Tag: quick dinner

Soy Honey Chicken with Broccolini

p2l7JV2IURMn5x1S.jpgThe packaging lied. When I bought the broccolini, it was labeled as broccoli rabe. Upon googling, I found out the truth, as evidenced by wikipedia and google images. There is a difference! As you probably noticed from the lack of cooking posts on the blog, that I haven’t been cooking much lately. Because macarons are taking over my life. Since I have a nice break before I roll out a new mac flavor, I decided to do some SIMPLE cooking.

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First up, a soy honey chicken, braised broccolini and quinoa. I’ve never cooked broccolini before. I’ve had it, and it can be bitter, but braising it in chicken stock helped. Lets start there!

nTz0RAETSRt662Ot.jpgTrim the ends, and cut it into about 3 inch pieces. Added zest of a whole lemon. Set aside 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled. I like to trim off the hard end.

In a straight edge skillet, I heat up a little olive oil, then throw in the garlic. Saute until fragrant (don’t burn!) then I added the broccolini and tossed it around with the tongs until coated with the oil. I add about a cup of chicken stock, and a pinch of salt. Bring to boil, then let simmer until tender. This takes about 8 minutes. When they are ready take the broccolini out of the braising liquid, and onto a serving dish. Squeeze a slice of lemon and top with fresh ground black pepper.

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For the chicken breast, I just cut into tenders and seasoned with black pepper. In a separate small bowl I whisked together soy sauce and honey to taste. In a skillet, heat up olive oil, toss in a sliced garlic clove, then brown the chicken. Then I poured in some of the sauce and called it a day. When the chicken is done, remove from skillet and discard the sauce. It can get a bit salty if you leave it.

With the leftover braising liquid, and some water I cooked some quinoa and added to my meal. It’s so simple I don’t have a recipe. Sorry!

Posted on by miemo 0

Simple Steak Dinner

I used to be so intimidated by the idea of cooking a steak myself. But then I finally was like. Time to test it. Easy peasy. All you need is a little bit of salt and pepper and a well cut, perfectly done steak will speak for itself.

Sometimes during the week, I am so tired from work, and I don’t want to cook anything too time consuming or elaborate. And sometimes you just need a STEAK. Luckily, steaks don’t take that long and you can get it done fairly quickly. Here is the step by step. It’s barely a recipe!

When I get home, I like to pull the meat out of the fridge right away, rinse, and pat dry. I rub a little bit of vegetable or canola oil on it (not olive) and then season both sides, and let it sit out while I prep the veggies and heat up the grill pan. This is important because bringing the meat to almost room temperature helps it cook evenly!

Asparagus. People always make fun of my pee when I post pictures of asparagus, but you know what? I like fresh asparagus! It tastes good to me. Rinse those off, and hand break the stems off the bottom. Did you know that the hard parts will break off itself at the right spot? Don’t cut it because you might cut off too little and be left with a tough piece. Your welcome for that tidbit.

I toss this in olive oil and a little seasoning, let that sit and heat up my grill pan. Make sure its nice and hot. I like to oil the pan a tiny bit, so that I can see when it starts smoking and then I lay the steak down. Depending on how you well you want it done and how thickly cut your steak is will determine cook time. I like mine medium well or medium. So I usually do 3 minutes, then slightly rotate (to get criss cross grill marks) for another minute. Then I flip it and use the cheek test to know when its done.

What’s the cheek test? Let me tell you. If you press the middle of your steak with your finger, and its the same softness as your cheek, its rare. If it’s the same as your chin, medium, and your forehead, well. ITS A LOOSE TEST don’t get mad at me if you don’t have good cooking instincts.

After that, let the meat sit on a cutting board (so the meat can rest) and clean the pan and grill the asparagus until bright green and tender with a little crunch.

Well now I am hungry. How about you?

Posted on by miemo 0