It’s late August and that means I am right in the middle of that 2-2 1/2 month window when I will eat a BLT. While I try not to be a “food snob” too often, when it comes to BLT’s I have to admit, I am a full blown food snob. If you haven’t read my rant about BLT’s, and wish to, you can find it here. This week our, when I went to pick up our CSA share it not only contained tomatoes and a mix of baby lettuces, but our bread share included a wonderful sourdough bread. All I needed was the bacon, already sitting at home in the fridge, as was the mayo. Score!!!!

Because I wasn’t really in the mood to do much cooking, and because we received yet again, more cucumbers in our box, I decided to wipe up a quick Asian inspired cucumber salad to accompany the BLT’s. This salad doesn’t get much more simple, but for it to be at its best it should be made at least 3-4 hours before you plan on serving it. Overnight is even better.

Cucumber Salad
serves 4

2 large cucumbers, seeds removed, and peeled if skin is thick
1/2 onion, red or yellow
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tbl. sugar
1/4 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. sambal (garlic-chile paste)
1 tsp. soy sauce

Slice the cucumbers and onion as thin as you can and place in a bowl. In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, adjusting the sambal to suit your heat level. 1/2 tsp. of sambal will give the cucumbers a pretty good kick. Pour the sauce over the cucumbers and toss to coat. Cover and allow to marinate for at least 3-4 hours or overnight.

Memorial Day has come and gone, we are well into June, and it finally feels like summertime up here, in Wisconsin. That means that Grilling Season is officially upon us, at least for those that don’t care to brave the weather for year round grilling. Personally, to me, any season is grilling season, and just about any weather is grilling weather, but I know that I tend to be more of the exception than the rule. I have to admit, though, that I do enjoy summertime grilling the best. Maybe its the beer and booze, or the fact that I am often cooking for not just the immediate family, but friends and extended family also, that makes grilling, in the summer, so much fun.

While I prefer mostly burgers and pork products gracing my grill, my wife loves chicken (not that she doesn’t love the other stuff also) and since I am supposed to be trying to eat healthier, on a more regular basis, I have been trying to cook chicken more often. I tend to find chicken to be on the bland side and, honestly, rather boring, so I am always looking for ways to add some flavor and excitement to it. My most recent experiment has been with Asian flavors, especially those of Thailand.

This recipe calls for a few less mainstream items, but most of the items can be found in the Asian section of most grocery stores. The only item you might have trouble finding is the tamarind concentrate. If you can’t find it just substitute a mixture of fresh lemon and lime juice using about half of the amount called for of the tamarind concentrate. It isn’t a perfect substitute but it does provide the fresh acidity that this marinade needs.

Thai Spiced Grilled Chicken
serves 3-4

1/2 cup coconut milk
3 Tbs. green curry paste (you can use red curry paste if you want a hotter, spicier chicken)
2 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. fish sauce
3 Tbs. tamarind concentrate
1 piece fresh ginger (about 1″), peeled
1 clove garlic, peeled
5-6 pounds chicken pieces (any mix of legs, wings, thighs and/or breasts), bone in

Roughly chop the garlic and the ginger. Place in a blender with the coconut milk, curry paste, soy sauce, fish sauce, and tamarind concentrate. Blend until smooth. Place chicken pieces into 1 or 2 ziplock bags. Add the marinade, seal the bags and massage the chicken briefly to make sure the marinade is evenly distributed. Allow to marinate at least 6 hours, or better yet, overnight, turning the chicken a couple of times for even marination.

When ready to cook prepare a medium hot fire, in your grill. Remove chicken from marinade and place skin down on the grill. Grill, covered for 25-30 minutes, or until all the chicken is done. Turn often so as to not burn the chicken, but do allow the skin to get nice and crisp.

My favorite method of cooking various chicken pieces so that they are all done at approximately the same time is to build a medium hot fire in my charcoal grill. Spread the coals out but leave a 2″ ring around the outside of the grill free of charcoal. As pieces get close to being done move them to this outside ring, leaving the less cooked pieces directly over the fire. If you keep the grill covered, and using this method, all the chicken should end up being done at approximately the same time and you avoid the dried out breasts or undercooked thighs.

If you are like me then Ramen noodles played an intregal part of your college days. When the vast majority of my budget went towards beer and booze $0.19 packs of ramen was a godsend. Even after culinary school, when I was “paying my dues” in Atlanta, working for barely over minimum wage, ramen played a large part in regular diet. Not only was it cheap, allowing me to hit the bars more often (are you sensing a reoccuring theme here?), but it was pretty tasty, the variations were virtually limitless, and it allowed me to stretch my proteins much further.

Somewhere along the line, I was introduced to the Ramen Noodle Salad, and fell in love with it. Now I could even eat my ramen without cooking them!!! It was great! Since then, I have come across the salad at all sorts of picnics and pot luck dinners. Usually I am underhelmed by the dish and have to admt that I really only like the dish when the noodles have just been added and are still crunchy.

This version adds a bit of flavor to the mix by using green curry paste. Don’t worry, it is now easily found at many grocery stores with a half way decent Asian section. “Thai Kitchen” is the brand I most often come across in regular stores, although if you have a decent Asian market near you, check it out as you can often find it for about half the price of “Thai Kitchen.”

Ramen Noodle Salad
serves 4 as an entree salad or 6-8 as a side dish

1Tbs. green curry paste
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 Tbs. sesame oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 head napa cabbage
4 each green onions
1/2 red bell pepper
4 oz. snow peas

1 can (11oz) mandarin oranges, drained
2 packages ramen noodles, reserve flavoring packet for another use
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

For the dressing combine the first set of ingredients and mix well. Set aside. Core the napa cabbage, cut into thirds, lengthwise and slice thinly. Thinly chop the green onions. Remove seeds from the bell pepper and slice paper thin. Finally remove the strings from the snow peas by snapping off the stem end and pulling it down along the front of the pea, taking the “string” with it. Thinly slice the snow peas. Combine all the vegetables in a large bowl and toss with the dressing. Allow the salad to marinate for at least 10-15 minutes. Break up the ramen noodles and toss with the salad along with the oranges and almonds. Serve immediately so that the noodles are still crisp and crunchy.

While I often use this as a vegetarian meal, you can easily add grilled chicken or shrimp to make a heartier salad.

In my effort to try eating healthier meals on a more regular basis, to please my doctor, I’ve rediscovered miso paste. For those of you not familiar with it, miso paste is a fermented soybean product, from Japan. There are many varieties of miso paste, many made from rice or various grains, though the white and red soybean miso is probably the most popular. Most Americans are probably most familiar with miso in miso soup, a dish often served at sushi bars, in this country, as a first course.

Like many fermented products, miso contains live cultures that are said to be very beneficial. As such miso is often added to dishes at the end of cooking so that the live cultures are not killed. In this recipe salmon is marinated in a miso based marinade and then cooked, killing any live cultures that might be present, but it still makes for a really tasty marinade.

While this marinade works great for salmon, I also have used it on halibut and tilapia as my wife doesn’t care for salmon.

Miso Marinated Salmon with Soba Noodles

3 Tbsp. miso paste (preferably white miso)
2 Tbsp. mirin (sweet rice cooking wine)
2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 lime, juiced
2 portions salmon (5-6 oz. each)

2 Tbsp. vegtable oil
1 head bok choy, leaves torn and stems sliced
3/4 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and julienned
6 oz. soba noodles, cooked and drained
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ginger, minced
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 cup green onion, minced

Combine miso, mirin, honey and lime juice and mix together until honey is dissolved. Place salmon in a zip lock bag, add marinade, and close. Rub marinade into fish and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Meanwhile prepare the rest of the ingredients. Just before fish is done marinating turn your oven to “broil.” Line a sheet try with foil and spray with vegetable spray. Place fish, bottom side up, on try and broil for 3 minutes. Flip over and broil another 4-8 minutes depending on how you like your salmon done. While fish is broiling, heat a large saute pan and add the vegetable oil. Add the mushrooms and saute for 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger, cook for 30 seconds longer then add the bok choy stems. Cook for 1 minute then add the bok choy leaves, green onions and soba noodles. Cook until bok choy leaves are starting to wilt then add the remaining ingredients and cook until heated through. Divide among 2 plates and top each mound with a piece of the broiled salmon.

In general, I am a fan of cooking from scratch, though occasionally some of the recipes on here do use, and even benefit from, premade products or shortcuts. I try not to make it a habit when cooking, but every cook should have an arsenal of shortcuts at their disposal for those “last minute” meals, or when you just don’t feel like cooking and take out doesn’t sound appetizing.

Recently, my family has been eating a lot of this Chicken Coconut Soup that I’ve been making. It’s based on the Thai soup, Tom Ka Gai. I hesitate to call it authentic Tom Ka Gai, as I take a number of short cuts and add a few things of my own, although, like with so many “everyday” dishes, every family has their own version of this soup.

This is one of those rare soups that is perfect for year round serving. It’s light and fresh enough to serve in the heat of summer, but still rich and comforting enough to help chase away the winter blues. And the best part about it is, that from start to finish, you can be done in 20 minutes. Now, I am normally of the school of thought that a soup should cook for a considerable amount of time, anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, but not with this soup. It is done in 20 minutes, and in fact, suffers from prolonged cooking.

I have also found that this is a good way to introduce novices to the flavors of Southeast Asia. It has a number of exotic flavors in it but they are all relatively subtle and the whole concept is tempered by the fact that, at its very core, it is just chicken soup. Even my relatively picky 4 year old likes it, as long as we pick out the mushrooms.

The one thing that this soup contains that many people are afraid of is fish sauce. This condiment, found throughout Southeast Asia, smells horrendous, and if you don’t already know how it is made, you probably don’t want to know. But it lends a subtle richness and depth of flavor to foods and is used so sparingly that you would never know it is there until it isn’t. If that makes any sense. In many dishes it completely replaces salt or soy sauce and acts in the same way by enhancing the existing flavors while rounding them out and adding a certain indescribable quality to them.

Chicken Coconut Soup
serves 4-6

2 cans (approx. 14 oz. each) chicken broth
2 cans (approx. 13.5 oz. each) coconut milk (not Cream of Coconut which is a totally different product)
1 pound chicken breasts
8 oz. white mushrooms
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. Green Curry Paste (I use Thai Kitchen brand which can now be found at most large grocery stores)
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 bunch green onions
2 each fresh thai chiles or serrano chiles
1/2 bunch cilantro

Thinly slice the mushrooms and place in a medium sized pot. Cut chicken into approximately 1/2 inch cubes and place in same pot. Add chicken broth and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer, but do not allow to boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile wash your cutting board and finely slice the green onions and chilies, putting them each into separate bowls. Remove stems from the cilantro and roughly chop. Place in another bowl and set aside. After soup has simmered for 10 minutes add the curry paste, fish sauce and brown sugar. Simmer 5 minutes longer. Taste. If soup needs more salt either add more fish sauce or some soy sauce. Ladel into bowls and allow each person to garnish their own soup with the green onion, chiles and cilantro.

And there you have it. Soup, from start to finish in 20 minutes. Enjoy!!!!

The Super Bowl is only hours away. By now you probably have the chili cooking, made the final beer run, and are contemplating what else needs to be done before the gang gets there to watch the game. You’re probably also rethinking the beer situation and trying to decide if you should pick up another case or not.

Well, if you have just a few minutes, I have another great addition to your Super Bowl bash. This popcorn snack is the perfect Super Bowl snack. Light, and not overly greasy, a good thing with all else you have planned to eat, this snack is also a great match with beer. The Wasabi Peas give it just a hint of a spicy kick, but also makes this mix rather addictive.

Asian Popcorn Mix

12-14 cups popcorn, popped
1 cup chow mein noodles
1 cup wasabi peas (can be found in many supermarkets asian (Japanese) section)
1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp. sesame oil
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Preheat oven to 275F. Combine the popcorn, chow mein noodles and wasabi peas in large bowl. Mix together the remaining ingredients and pour over popcorn mixture. Stir well to coat and then spread out on 2 cookies sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

I’ve been having fun playing with my new food dehydrator, thanks to Chef Talk. I don’t know that the infatuation will last but it is fun right now, and, at the very least, I think it is something that I will pull out occasionally and play around with, even if it never becomes a “vital” appliance in my kitchen.

This weekend I got a chance to play around with making jerky, and I have to say, I was rather pleased with the results. It sure beats out most of the big name brand jerkys out there and is a heck of a lot less expensive than buying any of those “gourmet” jerkys you see at fairs and festivals. I made both a Spicy Asian jerky, marinating it in soy sauce accented with Chinese 5 spice powder and Siracha (a spicy chile garlic sauce). I also made a Southwestern Chipotle Lime jerky, using ground chipotles to add a nice light smoky accent to the jerky. Of course you can always smoke your jerky before drying it in the dehydrator. I can be smoked afterwards but the meat will take up more smoke, more readily if you smoke it while still raw.

A couple of things to remember, if you are making jerky. First off you will yield about 1/4-1/3, by weight, of the original amount of meat you purchased due to the drying process so purchase accordingly. Secondly, it’s very important to remove as much outer fat as possible and choose meat with as little interior marbling as possible as the fat as a tendency to go rancid sometimes. For longer term storage I suggest placing in the refrigerator. I did not use any curing salts (nitrates or nitrites) in the making of these jerkys so long term storage, at room temp might be problematic. I wouldn’t worry about leaving it out for a day or 2 but for longer storage, play it safe and refrigerate.

Spicy Asian Jerky

1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. Chinese 5 spice powder
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. Sriracha (chile garlic paste)
1 lb. lean beef (I used an Inside Roast roast)

Chipotle Lime Jerky

1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. chipotle powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. lime juice
1 lb. lean beef (see note above)

For each recipe, combine all the ingredients except the beef. Slice the beef so it is approximately 1/4″ thick then into strips about 1 1/2″ wide. Toss the beef in to the marinade and mix to coat. Because the Chipotle marinade is more of a paste you will really need to work at getting it distributed evenly. Tightly cover and allow to marinate for 10-12 hours in the refrigerator, stirring it every few hours.

Spicy Asian Jerky in marinade

Chipotle Lime Jerky marinating

Place meat in dehydrator, blotting off excess moisture from the Asian Jerky. Dry following the manufacturer’s directions. You will want to dry somewhere between 140F and 160F.

Drying time will be anywhere from 3 1/2 to 10 hours, depending on several factors, but if you made sure to cut your meat 1/4″ thick it should take 3 1/2 – 5 hours. To test for doneness remove 1 piece of jerky and let it cool to room temperature. It should crack along the grain when bent but it shouldn’t break apart. When done remove to a cooling rack, blot off any excess fat that rendered out and allow to cool completely before packing it way.