Recipes that are simple and delicious.
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I’m a big fan of getting creative with leftovers, and reducing food waste. So this past weekend, I had a real craving for some really good roast beef, and I decided to make my own, as I typically do. This made a lot of roast beef, which I was excited for, however roast beef is something that my wife and kids typically do not lean towards when they are making sandwiches during the week. Me? Yes, but with that said, I knew I would grow tired of the standard sandwich, and be left to vacuum seal the rest of it. Before I froze the rest, I saved a bit of it, and decided to rummage around my fridge and pantry looking for things to make with it.
So while looking around, I had a few potato skins that I had vacuum sealed, so I brought those out, as well as some leftover caramelized mushrooms that we had the night before, and that is when I decided I would make this all in one, awesome meal, and hence the roast beef potato skin was born.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Poke the top of each potato with a fork and place on a baking sheet. Cook in the oven for 1 hour. Once cooked, remove from the baking sheet, and place on a plate to let cool for about 15 minutes.
Once your potatoes are cooled, use a sharp bread knife and you will cut lengthwise, into three segments of one potato, long slices. So each potato will yield two skins, right? Discard the middle slice and reuse for breakfast the following morning, or heck for that matter, add some butter, salt, and cream, and make some rustic mashed potatoes.
Next, melt your butter in the microwave. Get your broiler heated to high. Brush the butter on the inside and outside of each potato skin and place them back onto the baking sheet. Season the inside of each skin with salt and pepper.
Place them under the broiler for 8-10 minutes until the insides get a bit crispy from the melted butter.
Remove them from the oven and prepare everything for the next step.
Make the gravy by adding the cooked mushrooms to a skillet. Bring them up to a medium, to medium-high heat.
Add the corn starch to the beef stock, and whisk with a fork until the corn starch is incorporated. Add in the Worcestershire sauce as well and give that a good stir.
Add the mustard and horseradish to a small mixing bowl, and give a good stir.
Add the beef stock mixture into the skillet and cook until it get nice and thick like a gravy should. This should only take a few minutes. Once thicken, turn off the heat and set the skillet to the side.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. The oven should already be nice and warm from the broiler.
To assemble the roast beef potato skins, lather the bottom of each potato skin with the mustard and horseradish mixture. Top that with the roast beef, and spoon on the mushroom gravy.
Place these onto a baking sheet and into the oven for 5 minutes, just to warm the roast beef and gravy together.
The end result is a perfect bite. The roast beef when paired with the horseradish is amazing, and then you get that savoriness from the mushroom gravy. It really is a perfect few bites, even so much whereas my wife even participated and fell in love with them. So if you are looking for something to create with any of those leftovers, give these a shot! Hope you enjoy.
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My wife and I are big fans of stir fry meals, and I would image that probably many of you are as well. I think the beauty of the stir fry is that not only are they diverse, but heck, you get to use a great wok over high heat, right? Some of my favorite stir fry meals include an array of fresh vegetables, and a great sauce to boot. With that said, I had some chicken that I had set out and as my children love a sauteed chicken dish I make served over rice, I figured I would spice things up a bit and see how they would react. Just to note, this is not overly spicy, and I would consider the recipe to have an average heat level so that many, if not all of you could serve at home.
Ingredients:
Seems like a lot, but it really is not, and if the ingredients seem foreign to you, feel free to visit your local Asian market, or ethnic aisle at your grocery store.
Start by making your slurry. Add the chicken stock to a small mixing bowl, then whisk in the corn starch until it is nice and smooth.
To another large bowl, add the rice wine, black bean paste, chili oil, and soy sauce, and give a nice stir. Add the chicken and give it a good mix.
Heat your wok on medium, to medium high heat. Toss in your pink peppercorns, and stir those around for about thirty seconds. This will release some of their oils and get nice and fragrant. After you smell them, remove them and lightly crush them in your spice grinder, or mortar and pestle, you chose.
Return the wok to a medium high heat. Add the canola oil and let it come up to temperature. Toss in the onion, garlic, ginger, and crushed pink peppercorns. Stir fry that for 30 seconds or so, then add the entire chicken mixture. Raise the heat, and get stir frying.
Right when the chicken begins to turn color, stir the slurry mixture one more time, then add that to the stir fry. Give a good stir. This will begin to thicken a bit and give you a really great sauce that you will love eating with the rice. If you are using a dry chili of any kind, toss that in.
Once the sauce thickens, and the chicken is cooked through, add in about half of the sliced green onions. Give that a stir, then add everything to your serving dish. Shower the top with the remaining green onions.
To serve, simply get a bowl, add some rice, and spoon on generous amounts of the spicy Chinese chicken. You get that great garlic and ginger flavor that you would expect with a great stir fry, and then those hints of pink peppercorn, that is balanced with the Shao Hsing rice wine. This is a good one, easy to make, and is perfect any day of the week. Hope you enjoy.
