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Lamb Kebabs marinated in mint sauce

Pascal — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:39:17 +0000

More barbecue! The lamb marinated in mint and vinegar brings up the lamb flavor in a unique way that’s hard to describe, but very tasty. Enjoy with a strong red wine such as a bottle of 2003 Cooper-Garrod Cabernet, produced less than 10 miles from here.

Ingredients for the marinade

- 2 TBSP fresh mint (use 1/2 tsp dry mint if fresh is not available)
- 1/2 tsp dry dill
- 1/2 tsp dry basil
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 lbs lamb shoulder (or leg), diced into about 1 inch cubes
- 1 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 large shallots, finely chopped
- 3 TBSP olive oil

Steps for the marinade

- chop the mint and place into a non reactive bowl large enough to hold the lamb cubes
- add the dill, basil and coriander, salt and pepper. Mix well
- cut the lamb into 1 inch cubes and place into the bowl and mix in so the lamb is uniformly coated with the spices
- cover and refrigerate for about an hour
- add the vinegar and shallots, and mix well
- cover and refrigerate overnight

Steps for grilling the lamb kebabs

- heat your grill to high
- while the grill is warming up, place the lamb pieces on the skewers (I prefer to use flat ones, it is easier to turn)
- sprinkle some olive oil on the kebabs
- cook 10 minutes all together (3 minutes one side, 3 minutes opposite side, then 2 minutes each on the last 2 sides) for medium rare
- each time you turn, spread some more olive oil with a brush so the lamb does not dry
- serve immediately
- Enjoy!

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Yakitori – japanese style chicken kebabs

Pascal — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:31:19 +0000

This post (and recipe) is dedicated to the life and memory of a good friend of mine, Tomoaki Sawada, a.k.a. Sawada-san. I had been working with him for several years, and met him multiple times here and in Japan. Every time, he had been so good to me. He liked good food, and he liked to drink, Sake, and Shoju. I made that recipe today, but was not planning to post for a while, but this is only fitting that I post today.

I first had Yakitori – literally translates to grilled chicken – in the smallest place in a back alley in Tokyo. The place could sit maybe 5 people, but the food was sumptuous. They have a tiny grill, and they can’t cook for more than 2 or 3 at a time, and they used ice cubes to clean the grill, quite an experience. So you don’t have to fly to Tokyo, here’s a recipe that should get close.

Ingredients for Yakitori – grilled chicken

- 2 chicken breasts, 8-10 oz. each, skinless boneless (Organic does taste better!)
- a bunch of green onions (scallions), cut into 2 inches segments
- bamboo skewers
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup sake
- 1/2 cup sweet rice wine (Mirin)
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped very finely
- 3 TBSP sugar
- aluminum foil

Steps for the Yakitori

- wash the chicken, pat dry with paper towels, and cut crosswise into 1/2 inch strips
- wash and cut the scallions into 2 inches strips
- skewer the chicken strips and scallions onto a pair of bamboo skewers (using 2 makes it easy to turn over). You may also place the scallions on separate skewers as they do not need to cook as much.
- in a small sauce pan, mix in the soy sauce, Sake, Mirin, ginger, garlic, and sugar.
- bring to a boil, then reduce about half till the sauce is a bit sirupy
- set aside about 1/3 of the sauce
- meanwhile, preheat your grill to high
- clean and oil your grate when it is hot enough
- place some aluminum foil to protect the exposed part of the skewers
- place the skewers on the grill
- after 3 minutes, turn the skewers over and brush with some of the sauce
- keep turning the skewers every couple minutes and brush with more sauce
- the whole grilling process should take 8-10 minutes depending on your grill and the thickness of the chicken
- serve immediately with the sauce you set aside
- Enjoy!

Sawada-san, this one’s for you!

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Mustard-Lime-Worcestershire grilled steaks

Pascal — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 05:12:13 +0000

Summer is almost here, and this means barbecue season is among us, although here in Northern California, you can almost do this all year long. Here is a recipe for steak to enjoy on a hot summer day (any steak will work, I used ribeye). Very easy and sure to please.

Ingredients for Mustard Lime Steaks

- 2 rib-eyes steadk, 1.5 lbs all together, about 1 inch thick (you don’t want too thick for this recipe so you don’t overcook the mustard)
- 4 TBSP dry mustard (or ground mustard)
- 4 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
- 4 TBSP lime juice (about one juicy lime)
- Kosher salt
- fresh ground black pepper

Cooking steps

- spread one TBSP of the dry mustard on each side of each rib-eye steak (use your fingers, or a fork)
- pour 1 TBSP of the Worcestershire sauce on each side of each steak (it won’t go in at first, so rub it in)
- do the same for 1 TBSP of the lime juice on each side of each steak (it will eventually form a slurry)
- let it marinate on the counter for about 20-30 minutes
- preheat your grill to high
- clean and oil your grate, then place the 2 steaks
- cook for 5 minutes on the first side for rare, rotating once if you want nice criss-crossed marks
- turn over and cool for an other 3-4 minutes
- let the steaks rest for 3-5 minutes and serve
- Enjoy!

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Moroccan beef kebabs

Pascal — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:18:41 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, I love shish kebabs. This is an other tasty variation, with a northern african flavor: Paprika and Cumin. There is something special about these spices, they combine into such an enticing flavor, and create an unforgettable experience.

This recipe would be traditionally served with Harissa, but if you can’t find any, you can make this simple relish with tomatoes, shallots and hot Paprika.

Ingredients for the Beef Kebabs

- 1 1/2 lbs of some lean beef, about 1 inch think, cut into 1 inch cubes (I like to use London Broil, or eye of round, but many variations will do)
- 1 medium onion, grated
- 1/3 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped (or 1 TBPS dry parsley)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1.5 tsp paprika
- 2 fresh laurel leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- more salt and cumin for serving

Ingredients for the relish

- 2 ripe tomatoes, grated
- 2-3 shallots, grated as well
- 3 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped finely
- 1 TBSP hot paprika
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- 2 TBSP lemon juice (the juice of a fairly juicy half lemon)
- salt to taste
- fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preparation for the beef

- cut the beef into 1 inch cube, removing any unsightly pieces of fat.
- mix the oninon, parsley, cumin, paprika, laurel leaves, salt, pepper and olive oil into a non reactive bowl
- add the meat and mix thoroughly
- refrigerate overnight (yes, you can do it for only a few hours, but overnight will bring out more flavor!)

Preparation for the relish

- cut the tomatoes, seed them and grate them into a small bowl (using the coarser grate will work just fine)
- peel the shallots and grate them as well and mix with the tomatoes
- mix in the chopped parsley, add the hot paprika, cayenne pepper, olive oil, salt,pepper and lemon juice

This can be prepared ahead of time, even the day before if you refrigerate right away, but serve at room temperature.

Final steps

- place the meat on the skewer (flat metal one preferably, you’ll thank me later)
- preheat your grill to high for direct grilling (about 10 minutes)
- when the grill is hot, clean it with a metal brush, oil it with olive oil on a paper towel
- place the skewers on the grill and cook for about 3 minutes per side, for a total of about 10-12 minutes
- Serve right away with the sauce and I hope you enjoy!

Inspired from the Barbecue! Bible by Steven Raichlen, except I like to cut the meat into bigger chunks, and ad in some laurel leaves.

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Mushroom and walnut salad

Pascal — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:10:53 +0000

I love mushrooms. So if a recipe comes along with mushroom, some cream, some crunchy bits, I’ll have to try it. This makes quite a refreshing starter course, and you can make it look fancy without much effort. What more is there to ask for?

Ingredients for the mushroom salad

- 4 cups sliced mushrooms (about 12 oz)
- 1/2 cup walnut pieces (about 10 walnuts)
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup scallions, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp fresh-ground black pepper
- 8-12 lettuce leaves

Preparation

- In a large bowl, mix the mushrooms, the walnuts, sour cream, scallions, lemon juice, salt and pepper
- you can refrigerate for up to a couple hours, but it will taste better if you mix everything just before serving
- Serve in individual bowl, with a couple lettuce leaves forming a nest for the mushroom mixture

Inspired from Jacques-Pépin in “Fast food, my way”

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notes.homerecipes.org

Pascal — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:08:00 +0000

I started a new site to include small notes not worthy a full post. Check it out: notes.homerecipes.org

It is using Tumblr, simple and easy to setup. Worth a look.

Stay tuned for more recipes!

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Sauteed Potatoes

Pascal — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:01:40 +0000

Sauteed Potatoes are the simplest but most satisfying of all recipes. Easier than french fries, and probably a lot less greasy too. And kids will love them too!

Ingredients for the Sauteed Potatoes

- 5 to 7 medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes (but any kind of potato that holds well together after boiling will work, I just like the taste and texture of Yukon Gold). That’s about 1.5 to 2 lbs.
- olive oil
- salt to taste
- fresh ground black pepper to taste

Steps

- clean the potatoes
- place the potatoes with the skin on in a 2 quarts pan (or bigger) with enough cold water so that all the potatoes are under water, and bring to a boil
- boil for 20-30 minutes (this part really depends on the potatoes and their size, so using potatoes roughly the same size helps) till a pointy knife can go through a potato without much resistance, but before the skin starts to crack and peel off.
- place a generous amount of olive oil in a large frying pan and heat on medium high. You want the potatoes to absorb some of that oil, but not too much!
- cool down the potatoes under cold running water
- if still too hot to peel, let them rest for a little while, then peel
- cut the potatoes in roughly 1 inch cubes (no need to be too exact here)
- once the oil is hot (but not smoking!), start placing the potatoes in one single layer (don’t use more potatoes that can fit in that single layer, so use a second pan if needed)
- every 3-4 minutes turn the potatoes so each side gets a chance to brown and get a nice golden color
- the whole process should take about 10-15 minutes.
- if you are not quite ready to heat, you can turn the heat to low and keep them warm for a little while

This recipe goes great with a grilled meat, sausages, or dried meats like prosciutto.

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Chicken breasts with garlic and parsley

Pascal — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:17:32 +0000

I’m a big fan of red meat, but chicken is not far behind. This recipes brings out the best of the chicken breasts, and the recipe is simple enough you can make it for any meal, without much planning. As everyone should have flour, butter and garlic, you really only need chicken breasts and fresh parsley!

Ingredients for the chicken breasts

- 2 organic chicken breasts, boneless, skinless (about 8 oz each), cut into 1 inch cubes
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic (2 large cloves)
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter (at room temperature, or microwave for 10s to soften)

Directions

- rinse the chicken breasts under cold running water, then dry with paper towels
- place flour, salt and pepper onto a plate, mix
- coat the chicken with the flour, salt and pepper
- mix in the garlic and parsley with the butter
- heat the olive oil in a large frying pan till very hot (but not smoking!)
- sauté the chicken for 4 minutes, turning every often
- add the butter and garlic and parsley mixture
- sauté for 1 more minute
- serve immediately with some vegetable or rice (or both!)

Inspired from Fast food, my way, Jacques-Pépin

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Classic Beef Shish Kebab

Pascal — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:31:13 +0000

I’ve always found shish kebabs fascinating. Perhaps it is the spear like action of the metal skewer onto the meat, or because they are very easy to cook, as they will cook very evenly if you only cook each side 2 or 3 minutes. Maybe there’s also the mix of the meat with the veggies, or the color combination that’s always very attractive.

There are many types of skewers, metal or bamboo, but for meat, my favorite choice is to use the flat metal ones. The flat section helps ensure that the items on the skewer will not turn more than you turn the skewer! That tends to be frustrating and awkward!

Ingredients for the Shish Kebabs

- 1 1/2 lbs of meat, about 1″ to 1 1/2″ thick that you can cut into cubes. Sirloin, london broil, chateaubriand are good candidate, but eye of round will also work great.
- 8oz white or brown mushrooms
- 8oz large cherry tomatoes
- 8oz small sweet onions, peeled
- 2 TBSP olive oil
- salt to taste
- fresh ground black pepper

Steps for preparing and cooking the Shish Kebabs

- preheat your grill to high
- cut the meat into cubes of roughly 1″ to 1 1/2″ cubes
- wash the mushrooms, the small onions and the cherry tomatoes
- assemble the shish kebabs by alternating mushrooms, meat, small onions and tomatoes
- mix the herbs, salt and pepper into the olive oil
- rub the oil mixture onto the meat and veggies
- clean your grill, and rub it with vegetable oil using a paper towel (I use olive oil)
- place the kebabs onto the grill and cook on all sides, about 10-12 minutes all together
- serve immediately

Variations

There are endless variations to this recipe. Use sweet red peppers, green peppers, asparagus, etc…

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Santa Maria Style TriTip

Pascal — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:40:39 +0000

Grilled beef? Hmmm, good. Spicy food? Hmmm, good. Grilled spicy beef, now, that’s something good!!! This Santa Maria style TriTip is going to ravish more than one meat connoisseur. You get to enjoy the fire of the spices along with the high heat from the fire that seared the meat!

Ingredients for the Rub

- 2 chopped garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper (coarse)
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper (coarse)
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 3 tablespoons salt (kosher)

Steps for the Rub

- Mix together all ingredients in a small bowl.

Ingredients for the Basting Sauce

- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 chopped garlic cloves

Steps for the Rub

- Whisk together vinegar and oil in a small bowl.

Cooking instructions

- Rub each sides of the tri-tip with the seasoning.
- Leave the meat out for 30 minutes (if you don’t feel comfortable leaving the meat out, you can put it back in the fridge, but keep in mind you may need to cook it a bit longer)
- Preheat the grill to high for 10 minutes
- Cook for 10 minutes, turning once. Baste after you turn using the Basting Sauce
- Then reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10 minutes more, turning and basting each time, at least till the internal temperature reaches 120+ F
- Cover with foil for 10 minutes.
- Slice and enjoy!

Turning often is the key to a perfect TriTip: you need to turn often so that the heat does not suck up all the juice out the top.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Marinate: 30-60 minutes
Cooking: 20-30 minutes depending on size (about 20 minutes for 1.5lbs)

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Herbs and Leek velouté

Pascal — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:42:36 +0000

A smooth and yummy herbs and leeks soup

Just a few days ago, Anne of Papilles & Pupilles published a recipe for a Soupe aux herbes or as I prefer to call it, an Herbs and Leek velouté (a thick, velvelty soup). Somehow, the combination of fresh tarragon and leeks seemed hard to resist, so I made my own version today.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 lbs of potatoes (about 6 medium potatoes)
2 leeks
4 twigs of fresh tarragon
1 bunch of parsley
2 chicken stock cubes (vegetable stock ok too)
4 cups milk
pepper, to taste
2 tbsp butter

Wash, slice and cut the leeks
Cook covered in a large pot for 5 minutes with the butter
Then add the potatoes (diced so they cook faster), chopped parsley and tarragon, chicken stock cube and the milk (add a fifth cup for a thinner soup)
Add pepper to taste (the chicken stock is quite salty already).
Simmer for 15-20 minutes

puree everything using a blender

Overall, it took a bit longer than the 15 minutes Anne mentioned (but she may have it down better than I do)

Yields about 10 cups of soup

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New Look

Pascal — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:38:00 +0000

Home Recipes has a new look! After over 2 years of loyal services, the old simpla theme is no more. Long live DarkZen

Home Recipes new look

DarkZen also has this minimalist look I liked in Simpla. I may still make a few tweaks here and there over the next few days, but overall, I’m quite pleased with the results

What do you think?

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Logo design – Would love to hear your thoughts!

Pascal — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:58:49 +0000

Sort of off-topic, but I’d love to hear any feedback you may have on a logo for a new site I’m working on. The site is not quite ready, but I’m looking for a few people interested in becoming beta-testers.

The logos are at http://99designs.com/contests/10271

Please leave a comment below or use the Contact me page.

Thanks!

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Hacked!

Pascal — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:12:39 +0000

Grrr! Homerecipes has been hacked. Too common an occurrence these days. Granted I’m running an old version of wordpress, so probably too many known vulnerabilities. The hack was not too bad, but unfortunately was redirecting you to spammy sites. Good thing google did not notice yet!

If you have not been able to access the site, I do apologize and it should now be fixed. If this happens to anyone else, here’s a piece of the offending script (in the header).