K's Famous Ground Beef Stir-Fry

March is National Frozen Foods month and frozen foods are on sale and retailers are offering coupons every day on fantastic items. This is a great recipe to use some frozen green beans, frozen onions, or even frozen ginger. My friend K taught me to make this dish many moons ago and it is a perennial favorite in our house!

Ingredients:

1 pound hamburger meat
1 14-16 oz. package of frozen green beans
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
1 TB stir-fry sauce OR hoisin sauce OR apricot jelly
1/2 inch of peeled and minced fresh ginger OR equivalent ginger from a tube
1/2 of a chopped onion (optional)
Brown rice made according to package directions
Olive or sesame oil
Soy sauce

Start your rice on the stove top. We make brown rice which takes about 45 minutes so I wait until the the rice is about half cooked before I start cooking the rest of the meal. You can use the intervening time to chop up your garlic, ginger or onions as needed.

Take a pound of hamburger meat, season it with salt, pepper and a few red pepper flakes (optional.) Cook in a nicely seasoned iron skillet or other non-stick pan. If you are using a low fat kind of ground beef you may need to add a tablespoon of oil or fat to the pan. Once the meat has been fairly well browned but not cooked through yet add several dashes of soy sauce, a half inch of minced fresh ginger and two minced garlic cloves. When the meat is cooked through, set it aside in a bowl. In the same pan add a bit more oil and sauteed your onions if you are using them, then add the frozen green beans, season with a heavy pinch of salt and place a lid over the pan and let it steam/cook on medium high heat for 3-5 minutes. Remove the lid and stir the vegetables, hit them with a bit of soy sauce, a tablespoon of hoisin or stir-fry sauce or even a dab of apricot jelly (tonight I used a sample I received in the mail of Sweet Chili Sauce). Add meat mixture back to pan, stir again and replace the lid and turn off the heat but leave it on the burner as the rice finishes. When all items are cooked serve rice topped with stir-fry mixture and enjoy!

The fish so nice they named it twice

Mahi mahi is sometimes known as "dolphin" has nothing to do with the underwater mammal. It is a nice light, white fleshed fish and it does deliciously well fried, grilled or baked as we have here in this recipe.

Baked Mahi Mahi

3-4 mahi mahi fillets
Salt, pepper
Soy sauce
1/4 C key lime juice
Spritz of olive oil

Salt and pepper fillets on both sides, mix together key lime juice and several shakes of soy sauce, stir to blend. Take an olive oil mister and spray oil all over the fillets on both sides, pour marinade over fish and allow to sit for an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and add fish when heated. Bake fish for about 25 minutes or until fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.

While the fish was baking I made a pot of risotto and steamed some broccoli, pretty tasty stuff I must say. I am sort of having a love affair with risotto right now. I want to make my friend Kayla's recipe where she uses about 3 cups of mushrooms, cut into various thicknesses to make 1 cup (dry) of risotto. She minces the first cup and sautés it with butter and minced onion, then she adds some chopped sauteed mushrooms with the first cup of broth and then adds some quartered mushrooms with the second cup of broth and then adds one cup of white wine as the last cup of liquid. Then she cooks it all till creamy. She finishes it up with a bit of parmesan.