Italian Style Steak

Please forgive this bare naked post. My computer is not feeling well and no longer letting me upload photos :(
I thought November's dish was going to be Thanksgiving day themed but then I pulled out my Food & Wine Mag again early in the month and realized there was one more 60 minute (not 30 min as I stated previously) meal I wanted to try making. This one was called, as per the title, Italian Style Steak Dinner. The star of the show was a lightly marinated flank steak; with garlic, thyme, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The supporting characters were a buttery polenta and roasted shiitake and red onions.
This meal I made several "Doh!" mistakes that ended up causing the parental approval index to go way down.
First, despite my parents not being big steak eaters, I decided to stick with the suggested flanken meat instead of upgrading to a more tender hunk of beef or even switching to chicken. Second, I tried to cut down on sodium for health reasons but felt that the strong blue cheese that should have graced the shiitakes would more than make up for the lack of salt sprinkled onto the veggies and into the polenta. The operative word is should, the darned hunk of cheese sat silently in the refrigerator all evening.
All in all this was not a success in the eyes of the parental units but the leftovers were honorably (and in my opinon successfully) repurposed as Monday's lunch. This time with the cheese proudly sitting on top of everything.

Food & Wine

Food & Wine
Originally uploaded by rbsb1999

One of the fringe benefits of working for a newpaper is that we get tons of reading material in the mail; much of it goes completely unclaimed. So it was that I got a perfectly good Food & Wine Magazine a couple of months ago. This dinner was a 30 minute deal that was part of a series, I haven't gotten around to trying the other two dinner ideas.
This was the first time I've cooked chicken, and my mother was impressed that I was finaly handling raw meat (a previous no go zone for me). The green beans were easy enough, just some carmelized garlic and ginger to dress them up a bit. The potatoes were a straight affair of cutting and frying. Final touch that wasn't part of the original recipe was that bottle of Bull Dog Katsu Sauce which went very well. Perfect weeknight dinner for my little family.

April Dish

April Dish
Originally uploaded by rbsb1999

This is an adaptation of a Martha Stewart recipe. I don't get to make fish often because of Mom's aversion to fish but I had a craving that day. The kumquat glaze didn't exactly glaze, I think I didn't add enough sugar or something. The kumquats themselves were really tasty and candied. The choy was sauteed with some garlic. This whole recipe took no time at all and it provided lunch for me and dinner for the parents. Love cooking fish.

March dish

March dish
Originally uploaded by rbsb1999

Look I finally used the curry packet I got at Mitsuwa all the way back in January! He loves Japanese Curry, if I knew this was so easy I would have made some for him. But of course he won't enjoy any of it now, but I will.
I'm still unsure about cooking with meat so I decided to take the easy way out and do a tofu dish. I've come to the conclusion that anything smothered in Japanese curry will taste good. It's like the frying effect. Not shown, but I did the same thing using just shrimp over rice, and wouldn't you know I think I overcooked the darn critters and they STILL tasted good with the curry sauce over it.

Mushroom ragu with cream sauce over crispy polenta cake.

Mushroom ragu with cream sauce over crispy polenta cake.
Originally uploaded by rbsb1999

This past weekend I totaly won my parents over to my cookery. All it took was making something Italian inspired and they were singing my praises and bestowing compliments on me. This was just an appetiser of crispy polenta cake topped with a white beech and maitake stew or ragu not sure what the technical term is, The mushrooms got treated with rosemary, a cream sauce, and a final sprinkling of freshly grated parmigiano. The main course was another cross cultural melding in the form of Chinese eggplant parm. Another hit. What I've really been missing was the way the ex would appreciate the food I made, but finding new fans is a great way to get over that feeling.

Roasted Kabocha soup

Roasted Kabocha soup
Originally uploaded by rbsb1999

This was inspired a bit by Kathy Erway and her hapa recipe for simmered kabocha. I simmered half of the kabocha for my bento. But roasted half and turned it into this wonderfull soup. It's kabocha, carmelized onion, soy milk and vegetable stock. I seasoned it with rosemary and sea salt. The result was very velvety, an even better texture I'd say than butternut squash soup, no strings attached (harhar). So glad I tried it.
Of course for all my fangirl adoration of Ms. Erway I totaly blanked on the title of her upcoming book at the "In the Flesh Reading Series" and missed on the opportunity to win a copy of "Eat Your Feelings; recipes for self loathing" which I of course need right now to properly loathe myself post human relationship.