Lamb with Rosemary Honey Mustard Glaze

This recipe is one that Don found from Allrecipes. It is the best recipe I've ever had for lamb and all the ingredients are items we have on hand with the exception of fresh rosemary, which we do actually get. Usually we substitute for dry, which I imagine you could, but it really is awesome with fresh if you can get it for a reasonable price. Original recipe calls for leg of lamb, but we have always done it with a lamb roast, which we get at Costco. I imagine you could do it with pretty much any cut of lamb and it would still be great. We like making extra marinade to use as a sauce, it really is that good! Can be served with pretty much anything, we've done it a couple of times with a quinoa recipe and the flavors went together really well. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (We use the Grey Poupon brand)
• 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Optional: dash each of lemon juice and balsamic vinegar (Haven't tried it this way yet, but want to at some point. Some of the reviewers prepared it this way and it's supposed to be really good!)
• 2 lbs of lamb roast approx. (Original recipe calls for 5 lbs of lamb leg, but the roasts we get are smaller)
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt 

PREPARATION:

1. Combine the honey, mustard, rosemary, pepper, lemon zest and garlic. Mix well (some reviewers recommend putting it all in the blender to mix. I think if you want to make extra to use it as a sauce afterwards I would definitely recommend that b/c of the garlic cloves) and apply to the lamb. Cover and marinate in the fridge overnight. 
2. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
3. Place lamb on a rack in a roasting pan and sprinkle with salt to taste. Cover loosely with a foil tent.
4. Cook for 20 min at 450 then turn the oven down to 350 and cook for 1 hour. Remove the foil and turn the heat temp up to 400 and cook for another 10 - 15 min. (Consider simplifying, I don't know if all this is quite necessary...will double check the next time we make it and update this.)
5. Let the roast sit for 10 min and then carve and serve with extra marinade as sauce! Yum!

Char Siu - Cantonese BBQ'd Pork

Don and I made this for the first time just last month. Up until this point I thought the only way to make this was from pre-made powder sauce packets etc. It just seemed too complicated to try to make from scratch and I wasn't the biggest fan of the results from the packets. Then I found this post about it, on none other than our favorite Chinese food blog, Appetite for China! (I've been copying out more of her recipes recently b/c I've been having issues accessing her site for some reason. It' been glitchy and won't load...)I watched the video, and it turns out it wasn't so bad at all! I watched a couple of other videos and read a few other recipes for it, but this one still seemed the easiest to do without hunting down a bunch of extra ingredients. We tried them in sandwiches a couple of times, done up like the pork in this recipe(found the buns in the freezer section of our Chinese market, only a couple of dollars) and it was really a simplified quick and easy way to have a Cha Siu Bao without having to make everything else from scratch. :0) I liked them with the cilantro and we also did a couple with some sliced cucumber! Yum!
  

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb whole pork belly, skin removed (We prefer using pork loin, less fatty. I've read some people use pork butt for the same reason.)
• 2 Tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (Found some cooking rice wine at our local Chinese market. I have heard you can substitute this for apple or orange juice. Also saw something about using vinegar sugar and a dash of lemon juice?)
• 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp sugar (I read one variation that used agave sweetener instead of sugar, wonder how that would taste?)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp hoisin sauce (This is a Chinese BBQ sauce, sweeter than traditional western BBQ sauces)
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder (Definitely can be found in Chinese markets - we got ours at a World Market.)
• 2 Tbsp honey 

PREPARATION:

1. Marinate the pork belly: In a large bowl, mix together the rice wine, dark soy sauce, sugar, garlic, hoisin sauce and fice spice powder. Rub the pork belly with the marinade mixture and marinate for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. (We usually set a large ziploc bag in the bowl and do everything in that instead, makes for less mess and much easier clean-up. Also makes it easier to 'rub' everything together.) 
2. Preheat the oven to 325.
3. Hold up the pork for a few seconds to allow excess marinade to drip off, then place the pork in a roasting pan. Brush the top with the honey. (Make sure to either spray and or line pan with tin foil, this can make quite a big sticky mess as it cooks.) Roast the pork for about 45 min, flipping over the pork belly half-way through and brushing honey on the other side. The pork is done when the outsides begin to crisp and blacken and the center of the pork belly strip feels firm.
4. Remove the pork from oven and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into thin slices. Arrange the slices on a plate and serve.

Mapo Doufu or Mapo Tofu

This is an awesome recipe from one of our favorite go to cooking blogs for Chinese food. In fact I think this is the first recipe I ever cooked from her blog and was the reason I stumbled onto the Appetite for China blog in the first place. The flavors were spot on for what I was looking for and it was not ridiculously difficult to make. Ever since I've always checked her website for Chinese recipes first, and I've never had a problem with a single one! (FYI - she also has a cookbook out now!) It can be a little on the spicy side for kids, but I don't really have spicy tolerance and this has been just fine for me! Makes 4 servings but very easy to stretch out and make more of. Here's a link to the original recipe and site.
  

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon fermented black beans (or substitute black bean sauce)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2½ tablespoons chili bean paste
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (We've made this for years w/o ever putting it in b/c we never had it and it had always tasted awesome anyways!)
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper (Awesome addition if you can find it, we found this at an Asian market as whole peppercorns. We have also made it w/o this and while it isn't as aromatic w/o it, it still tastes just fine.)

Other Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• ½ pound ground pork or beef
• 2 leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced at an angle (Because leeks are usually harder to find and aren't regularly stocked in our 'pantry' we usually end up using regular green onion.)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 1 block soft or medium-firm tofu (about 1 pound), drained and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
• 1 scallion, green part only, chopped for garnish

PREPARATION:

1. Prepare the sauce: Rinse the black beans to remove any grit. In a small bowl, mash the black beans with the back of a spoon. Combine the black beans with the chicken stock, chili bean paste, rice wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and Sichuan pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and evaporates on contact. Add the peanut oil and swirl to coat the base. Add the pork and stir-fry until crispy and starting to brown but not yet dry, about 2 minutes, breaking up the pork with a spatula. Reduce the heat to medium, then add leeks, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Pour in the sauce and bring the liquid to a boil, the reduce to a simmer. The liquid should now have a nice red color. Gently add the tofu cubes, being careful to not move them around too much or else they will break up. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 2 to 3 minutes so the tofu can cook and absorb the the sauce.
4. Carefully push the tofu to the sides and create a small well in the middle. Stir in the cornstarch mixture in the center. Allow the liquid to simmer for another minute, until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Transfer to a deep plate or wide bowl, sprinkle scallions on top, and serve hot.