Sesame-Soy Udon with Crispy Tilapia

This recipe continues (concludes?) a few recent Cannibal Stew trends: tilapia and Plated...

Recipe

10 oz tilapia (Plated seems to like this amount of protein)
3 scallions
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp tapioca (?) flour
3 tbsp sesame oil
8 oz udon noodles
3 packets (maybe a tbsp?) soy sauce
1 packet (however much you want!) sriracha
salt & pepper


Slice the scallions, separating the dark green from the rest.  Mix the cornstarch and flour.  Season the tilapia with salt & pepper, and dredge through the flour.  Heat a tbsp of oil and cook the tilapia until lightly browned, a couple minutes per side.  Remove the fish and cut into bite-size pieces.  Add another tbsp of oil and cook the tilapia until crisp and brown, a couple more minutes.  Heat the last tbsp oil in a separate pan, and cook the udon and garlic until the noodles are warmed through.  Add the soy sauce, sriracha, and light scallion parts, stir to coat, and cook a couple minutes.  Noodles then fish and scallion greens on your plate and eat.

Notes

I'd been on a good tilapia kick recently, having just pan-fried a few fillets nicely.  This recipe made me re-think that old standard.  Do I need to flour the fish every time?  Because it was deliciously crisp and brown.

The udon noodles were good too.  I'm not familiar though - are they usually pre-cooked and just need to be warmed?  It surprised me a little that we didn't have to boil up some water and stuff.  Will just have to factor that in for next time...

fancy tableware huh? at B&H's

Peruvian Lomo Saltado Steak & Potato Stir-Fry

Thanks to the little bro, I got to try out a few meals via Plated. As for my review of the service...  The meals I tried were all pretty good, and (though I wasn't paying attention to the difficulty) simple enough to put together.  Somewhat surprisingly, the estimates (usually ~45 minutes) were right on point, where a lot of recipes tend to be overly optimistic. The variety of meals is excellent, with more than a half-dozen options, and always multiple ones that look good to me (e.g., not vegetarian).  Of the four I tried, two were great for a change from my regular style of cooking, while the other two I could easily see myself going back to.  First one below...  Ultimately, I won't stick with Plated.  I don't need a subscription - I have enough recipes I want to try on my own.  Plus, the amount of packaging seems wasteful, especially with ingredients like butter, soy sauce, or sriracha that I have plenty of.  A good experiment, though.  So, back on point, here's one recipe:

Recipe

10 oz (inside round) steak
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp aji amarillo (the one thing I'm not sure how to replicate post-Plated)
1/2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
1 red onion
1 green bell pepper
2 plum tomatoes
cilantro
1 cloves garlic
1/4 c red wine
1 packet soy sauce (a tsp maybe? will have to confirm)
oil, salt & pepper

Thinly slice the steak (1/4 inch slices) (against the grain), season with the spices and aji amarillo, and marinate for at least 10 minutes.  Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces, cover with water and a pinch of salt, and boil until soft (at least like 5 minutes).  Slice the onion (thinly), slice the pepper (1/4 inch slices), and chop the tomatoes (1/4 inch pieces).  Heat some oil, season the steak with salt & pepper, brown the meat on both sides, then set aside.  Heat some more oil, then add the potatoes, onion, pepper, and (smashed) garlic.  Saute until starting to brown, then add tomato until it starts to soften.  Last, you add the red wine and soy sauce, and simmer until reduced by half.  Garnish with cilantro.

Notes

My main mistake here was not to get the skillet hot enough to get a good brown on the meat - I don't always have the cojones (as the Peruvians might say) to get some real heat (and smoke) going in the apartment.  The overall dish ended up a little mushy without a real nice crisp meat element.  Very tasty though!  Worth another try...

Not that I was looking for it, but this one must have been one of their gluten-free options (unless they package the wrong soy sauce...).

Brazilian Fish Stew

Soup season may (thankfully) be about over by now, but this recipe was way too interesting to pass up.  Looked easy enough too - tilapia is always easy to find, and there are no other really crazy ingredients:

Recipe

1-2 lbs tilapia fillets, cut into bite-size pieces
4 tbsp lime juice (I squeezed out about two limes)
1 1/2 tbsp ground cumin*
1 1/2 tbsp paprika*
2 1/2 tsp minced garlic*
salt & pepper
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 bell peppers, in large pieces
14 oz diced tomatoes (drained)
14 oz coconut milk
some diced jalapeno (my addition)
cilantro

* those are weird amounts, huh? I just eyeballed it a bit

Combine the lime, cumin, paprika, garlic, salt, and pepper and marinate the tilapia for at least 20 minutes.  Heat the oil and soften the onions, then add the fish, peppers, and tomatoes (and jalapeno), pour over the coconut milk, cover, and simmer about 20 minutes.  Add the cilantro for the last bit of cooking and/or to garnish before serving.

Notes

There's a lot of interesting flavors in here: sweetness from the coconut, fishiness, salt, some citrus tang, etc.  I wasn't really blown away though.  Tilapia's not a fancy fish, but I'm not sure a nicer piece would really make much difference without some way to really sear it better.  Overall, though, it's a good way to make a couple dinners'-worth of seafood.  I'll try the leftovers over rice...

Crockpot Greek-Style Lamb

I've had this crockpot recipe earmarked for a while, but a big leg of lamb is hard to find nearby, and expensive...  Poor ol' Key Foods is having meat fridge issues, though, so I made a Whole Foods run.  Nothing wrong with their meat section, except still expensive I guess...

Recipe
Lamb
4-6 lb leg of lamb
zest & juice of 1 lemon
8 garlic cloves, peeled
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp dried oregano
salt & pepper

Rub the lamb with salt & pepper, then olive oil, then oregano.  Put it in your crockpot and sprinkle over the lemon and garlic cloves.  Cover and cook for 4-5 hours (add at least an hour if it's a bone-in roast).  Shred the lamb by hand/forks on a cutting board.  Pour the juices into a saucepan and reduce by half.  Mix back in with the lamb.

Pitas
1-2 c Greek yogurt
zest & juice of 1 lemon
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
spinach, olives, bell pepper, feta, etc.
pitas (original recipe says tortillas, but seriously?)

Stir together the yogurt, lemon, onion and garlic.  Chop the veggies.  Stuff in pitas with meat.

Notes

I was worried that the crockpot wouldn't get the best out of a fine piece of meat like a leg of lamb.  It was tough to leave it sitting out all day while I was at work...  Maybe another time I'll stick around and roast it, but no regrets this time.  I was also on the fence about part two of the recipe.  That yogurt sauce is great, though, and it's a good produce accompaniment.  So it was one of my more expensive dishes, definitely, but so far I've gotten a handful of good meals out of it.

Hard & Soft-Boiled Eggs

This is a boring but important one.  I've tried out a lot of ways of adding eggs to my regular diet - weekend mornings, obviously, but also as a snack, salad addition, etc.  These are two of the easy (as in, pretty hard to mess up) ways of doing it that I keep coming back to, and wanted to get the details (really just the cooking times) on the record:

Hard-Boiled Eggs

Place a layer of eggs in a pot and cover with an inch or so of water.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Turn off the heat (if the stove doesn't retain heat, maybe simmer for a minute), and let sit for 10-12 minutes (but a little while longer won't hurt).  Drain and run under cold water.

If you make a batch to save for later, seal them since they might smell a little in your fridge.  They say they last five days, but you can probably push it a little...

- original link here

Soft-Boiled Eggs

Bring about a half-inch of water to a boil.  Gently place in your eggs and cover.  Cook for 6 1/2 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain, then run under cold water, and eat.

- courtesy of America's Test Kitchen