On Our Menu: May 7 - 13

Last week I made a lot a Asian dinners which prompted a trip to our local Asian market. I tell you, shopping in that store is like going on a little ethnic adventure. I slowly browsed the unique items in each and every aisle. Many things I had never seen before and I look forward to going back and experimenting with some unknown foods. A kind young store clerk guided me through the aisles and helped me find everything on my list: lemongrass, fermented soy beans, tamarind pulp... He was SO helpful! Being the mushroom lover that I am, I was most excited about finding some unique, fresh mushrooms. The back of the store also had a little takeout food counter so I'm looking forward to picking up some tasty eats on my next trip. So, what did I make with my goods from the Asian market? 


Asian Beef with Basil
First of all, this recipe turned out looking nothing like the picture. The lemongrass from the marinade was a dominate flavor so if you're not of fan of that, I would skip this recipe. The overall flavor of the dish was just okay. For something that takes almost 3 hours from start to finish, I expect something spectacular.


Javanese Tempeh Sambal Goreng
This was another dish that used lemongrass but I liked how the flavors were much more balanced than the Asian Beef. Sambal Goreng is a dish that combines fried meat (in this case seared tempeh) with veggies in a coconut sauce - so, it's basically a curry. We loved it but, sorry, no link because it came from the New Vegetarian cookbook.

Green Beans and Mushrooms in Black Bean Sauce

I don't have a recipe link for this dish either because it came from Gordon Ramsay's World  Kitchen cookbook. Ever have a takeout dish that was swimming in black bean sauce? This dish was just like that. So good!

Dreena Burton's Jerk Chickpeas (not Asian but good!)
I really loved this recipe. I served the chickpeas on brown rice and the dish was hearty and filling. Christian wasn't a huge fan but I think he had a negative opinion before he even tried it simply because it contained chickpeas. He also said that it smelled funny but I think the dish tasted exactly like jerk chicken I had in Belize.

Eating jerk chicken while the chickens (and cats!) run underfoot in Dangriga, Belize.

Chicken Shawarma (Middle Eastern)
This was our favorite recipe from the week. The chicken has a little bit of a kick from the curry but the cucumber-yogurt sauce (like tzatziki sauce) cools it off nicely. I grilled the chicken indoors on my cast-iron grill pan. The chicken only took about 7 minutes to cook. I served the chicken in pitas with the sauce, spinach, and chopped tomatoes.




Here's what I'm cooking this week: