RECIPE: Maki's Yakitori Stir-Fry

Last night I decided to make up a batch of Yakitori sauce. The recipe comes from a Japanese family friend who shared it with us decades ago. It's very simple to make.

Maki's Yakitori Sauce

1/4 cup Mirin (Japanese cooking wine)
2 cup soy sauce (I use organic Tamari)
2/3 cup sugar
4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 ginger root, chopped fine (I used about 1/2 tbs)

Cook all the ingredients in a large saucepan. Cook on low flame 25-30 minutes, uncovered. Check after 20 minutes to see if sauce is thick enough. It has cooked too long if it is too syrupy or candy-like.

(Mine doesn't thicken. Perhaps I need to turn the heat up a little. Or bring to a boil and then simmer.)

Double the recipe for about 1 quart of sauce.

For a BBQ variation, add ketchup and Tobasco sauce. Use on chicken.

For my stir-fry, I add chopped carrots, sliced onions, chopped green pepper, and a store-bought stir-fry mix that included broccolli and snow peas.

After this cooked for a few minutes in hot oil, I added in some sliced button mushrooms.

I cooked until about crisp-tender, and then add day-old leftover brown rice.

Once it was all cooked through to my liking, I added some Yakitori sauce.

Very good! Store the Yakitori sauce in the refrigerator. I don't know how long it keeps, but I expect it should last awhile, given the high concentration of soy sauce and wine.

(I also added some chopped tomatoes, only because I had some to use up. Normally I wouldn't include them in a stir-fry.)

NOTE: A week or two later I made another batch of stir-fry, this time with a few snow peas and broccoli florets, but mostly sliced zucchini, red peppers and onions, and it was awesome! Better than the stir-fry with the mushrooms and tomatoes.

RECIPES: Rice and Bean Taco Salad

I already posted this recipe in the past, but this time turned out so good, I wanted to note the couple of subtle changes I made, so hopefully I can duplicate it next time.

The recipes calls for cooking onions and garlic in butter before adding in the other ingredients. This time I just did the garlic, and sauteed it in olive oil. Then added the other ingredients. I also put the can of green chiles in the pan to cook with the rest, rather than with the lettuce and tomatoes.

After warming it through, I put about 3/4-1 cup of the mixture on a bed of torn romaine lettuce. I topped that with grape tomatoes that were halved and sprinkled it with sliced green onions and Mexican four-cheese blend. Then Ken's Steakhouse ranch dressing and some crushed nacho Doritos.

So good! Find the original recipe here.

RECIPES: Heather's Roasted Creamer Potatoes

I was craving a traditional Sunday dinner meal the other day. You know-- the kind that includes mashed potatoes and maybe some roasted veggies and gravy? I came across some creamer potatoes at the farmer's market, and I decided they would do...

Heather's Roasted Creamer Potatoes

Creamer potatoes (or small red new potatoes)
Onions, slivered
Olive oil
Coarse sea salt
Fresh ground pepper

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
• Put creamer potatoes in a roasting pan with onions. Cut up larger potatoes into bite-size chunks. Drizzle with EVO. Sprinkle liberally with sea salt and ground pepper.
• Roast until done (I don't remember how long it took.)

Very easy, and very good! And very good with caramelized onion salmon.

RECIPE: Heather's Citrus Orange Roughy

I recently needed to use up a piece of orange roughy that I had in the freezer, and I debated on what to do with it. I intended to do a Lemon-Orange Roughy I saw on the web (made with lemon and orange juices and lemon pepper), but I didn't have OJ or lemon pepper and only bottled lemon juice. So I had to make due. It went something like this:

Heather's Citrus Orange Roughy

1 orange roughy filet
Seasoned pepper
Bottled lemon juice
Bottled lime juice
Dried orange peel
Olive oil

Heat olive oil in pan. Sprinkle roughey liberally with seasoned pepper on both sides and place in pan. Saute for a minute. Squirt lemon and lime juices over fish. Sprinkle with a pinch of orange peel. Saute for about 5 minutes on each side.

Very simple way to prepare this fish, and a nice light flavor. It turned out quite well!

RECIPE: Heather's Mexican Rice

I needed a Mexican-type side dish the other day, and I came up with this.

Heather's Mexican Rice

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic
3 scallions, sliced
1 cup long-grain rice
2 cups water or vegetable broth
1/2 chopped tomato
1/2 small can tomato sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
Cilantro

1. Saute pepper in EVO for a few minutes. 
2. Add scallions and garlic and saute a minute. 
3. Add rice and toast until turning brown.
4. Add water/broth and tomato. Cover and simmer 20 minutes.
5. Stir in tomato sauce and season with chili powder, salt and cumin.
6. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve.

Actually you should do the tomato sauce to suit you. I think I'll go a little easier on the sauce next time, as it was a little too tomato-ey for me. Otherwise it was a nice little dish.

RECIPE: Heather's Breakfast Burrito

I made the best breakfast burrito yesterday, and it was so easy to make! Here's what I did:

Breakfast Burrito
Makes 2 small burritos

1 tbs butter
1/4 cup onion, chopped small
1/4 cup roasted red pepper, chopped small
1/8 cup tomato, chopped small
2 eggs
Almond milk
Salt and Pepper
Cheese
2 flour tortillas

1. Melt butter in pan over medium-high heat. Saute onion until it begins to caramelize.
2. Add in pepper and tomato and saute a couple of minutes until heated through.
3. Meanwhile combine eggs and a little milk (I use almond milk) in a small bowl and beat to combine well. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add eggs to veggies. Scramble eggs until done. Top with cheese to melt. (I used a Swiss slice this time, torn into pieces).
5. Remove egg mixture from pan (reserve in a small bowl), and warm tortillas in saute pan. Assemble egg mixture in tortilla and roll up to serve.

RECIPE: Mushroom Soup

This is an old favorite of mine. I got this recipe out of a book of Native American cooking. They say that it makes 6-8 servings, but I would say that would only be possible if they were small side servings to an entree. I'd say this will make more like four decent-sized servings.

Mushroom Soup
serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 medium shallot, minced
1 lb button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup flour
4 cups beef broth (I now use vegetable broth)
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp dried marjoram
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1.  In 3-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium-heat. Add shallot and cook until transparent.

 2.  Raise heat and add mushrooms. Allow shrooms to render slightly.

3.  Reduce the heat and stir in flour. Cook for about 2 minutes, and gradually pour in broth, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming.

4.  Remove from heat and gradually stir in sour cream. Season.

Always easy and delicious! I serve it with garlic toast, and maybe a side salad.

NOTE: You can add rice before the sour cream, if desired. Add a box of wild rice (without the seasoning packet). Increase the broth by 1 - 1 1/2 cups. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Reduce to a simmer and cover. Simmer 20 minutes. Then go to step 4 above.