#LetsLunch: festive sides/family sides edition

Another month, another late LetsLunch post...

Sadly, I worked nights most of this past week, so I didn't do much cooking of meals, much less than side dishes. With it being my second-to-last week on the job, I used my free mornings instead to meet up with my former team in one of our bureaus for lunch, ran errands and got a spa facial on Friday. :)

I am SUPER excited to get started at my new gig at the Cooking Club. Hopefully that means this blog will start to get a little more love (though, it's entirely possible it goes in the other direction for the first few months while I get settled).

But, I will still continue to meet up with my world-wide LetsLunch group for our virtual food date once a month. This month, we chose festive holiday sides and festive family side dishes (I think...).

I made this for a potluck last night and from the empty dish we brought home at the end of the night, it seems to have been a hit.

This is my mom's Hot Crab Dip. She usually only makes it at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and every year, I think I end up single-handedly devouring at least half of it.




Mom's recipe calls for 1 block of cream cheese to 1 can of lump crab meat. This is a double batch and it fills a medium-sized round corning-ware dish.

Season the drained crab meat with two teaspoons of prepared horseradish (or more, to taste. I use heaping teaspoons). Also preheat your oven or toaster oven to 375.



Dried onion flakes, three teaspoons. You could probably use real onion (though a bit less, they're very strong) or some thinly sliced scallions if you're feeling extra fancy. Also sprinkle some salt and pepper at this point.



Mix in two blocks of cream cheese. This works a lot better when you leave the cream cheese out for a bit, maybe near a warm oven. These were right out of the fridge, and it was a pain to mix.


Finally add milk a spoonful at a time and continue mixing. Add no more than two tablespoons of milk (but usually ends up needing much less).

Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes until warmed through and slightly browned on top. Cool before serving or risk seriously burning the crap out of your mouth. Serve with crackers or bread.

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LetsLunch is a monthly virtual lunch date among food bloggers from around the world. Our fearless leader, Cheryl Tan can be found at www.atigerinthekitchen.com  Want to join us? Search the #LetsLunch hashtag on Twitter and ping any one of us with your info. I'm @emmacarew

Here's a round-up of what everyone else posted this week:
Charissa‘s Coconut Date Balls at Zest Bakery
Cheryl's Auntie Jane's Potato Gratin at A Tiger In the Kitchen
Eleanor‘s Easy Festive Stir-Fry at Wok Star
Ellise‘s Lime-Chipotle Carrots at Cowgirl Chef
Felicia‘s Chinese Butterfly Cookies at Burnt-Out Baker
Grace‘s Fruitcake at HapaMama
Joe‘s Maine Homestead Holiday Dishes at Joe Yonan
Linda‘s Baked Salad at Free Range Cookies
Linda‘s Trinidadian Baked Pastelles at Spicebox Travels
Lisa‘s Potato Latkes at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy‘s “Not My Mama’s” Black-Eyed Peas & Greens at A Cook And Her Books
Maria‘s Grandma Dorothy’s Deviled Eggs at Maria’s Good Things
Patrick‘s Baby Pecan Pies at Patrick G. Lee
Rebecca‘s Grandmother Martha’s Potato Kugel at Grongar Blog
Steff‘s Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble at The Kitchen Trials
Victor‘s Roasted Parsnips, Carrots & Delicata Squash Tossed With Sauteed Mustard Greens at The Taste of Oregon

Korean barbecue ribs (Kalbi)

One of the biggest challenges I've had since I've moved back to Minnesota is finding the perfect cut of beef for bulgogi. In Washington, I shopped at HMart, a Korean grocery store. Finding beef for bulgogi was easy -- it was presliced, and you could buy some that had been marinated by the ajummas in the store.

Here? It's another story. Most of the beef I've gotten for what I consider to be a reasonable price, then sliced myself, has a) been sliced too thick and b) ended up kind of tough.

What is readily available in the Asian markets nearby, however, are short ribs -- the meat used to make Korean kalbi.

I cut the slabs into individual sized pieces, then marinated them over night with a sliced onion and a ton of garlic. Then, into the grill pan they went.

 

I was thrilled with the way these turned out. The meat was juicy and charred from the grill pan. I served the galbi with the fried onions and enoki mushrooms.

And Korean food isn't complete without kimchi, but I didn't have any on-hand, so I threw together a sort of quick "faux" kimchi -- mixing together homemade quick pickles, daikon radish, spring oninos, some rice vinegar and gochuchang. Super tasty.

RECIPE: Kalbi
1 lb short ribs, cut into individual pieces
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup sesame oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
8-10 cloves garlic, smashed or sliced
1 bunch scallions, chopped (dark green parts only)

Whisk together liquids and pour over kalbi in a large plastic bag. Mix in onion, garlic and scallions. Marinate at least 2 hours, up to 24.

Heat a grill pan over high heat, then reduce to medium. Grill ribs 2-3 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

Grill 1 bunch enoki mushrooms per person and toss with onions. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve.


RECIPE: quick "faux" kimchi
3 pickling cucumbers, cut into half inch pieces (the short, fat ones. But you could also use the long skinny seedless japanese ones)
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp rice vinegar
Equal amount of pickled daikon radish (called dan-muji), about 1 round piece, 5 inches long, also cut into half inch pieces
1-2 TBS gochuchang
white and light green parts from the scallions used in kalbi marinade

Mix the sugar, salt and rice vinegar and pour over the cucumbers. Allow to "pickle" for at least 15 minutes, up to a few hours. Drain, then taste after 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning if necessary. (If they're too salty, give 'em a quick rinse)

Mix pickles with daikon and stir in gochuchang. Sprinkle with scallions and toasted sesame seeds.

Serve with other banchan (Korean side dishes) and barbeque.