juice of ½ lemon, or a few splashes red wine or sherry vinegar to taste
pinch of paprika
olive oil
Garlic Shrimp:
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
pinch of paprika
salt & pepper
juice ½ lemon
Arugula & Snap Peas:
A good 3-4 generous handfuls of fresh arugula
A good 2-3 generous handfuls of snap peas, roughly chopped
Turn oven on to 375 degrees. Slice tomatoes in half and add to roasting pan. Add 4 whole garlic cloves to pan. Drizzle generously with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt & pepper and mix tomatoes & garlic with your hands, making sure everything is well coated with oil, salt & pepper. Arrange tomatoes flat side down and roast in oven about 30 minutes.
Place whole red pepper on gas burner. Roast pepper until one side turns black,. Rotate pepper with tongs until entire pepper is charred and black. When the entire pepper is black and charred, place in a Ziploc bag and cool in refrigerator.
While tomatoes are roasting and peppers are cooling, slice garlic cloves for the garlic shrimp. Roughly chop your snap peas.
Peel the roasted peppers and add them to a food processor. Add the roasted tomatoes & garlic, oil from the roasting pan, almonds, paprika, lemon juice, and olive oil and puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Heat a generous amount of olive oil In a low sautee pan. Add sliced garlic and sizzle for about 30 seconds. Add a pinch of paprika. Add shrimp and cook for 2 minutes on one side. Flip shrimp and squeeze ½ lemon over it and cook for another minute, or until shrimp is done.
Sautee arugula & snap peas in a pan with olive oil until wilted. Season with salt & pepper.
To plate, spoon romesco sauce onto a plate, top with arugula & snap peas and arrange shrimp on top. Spoon garlic and pan juices on top of the shrimp.
Congratulations to Elaine Izumoto from Manhattan Beach for being the first person to make the Secret Dish of Lemongrass Grilled Beef and Rice Noodle Salad. She took home the prize of Estancia Grassfed Beef!
"It was very easy to prepare, " Elaine said, "I learned how to use lemon grass for the first time, something I never used before."
Kudos to Elaine and all of you who made this dish! Stay tuned to find out what the next Secret Dish is going to be...
Recently I was invited by Kevin Coleman, from Estancia Beef, to join a bunch of chefs in a grassfed beef cooking party. Since then I have become a fan of cooking grassfed beef so want to share with you some of my insights on how to cook it and its benefits:
1. Grassfed means that the cattle has been raised on eating grass instead of corn. If you're a purist make sure to ask your butcher if the cattle is fed with grass year-round. In some places they feed the cattle grass during the warmer parts of the year and then switch to corn when the ground freezes, but they still label it as grassfed.
2. True grassfed beef is actually good for you. It has alot less fat than cornfed beef and almost as many healthy omega acid as salmon.
3. Don't throw a grassfed steak on a grill and walk away. It cooks alot faster because it's not as fatty, so pay attention.
4. Season it well. I noticed that the grassfed beef I used needed just a touch more salt than usual to bring out the flavors.
5. Don't want to turn on the stove? Grassfed beef is so clean you can eat it raw. My friend Chef Erik Fischer made delicious beef carpaccio and tartare with Estancia beef and it was so clean and flavorful!
Lemongrass Grilled Beef Noodle Salad Shopping List
Protein
2 lbs grass-fed beef, chicken, shrimp, or tofu (FYI-Estancia Grass Fed Beef is available at Co-opportunity Market in Santa Monica)
Dried Goods
1 package of rice noodles
1 roasted and lightly salted peanuts
1 bottle fish sauce
sugar
1 jar chili sauce, or 1 chili
1 can coconut milk
1 sesame or canola oil
Produce
1 stalk of lemongrass
1 bunch mint
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch scallion/green onion
1 carrot
½ red cabbage
1 cucumber
3 limes
1 lemon
1 head of garlic
1 small piece ginger
1 bottle sesame or canola oil
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Minnie’s Lemongrass Grilled Beef with Rice Noodle Salad Recipe
Serves 4
Marinade:
3 Tbsp minced lemongrass (substitute ginger if you can’t find lemongrass)
2 Tsp minced garlic
2 Tsp minced ginger
2 Tsp fish sauce (substitute soy sauce)
1-2 Tbsp sugar
2-3 TBSP coconut milk
2 Tsp sesame oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
Beef:
1.5-2 lbs Beef, thinly sliced. I like the ribeye cut.
Rice Noodles:
1 Package or rice noodles- Pho noodles or rice vermicelli/ or use brown rice or a bed of lettuces.
Vegetables:
1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup julienned cucumbers
handful of fresh bean sprouts
chopped cilantro and/or mint
½ cup crushed roasted peanuts
sliced green onions for garnish
Zesty Sauce:
Juice of 3 limes
2 cloves minced garlic
2 Tsp fish sauce
1 minced chili, or 1 Tsp chili sauce
1-2 Tbsp sugar to taste
splash of water and/or rice vinegar
1.Make marinade by mixing all of the marinade ingredients
2.Slice beef and add to marinade, mixing well. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes at room temp or covered in fridge overnight.
3.Boil rice noodles until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Rinse well with water and set aside.
4.Prep all of the vegetables:
5.Shred cabbage and carrots, mix together in a bowl and set aside.
6.Julienne cucumbers and set aside
7.Crush peanuts and set aside
8.Make zesty sauce by mixing all of the ingredients and set aside.
9.Grill marinated beef for about 7 minutes. Flipping the meat only once. You can use a grill pan, or even sautee it if you don’t have a grill.
10.Assemble the noodles in bowls, top with carrots , cabbage and cucumbers. Add grilled beef. Garnish with bean sprouts, peanuts, and chopped cilantro , mint and scallions. Serve with zesty sauce on the side and invite your dining companions to add the sauce to their noodles and mix everything up.
A published food writer, book editor, cooking teacher, and restaurant industry insider, Minnie is always contemplating her next meal and the many unexpected ways that the world of food truly inspires her. Her writing has been published in the Boston Globe, Boston's Weekly Dig, The Somerville News, Where to Eat Magazine and more.
