon), some protein (I used my pre-cooked grass fed ground beef) and salt.

It has a slight earthy taste of beet, wasn’t quite a fan but not hate it either. I might not cook it long enough because the stems were still pretty chewy. Next time I should cook the stems first before dumping the leaves. But regardless, I packed these as part of my lunch for tomorrow

Anyway, wanna know what else I had for today? Ok here we go.

Post workout meal: baby food pureed butternut squash – one of my stash from the freezer. I’m glad this one wasn’t spoiled unlike last time!

Veggies with Beef Roast topped with Mushroom Gravy Sauce = delicious! Hubby K loved it as well!

I marinated some lamb shoulders for tomorrow (recipe coming soon if they turn out yummy) and I was wondering what should I do for another package of lamb shoulders. Then I remembered this:

I haven’t made Masala Lamb for a while so today I decided to make it again. But as usual, I could never even follow my own recipe to the T.

Some adjustments I did for today’s Masala Lamb:
- I added 3 tomatoes

- No coconut milk & jicama
- Used 1 cup beef broth
- 3 whole cloves
- Mashed the garlic, onions and shallots in mortar and pestle

- I blanched the lamb shoulders to remove the impurities

- Next I saute the mashed garlic/onions with masala paste and the cloves in low heat until fragrant

- Afterward I poured in 1 cup of beef broth, the lamb and chopped tomatoes

- Season with salt to taste, cover and let it cook on medium low for 30 minutes

The result? It tastes even MUCH BETTER than the first time I made this! The tomatoes added some slight tartness to the sauce. Plus since I didn’t use coconut milk, the sauce wasn’t that rich and thick. The lamb meat was super tender that it even pulled away from the bones very easily.

I was doubting if I should add the tomatoes in, fearing it’ll dilute the whole taste but it turned out not.

Any other idea how to cook Swiss Chard?

 

Mushroom Gravy Beef Roast

I was inspired by Nom Nom Paleo Easy Paleo Herb Gravy recipe and finally decided to give it a try with the newly bought grass fed beef rump roast I got couple days ago. All this time, I only bought grass fed ground beef and from what I heard, grass fed beef is pretty tricky to cook. When you overcook it, it’ll taste rubbery and I’m not a fan of eating medium rare meat either. So this was quite a challenge for me.

Beef Roast with Mushroom Gravy Sauce (adapted from Nom Nom Paleo)
Ingredients:
About 2lbs grass fed beef rump roast
2 big onions
1 bulb of garlic
1 shallot
18 oz button mushrooms
2 Tbsp grassfed butter (I used Kerrygold Salted Butter)
1 tsp caraway seeds
1-2 tsp celery salt
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Cook the beef rump roast in pressure cooker for about 20-25 minutes (or boil them for about 1 hour or until tender). There you got yourself a big bowl of beef broth Set the beef roast meat aside and refrigerate the broth for future use (skim off the fat after it cooled down)

2. Chop the garlic, onions, mushrooms and shallots

3. Melt the butter (or your choice of high heat cooking oil) – saute the onions and the mushrooms in medium high.

Note: DO NOT add any water. It’s very tempting, but trust me, the mushrooms will yield LOTS of liquid. If you add any water, your sauce will be very watery. Just keep stirring to avoid the mushrooms and the onions from getting burned.

After a while, the mushrooms will release lots of water!

4. Reduce the heat to medium low and let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Add all the seasonings to taste.

5. Turn off the heat and let it cool down. Then blend using your food processor/blender. Yea it might not look that pretty, but taste UH-MAZING!

Slice the beef roast, topped with the mushroom gravy and bon apetit!

 

Almond Butter Beef

First time I saw Almond Butter Beef recipe on Baby Damulag’s post, I’ve been itching to try it. Since I’ve been searching for a different way to cook beef, I gave this a try.

Almond Butter Beef (modified from Baby Damulag)
Ingredients:
2 lbs of beef stew meat
Almond butter (I didn’t measure mine, but roughly around 1/2 cup?)
Salt & pepper
Italian seasoning
Chopped onions & garlic
1 cup homemade chicken broth
Avocado oil

Directions:
1. Marinate the beef with salt, pepper and Italian seasonings (I left it overnight, but an hour should be sufficient)
2. Saute chopped onions and garlic until translucent – mix in the beef


3. Pour in the chicken broth – bring to boil

4. Turn down the heat to medium low – simmer until beef is tender (about 1-2 hour?) – I used pressure cooker so it took me around 40 minutes.
5. Mix in the almond butter into the beef – add salt to taste

From here, be very attentive because almond butter will thicken the sauce and if you’re not careful enough, it’ll get burned! – and that actually happened to me.

 

7 Spice Beef Stew

I know, I know, it’s nothing new…anyone can make beef stew. In fact there are TONS of WAYS to make beef stew. I was inspired to make this dish after I tasted my sister-in-law’s mom’s Corned Beef that she brought over to my in-laws’ place on Saturday dinner. She told me her mom cooked the beef for about 4 hours on open fire, added the big chunks of carrots, potatoes and cabbages later towards the end.

I didn’t have time to sit around in my kitchen for 4 hours so I opted with my pressure cooker instead.

7 Spice Beef Stew
Ingredients:
2 lbs of beef clod shoulder – cut into big chunks – trimmed away all the visible fat if not using grass fed beef

3 large tomatoes – cut into big chunks

1 white onions -diced
About 3 garlic cloves -minced

7 spice powder
Salt & pepper to taste
Garlic powder
3-5 medium carrots -cut big chunks
1/2 cabbage head

Directions:
1. Blanch the beef first – I did this to remove some impurities
2. Heat ghee/your cooking oil choice on medium heat -saute the onion/garlic mixture until fragrant – add in the beef and tomatoes- add about 1/2 cup water, salt, pepper, garlic powder, 7 spice powder then cover.
Pressure cooker: cooked about 1 hour with medium fire
Regular pot: Bring water to boil then simmer for about 3 hours

3. Mix in the carrots and 1/2 cabbage head to the pot (yup, I just dumped the whole 1/2 cabbage into my pressure cooker – if you use regular pot, feel free to cut a little smaller)
Pressure cooker: Cook for another 15 minutes under pressure
Regular pot: Cook for another 1 hour

4. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

Enjoy!

Beef stew tastes better at next day so pretty much after making this, I just let the dish cooled down and stored them in the fridge.

 

“Hanbaagaa” (Japanese Style Hamburger)

There are so many ways to cook hamburger and this time as part of my Solidarity with Japan post, I decided to make ハンバーガー Hanbaagaa (Japanese Style Hamburger) – in primal way of course

ハンバーガー Hanbaagaa (Japanese Style Hamburger)
Ingredients:
1lbs organic grass fed ground beef
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
1/4 white onion – diced
1 egg
Salt
Black pepper
White pepper
Coconut aminos

Directions:
1. Mince the shallot, onion, garlic then use mortar pestle to ground them (or food processor)

2. Mix together the ground onions mixture with the ground beef, egg, salt, black pepper and white pepper

3. Heat the skillet in medium heat with ghee or cooking oil of your choice

4. Divide the beef mixture into 4 equal size patties. Pan sear the the meat until brown – flip occasionally – do not squeeze the patties as it will release all the juice, resulting dry patties.

5. Pour in about 1-2 Tbsp of water, following with 1-3 Tbsp coconut aminos or wheat free soy sauce (tamari sauce) – let it simmer for about 2 minutes

6. Turn up the heat to high to reduce the sauce

Nice and juicy! As usual, enjoy!

Feel free to join Kath in her Solidarity with Japan project. Post anything about Japan – can be food, cultures, music, etc.