Saturday, June 25, 2011

Pork Enchiladas





Country-style, boneless pork ribs, browned, then put in a slow-cooker, with a bit of water. Seasoned with a blend of: paprika, smoked paprika, cumin, onion powder, pepper, ancho chili powder, dried green chilies, salt, garlic clove (smashed).
Cook until tender, cool in the braising liquid. Shred.
Soften tortillas in a bit of oil, sauce. Fill, roll, put in pan (sauce on the bottom). Top with more sauce.
I made it easy by using a large can of red enchilada sauce and a smaller can of red chili sauce (not the catsup stuff, but the stuff you find with the Mexican food section).
Halfway through cooking, I topped it with shredded pepperjack cheese.
Served it with brown rice (leftover from the other night, added some of the same seasoning blend), creamy pinto beans (made with a can of of beans, can of green chilies, some dried green chilies, water. Cook together, then used immersion blender to puree, added a bit of butter).
Garnished with fresh cilantro and leaf lettuce (chiffonade).

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Sausage/Chorizo Skewers




Seasoned chicken sausage with: paprika, smoked paprika, ancho chile powder, onion powder, pepper. Cut into pieces. Wrapped each piece with a slice of cured chorizo. Grilled until heated through.
Served with brown rice in a slow cooker. For the cooking broth, I sauteed onion, carrot, celery (all small dice), and minced garlic in some olive oil and butter. Added water, let it reduce, added water again, reduced. Seasoned with poultry seasoning, thyme, salt & pepper, and a bay leaf. Added this to the rice cooker as the liquid, adding water to measure.
I served it on a bed of greens, Stan had ranch, I had mustard/honey/maple dressing.
With a side of no-knead bread.

No-Knead Bread



In a large bowl, I put some dry yeast (about 2 tsp?), flour, a bit of sugar, and a couple of cups of warm water. Let it do its thing on the counter for awhile. After it was bubbly, added more flour, olive oil, couple tsp. of salt, more flour, until thick like a muffin batter. I covered it with plastic wrap and it sat and did its thing some more....
I got the oven hot (425, convection), heated the dutch oven with lid as the oven warmed up. Took some coarse cornmeal and sprinkled on the bottom of the DO (think little ball bearings), dumped the dough in (after it had about doubled in size), put the lid on and let it bake until done. maybe 45 minutes?
After turning it out and it cooled some, I tapped/scraped the excess cornmeal off the bottom.
yum.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Pineapple Upside Down Cake






Make a caramel with brown sugar, butter, and a bit of corn syrup. I also put a bit of the pineapple juice in it, too. Boiled it for a minute or two, then put it in the cake pan. After it cooled some, I put the pineapple on top of it.
For the cake:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
dash of nutmeg
Sift the dry ingredients together. In another bowl, combine:
3 eggs
1 cup Greek yogurt (plain)
almost a cup of sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Don't over mix.
Bake in a 350 degree oven, for 50-55 minutes. Turn out onto a cake plate (with a lip so the caramel doesn't run over the edge.)
You can add cherries, too, but my husband doesn't like them, and I made the cake for Father's Day... he said it was great with aforementioned ice cream.

Honey/Maple Ice Cream



Used half-n-half, egg yolks, vanilla, sweetened with brown sugar, maple syrup, and honey.
Made a basic custard: heated the cream, added the sugars, beat the yolks, tempered with the hot cream, then stirred the yolk mixture into the hot cream. Cooked it until it coated the back of a spoon. Then poured in some heavy cream. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions.
Great with chocolate sauce and toasted almonds.

Honey Mustard Pork Chops


I had a bit of spicy brown mustard left in a bottle, added rice vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, and honey. I used some to marinate the chops, then grilled them. I used the dressing on the salad, too (stuff that was not used as a marinade.... no worries!).
Amazing.

Dried Fruit


We've had a dehydrator for awhile, and other than my husband using it to dry some food for his backpacking trips, we've never used it. Came home from vacation to find some cherries in the fridge that our daughter bought, she's out of town and I figured they'd go bad by the time she gets back, so.....
I got some blueberries on sale, along with some strawberries. And heck, those bananas sitting on the counter were crying out for attention. I sliced them and let them sit in lemon juice for a bit. I dragged my husband to the mall and bought a cherry pitter, great investment. After pitting the cherries, I sliced them in half. For the blueberries, I tossed them in some boiling water for a minute, drained them, then put them on the dryer racks. We bought a couple of mesh screens for the dryer. We've had cool evenings so ran the dehydrator overnight. It took about 12 hours.