Firecracker Beef on Cold Rice Noodle Salad - Warning: Flavors May Explode in Your Mouth!

I love this recipe! It uses one of my favorite cuts of beef; skirt steak, maybe the most flavorful of all the supermarket beef cuts. It features a dizzying array of contrasting tastes and textures; hot and cold, sweet and sour, salty and bland, spicy and fresh, soft and crunchy, wordy and succinct. This video recipe also shows you how easy it is to prep rice noodles, which are great in all kinds of cold and hot dishes.

Skirt steak is extremely juicy, so it can take the "twice-cooked" procedure here. If you decide to substitute another cut, be careful not to overcook. A flank steak would probably work here, but I would try and find skirt steak. Don't let the scowl, and all that facial hair fool you, most butchers are nice, and will be more than happy to find you a skirt steak.

The level of spiciness is, of course, up to you, but what makes this dish so fun to eat is the warm, fiery beef on the cold, refreshing noodles. Don’t cheat yourself out of all those amazing endorphins because you are afraid of a little pain. Enjoy!
Click here for ingredients and transcript

The Matrix

I promised to post a photo of the crumb structure (aka "gluten matrix" if you're a bread geek) from my next loaf of sourdough. As several of you pointed out, I never photographed my last sourdough after it was cooled and sliced. Well, here you go. This batch used the same starter, but had a little bit of whole-wheat flour added to the sponge. Bread porn at its finest!

White House Easter Egg Roll Ends in Tragedy

What are comedians going to do when George W. and Dick are no longer around to provide such an abundance of material? Oh well, might as well enjoy it while it lasts. If you celebrate, have a happy easter, and if you don't, at least there will be lots of chocolate rabbits on sale Monday. Enjoy!

TGIGF - Thank God it's Good Friday

Having been raised a Catholic, I had a "fish on Friday" kind of childhood. I'm grateful for this since it gave me a taste and appreciate for seafood at an early age. I always feel sorry for the "I don't like fish" people, and when probed, they always give the fact that they weren't fed fish growing up as the reason. Or, they were fed badly prepared fish.

I'm sure I drove my parents crazy with the hundreds of impossible to answer questions such as "why fish on Friday," "what does this have to do with Jesus?" "Why would God care what I eat," "what if I accidentally eat fish on Friday?" So, while I didn't really understand these "rules," I enjoyed the dishes they made possible.

Here is a very old clip (so please excuse the low-res film and photo), which shows one of the easiest methods for preparing fish. It is almost impossible to mess up and doesn't make the whole house smell like fish, as some sautéed fish recipes do. Also, below the sole video recipe you'll see a very simple lemon butter sauce that goes perfectly with it. So, whether you are eating fish because it's a certain day of the week, or year, or you just feel like fish, give this recipe a try. Enjoy!



Here is the Lemon Caper Butter Sauce video recipe: