Awesome no-cook peanut sauce

It's from Cookie and Kate. https://cookieandkate.com/peanut-dipping-sauce/
This version is simplified a little teeny bit, so check out the original for more ideas.
It's so good. The kids love it on everything!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cups peanut butter
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar (I have replaced with apple cider but it was a bit strong - I'd reduce the quantity)
• 1/3 cup soya sauce
• 3 tbs honey
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger (or use 1.5 tsp fresh)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2-4 tbs water

Method

1. Mix everything together except the water
2. Add water as needed to get to the desired consistency. It will be a bit runny.

That's it!

Dip stuff in or add to a bland stir fry.

Make rice bowls and pour over top.

Do as you wish. Maybe don't put it on ice cream though..

Quick Cabbage Roll Stew

waaayyy easier than making cabbage rolls, and also way tastier!
Based on: https://www.averiecooks.com/30-minute-one-pot-cabbage-rolls/ 

The recipe calls for pre-cooked rice, so if you don't happen to have some in the fridge, go get some started right now!

Ingredients

• 2-4 cups of cooked rice (just put in whatever you happen to have leftover - it could even be less or probably omitted altogether)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 large can diced tomatoes (240mL, I think)
• a good squirt of ketchup, to your taste (or tomato paste. might want to add a touch of sugar to balance acidity if you choose not to use ketchup)
• 1 tbs worcestershire sauce (or put a little soya sauce if you don't have this)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 medium - large onion, diced small
• 3-4 garlic clovers, minced
• 1 small-medium head of green cabbage, sliced and diced into bite-sized pieces
• 2-3 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• pinch of cayenne
• chopped fresh parsley (makes a big difference if you have it!)

Method

1. Heat a large dutch oven or pot on the stove over medium-high heat
2. Add olive oil, ground beef, and onions. Break up the ground beef with a spatula as it cooks. Stir frequently. Cook about 5-7 minutes or until beef is cooked and onions are soft.
3. Add garlic and cook about a minute, stirring often
4. Add cabbage, rice, tomatoes (including juice), 2 tsp salt, pepper, and paprika. Stir to combine. Cook about 2-3 minutes until it comes to a simmer
5. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook covered for about 10 minutes (until the cabbage is tender)
6. Taste - add ketchup, worcestershire sauce, additional salt if you like, and the cayenne. Stir to combine.
7. Garnish or stir in the parsley.

Enjoy!

Another Easy Tasty Way to Bake Cod

Almost identical to https://thestayathomechef.com/baked-cod-fish/

Ingredients

• about 800g of cod pieces
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup most-of-the-way melted butter
• 2 tbs grated parmesan
• 1 tbs flour
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• smidge of dijon mustard (up to 1tsp if you actually like mustard)
• juice of 1 lemon or lime
• lemon slices to tuck around the fish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. Grease a 9x13 baking dish
3. Place cod fillets in the baking dish. Season with a moderately generous amount of salt and pepper
4. Combine remaining ingredients (except lemon slices) in a small bowl
5. Spread the butter mixture over the fish
6. Arrange some lemon slices around the fish
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish

Thai-style Fried Rice

I figure I should actually post this here since it is one of my gotos when the fridge is mostly bare but I have leftover rice and various bits and pieces. It is open to major modifications.

Ingredients

• 500g chicken breast, pork fillet, prawn, beef, or tofu cut into thin strips
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 bunch chinese broccoli or gailan, carrot, snowpea, or baby corns (at most 2
• veggies to prevent too much moisture)
• 1.5 cups cooked rice per person
• 1/2 small onion, cut into strips
• 2 green onions cut into 3/4 inch long pieces
• 2 eggs (1 per person)
• 1 firm tomato cut into 8 wedges
• few cloves garlic, diced

Sauce:

1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
pinch of black pepper
1 tbsp thick sweet soy (ketjap manis)
1 tsp (maggi) seasoning sauce
(can substitute depending on what you have. For example, 2 tbs soya sauce, 1.5 tbs fish sauce, pepper, and a little sugar works perfectly well)

Seasonings:

1/4-1/2 lemon (for juice)
fresh coriander
sliced cucumber on the side as an accompaniment

Method

1. Heat oil in the wok
2. Add garlic
3. Fry meat until medium-cooked
4. Push meat to the side and add egg. Flip the meat on top of the egg so the egg coats it - let cook on one side a bit, then flip to cook other side.
5. Add onion and cook a little
6. (remove from heat if needed) Add: veggies, rice, and seasonings
7. Return to heat and mix well (can smush together with spatula)
8. Add tomato and mix in
9. Cook until the mixture is not too moist
10. Turn off heat and add a bit of lemon juice + coriander

Variations

Today I made this with sliced mushrooms in place of the meat. I fried up the mushrooms in oil with a little sprinkle of salt to draw out some moisture, added diced quartered carrots and cooked the carrots and mushrooms until they started to brown, then continued from step 4 with the eggs (so I used mushrooms + carrots in the place of the meat, since that's all I had). I skipped the coriander, garlic, and tomatoes since I had none (would have thrown in canned pineapple tidbits in the place of tomato but didn't have any of that either). I also often just use deli sandwich meat in this recipe - it's a good way to use it up if you have too much.

Grilled Salmon

I think I've been making grilling fish harder on myself than I really should... this was the easiest grilled fish I've ever made and among the tastiest (though I don't know if anything is likely to top the super fresh halibut fillets we had earlier this year).

The recipe comes from The Spruce Eats: How to Grill Salmon in 3 Easy Steps

I added a miso glaze when I put the fish on the grill, and I used a side of coho, cut in half. I also failed to maintain the temperature of the grill, so I added about 50% to the cooking time (according to the temp gauge on our bbq, I put the fish on at about 425F and the temperature dropped to just over 300F for a big chunk of the cooking time, so I left it on longer than they suggest).

Here is roughly what I did - this made almost exactly the right amount to feed 6 adults and 4 kids:

Ingredients

• in my case, a little more than 1kg worth of skin-on salmon fillets (1 side + 1 large fillet)-- any size/amount of fillets will do. See original recipe for tips on dealing with other cuts (basically put tin foil under it)
• 1/2 lemon (optional)

Glaze

(this made way more than I needed - you could definitely half the recipe):

• 2 tbs white miso
• 1 tbs rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbs mirin
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Mix together the glaze ingredients in a small dish and set aside
2. Heat the grill to med-high heat and clean it
3. If you're not lazy, rinse and dry the fish and pull out pin bones (see original recipe) - otherwise skip this step
4.  Rub both sides of the fish fillets with olive oil and put skin-side down on a dish or tray
5. Just before putting it on the grill (I did it after, which is probably why I lost so much heat), brush the top (non-skin) side of the fillets with the glaze. Don't overdo it as excess glaze could lead to flare-ups
6. Transfer fillets, skin-side down, onto the grill (I used 2 spatulas)
7. Cover and monitor the temperature if that's easy for you to do... one recipe I read suggested using the outer 2 burners on a 3-burner grill - I just turned the middle one down low
8. Don't touch it - just cook for 10-15 mins for a 1-inch fillet + 10 minutes per additional inch. Watch for the white fat to show on the top.
9. Remove to a serving platter. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over top if you have some.

Grilled Cajun-Style Halibut

Based on https://kalynskitchen.com/recipe-for-grilled-halibut-with/, but with a few of my own tweaks.

Ingredients

•  Halibut (I use thick fillets) - this recipe is good for about 4 peoples' worth... adjust quantities as necessary
• Olive oil
• The spice rub:
• 3/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp sumac (or substitute with lemon zest)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• pinch of cayenne (optional)
• Optional: Mango Salsa for serving

Method

1. Heat the grill to very high temperature
2. Dry the fish fillets, but only if you're less lazy than I am
3. Drizzle some olive oil over the fillets and rub to coat them
4. Sprinkle "a generous quantity" of the rub on each piece of fish and rub to coat more-or-less evenly on both sides
5. Put the fillets non-skin side down diagonally on the grill and immediately lower flame to medium-low setting. Close the lid to keep in the heat.
6. Cook about 3 mins (2 for thinner fillets) then rotate the pieces 90 degrees for fancy criss cross grill marks. Cook another 2-3 minutes with the lid down.
7. Carefully flip the fillets (I use 2 spatulas) so that the skin side is down. Cook another 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness of your fillets. (Lid down - make sure the temperature doesn't drop too low). Total cooking time should typically be 8-10 minutes, depending on thickness. Don't overcook - remember it will keep cooking a little when removed from grill.
8. Carefully lift the fillets from the grill - now that the skin side is down, you don't have to worry so much about losing fish if it is sticking.
9. Very nice served with a fruity cilantro-y fresh salsa (mango is best)

Fresh Cilantro-filled Salsa

I usually make my salsa from scratch unless I'm feeling lazy. I have always just followed a general pattern and substituted as necessary - as long as you have some kind of fruit base (tomatoes and mango are my usual ones, but I've also done this with cucumber or strawberries), plenty of lime or lemon juice, fresh herbs (cilantro is my fave, but I've used parsley/chives in a pinch), and salt and pepper then it will probably be yummy.

Ingredients 

(open to interpretations, listed in order of most to least important)

• maybe about 1-2 cups of finely diced tomatoes (or mango, or...) ... I'm not sure about the quantity
• juice of 1/2 to 1 whole lime or lemon (I prefer lime)
• generous quantity of salt and black pepper
• 1/4-1/2 bunch cilantro (or parsley/chives if need be)
• about 1-2 tbs very finely diced shallot, red onion, or regular onion 
• 1/2 - 1 clove garlic, minced (this adds a little spiciness)
• some amount of jalapeno or hotter pepper, diced very finely with or without seeds (adjust to your spice tolerance from none to a lot - I usually do none or about 1/2 jalapeno, seeds removed)
• optional additions I don't normally make, but you could:
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of chili powder
• diced peppers
• chopped avocado (I prefer to just make some guacamole separately most of the time)
• tabasco sauce

Method

1. Mix the above ingredients together in a smallish bowl
2. Taste and adjust seasonings.. if it's missing something, consider adding more salt

REMEMBER: If you have a bottle of hot sauce on hand, you can make the salsa on the milder side and let those who want more heat add the hot sauce to their serving (more kid-/crowd-friendly this way)