Comfort Cooking: Mock Steak with Red Wine Gravy and Sauteed Kale

Tonight's dinner was inspired by a post someone had posted of their dinner a couple weeks ago on The Woodlands/Spring Food Group on Facebook.  She had taken hamburger meat and did a bacon wrapped "steak".  From the looks of it, it looked like a filet mignon until you read the description.  I was so inspired by it that I had to give it a try.  I did a play on it and conveniently had some hamburger meat in the freezer.

I took the meat and lightly seasoned it with garlic and onion powder, basil, salt and pepper.  I formed it into the shape of a filet and pan seared it so it forms a nice crust and to render out the fat in the meat.  I pulled the meat and poured out some of the fat and reserved a bit of it.

While the pan was still hot, I tossed in the onion and garlic and cooked that down for a bit then added the mushrooms.  After the mix had been cooked down, I poured in the red wine that I had left over and let that cook down a bit then added back in the "steaks".  Most important part here is to let the wine cook down for a little while.  If not the alcohol is going to be overpowering and the beef flavor will not come through.  Caution: May get drunk from fumes because I may or may not have gotten drunk from the fumes.

Onto the challenge...how to plate this and make it look clean.  There really was no way.  I had two plates that I was working on and this was the cleanest look of the two.

There is something about a plate that is a hot mess with gravy...it is just so comforting.

The meal was overall very good.  The sauce was very well balance between the flavors of the red wine and the fat from the beef.

Fishcake with Cheese Crisp and Pea Puree

After being stuck eating out at restaurants and eating on the cruise for 10 days, I was ready to get back into the kitchen and start cooking again.  Do not get me wrong, it was nice to have a break from cooking, but nothing taste better than a home cook meal.

It is day 2 back from our cruise and I need to continue eating lighter meals, especially for dinner.  Only grocery shopping we did when we came back was just for some vegetables.

I was craving fish for dinner and the only fish we had was tilapia.  I wanted to do something creative with the tilapia instead of just cooking it as is.  So I made fishcakes for dinner tonight.  The ingredients in the fishcakes were mushrooms, onion, garlic, onion and garlic powder, dried basil, and breadcrumbs and an egg for the binders.  I dredged it in flour and stuck in the the freezer to hold its shape before I pan fried it.

For the side, I did not want to have a salad since we had a salad last night for dinner.  Tonight's veggie of choice was peas, but to just plate peas on a plate is just boring so I turned it into a pea puree with what I had.  I pureed the peas with garlic, olive oil and sour cream.

For additional garnishes and colors, I made a quick cheese crisp and fried an egg.

I have had withdrawals from cooking and plating since I have been on vacation.  So I wanted to have some fun with my plating.  I was very indecisive on how I wanted to plate my dinner tonight so I plated it two different ways.  I grabbed the roasted tomato sardine dressing I made last night for my salad and used that to add some flavor and color to my plating.  The pea puree was the difficult part on how I wanted it to look on the plate.

Please let me know which one you prefer...the one with the pea puree brushed on or the one with it spread.

Bacon Kebab with Mushroom "Duxelle" Omelette and Scallion Mash Potato Cake

I love eating breakfast food, but rarely get an opportunity to do so in the morning.  There is something about breakfast that I love that I cannot explain.  So tonight, I was craving breakfast for dinner aka brinner.  Plus it was another excuse to enjoy some of my home cured bacon I recently made.

The star of my dish tonight is my home cured bacon.  I sliced my bacon into thick chunks and cooked it off.  I started to think about the bacon as I stared at it on the plate after I cooked it and did not want to just put it on the plate.  So I grabbed a skewer and cherry tomatoes and started on my kebab.

The omelette was inspired by a picture I saw on my Instagram of someone making a striped mushroom omelette.  Which I have to make sometime soon, but I did not have all the right tools and ingredients tonight.  It is a very unique and artistic omelette that will make you wonder how it was prepared.

So I tried to do something artistic with my omelette tonight as well.  I had something else pictured in my head as I was preparing all the ingredients.  The "duxelle" part of the omelette consists of sauteed onion, garlic and Asian dried fungus.  Last minute, I added some red chili pepper for additional color and heat.  I originally was going to roll up the omelette, but after standing back and looking at it in the pan, I thought it would look more artistic if I cut it out and draped it on the bacon kebab.

For the mash potato cake, I used some leftover mash potatoes from last night.  I took the mash potato and formed it into a patty and crusted it with homemade breadcrumbs and set it in the freezer so it would hold better when I cook it.  This was topped off with scallions and served with sour cream.  The mash potato cake was cooked in the reserved bacon fat.  

For my presentation tonight, it was all changed last minute from what I had imagined originally.  I was going to plate the mash potato cake in the middle and have the little chunks of bacon surround it and have the omelette rolled up and set to the side of it.  I am much more satisfied and happy with the last minute changes I had made to my plate.

Huy's Bao (Steamed Buns)

Another one of my favorite food to eat growing up and till this day is peking duck.  I mean, I love duck like I love bacon...any way, shape or form.  Duck is like the fillet mignon of the poultry.  We would often order the peking duck at the Asian restaurants and it is typically served with a scallions, cucumber, hoison sauce and the best part...bao.  Bao is a white, light and fluffy steamed bun that is very versatile.  It is like the Iron Kid Breads in the Asian culture.  So I had a craving for bao and may have gone a bit overboard.

Over the course of a week, I served dinner with bao three different times and different ways.

The first day, I served the bao with a soy braised pork belly.  The braised pork belly was prepared the previous day.  I braised it in soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and coconut water.  Served with a sweet hoison sauce, scallion and pickled cucumber.

The second day of bao, it was a last minute decision.  I was preparing fish cakes and decides to have some fun with it and play on the fish taco.  Fish cake was prepared with flounder, Asian pesto, onion and garlic.  Plus I used some Asian seasoning.  Served with scallions, lettuce and Sriracha aioli.

The last day of bao, I did a play on banh mi.  I used ground beef and seasoned it like my Vietnamese burger.  Served with scallions, cucumber, do chua (pickled carrots) and Sriracha aioli.

Asian Bacon topped Asian Chicken with Asian Pesto Vermicelli

I created a dinner based on leftovers based from a comment someone made on a Facebook foodie group about not caring too much for leftovers.  Now I cannot say I enjoy leftovers, but there are some food that are best served best when it gets reheated over and over.  Anyways, I used this as a challenge for leftovers I had in the fridge.

In my fridge I had leftover chicken that I had used during the week on a different dish.  This was previously marinaded with Asian flavors and roasted in the oven.  I cut the chicken breast into large cubes and seared it in the reserved bacon fat.

Second, I had leftover Asian pesto I had used in my green glass noodles dish.  This was created the same way as your traditional basil pesto, but i used a Thai basil, cilantro and mint.  I tossed the Asian pesto with some vermicelli.

Last but not least, the Asian bacon.  This was not necessarily leftover, but yet it was.  I had finished making bacon the previous night and cut the slabs of bacon into smaller portions and carved off the uneven parts of the pork belly.  So I guess essentially it is the "leftover" part of the bacon.

Ladies and Gentlemen...I present to you, my fabulous dish created from a bunch of leftovers.

Green Glass Noodles with Asian Chicken

A couple months ago, I was watching Food Crawl with Lee Anne Wong on the Cooking Channel and saw a very interesting recipe that she stumbled upon at an Asian restaurant.  The chef was preparing Green Glass Noodles which was a creamy Asian version of your traditional basil pesto with glass noodles.  It sounded like a genius idea.  Ever since then, I have been wanting to make my own Asian Pesto.

It was perfect for tonight's dinner because I had marinaded a whole deboned chicken Sunday that I was going to throw on the grill, but my plans changed on Sunday.  So tonight I roasted it in the oven.  I was pretty excited because the chicken has been marinading in an Asian inspired marinade that I make since Sunday.  All I knew was that it was going to be an explosion of flavor.

For the Asian Pesto, I had the fresh herbs in mind that is served with pho at the restaurants.  I always loved the smell of all the herbs together so I figured this would make the perfect combination of flavors for my pesto.  The pesto consisted of Thai basil, cilantro and mint.  I did add some fish sauce, chili pepper flakes, garlic, and Parmesan cheese in it.

Glass noodles do not take long to cook so I waited till the last minute.  All you have to do is drop it in boiling water for a couple seconds and viola!  I drained it and tossed in the pesto while it is still hot so it is more easier to work with.  When cooled down, the glass noodles all stick together.

I had some fun with my plating tonight once again.  It was very simple, but very nicely put together in my opinion.  I have been on a green onion kick for my presentation lately because they curl very nicely when soaked in ice water.  We had some cherry tomatoes in the fridge as well so all this came together to give my my plating tonight!  Enjoy!

Pork Rind Bacon with Bacon Fat Potatoes

I had started to cure some pork belly with Asian flavors last Sunday to make bacon.  If this is not a tease...then I do not know what is.  Every time I open the fridge, was just taunting me.  I could not take it anymore this morning so I pulled a piece out a day or two early and started rinsing it.  As I was rinsing the pork belly, I decided to take it for a different spin.

Down in Asiantown, they sale this pork that that is roasted and the skin is rendered to achieve a crispy skin that is like pork rind referred to as Thit Heo Quay.  You have a meaty layer of tender meat and then you have the crispy skin of the pork.  It is amazing.

Well this morning, I took this route to put a spin on the bacon.  The pork belly has been curing for seven days now so it already has that bacon flavor.  The fun part of this is to get the skin extra crispy.

First thing I did was boil the pork belly and cook it to about 50% doneness.  I pulled the meat from the water and patted it dry especially the skin.  I took several toothpicks and pricked the skin all over and popped it in the oven.  After several minutes, I pulled the meat out and patted the skin dry from the fat that had rendered out and put it back in the oven.  I did this a couple more times until the skin started to crackle and bubble to form a nice and crispy skin much like pork rind.

I set the meat aside to cool and poured the fat from the pan into a frying pan and started frying my thinly slices of potatoes in it.

I present to you...Pork Rind Bacon!

The pork belly was amazing.  It came out the way I wanted it too.  I had my bacon and I had my thit heo quay all in one!  The meaty part of it taste like regular bacon and the crispy skin was just like pork rind.   And the potatoes were to die for.  I mean, everything taste better with some bacon grease added to it.

Vietnamese Shrimp and Pork Salad (Goi Tom Thit)

Well it is a couple weeks before we go on a cruise so I have to try to look "better" in a one piece.  So tonight's dinner was on the much lighter side.  Another one of my favorite dishes growing up is the Vietnamese shrimp and pork salad also referred to as Goi Tom Thit.  And I happen to just have everything in the fridge.

This is not your typical salad where it is served with lettuce.  The salad is served with a mix of carrots, daikon, and cucumbers. It is then tossed with shrimp and pork.  There are many variations of this dish, but this is the one my Mom made growing up.  The best part about this dish is the fried shrimp crackers, but unfortunately, I did not have access to any.  

Typically, all this is tossed together and just served on a plate.  Although it looks very nice with all the different colors, I wanted to make it look a bit more appealing.  

I grated the carrots and daikon together and tossed in some chopped up mint and cilantro.  For the cucumber, I sliced it as thin as possible long ways.  The radishes were sliced paper thin.  All of these were tossed in a lemon, lime and vinegar mixture.  After about ten to fifteen minutes, I squeezed the veggies to "dry" it out.

The shrimp was poached in a liquid with lemon, lime, garlic and herbs.  Once the shrimp was done, I immediately dunked in ice cold water.  With the same liquid, I poached the pork.  

I have helped my Mom make this growing up so I already had an idea how it was going to taste.  The important part of tonight's dinner for me was the presentation.  Typically, everything is tossed together and served on a plate.  Which looks nice with all the colors, but I wanted to make it a bit more appealing to the eye.  This has been one of my more fun dishes to plate.  Enjoy!