Peanut Butter Steak

It has happened. The deed is done.

Though I didn't use the computer program to craft this masterpiece, I still thought it was appropriate to share here.

Actually, this dish was the inspiration this entire blog. One day, Fluffy Donuts had the stunningly brilliant idea to combine two of America's favorite foodstuffs: steak and peanut butter.

The original had a few variations. One he baked, another he stuffed with peanut butter and deep-fried. Finally, he seared one with a blowtorch. Not daring to do anything too extravagant myself, I settled for the reliable sear-and-bake method.

I seared the steak on both sides on stupid-hot cast iron, smothered it with peanut butter mixed with a little cayenne and fish sauce, transferred to a nonstick pan and baked it to medium.

Despite its looks, it was actually quite delicious.

Lamb Curry

The randomly-generated list of ingredients is:

chickpea

lamb

parsley root

potato

This is a recipe of firsts. This is the first time I've bought and cooked lamb. This is also the first time I've ever eaten parsley root. Hell, this is even the first time I've made a curry with meat, shockingly enough.

Despite my virginity in these matters, this was a straight-ahead lamb curry, and it turned out fantastic. There was a surprising sweetness that came from the parsley root, which nicely rounded out the spiciness of the sauce. Between the chickpeas, potatoes, and parsley root, I decided that there was plenty of starch already, so I forewent the usual side of rice.

Ingredients

2 lamb shoulder chops

2 handfuls chickpeas, dried

1 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp cumin, ground

1 tsp, thyme, dried

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 bay leaf, fresh

cayenne pepper, to taste

2 parsley roots, cubed

2 small potatoes, cubed

parsley, chopped, for garnish

Method

Sear lamb chops on both sides, then remove. Saute onions, then garlic. Deglaze with stock or water. Combine with lamb, chickpeas. tomato paste, bay leaf, and spices in a pot. Add enough addition liquid to cover lamb and bring to a simmer.

Simmer covered until lamb and chickpeas are tender, about two hours. Remove lamb and debone. Add potatoes and parsley root and reduce. Return lamb. Serve topped with chopped parsley.

Pasta Salad with Herring

The randomly-generated list of ingredients is:

pasta

herring

horseradish

lettuce

Not wanting to go off the rails and cook with lettuce, I had to settle with a salad for this one. All in all, the result was very simple, yet very delicious, especially the horseradish mayonnaise dressing. I think this may have been better with shredded chicken breast or turkey instead of the herring, but that could just be me being burnt out on herring.

Ingredients

1 egg yolk

lemon juice, to taste

1 cup oil

1 tin smoked herring

4 oz bowtie pasta

6 leaves Boston lettuce, torn

horseradish, prepared, to taste

Method

Cook pasta. Make mayonnaise. Cool pasta. Mix everything together. Done.

Fried Oatmeal with Oranges

The randomly-generated list of ingredients is:
oats
orange
gin

Dessert time!

Although all the flavors were great, the textures were a bit off. However, this is entirely due to my putting only two minutes between recipe generation and execution. The orange slices should have been added at the very end just to heat them through, rather than turning them into a pulpy mess.

Forethought, forethought, forethought.


Ingredients

oats, uncooked
sugar

green cardamom
oranges, sliced
1.5 oz gin, per serving
cornstarch, slurried
honey


Method

Make oatmeal. Add sugar, depending on how sweet you like dessert. Let the oatmeal cool and congeal.

Infuse a few cardamom pods in some oil. Fish out the cardamom and fry the oatmeal cake until caramelized on both sides. Remove from pan.

Caramelize the oranges. Add one shot of gin, flame it, and repeat until all the gin is used. Add cornstarch, and stir until thickened.

Pour oranges over the fried oatmeal cake and drizzle everything with liberal amounts of honey.

Popcorn-Soynut-Carrot Snack

The randomly-generated list of ingredients is:
popcorn
soybean
carrot

I'll admit that is not the most inspired thing I've ever made. At its core, it's downright mundane. Really, it's just popcorn and soynuts.

Ingredients

popcorn
soynuts (yes, I made them myself)
carrot, grated, dried
sage leaves


Method

Fry the sage leaves in oil until crispy. Don't wear your best shirt.

Remove the sage leaves and cook the popcorn in the oil as appropriate.

Mix popcorn with soynuts, dried carrot, and crumbled sage leaves.

Tempeh Stir-fry with Curry Rice and Chana Dal

 

The randomly-generated list of ingredients is: 

dal

tempeh

bamboo shoots

sun-dried tomato

It didn't seem too difficult of a task. These are all fairly familiar ingredients without any apparent clashes. Tie it all together with some curry spices. Easy.

Not surprisingly, it turned out pretty good. The crunchiness of the dal nicely balanced the chewiness of the tempeh and tomato. Also, not surprisingly, this dish tasted nutty. Severely nutty. Fortunately, copious amounts of cilantro kept that in check.

Unexpected lesson of the day: add sun-dried tomato to all future stir-fries.

Recipe for 2 or 3:

Ingredients

0.25 cup chana dal, soaked for at least 4 hours

8 oz tempeh, sliced

5 oz bamboo shoots, sliced

7 oz sun-dried tomato, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp cashews

2 tsp curry powder

1.5 cup basmati rice, cooked

cilantro, as much as you can stand

lime wedges, for garnish

Method

Deep-fry the chana dal in a wok. Fish out the dal. Eat approximately one third of it while cooking the rest of the meal.

Pour off all the oil except what's needed to stir-fry. Brown the tempeh on both sides. Add the bamboo, tomato, and garlic. This doesn't need to cooked at Wokmaster heat, so the rice can be prepared in between stirs.

In another pan, fry the cumin seeds and cashews in a bit of olive oil. Add the curry powder when the cashews are almost browned. Mix in the rice. Add the lion's share of the dal.

When the stir-fry is almost done, throw in a splash of water or stock to soften up the tempeh and tomatoes.

Plate, sprinkle over the remaining dal, drown in cilantro, garnish with lime wedges, and serve with your favorite $3 white wine.

Beet Chips with Amaretto-Lime Sauce

The culinary gods have spoken.

beet

amaretto

lime

Unfortunately, I did not get this list of ingredients from pressing the “dessert” button on my fancy random-ingredient-list-generating program. This was supposed to be an appetizer, so I tried to take a savory approach to it. Big mistake.

Since I wanted to make this quickly, I decided to make some form of deep-fried beets and a dipping sauce. Initially, I wanted to make bright-red beet French fries, but given the limiting geometry of the roots, chips had to suffice. They were good, like beet-flavored potato chips. It was nothing outstanding however, unless you really like beets.

The sauce. The first attempt was a mayonnaise. It was like eating an Amaretto Sour, and that's not as good as you might think. The second attempt was an Asian-inspired sweet-and-sour sauce built upon cornstarch, Sriracha, and the two impossible ingredients. I wish I could describe the taste, but my brain has repressed those particular memories. That is the sauce I put in the photo purely for aesthetics.

I won't bother with a recipe here. Search for other deep-fried beet recipes. They can describe the process far better than I can.