Chue's Barbecue (From Mhonpaj's Garden)

Ingredients:
1 lb flank steak, sliced thin against the grain
1/4 cup light soy sauce/fish sauce
3 Tbsp red Thai paste
3-5 green onions chopped
2 or more cloves garlic crushed (optional)
Handful of cilantro
Depending on how spicy you wish the dish to be, add 3-6 Thai peppers thinly sliced

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except beef in large bowl.  Stir well.  Add beef slices and marinade at least 30 minutes (better, several hours!).  Stir fry, broil or grill marinated beef slices

If necessary, add a bit more of other ingredients to cover beef while it marinades!

Chue’s spicy sauce

Ingredients:
Handful of cilantro sliced
2 slices of lime
Fish sauce
3 Thai peppers  (email mhonpaj@gmail.com if you can’t find them!)

Thanksgiving Bundt Cake Recipes

Maple Corn Coffee Cake

Ingredients
1 ear of fresh sweet corn or 1/2 cup canned
I TBSP butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp bourbon
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a 12 cup Bundt pan using butter and flour
Remove the corn from cob and saute in 1 TBSP butter until lightly cooked and set aside
In large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Add vanilla and bourbon and mix thoroughly.
In a third bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and cornmeal and set aside.
Add this dry mixture, alternating with buttermilk, to the butter-sugar mixture.
Stir in the corn and chopped walnuts
Pour butter into prepared Bundt pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 
Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before inverting it onto a oven-safe baking sheet or platter

For glaze, gently heat the maple syrup in microwave until hot, about 20 seconds
Brush the syrup over cake allowing it to soak in before adding more
Cover cake completely and place cake back in cooling-down oven for five minutes

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Cranberry Orange Bundt

Cake
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cut softened butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup sour cream
grated zest one one orange

Filling
8 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup orange juice

Lemon-Orange Glaze
1/4 cup orange juice
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare a 12 cup Bundt cake using butter and flour
For Filling combine cranberries, sugar, water, almond extract, and orange juice in small saucepan.
Bring to medium boil and cook, stirring constantly until berries pop and sauce thickens. Take off stove.
Set aside 10 to 12 cranberries that are intact.  Allow the mixture to cool at room temp.

For cake combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside
Beat the butter for several seconds in large mixing bowl.  Ad sugar and beat until smooth.
Add eggs and almond extract and beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.
Add flour mixture and beat until smooth.  Add sour cream and zest and mix well.

Pour half of batter into prepared pan.  Gently spoon about 2/3 of filling into batter taking care not to
let filling touch sides of pan.  Spoon remaining batter on top.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. 
Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverting on a serving platter.

To prepare glaze, place orange juice, lemon juice, and sugar in small saucepan.
Simmer on medium heat, stirring until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat until the cake is finished baking.

While cake is still warm brush on orange-lemon glaze.  When cake is cool, spoon the remaining filling
in between the flutes of the Cathedral Bundt.  Gently press whole cranberries (set aside from glaze) in
between the "cathedral windows."  If you make the cake with standard fluted Bundt, spoon the filling
over the top and stud with whole cranberries.

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Pumpkin Spice Cake

3/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 small can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp bourbon
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a 12 cup Bundt pan using butter and flour

Place chopped walnuts in a metal pan in the oven and toast for 10 to 15 minutes taking care not to burn.
Set aside nuts to cool.
Beat together oil, eggs, pumpkin, vanilla and bourbon.
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices.
Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix until combined.
Stir in walnuts and pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with dusting of confectioners' sugar or dollop of whipped cream

Memorial Day Grilling Recipes

These recipes come courtesy of Karl Benson of Cooks of Crocus Hill.  Yum... yum!

Thai Style Chicken Ke-bobs

Ingredients

Marinade
2 cloves Garlic
Pinch of Salt
2 teaspoon black peppercorn
Stems off 1 bunch cilantro
3 tablespoon fish sauce
1 can coconut milk

3 pounds Chicken thighs, cleaned and cut in half

Assorted seasonal Veggies

• Onion
• Peppers
• Eggplants
• Cherry tomatoes

Bamboo skewers soaked for 1 hour in water, before using.

Preparation
Combine garlic salt and peppercorns in a food processor or Mortar and Pestle. Process or pound into a smooth paste. Add cilantro stems and pulse or pound to incorporate into a smooth paste.

Transfer to a larger bowl and mix with fish sauce and coconut milk. Add the chicken pieces and allow to marinate for 2 hours.

While the chicken is marinating, cut the veggies into pieces sized similar to the chicken.

Assemble skewers
Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and thread along the bamboo skewers

You can assemble the skewers to resemble the Ke-bobs we all hold in our minds eye, a combo of meat and veggies on each skewer. Alternatively, you can assemble each skewer with individual ingredients to assure even cooking.

Serve with a heaping bowl of rice and Hot Sweet Dipping Sauce

Hot Sweet Dipping Sauce

This stuff is killer, so be sure to keep the left overs!

½ cup cider vinegar
½ cup sugar
1 or 2 cloves of garlic finely minced
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon chili pepper flakes

Assembly
Place the vinegar in a non-reactive heavy metal saucepan. Bring to boil, add sugar. Reduce the heat and stir continuously until the sugar dissolves.

Smash the garlic and salt into a paste using a Mortar and Pestle or with the back of a spoon on a plastic cutting board. Add the paste and the chili flakes to the vinegar mixture. Mix until well incorporated. Allow to cool to room temperature

Grilled Pineapple and Banana Sundaes

Ingredients

½ Pineapple, cored, peeled and cut into large 1 inch thick pieces
Juice from 2 oranges
Zest from one orange
3 tbs sugar
3 tbs fine chopped tarragon
2 bananas, peeled and cut into large pieces

Assembly
Bring place the orange juice in a non-reactive saucepan. Place the pan over medium and bring juice to a simmer. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Set aside.

Grill the pineapple and bananas over high heat until they show grill marks. Remove from grill.

Add pineapple to a food processor, set aside bananas.

Pulse pineapple a few times, add the orange juice. Pulse until mixture reaches a desired consistence. Add Zest and tarragon and pulse to incorporate.

To Serve
Vanilla Ice Cream into a small bowl. Add a few pieces of banana and top with warm sauce.

 All recipes inspired by our friends Jeff Alford & Naomi Duguid,

Seductions of Rice, Artisan Publishing