Casual Dinner In With Kindle

I've been largely too busy/traveling hectically the last month or so and have therefore not been cooking beyond the basics and certainly not trying any new recipes.  I finally had a couple of weeks of being solidly at home though and took the opportunity of 4th of July to take myself to Fubonn to replenish my Asian groceries.  While there I picked up some Korean ribs and one google search and several hours later, I had something very delicious on my hands.  I also made a batch of kimchi and I have to say there is not much better than Korean ribs with rice and kimchi.  The recipe came from allrecipes - I don't have a grill so I sealed up the ribs in foil and just roasted in my toaster oven for 45 minutes at around 425F.  Several commenters also say slow-cooking turns out delicious meats so I might have to give that a try next time.  And the book on my Kindle is World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.  I highly recommend!

Korean BBQ Short Ribs (adapted from allrecipes)

3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons white vinegar (I used some champagne vinegar I had in my cupboard)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/2 large onion, minced
3 pounds Korean-style short ribs (beef chuck flanken, cut 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick across bones)

Directions
Pour soy sauce, water, and vinegar into a large, non-metallic bowl. Whisk in brown sugar, white sugar, pepper, sesame oil, garlic, and onion until the sugars have dissolved.

As one commenter noted, it helps to wash and drain the ribs first to get rid of bone chunks.  After that, submerge the ribs in this marinade, and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 7 to 12 hours; the longer, the better (I used a glass Pyrex baking pan and that worked nicely).

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.  Remove ribs from the marinade, shake off excess, and discard the marinade. Cook on preheated grill until the meat is no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes per side. (As mentioned above, I cooked in toaster oven, sealed in foil about 45 minutes at 425F).

Bar Method: 10 Months!

Image from: blog.beauty-goodies.com

I can't believe it's been 10 months already since I started Bar Method!  Everything is still going well, I love the classes and teachers and continue to go about 4x a week.  I have to admit there have been a few weeks when I do 3x a week, but for the most part it's been 4x/wk and that amount feels right to me.  As I sit here, I feel soreness in pretty much every muscle.  Despite the constant muscle soreness (which varies in intensity depending on the class), I've never experienced an actual injury doing Bar Method so I'm not too worried.  

One thing I've come to realize is that the class is sneaky.  It's structured into arm, thigh, butt, ab sections but even when you think you are just targeting one area, the only way to do each exercise properly is to work the other parts too.  So for example, when you do the pretzel you are supposedly targeting your butt.  But you also end up torturing your obliques and your arms and since posture is emphasized throughout the class, you are always working your back muscles.  Actually, that's probably the correction I get the most - "Open your chest" "Engage your back muscles" "Draw your shoulders back."  It's awesome though because now I have great posture.

Still using the same weights, but they still feel challenging so oh well.  I might be ready to move up from the 1 lb weight for the one arm lift/lunge exercise though.  Wish there were half step weights, like 1.5 lbs.  My main goals when I started this was to improve strength and flexibility and I think I've done both, although there are still many things to work toward.  There's one girl who is in my class sometimes that I love watching because she's crazy flexible so all the positions look beautiful and graceful when she does them.  I'm not sure I'll ever attain that level of flexibility, but one can try!

A Nice Noodle Broth

Now that I have a noodle recipe that's pretty fast and easy to throw together, I wanted to have a good standby vegetarian broth in the event I don't have any leftover meaty soup-ish ingredients on hand.  The key to this broth is star anise (to lend depth) and miso (for umami).  All of these ingredients I happen to have in the pantry already, but they may be acquired in any Asian supermarket.  The first time I made it I kind of threw things into the pot but the second time I tried to keep an eye to measurements for reproducibility.  Here is what I have roughly, I believe the proportions can be easily adapted to taste:

Vegetarian 'Meaty' Broth for Noodle Soup

2 tsp vegetable oil
2-3 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tbs dry fried shallots (find in Asian supermarket)
3 cups of water
1.5 tbs miso
2 star anise
1.5 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp shaoxing wine (optional)

topping ideas:
scallions, chopped
leafy greens
bean sprouts
poached egg
lime wedge
cilantro, chopped
chili garlic sauce

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and fry the ginger and shallots until fragrant.  Add water, miso, star anise, soy sauce and shaoxing wine and let simmer for 15 minutes.  Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly (can add a pinch of sugar or salt or more soy sauce if desired).  I like to quickly wilt the greens in the broth before combining with the noodles and scattering scallions over.  I bet a squeeze of lime would be nice too.

Simple Dinner 3

I guess my simple dinners are pretty much all bread based.  I definitely had more than what I pictured above;  when I'm by myself I tend to eat various courses of things until I am no longer hungry.  I've been semi-obsessed with soup recently and this was my latest effort, a cream of tomato soup from Cook's Illustrated.  I've never been much of a fan of tomato soup until now, this was extremely good.  Especially with some toasted bread alongside, yum.

Cream of Tomato Soup (adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

2 (28 oz) cans whole tomatoes (not packed in puree), drained, 3 cups juice reserved, tomatoes seeded

1 1/2 tbs dark brown sugar

4 tbs butter

4 large shallots, minced

1 tbs tomato paste

pinch ground all spice

2 tbs unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tbs brandy or dry sherry

salt

cayenne pepper

My substitutions:

I forgot the brown sugar until after the tomatoes were already roasted so I quickly threw 1 tbs of light brown sugar over them and stuck them back in the oven for a couple of minutes.  Next time I will follow instructions better.  Instead of shallots, I used 3/4 of a red onion.  I used 1/8 tsp of allspice and used 2 cubes of powdered chicken bouillon combined with water.  Having no brandy or sherry on hand, I used 1 tbs Chinese Shaoxing wine instead (my usual substitute when sherry is called for).  And instead of cayenne pepper, I gadded some black pepper.  Even with all my subs, the soup was delicious and pretty easy to put together on a weeknight.  

1. Adjust oven rack to upper middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.  Line a rimmed sheet with foil and spread tomatoes in single layer on foil.  Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar.  Bake ~30 min (until all liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to color).  Let tomatoes cool slightly, peel off foil and transfer to small bowl.

2. Heat butter in pot until foaming and add shallots, tomato paste and allspice.  Reduce heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until shallots are softened (7-10 min).  Add flour and cook, stirring until combined (30 sec).  Whisking constantly, slowly add chicken stock, reserved tomato juice and the roasted tomatoes.  Cover, increase heat to medium and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 min.

3. Strain mixture into bowl and transfer solids into food processor (or blender).  Add ~ 1 cup of liquid and puree.   Add everything back into pot.  Add cream and reheat soup.  Off the heat, stir in brandy or sherry, season to taste and serve.

Simple Dinner 2

I have a weakness for baguette-centered meals.  All I need is a piece of cheese or even some butter and I'm good to go.  In this case, I mixed up a no fuss spinach and cream cheese dip and I happened to have a lovely piece of venison pate from the Farmer's Market in the fridge so all the ingredients necessary for a simple dinner was present.  Again, I'd like to reiterate my pleasure in living alone...somehow I can't imagine any of my past boyfriends looking at this and thinking it a satisfactory dinner...

No Fuss Spinach and Cream Cheese Dip

Throw half a block (4oz?) of plain cream cheese into a bowl and shake out some frozen spinach (the loose kind you buy in a bag, not the frozen block that comes in a box).  How much spinach you like is up to you.  Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper.  Heat bowl in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until everything is melted and mixed.  If you have some cheddar cheese around, add a bit of that and zap with microwave to melt in.