There are just some nights when you don’t feel like pulling out a recipe and going through all the steps. These are the nights where I whip up some sort of protein (chicken, fish, steak, etc) and an easy side of vegetables or quinoa or something along those lines. When I do this, I like to use one of my go-to marinades to add flavor to whatever I am cooking. These are marinades that require ingredients I usually have on hand and infuse flavor in a short time. I just used one of them last week for some salmon.

For the salmon, I used a soy sauce and brown sugar marinade. I had two medium-sized pieces of salmon so I used 1/4 cup of soy, 1/4 brown sugar and about a half a teaspoon of garlic powder. You can adjust it based on how much fish you have, but a one-to-one ratio of soy to brown sugar is a good bet. I mixed it up in some tupperware (a plastic bag would work as well), put the fish in flesh side down and let it sit in the fridge for an hour. Then I popped it on the grill. Easy peasy. I love using this marinade on the grill. The brown sugar caramelizes a bit and the top of the salmon gets a tasty crust on it. The flavor of the soy and the brown sugar really penetrated in to the fish. It was quite good.

Another one of my favorites is one I learned from my mom. One of her go-to marinades is extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and oregano. It is a great quick way to infused flavor in to chicken breasts or thighs. I will toss the chicken in a big storage bag, pour in enough olive oil to coat (1/4 to 1/2 cup usually), squeeze in half a lemon (or a couple squirts of the kind that comes prepackaged), shake in a teaspoon or so of oregano along with salt and pepper and toss it in the fridge. Let it sit for a bit (I usually like to have it in there for an hour) and then cook it however you want. This is also a great way to marinade veggies. I’ve used this with asparagus and eggplant before with good success. As I type this, I think I would like to try this out on tilapia as well.

The last marinade I’m sharing is pesto. Just straight up pesto, mixed with whatever protein you want. This summer I made both pesto shrimp and pesto chicken using this marinade. I grow my own basil , so I usually whip up homemade pesto (a handful of basil, some olive oil, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper. No need for pine nuts or walnuts, unless you have them on hand). Mix it up until it gets the consistency you want. It shouldn’t be too liquidy, but you can add olive oil as you like), but you could just as easily use a jar of the store-bought kind. Rub the pesto on and let it sit in the fridge for a bit and then cook it up. I like pair this with pasta.

The last little bonus tip I’ll share is how to make your own spice rubs. These are especially great for steaks, but you could easily use these on chicken and pork as well. For steaks, I like to take a tablespoon of rosemary and a tablespoon of salt and grind it all together with a mortar and pestle. Using a mortar and pestle isn’t a necessity of course, but it’s a great way to break open the spices and get all the flavor. But of course you could just mix the spice and salt together without grinding and apply it to the meat. You could use this same method to make a chili-spiced rub for chicken or even a Chinese Five Spice mix on pork. No need to buy fancy spice rubs when you can easily make your own. Just experiment with what you have and with what sounds good to you.

UPDATE: Someone asked me to breakout the recipes so here you go.

Easy Marinade Recipes

Soy Sauce and Brown Sugar (Best with salmon)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder

— Place all the ingredients above in a plastic container or bag along with the salmon (or whatever you are using). Leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Oregano 

1/2 cup olive oil (doesn’t need to be extra virgin)
Juice from half a lemon (about 1-2 tablespoons)
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper

— Place all the ingredients above in a plastic container or bag along with the protein. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour, more if you have the time.

Pesto
1 cup basil leaves
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 glove of garlic
2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil
Handful of walnuts or pine nuts if desired

— Blend all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Consistency should be somewhat of a paste, but the key is for it not to be too liquidy. Coat protein in pesto and let sit in the fridge for at least an hour.

In last week’s Friday Five, I said I would do a more in-depth post on the Red Wine Braised Beef Brisket that I made the same night as the challah.

For those of you who asked, here’s the recipe. Martha’s original recipe (linked below) called for different measurements, but I made adjustments since it was for the two of us. I also didn’t use a Dutch oven, as I’m still in the process of shopping for one. So read on for my crock pot directions.

Red Wine Braised Beef Brisket

Extra virgin olive oil (2 tablespoons for browning, 2 for later)
2 pounds beef brisket, cut into 3-inch pieces (Martha’s recipe called for 3 1/2 lbs but I made less since it was for the two of us)
Salt and pepper (for meat and to taste)
4 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 bottle of red wine (I used cab)
1 can beef stock
1 can water

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium high heat. Season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper. Once oil is hot, place meat in the pan. Brown on all sides. This step takes a bit of time, but is worth it in the end. Once the meat is browned, places in the bottom of the crock pot.

2. Return the pan to the stove and turn the heat down to medium. Add shallots to the pan and brown and then add the garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the wine and bring to a slow simmer. Stir occasionally, making sure to scrap the bottom of the pan to get all the bits from browning the meat. Let the red wine cook down for 10 to 15 minutes. It should reduce by at least half. Once reduce, pour the entire mixture in to the crockpot. Add the can of beef stock. Fill up the can with water and dump in crockpot. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 3 to 4. Meat should be fork tender when finished.

So this was pretty delicious. I made a different crock pot brisket back in April and this was definitely better. However, I do have some notes. The wine taste didn’t come through as much as I would have liked. I think this was because I cut it with the broth and the water. It had some wine taste, but it was very subtle. I think this could be change by adding more wine or using water instead of the beef broth. I just used a bottle that we had leftover and I didn’t want to have to open another bottle. However, I think you could make a pretty awesome sauce using the leftover cooking liquid in the crockpot. Just dump it in to a saucepan and cook it until it reduces and gets thick. If it isn’t happening quick enough, you could add some corn starch and water to speed things up. That sauce would be jam packed with delicious wine flavor. It would also be good over mashed potatoes. Noted for next time.

But still this is a solid dish. While cleaning up on Thursday, Eric proposed the idea of him assigning ratings to the things I cook — for the good of the blog of course. So I introduce the Spork System.

It’s a rating scale with one spork being poor and five being amazing.  The brisket got 4 sporks and the challah got 5. So pretty solid in Eric’s mind.