EASIEST BEEF STROGANOFF

Beef tenderloin, Crimini mushrooms and crème fraȋche instead of sour cream

turns this Russian classic into a date-nite dinner. Ask first time guests if they like mushrooms.

Photo by Carol Guilford
 

best utensils: I use two skillets:  8-inch and 10-inch stainless-steel Cuisinart.  

preparation and cooking time:  under 30 minutes

                                                                                                             serves 2

½ beef tenderloin (filet mignon)

1 cup sliced Crimini mushrooms (4 or 5)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup crème fraȋche

1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon soy sauce*

kosher salt; freshly ground black pepper

1. Pat beef dry. Cut into 2 inch long, ½-inch wide pieces. Lightly salt and pepper the beef on both sides.

2. Wipe the mushrooms with a damp paper towel.  Cut off the tough end of the stems, then slice diagonally. 

for the mushrooms

      

3. Use medium heat to melt the butter in in the 8-inch pan. When it is hot and foaming, add the mushrooms and sauté/stir-fry for 1 minute, stirring with your favorite spoon. One cup of mushrooms yields ½ cup as they shrink up. Turn the heat down and slowly mix in the crème fraȋche and Worcestershire.

for the filet

4. Melt the butter (in the 10-inch pan) over medium heat until it is very hot. Add the steak and  sear very quickly—I’m talking 10? seconds on each side.
5.  Add the soy and turn the meat to coat it.

      Add the steak to the hot mushrooms, stir and serve.

* I use SAN-J organic, low-sodium tamari sauce

CgNotes

The mushrooms can be made in advance, and slowly heated.  For brunch or a light lunch, the mushrooms are good on toast, (a shot of brandy doesn’t hurt) coupled with fresh fruit.

To double the recipe, use a 10 and a 12-inch skillet.

An “easiest” cucumber salad makes a zesty side.

BOLO (police jargon for be on the lookout) for Persian cucumbers. If you use a regular cuke, after peeling, split it vertically and scoop out the seeds before slicing.

For 1 to 1½  peeled, sliced cucumbers, gently mix in 2 teaspoons vinegar* and ½ teaspoon sugar.**  A tablespoon of the white part of a green onion is optional. Salt, if you like. Refrigerate until serving time.

• Cook’s choice. For some years, I have been crushing on organic golden balsamic. Whole Foods sells Spectrum and I saw Star at Ralphs/Krogers. Time flies. I remember when there were two kinds of vinegar for sale--white and apple cider. They are still there, midst the array of rice vinegars, wine vinegars and the raspberry-infused.

 

EASIEST BUTTER MOCHI

Photo by James Dannenberg permission by Los Angeles Times.

What is mochi?  A Hawaiian delight.

The first time I tasted it, at a pot-luck, I thought it was bread pudding, not a favorite of mine.  I was wrong. It isn’t bread pudding.  

Eric who brought this almighty dessert is from Kailua, Hawai, on Oahu. Kailua means “where two currents meet together.”  There, butter mochi is a local staple.

The main ingredient of butter mochi is sweet rice flour—short grain, gluten free.
”Mochiko.”

I buy Kado Farms brand  at  an Asian market in LA.*  I did a little research and Walmart sells it, on-line, but one must buy 6 pounds. Best bet is to find an Asian market in your territory, or plan to make a lot of mochi.

The recipe following is for half of Eric’s recipe. Doubled it is a great contribution to a pot-luck which is, of course, where I found it.

utensils: large bowl, 6-inch wire whisk, 8X8 baking pan

8-ounces mochiko flour

2 eggs

½ can coconut milk  (6 ½  ounces)

½ can condensed milk (6 ounces)

½ stick unsalted butter

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

1. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, coconut milk, condensed milk, melted butter and vanilla.

2. Add the sugar slowly, mix in.

3. Add the mochiko slowly, whip until the batter is smooth.

4. Bake in a 325-350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes.

5. Cool. Do not refrigerate. Cut into squares to serve. Will last 3-5 days.

*I always have a good time at the Ranch Market, once I make it through the large trucks burdening the streets of the San Fernando Valley.

     In a mall with Chinese Barbecue restaurant, a Vietnamese restaurant, a shop selling Chinese herbs and an Office Depot, I wander the aisles, listening to (the last time I was there) piped-in Burt Bacharach instrumentals.

     At the market can be found, paper-thin slices of beef for sukiyaki, dried lilies, fresh pork hocks, a dozen varieties of mushrooms, shelves of boxed sauces.   

    I always smile when I pass the tanked live crabs with a warning sign that live crabs bite and children are not allowed to touch or play with them. 

 

      Photo by Carol Guilford

 

EASIEST SOUP FOR THE GODS

                           

Photo by Carol Guilford

 As instant as it gets. Low-cal, Lo-carbo, too. Surprisingly filling from seemingly nothing.  I try to keep the ingredients on hand.

The recipe is adapted from How To Cook And Eat in Chinese by Buwei Yang Chao (1889-1981), first published in 1945 when there was no fresh ginger in the market and Americans thought Chinese food began and ended with chop suey.

My favorite quote about cooking is from Dr. Andrew Boorde, in 1542. “A good cook is half a physician.”  

Mrs. Chou was a medical doctor who added the words “stir-fry” to the English language.

An historical note is that the preface to the book was written by Pearl Buck, Nobel Prize winner in literature. 

Feel free to tweak the measures to your own taste.

2 cups boiling water

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 -1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

½ -1 teaspoon kosher salt

1-2 tablespoons dry sherry

1 scallion (green onion) peeled and cut into 1/8 lengths (the white bulb and the  tender part of the green stalk.

1. Boil the water. Put all the ingredients into a large cup. Pour the hot water into the cup.

For a hot/sour twist, add 5-10 drops of Tabasco sauce and ¼-1 teaspoon vinegar

Carol’s notes:

Purified water makes all food taste better. I have a Brita attached to my kitchen sink’s faucet.

San-J organic, low sodium tamari is my preferred soy sauce.

EASIEST SHRIMP AND RICE

Photo by Carol Guilford

I love this story the great food writer, M.F.K. Fisher (1908-1992) tells in With Bold Knife and Fork (1968.)

Sitting in a “mean bar”in Delaware, Fisher was intrigued, listening and enjoying the “simplicity” of the recipes some fisherman were exchanging.

“The best, spoken gently, with the shot glass of bourbon warming in the hand for slow sips... ‘the goddamn rice is cooked and dry.  I take my goddamn shrimps all peeled and raw, and throw them with plenty of butter over the rice and heat it until they curl right up, and then I throw in some goddamn sherry and it makes, man, well...good.’”

M.F.K. shared her adapted recipe for the fisherman’s simple “goddamn”shrimp and rice dish and this is my “g-d” adaptation of hers.


THE SHRIMP

If you are buying loose shrimp at the fish counter, buy as many as you want to eat. Most shrimp on the market today are easy to peel and come ‘deveined’—meaning the sand vein is removed.  Sometimes, for this dish, I buy a 10-ounce bag (from Ralphs/Krogers) of wild-caught medium shrimp. For 2 servings I use half the bag, defrosted, good instructions on the package, but I simply put them in a bowl for about 2 hours, then drain and pat them dry. Maybe TMI, but if the defrosted shrimp sit longer than that, they lose water and shrink a bit.

For two

shrimp

½ stick unsalted butter

   without bgh—bovine growth hormone, bad for cows and people, too.  Trader’s, Whole Foods, Alta-Dena or any organic brand is free from bgh.

kosher salt, to taste

¼ cup dry sherry

1. Heat the butter in an 8-inch skillet until it foams, then add the shrimp. Stir them around (with a spoon) until they turn opaque, about one minute  Taste one to determine doneness. Salt, to taste.

2. Turn off the heat, and add the sherry.  Stir, then spoon over the hot rice  portions of your choice

THE RICE (makes 3 cups plus)

This is my latest way. A 25 minute deal that needs a bit of attention. Plus it depends on the rice, the pot and the stove.

I use organic basmati rice (TJ’s or WF’s), and my 1-quart stainless steel Farberware pot, with its handle that never gets hot. Has a lid, too.

¾ cup Basmati rice

1 and ½ cups water

one-eighth teaspoon salt

1.      Rinse the rice quickly in a strainer, then put it in the pot with the water and salt.

   2. Use medium heat to bring the water to a boil, about 5 minutes.  Turn the heat down to low and boil the rice, uncovered, for 10 minutes.  Here’s the tending- to part The rice should be a little tender and most of the water boiled away.  Stir and cover. Steam 10 minutes or until all the water is absorbed and each grain, separate.  Fluff rice with a fork.

Cg extra:

I use the microwave oven as little as possible, but it sure does refresh left-over rice in seconds. These amounts are yours to alter.

To one-cup of cooked rice, add 2-tablespoons olive oil, 2-tablespoons sliced green onion and 1-tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Nuke 30 seconds or whatever time it takes to make it hot with the cheese starting to melt.