What's for Dinner, Mon., Feb. 8, 2016

[NJCher]

Something easy, as I have a class until 8:30 and won't even make it home until 9:20 or so. This would be a good opportunity for leftovers. I think dinner may be as simple as broccoli-cauliflower loaf and salad. I'll pull 8 or 9 frozen shrimp out and put them in the salad.

Wish I had a soup ready to go, but I don't. It's going to snow this evening, and there's nothing like a steaming bowl of soup on such a night.


Cher

[livetohike]

1. Stuffed peppers, succotash and a cucumber/sour cream salad

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Beef teriyaki and mac and cheese.

But I just tried out something new, trying to make stir fry beef, and had decent success, considering that I didn't actually have most of the ingredients on hand. Flank steak, cut with the grain into two inch or so wide strips, then cut across the grain into maybe 1/16th thick strips. Tablespoon of water and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda mixed together in a bowl, left to sit for a couple minutes, then the strips tossed in and mixed around to coat them. Give em a couple min, then toss in a couple tablespoons soy sauce and brown sugar and mix some more.

Meanwhile, heat up a dollop of oil in a pan, then pop the strips into the oil one layer deep, give em 30 seconds to a minute and flip, then another 30 seconds, then pop em out and put aside for your stir fry.

There's supposed to be a lot more steps, including sherry and corn starch, but I forgot we cleaned out all the old crap in the pantry, and those were apparently among the really old stuff.

Still, it came out pretty decently as it was.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

7. Your posts always inspire me on so many levels.

This sounds good. We'll be trying it

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. Well, the CORRECT way to do it was in a Cook's Illustrated issue.

That's where you'll find the rest of the steps. Number 139, April 2016, pg 6-7. (ETA, and I have no clue why the April issue is already on shelves.)

To quote them: Just like egg whites, baking soda raises the pH on the surface of the meat, making it more difficult for the proteins to bond and therefore keeping the meat tender and moist. ... Meat treated with baking soda was about 20% more tender than untreated meat.

Apparently in actual restaurants, they use a process called 'velveting', in which you marinate the meat in egg whites and cornstarch, then blanch it in oil before cooking. Cook's Illustrated was looking for a way to streamline prep without making the end product too different.

I'd like to try it again after picking up some corn starch and sherry and see if I can get even closer to that restaurant texture.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

9. Thank you!!!

Love Cook's Illustrated...Love your cooking tips and your stories

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

10. As far as cooking mags go, they're in a class by themselves.

Nobody else even comes close in terms of identifying all the different ways to try to do things and how successful or not they are, or what the pitfalls and drawbacks might be. I might pick up the occasional 'special' issue on canning or crockpotting by someone else, but for everything and anything, it's always Cook's Illustrated, and I end up with far more success stories using their methods than anybody else's.

[littlewolf]

3. ravioli and sauce with garlic bread. nt

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. Grecian chicken.

Green beans and a baked potato.

[Phentex]

5. Soup!

with roasted red peppers, spinach, green beans, scallions, parm and pastina (supposed to use orzo but not).

Stay warm! And send your snow down here, please!

[Galileo126]

6. Veggie pizza

Even made the dough myself this time. Today's a meatless day for me. Toppings: black olives, sliced romas, artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers, fresh garlic.

[bif]

11. Pesto salmon

boiled spuds, asparagus, and salad.

[hobbit709]

12. Grilled bacon cheeseburger on ciabatta bun.