So after a long and stupid messup over at bon appetit my subscription finally arrived. I have to say though that i really like this magazine. Especially the pictures and the recipes. The recipes are pretty realistic and the pictures help guide you to what it should look like and also to give you ideas on how to plate. There are also interesting articles about different spices and such….. (I realize i’m talking about cooking magazines) (If you want to get the magazine look on ebay. It’s super cheap. That’s where i get all my magazine subscriptions like wine spectator, gourmet, saveur and bon appetit)
Soo anywho… I thought i’d do something from the magazine. Something simple, quick and for lunch and dinner…. 
I picked the Crab and Corn Chowder. I really like corn chowder (especially bacon corn chowder) and i wanted to make. I had most of the ingredients except for .. clam juice and crab… It actually turned out ok. I won’t say super but it was decent and enjoyable, nothing to write home about. I have to say though that i should of throw in some bacon!!!! Bacon always makes food even better!
Here are the pics of my chowder time!
So that’s it. It’s pretty simple to make. Here are the ingredients.
- 1 16 ounce bag of frozen white corn
- 1 cup low fat milk (i use 1/2%)
- 8 ounce bottle of clam juice
- 4 tablespoons of green onions (sliced thin)
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 5 teaspoons of lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- 4 ounces of canned crab meat
Start out by separating 1/4 cup of frozen corn on the side. Then bring the rest of the corn and the milk to a boil in a medium pan. Remove it from the heat and cover it and let it sit on the side for 10 minutes or so. Throw the mix into a blender or use a hand blender and puree the mix. Add the clam juice, 1 teaspoon of minced ginger and 3 tablespoons of the green onions and continue blending. I blended it till it was like a thick sauce but you could still see some chunks of corn. Throw the mix back into the pan and simmer it. Min in 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice and mix it around. Salt and pepper the soup and let it sit there on the side keeping warm.
Now take a skillet and throw the butter in it on medium heat. Melt the butter and then add the leftover corn. Let it sautee for a while. About 2-3 minutes or so. Add the leftover green onions, crab, leftover ginger and 3 teaspoons of lemon juice. Stir it all around and let it cook for a little. About a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Put the corn soup in a bowl first then add the sauteed corn and crab on top. That’s it! Eat it for lunch, dinner, xiao ye whatever you want to eat it for. Bon App!
So in Sparta we eat Beef Gyros(I was going to call them souvlakis but i decided it was more a Gyro than a Souvlaki). Not just any Beef Gyros but Mark’s Beef Gyros! Gyros should really be made with Lamb but i didn’t have anymore Lamb so i used Beef instead. I cooked a large piece of meat but i only used like half of it to make my Gyros. Oh man the Tzatziki was Awesome! I think it would be even more awesome with some dill but i used only mint but it was great! Ohhh it wasn’t the best Gyros in the world but it was actually a really decent Gyro. The best i had was when me and one of the Fobtastic 5 went island hopping in Greece. While waiting for the boat to the next island we had some Gyros… OMG THAT WAS THE BEST 2 BUCKS I SPENT!!!!! If you travel to Greece try whatever the tourbook says once and then go for the stuff the real people eat.
Here are the pics of what Gyros chinese style look like
The ingredients may seem long but really they aren’t
- For the Tzatziki
- 1/2 Cucumber Peeled, Seeded, Chopped and Drained
- 1 Cup Plain Yogurt, Drained (I kinda skipped this one because I was lazy but you should it’s better)
- 2 Teaspoons of Fresh Lemon Juice
- 2 Teaspoons of Minced Garlic
- Bunch of Mint chopped (Maybe a handful?)
- 2 Teaspoons of Oregano
- 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
- For the Greek Salad
- Couple leaves of Romaine Hearts torn into pieces (I used romaine leaves which i had)
- Handful of Mint leaves chopped
- Handful Cherry Tomatoes or Grape Tomatoes halved
- 1/2 Seedless Cucumber sliced into disks
- Handful of Kalamata Olives
- 2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
- 1/4 Cup of Olive Oil
- Flat Pita Bread
- For the Beef
- 1 Steak or however much you want (You should really use lamb though)
- Lemon Juice
- Oregano
- Minced Garlic
- Olive Oil
So basically there a couple parts to this. You can do them somewhat in parallel. First I seasoned the Beef. I put the Lemon Juice, Oregano, Garlic and Olive Oil in a bag and threw the Steak in and let it bounce around to coat the whole thing and left it to the side while i turned the broiler on. Then i threw in all the Tzatziki ingredients in a blender and blended it all. That’s basically all there is to do with the Tzatziki. Just throw it in the fridge while you wait. Then i made the Greek Salad. Just throw together all the cut pieces of veggies. Don’t put the lemon vinaigrette yet. Wait till the meat is done to do that. Then when the broiler is ready throw in the meat. I let it sit in there for about 7-8 minutes on each side to get a medium-rare. Take out the beef and slice it into thin slices and let it sit in it’s juice again. Throw the pitas
in the broiler too so they get nice and soft and warm. Throw the Greek Salad Vinaigrette in the Salad and then put together your Gyro. I put the meat then the salad then poured all the Tzatziki over it and wrapped it up in aluminum foil. Bon App! (This takes a little longer than most of my recipes. Probably 20-25 minutes total)
So here is the Lamb dish that i talked about last post. When i saw this recipe i thought to myself that i just had to make it. I bought a good amount of lamb so i might eat this again tommorow or try something else. Maybe a traditional herb crusted rack of lamb with mint sauce or something like that. mmmm, just thinking about that makes my mouth water.
Ok back to the dish! So i was a little disappointed at myself when making this dish. The Couscous was a little soggy ;(. That was probably all my fault. I tried the new Whole Foods Couscous and i dunno i made it the way i always make it. Put Couscous in bowl and pour boiling water to the same level and wait. For some reason it didn’t absorb all the water. So it was still somewhat wet. When i went to flake it it was still watery 
qq. O well. I should of followed the directions on the box. Next time i will!!!! I mean the lamb part was perfect. It came out really nice and tasted great but the Couscous was a little turn off. Though the mix of tomatoes, parsley, lemon and oil did make it tasty. O well next time it’ll be more dry and fluffly!
So here are the pics!
The ingredients are
- 4-5 Lamb cutlets French-trimmed
- 2-3 Teaspoons of ground cumin
- 1/2 Red Onion
- 1 Red Chili Pepper
- Handful of Fresh Parsley
- 2-3 Tablespoons of Thyme
- 2 Tomatoes
- 1 Lemon juiced
- 3/4 Cup of Couscous or however much you want
This is another quick and easy recipe. Get some Lamb cutlets and trim it if it isn’t already trimmed. I was hungry so i cut off 5 lamb cutlets but they were somewhat small! Season them with some salt, pepper and ground cumin on both sides. Slice up some thin slices of the Red Onions. Boil some water and put the Couscous in a bowl and pour the boiling water in and fill it up level with the Couscous. (This was the part i messed up on, will probably cook it in the pot next time) Anyways let that sit aside and then put the Lamb cutlets in a medium heated pan with a little olive oil. Let it cook for a couple minutes till the side is browned. Then flip the lamb cutlets and add the onions, thyme, red chili pepper. Shake the pan around so the onion and thyme and pepper gets all around and cooked. Let that cook for a while. The Couscous should be done by then. Flake it up and then mix in the tomatoes, parsley, lemon juice and some olive oil. Then plate the Couscous on the bottom and put the lamb chops on top and cover with the onions. Voila! Should take around 15 minutes total!
