[Guacamole & Tomato Salsa] Summer delights to accompany grilled Fajita - in 10 minutes

The other Saturday, Mr. D suggested grilling beef and chicken and asked me to make tomato salsa and guacamole for the accompaniments to the fajita, to which I quickly agreed since we had a few over-ripe avocados.  I am always desirous of avocados. Thus, I often buy more avocados than needed. However, I found out that I could eat no more than one avocado a day. I do eat a lot of other things daily, so an avocado on top of all my daily food I eat is already more than a lot. Anyway, that is how I end up with very very ripe avocados, more than often.

Luckily we had all the ingredients, including tortillas, to have a fajita lunch. I could prepare salsa and guacamole in time. Do you know how and why you can prepare both salsa and guacamole quickly? I think it's a 'well-known' secret, but let me still tell you this. It's because the ingredients for the two famous fajita companions are almost identical. The only (?) difference would be avocado. You will be surprised to see the similarities of the ingredients to season them. Very simple and but very tasty salsa and guacamole can be prepared in 10 minutes.

Oh by the way, I looked up what fajita was, even though I've always known that the dish was from Mexico.  

Fajita often is served with pan-fried green bell peppers and onion, along with sour cream,shredded cheese, tomato salsa, and guacamole.

Here goes the recipes for fajita, tomato salsa, and guacamole! These are a great fajita threesome!

Beef & chicken Fajita

(adapted from Simply Recipes)

Ingredients

1 pound beef and/or chicken breast

1 tablespoon of lime juice

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 Green bell pepper

1 yellow or orange pepper

Onion

Optional: 1 Jalapeño pepper, seeded, ribs removed, finely chopped.

, 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, including stems

Directions

1. Mix all marinade ingredients. 

2. Coat the steak with the marinade and let it sit at room temperature at least for an hour, or longer in the fridge. 

Meanwhile, prepare tomato salsa and guacamole.

3. Slice all the vegetables.

4. You can either grill or cook meat and vegetables on the stove top in a cast iron pan or griddle.

Tomato salsa recipe is here.

(adapted from Martha Stewart Living)

Ingredients

1/2 medium white onion, chopped 

1 small jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped (optional),

2 small medium-red ripe round tomatoes or 4 to 5 plum tomatoes, chopped 

Chopped fresh cilantro leaves, as much as you want, but at least 3 tablespoons2 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice 

Coarse salt

Directions

1. Chop tomatoes, onion, jalapeno pepper and cilantro.

2. In a large bowl, mix tomatoes, onion, jalapeno pepper, cilantro and lime juice well.

3. Season with salt and cover & refrigerate for an hour or more.

And now here's the recipe for the guacamole:

(adapted from All Recipes)

Ingredients

2 large avocados (or 3 medium avocados)

1 lime, juiced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 onion, diced

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 HH tomatoe, diced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Directions

1. In a bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. 

2. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. 

3. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately.

It was a wonderful backyard lunch. We liked it a lot. 

As both Remi and Pablo are huge fans of Tex-mex cuisine, we all enjoyed the grilled fajita very much.

Fajita with Tomato Salsa and Guacamole

[Tender Shish Kabob(kebab)] Perfect Grill Choice for Summer Barbecue with Dijon-Rosemary marinade

Since we bought a nice grill last year, we've been grilling almost everything. We try to grill at least twice a week, irrespective of the weather. If it rains, Mr. D grills and and brings back in~ even though it's less fun to eat grilled food inside. But, still grilling and eating grilled food are equally fun!

We all know that the classic barbecue meat (and meat products) would be steaks, hot dogs, and sausages. 

This year, apart from the said items, I've been skewing all kinds of meat, shrimp, and fish. I can guarantee that this marinade sauce will turn even a very elastic meat to a super tender melting-in-your mouth meat. One good thing about skewer is that you can skew all kinds of hard vegetables such as bell pepper and onion, along with skewed meat/fish. Skewered grilled meat is shish kebab. As I already mentioned in my last year's pork shish kabab recipe, Shish kebab is a Turkish dish consisting of meat threaded on a skewer and grilled. "Şiş", pronounced shish, meaning "skewer" in Turkish. I'll post at least two more shish kebab (kabob) recipes in coming months. The smell of grilling shish kebab is a sweet torture.

This marinade sauce is just AMAZING. You will love it. As I said, it makes everything so tender. Bet you can't just eat one. :D

Here goes the recipe for beef shish kebab (Shrimp shish kebab recipe will be posted next week)

(adapted from Food Network)

Ingredients for Dijon-Rosemary marinade 

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, stemmed

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pound sirloin steak, cut into 1-inch cubes

Veggies (of your choice)

Balsamic Basting Vinaigrette for Veggies:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Directions

1. If using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for 1 hour to retard charring.

2. Whisk together all of the Dijon-rosemary marinade ingredients (except the meat) in a big container (or bowl if you want). 

3. Toss the cubed steak in the marinade sauce above, until evenly coated. 

Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours.

4. Cut vegetables into bite-size pieces. Whisk together all of the balsamic basting vinaigrette ingredients.

5. Skewer the ingredients by alternating between meat, onion, bell pepper, and mushroom

6. After assembling the kabobs, brush some oil on the skewered meat and veggies.

7. Place the kabobs on the hot preheated grill directly over the flame or coals. Grill for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating 90 degrees every 4 minutes, until the meat is cooked to desired level of doneness.

You can serve with rice, salad or potato of your choice. I served with Peruvian rice which I learned from a Peruvian friend of mine.

You will be surprised by the "tenderness" of this shish kebab (kabob) :D

Enjoy!

Beef Shish Kabob

[Comfort Beef Stew] Great Weekend Stew cooked with wine

Stew must be one of the easiest cooking method to make a great dish. And stewing makes the least tender cuts of meat tender and juicy with the slow moist heat method, which however is different from slow cooking method. (Slow cooker often makes meat too limp for my taste.) As Mr. D and I love stew so much, I often make all kinds of stew, including chili. 

This comfort beef stew could be a cousin, but quite distant, of French boeuf bourguignon. While the authentic boeuf bourguinon requires some labour, this comfort beef stew can be done with little work. You can see my favorite boeuf bourguignon recipe of Julia Child here. If you like boeuf bourguignon, just like me,  but want something similar and easier, try this easy comfort beef stew recipe. Leftover is just as good as when it was first made.

Here goes the recipe:

(I've used this recipe for a few years, but don't remember where I got it :( )

Ingredients

3-4 lbs Stew beef (I used pot chuck roast only because it was on sale, but I normally use stewing beef)

1 onion

1 celery stalk

2 carrots

3 tablespoons flour or chickpea flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 lbs mushroom of your choice, sliced (I used Shitake)

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

1 cup beef broth

1 cup dry red wine

1 can diced tomato can

Directions

1. In a large cast-iron casserole or a skillet,  add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and arrange the meat i in a single layer and season with salt and pepper. Cook over moderately high heat, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides. (At first, the beef will give off some liquid, but once that evaporates, the beef will start to brown. )

2. Then set aside.

3. Dice all the vegetables: onion, celery, and carrots.

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add flour, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. You want the mixture to turn light brown but not burn

5. Add chopped onion, celery,carrots, and mushroom and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, 5 minutes.

6. Add beef and garlic and mix well.

7. Add red wine and beef broth.

8. Add canned tomato, bay leaf and thyme, and bring to a boil.

9. Simmer for 60-70 minutes on low-medium heat.

Serve with short pasta such as rigatoni what I used. Enjoy this flavourful dish with a glass of red wine ~

Enjoy!

Comfort Beef Stew with Red Wine

[Chinese Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry] Quick and Delicious Ready-in-30-minutes Dinner

This stir-fried green beans with meat must be one of the most popular items at  a Chinese restaurant. It has lots of flavour with simple ingredients. 

The main ingredients don't need to be over-seasoned. I got this recipe from a good friend who told me that the whole secret of stir-fried Chinese green beans is to do it without extra moisture, which meant that I should not pre-cook green beans or add more water  while stir-frying. I heard its cooking method called "dry stir-frying" which is quite correct. As this stir-fried green bean dish can be cooked in a very short amount of time, this can go into your 'quick dinner' repertoire. This is one of my favorite dish for a weekday supper. Believe me , your lunch can be ready, even with rice, in 30 minutes.

Usually the dish is made with beef, but pork also works very well with green beans. I use either meat depending on my inventory :)

Here goes a quick and easy stir-fried pork & green beans recipe:

Ingredients

1 lb green beans

1 lb pork loins

3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce (most big supermarket chains list osyter sauce in Asian ingredients aisle)

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Pepper, to taste

Directions

1.  Wash the green beans, drain, and trim the ends. Cut the green beans into slices approximately 2 inches long.

2. Cut the meat into thin strips about 2 inches long.

3. Heat the wok  on medium heat. When the oil is heated, stir in 2 cloves sliced garlic. 

4. Add meat and stir until opaque, about 3 minutes. 

5. Stir in green beans. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes.

6. Season with salt and pepper, and then stir in oyster sauce and soy sauce.

7. Continue cooking until green beans are crispy, but still tender. Don't overcook green beans!

8. Serve immediately, over hot rice if desired.

Isn't it so easy and quick?

Enjoy!

Chinese Green Beans Stir-fry with Meat