April 2008 Archives

I've been sick the past few days. Actually, I've been ill for almost a week now. I've barely gotten off the couch, let alone cooked anything. But today, I knew I was on the mend when I decided, for no apparent reason, to take some cream that we had in the fridge and make my own butter.

Yep, that's right. I made butter! It was unbelievably easy. What was not unbelievably easy, was taking the YouTube videos that showed the process. I couldn't find the portable gorilla pod, so these videos are going to be a little shaky and disjointed. I'll take new ones soon.

I took about 6 ounces of heavy cream and dumped it into the KitchenAid. Started it mixing on speed 6 and just let it go. The first video isn't all that interesting. So I'll skip posting it.

The second video however is a bit better (although it is a bit grainy).

You might be able to tell that the cream looks pretty chunky at this point. I stopped the mixer and looked. Was this butter? It was pretty solid. But it smelled very much like cream. So I kept going.

All of a sudden, the chunky cream split into a yellow solid (the butter) and a milky liquid (whey). Just like that. It took all of 2 seconds. After that, I scraped the solid butter out of the mixer and put it on paper towels to drain. I took a second set of paper towels and tried to squeeze as much liquid as I could out of the butter. That's it.

All total I made 4 ounces of butter out of 6 ounces of heavy cream. Not bad for all of 5 minutes work.

We've been eating Kale at least twice a week. It's easy and tasty. But a few weeks ago we were tempted by some broccoli from Alm Hill Gardens. We weren't sure what to do with it, but then John suggested we use the same basic procedure we've used with the kale. After a bit of thought, this is what we came up with.

Ingredients

• 6-8 cups broccoli
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Saute the broccoli for 5-6 minutes, until it is a bright green.

Remove the broccoli from the heat and add a second tablespoon of oil. Add the garlic sesame seeds and saute for 1 minute. Pour over the broccoli and add a teaspoon or so of soy sauce. Serve.

Be careful not to overdo the soy sauce. Start with a teaspoon and taste. You can always add more.

Have you ever had one of those meals where not only did everything taste good, but everything meshed perfectly together? Where the empty spot you never even knew was in you suddenly filled perfectly?

Well, I've just had one. (Three if you count the leftovers).

We got this recipe from Accidental Hedonist, another great local food blog. We adapted it slightly ourselves, but for the most part we used the recipe as is.

Ingredients

• 2-4 pound pork butt or shoulder roast
• 1 Tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar (or brown sugar substitute)
• 1 onion
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 2 cups green salsa
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• Corn tortillas
• Cabbage (optional)
• Avocado
• Cheddar or Cojita cheese

Directions

The night before you want to cook the pork, mix 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, 1 tablespoon smoked paprika, 1 tablespoon regular paprika, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. These amounts are just guidelines, feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your tastes.

Rub the pork roast with the mixture and refrigerate overnight. 

Next, chop the onion. Put the meat in a large pot with the onion, 2 teaspoon cumin seeds, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, the green salsa, chopped oregano and chicken stock. Boil the mixture on high and then reduce the heat to medium and cover.

Simmer until the pork is tender and registers at least 165 on a meat thermometer.

Remove the pork from the pan, turn the juices down to low, and preheat the oven to 400.

Using two forks, tear the pork into shreds. Spread the pork on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. You want some of the shredded pork to be crispy.

Turn the heat back up on the pot and boil the mixture in the pan for 8-10 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat. Pull the pork out of the oven and add it back into the pot, mixing well. When we did this, it did not look like there was anywhere near enough sauce for all of that pork. Even after I mixed everything together, I was worried it was going to be dry. But never fear. This recipe did not disappoint.

To serve, heat up a corn tortilla and fill it with the pork mixture, add a little shredded cheese, some avocado, and some cabbage (we skipped the cabbage).

This was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Despite how dry the mixture looked, when I bit into the tortilla, it was tender, juicy, and rich.

This will soon become one of our staple recipes. I think it would work well in the crock pot as well. Just throw everything together in the morning (no pre-cooking required), simmer all day, and then shred and roast the pork when you get home at night. I can't wait to make this again.

Do you want an easy recipe for dinner? It doesn't get much easier than this.

To summarize:

Sear pork tenderloin.

Baste.

Cook.

Ok, so it's slightly more complicated than that, but only very slightly.

Here's a picture to keep you reading.

That's the pork tenderloin, an onion roll, and spicy garlicky kale.

This was another recipe from Get Your Grill On, though I have to admit that we didn't grill the pork. We have a great grill, but sometimes it just doesn't like to get all the way up to 500 degrees. So we improvised a bit and adapted the recipe for the oven.

Ingredients

• Pork tenderloin (preferably organic)
• 2 teaspoons of oil
• 4 ounces Hoisin sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons BBQ sauce

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325.

Mix the hoisin sauce, sesame seeds, orange juice, sesame oil, and BBQ sauce together in a bowl. Set aside.

Salt and pepper the pork. In a heavy skillet, add the oil and sear the pork on all sides.

Transfer to an oven safe baking dish or cookie sheet and baste on all sides with the sauce mixture.

Cook, turning and basting occasionally, until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

Slice and serve.

We loved this recipe. It was incredibly easy. I was a little worried as the pork was cooking. I'd expected the glaze to caramelize a bit more than it appeared to, but in the end, it was perfect - just a little crunchy, but not overdone. My only regret was that pork tenderloins tend to cook down pretty significantly, so by the time the pork was done, there was only enough for one serving each. Next time we'll buy a bigger tenderloin.

One of my next projects will be to find a Hoisin sauce without High Fructose Corn Syrup in it.

Mmmmm. Burgers and pizza. Are there more perfect foods? Well, the answer to that usually depends on my mood, but tonight, there was nothing better than a burger that tasted like pizza.

We discovered this recipe on Get Your Grill On. If you like to grill, this is a fantastic blog.

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion
• Salt and pepper
• 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 pound ground beef (preferably organic, grass fed beef)
• 1/4 cup pepperoni or salami (about 5 slices salami)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 2 slices of bread, or 2 small hamburger rolls
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 slices Provolone or other mild cheese

Directions

Despite all of those ingredients, this is a rather simple recipe. Thinly slice the onions (a mandolin works well here) and throw them in a pan with a glug or two of the olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onions for a few minutes, covered, until they are softened. Remove the cover and cook for another few minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the onions are cooking, chop the salami or pepperoni. Mix the ground beef, chopped salami, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Form into burgers (ours were smaller, almost like sliders).

When the onions have cooked down and softened, add the tomato paste and saute until the paste gives off a sweet aroma. Add the wine and cook until the wine has nearly dissolved.

Meanwhile, heat up the grill and cook the burgers.

When the burgers are almost done, melt some butter and minced garlic in a pan. Brush the bread or rolls with the melted garlic butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Turn on the broiler and broil the cheese covered buns for just a minute or so. When the burgers are done, broil the bun, burger, and Provolone cheese all together just until the cheese melts.

Yum! This was fantastic. The burgers were spicy and rich, the onions were sweet, and the buns were toasted garlic goodness. Our only problem was that our burgers were a little too big to be sliders and a little too small to be a burger. Next time we'll alter the size a bit.

I don't know about you, but I always thought Shepherd's Pie was an Irish dish. Turns out, it's actually an English dish that was typically made to use up leftover pieces of meat from a previous meal. We don't often have leftover meat, but you can certainly make Shepherd's Pie with fresh ingredients.

Because I thought the dish was Irish, we made this dish on St. Patrick's Day.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef (organic, from Skagit River Ranch)
• 3 bacon strips (I was out of bacon, so I omitted this)
• 1 small onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 can chopped olives (I left these out as well)
• 5 1/2 cups hot mashed potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon minced cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Melted butter

Directions

Cook up a mess of mashed potatoes. The recipe says to make them without butter or milk, but don't worry too much about that. If you have leftover mashed potatoes from last night's dinner, those will work too. Heat them up a bit while you're doing the next few steps.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cook the beef until all the pink disappears and remove the beef from the pan. If there's a significant amount of fat left in the pan, drain it. When we use grass fed beef from Skagit, there's hardly any fat in the pan.

Dice the bacon strips, chop the onion, and mince the garlic. In the same pan as the beef, cook these, along with the oregano until the bacon is crisp. We omitted the bacon because (gasp!) we didn't have any! Add the tomato sauce, olives (if you're using them) and cilantro as well as the precooked beef. Simmer for 10 minutes.

If you haven't already, use this time to mash the cooked potatoes.

Butter or grease a 9 inch pie plate. Line the bottom and sides with mashed potatoes. Fill the pie with the beef mixture.

Now spread more mashed potatoes over the top of the pie. This can be a little tricky, and it's best to use a greased spoon or spatula to help you along.

Bake the pie for 20 minutes.

Brush the top with melted butter and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

This makes between 6 and 8 servings.

I liked it, but I did feel that it was a bit bland. I think it could have been even better with the bacon and with adding some sour cream or horseradish to the mashed potatoes. Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top of the mashed potatoes would have also added a nice touch.

I love our crockpot. Or rather, I love the idea of our crockpot. I love the idea that I can throw food in, turn it on, go to work, and then come home to a delicious, hot meal. Unfortunately, slow cooker meals rarely work out this way.

For one thing, they almost always involve lots of slicing, pre-cooking, searing, browning, or boiling. For another, even when some of these things can be done ahead of time, there's usually one or two steps that would leave the meat half cooked which, as you can imagine, isn't very safe.

So I was thrilled when I found today's recipe. All of the prep work can be done the night before, and in less than 10 minutes. In the morning, all you need to do add stuff and turn on.

As an added benefit, this recipe is fantastic. It's rich and flavorful and is great with a low carb tortilla or over rice or emmer.

Ingredients

• 1-2 pounds of thinly sliced pork
• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 onion
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• Red pepper flakes
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/4 cup peanut butter

Directions

The night before, slice the peppers and onions and mince the garlic. Throw them in a tupperware and add the soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, and red pepper flakes. Refrigerate over night. (NOTE: This is optional. You can do all of this in the morning before you leave.)

When you're ready to cook, place the pork in the crock pot and add the tupperware full of stuff. Cook on low for anywhere from 4-10 hours. It'll be done after 4, but if you cook it for 8-10 hours, the pork practically falls apart and the bell peppers melt in your mouth.

About 10 minutes before serving, use two forks to shred the pork and add the peanut butter. Continue to cook for 10 minutes to thicken the mixture.

Serve over rice or in a tortilla.

Doesn't this picture look amazing? That's caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, salami, and fresh mozzarella. The crust is thin, the toppings were hot and gooey, and the whole thing just about satisfied the intense greasy pizza craving I'd had a few days before without the grease.

We've made pizza twice on this stone and what we've discovered so far is that unfortunately, Emmer flour, doesn't make a great pizza crust. We like a thin crust and the Emmer flour is too gummy to be rolled thin.

We will, however, keep experimenting with dough recipes.

First, the dough.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 package yeast
• 1 cup warm ater
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Olive oil

Directions

There's really not much to say about dough. Yet somehow, I'll manage three or four paragraphs. Start with about 1.5 cups warm water. Ideally the water should be about 100-115 degrees. If you have a milk thermometer, test the temperature. If the water is too cold, your yeast will have problems activating. If it's too hot, you'll kill the yeast before it has a chance to do it's job.

Sprinkle the yeast over the water and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and some salt. Add the water/yeast mixture and mix until the dough forms a ball around the dough hook. Add a bit more flour if the dough is very sticky to the touch.

Oil a glass bowl and add the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot and let rise until doubled in size. What works best for us is to put it on the stove while we caramelize the onions on low heat on another burner.  More on that in a minute.

When the dough has risen, divide in half. On a pizza peel, sprinkle some cornmeal and salt. This will help your dough flow easily from the peel to the stone.

Roll out the dough and place it on the peel.

Now onto the toppings.

There are as many ways to top a pizza as there are rain drops in Seattle. Fresh mozzarella is always good, as is any sort of meat. I'm partial to salami or pepperoni when I want a meat pizza, but cubed chicken breast or sausage will be great too.

What makes a pizza though, at least for me these days, are caramelized onions. Honestly, caramelized onions make most things better (including our frittatas, yum).

For perfect caramelized onions, you need three things. 1. A mandolin, 2. onions, 3. fat.

Use the mandolin and slice the onions super thin. Be careful of your fingers.

In a skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and a couple glugs of olive oil. You can also use lard.

Cook the onions on low for up to an hour. Stir often, about every 5-10 minutes so that the onions cook evenly. Don't be tempted to cook the onions on medium or high. The onions will simply burn or melt.

Now onto the final step.

Top the pizza and throw in a 450 oven for anywhere from 10-12 minutes.

We try to eat as local as possible. With the exception of our coffee (and associated fixings like Stevia drops and soy milk), salt, sugar, orange juice, and some spices, just about everything else we eat is local. Even most of our flour is local. But sometimes a recipe just calls to us and we knowingly seek out a decidedly non-local ingredient. I'm not proud of it, but my general opinion is that the occasional far flown fruit or vegetable is probably all right.

So tonight's recipe was Hot Mango Chicken. This is not a quick recipe. It's not overly time consuming either, as long as you have ginger-garlic paste pre-made.

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken breasts
• 1 onion
• 2 mangos
• 2 red chili peppers
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste **
• 1/4 teaspoon tumeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander

Directions

This is one of the recipes where prep work is best done all at once. It'll make the rest of the recipe go a lot easier.

Peel and dice the mango. Slice the onion. Cube the chicken breasts. Slice the bell pepper. Mince the red chili peppers.

To a large wok, over medium high heat, add about a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Add the onion, minced chili peppers, and ginger garlic paste. Saute until the onions are browning.

Add the chicken, spices, and bell pepper. Cook until the chicken is done. For us, this took about 15 minutes.

Add the mango and about 1/4 cup of water. Cook for about 5 minutes.

We served this over about half a cup of emmer.

** Now, if you can't find ginger garlic paste at the store, like we couldn't, you can make your own. It's very simple, just a little tome consuming. Peel 6 oz of garlic and 6 oz of ginger. Slice the ginger into chunks. Process in a food processor until it forms a paste. (The time consuming part is peeling everything).