Meat on a stick!

Tonight in celebration of Jason's excellent 1st trimester report card I let him choose where he wanted to go out for dinner. After 20 minutes of UN-decisiveness he chose for me to make meat on a stick one of his faves. I agreed and thought it'd make for a good blog too.


There are few things that I still remember in the couple years I went to school in the Philippines. One being every kid's birthday at school there was some sort of meat on a stick. Whether it be thin slices of beef, chicken, or even hot dogs(more hot dogs than anything) whichever it was it was always a treat. Parents even put marshmallows on the tip to prevent us from poking our eyes out....example above ^^^
**Don't worry this is not a recipe for sticking sticks into hot dogs**


Start with a pound of skirt steak and cut them into thin strips.

Marinade:

1/2 cup soy sauce
half a lemon's juice
6 cloves of garlic (crushed or minced)
1Tbls brown sugar
1tsp ground black pepper
1Tbls olive oil 

Mix ingredients in a bowl and marinade meat. I only had about a half hour to let the meat marinade but its fine since meat was sliced thin. Skewer the meat and you're ready to go oh and SAVE THE MARINADE! I didn't really feel like grilling them outside on the BBQ like I normally do so I just brought out my George Foreman Grill. You really have to be attentive to cooking these either way you decide since they are thin pieces of meat...you don't want to be eating charcoal (which I've done plenty of times!) After your meat skewers are cooked (or if you can multitask) put the rest of the marinade in a sauce pan. Turn the heat on high and add maybe a splash more soy sauce and another table spoon of brown sugar. Use a whisk and mix quick as it thickens. I pour it right on the skewers but you can save it for a dipping sauce. I cut up some green onions to sprinkle on top(obviously...optional). Walla meat on a stick! This is so easy and so good on chicken too! Sometimes I like to get fancy and even add veggies but tonight was about Jason(my anti-veggie boy) serve it with rice and veggies on the side and you've got yourself a full meal. There you have it meat on a stick!

Cioppino?...why not?

Hello everyone! So a little about me real quick before I begin. I'm a mom to my pride and joy Jason(7), event director, and do weddings on the side. Some call me passionate about my work but I see it mostly in my cooking...especially for people. It comes from my culture and if you haven't eaten in a Filipino house well I suggest it and maybe after reading some of my entries you will just want to come over ;)

Lucky for me that I have lived up and down California so I've had the great pleasure in meeting wonderful people from different cultures that I now call my friends. It's so amazing how much you can learn about a person and their family by listening while their cooking. I'll share stories along away and you'll see what I mean.Oddly enough I'm starting this blog with a new dish that I've never made before but it's good...promise!

So, last night I was craving some Cioppino from one of my favorite places in the world Phil's Fish Market in Mosslanding, CA. Sadly I'm almost three hours away from there so that wasn't happening. I looked around in my freezer and saw I had cod, shrimp, and mussels..SCORE! Ideally you'd want fresh but this works too. I get on Google and start my search for a recipe, I see tons, but going through some I notice they are similar. I find one that's fairly simple on www.allrecipes.com by chef john (i've made some of his recipes before, good stuff). Here it is:

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, diced 1 stalk celery, diced 1 pinch salt 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 cups white wine 1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree 2 cups water 1 bay leaf 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 5 thin lemon slices 12 ounces cod, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 Dungeness crab, cleaned, cooked, and cracked 1 pound medium raw shrimp, peeled and deveined 1 pound mussels, cleaned and debearded 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil (optional) salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1.	Combine butter and olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat.
2.	Stir in onion and celery with a pinch of salt; cook until onion is soft and golden, 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.
3.	Stir wine into onion mixture; increase heat to high and bring to a simmer.
4.	Stir in tomato puree, water, bay leaf, oregano, red pepper flakes, and Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer 35 minutes.
5.	Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a boil. Stir in lemon and cod, return to simmer, about 2 minutes.
6.	Stir in crab, shrimp, and mussels. Cover and simmer until all mussels are cooked and open, about 5 minutes.
7.	Stir in fresh parsley and basil; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Only thing I did a little different was not have crab which was sad but the dish came out great anyway. Tip...don't short cut the cooking time of each step it does make a difference for the end product.

I wouldn't say it was up to par with Phil's but it was darn good! Next time...i'm using his recipe and making it for my boyfriend and his roommates. I will not always have borrowed recipes just so happened that this was the dish that got me thinking of sharing. Thanks for reading, hope you come again :)