Fresh Tuna with Soy-Ginger Glaze and Avocados

Dear Children, 

Your Aunt Janice brought a whole, frozen Albacore tuna from Seattle packed in her luggage.  This is such a Korean thing! Your aunts and grandma have traveled cross country with their bags packed with frozen fish of all types, dried squid, anchovies, seaweed, even kimchi, you name it!   When her luggage did not arrive at the Savannah Airport with her, we were more concerned about the fish than her clothes and make up.  Thankfully, the tuna was still quite frozen when we finally got the bag.  It made Grandma so happy to have some fresh tuna sashimi and we devoured rest with this yummy soy-ginger glaze, topped with avocados!  

Love, 

Mom

ps- heat the cast iron skillet to a smoking point and sear the tuna steaks on both sides for a few minutes and leave the center medium rare.  Sushi grade tuna like this shouldn't be cooked all the way. 

Fresh Tuna with Soy-Ginger Glaze and Avocados 

Soy-Ginger Glaze:

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1/2 jalapeno, sliced
2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, grated
2 limes, juiced (about 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch sugar

For the tuna steak:

2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb of  sushi-quality tuna, cut into steaks
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ripe avocado, halved, peeled, pitted, and sliced
Extra cilantro for garnish

In a mixing bowl, combine the cilantro, jalapeños, ginger, garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Stir the ingredients together until well incorporated. Place a skillet over medium-high heat and coat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season the tuna generously with salt and pepper. Lay the tuna in the hot oil and sear for 1 minute on each side to form a slight crust. Take steaks out and let them rest.

Pour soy-ginger mixture into the pan and cook for about a minute. Take the pan off the heat.  Put tuna steaks back in the pan.  Top with diced avocado and cilantro leaves.  Serve with rice.

Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb

"Are you making the lamb for someone, or is that for us?"

When my husband and I go out on a date, I usually order pizza for my four children.  But lazy summer days (where I don't have to shuttle them from sport practices, music lessons, and such) are ones where I can spend more time on a good dinner.

 I surprised them with a roasted leg of lamb and quinoa salad (recipe post coming Wednesday) last week before we headed out for dinner with some friends.  

Note: No, my children don't eat like this everyday.

 Here is a simple marinade which works wonderfully for lamb and chicken:   

Print This Recipe!

Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb

Serves 6-8

3 lb boneless leg of lamb

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Marinade:

1/2 cup packed fresh herb leaves (Rosemary, oregano, basil, parsley, and sage are what I used)

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

5 cloves of garlic peeled

Zest and juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup olive oil, extra virgin

Using a food processor, pulse fresh herbs, garlic, salt, pepper, lime juice and zest.  With the motor running, slowly pour 1/4 cup of olive oil.  

Put lamb in a gallon size ziplock bag.  Scrape all the marinade into the bag and let the air out and zip it tightly.  Massage the bag so marinade will fully cover the meat.  Marinade overnight or at least 6 hours in the refrigerator.  

1 hour before cooking, let bag sit out to room temperature.  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 

Using a large cast iron pan, preheat to med-high until almost smoking point.  Take the lamb out of the bag, gently pat dry, leaving the herb mixture as much as possible. 

Drizzle 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and sear the lamb on all sides.  

Once the meat is well browned, leave the meat in the pan and put it in the oven for 50 minutes to one hour until internal temperature reaches about 145 degrees for medium rare.  Remove lamb from the pan and cover loosely with a sheet of foil,  let rest for 15 minutes before carving.  Serve with your favorite sides.   

Grilled Pork Chops with Coffee Dry Rub and Coffee BBQ Sauce

A few weeks ago, Miss Sophie and I took a little private tour of our city's favorite coffee roaster, Savannah Coffee Roasters.  Beautiful aroma surrounded us as Lori Collins, ever-so-gracious CEO of the company, explained the process of how good coffee beans are roasted.   

Click here to read about our visit on Savannah Morning News with Miss Sophie......

And this is Nigel Gardener, SCR's roastmaster and brainchild of creating new specialty blends;  a retired rocket scientist, whose passion and knowledge for coffee are unlimited as the sky.  

I often use coffee for baking recipes where coffee boosts chocolate flavor and adds a great dimension to baked good.  Well, I learned that coffee will do the same for the savory recipes, adding depth to the flavor and even tenderizes the meat.  

Freshly ground coffee in dry rub or brewed coffee in BBQ sauce can enhance the meat flavor like no other ingredient.  

 And my sincere thanks to my local butcher, Roy White at The Butcher's Block in Bloomingdale, for going above and beyond to cut this beautiful piece of pork!  Thanks Roy!

My family and I wholehearted agreed that this was the finest pork chop we have ever had and we have the picture to prove it.  

To order from Savannah Coffee Roasters Click Here

Print This Recipe!




Grilled Pork Chops with Coffee Dry Rub and Coffee BBQ Sauce
Serves 4

4 bone-in pork chops (about 1 inch thick) or French cut pork loin as shown
Coffee Dry Rub, recipe follows
Coffee BBQ sauce, recipe follows

Basic Pork Brine

1/4 c kosher salt
1/4 c brown sugar
4 cups of water

 In a medium bowl, combine the salt, sugar and water. Whisk vigorously until all the salt and sugar is dissolved. Then pour this mixture over pork chops. Soak at least 6 hours or overnight.

To fully submerge the  pork chops, use gallon size zip lock baggies. Divide the chops to fit the bags, carefully pour brine mixture, let all the air out of the bags and seal the bagstightly.  Place bags in a shallow pan /bowl and refrigerate 4-6 hours or overnight.

After brining, drain and discard the water.  Pat dry the pork chops well with paper towel and let sit room temperature while preheating the grill. Generously rub both sides of the pork chops with the coffee rub. Grill the pork chops for about 5 to 7 minute on each side over a medium heat, internal temperature about 145 degrees F.  Off the heat, let the chops rest covered with aluminum foil before serving with Coffee BBQ sauce and your favorite sides.

Coffee Dry Rub 
Enough for 8 pork chops

1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon fine ground coffee (Savannah Roasters Columbian Supremo beans, finely ground)
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon tumeric

In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients until well blended.  Store in airtight container and refrigerate to store for weeks.

Coffee BBQ sauce 
Makes about 2 1/2 Cups


1/2 cup brewed strong, dark coffee, (used Savannah Coffee Roasters Colombian Supremo)
1 cup ketchup
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1/2 cup sweet red chili sauce Apricot or other mild fruit marmalade can be substituted)
 2 cloves garlic grated
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons ground cumin
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon Sriracha

Stir all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to simmer then reduce the heat to low until flavor meld about 40 minutes, occasionally stirring the sauce. Cool to room temperature and serve.  Will keep for about 2+ weeks in refrigerator.  

Tim's Grilled Chicken

It is always a very special treat when Tim (IPC's renown grill master and owner of Silk Road Catering Co.) grills for the church. And our Sunday fellowship meal last night was incredible with his grilled chicken. There is no better grilled chicken found in Savannah.

His charcoal grill is as simple as it comes. A remodeled iron barrel on a single axle trailer, with a smoke stack, grilling rack, an exterior thermometer, and with lots of character.

Here is a useful gadget for those who are hard-core charcoal grillers: chimney starter. An inexpensive tool that will help you charcoal burning real fast without using charcoal starter fluid. Tim can't use this since he uses such a large volume of charcoal, but this is a great tool for home cooks.

To feed 250 people last night, Tim cooked 36 whole chickens. He splits them in half for quicker cooking time. After sprinkling dry rub and placed on the hot grill, Tim lets his grill do its thing. I don't think anyone sitting in the service could hardly concentrate on the sermon with wonderful aroma of grilled meat and white smoke billowing out of the smoke stack right outside the window.

Waiting patiently....he makes it look so easy.

After two hours of low heat grilling and casual attention, here emerged the most delicious grilled chicken, ever. sigh.....it was so wonderful! Why, we really didn't even need any salad or sides. Most people, including me, would have been very content with Tim's grilled chicken and some barbecue sauce. If you are in Savannah area and need a fantastic barbecue catered for a large group, call this grill meister, there is no one better in Savannah area, not one.

Silk Road Catering LLC, Tim and Tricia Barrett, home (912) 376-2506; cell(912)713-5040

Many thanks to Eddie and Walt for assisting Tim last night!



Grilled Chicken
(Serves 4)
1 Whole Chicken, rinsed and split in half
1/2 Cup of Dry Rub (click for recipe)
Extra Kosher salt for sprinkling

Equipment:
Charcoal grill
Charcoal
Chimney starter

1. Here is a video link on using chimney starter by Chef John Mitzewich.
http://video.about.com/bbq/Using-a-Chimney-Starter.htm

2. Season the chicken with dry rub.

3. After spreading the hot coal, ensuring your grid level is at its highest for low, even temperature. Put chicken halves on clean grid. Cook with cover on, occasionally turning and watching for fat flare ups on the meat.
About 1 1/2 hour or until internal temperature reaches 165 deg. F

Taco Seasoning

Since I cook in bulk, it is cheaper to make Taco seasoning for the church, not to mention better tasting. I have posted two recipes I use often.


Ground beef isn't the only option for tacos. You can use salmon or any other firm fish, or chicken and make soft tacos like these.


Chicken in Tomato-Basil Tortilla


To bring out more vivid flavor out of the spices, put a few tablespoons of taco seasoning in a frying pan and dry toast the spices for a few minutes (medium heat), before adding meat(ground beef) and cook together.



Taco Seasoning #1 (Makes about 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons chili powder
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or less than 1/2 tsp. of cayenne)
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1-1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon black pepper



Taco Seasoning #2 - More like Taco Bell's Seasoning (Makes about 1/2 cup)
2 Tbls. all-purpose flour
2 Tbls. corn starch
2 Tbls. dried minced onion
2 tsp. beef bouillon granules OR 1 beef bouillon cube - crushed
2 tsp. garlic salt
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. onion salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. granulated sugar

Mix all ingredients. Store in ziplock baggies in refrigerator or freezer.

The Best Dry Rub

Great for pork, chicken, and seafood. Pat dry meat and rub well with this mixture. Grill or pan sear.

The Best Dry Rub

Makes about two cups

1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons table salt
1 tablespoon ground white pepper
3 tablespoons celery salt
3 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons dried parsley

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Set aside until ready to use. Store in a container and keep or cool storage or in refrigerator.

Pan Seared Pork Tenderloin

Trim silvery skin on pork tenderloin. Rub Dry Rub and bring the meat to room temperature (about an hour). On a non-stick frying pan, heat olive oil to almost to smoking point. Sear tenderloin until all sides are blackened.



Put seared tenderloin on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F. until meat thermometer registers 145 - 150 degrees internally (15 + minutes in oven). Let meat rest for 45 minutes before slicing.




This dry rub recipe makes about 1 1/2 Cups. This seems like a lot of ingredients but it is worth the effort. We use this in frying batters and to season sauces. Buying bulk herbs and spices from the health food stores or Sam's Club is much cheaper than from grocery stores.

All-Purpose Dry Rub

1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons table salt
1 tablespoon ground white pepper
3 tablespoons celery salt
3 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons dried parsley

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Set aside until ready to use. Store in a container and keep in refrigerator or freezer.