Cookbook #143: All-Time Favorite Casserole Recipes, Better Homes and Gardens, Meredith Corporation, Des Moines, Iowa, 1977.

A history of casserole-fear lurks in my household. Tuna casseroles prepared by my husband’s immediate family gave casseroles a bad name, as I discussed in a previous post, The ABC of Casseroles. Bottom line, for years I called a casserole dish by its ingredients rather than “such-and-such-casserole”.

On the other hand, I had a lot of good-tasting casseroles from my own mother’s kitchen in the 50s and 60s. Casseroles were great for gatherings, and leftovers made an easy meal the next day. Granted, many of the casseroles of that era relied on canned soups and vegetables; many were calorie-laden with rich creams and cheese. But delicious? Yes!

So I pulled All-Time Favorite Casserole Recipes from the shelf with mixed feelings. A good or a bad casserole book? And whose book was this? Mine, I guess. Published in 1977. No notes in it at all. Hmmm.

I turn the pages. The first recipe is “Sunday Chicken-Rice Bake”. Cream of mushroom soup, dried onion soup mix, canned mushrooms, frozen peas and carrots. I used to love a chicken-rice casserole made by my father’s mother – maybe this is the recipe! I continue through the pages, and find that about every fourth recipe interests me. Granted, many rely on food products I would rather avoid, like canned soups and vegetables and too much butter, but light makeovers could straighten that out. I like this cook book!

The chapters are: For the Family, For One or Two Servings (perfect for us!), For Entertaining, International Specialties, and Rounding Out the Meal.

I found a gem in the “For Entertaining” chapter: Tetrazzini Crepes.

This is a recipe for crepes filled with a turkey-ala-king-like mixture. In tetrazzini crepes, the mixture includes olives and cheese and sherry. Don’t I already make something like that? I searched my computer for “tetrazzini” but found nothing. Not ready to give up, I searched for “crepes” in my poultry recipe documents. “Turkey Crepe Casserole” has steamed vegetables in a white sauce, no that’s not it . . . “Tetrazini Crepes” – that’s it! I spelled tetrazzini with only one “z”. I do have a saved recipe for tetrazzini crepes in my repertoire!

I gleefully read my own Tetrazzini Crepes recipe. Here is the note I wrote to myself in my recipe document:

“This recipe is from one of my own recipe cards, typed on a lined 3×5-inch card. This indicates that it probably dates it to the 1970s. I made it again in 2012 and decided the recipe is a keeper! I’m not sure of the origin of the recipe, whether I found it myself or if I got it from Mother. I don’t remember it well, so I didn’t make it a lot, although I’m often looking for chicken or turkey crepe recipes. I think I forgot about it.”

The recipe typed on my recipe card is nearly word-for-word the recipe in All-Time Favorite Casserole Recipes. Here is the book version:

Here is the front and back of the recipe card that I typed in the 1970s:

Tetrazzini Crepes calls for leftover turkey, but you can always use cooked chicken instead. The sauce is a cheese sauce like you would use for macaroni and cheese, but with sherry added. Some of the sauce is reserved for the top of the crepes, and some is mixed with the turkey and olives and fresh mushrooms. (What is “tetrazzini”? An American dish named after the Italian opera star Luisa Tetrazzini.)

I made some changes to the recipe sometime over the years. The last time I made it, I made the full recipe of sauce and olives and crepes, but only used half the amounts of chicken and mushrooms. I used milk instead of cream in the sauce. For a meal for the two of us, I filled five crepes for the meal, and saved the rest of the crepes for another use (like blueberry crepes!).

I can hardly wait to make this again!

Tetrazzini Crepes
serves 2

• 1/2 recipe crepes, below (I always make a full recipe and use the extras elsewhere)
• 3 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 1 cup)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup chicken broth (or water)
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese (more than the original recipe!)
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1 cup chopped cooked turkey or chicken*
• 2 tablespoons sliced olives
• grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

*If you want to, you can start with one uncooked chicken breast (bone-in or boneless). Boil it in water until done, then remove the chicken from the bones (if necessary) and dice it. You can even reserve the cooking water as “chicken broth”.

Brown the mushrooms in a small amount of butter (or cook them dry until the moisture comes out). Transfer them to a bowl, then add the olives and chopped cooked turkey or chicken. Set aside.

Melt the 3 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan, stir in the flour and cook until the flour is absorbed. Slowly add the chicken broth and cook until the sauce thickens, then add the milk. Add more of one of the two liquids if necessary to make it the sauciness you want. Stir in the sherry and the cheddar cheese and heat just until the cheese melts. (This makes about 2 cups sauce.)

Add half the sauce to the reserved mushroom-olive-turkey mixture. Stir together, then use this filling to generously fill 5 crepes. Place the crepes in a lightly greased baking dish. Cover them with the other half of the cheese sauce (you may not use all of it, but we like things saucy). If you like, you can sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350˚ for 15-20 minutes (just until bubbly).

Crepes
“full recipe”

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 C flour

Mix in blender, let stand 1 hour before making crepes. Makes 12 crepes.

(I discuss how I cook crepes in this post.)

Comments

These were as good as I remembered! Here is the cheese sauce mixture re-heating in the pan. I usually heat the mixture a bit because the turkey might be cold from the refrigerator.

Here are the filled crepes before baking. This shows how much sauce I used on top. Plus, they are prettier at this step than when cooked!

We both scarfed these up. I had some fresh, hulled English peas from Trader Joe’s that I cooked and served beside them. With bread and salad, an excellent meal.

I was curious to see what I could find about this casserole book on the web. I found that I could buy it for one penny on Amazon. Better Homes and Gardens published 18 cookbooks in the “All Time Favorites” series (circa 1970-1990); I have 3 of these books. I covered “All Time Favorite Pies” in this post. I also found that Better Homes and Gardens keeps an Our Best Recipes website. This would be a good place to search for a new casserole recipe to beat the mid-week doldrums. Some of the website’s recipes still include canned soups, but many include interesting ingredients and combinations.

Cookbook #139: FYI Chem Recipe Book, Second FYI Chemistry Conference: Global Communication for a Sustainable World, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2007.

This delightful small book is a keepsake from the  second FYI Chemistry Conference, held at CU Boulder in the spring of 2007. I was still working then, and although I didn’t attend the conference, Dr. Margaret Asirvatham – a long-time colleague – gave me this book. (I’m not sure that the International Center for First-Year Undergraduate Chemistry, ICUC, the sponsor of the event, is currently active, since the url listed in the book says “server not found”.)

Conference participants contributed recipes from their homelands for this cookbook. Like many a group of university chemistry teachers, they came from all over the world: India, Israel, Italy, Peru, Mexico, the US, Greece, and Spain.

This is a geeky international chemistry version of a community cookbook!

I know I have made one recipe from this cookbook: Chicken Curry. This is one of Margaret’s recipes, and it was really good. I will make it again for this blog! A few of the other recipes I’d like to try are: Easy Rice Pilaf (baked with vermicelli), Vada (yellow split peas), Dolmadakia (stuffed grape leaves), Traditional Andalusian Gazpacho, Tacos Dorados de Pollo (shredded chicken fried in tortillas), Pinza (a traditional Italian cookie) and Chocolate-Mint Cookies (peppermint frosting!).

And here is my favorite ice cream recipe, although I can’t make it at home!

Liquid nitrogen! Since I was in the chem building for most of my working life, I’ve had this ice cream a lot. The undergraduate chemistry club liked to make it on “mole day” (celebrated on October 23), plus it worked it’s way into other parties and events.

Here is Margaret’s recipe for Chicken Curry.

This recipe calls for bone-in chicken pieces, and I have made it that way before. This time, I want to use some boneless chicken thighs instead. This makes eating the sauced-chicken easier (plus I have some boneless thighs in the freezer). I didn’t have fresh ginger, so I used ground ginger from a jar. My husband sees turmeric and sees yellow – and hates it. So, I left it out. When he asked what I was cooking for dinner, I said “spiced chicken over rice”. If I had said “curry”, he would have hated it. So. Below is my version of this dish.

Note: Don’t leave out the cayenne, garam masala, or coriander. Otherwise, this is just another chicken dish. The spices make it special.

Chicken Curry
serves 2-3

• 12-14 ounces boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts (or use bone-in pieces)
• olive oil for frying
• 1 smallish onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• 1/4-inch fresh ginger, diced OR use 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 medium or large tomato, diced
• optional: 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/4 – 1 teaspoon cayenne (to your own taste)
• 1/2 teaspon garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• salt (to taste)
• black pepper (to taste)
• fresh cilantro leaves to taste (optional)

Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks and fry in a little hot oil. Remove from the pan and set aside. Fry the onion (and fresh ginger, if you are using it) in a little hot oil until it softens and is lightly brown. If you are using ground ginger, sprinkle it over the onions as they cook. Add the garlic and stir about half a minute.

Add the chopped tomato and cook 5-7 minutes. Add the turmeric (if using) and cayenne and cook at low heat for a few more minutes, then add the yogurt, garam masala, coriander powder, and salt and pepper. Stir well.

Add the chicken back to the sauce, stir, and then cook for about 30 minutes (more if you are using bone-in pieces). Serve over rice with cilantro leaves sprinkled on top if you like.

This did take quite a gathering of ingredients:

The final dish:

I loved this curry! My hubbie went back for seconds, so he liked it too (I never told him it was curry).

Another success in my kitchen lab!

Cookbook #136: Crockery Cookery, Mable Hoffman, H. P. Books, Tucson, AZ, 1975.

“Welcome to good eating! Slow cooking is the secret of good cooks the world over.” So begins the introduction to Crockery Cookery. This is a very friendly book – totally opposite from my last blog entry, Let’s Cook It Right. However, Mable Hoffman touts slow cooking just like Adelle Davis did, e.g., the slow-baked roast beef that I made last week. Hoffman writes that slow cooking “retains many vitamins high temperatures destroy.”

Mable Hoffman published 18 cookbooks over 25 years. She was one of the first to publish recipes specifically for slow-cookers. This 2010 article, Mable Hoffman dies at 88; slow-cooker pioneer wrote ‘Crockery Cookery’, tells us about her life and writing.

(See my first crockpot blog entry for a little on the history of crockpots.)

I like Crockery Cookery. Lots of good-sounding recipes with ingredients I usually keep on hand. The first chapters cover the use and care of slow cookers and measurement conversion charts, and a chapter titled “Consumer’s Guide) is of historical interest – it decribes the crockpots available in 1975. There is a temperature chart with details on how these recipes work with each type of pot. The soups and stews chapters are the ones I would use most often, but I noted the snack mix recipes (like chex mix) in the appetizers chapter as well. Of course, the recipes are 4 decades old, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t tasty.

And I’ll keep this cookbook for another reason: it was my mother’s. She noted several recipes and stashed clipped slow cooker recipes between several of the pages. I decide to make one of the recipes she marked with notes, German Short Ribs:

Short ribs are available bone-in or boneless. They are usually cut into individual ribs, like country-style pork spareribs. Short ribs are a flavorful but less-tender cut of meat: perfect for a slow cooker. I went to the butcher at Whole Foods and found short ribs that were in long chunks, both bone-in and boneless. The bone-in ones were very fatty and the boneless ones very lean. I got one bone-in rib for the flavor, and then four boneless ribs for the lower calories. Then I cooked them as in the above recipe, using my mother’s advice to cook for 1 hour on high and 7 hours on low.

German Short Ribs
serves 4-6

• 3-3 1/2 pounds beef short ribs (I suggest boneless ones)
• 2 tablespoons flour (for dredging the meat)
• salt and pepper
• oil (or lard or shortening) for browning the meat
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup chili sauce (can use ketchup)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons vinegar (I used white vinegar)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 tablespoons flour (for thickening)

Salt and pepper the short ribs and dredge in the 2 tablespoons flour. Brown on all sides in hot oil (I used groovy lard). I did this browning step in a pan on the stove; if your slow-cooker has a browning setting, you can do it in the cooker itself.

Remove the meat from the fat (drain it if you brown it in the cooker).

Combine the onions, wine, chili sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and chili powder in the slow cooker. Add the meat and mix.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove the meat from the cooker. Mix the final 2 tablespoons flour in a small amount of water and stir it into the sauce in the slow cooker. Turn the slow cooker to high and cook about 10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

Serve over wide noodles.

“Delicious flavor” just like my mother noted! The ingredient mixture was perfect. And it smelled really good cooking!

I cooked them an hour on high and 7 hours on low. But next time, I will cook them 6-8 hours on low. I think my crockpot cooks a bit higher on low than crockpots from the 1970s; anyway, I felt mine were a little overdone. The meat was broken down almost like a shredded beef dish. No complaints from my dining partner, though! I will make these again.

Note: We had leftovers so I froze the meat and gravy. A couple weeks later, I heated it up and added potatoes and carrots and served it like stew. This meat really has great flavor.

Note: These are the crockpot cookbooks that I have covered so far.

• The Electric Slow Cooker Cookbook 2/2013
• Crock-Pot Cookbook 8/2013
• New Crockery Cooker Cook Book 4/2014
• New Slow Cooker Meals 8/2014
• New Creative Crock-Pot Stoneware Slow Cooker Cookbook 4/2015

Cookbook #129: Mexican Cooking, The Pillsbury Company, 1995.

This is one of the series of “Classic Pillsbury Cookbooks” – I discussed their history in a previous post. This cookbook must have caught my eye enough to purchase it at the check-out stand back in 1995.

And I can see why it called to me then – the recipes are kind of the way I make Mexican food. Trouble is, I rarely follow a recipe for this type of cooking, I just toss it together. It’s hard to go wrong when you start with things like salsa and beans and tortillas and cheese and some sort of meat. I’m sure I got a couple good ideas from this book twenty years ago, but I didn’t mark any recipes. And today, I was able to find a recipe for this blog, but I will recycle the cookbook.

I decide to make “Chicken and Corn Tortilla Casserole”. It’s similar to Mexican Chicken Casserole, except it does not call for canned chicken soup and it does include pimientos and sour cream. Plus, the assembly method is different: instead of layering, you cut the tortillas in quarters and mix the chicken mixture together in a bowl before placing it in the casserole. Halfway through the cooking, you stir the casserole. My issue with most chicken/tortilla casseroles is that the tortillas turn to mush after cooking. Maybe this method will keep the tortilla texture better.

Here is the original recipe:

Of course I made a few changes. I didn’t have cooked chicken on hand, so I boiled two boneless chicken breasts to use in this casserole, then used 1 1/2 of them (1 1/2 cups). I used the cooking broth instead of store-bought broth. I didn’t have sour cream, so I used Austrailian-type full fat plain yogurt. I used more green chiles than called for and they were “hot green chiles”. I added a little chile powder and cumin to the chicken-tortilla mixture.

Mexican Chicken Casserole 2
serves 3-4

• 1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 4-oz. can chopped green chiles (mild or hot)
• pimientos: I found them in a 4-oz. can and used half the can; can substitute red or green bell peppers
• 1/2 teaspoon chile powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 6 or 7 corn tortillas, cut into quarters
• sour cream or plain yogurt, enough to cover top of casserole, about 1/2 – 3/4 cup
• green bell pepper strips

Combine the chicken, half the cheese, and the onion, broth, green chiles, pimientos, chile powder, cumin, and tortillas in a large bowl. Stir together. Pour the mixture into a 1 1/2 – 2 quart greased casserole.

Cover the casserole and bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes, stirring once during this baking time. After the 30 minutes, spread the sour cream over the top, sprinkle on the remaining cheese, and lay the bell pepper strips on top. Bake, uncovered, 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Let the casserole stand 5 minutes before serving.

Doesn’t it look pretty? I served it with some black beans mixed with freshly cooked corn off the cob and salsa, a lettuce salad with avocado, and heated corn tortillas. The taste of this casserole is very good, much like Mexican Chicken Casserole 1 but I liked the sour cream on top. (And I liked not having to use canned chicken soup.) The tortillas were once again mushy, but I guess that’s just the way these casserole are. The taste was great and it was a hit!

Cookbook #125: Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, Vol. 6, Had-Kid. Woman’s Day, Fawcett Publications, NY, 1966.

Cookbook number 125, halfway through my 250 Cookbooks! Coincidentally, I picked up this volume of Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery to do this week, and it’s Volume 6 of the 12 volume set – halfway through. Perfect for this week.

I tuck happily into this cookbook, remembering the unexpected treats I found in the first 5 Encyclopedias of Cookery. This one begins with haddock, hake, and halibut. Next is a “ham cook book”, then a “hamburger cook book”. My mother liked the chili meatballs in the hamburger cook book. Herbs – a great section that includes a several-page chart with drawings, descriptions, and culinary uses of over forty herbs, and a section on how to build your own herb garden.

Hermit: a dark spice cookie filled with fruits and nuts. Hominy, honey, horehound (an herb used to make horehound candy), hors-d’oeuvre, hot cakes. Hungarian Cookery: a great section with goulashes and stews and strudels.

Ice: a good read on the history of the household use of ice. Ice cream cookbook. India’s Cookery. Irish Cookery. Italian.

Jam. Jamaican soups. Jambalaya. Japanese Cookery. Jellies. Jewish Cookery.

“Lokshen Kugl” in the Jewish Cookery section: This is my real find in this volume of Encyclopedia of Cookery. I’ve been looking for this recipe since college. From my previous post mentioning kugel: “Way back in college, a friend brought a traditional Jewish kugel to a party. It had noodles and was sweet: I had never had anything like it before and loved it. To this day, I have never made a sweet kugel for myself, but just the mention of ‘kugel’ gets pings of longing zooming around my brain.” In that crazy brain of mine, I thought the dish was named “luchen-kugel”. I googled but did not find any recipe similar to the kugel my friend brought to that long-ago party. Now I see “Lokshen Kugl” in this cookbook and know it is exactly what I was looking for.

Back to the rest of the encyclopedia entries. Julienne, juniper berry, kabob (kebab), kale (pre-famous), ketchup, kid (as in the meat of a young goat slaughtered before being weaned).

Shall I make the Lokshen Kugl for this blog? Hmm, think I’ll wait for later, when I have someone other than my husband to share this discovery with. Instead, I decide to make “Hungarian Goulash” from the Hungarian Cookery section. Usually when I make a paprika-laden meat goulash, I start with a tender cut of meat like pork tenderloin or beef sirloin sliced very thin. I like my quick version so much that I added it to this blog as Pork with Paprika and Mushrooms. Now, I want to try the “Hungarian Goulash” recipe in this cookbook to compare and contrast a traditional recipe with my current one. Here is the original recipe:

I bought two pounds of beef chuck and cut it into 1 1/2-inch cubes, trimming off the fat as I did so. And then, over a pound of onions! I would never use that many if I were doing this recipe-less. I weighed the sliced onions to get the proper amount and the pile of onions was about the same size as the pile of meat! The meat is browned in lard – and yes, I have some. I simmered the meat and onions and paprika for at least a couple hours.

Below is my version of “Hungarian Goulash”. I’ll let you know if I like it as much as my quick version.

Hungarian Goulash
serves about 4

• 2 pounds beef roast, cut into 1-inch chunks (or, use stew meat)
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons lard
• 1 to 1/2 pounds sliced onions
• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika or 1 tablespoon hot paprika
• 1 tablespoon flour
• water (or white wine or a combination thereof) to cover the meat
• 1 cup sour cream

Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper to taste. Heat the lard in a heavy pan of appropriate size, then add the meat and brown on all sides. Add the onions and cook just until the onions begin to wilt. Stir in the paprika – the meat and onions should be a reddish brown (so add more paprika if necessary). Cook and stir until most of the pan juices are absorbed or evaporated. Stir in the flour and cook a minute or two. Then, add water/wine to cover the meat (I used water).

Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 1-2 hours. The onions will cook down to a “pulp” and the meat should become very tender. Check during the cooking time and add more liquid as necessary. ( kept my goulash at a fairly fast simmer and checked quite a few times; it took at least 2 hours for the meat to be tender and the onions pulpy.)

Stir in the sour cream and heat through but do not boil. Serve with noodles sprinkled with caraway seeds.

The sauce in this goulash is wonderful! The onions really were “melted” into it. I found the meat a little chewy, so next time I’d choose a better cut of meat (I used beef chuck and it was pretty fatty) or I would cut the meat into smaller chunks (I did 1 1/2-inch pieces). (I included these changes in my version of the recipe, above.) The caraway seeds mixed into the noodles were a great touch.

Do I like it better than my quick version? Not really, but I like it equally as much. The sauce and the meat have better flavor, but the beef was a bit tough and the goulash took a long time on the stove. This would work well in a crock pot or a pressure cooker, or, save it for a long and chilly winter day when you want the aromas of a great stew wafting from your kitchen for hours.

Note: This is the sixth in a series of 12 food encyclopedia volumes. I discussed the first five volumes here: Volume 1, Volume 2,  Volume 3, Volume 4. aand Volume 5.

Cookbook #122: Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens, Karen Adler and Judith Fertig, The Harvard Common Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 2006.

I love this cookbook. Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens pulls me out of my cooking doldrums – I can’t count the times I have flipped through its pages for ideas. Such fresh tastes! “Grilled Pork Tenderloin Salad with Steamed Baby New Potatoes and Anchovy Caper Vinaigrette” is one of our favorites. Fresh herbs and interesting spice combinations abound in most of the grilling recipes. Polenta, orzo, couscous, hearts of palm, jicama, fennel, capers, endives, hummus, curry . . . vegetarian, pork, beef, chicken . . . sandwiches, meats, salads . . . variety galore in this cookbook. I especially like the summer salad recipes. The only type of recipe I haven’t tried are the grill stir-fries.

Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens is also practical. I can easily find how to grill a pork tenderloin, for instance. It’s easy to mix and match ideas from different recipes. Instructions are always clear.

So this book’s a keeper!

Note that this cookbook was published in 2006. The authors, Karen Adler and Judith Fertig, are “The Barbecue Queens” (with the tiaras to prove it) and currently active in the commercial cooking community. Besides authoring numerous books, they have appeared on the Food Network, Better Homes and Gardens TV, PBS, and more. I plan to the BBQ Queens website for more grilling ideas.

I decide to make “Blackened Beef with Thai Chile Noodles, Mushrooms, and Baby Bok Choy” for this blog. Below is a scan of the recipe in spite of copyright issues (I think it’s okay) to show you the layout and style of this cookbook.

I’m going to vary this just a bit. For one, I think we want a little more meat. For three adults, I will use close to a pound of beef. The sirloin I have in the freezer is only about three quarters of an inch thick, but I’ll use it anyway. I want more garlic, but less hot chile.

I miss-read the recipe and added a couple drops of sesame oil to the noodles, and I liked it that way. When I served this, it begged for soy sauce, so we passed it at the table.

So. Below is my version (with a shortened title!).

Steak and Thai Noodles
serves 3-4

Noodles

• 8 ounces Thai-style rice noodles, cooked
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• a few drops of chile oil (if you have it)
• a few drops of (toasted) sesame oil
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• part of a small chile (like a jalapeno), chopped fine – use an amount suitable to your personal taste
• 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped lightly

For the grill

• sirloin steak, about 1 pound, thick-cut if possible
• portobello mushrooms, about 4 large, stemmed and wiped clean
• 4-6 baby bok choy (leave them whole)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• a few drops of sesame oil
• salt and pepper
• soy sauce (optional; pass at the table)

For the noodles, combine the oils, vinegar, herbs, garlic and chile for in a large bowl. Add the cooked noodles and toss. Sprinkle the peanuts on top. You can do this before you start grilling, if you wish.

Combine the vegetable oil with the sesame oil, brush some of this mixture on the mushrooms and bok choy, then on the meat. Salt and pepper everything.

Heat your grill (in your usual way) and then set the burners to medium high. Grill the steak over direct heat for 3-5 minutes per side, until medium-rare or medium, as per your own preference. At the same time, grill the mushrooms and bok choy over direct heat for about 2-3 minutes per side. As stated in the BBQ Queens original recipe, you grill: “until you have good grill marks and the vegetables have begun to soften.”

To serve, slice the steak and mushrooms into thin slices and the bok choy into bite size pieces and put on top of the noodles.

Serve! We liked a little soy sauce on top.

Here are my ingredients:

And serving:

This was a definite hit and I will make it again!