How to make a good steak sauce

Homemade Steak Sauce

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup catsup
1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped
1 large clove garlic
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoons prepared mustard
PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients in saucepan and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until it reaches a good consistency, stirring occasionally. Cool. Strain to remove onion and garlic. Store in refrigerator. When cooked, is brown and tastes almost like A-1 sauce.

How to make a good steak marinade

Ingredients

2 tbsp. fresh grated ginger root
1 clove minced garlic
1/3 c. sherry
1/3 c. soy sauce
2 tbsp. honey
1/3 c. vegetable oil

Directions

Combine all ingredients together in a shallow dish until mixed well. Add steaks and marinate for at least 4 hours before grilling.

Swedish meatballs

Swedish meatballs

Here's the way of making "authentic" Swedish meatballs.

It's quite simple to do it since no special skills nor any exotic ingredients are needed.

In Sweden we usually eat these with either boiled potatoes or mash, and ketchup or pickled cucumbers or lingonberry preserves as a condiment. They're often served with a brown gravy made in the frying pan (after the meatballs are finished) with a lot of cream, butter and some soy sauce.

Let's start....


Ingredients

For a big batch of meatballs, enough for 5-6 persons you need:

• About 900 grams of minced meat
• Two eggs
• One onion
• 3 dl of milk
• 1 1/4 dl of dried breadcrumbs
• Almost 1 tablespoon of salt
• About 1 teaspoon of ground pepper (I usually use mixed black and white pepper.)

I usually use a mix of 80% beef and 20% pork in the mince to get the meatballs both a bit juicer and more tasty.


Soak the breadcrumb.

Take a large bowl and pour in the milk and stir it with the egg, the bread crumbs, the salt and pepper.

Let this stand for about 5 minutes so the bread crumbs is soaking up the liquids.


Chop the onion

Chop the onion into small pieces. You know how to do that - right? If not, see this Dice an onion instructable, but make the pieces much smaller.

The pieces should be really tiny, you don't want large chunks of raw onion in you meatballs.


Add mince and onion

Add the finely chopped onion and the mince to the mix and mix it well together with a large spoon.

Don't use an electric blender/handmixer to do this since it can become slimy and strange if you stir it too much.


Rolling, rolling (on the river)

Ok, it's time for the messy part. Rolling the meatballs into something that at least resemble a round shape.

It's not that hard to do - unless your mix is too wet. When I did this instructable I got it a tad to wet and the meatballs looked quite un-round at start. But during the frying they got a nice rounder shape. And it really doesn't matter if they are perfectly round or has an irregular blob-shape, the taste will be the same anyway.

I usually take a piece of tinfoil and grease it up with some vegetable oil so they won't stick to it before the frying.

Wet your hands to avoid the mix stick to them, take a spoon of mix and put it in the palm. Use the other palm to gently form a sphere and put in on the oiled tinfoil. Repeat until ready.

Into the frying pan

I'd just use margarine to fry them in, but here I mix vegetable oil with ghee (clarified butter, popular in India). Use the ghee sparingly if you're concerned of your health, it's almost 100% saturated fat and thus is a risk factor for heart diseases)

I prefer frying them in a cast iron pan instead of those non-stick thingies, I think the browning of the food is both faster and smoother in a cast iron pan. But a teflon pan is ok to use if you don't have the "real thing" ;-)

Fill half the pan with meatballs and fry them for a wile on one side, roll them around a bit with a spatula. After a while you can shake the pan to get the meatballs moving around and getting round and fried on all sides.

When they are deep brown and done all the way into the core, take them up and put them in a bowl and keep them warm until it time to eat.

The result

Serve, eat and enjoy....

The leftovers can be used to do a "köttbullemacka" (open sandwich with meatballs), Take a piece of bread, butter it, and put cold meatballs cut in half on it. Add thin slices of pickled cucumber (Gherkin) and maybe some good mustard. I prefer to eat it on a crisp bread, but any bread is fine.

How to make a great Bolognese sauce recipe

This is a recipe that I have been using for a long time. It's one of my favorites. Bolognese sauce is a meat based sauce that works well with almost any pasta, although I prefer linguine or penne.


Gather your ingredients

Here's what you'll need to get started:

Tomato sauce // 15oz. can
Tomato paste // 2 tbsp
Onion // 1 medium size
Chicken or Beef Stock // 15 oz.
Ground Beef Chuck // 1 lb.
Half & Half or Milk // 1/4 cup
Carrots // 1 large or two smaller
Celery // 1 stalk
Table/Cooking wine // 1/4 cup
Olive Oil // a few tbsp
Parmigiano Reggiano

3 qt sauce pan
6+ qt for cooking pasta
Strainer
Cheese grater


Brown the meat with the onions, start chopping carrots and celery.

Start by chopping up the onions as small as you prefer.

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in your sauce pan.

Add the onions, then add the Ground beef.

Mix the two up and put on medium heat until the meat is browned. Best to keep the lid on it.

While the meat is browning, slice up the carrots and celery as this as you can.


Add these ingredients and simmer.

Once the meat is browned, which looks like this.

Add these ingredients:

Celery & Carrots
Tomato sauce // 15oz. can
Tomato paste // 2 tbsp
Chicken or Beef Stock // 15 oz.
Wine // 1/4 cup

Mix them up well and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes. I like to see it sort of bubbling, but not too much.


You're almost there.

Add the 1/4 cup half & half or milk. Then let it simmer for atleast another 15 minutes or as long as you like.

Start making the pasta. I prefer it Al Dente, but cook it to your preference. Add some olive oil to your boiling water to keep your pasta from sticking together.

Strain the pasta and mix in the sauce.

Strain the pasta in the sink.

Mix the pasta and the sauce in the pasta pan.

Grate the regianno after it's been served. Use the smaller side of the grater.

Enjoy it with some nice wine. You're done!

Pan-fried Scallops with Sesame Lime Sauce

Pan-fried Scallops with Sesame Lime Sauce

Insanely easy and fabulously good.


Prepare scallops

Go hunt or gather some nice sea scallops. These are the big ones; you don't want the little bay scallops for this recipe.

Sea scallops tend to be expensive, so make sure you either have enough for your group or are prepared to preemptively divvy them up and provide enough other food to keep people happy. They taste fantastic when cooked properly, and I could easily eat a pound of these without help. However, we only have a pound of frozen scallops from Trader Joe's, so there's a big salad too.

Thaw the scallops if necessary. Give your scallops a quick cold water rinse, then lay them out on paper towels to dry, turning them over to dry both sides. You can leave them here for a bit if you need to; just don't forget about them.


Prepare seasoning

Mix ground pepper into either flour or starch, creating a nice mix as shown below. You can also use chili powder or other ground spices, but I prefer a simple mix to bring out that great scallop flavor without overshadowing it.

We usually use flour, but did a parallel run with potato starch today. The results were quite similar, but we slightly preferred the starch-dipped scallops. This preference might disappear in a double-blind experiment, but we can't be bothered when hungry.


A bit of prep: juice and plate

Juice a lime, two if they're small. If you don't have a lime use a fresh lemon, fresh orange, or some bottled orange juice. Bottled lemon/lime juice is NOT an adequate replacement for the real thing, at least in this dish. (Ignore the rest of the items in the picture below- they're from another Instructable.)

Set the juice aside near the stove, ready for quick access after the scallops are cooked.

Meanwhile, put a couple layers of paper towels over a large plate. You'll be draining the cooked scallops on this shortly.

Dredge & send to pan

Dredge the scallops in the flour/pepper mix, making sure that all surfaces are covered. You should get a very thin white coating all over the scallop- this is why you wan them dry.

Meanwhile, heat your pan (any flat-bottomed pan, regular or non-stick, will be fine) and give it a layer of canola or another high-heat oil. Make sure the oil is hot enough to sizzle before adding the scallops.

Work quickly, dredging scallops and adding them to the hot oiled pan.

Pan-fry

The scallops should start sizzling madly as you put them in the pan. Quickly fill the rest of the pan, then get your tongs out to flip and check the first ones for browning.

As soon as you begin to see browning on the underside of the scallops, quickly flip them all over. This really should take about a minute on each side, maximum.

By the time you're done flipping all the scallops, it's almost time to remove the first few from the pan.

Remove scallops

Yank the scallops out of the pan, and set them on the paper towel-lined plate to cool. You may still see an uncooked band in the middle of the scallop, but this will cook through as the scallops rest.

Check the pan for adequate oil coverage, then dredge more scallops and repeat the process. Since cooking the scallops takes 2-3 minutes, doing them in batches isn't much of a hardship. It's certainly worth it to make sure the scallops come out nicely.

Cook the rest of the scallops, and remove the pan from heat when done.

Make sauce

Deglaze the still-hot pan with the lime juice. Just dump it into the pan (beware of steam burns!) and stir vigorously for a few seconds to melt off all the tasty brown bits (fond). Before the lime juice can cook down and caramelize or burn, use a heat-safe silicone spatula or wooden spoon to scrape the nice brown goo into a small bowl or ramekin.

Add some sesame oil, the sweetener of your choice (I like agave nectar for its mild flavor and ease in dissolving), and some salt and pepper. You should have a tasty, thick, dark brown syrup.

Options: use lemon or orange juice to deglaze the pan. Add some cayenne pepper or Sriracha (rooster) sauce to give the sauce a spicier kick.


Serve

Scallops can disappear quickly, so make sure you've divided them equally to avoid poaching.

If you're being stylish, arrange a serving of scallops then drizzle them with the lime/sesame sauce. A sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds on top would look nice, but we forgot until after the photoshoot.

For buffets, dot each scallop with sauce and insert a toothpick.

Serve with a fruity salad with orange/sesame vinaigrette. (recipe soon)

Pan Fried Calamari

Pan-Fried Squid (Calamari)

Fast, easy, and almost fool-proof calamari.


Clean and chop squid

Pull the head/tentacles away from the body. Scoop any remaining guts out of the body, and remove the thin plasticy quill. Rinse the body inside and out, then slice into approximately 3/4-1 inch thick rings.

Squeeze behind the head to extrude the beak, and remove it from the center of the tentacles. Cut just below the eyes to free the tentacles, then add them to the bowl with the body rings.

Tentacles are the best part. No, really- they're fantastic.


Spice mix

Combine equal parts flour and the spices of your choice.

I chose black pepper and chili powder; you can substitute any flavorings that make you happy. Dried thyme, oregano, and rosemary work well, as do curry, allspice, cajun spice, garlic, citrus zest, or just about any other flavors you like.

Mix, and add a pinch of salt.

Coat squid

Dredge your squid in the flour/spice mix.

You can do this piece by piece, or just dump a big scoop into the mix and stir it around. Either way, you'll get the squid pieces nicely coated in a thin layer of flour and spices.

Note that we're not coating the squid in egg or milk first- this is to keep the coating thin. Adding more stick liquid to the squid causes a dangerously high fried goo to squid ratio; we're trying for a bit of less-greasy subtlety, and to let the squid taste come through. (Not that this should stop you from experimenting in the future; after all, they're your arteries, not mine.)
FryDrop the squid into a hot pan filled about 1/8-1/4 inch deep with canola, peanut, or other high-heat frying oil. Tongs work very well for handling squid in hot grease- just make sure they can stand high temperatures.

These will cook FAST- less than a minute on each side. You really want to take them out as soon as the squid has gone opaque and the flour has browned. There will barely be time to put the last piece in the pan before you have to flip the first one, so run a few tests with one or two pieces before frying a full pan.

Set the finished squid on a paper towel to dry and cool. They'll continue to cook for a bit after you take them out of the pan.

Carrot salad

Carrot salad with raisins, pineapple, mint, and spices. Cold salads are perfect for a hot summer.


Shred carrots and add pineapple

A couple of weeks ago it actually got HOT here in the bay area, where air conditioning is unknown and usually unnecessary. We sat around all melty, looking for excuses to open freezer. Running the stove or oven was right out, so we revisited the grand world of cold salads and other uncooked food. This carrot salad is one of my favorites.

Grate two pounds of carrots. I used the shredder blade in my food processor, but you Luddites can certainly hand-grate your carrots.

Add 2 cans of crushed pineapple or pineapple chunks. Make sure that your pineapple is packed in juice, not syrup, as you're adding the liquid too.

Obviously you can halve this recipe if you like, but I'm going to keep running with these proportions to ensure leftovers.


Add raisins

Add about one cup of raisins. Golden raisins are also fine, but don't provide as much contrast. (Or look as much like beetles.) Currants definitely look like beetles.

Stir them around to make sure the raisin/carrot ratio works for you.

Add lime juice

Add the juice of one fresh lime. The stuff in the bottle does not count.


Add mint

Coarsely chop a small handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly 2T. Again, dried mint or mint flavoring are not acceptable substitutes.

Mint is a tenacious weed, known for sneaking out of pots and into cracks in sidewalks and foundations. Your neighbors will probably love to let you steal some from their yards.

Add dry spices

Add a teaspoon each of cinnamon, allspice, and coriander. Stir and adjust seasonings to taste. Add a pinch of salt to bring out the flavors.

Add ginger

In this case I only had leftover ginger sauce (reduced ginger juice + sugar) available because someone juiced all the ginger in the house.

I used 1T of the ginger sauce, but 1-2T of fresh grated ginger plus a squirt of honey would have been preferable.

Refrigerate then serve

Stir, cover, and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving. The flavors will mingle and mature while the raisins plump up and look frightening.

Carrot salad is great to bring to summer picnics, and will only improve by being made ahead. The taste gets better as the days go by. This picture was taken after two days in the refrigerator. When I took the lid off the awesome spice/fruit smell just about knocked me over.

Optional addition: shredded coconut.