Steak and Roasted Pepper Sandwich

So I finally have the recipe what you will be using the roasted peppers from the previous recipe. I have been playing catchup since the hard drive incident and I hate to admit it but I fed my husband frozen pizza because I was so swamped with trying to finish the last of my to do list. But I finally made the sandwiches and prepared the recipe and photos. The recipe is our special steak sandwich served with roasted peppers and sauteed mushrooms. It it's a great meal that if you plan ahead for will take virtually no time to prepare and one that is still healthy and delicious. I like to call this a perfect hungry man sandwich, but honestly it's a meal I too enjoy very much.

Ingredients:
3 large bell peppers. roasted
1 lb. or 500 grams of sirloin steak
1 can of mushrooms ( actual mushrooms used 8 oz./230 grams)
1 medium onion
2 Tb. olive oil
salt
black pepper
2 tsp. granulated garlic
1 tsp. Paprika
cheese slices of your choice
Sandwich rolls

1. Roast and peel the pepper, this can take anywhere to 40 minutes, (please see previous post). Tenderize the steak and slice into thin bite size pieces, set aside. Drain the mushrooms and thinly slice the onions. Heat 1 Tbs. of olive oil and once it's hot saute the mushrooms until they begin to brown a bit. Then add the onions to the pan and saute until the onions are soft and transparent. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste as well as 1tsp. of the garlic , stir and saute for another 5 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and onions from the pan and set aside.

2. Add the remaining 1 Tbs. of the olive oil to the same pan and saute the steak sprinkle salt, pepper and remaining 1 tsp. of garlic over the steak and cook until it is cooked through. Lastly add the mushrooms and onions to the pan then sprinkle the paprika over the ingredients and stir well. Turn the heat down to low cover the pan and allow the mixture to cook for another 10 minutes.

(The following is a suggested way of assembling the sandwich, you can choose to arrange as you like.) Slice the sandwich rolls and spread some steak and mushroom/onion mixture onto the roll. Then add some roasted pepper slices and cheese. You may choose to melt the cheese a little more by wrapping the sandwich in paper towels and microwaving for a few seconds or placing the sandwich under the broiler for a crispy bread and melted cheese.

Serve with potato salad, french fries, roasted potatoes, baked potato, chips or any other side dish you like.

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How to Roast Bell Peppers

This recipe or rather how to guide is an important one for us to learn. The reason is that once you start roasting peppers at home you will be addicted to the smell and the taste. I like to use roasted peppers in sandwiches, as toppings , to blend into sauces or soups, puree with other vegetables to create spreads, salads, and simply eating a roasted bell pepper will leave your tummy very satisfied.

The next recipe I will be sharing following this one requires roasted bell peppers so I thought I'd give you a quick lesson in case any of you don't know how to roast them. You will also notice that I didn't include measurements, the reason is that it's really up to you. I also think that adding spices and herbs really enhances the flavors of the peppers. The herbs have been put under optional because again it is up to you or to what you have available in your kitchen. Sometimes I use all and sometimes I don't and sometimes I use some, so you see it's all about how you feel that day.

Ingredients :

Bell peppers (red, yellow and orange are the best tasting)

olive oil

salt

ground black pepper

garlic powder

optional:

dried basil

dried oregano

dried thyme

1. Preheat the oven to 200c or 392f , line a baking sheet with baking paper then set aside. Rinse and slice the peppers in half then cut off the stem and seeds. Mix the spices in a small bowl until well combined. Rub the peppers with a little bit of olive oil on both the outside and inside.

Sprinkle and rub in a little bit of the spice mixture on both the outside and inside of each pepper. Place the peppers outer side up on the baking sheet.

2. Roast in the center of the oven for about 30-45 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the peppers. Turn the peppers halfway through or once the top begins to blacken and continue to roast until the pepper is completely soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Once cooled peel off the blackened and rough skin.

Leave as is or slice or dice to use as you like. For the next recipe you may want to choose to leave whole or slice, you will see.

Ok now you are ready for the next recipe coming soon.

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Good News Update !

Hi everyone,

I am very happy to say that we were able to recover most of my data off of my corrupt external hard drive!, YAY!! I have to thank my husband because he found this great software and was able to run it and restore the drive. If any of you are interested the software it's called DiskWarrior, it worked perfectly and I would highly recommend it. I have been spending the past several days reorganizing the data and as far as I can tell only a small amount of files were lost. I have been smiling and gleaming with relief that the most important files were not lost, phew!

I also want to thank all of you for the sweet and thoughtful messages and for all the well wishes. It really means a lot and helped me to stay positive and not give in to the stress of it all. Not one tear was shed nor a single drop of alcohol was needed, lol. Since I have been away I have received many emails that I will be starting to respond to in the coming days, so please be patient with me. There is also a huge backlog of Facebook and Foodbuzz messages that I will also be attending to soon. In addition to all of this I have a couple of new recipes that I will be posting, again in the coming days.

Again Thank you all and see you back here in a couple day! Have a great weekend!

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Important Message Please Read!

Dear Spicie Foodie followers,readers, visitors and fellow Foodie Friends,

First if I may give all of you a very important tip, back up all of your data, photos, file, blog, articles and anything else of importance to you.


I want to let everyone know that I will not be updating or sharing any new recipes for a week or two. No I am not abandoning my beloved blog, I am being forced to take a break. On Friday my external hard drive started acting strangely. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and this is where it stands, thanks to my wonderful husband I was able to recover part of the data off my external hard drive but not all of it. You see I have been using my external hard drive to save a lot of my work and not backing it up on my computer nor burning it onto DVDs. Well much of the data that I have lost was for my Spicie Foodie blog not to mention years and years of other photos, files, iTunes music, work related data and well I don't know what else. Honestly I don't know whether to cry like a child or have a couple of drinks to numb the shock.

Thankfully my husband thinks he may have found a software that maybe able to restore the rest of the drive. I am keeping my fingers crossed or as I say in Spanish Changitos. So I will be spending the rest of the foreseeable future trying to sort out the data saved and making sense of what is lost and remains in limbo. Unfortunately until I have this sorted out I cannot devote any time to anything else. I look forward to sharing my recipes and drooling over all of yours very soon. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you all have a great week!

Please back up all of your data don't learn the hard way like I am!

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Plum Granita with 3 types of Plums (Vegan Treat)

Today I have another recipe review recipe for a Plum Granita. Granita is an Italian dessert made from fruits, sugar and spices that are pureed then frozen and served similar to a sorbet or an Italian Ice. If you are looking for a healthy and refreshing treat for the whole family this is it. It's also a great alternative to making ice cream because you don't need an ice cream maker and of course the calories will be much lower in the Granita than in ice cream.

The recipe come from Epicurious.com, and it is a great recipe for Granita beginners. When ever I try a recipe that isn't mine I usually end up tweaking it or adjusting it to my taste and this recipe was no different. You will notice the changes I've made with an * next to them. Also the recipe calls for one type of plum but I had 3 different types that I wanted to combine to see what it would taste like. The three plum varieties are Black Plums , your standard sweet and juice dark plum. The second type is a local Czech variety that is slightly sweet and slightly tart but still delicious called Damson Plums. The last or third type is Empress Plums also slightly tart and a bit dry. You will also notice that the recipe suggest topping the Granita with fresh fruit, I think it's a great idea I just ran out of fruit but maybe next time. Well on to the recipe, enjoy!



Plum Granita with Summer Fruit (adapted from epicurious.com )

Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 whole allspice
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise *(substituted with 1tsp. Vanilla extract* )
1 1/2 pounds plums, preferably red-fleshed (about 7 large), pitted, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
*plus 1 Tbs. Plum wine

Fruit Toppings:
1 peach, pitted, thinly sliced
1 nectarine, pitted, thinly sliced
1 plum, pitted, thinly sliced

Instructions:

Combine water, sugar, allspice and cinnamon in heavy small saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced to 3/4 cup, about 2 minutes. Cool syrup completely.

Puree 1 1/2 pounds plums in processor. Press enough puree through sieve to measure 1 1/2 cups. Strain syrup into puree and blend well.** I used all of the plum puree including the skins because I didn't want to be wasteful- But be warned that this may make the Granita a bit more tart so compensate with more sugar if you like** Transfer mixture to 9x5x3-inch glass loaf dish.

Freeze plum mixture until flaky crystals form, stirring every 30 minutes, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Cover; keep frozen.)

Spoon granita into 4 glass goblets. Top with peach, nectarine and plum slices and serve immediately.

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Czech Beer, Hot Dogs and Feeding Time at the Zoo

Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a relaxing and sunny weekend. I don't have a recipe for you today, ( I will in the coming day or so), instead I wanted to share some photos from our trip to the Zoo. Besides the adorable animals I have also snapped photos of what we ate at the Zoo. This was our first trip to Prague Zoo and it was a fun day with perfectly mild weather to enjoy the fresh air, animals and nature. Prague Zoo was built in 1931 and it has survived a World War and the worst floods in Prague history. The floods happened in 2002 and much of the old city and lower lying areas of Prague as well as large sections of the Zoo were completely underwater. We were not here when the floods happened but all these years later you will find reminders of the damage and how high the water levels rose to. These floods actually affected much of the Czech Republic as well as the countries in this region causing deaths and billions of Euros in damages. Some of the saddest photos you see of the floods are of the rescuing of the animals from the Prague Zoo. Sadly not all of the animals made it out alive, a few animals had to be put down because they were trapped and there was no way of rescuing them and sadly some drowned. After the floods many people donated money to the Zoo and the Zoo has been steadily if not completely back to normal. In fact the Prague Zoo was voted as the 7th best Zoo in the world by Forbes magazine. We both enjoyed the walk through the small but friendly, interesting and very natural setting of the Zoo. It feels like you are in a big Forest preserve and the animals are housed in very natural enclosures. In some we were able to get so close to the animals that it was almost uncomfortable, well for little 'ol me it was. I took the photos with a regular point and shoot camera without any fancy zoom , so you can see how close we were able to get to the animals.

The entrance to the Zoo

Oops should have learned the animal names in Czech, good thing there are drawings of the animals next to the name.

Wait, first it's Pivo time (Beer in Czech, pronounced pee-vo) Mmm Krusovice is my 2nd favorite Czech beer.

Sea Lion entertaining the silly humans with it's awesome tricks.

An Elk??? I should have paid better attention

An adorable Goat,from the children's petting zoo,soaking up the sun.

Canis lupus familiaris or man's best friend. He belonged to a Zoo keeper and was resting in the children's petting zoo.

The chair lift, the entrance building was completely underwater - that's high!

Nap time for this adorable Gorilla

The baby Gorilla was born this April , napping with her Mommy.

Sweet dreams! Isn't he adorable ?

Perfect timing, feeding time at the big cats enclosure.

We were able to get up so close to the glass. What an exhilarating experience it is to see this magnificent creature eating so close to us.

I wonder if he wishes he had thumbs to grab his bone and hold it still? just kidding.

The King and Queen of the Zoo. I guess they weren't hungry yet because their food was inside and they were still walking outside.

Lunch Time!! This is a parek v rohlik (frankfurter in a roll) or a Czech hot dog. A Czech roll is hollowed out and you can have either ketchup or mustard or neither added to the inside of the roll then the hot dog is placed inside. It was a perfect lunch with a refreshing ice cold beer. Two hot dogs and two 1/2 liter beers for only 90KC that's $4.60 or €3.60, what a deal!

Get in my mouth , drobro chut! (bon appetite) yum, yum and brrrrppp.......excuse me..... it's the beer..... no really!

Let's burn off that beer and walk to see the polar bears, so cuddly.

What happened next I can't show you, because I was too scared to take any photos. The Bat house -eek! I am afraid of them and what happens to me as I'm holding on to my husband for dear life? Yup I got pooped on by a bat on my shoulder, arrrgh ! Then the one bat smacked my husband's forehead with it's wing. Can we go please... so I can go back to acting like a 30 year old instead of a 3 year old?

Ah that's better, the Indonesian Jungle pavilion. It was very hot and humid with a lot of jungle recordings and monkeys everywhere. There are so cute, aren't they?

Sleepy Lemur, the enclosures is open and they are free to walk around and past the visitors. Just don't touch them please, but look how close you can get - right next to them.

Czech Gelati, yup the same Italian ice cream treat is available all over Prague. Make mine a pistachio flavor, wow only 12KC or $.62 or € .48. (Please pay no attention to my stumpy thumb)

LOL! What a Mexican restaurant in the Zoo? Yes, we saw this cafe as we were leaving and they offered some well know Mexican fast food dishes. No we didn't eat there, maybe next time or maybe we'll stick with yummy Czech fast foods.

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Zanahorias en Escabeche or Mexican Spicy Pickled Carrots

Zanahorias en escambeche translates to pickled carrots from Spanish. (Specifically zanahorias is the word for carrots and escabeche is the pickling juice.) The zanahorias are usually served as an accompaniment or condiment to Mexican dishes. Have you noticed when you buy certain brands of canned Jalapenos there are usually a few carrots and onion, well these are the same thing. When we open a new can of Jalapenos and I see the carrots and onions inside I immediately grab those and start munching away, they are just so good. I've always liked having these on the table to top weather it be my tacos, testates or well just about any dish that I would use a Jalapeno to top.

The carrots should have a bit of a crunch to them and not be too soft or mushy, but I understand we all have different taste and that is why I am leaving the "crunchiness" level up to you. These of course are spicy pickled carrots, but please feel free to adjust with less or by possibly omitting the chili peppers if you like. Also please notice the chili pepper suggestions in the recipe below, you may use any of the peppers listed or a combination for a different taste.

Your Ingredients:

3/4 lb. or 340 grams of Carrots

1 large yellow or white onion

2-3 fresh hot peppers ( Jalapenos,Serrano,Dutch red chili)

4 garlic cloves

3 bay leaves

1 teas. peppercorns

1 teas. oregano

1 teas. salt

2 cups or 500 ml plain vinegar

3 cups or 750 ml of water

1/8 cup or 30 ml of olive oil

Jars and lids, sanitized ( I am using 2 small you may only need 1 large one)

Frying pan

1 Pot -to mix water and vinegar

* To prepared or sanitize the jars and lids for : You can do this quickly by placing the jars and lids inside a large and deep pot filled with water and bring to a boil. Leave the jars and lids inside the boiling water until the carrots are ready to be poured in. Another way to sanitize the jars by washing them in a dish washer with very hot water temperature.

1. Peel the carrots and slice into 2 inch/ 5 cm pieces either straight across or diagonally. (*Please notice that if you are using small carrots this size will seem to large, so just slice either diagonally or into coins to the size you feel suits your taste*). Peel and chop the onion into 4 parts, peel and slice the garlic cloves into halves. Slice the chili peppers into quarters.

2. In a pot mix the water and vinegar and bring to a soft boil under low medium heat. Let sit covered until it is ready to be used in step #4.

3. In a a large frying pan heat the oil,add the carrots and cook for about 5 minutes. Next add the chili, onion,garlic, and bay leaves then cook for another 10 minutes. Add the salt,oregano and peppercorns and cook for about 3 minutes, stir to combine the spices and vegetables well. Test a piece of carrot to see how crisp or tender it is. The texture is up to you.

You will now need to carefully remove the sanitized jars and lids from the water, being careful not to burn yourself. Use a pair of thongs and or oven mitts to prevent burning. Make sure the jars are empty of any water.

4. In one of the sanitized jars place enough carrot mixture until it is 3/4 filled, then pour in water vinegar mixture, but not all the way to the rim leave enough room so it doesn't spill. Seal tightly and set aside until the other jar is filled and ready. Now both the jars need to sit and cool down, make sure they are tightly sealed. Once they are at warm to the touch or at room temperature you can put them in the refrigerator. Let them sit in there at least overnight or longer if you want, the longer the more the flavors will mix. The carrots will keep up to a couple of months in the refrigerator.

These can be served as a garnish or side with any Mexican meals. Or if you love them like me you will eat them straight out of the jar as a spicy snack, yum!

*UPDATE* (12th August 2010)
This recipe is being feauted on Food News Journal Best of the Blogs. Check it out ↓ and thank you Heather/ GirliChef for letting me know.

*Thank you Barb for catching the typo*

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Thutilinanga Indonesian Chili Fried Eggplants/Aubergine

Eggplant also know as Aubergine is one of our favorite vegetables. Well technically it is a fruit but people use it as a vegetable. These veggies are in the same vegetable family as tomatoes, sweet peppers and potatoes. I know it's kind of weird thinking that all these vegetables belong in the same family. Eggplants/Aubergine come in a variety of shapes and colors but I think to most of us in the west we are most familiar with the long almost pear shape purple varieties. People in Asia are also familiar with long skinny, round and small eggplants. Since I've only had the long pear shaped I could not tell you how and if they differ in taste. Maybe some of my readers could enlighten me ?

Eggplants are very good for our bodies, have you ever noticed that the darker fruits,vegetables and greens are usually the best and healthiest options. They are a good source for Vitamins B1,B6 , dietary fiber, potassium, folic acid, magnesium, cooper, niacin, antioxidants and the list goes on. In studies Eggplants have also proven to lower cholesterol as well as help manage type 2 diabetes and their GI is 15 - quite low. In addition to being very beneficial to our bodies I find Eggplant to be a very versatile vegetable that will absorb any type of spices and sauces well so it makes a great cooking ingredient.

The recipe I'm sharing with you today is from one of my Indonesian cookbooks our FDG so kindly brought for me from Indonesia. ( I spoke about it here ) I'd like to tell you that my photo doesn't do the dish justice, Even though it doesn't look so pretty it really was delicious so delicious that I've made a several times now. I followed the recipe pretty much as in the book but one time I changed a couple of things, please see the notes. The eggplant was soft with a little bit of spiciness from the chili and all the flavors really came together. I hope you try the recipe and see how flavorful it tastes.

Ingredients:

(serves 2-3)

2 medium eggplants ( aubergine)*

2 Tbs. vegetable oil

1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 red chili, thinly sliced ( or any color you have)

1-2 tsp. ground chillies

2 Roma tomatoes, quartered

1/4 tsp. salt

2 medium eggs,lightly beaten

6 3/4 oz or 200 ml thick coconut milk ( I have also substituted with vegetable broth)

In addition I have on occasions also added the following ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small piece of ginger, finely chopped

(*The recipe book calls for 4 Aubergines, they are refereeing to long and thin Asian Aubergines but instead I have used 2 large and thick western Aubergines. *)

1. Slice off both ends of the clean eggplants then slice them in half cutting widthwise. Take each half and slice into quarters lengthwise. Heat the oil and fry the eggplants until they have browned , making sure to turn so they fry on all sides. In the mean time slice the onion, chili and cut the tomatoes into quarters. Once the eggplants are browned and soften through place on a serving platter or large plate and set aside. In the same pan fry the onions until they are translucent then add the chili and fry for another 3 minutes. Next add the tomatoes, ground chili, and salt giving the ingredients a good stir. Fry until the tomatoes have broken down.

2. Next push the vegetables aside and add a little more oil to the pan if necessary, pour the beaten eggs. Cook the eggs though and break up to scrambled eggs. Stir and combine the egg into the vegetable mixture. Pour the thick coconut milk or if substituting like I have pour the vegetable broth. Stir to well combine all ingredients and allow to come to a boil.

Pour the vegetables mixture over the eggplants and serve.

The eggplant tasted much better than it looks in my photos, sorry the photos aren't very good. Both my husband and I really enjoyed them, we ate all of it. They were served on the side of Nasi Goreng for a Vegetarian dinner. ( Recipe for Nasi Goreng is here )

I leave you with another little fact about Eggplant/Aubergines , they are native to the Indian Sub-Continent and then were spread throughout many regions of the world. Funny I always pictured or thought they were native to Mediterranean areas in Europe.

* This dish can be enjoyed as a main dish or as a side dish. If you are a vegetarian and don't eat eggs I think Tofu instead of eggs would taste just as good. *

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DMBLGIT award and Kofola

I'm so excited I have received another award, this time it's from the monthly photography contest DMBLGIT. July's installment was hosted by the lovely Asha from Fork Spoon Knife.

The award was for 3rd Place and I am humbled and honored to have been one of the winners. As always there were some beautiful shots by very talented fellow bloggers and to have been included in the winners list came as a very welcomed surprise. I'm excited because this is my second time winning, you can see the previous one here. The winning shot was from my Almond milk recipe.By the way they need people to host the monthly events, if you are interested please visit SpittoonExtra for more details.

When I saw the email from Asha yesterday I felt like giving myself a little treat. I had a Kofola. What is a Kofola? it is a Czech/Slovak soft drink that is similar to Coca Cola and Pepsi. In fact the drink is the #1 rival to those companies here in the Czech/Slovak lands. Some of you may have noticed that I'm not big on sugar and certainly not on sugar drinks/ soft drinks or as I like to call them sugar water. It's not something I like to drink well, ever. But Kofola was something I had to try. I have been asked by some Czechs if I have ever tasted Kofola and they couldn't believe I had not. You see they are very proud of their uniquely Czech product and they started to tell me a bit about this drink and insisting that I had to try it some time. Well of course it's something that had to go on my list of things to try. I did a little search and here's what I found out : ( per Wikipedia)

"Kofola originated in the Czechoslovak pharmaceutical company Galena in the early 1960s during research targeted at finding a possible use for surplus caffeine produced in the process of coffee roasting. The resulting dark-coloured, sweet-and-sour syrup Kofo became the main ingredient of a new soft drink named Kofola introduced in 1962.
During the 1960s and 1970s Kofola became exceedingly popular in communist Czechoslovakia because it substituted for Western cola-based drinks like Coca-Cola or Pepsi, which were available but priced at more than twice the price of Kofola. Kofo syrup, the main ingredient of Kofola, consists of 14 natural ingredients (such as extracts from apple, cherry, currant, or herbal aroma), sugar, and caramel. In comparison with Pepsi or Coca-Cola it contains 30% less sugar, a little more caffeine (17 mg/100ml, Coca-Cola 15 mg/100ml) and it does not contain phosphoric acid. "

I have to admit for someone who doesn't normally drink or like this type of drink I quite enjoyed Kofola. Though it was still a bit sugary for my taste, it wasn't over the top sweet. It had a slightly fruity flavor with a hint of what I though was cloves - I could be wrong. It was also fun drinking it out of an old fashion glass bottle with a straw. Either way I'm glad I finally tried it even if I can't manage to drink another one I'll remember it fondly. Unfortunately I didn't find any evidence of this drink being available outside of this region. But if you're ever visiting make sure you try the drink, well if you can fit it in with all the beer tasting that takes place here. Czechs are also very proud, as well they should be, of their beers.

Haha maybe the company will come across my blog and get the idea to export it all over the world :) yeah right.

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