epicureasian.com » Recipes

Basil Garlic Mayonnaise

epicureasian — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:19:23 +0000

It’s been awhile since I posted a recipe for anything, so to get rolling on this, I’m starting with something easy.

Something about growing your own herbs in your own backyard makes for truly delightful home cooking. Basil has been the easiest to grow in our Texas climate, and I have 3 varieties of them in our herb garden: Sweet, Thai and Lime. With plenty of sun, good soil and regular watering, 2 basil plants is plenty enough for your summer menus. I usually harvest the leaves by trimming the tops, and the basil responds by putting out new growth within a couple of days.

Because we’ve been doing a lot of grilling lately, I’ve been kicking up my burgers with a basil-garlic-mayo concoction. Goes great with deli sandwiches, egg, and tuna salad too.

Handful of Sweet Basil (1/2 cup)
10-15 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small lemon (or lime), halved
1/2-2/3 cup of mayonnaise
ground black pepper
salt
sriracha sauce (optional)
1 tablespoon mustard (optional

Chop the garlic and basil, then place in food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, drizzle in olive oil and squeeze in juice from half a lemon. Continue to pulse-blend until a paste–or leave finely chopped if you would like some color and texture in your mayo spread. Pour basil-garlic paste into a bowl, mix in mayonnaise. Squeeze in the other half of lemon juice . Season with pepper and salt. For a little heat, add a squeeze of sriracha sauce.

For other variations, I’ve halved the amount of sweet basil and used lime basil to give this mayo more punch. Instead of lemon or lime, I’ve used mustard instead.

Thai Fried Bananas

epicureasian — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:38:57 +0000

The best fried bananas you’ll ever taste! (As long as you’re not afraid of the deep-fried part.) What gives this dessert that sweet punch is the coconut milk used in the batter, making for a nice thick and sweet crunch. If the preference is for a thinner batter, use water…though you’ll lose that distinct coconutty flavor.

1 cup rice flour
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
4 firm bananas
3 cups vegetable oil

Heat oil in deep fryer or pan over medium-high heat.

Combine rice flour, coconut milk, baking soda and sugar to form a thick batter. Bias cut the bananas about half-inch thick. Add bananas in batter and coat liberally. Carefully drop battered pieces into hot oil. Use tongs to flip pieces if not using a fryer basket. Fry until golden brown. Remove from heat and drain on towels. Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar or warm honey.

Deluxe Linguine in Garlic Clam Sauce

epicureasian — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:37:57 +0000

Made one of the best linguine dishes I’ve ever made last night. The smell of garlic and butter perfumed the entire house–and the food tasted fabulous. Luckily for us, I only made 12 ounces of pasta or the fiance and I would have gorged ourselves past full.

30-40 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4-1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil (I used a canola/extra virgin olive oil pre-mix)
1 whole head of broccoli, chopped into small florets
4 oz button mushrooms, sliced
2 6.5 oz cans chopped clams, juice retained
12 oz packaged linguine
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (or more, depending on your heat tolerance)
cracked black pepper
dash of salt
dash of garlic powder
shredded parmesan cheese

Boil linguine for 8-9 minutes, until al dente. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat up olive oil and butter in deep frying pan over medium heat. Don’t allow butter to burn. Add chopped garlic and let it infuse the oil for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Drain clams, reserving clam juice. Add clams to garlic butter mixture and heat through. Stir in clam juice, then increase heat to medium-high. Add broccoli florets and saute until tender. Add mushrooms, and season with red pepper, black pepper, salt and garlic powder. (Salt optional since I feel clam juice has enough salt in it.) Remove from heat, and add linguine and mix thoroughly, making sure that the pasta is coated. Divvy up portions for 2-3 people, lightly sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Too much salt…

epicureasian — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:47:10 +0000

…can ruin a brisket. As I discovered when we chowed down on some moist, smoky brisket. The rub had too much salt…since I hadn’t had as much salt in the pantry in a long while. Which really wasn’t a big deal since we ended up removing the inedible rind and dug into some really good brisket.

Lessons learned: go easy on the salt and get a bigger cut of brisket next time. Bigger cuts also mean a lot more charcoal, so don’t forget to get more fuel.

Nothing like a brisket you smoked yourself.

Smokin Saturday Brisket

epicureasian — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:34:21 +0000

Today is brisket day. While we were slowed down in getting a fire going, we finally got it down right after 2 hours of playing with the fire. The new Weber kettle is on the task for its first smoking assignment.

I had a 3.5 pound brisket that had thawed out overnight, which I then liberally coated in brown sugar, paprika, salt, and pepper. Sitting beneath it on the grill was a pan of apple juice.

With the cover slightly cracked to let the coals breathe…we were set for the 4 hour journey to brisket nirvana…