Cilantro Weekend!

[xorbie]

I'm not sure if I like cilantro, but I know for a fact that I hate parsely. And radishes.

[Clutch Munny]

Could we just take it as read that anybody who hates any important subset of the ingredients in these recipes will not wish to cook them?



Perhaps Ingredients I Hate And Oh How I Also Hate The People Who Like Them would be a good -- different -- thread.

[RevDahlia]

Time to mollify Clutch!

I've got a flank steak, a few limes, some red peppers and some Kudzu in the fridge, and I think we're having your steak salad for dinner tonight. I do suspect that I will grill the peppers alongside the steak, instead of leaving them raw.

I am a sucker for steak salads. It really is almost the whole point of grilling -- I'm always a little irate when there is no leftover steak.

Here is my favorite steak salad. Of course the recipe calls for cilantro.

Steak and Glass Noodle Salad

Soften the dried glass noodles (also called mung bean or cellophane noodles) in a bowl with boiling water, covered with plastic wrap. Drain. Set aside.

Mix up a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce (nam pla -- this recipe requires a trip to the ethnic-foods aisle,) hot sauce (sriracha) to taste, a teaspoon of sugar, and salt.

Chop an extremely beautiful cucumber, a red bell pepper and a radish or two into teeny julienne. Mix them in with the noodles. Add a goodly quantity of thinly sliced leftover grilled steak (I have used flank and tri-tip; both are good. You could also use roast beef.) Dress and allow to chill for awhile; this is best either cold or at room temperature, and it gets more interesting the longer it sits around. Within reason.

Before serving, toss in minced scallions, a handful of cilantro, a smaller handful of minced basil (Thai basil if you can get it,) and a smidgen of chopped fresh mint. It is usual to garnish this with bean sprouts and shredded carrot.

There you have it. My favorite lunch ever. It's pretty easy to do, too, if you have the leftover meat hanging around.

[Clutch Munny]

Woo-hoo!



Oh. Okay. That's still pretty good.

Hope it turns out tasty for you. I liked the peppers crunchy in this one, but then, grilled peppers are ... mmm... sweet candy.

[viscousmemories]

The deed was done!

Tonight I made Clutch's fabulous Cuban Steak Salad, pretty much as described.

The parsley I had was kinda slimey and smelly, so I tossed it. I also didn't buy any radishes because I don't like them, and by some freak of nature I was out of fresh garlic! Also the "Tabasco" sauce I had was really Schlotsky's Deli brand "Lousiana Hot Sauce" (left by the last tenant, and apparently not very hot). And lastly I had to broil the steak 'cause I ain't got no grill.

Clutch suggested beans and rice on the side, and when asked livius suggested I dice some onions and sautee them in olive oil and fresh garlic, then add the beans (kidney) until they heated through, then cover with fresh parmesan and broil until the cheese turned golden brown then serve over rice.

Unfortunately as mentioned above I was out of garlic, I forgot the beans on the fire until they were pretty dry, and apparently didn't put enough parmesan on them. The end result was some very dry (but very tasty) beans on top of rice.

All told a great meal and sure to be more perfect next time.

I'll try another recipe from this thread soon, since I still have a lot of leftover cilantro...

Thanks, Clutch!

[RevDahlia]

My version of Clutch's salad was also very successful. I did grill the peppers, but left the onions raw for snap. (Grilling the peppers makes this kinda fajitas-like.) I figured that I didn't need both cilantro and parsley, so I left the parsley out and doubled the Kudzu. Served with black beans and rice and it's all gone now.

BTW, a Mexican friend taught me a ridiculously easy trick for making yummy black beans. You just put them in a saucepan with about a quarter-cup of good-quality prepared salsa and simmer for awhile, then bake with cheese on top a'la livius' tip. I used cotija instead of parmesan.

vm, have you considered acquiring a grill pan? They do a mighty convincing grilling job on the stovetop, though you have to disable all smoke alarms before use. Obviously the Le Creuset model is dear, but I found a similar one at a discount kitchenware emporium for twenty bucks. It's a good thing to have.

[AspenMama]

Salsa for your chips

1 big can of diced tomatoes
1/4-- 1/2 cup finely diced white or yellow onion if you like onion
Juice from freshly squeezed limes
Couple of small cans of diced green chilies
A bit of spicier dried chilies of your choice and to taste-- be careful!
Freshly washed and de-stemmed cilantro to taste

Dump can of diced tomatoes, juice and all into bowl. Mix in the remainder of ingredients. For fun, you can also add chopped bits of avocado or salad shrimp too. Make this directly prior to consumption. It's no good later.

[viscousmemories]

Thanks for the grill pan tip, Rev. I suspect we'll end up getting a regular charcoal grill soon, but if we don't I'll definitely look for one of those.