Ridiculously Easy Thai Steak Salad

THIS SALAD. I’m still thinking about it.

Last night was warm enough, so I decided to whip up a steak salad. But, not just any old steak salad — one infused with explosive Thai flavors: a little lime, a splash of fish sauce, a spoonful (or two) of chili garlic paste. Heaven.

If you’ve ever tried the Tiger Cries (aka Crying Tiger, Tiger’s Tear, etc.) salad at a Thai restaurant, only to return home and want it again and again for the rest of your life, this steak salad recipe will sate your craving. It’s not too spicy, either, so if you’re sensitive to heat, this won’t kill you. That being said, it’s super easy to pump up the fire with additional chili garlic paste or a fresh pepper.

Demystified: Bibimbap Recipe

You love bibimbap. I love bibimbap. We all do. It’s spicy, salty, tangy heaven in a bowl. My mom made it for us growing up, but I never really learned to appreciate it until I was an adult and started buying my own groceries. I hate throwing food away; it makes me feel like a total failure. “I couldn’t even eat the food I bought, and now I have to buy more?” Ugh. I’m getting anxious just thinking about it. But, then I started making bibimbap as a way to use up those veggies, and it is a blessing, folks.

Baked Sriracha Hot Wings

Step away from the deep fryer. If I can do it, you can, too.

You may have noticed a small sporting event taking place yesterday. I’m not a big fan of football, but I’ll take any excuse to make glamorized junk food. Last year, The Man and I decided we would actually sit down and watch the Super Bowl together, and to him that required fried chicken from a fast food joint. I know what you’re thinking, I know that you’re judging, and, you know what? I’m judging, too. The worst part is that it’s totally a thing in his mind, now. All televised sporting events must include chicken — delicious, fried chicken.

Salmon, salmon everywhere

A good friend of mine works for a seafood supplier, and every time I cook seafood he asks me what I paid for it. He’s always telling me that he can get me fantastic deals if I just buy from him, but for some super foolish reason, I had never taken him up on it… until now.

While in NJ visiting my fiance’s family, I received a text from my pal that simply read, “7 lbs of salmon. $7.” Let that sink in for a second. That’s a dollar a pound! And this is restaurant quality fish, my friends! I wasn’t going to be back for a few days, so I told him to toss it in the freezer until I could get back to deal with my prize. I immediately started fantasizing about all the things I would do with this fish. I could have never imagined what I would come home to. My friend came over the day after I returned with a huge Styrofoam, um, casket. There I was frantically rearranging frozen goods so that I could insert a giant slab of fish that spanned the length of the freezer. That was the easy part. The next day I thought I would break it into nice 6 oz portions. Hah. No way. That was NOT going to happen. I took a serrated blade to it and was lucky to hack it in half. I threw the tail end back in the freezer and deboned and scaled the other half (no easy task) before putting it in the fridge to thaw. Not really sure what I wanted to do with it, I decided to just bake the whole thing, and then figure out how to use the cooked salmon throughout the week.*

The first night we had perfectly moist salmon fillets. Easy peasy. Now it was going to get tricky. What do you do with cooked fish? How do you avoid drying it out? I’ll tell you: salmon cakes and salmon chowder. Boom. Problem solved. I can eat salmon (crab, fish, whatever) cakes for days, and the weather is just crisp enough that chowder is still a welcome addition to our meal rotation. The fiance is happy, I’m happy, and this salmon is finally disappearing. Life is good.

Salmon cakes with Sriracha cream. I could eat this everyday.