Prime Rib

Jess and I stumbled upon a beautiful 4 pound prime rib roast (on sale!) at Kroger one evening while picking up our normal grocery items.  Having never made one before, I was initially a bit daunted...could I handle it?  What if I screw up such an expensive cut of meat?  Even on sale, it was definitely a treat to get one.  It took a couple minutes of fierce internal debate, but then I pulled myself together and bought the darn thing!  Good choice, internal dialogue.  Good choice, indeed!  Because it came out beautifully!!!

If you've watched me come up with dishes, read this blog, and/or have spent time in my kitchen, you might know that I'm into savory flavors...as many as I can get per dish!  I decided that herbs and garlic would be the way to go for this dish.

Oven preheated to 450.

After being freed from it's temporary butcher paper prison, I rubbed it down with olive oil.  Then I cut about 15 slits in various parts of the meat to insert a garlic clove in each one.  Oh yes...garlic studded prime rib!  I then chopped about a 1/4 cup of fresh rosemary and about 3 sprigs worth of fresh thyme from my garden.  These coated the prime rib nicely.  A final sprinkle of salt and pepper, and the roast hit the oven. 

Garlic - o - rama!

 



It hung out in there for about 15 minutes and then I dropped the oven heat to 325, where it stayed for the duration of the roasting.  An hour later, I opened the oven to find a gorgeous prime rib!

It's not blood...it's just meat juice! 

 

We like our prime rib pretty rare...nice and brown on the outside and juicy pink on the inside (internal temp about 125-130 degrees).  Cook yours a bit longer if you're not as keen on that.  But c'mon, can you really resist something this lovely?

Best slices since...um...sliced bread?

 

Even if you don't like it this pink, don't overcook this bad boy.  You'll lose the moistness of the meat and that would be tragic. In case yours isn't juicy enough for you (or if you're a gravy-holic like me), here's a quick and easy rosemary gravy I whipped up that went quite well with the meat:

 

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. flour

1 cup beef broth

1 clove garlic

1 tsp. rosemary

 

Chop the garlic clove into 4 pieces and set aside. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add the flour and whisk continuously.  The result will be a thicker pasty looking substance.  While still whisking, pour in your beef broth slowly to combine.  It should start to thicken up immediately.  Bring to a simmer and add your garlic and rosemary.  Serve hot.

 

Ta-dah!  Meat and gravy...ooo baby! 

 

Try it.  You'll like it.

 

-Sam 

Coconut Chicken Curry with Basil

Sometimes, you just want something comforting, yet flavorful.  Complex, yet quick to make.  Savory, with perhaps an ever-so-slight hint of sweetness.  You feeling it yet?  Good, because I've got you covered.

There's a lot going on in this delightful recipe.  You're making your own curry seasoning, for one.  You're also making a sauce, and rice, and sautéing chicken with onion.  Sounding pretty good so far, yes?

Let's get this thing going!

There are a ton of different varieties of curry: wet vs. dry, curry the dish vs. curry the spice blend vs. curry the leaf, red curry vs. green curry vs. yellow curry, etc.  Regarding this recipe, when I say "curry," I'm talking about a blend of seasonings that will flavor our chicken.  This particular blend contains several spices that one might more closely associate with baking along with some more familiar cooking spices.

A positively lovely gang of spices

2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. turmeric

Mix all of these together and set aside for now.  We'll come back to you shortly, spice bowl!

Now, we need chicken.  1 1/2 pounds of it.  Boneless, skinless breasts or, for more flavor, thighs.  Whatever you choose, you'll need to cut it into bite-size chunks for easy cooking/consumption.  Once you've chunked your chicken, sprinkle it with your curry spice blend until it's as evenly coated as you can get it.  Let it sit off to the side while you get your veggie type ingredients together.

Pile o' spiced chicken

Begin heating 1 tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat.  Roughly chop a large onion and finely chop a seeded jalapeno.  Add both to the pan to cook for about 3 minutes.  Do not touch your eyes.  No seriously, I once forgot I had been chopping jalapenos and touched my eyes shortly after.  I subsequently wanted to gouge them out.  Be careful, folks!  Mince and 5 cloves of garlic, add to the pan, and cook for another minute.  Here's a fun trick for getting garlic smell off your fingers: run your fingers over the side of your large stainless steel knife a few times (obviously NOT on the cutting edge, but on the wide flat side.)  I don't know why this works but it does.  After you're done trying that out, remove the onion, jalapeno, and garlic from the pan and put it into a bowl. 

In the same skillet, heat another tbsp. of olive oil on medium-high heat.  Add the chicken pieces and brown them until they are no longer pink.  Your kitchen should be smelling amazing by now.  Remove the chicken from the pan and add to the bowl with the onion mix.

Still a bit pink...more cooking needed!

Lower the heat on the skillet to medium and add 1 can of coconut milk (minus a 3 tbsp. that you have placed in a small bowl).  Mix the 3 tbsp. of coconut milk with 2 tsp. of cornstarch.  Add this mixture to the skillet and whisk rapidly to avoid clumps.  This will help to thicken things up.  Add 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce.  Add the chicken and onion mix back into the skillet.  Finally, add 1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh ginger and 3 tbsp. chopped fresh basil leaves and heat through for a few minutes. 

Chicken chunks floating in a coconut lagoon...mmm...

Serve your lovely creation over rice and prepare to be amazed at the flavor explosion going on in your mouth!  Feel free to add more chopped basil as garnish.  It really brings the whole dish together and looks pretty as a bonus.

Try it.  You'll like it.

-Sam

Steak Salad with Asian Chimichurri

Good day, friends!  It's been a bit since I've posted...apologies!  Busy gal, you know.  Always on the run (not from the cops or anything...don't get crazy!)

Over the weekend, our dear friends Amy and Margaret had us over for dinner.  Amy put together a steak salad with the MOST AMAZING chimichurri-like dressing I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing in my short almost 29 years.  She just whipped it up in 5 minutes, handed me a spoonful of it, and I remember nothing else.......

Ok, just kidding.  I actually think I said "holy guacamole, this is AWESOME and life-changing!" or something to that effect.  Because it was.  And is.  And now, since Amy said I could share the recipe, you too can try it for yourself!

There is so much goodness in here that it was hard to pack it all into one photo, but here's my attempt:

The stars of the show!

This photo is missing fresh oregano, fresh ginger, and fresh garlic...they hadn't been gathered/peeled yet...they're lost in the negative space. 

If you couldn't already tell, this dressing has an Asian flavor but is also loaded with copious amounts of cilantro.  Crazy good stuff.  Hope you've got a blender or food processor, as it's our vital tool in this dressing-making process. 

Roughly chop 2 bunches of cilantro and throw in the blender (or processor).  Peel 5 cloves of garlic and throw them in there along with a sprig of fresh oregano and a 1 inch piece of chopped fresh ginger.  Add 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, and 2 tbsp of the following: fish sauce, oyster sauce, and Siracha (more if you like things HOT), 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar.  Blend til it looks like this:

 

The finished product!  Looks like algae but tastes WAY better...promise!

Now, we're going to take a few spoonfulls of this lovely stuff and coat our steak with it.  Think of it as a marinade or wet rub at this stage.

Happy and sauce-schmeared steak hanging out on the grill

You can let the marinating steak hang out on your counter while you whip up a cocktail or take your dog for a walk or catch up on an episode of "Finding Bigfoot."  It will be fine.  When you get back, fire up your grill!

Jess and I are medium-rare kinda gals so our steak isn't grilled for too long.  Nothing worse that a steak that resembles a charcoal briquette by the time it hits your plate...blargh.  Ours came out juicy and gorgeous:

A hunkahunka tasty steak!

After a quick wash and toss of some mixed salad greens with baby spinach (organic...ohhh yea), the steak was sliced and arranged on top of the greenery in my feeble attempt to make it look pretty.  Fail. 

The steak salad with dressing globs...I'm no designer, ok?  I just cook here.

Anyways, despite the glob-like appearance of the dressing, this salad was to die for.  Figuratively speaking, of course...please refrain from death after eating.  Stay alive so we can cook more!   

I actually made this 4 days ago.  Though I quickly ran out of steak, I've been eating a salad everyday since then with this dressing on it.  I'm not normally a fan of "rabbit food" so, for me, this is crazy talk!  The dressing makes it THAT GOOD.

Try it.  You'll like it.

-Sam