In all honestly the month off was the best thing and what I am calling Jeff Spring Cleaning.  It allowed me to distance myself and rather than cooking for a blog I cooked for myself.  When I finished cooking I did not instantly start positioning umbrellas or softboxes in the dining room to photograph.  Heck my umbrellas have not been set up for a couple of weeks and my kitchen table for all appearances besides the fact it is cluttered with mail, magazines, and other junk is a kitchen table.  Heck the last two dishes I tanked I was not stressing because oh no I do not have anything to showcase this week whatever will the loyal three followers think??????  Instead they simply were eaten with a smile on my face as I flipped through my best friend Tivo trying to find something.

Now that the sun is out, the garlic is starting to pop up through the leaf cover, and I am plotting the garden I am in a better mood.

This recipe is one of my favorite go to for a quick and simple meal because let us face it pretty idiot proof.  I mean seriously you throw everything in a bowl, you wait overnight, and then toss in a wok until done.  Heck even if you managed to undercook the chicken just throw it back in the wok.  However, it packs wonderful flavor and uses one of my favorite condiments of all times….kim chi.

For this recipe you will need:

• Couple cups of kimchi
• meat from 3 chicken thighs diced into 1 inch squares
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
• 1 shallot finely diced
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger finely diced
• teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
• Sambal and sriracha to taste (I used about tablespoon of both)
• Tablespoon of soy sauce

Steps to success:

• Combine everything but the chicken and taste. If you are happy then add the chicken if not adjust.
• Place in fridge overnight.
• Place wok over high burner.
• Add in a splash of high temperature oil (I used canola).
• Add in mixture and toss around until chicken is cooked through.
• Serve and enjoy over rice.

Back to the grind of work and hope everyone is doing great!

I work In Chicago. but I live life in Indiana. I find that when I am holed up in my mini mansion the last thing I want to do is anything that requires more then 5 sq inches of counter space because – hello – my kitchen is only 4 feet! And it is a mighty small 4 feet… Serious I made cookies over the holidays in it and almost died from flour inhalation.

It isn’t really conducive for much more then frying up eggs for breakfast or pouring a cocktail, but a girl still has to eat even when she leaves her most favorite cook all alone in the wilds of Indiana…

One of my favorite cuisines in which to eat is Asian. Sushi, Hot Pot, Fried Rice, Tom Yum, etc… it’s light (Perfect for that 10 in 10 I signed up for while swilling wine and eating cheese… um hello!?!), it is spicy… which keeps me warm when my radiator goes all ADD and forgets what he is supposed to be doing… (sounds like someone I am dating…) and mostly. Freaking easy AND so yummmmmy!

It should be made with thinly sliced rib eye. Get a rib eye, par-freeze it and then take it out and slice very thinly while the meat is frozen enough to stay firm but still pliable enough to get that dull blade thru that you have been meaning to sharpen but still haven’t, you know who you are… This is the absolute best way to make this… However. Rib eye can be pricey and we are supposed to be talking easy here. So. What I did for this exciting (insert cricket sounds here) presentation was get simple stir fry beef, and beat the crap out of it.

Actually, tenderized it so it could soak up all this marinade of awesomeness…

Whatcha need:

1 # of good beef. (chicken or pork, yes honey I said pork, also work wonderfully here) sliced thin
4 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
1 T rice wine
1-2 cloves garlic finely minced
2-3 scallions, thinly sliced
2 t sesame oil
1 t sambal
white pepper

The Hard Part

Now after you have sliced up and/or beaten your meat… oh geez all the censer-sensors just went off… place it in a large zipper bag. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and pour over the meat. Squish it up good, suck out the air, seal that baggie and toss it in the fridge overnight. Yes, I said over night. Can you do this without the overnight bath? Sure, for a minimum of 2 hours, but it wont be as goooood.

Next day, pull out the baggie o’ meat and the gather ye following:

More of Whatcha Need:

1-2 scallions, sliced haphazardly
sesame seeds
lettuce (for wrapping)
prepared white rice or rice noodles
more sambal, because you can never have too much…

The Tricky Part

Heat 1 T of oil in your pan over medium heat. Cook the meat until desired doneness.

Top with sesame seeds and scallions and serve with rice and lettuce for wrapping. Yes I know the photo doesn’t show any lettuce… wow you guys are so smart. I took this after I ate and well, it took a lot just to make sure I had enough meat and rice for photos. The lettuce, poor lettuce, sacrificed itself.

If Jeff was here I would have had to beat him off with a frying pan just to have meat left over so thank that lettuce… aaaannnd the censor sensors are buzzing again… damn.

Larb is one of my favorite dishes to get at the local Thai restaurant unfortunately they lack a pork larb.  I have debated talking to management about the lack of love for the precious pig but decided it would be cheaper to just create my own and cut out the middle man.

This dish also helped me cut down drastically on the amount of meat in my freezers and pretty soon you will see some creative posts especially when I get to pig’s heart.   Yes you read that right I managed to acquire a pig’s heart from my last whole hog purchase.  Have no freaking clue what I can do with it but hey in keeping with my old school name it could be a disaster.

This dish also pisses me off because in true Jeff fashion I had to make it after I cleared out the herb garden so I had to head to the store to buy the fresh herbs.  I was cool with that until I saw how much they are charging you for a small container of mint…grrr.  Time to install some grow lights and grow herbs indoors.  I hope this does not put me back on a DEA watch list because I can not afford to go back to jail (you will never take me alive copper).

For this recipe you need:

• 2 lbs of ground pork
• 1 onion finely diced
• 1-2 jalapenos finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic finely diced
• Thumb size piece of ginger finely diced
• Juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons of fish sauce
• Heavy pinch of sugar
• 1/2 cup of fresh mint finely diced
• 1/2 cup of fresh corainder finely diced
• 1/2 cup of bay leaf finely diced
• Spoonfuls upon spoonfuls of sambal oelek
• Spoonfuls upon spoonfuls of Sriracha (p.s. Asian markets are the cheapest place to find sambal and siraracha)
• Toasted sesame oil

This is where it gets difficult so hold on:

• Brown pork, drain, set aside (you may need to add some oil to the pan if the pork is sticking)
• Lower the heat to medium, saute the onion and jalapeno until soft (about 5 minutes), add in the garlic and ginger, and saute for another 30 seconds.
• Add in the pork, lime juice, sambal, siraracha, fish sauce, herbs, sugar, and a couple dashes of sesame oil.
• Taste…are you happy?  If not add more sambal and siraraha because those two ingredients make everything taste better.

Serve and enjoy!