February 27th, 2010
T-bone steak with grilled vegetables (Click image to enlarge)
There was some T-bone on sale, so I brought some home and put it on the grill. In fact I did the whole meal on the BBQ on the patio.
I put the beef and slightly oiled (olive) vegetables (onion, bell pepper, king oyster mushrooms) on the grill.
While waiting I prepared some Chimichurri sauce: fresh cilantro, fresh Italian parsley, some olive oil, a clove of garlic, a little red wine vinegar, a little water, crushed pepper, some salt. For a hint of sweetness I added a tiny bit of agave sweetener.
When the vegetables were soft I took them off the BBQ and cut them. Once the beef was ready I plated and we enjoyed a good meal. What looks like sour cream in the picture is actually kefir cheese.
Posted in Beef, Grilling | No Comments »
February 23rd, 2010
Vietnamese Style Salad with Pork (Click image to enlarge)
A nice little summer salad.
Topping: Slice some onions lengthwise and fry until soft. Add about a pound of ground pork [I ground this myself to have better control over the fat content] and fry until it’s done. Add a tablespoon of curry powder, a tea spoon of sugar, some fish sauce.
Salad: Prepare a bowl with some shredded (thin slices) romaine lettuce, sliced carrots, sliced cucumber, celantro or whatever vegetables you have available.
Sauce: As a base I used 1/4 cup “Sweet Chili Sauce for Chicken” ( you can find this in an oriental grocery or even your regular supermarket; here is an example) to which I added juice of half a lime.
To serve put salad mix in a bowl, add some of the topping, pour sauce over it. A Vietnamese salad would be topped with crushed peanuts, I didn’t have any so I used some almonds.
Posted in Pork, Salads | No Comments »
February 20th, 2010
Bratwurst-Brussel Sprouts Raclette (Click image to enlarge)
Another block of raclette cheese – another non-traditional raclette. For this one we replaced the potatoes with brussel sprouts and bratwurst.
Trim the stems of the brussel sprouds and steam them for about 15 minutes. I try to use the smaller brussel spouts, they seem to be more flavorful and more fun to eat :). For color and variety I also added some pieces of bell peppers and some baby carrots
Cut the brats into half inch slices and fry them in a little olive oil.
Put the brats and sprouts in a casserole dish and cover them with thick slices of raclette cheese. The dish is then placed in the broiler just long enough to melt the cheese and get a bit of a brown crust on top.
It turned out to be one of those dishes that one can not stop eating…
Posted in Baked dishes, Cheese, Sausage | 2 Comments »
August 9th, 2009
Getting close to first harvest
A couple of month ago I once again saw upside down tomatoes for sale at the nursery. When I got home I noticed all those little tomato plants growing wherever I had applied my homemade fertilizer from the worm bin…. So I spontaneously decided give this a try. With a 5 gallon bucket, some potting soil and a drill the plant was hanging there in no time (detailed instructions are all over the net, just google for upside down tomatoes).
Not only was I curious how the plants would grow, but also what kind of tomatoes I would get! Turns out we must have had some smaller vine tomatoes at some point and those are the ones that sprouted from our compost :)
I also setup a bucket with 2 holes and 2 plants per hole, but that get’s a little crowded and since the plants have to share resources amount of grows in the two buckets is about equal.
Plenty of fruit in the pipeline
Here is the plant on day 1:
Day one - May 25, 2009
This picture was taken today:
Full plant - August 9, 2009
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