Beef Short Ribs with Rice Noodles

This recipe did not go as well as I had planned, but I would like to share the experience anyway. I found that the noodles were far too fatty feeling and tasting after cooking with the ribs. Next time, I may boil to ribs to avoid that if I do a similar method... But I think a barbecue might always be the correct answer with these. I will not share the recipe because, truly, I was not impressed. They were not bad, but one could do far better with these.

Tortilla Hamburgers

Being gluten-free, I have to replace bread with either expensive GF bread, or find an alternative. In this case, I decided to use gluten-free tortillas (from EE burritos - something like $8 for 100 of these) to house my hamburger.

These are the best hamburgers I have ever tasted.

They may not look that appealing, but there was something that made these phenomenal Maybe it's that there was no bun to drown out the flavours, and instead a thin tortilla held together everything. I used:

• Hamburger (thawed, added garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce, pressed to a minimal thickness)
• Jalapeno cheddar cheese
• Bacon
• Sliced Tomatoes
• Fried mushrooms and onions
• Mustard
• Tortillas dry-fried for 30 secs per side

A Better Steak

Even after working as a line cook at a restaurant, it took me forever to figure out how to cook a great steak at home without a flame.

First, dry-aging a steak for a few days inside the fridge will encourage better flavour. Before cooking, let the steak reach room temperature so it cooks evenly.

One of the most important steps to a delicious slab of beef is to let your steak sit underneath plenty of salt for an hour or more. Kosher salt, or other large-grained salt is ideal and you should possibly use more than you are comfortable with at first; steak tends to need more salt per square inch than other meats.The meat tenderizes as the salt breaks down something inside it, draws out water (which you should soak up with a paper towel), and instills a great flavour. To further add to that flavour, I mix together a little garlic butter: minced garlic, parsley and butter.

Should you choose to use a frying pan as I often to when cooking inside, keep the heat somewhere between medium and high, try to flip only once about halfway through, and use the garlic butter mix instead of oil.

When you feel the steak is cooked to your liking, let it sit for 5 to 8 minutes: try to keep it warm under a cover on a warm plate in the microwave, or anything else you can do to keep the steak warm during this time. Cutting the steak right after cooking does not allow the juices to soak back into the meat.

You may now salt and pepper the steak to your liking.

Fried Rice

There's no rice like Chinese restaurant fried rice. The question is: how does one cook such flavour on his or her own?
I don't know, to be honest. But I have come somewhat close.

I begin by cooking a regular pot of rice in julienned onions and salt & pepper,  then letting it cool in the fridge. Next I will cut up dry-aged steak into acceptable fried rice size and fry it. Following that, I will throw in veggies, paprika, cayenne powder, garlic powder, more salt and anything else that sounds good. I am still working on my own perfect flavour, but I have learned that texture is very important in this dish, so cooking on high is important to dry out the rice. Remember to toss or stir often.

Beef Jerky

Whole roasts are incredible purchases when they are on "cheap days". That is, some days the price of the same cut is as much as 40% lower/higher depending on when you check (and I don't believe it happens for any good reason). Even better, sometimes I find a nice roast on a cheap day toward the end of its salable condition with a 30% off stickers. With these, I cut steaks, slow cook, or slice them for beef jerky. This time, I decided to try beef jerky with a recipe that is not my own. I used Doc's Best Beef Jerky recipe.

 I began by cutting off excess fat: pulling the fat and letting the blade do the work, then I cut the frozen roast, with the grain, into thin slices. Cutting against the grain will give a more tender, easier to chew product.

 Then I cut varying sizes because variety is the best.
It turns out the largest pieces are my favourite.

Let the roast marinate for a minimum of 8 hours; I usually let it sit for 24 hours, stirring every few hours if possible.

 

I totally did not take an image of the finished product, but I did have an image from a previous batch I made with dehydrated chili peppers (which are certainly going to make a return the next time I use Doc's recipe).