Korean BBQ Steak Salad

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

I am on a serious Asian flavour kick lately. With the sticky hot weather it is great to be able to lean on all the flavours but not be heavy. It also helps me from getting thoroughly sick of salads! But even with air conditioning, the suffocating heat and humidity the idea of pasta and such doesn’t appeal.

I had made this dish a few weeks ago when we had friends over for dinner and I knew our kids would love it so now that camp is over it was time to make it again. Their summer adventures are over and school starts next week so we’re getting back into routine again. Our daughter is applying to universities and our son has four more years left before he flies the coop. It goes by so fast.

I have a Williams – Sonoma cookery book simply called Asian. A lot of thought went into that, obviously. I adapted it based on the ingredients I had on hand.

I made the dipping sauce/dressing and the marinade at the same time. I did this several hours prior to grilling. We’re still working on our bedroom so I knew I also wanted a quick dinner where I do most of the work before we exhausted ourselves painting and installing flooring.

Now I’ve tried the technique that the book mentions twice but without success but I’ll go over it and then just say not to stress or worry about it because you will still get the flavours needed. They say to make a paste of sugar and garlic with the back of your knife. I’ve seen it be successful on shows but for the life of me I couldn’t get it to do as it was supposed to.

Chop up 4-5 cloves of garlic and add a tablespoon of brown sugar. Attempt to make it into a paste. Swear a bit then say to the hell with it and add 2/3 of it to one bowl and the rest to a smaller bowl.

Add 6 tablespoons of soy sauce in the larger bowl and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce in the smaller bowl. A tablespoon of sesame oil in the large and a couple of teaspoons of the oil in the smaller. A tablespoon of rice vinegar in each bowl. A small handful of sliced scallions in each along with a tablespoon of water. In the larger bowl grate an inch/2.5cm cube of fresh ginger. Add a dollop or two of the Gochujang paste to the dipping sauce.

Mix both well. Set aside the dipping sauce for later. I had a pound of steak tips so I cubed them to be about 2in/5cm in size. Toss the meat in the marinade, make sure the meat is well coated and covered.

Cover and chill until it’s time to grill.

Fire up the grill and put the meat onto skewers.

Grill it until the desired doneness. We prefer medium rare for our beef.

Once it’s done, add it to the salad and use the dipping sauce as a dressing.

It is also great as part of an Asian tapas night or over rice. But for now we’re keeping it light until the cooler weather finally arrives. Hopefully that comes soon!

Pineapple Asian Chicken

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

I have a little vent before I get to my recipe. Thursdays are my grocery shop day and I headed to our co-op. They leave water out for the dogs which is great on hot days like this but the whole front is covered by concrete which gets quite hot. When I pulled in I could hear a dog whinging. There was a small dog tied up outside on the hot concrete. It kept lifting its paws. I took out one of my cloth bags and laid it down and the pup immediately sat down on it. I sat on the bench to wait for the owner so the dog could keep it’s paws off the concrete.

I only waited a couple of minutes before the owner came out. She was not happy with me at all! I said the dog’s paws were too hot because of the concrete and she very dismissively said the dog was fine. I didn’t leave right away and said if a dog keeps trying to lift all their paws, they aren’t all right. She was a bit shirty with me but I didn’t care and then she noticed the cloth bag and asked if it was mine and tossed it to me. Honestly, while I would never tie my dog outside somewhere, if I did and someone said the pup was distressed I wouldn’t be bitchy about it! I really don’t understand people.

I hope I got my point across!

Last week while we were running errands I got peckish and grabbed some turkey jerky. A very strange texture but the flavour was really good so I made note of the ingredients as I thought it would make a great marinade for some chicken wings I needed to use up.

Now I don’t get anything for “promoting” the ingredients in the picture, they just happen to be what we like to buy and use. In a bowl or container add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice, a splash of lime juice and 1 1/2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Finely chop 2-4 cloves of garlic, depending on their size, and grate 1in/2.5cm cube of fresh ginger.

Whisk until the ingredients are well blended. Taste and adjust the flavours as you like. Toss the chicken wings to coat well.

Marinate for at least an hour, I marinated for most of the day. When it was time for dinner I fired up the grill and prepped the ingredients. Out I go to grill the wings and find we ran out of gas. Thank goodness for the stove top griddle so I got that heated up and began to grill the wings.

I also grilled some mushrooms and jalapeño as sides to the salad. It’s much easier on the grill as the wings are surrounded by the heat. When it is stovetop you have to keep turning and making sure nothing catches while you are trying to get it cooked through.

Serve on top of a salad and enjoy. A very easy meal to throw together if you have a crazy busy day. 🙂

“Anybody Got a Peanut….” Chicken

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Who doesn’t love a good classic? My family loves The Princess Bride. Though I’m not sure I’m ok with a movie I grew up with being called a classic. To me those are the black and white films from another era. I know it’s denial! But I’m sticking with it.

It’s a film that we love to watch with popcorn reciting the quotes as they come up in the film. Well to be honest we throw out the quotes even if we aren’t watching the film. Get to the food you say? “As you wish….”

Because it’s just been my husband and I for the past month (our kids come back tonight!) we had two chicken thighs left over from the four pack that needed to be used.

I wanted to go with Asian flavours for this dish. Prep the marinade for the chicken thighs first. In a bowl whisk peanut oil and soy sauce (we use gluten free amino acids) in a ratio of 3:1. Finely chop a clove of garlic, some scallion, and grate about a teaspoon of fresh ginger. Season with sea salt and pepper. Mix well and coat the two chicken thighs.

Set aside for at least a half an hour. While you make the sauce, cook the rice noodles to the package instruction and grill the chicken. In a skillet heat up a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil. Chop 3-4 cloves of garlic and saute them on medium heat. You don’t want to brown the garlic.

After a few minutes add about half a cup of chopped scallion.

Add the leftover marinade from the chicken and 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce. Bring to a simmer and add a tablespoon or two of lime juice. Stir in a large spoonful of peanut butter. I chose chunky to save me a step of chopping up peanuts.

Add more peanut butter as needed to get the right the balance between the sweetness of the peanut butter and saltiness of the soy sauce.

When the chicken is nearly done add about a cup of chopped red bell pepper.

Add the rice noodles with 1/2 a cup of the hot water the noodles were cooked in to thin out the sauce. Toss to coat.

Top with the chicken and serve as soon as possible.

I have to say even though our food bill was much lower with the kids off on their adventures I am so excited they will be home. With huge appetites and all. 🙂

Peanut Satay and My Rain Dance isn’t Working

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

The dirt is dry. Bone dry, just puffs of dust. It does not bode well that we are struggling already and May isn’t over. Usually we don’t have issues with rain. But this season we desperately need some rain to fall from the sky.

This past weekend was Memorial Day Weekend in the states and that is also the start of serious planting in our zone. It also means we have a ton of plants to get into the ground. We are facing a semi-disaster with the peppers. Half of the seedlings were small because I was behind the eight ball at the front end in getting them started in the first place. I tried getting enough water into the raised bed but the small seedlings immediately went into shock and died. We have some more to try so fingers crossed we succeed because I was really hoping for some home grown habaneros.

We’ve spent every day since trying to soak the beds. It’s frustrating because we soak them leaving puddles and do that a few times but when we poke the soil it’s still dry! This could be a long season.

This past Friday I wanted to make one of the dishes my family made for me on Mother’s Day. Grilled chicken with a peanut satay sauce. We had plenty of the satay sauce left over so it needed to be used up.

The recipe I got influence from was from the “Appetizers, Finger Foods, Buffets & Parties”.

For the satay mix the following:

2T each of smooth peanut butter, soy sauce, and lime juice

1T of sesame oil and brown sugar

2 finely chopped scallions and garlic cloves

Mix well and set aside.

Next the marinade for the chicken needs to be made.

Ignore the large onion. I was originally going to use it because I didn’t have any scallions for the marinade. But I felt the onion would be too much. And I forgot to retake a photo! Ah well.

In a bowl mix 4 tablespoons of peanut oil, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce or amino acids, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Grate about an inch/2.5cm square of fresh ginger and finely chop 3-4 cloves of garlic. Next add a small handful of chopped cilantro and a chili pepper, chopped. Deseed it for this recipe because you don’t want the heat to overpower the other flavours.

I chose to use chicken thigh meat instead of breast meat. One it’s less expensive and two it has more flavour. Cut it so it is in cubes keeping the pieces in a similar size. Marinate for at least an hour.

Skewer the chicken and heat up the grill. Cook the chicken while turning to cook the chicken evenly allowing them to sear on each side.

Serve with the sides of your choice. I like making baked potatoes on the grill, just keep them up off the flame.

Spoon the satay over the chicken and enjoy! And keep your fingers crossed for some rain!

Grilled Sockeye Salmon with an Asian Flair

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

The local co-op had some lovely fish for sale which put me in mind to grill some salmon. I got all excited when I saw the Scottish salmon but then I paused when I saw it was farm raised. What popped into my head was the thought how humane can it be to farm raise salmon, never mind fish in general? Salmon go miles in their life cycle. So how can you properly raise them in the cages? Plus there are places that do GMO farm raised salmon and thus far the label laws in the States are appallingly lax it makes sense to avoid farm raised. Which is such a shame as Scottish salmon is amazing.

However all was not lost! They also had some wild sockeye salmon which is fabulous. As it is seasonal I look forward to this time of year when it shows up in our stores.

I had a bit of oyster sauce left over so I thought I’d an Asian inspired marinade for the salmon.

I chopped up a small scallion and 2 cloves of garlic. In a small bowl, mix 1-2 tablespoons of peanut oil, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, a splash of fresh lime juice, some grated fresh ginger and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce with the scallion and garlic. Mix well.

Season the salmon with salt and pepper.

Earlier this year I started grilling the salmon on lemon slices. I love how it adds citrus notes to the meal.

Grill until it’s cook to medium. Serve with the grilled lemons.

My daughter and I enjoyed this with grilled corn and potato while my husband and son had jalapeno chicken sausages. All in all a great meal!

Siracha Lime Chicken For Some Salad Daze…

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

A sure sign of spring for us is when the farmer’s market opens up outside. Despite the overcast skies and two women “entertaining” us with folk songs there was an energy in the air and a happiness to see everyone again. The market had loads of local meats that I snapped up for future dinners. Fresh chicken isn’t in season yet, we’ll have to wait a few more weeks but I’ll be stocking up as I need the bone for chicken stock.

Our dogs were super excited to head over there. They remember the smells, the water bowls, and if they are lucky the dog treats. They are more than happy for me to take my time figuring out what to buy. There is one booth that loves dogs. The woman loves to take pictures to post on her Facebook page. I think there are more pictures of dogs than her chutney!

I came across a recipe for chicken skewers that used honey, siracha, and lime. I thought this would be perfect for a salad. This is my take on that recipe. The prepping and the cooking is less than half an hour. How long you marinate for is up to you.

For the marinade I added 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of honey, a couple of tablespoons of lime juice, 2 tablespoons of siracha sauce, salt and pepper to taste, fresh chopped cilantro, and some red pepper flakes. The recipe called for garlic and I spaced on that. Next time I’ll add some. Mix it well then add the chicken breasts to marinate.

When you are ready to put everything together fire up the grill and grill the chicken. I threw together a quick salad of greens, bok choi, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.

When the chicken is done slice it and top the salad with it and a bit of shredded cheese. I did up a quick dressing of olive oil, lime juice, cilantro leaves, siracha, salt and pepper.

The bit I would change is to add more siracha and red pepper flakes. The marinade itself had heat and I didn’t want to scorch the kids but once cooked it wasn’t as spicy. So I would dial it up so we’d get more of that on the chicken.

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

Tag Archives: soy sauce