Ace!'s Recipe Thread!

[Leon]

[Ace!]

Ha! Good distinction.

[leokef]

I made reubens last night. Relish the opportunity to have them whenever I can. It's a tragedy that my local fast-food joints don't make them.

Any case, you know the recipe: rye or pumpernickel bread, a lot of corned beef, a lot of sauerkraut, one or two slices of Swiss cheese, and a lot of thousand island dressing. Or Russian if you prefer it. I picked out a loaf of rye with a pumpernickel swirl in it. I couldn't find any loaves that weren't already sliced unfortunately, nor any that used thick slices. Since I prefer to make a big reuben, I prefer bread that won't fall apart on me. But the bread I used worked out well enough.

Anyway, you layer some cheese, sauerkraut and corned beef on the rye, slap it all together, then butter up the outside and toast them on a skillet for a few minutes. You can put the dressing on the sandwich before you toast it, but it's easier and less complicated to just use it as a dip afterward. It's one of the best damn sandwiches there is. If any of you haven't tried it, you should.

[mobilisq]

agreed 100%

[Ace!]

There's an annual Best Reuben in the city contest in Portland. It's a wonderful thing. Because even when a Reuben isn't great, it's pretty great.

[Martin Penwald]

[leokef]

Ace, this is your recipe thread and I ain't seeing many recipes from you!

Two nights ago we tried beef stir-fry. Complete disaster. For one, the recipe was just too bland. It called for beef marinated in orange juice and ginger, along with broccoli, water chestnuts, soy sauce and rice. I liked the simplicity, but the beef at least needed to be marinated for a period of time. The recipe just said to throw it all together in pretty short order. Major mistake. Whole thing wound up tasting like very mild soy sauce. Even the flavor of the broccoli was largely obliterated. The rice we used was no great shakes either.

We did make a mistake in our choice of beef, choosing sirloin tip steaks which are too tough and light on flavor. The recipe called for flank steak, as did the fajita recipe we used tonight.

Thank goodness we went out and found flank steak. The fajitas were delicious. Simple recipe: we used a packet of fajita seasoning and marinated the meat in it for a while. Then we cut up an onion and sweet pepper, sauteed it in the skillet with some more seasoning. Set it aside after it got a little tender. Then we cooked the marinated beef, drained it, then threw the pepper and onion mix back in. At last we added some chopped tomato and some freshly squeezed lime juice, warmed up some tortillas in the oven and voila--fajitas.

I topped mine with a little sour cream. Delicious.

Edit: forget the lime juice.

[Ace!]

I'm at my mom's so I haven't been cooking much these days. But! I did make some amazing mushrooms the other night! Thanks for reminding me.


I made litchi fish again last week, and this time the fish didn't turn out all that well. It was a little bland. It wasn't bad, just not as flavorful as I would have liked.

But, at the last minute, I found this mushroom recipe. It originally called for orange juice, but since I was making litchi fish, I figured I'd make it thematic.


Juice from one can of litchis (lychee)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic (pressed or finely minced)
2 tsp fresh ginger (grated or finely minced)
4 cup sliced mushrooms

1 Combine orange juice, zest, soy sauce, garlic and ginger in a large nonstick skillet.
2 Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
3 Add mushrooms.
4 Cook, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid is gone.


The nicest thing about this recipe is that you can set it, and forget it! Just stir occasionally and check the liquid levels. You don't want burned mushrooms sticking to the pan. The flavors in this thing were incredible! The mushrooms soaked up all the soy and litchi flavors, and they were strong and sharp. Highlight of the meal.


Tomorrow is my aunt's birthday dinner, so I'm cooking. I made a marinade with teriyaki, soy sauce, sugar, balsamic vinegar, chopped garlic and sliced ginger. I'll let you know how it works out, along with my mushrooms round two and leek and fennel mashed potatoes.

[Ace!]

The marinade for the steaks was stellar. It had the soft, sugary sweet of the soy sauce and sugar, blended almost perfectly with the sharp balsamic vinegar. The hoisin sauce mellowed everything out right at the end as well.

I also made some fennel and leek mashed potatoes. The potatoes turned out okay, but there wasn't a lot of fennel or leek flavor. My ratios were waaaaay off, I think.

Which reminds me. I really want to get

[Martin Penwald]

Explain fennel and leek mashed potatoes to me. Did you just add some cut-up fennel and leek to your mashed potatoes or is there more to it?

[Ace!]

That's... that's actually just about it. I cut up some leeks really fine and a fennel root really thin and put them in my mashers.

[Martin Penwald]

Oh, okay. I thought it was something fancy.

[Buttercup]

Adding carrots to mashed potatoes is probably the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. And you get to eat orange mashed potatoes to boot.

[Martin Penwald]

You have to be careful when adding carrots, though, because it's easy to make the mashed potatoes too sweet.

Unless, of course, that is your thing.

[Ace!]

I wonder if you could balance that sweetness with ginger... Hmm...

Potatoes are quite mild on their own, so I could see them taking other flavors wonderfully. More than just garlic and chives and cheese.