© Constantine William Spyrou
One thing that my family has always stressed is eating very healthy. We rarely go out to restaurants because we get worried of there being too many calories, and prefer home-cooked food to eating out. This translates into my college experience because I miss being able to cook a lot, which is one of the reasons why I created this blog. When this year is over, I'll be able to finally cook my own food again, which will be exciting! Anyways, the inspiration for this dish came from a challenge I presented myself in my college writing class: to write an article on food that could be served in a restaurant without being fatty, high-sodium, or anything else that is bad for you. Using a calorie counter website ( http://caloriecount.about.com/ , check it out!), I was able to create a dish that was under all of the USDA guidelines for a main entree.
USDA Guidelines:
Maximum limits for a main entree dish:
667 calories
26 grams of fat (35% of calories from fat)
7.4 grams of saturated fat (10% of calories from saturated fat)
767 mg sodium
1 serving of this dish:
442 calories
14.6 g of fat (29.7% of calories from fat)
3.5 g of saturated fat (7% of calories from saturated fat)
317 mg sodium
52 g of protein
25.5 g of carbohydrates
139 mg of cholesterol
Fitting comfortably under all of the USDA guidelines, this hearty dish is a light version of surf-and-turf that will be sure to liven up your taste buds, from the rich steak to the bright potato salad, this will be one that any restaurant would love to serve- at a good price too! Note that the steak is extremely lightly battered in this dish.
Recipe will make 4 servings of this dish.
For the Steak:
4 3.5-ounce portions of top round steak
About 1/4 cup flour (slightly less is optimal)
4 egg whites
4 tsp of water
4 tsp black pepper
4 tsp salt
4 tsp garlic powder
4 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tsp rosemary
2 tablespoons canola/grapeseed/soybean oil (grapeseed and soybean oils have less cholesterol and don't add flavor, so they make great choices for frying the steak.)
For the Potato Salad:
1 cup (3/4 lb) red potatoes, skin-on
1 cup chopped fresh green onion
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 tsp olive oil
1 cup roughly chopped parsley
1/2 pound cooked dungeness crab meat
4 tsp salt
4 tsp black pepper
Cooking/Assembling:
1. Pound the portions of steak to about 1/8-inch thick. Season with the steak portions of salt and pepper.
2. In the flour, mix in the garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and rosemary.
3. Add the water to the egg whites, then whisk until the egg whites are combined and foamy (don't let it start to stiffen! You can't make a good batter with stiffened egg whites, make sure they are still liquid!)
4. Quickly lay the steaks in the egg white wash, coating both sides, then transfer to the flour, lighting coating the steak on each side evenly. Make sure the whole steak has flour on it!
5. Add the oil to a pan on medium-high heat. Place the steaks in, cooking to golden brown on each side- about 4-5 minutes total, or roughly 2 minutes per side.
6. As the steaks rest after cooking, boil the potatoes in unsalted water for about 10 minutes or until fork tender.
7. When the potatoes are done, drain them and place into a bowl. Gently crush the potatoes with a fork, leaving plenty of large chunks.
8. Add the olive oil and lemon juice, and slowly mix into the potatoes. Then. add the salt, pepper, and green onion, and mix again. Finally, add the chopped parsley and dungeness crab meat into the potatoes, and mix once more until everything is evenly distributed.
9. Each serving should have one of the portions of steak and a fourth of the potato salad.
This dish is really fresh, light, and delicious. Using the egg whites as a batter lets it stay much less fattening while still adding a good, crunchy batter. Egg whites are actually used to batter chile rellenos, a popular Mexican dish of fried chiles stuffed with cheese, so they are not uncommon to use in frying.
Let me know what you think of this dish, and any questions/comments you may have! Enjoy!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
PAST RECIPE: Ma Po Tofu
© Constantine William Spyrou
I think that one of the reasons I love cooking so many different kinds of food is that I have a plethora of different ethnicity in my blood, and enjoy eating and cooking all of those cuisines and more. My main cultural background is Chinese, so that is the food I tend to make the best. My personal favorite Chinese dish is Ma Po Tofu- a spicy yet savory combination of soft tofu and ground pork. I've made tons of different variations of it- a version with ghost pepper sauce, combined with dried Chinese sausage, placed into an Asian-inspired casserole- but I always use the same base recipe at first, which is what I'll be posting up today. I've found that even people who don't enjoy tofu will like this dish, as usually it is broken down to a point that the textural oddities are hard to point out. The pork is the main star usually in this dish, so its flavor and texture are very dominant.
Recipe will serve up to 6 people
Ingredients:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound soft/silken tofu, chopped up into small cubes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon chili oil (spicy sesame oil)
1 1/2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 splash of Mirin (Rice wine vinegar)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/8 cup Sriracha hot sauce (this can vary depending on how spicy you want the dish to be. I personally like quite spicy)
1/8 cup chopped green onion
1 tablespoon canola oil
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Cooking:
- Season the ground pork with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Place it into a hot pan with the canola oil and crushed garlic, and cook about 75% of the way through.
- When the pork is mostly cooked, add in the tofu and mix into the pork.
- Add the soy sauce, ground ginger, sesame oil, and chili oil, and stir. Cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add in your Mirin and chicken stock, and use it to deglaze the pan.
- As the chicken stock starts to reduce, add in the Sriracha sauce. Reduce the liquid by about half.
- Before the dish comes out of the pan, add in the fresh green onion, stir well, and then plate it.
This dish goes really well with steamed Jasmine rice, and can be altered in tons of different ways. My personal favorite was combining it with dried Chinese sausage and adding a little curry powder, but you can use it however you like! Let me know if you make your own variation! Enjoy!
I think that one of the reasons I love cooking so many different kinds of food is that I have a plethora of different ethnicity in my blood, and enjoy eating and cooking all of those cuisines and more. My main cultural background is Chinese, so that is the food I tend to make the best. My personal favorite Chinese dish is Ma Po Tofu- a spicy yet savory combination of soft tofu and ground pork. I've made tons of different variations of it- a version with ghost pepper sauce, combined with dried Chinese sausage, placed into an Asian-inspired casserole- but I always use the same base recipe at first, which is what I'll be posting up today. I've found that even people who don't enjoy tofu will like this dish, as usually it is broken down to a point that the textural oddities are hard to point out. The pork is the main star usually in this dish, so its flavor and texture are very dominant.
Recipe will serve up to 6 people
Ingredients:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound soft/silken tofu, chopped up into small cubes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon chili oil (spicy sesame oil)
1 1/2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 splash of Mirin (Rice wine vinegar)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/8 cup Sriracha hot sauce (this can vary depending on how spicy you want the dish to be. I personally like quite spicy)
1/8 cup chopped green onion
1 tablespoon canola oil
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Cooking:
- Season the ground pork with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Place it into a hot pan with the canola oil and crushed garlic, and cook about 75% of the way through.
- When the pork is mostly cooked, add in the tofu and mix into the pork.
- Add the soy sauce, ground ginger, sesame oil, and chili oil, and stir. Cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add in your Mirin and chicken stock, and use it to deglaze the pan.
- As the chicken stock starts to reduce, add in the Sriracha sauce. Reduce the liquid by about half.
- Before the dish comes out of the pan, add in the fresh green onion, stir well, and then plate it.
This dish goes really well with steamed Jasmine rice, and can be altered in tons of different ways. My personal favorite was combining it with dried Chinese sausage and adding a little curry powder, but you can use it however you like! Let me know if you make your own variation! Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
NEW RECIPE: Breakfast Fried Rice
© Constantine William Spyrou
I have to give the inspiration for this recipe to my older sister. She told me to come up with some kind of fried rice. Fried rice is awesome in that the rice and egg combination actually makes a great canvas to soak up several other flavors, and can work in lots of different cuisines, not just Asian-based. Friends of mine have made hot dog fried rice and spam fried rice, and I even made steak fried rice once as a leftovers treat for me and my dad. I decided to do an American-style fried rice, but for breakfast. In Asia, lots of people will eat rice for breakfast, so why not combine the concept with American classics like eggs (scrambled, of course) and sausage (made from scratch)? I chose to make a scratch-made chicken apple sausage for this dish because it's my sister's favorite sausage. I felt like it needed some pork, though... so it's more of a chicken-pork apple sausage blend. But it's still tasty!
Serves up to 8.
For the Sausage:
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 medium apple, peeled and grated (This allows for the apple flavor to really penetrate through via osmosis but it will disintegrate, leaving it not too visible in the finish product but adding a nice tartness to the sausage.
- 1/8 cup sage leaves, finely chopped (this is the predominant flavoring to the chicken apple sausage)
- 1 tablespoon ground fennel seed
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- Salt and pepper to taste for seasoning
For the Rice:
6 cups cooked Jasmine rice
4 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup diced bell peppers (any color works, try using yellow, red, and green!
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white pepper
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 splash of Mirin (Japanese rice wine vinegar)
Cooking:
- Combine the ground pork and chicken into a mixing bowl.
- Peel and core the apple, then grate it into the meat. Mix thoroughly.
- Add onion, seasonings, and sage leaves. Mix well.
- Place the canola oil in a hot pan. When it starts to smoke, drop in the sausage and let it cook most of the way through.
- Add in half of the chopped green onion, the bell peppers, and the garlic, and stir.
- Deglaze the pan with the Mirin. Add the ground ginger, stir, then add in the eggs.
- When eggs are mostly cooked, add in the rice.
- Mix the rice complete in and add the sesame oil and soy sauce, mixing in well.
- Just before taking the fried rice out of the pan, add the rest of the green onion. Remove from pan, and serve.
I hope you enjoy this fusion of Asian cooking and American breakfast! If you choose to make it, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =)
I have to give the inspiration for this recipe to my older sister. She told me to come up with some kind of fried rice. Fried rice is awesome in that the rice and egg combination actually makes a great canvas to soak up several other flavors, and can work in lots of different cuisines, not just Asian-based. Friends of mine have made hot dog fried rice and spam fried rice, and I even made steak fried rice once as a leftovers treat for me and my dad. I decided to do an American-style fried rice, but for breakfast. In Asia, lots of people will eat rice for breakfast, so why not combine the concept with American classics like eggs (scrambled, of course) and sausage (made from scratch)? I chose to make a scratch-made chicken apple sausage for this dish because it's my sister's favorite sausage. I felt like it needed some pork, though... so it's more of a chicken-pork apple sausage blend. But it's still tasty!
Serves up to 8.
For the Sausage:
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 medium apple, peeled and grated (This allows for the apple flavor to really penetrate through via osmosis but it will disintegrate, leaving it not too visible in the finish product but adding a nice tartness to the sausage.
- 1/8 cup sage leaves, finely chopped (this is the predominant flavoring to the chicken apple sausage)
- 1 tablespoon ground fennel seed
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- Salt and pepper to taste for seasoning
For the Rice:
6 cups cooked Jasmine rice
4 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup diced bell peppers (any color works, try using yellow, red, and green!
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon white pepper
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 splash of Mirin (Japanese rice wine vinegar)
Cooking:
- Combine the ground pork and chicken into a mixing bowl.
- Peel and core the apple, then grate it into the meat. Mix thoroughly.
- Add onion, seasonings, and sage leaves. Mix well.
- Place the canola oil in a hot pan. When it starts to smoke, drop in the sausage and let it cook most of the way through.
- Add in half of the chopped green onion, the bell peppers, and the garlic, and stir.
- Deglaze the pan with the Mirin. Add the ground ginger, stir, then add in the eggs.
- When eggs are mostly cooked, add in the rice.
- Mix the rice complete in and add the sesame oil and soy sauce, mixing in well.
- Just before taking the fried rice out of the pan, add the rest of the green onion. Remove from pan, and serve.
I hope you enjoy this fusion of Asian cooking and American breakfast! If you choose to make it, let me know how it turns out! Enjoy! =)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)