Korean Beef

One vital skill to have when meal planning is flexibility. Not the bend over and touch your toes variety, but the fly off the seat of your britches flexibility. Tonight one such night. When planning our menu for the week I did not take into account the fact that I would have a MASSIVE eight page paper due soon. Then when Saturday rolled around, I was half way through the day before I realized I did not get the planned dinner into the crock pot. DRATS! Fortunately, Hero said he would take care of dinner. Take care of dinner he did!

Tonight my culinary talented husband made Korean beef. We did not eat it with the noodles as suggested in the recipe, instead we enjoyed it over a bed of rice with sautéed mushrooms and grilled red onions. Hero added garlic to the marinade. Also, instead of frying the meat as directed in the recipe, Hero grilled our skirt steak and then sliced it thinly against the grain to insure a tender morsel with each bite.

While we enjoyed our Korean beef, we did decide that next time we would like it with a smidge less heat and more sweetness. If you have ever enjoyed Korean cuisine you know they are hugely into pairing tastes--hot & sweet.

Enjoy!

Mushroom Bolognese

Serves: 6 Prep: 7 min. Cook: About 10 min.

Even Miss M loved this recipe...but then again she loved pasta. I got this recipe from an Eating Light magazine, I know this issue is from around 2005, but I don't recall the specific issue.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. rigatoni pasta
• 10 baby carrots (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 medium onion, quartered
• 1-1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1 pkg (5 ounces) shiitake mushrooms
• 1-1/4 lb ground turkey (optional) (Hero doesn't do ground poultry, so I used ground beef and it was yumm-o)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used beef broth)
• 1 medium yellow squash, qartered lengthwise, sliced
• 1 jar (26 oz.) marinara sauce

Directions:

1. Cook pasta in a large pot of lightly salted boiling water as package directs.
2. Meanwhile put carrots and onion in a food processor; pulse until finely chopped.
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add carrots, onion and mushrooms; cover and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, 4 minutes or until almost tender.
4. Add turkey, if using and cook, breaking up clumps, 3 minutes or until no longer pink. Stir in wine and squash; boil 1 minute.
5. Stir in marinara sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes or until squash is tender. Pour over drained pasta; toss to mix.
   

Wild Mushroom-Stuffed Pork Roast

Another of my checkout counter cookbook recipes. My changes to the recipe and hints are in red.

Prep Time: 25 min Start to Finish: 1 Hour 30 min

Ingredients:

• 1 package (1 oz) dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 boneless pork loin roast (3 lbs)
• 1 TBsp butter or margarine
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1 package (8 oz) fresh baby portabella mushrooms, finely chopped (most stores have them packaged and labeled as "crimini mushrooms")
• 1/2 cup herb-seasoned stuffing crumbs (do not use stuffing cubes)
• 2 TBsp olive or vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• Fresh sage leaves, if desired. I bought the sage, but then forgot to use it, so I can't tell you if it enhanced the recipe...I am sure it would.

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375F. In small bowl, place dried porcini mushrooms. Cover mushrooms with hot water; let stand 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cut pork roast horizontally to 1/2 inch from one long side without cutting all the way through (pork will open like a book); set aside. In 10-inch skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook and stir about 1 minute or until tender.
3. Drain porcini mushrooms well; chop. I found them hard to chop so I pulsed them in my food processor, that worked much better. Add porcini and portabells (crimini) mushromms to onions in skillet; cook aobut 4 minutes, stirring occassionally, until mushrooms are tender. Stir in stuffing crumbs.
4. Spoon mushroom mixture into opening in pork; close pork over stuffing and secure with string. Place pork in shallow roasting pan. Brush with oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. (We decided that it would be nice to brown the roast quickly in a skillet at this point, before placing in the roasting pan. We are going to try that next time, but you would have to be careful when turning roast so as to not lose your stuffing.) Insert ovenproof meat thermometer so tip is in center of thickest part of pork.
5. Roast uncovered 45 to 55 minutes or until thermometer reads 150F. Remove pork from pan; cover with foil and let stand 10 minutes until thermometer reads 160F. Remove strings from pork before carving. Garnish with sage. 8 servings
   

We really enjoyed this one. I served it with steamed carrots and a salad.