Char Siu Spare Ribs – Easy Way

This is basically same recipe as “Chinese Style Sticky Pork Back Ribs“, main difference being that the ribs are cut into individual pieces before marinating and cooking. They come out tender and browned on all sides, just a delicious and messy carnivore delight.

Ingredients

1 side of pork back ribs

1/3 cup Oyster Sauce

1/3 cup Hoisin Sauce

1/3 cup Buckwheat honey or other dark honey

2 tsp. or to taste Sriracha Sauce

2 tsp. crushed garlic

Directions

Remove the membrane from bone side of ribs and separate rib sections into individual ribs. Mix all ingredients and rub the marinade on all sides of ribs. Place in resalable bag, remove as much air as possible and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight. Every now and then massage the ribs in order to redistribute the marinade.

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Bring ribs to room temperature. Remove the ribs from bag and place them on a sheet of aluminum foil large enough to make a bag with second sheet of foil on top. Reserve the leftover marinade. Seal the edges by folding them over several times, place on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven for 1-1/2 hours. Remove from oven and cut diagonal slots from corner to corner and fold open so that ribs are completely exposed. Brush on remaining marinade, increase oven temperature to 400 °F and bake until the meat is golden brown.

Serve and enjoy.

Biftek with Mushrooms, Onions and Potatoes

Czech Version of Minute Steak

Biftek is a Czech version of “minute stake” that is cooked in a frying pan. "Biftek" comes from French "le biftek", which is borrowed from the English "beefsteak", while the English "beef" is originally from the French "le bœuf" and Czech cooks adopted French version “Biftek. What a linguistic mess, ne se pas?

This meal is relatively fast and simple; by the time potatoes are cooked the meat, onions and mushrooms are done as well and as a bonus all in just one frying pan.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)
1 large sirloin steak cut in 2 equal pieces
1 medium onion, peeled
Cremini mushrooms, 8 – 12
Salt and Pepper
Hungarian paprika
Flour
4 medium Red potatoes
Oil

Butter

Instruction

Trim the steak of extra fat and membranes, pound the steak with meat mallet or heavy frying pan till about 1/4” thin, season with salt, pepper and paprika. Lightly dredge in flour and set aside. Trim mushrooms leaving only about 1/2” of stem and cut in half. Cut onion in half and cut into thin slices.

Boil potatoes is lightly salted water till tender, about 15 minutes from time they start to boil. While the potatoes are cooking heat large heavy frying pan with 1 Tbs. of oil, add onions and cook while stirring until they start to turn color. Push on side of pan and place mushrooms cut side down in frying pan making sure that there is a coat of oil on bottom.  When nicely golden move mushrooms to the side next to onions. Add more oil if needed and start frying the steak for about 1 - 2 minutes. Turn over and repeat. If the steak is 1/4” thick it takes about 4 - 5 minutes to cook it to medium well done (hey, it is minute steak after all).

Serve on preheated plates with mushrooms and onions on top and potatoes drizzled with butter on side. Spoonful of Dijon mustard on top kicks it up a notch or two.

I am Back - New post on my Photo Blog

Yup, I am back. I have just published new post on my Photography blog so have a look. These days it is hard to tell if picture is real or “fabricated” in Photoshop. My fantasy landscape is far off the normal that it is obvious that it is basically a fake. Still, it is fun to play with.

I know that I haven’t posted any recipes lately but I have so many saved as draft but never got around to finish them and put them up oh my blog. They should be up in next few days.

Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012

The transit of Venus happens in pairs eight years apart - but then with more than a century between cycles. During the pass, Venus appears as a small, dark round spot moving across the face of the sun, like a bug on a dinner plate. Here in South-West Ontario we were blessed with clear skies and relatively low humidity during the whole transit.

I was able to follow and photograph this astronomical spectacle from start at 6:04 PM until the Sun disappeared behind neighbor’s roof around 8:30 PM. It was well worth the time.

The equipment I used was Canon Rebel T1i, 75-300mm lens with 1.4X extender and arc welding filter plate in a place of dedicated Sun filter. Considering that the filter plate is a mass production piece made out of polycarbonate (Plexiglas) and not an optical quality glass, the photos are quite sharp. This particular filter has a gold coating that reflects the sunlight and keeps the filter cool. Simple setup that did what I wanted.

If you look very carefully you will see 5 Sun spots in 2 groups: at center left are 3 spots on top of each other and second group in center right has 2 spots.

My Photo Got Published – Again :)

I have sent the Geese-on-Roof photo to our newspaper and it was published in Local News section. This is my 6^th or so time that my submission was published. It is fun to see your picture in newspaper, even if it is just a local one!

Unusual Wake-up Call

This morning Marjo alerted me to our new, one-time-only alarm clock: Pair of Canada Geese standing on adjacent roof tops, calling. They stayed there for about 10 – 15 minutes and then took off. Few minutes later they were back on another neighbor’s roof but this time they stayed together. What a sight! I have never seen Canada Geese on regular roof. I have seen them nesting on a flat roof but not on a fairly steep one. Morning to remember J.

The view from living room. What a sight to wake up to!

Few minutes later…

Now, that's a shot!!!

Raw Salmon, Avocado and Cucumber Salad

This is another version of Hawaiian Poke but without seaweed. I have omitted the Furikake and coriander but added mayonnaise into the dressing. The dressing I used is wasabi-mayonnaise sauce that I use very often with my grilled or pan-fried salmon. Since you will be using raw salmon the freshness of the salmon is paramount.

 Ingredients

1 salmon filet portion, 140 gram (5 oz.), skinless and boneless
1 avocado
English cucumber, 6”, seeded but not peeled
1 green onion

Dressing

1 Tbs. Soy Kikkoman sauce
Lime juice from 1/2 lime
1 Tbs. Maple syrup
1 tsp. wasabi paste
2 Tbs. Mayonnaise

Directions
Cut salmon, avocado, green onion and cucumber into 3/8” uniform size pieces. Blanch green onions in hot water for 5 minutes to remove the harshness of raw onion then cool and pat dry.
Prepare dressing by mixing all ingredients together till well combined and mix everything together.
Serve on cucumber slices or crackers.

Garden Update – Seedlings

It is hard for me to believe that I have only 29 posts so far this year! Last year in the same time period I had 118, in March alone I blogged 45 times! I think it was way too much… J.

Anyway, last Fall we have decided that we will cut down drastically on flower containers that took so much time to take care of. Also, visually it was a bit crowded. Last year I started so many flowers from seed that it filled our sunroom once transplanted from plug trays. This Spring I have planted only Nasturtium, Lobelia and Red Millet, that’s it. Happy to report all the seedlings are doing great.

When it comes to vegetables I had some unexpected failures (no germination). I planted 2 kinds of peppers, 2 kinds of Asian eggplants, cucumbers (1 variety) and 5 kinds of tomatoes. Peppers and eggplants didn’t germinate at all and 1 tomato variety (Sweet Baby Girl, hybrid F1) didn’t germinate as well. Mind you, I have seeded only 2 cells with 1 seed per cell. However, cucumbers have done well despite the fact that last year they didn’t (same seed packet). New this year are Saint Marzano Italian paste tomatoes that I bought from Thomson Morgan. The seeds are imported from Italy and come 500 seeds to a packet. Five Hundred seeds!!! Nuts! I need only a dozen or so…Anyway, I had 100% germination success with these seeds and they grow so fast! Another new for me this year are 2 heritage tomato varieties whose seeds I have collected from tomatoes we have bought from a roadside stand. We were absolutely blown away by the incredible tomato taste of these timeless varieties. I have no idea what they are, just that one is yellow in color and the other one has green and yellow stripes and is sort of flat in shape. Name is not important, the taste is. Still, I would like to know if they are determinate or indeterminate. Either way is fine with me but since I grow them for a paste determinate will work much better for me.

Four weeks till outdoor planting! By then tomatoes will have small fruits and cucumbers will be one foot high J 

Lobelia. The seeds are size of a dust particle!

Nasturtium. I love to munch on flowers and leaves and to collect seeds for "capers".

On left are tomato seedlings from 10 days ago.

And this is what they look like today. What a difference 10 days makes! Stacked pots in front center are Red Millet seedlings.