Seafood is always a nice treat. Seafood is somewhat available where I live, but it’s not always fresh or terribly affordable. For that reason I find flash frozen seafood to be both affordable and just as good in quality as fresh. Seafood goes great with oil, that’s what there are so many recipes for seafood with an oil and butter sauce. This tilapia and shrimp also have a very light flavor, so adding chives adds a nice flavor that might get lost if you choose a stronger fish like salmon.This recipe takes only as long as it takes to cook your noodles. The tilapia cooks up very fast and the shrimp, if frozen and pre-cooked, only takes about a minute to cook before you’ll have to start worrying about over cooking. This recipe made 4 Adult sized servings.
1. Begin boiling water and cooking pasta of your choice. Add oil to a frying pan and place over medium heat. Once hot add tilapia and butter. Cook for 2 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes.
2. Break up tilapia into large chunks. Add the shrimp, coat, and heat until warmed, Stir in Chives, then remove from heat. Strain pasta, plate, then top with seafood and some oil. Top with grated parmesan if desired.
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Two years ago I got married to my husband. We got married, bought a house, and moved in together. With that, we set up our wedding registry and got some of the most popular items on amazon. I asked and received the 18 piece T-fal set from Amazon. I also received a set of two Pyrex casserole dishes with lids, and Amazon’s 6 piece baking set. Of these items, I sadly only still have the Pyrex dishes. I knew at the time that I would be cooking at least a moderate amount, but I also assumed these items were of better quality. The reason I believed T-fal was a good set was because my parents still have their set from when they got married almost 40 years ago. The teflon has long worn from the bottoms of their pans, but they were good quality, were thick sided, and the handles weren’t even loose. I had things I liked about my set, but sadly there are also things that weren’t great about this set.
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The Cons
After only my second use, the medium sauce pan began to peel it’s teflon. After a year, the dutch oven also began to peel it’s teflon from the bottom edge. These pans are also relatively thin sided, and will dent if they fall off the counter. Further, the paint on the outside also wears off the outside after some use, and some even scratched off just from my drying rack. I wash my dishes by hand, so that didn’t cause any extra stress to the teflon. Next, several pans had handles begin to loosen after a year, but we do have a star driver set and were able to tighten them back up. Also, after only a week of use, one of the spatulas melted at the flipping end. I was able to cut off the melted plastic with a knife, but these utensils aren’t heat resistant, so they need to be kept way from all heat sources.
I do admit fully that I am incredibly rough on all my kitchen tools. I cook in my kitchen daily and multiple times a day, so I’m sure this set could work if you only cook at home 4-5 nights a week, but it could never work for someone like me who is tough on their stuff, uses them multiple times a day, and needs them to be reliable. After 2 years, I am retiring my most damaged pieces and adding in a new set.
The Pros
This set is not all bad. These pots and pans will show use quickly, but there are pieces of this set I will not be getting rid of any time soon. My favorite part of this set is the frying pans. If nothing else, the set was worth just them. Go get a T-fal frying pan if you ever need a new one and you won’t be disappointed. These frying pans heat up fast and the nonstick keeps all types of food from sticking. Though the heating isn’t always even, especially on a wrong sized burner, these pans are great for eggs, burgers, and cheese sauces. I love these pans and though they don’t look brand new any more, they still work perfectly. The other two pans I’ll be keeping are the deep skillet and the square pan. I don’t use these pans often but I’ve found them to be useful for what I use them for. The deep skillet is great for deep frying. You can easily add 3-4 cups of oil and still have high enough sides to not get grease burns. I also like the square pan for smash burgers. The low sides also helps make flipping easier.
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New Set
So to fill in the gaps left by the few failed pans, I decided a higher quality set was necessary. I spent a few days researching and decided to buy this set from Circulon. I just received this set last week and have only had the chance to use a few pieces, so I’ll have to keep going to give a review. But, my initial impression was very good. These pans are heavy and thick with a beautiful finish, but we’ll see how they hold up to my use!
This Asian beef is easy to make and can serve lots of people. This recipe is also great for using up leftover veggies or to help use some things up from the freezer. This Asian beef is flavorful and pairs great with the rice. I like to place about 1/4 cup of meat on 1 cup of rice then stir it all together before eating. This ratio is my favorite and the flavor is in every bite! This recipe is very similar to Korean beef, but really it was just a way for me to use up leftover beef dumpling filling from the previous night. This recipe makes 4 adult servings.
1. In a bowl, mix together meat, sesame oil, oyster sauce, chives, and ginger. Mix together then transfer to a hot wok and cook until browned. Add any desired vegetables, 1/2 cup water, soy sauce, and garlic, then cook until vegetables are soft, 4-5 minutes over medium heat. Serve over rice.
Homemade pot stickers/dumplings are delicious. Sometimes homemade isn’t always worth the effort for just a few dumplings, but dumplings are much cheaper to make than to buy frozen. In the same way, it is also unnecessary to make homemade dumpling wrappers, but not everyone has a stack of wrappers in their freezer. This was my second time making homemade dumplings. Last time I made Pork Dumplings and they were delicious. This beef dumpling recipe is just as good. The flavorful filling is my favorite part of this dish, and the taste paired with the dipping sauce makes this dish even more savory and flavorful.
This recipe makes 10 dumplings, making 3 servings of food. I’m still not very good at making these pot stickers. We tried both pan crisped and boiled, and pan crisped were far superior with the crisp bottom being a huge highlight. Once the dumplings get added to the water, you cannot touch them until you’re sure the bottoms are crisp enough. This is tough because you’ll feel really nervous that the bottoms are burning, but they don’t really burn. One way to tell when they are fully crisp is when the starch web on the bottom of the pan is a crisp sheet. If you try to remove them too early, you will likely tear your dumplings, so patience is worth it. For this, I also recommend a non-stick pan.
1. Slowly add the water to the flour until a supple dough is formed. You may not need all the water. Once dough is hydrated, but not sticky, divide into 10 portions. In a bowl, mix together meat, half the sesame oil, the oyster sauce, chives, and ginger. Place 1-2 Tbsp of mixture on the homemade wrappers and seal.
2. Fill a frying pan 1/2 with water, and add the dumplings leaving space so they don’t touch. Place over medium high heat and cover. Cook until all water evaporates. Remove the lid and cook until the bottom of the dumplings are crisp. Break free from bottom of the pan, and plate. Mix together soy sauce, remaining sesame oil, and garlic, and serve as dipping sauce.
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