Marinade for Meats

Returning today to  share this summer’s marinade. Honestly it’s every summer’s marinade for me, but every year it gets twisted a little further from the original. 

I’m posting this in the most confusing format I could come up with. Kidding. It’s not intentionally confusing but I can see it might be hard to follow. The first recipe is the one I’ve based my current recipe on. I’ve been making this recipe for over 10 years, probably more like 15. And it’s still delicious. It didn’t need changing really. But I guess I got bored somewhere through the years and decided to starting substituting and adding ingredients liberally.

The second recipe is the one I currently use. I’ve included the original ingredients above the current ones for comparison. That’s the part I thought looked a little confusing when I proofread this post. Sorry not sorry.

Original Recipe from Someone Named Cyndi Who Once (or twice or thrice) Lived in Malawi 

•3 TBSP Lemon juice

•1/4 cup veg oil

•2 TBSP Ketchup 

•1/2 cup Soy sauce 

•1 TBSP Garlic salt

Mix together. Add chicken breasts. Allow to Marinade. Cook. 

2023 Version by me myself and moi

Instead of Lemon juice:
•pickled jalapeño brine, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and maybe a dash of lemon or lime juice: a mixture of equalish parts of these totalling 1/4 cup

Instead of Vegetable oil:
•1/4 cup olive oil or avocado oil

Instead of Ketchup 

•2 TBSP homemade salsa  

Instead of Garlic salt

•a couple cloves or 1/2 - 1 tsp garlic  powder

•1/2 cup Soy sauce -I don’t change or substitute this ingredient. Shocking.  I have left it out when making it for someone who doesn’t do soy sauce. 

My Additions:

•Dijon mustard. I don’t know why Dijon mustard, Except that is ever a dish that  Dijon mustard doesn’t improve? I Add a tablespoon or maybe two. A few squirts. The amount isn’t hugely important.

•Worcestershire sauce -a couple shakes will do 

•Pickled Jalapeño slices 

•Any fresh herbs I have at hand. Like I won’t go out and pick them just for this but if I have them wilting on the counter I’ll throw them in. 

•maple syrup or honey. I often drizzle in a small amount of one of these natural sweeteners just because with using salsa instead of ketchup the marinade could be lacking sweetness and end up too astringent from all the acids and the soy sauce 

••• I mix everything together in a ziplock bag give it a shake then dump in my meat. Chicken thighs / breasts / wings. Steaks. Pork tenderloin medallions. Often when I have fresh meat I’ll put some of it into this marinade and toss it in the freezer and forget about it until I need it.you can grill this, add to your disk meal and wrap it in homemade tortillas, make it into a stirfy (the orignal recipe suggests this) etc. 

We grilled (or fire roasted) meats for most Sunday dinners this summer. I prioritized keeping sides simple and usually doing only one per meal: airfryer sweet potato fries, baked beans, my favourite sourdough seed bread (yes this is the second post in a row I’ve mentioned this bread, no I’m not being sponsored I’m just always obsessed) with homemade garlic herb butter, pan fried green beans, that kind of thing. Eating leisurely Sunday dinners in our very own park I mean yard, then staying sitting most of the afternoon drinking iced tea is one of my happiest memories from this summer. But now The cool evenings have been whispering to me that grilling season is almost over for the year, and so I present this recipe as an homage to summer 2023.

2 Uses for Fresh Herbs

Summer is not the time for inside on my phone. It is the time for outside with my boy, outside with my garden, outside at the lake, outside on the lawn mower and also for cooking with all the delicious things from my garden and all the other amazing summer produce. And so This post has taken all summer to write. Finally posting.

Last summer I posted this Chimichurri recipe. This summer I’m back with more uses for fresh herbs a Ranch dressing style recipe and a recipe for herbed goat cheese. You could buy mediocre versions of them at the store, but if you’re obsessed  with growing herbs or buy fresh herbs you can make them much better yourself. 

 Scroll down for the recipes. 

Herbed Goat Cheese

I served this with my favourite my favourite sour dough seed bread for Father’s Day lunch recently and thought it paired so well with the nutty flavours of that. 

Ingredients :

+Goat Cheese 

+Mixture of Fresh Herbs -chives, dill, basil, parsley, oregano*

+Salt and Pepper 

+small amount fresh garlic or garlic scapes, optional 

Directions:

••Mince herbs and garlic. Mix into goat cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Spread thin layers on breads or toasts , in sandwiches, etc.

*I use chives, basil, oregano and dill. I find fresh dill can be overpowering in something like this and I wanted to be able to taste the other herbs as well so I started with a small amount of dill, tasted and then added a bit more to my liking. In my opinion the chives being all flavours together, but if you don’t like onion you may want to skip them.  

Ranchish Dressing, but Much Much Better

Yes, it’s the same as every other recipe you find on the internet for this kind of thing. No I do not actually eat bought ranch dressing except in extreme situations. 

Ingredients 

+Dill,  more of this than the other herbs 

+Parsley

+Chives / green onion

+basil

+oregano, optional 

+ cilantro, optional  (only use if you want that flavour, on fajitas for example)

+ salt and pepper 

+ tony cachere’s créole seasoning 

+ small amount minced garlic or garlic powder

+ sour cream 

+ mayonnaise 

+ dash of cream / milk -optional, depending what consistency you’re looking for

Directions :

+Mince the herbs. well. In a pint jar dump 2 parts sour cream to 1 part mayonnaise. Add the minced herbs, salt and pepper and Tony’s seasoning. You need it to bring the other flavours together. 

+Mix, mix. 

+Taste it. In this recipe I’m looking for dill to be the slightly dominant flavour with chives right behind it and the other herbs complimenting. Fresh Basil and especially oregano can have strong flavours so I try to add less of those to begin with and add more as needed. 

+The consistency should be like a spread or dip. Depending how you’re using this (as a dressing for salad for example) you can thin it down with a splash of milk

+Use fresh herbs, ideally. I can’t speak to how this tastes with dried herbs; I haven’t tried it. Also this could definitely be made with only 2 or 3 different herbs. I wouldn’t skip the dill though, unless adding lots of cilantro for a Tex mex style of dressing.

+Now all the ways to use this, my favourite part. •Dip for veg. •Over baked potatoes. •Salads. •In wraps, this I highly highly recommend. •spread on bread when making sandwiches •spread on crackers, top with a slice of cheese and/or grilled meat and a slice of jalapeño but if you don’t like jalapeño skip that; I’m obsessed with this random combination. •I’m sure there are more ways to use this that I haven’t thought of. •Basically use any place you’d use ranch / other salad dressings,