Sweet Barbacoa Pork

I love this dish.

The first time I explained it to my husband, he said he’d try it, but he tried to bargain with me for a pizza as needed if he did not like it. That’s fine, it’s the deal we have. We’ve only ever ordered a pizza once, and that was when I forgot to cook chicken before putting it into a dish that required it to be pre-cooked. Ooops.

Anyway, this dish is fabulous. You should make it, and it’s super convenient because you’re going to use your crockpot! It does have a 2-step cooking process, but it is worth it. I recommend making both the marinade and the sauce at the same time and putting the sauce in the fridge so it’s ready to go.

Feel free to do something more interesting with the rice and beans. I usually just do a packet of brown rice from Trader Joe’s and a can of black beans. I have been known to spice the black beans with salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, and a little bit of the sauce. It isn’t the prettiest dish, but what it lacks in appearance it makes up for in sheer awesome.

Sweet Barbacoa Pork
From Skinny Taste

Ingredients:

Marinade
2.5 lbs pork shoulder, most of the fat removed
6oz Coke Zero
1/4 cup brown sugar
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
1/4 cup water (set aside)

Sauce
8oz Coke Zero
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 can green chilis
8oz tomato sauce
1 chili in adobo sauce
1/8 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder

Directions:

The night before, marinade the pork shoulder in the marinade minus the water. You can marinade it in the crock pot dish, should you desire. In the morning, add the water. Turn it on low for 8 hours.

Remove the pork shoulder form the crock pot and put on a cutting board. Shred with 2 forks or your fingers, don’t burn yourself! Discard the cooking liquid and put the pork back in the crockpot.

Add the sauce to the pork and mix. Heat for 30 min at minimum, the original recipe suggests 90 minutes.

Serve over rice and black beans.

Fair warning, this makes enough for 3 dinners for my husband and I!

Ginger Peach Pork Stir-fry

I love pork because it is so versatile. I’ve seen it stuffed with sweet apples, savory cheeses. I’ve seen it rubbed with spices and grilled. I’ve seen it cut into pieces and put into casserole. And I’ve seen it in the most amazing Asian dishes. Asian pork often thinly sliced and marinated for hours.

In my organic food delivery today from Door to Door Organics, I received 3 gorgeous yellow peaches. It took every ounce of me to ignore them until dinnertime. I was in the mood for a sweet dish and I’ve been greatly inspired by Asian cuisine recently. Some internet research brought me to the idea of a ginger and peach stirfry. I never found a recipe I quite liked, so this recipe is a mashup of many.

Ginger Peach Pork Stir-fry

Ingredients:

3 peaches
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
1 lemon
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 medium onion, sliced
3 center cut pork chops
Other veggies (broccoli, green pepper, carrots, etc) as you’d like
Peanut oil
Flour
Rice or Noodles

Directions:

Slice the pork against the grain, place into a shallow dish. Add the juice of the lemon, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic powder. Allow to marinate for 1 to 24 hours.

Pictured with the onions immediately prior to cooking (do not marinate onions)

Cook your rice or noodles.

Take your peaches and slice them off the pit. Carefully remove the skins using a sharp knife. In a saucepan or shallow frying pan, heat a small amount of oil and add the peaches, sugar, and a portion of the water. Over medium-low heat, cook the peaches slowly, adding water as it evaporates. Cook until the peaches are a uniform darker yellow color and are slightly softened (see pictures).

Slice onion and other vegetables. *NOTE* If cooking carrots, add the carrots to the heated oil first, before the meat.

Heat the peanut oil in your wok until spitting. Add the meat and marinade along with onions. Cook 1-2 minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables. After another 2-3 minutes, add the peaches and flour, allow to thicken.

Serve over rice or noodles.

BBQ Pork Puff Pastry

I don’t know about you, but whenever I make bbq pulled pork, I always have way way too much. There’s only 2 of us, and even 1/2 a shoulder makes too much food. I send it with my husband for lunch for a few days, but I always waste some. I dislike having 2 of the same dinners in the same week, so the leftovers go bad. This time, I decided to get creative. This dish was inspired by Dim Sum style food, though it is not strictly Asian. The traditional BBQ flavors are there, but we’re going to accent the dish with some Asian influence.

Now, I don’t think my pastries were supposed to puff up as much as they did, but I honestly couldn’t tell you why they did this. Either way, they were DELICIOUS! Enjoy.

BBQ Pork Puff Pastry

Ingredients:

Appx. 300g leftover pulled pork
1 small onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tsp sesame seed oil
Black Pepper, Salt to taste
Peanut Oil
1/4 cup water
2 tsp corn starch
Sesame seeds

1 pack puff pastry sheets (2 sheets)
1 egg + 1 tbsp water

Directions:

Heat the peanut oil in your pan, then sauté the onion until translucent. Add the pork, soy sauce, sesame seed oil, and salt/pepper. Heat for 3-4 minutes, then add the water and corn starch. Heat until thickened, then place the mixture in a new container in the fridge for 30 minutes.

During this time, remove the puff pastry sheets from the freezer and allow to thaw (about 30 minutes). Now preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly beat the egg and 1 tbsp water for an egg wash. Then, lightly flour your work surface and spread out the doughs. Cut each dough into approximately 6 pieces, or 4″x5″ sections.

Once the pork mixture is cool, place approximately 2 tbsp of the pork on the center of the dough.

Using a brush, cover the edges of the dough around the meat with the egg was, then fold the dough over the meat. Use a fork and press down on the edges of the dough to seal the pastry.

Brush the pastry with egg wash, then sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees, then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Grilled Pork Chops

This isn’t exactly a new recipe to anyone. It barely qualifies as interesting. But it was still good, and I firmly believe that pork is an under-rated meat. My wonderful husband, who dislikes most pork dishes, absolutely loved this. He even described it as juicy. I considered it a win. This pork is a center-cut boneless chop which is served on my Entirely Local Mashed Potatoes (local potatoes, local dairy which provided milk, butter, and sour cream – but only a bit of each, got to keep this stuff healthy!).

Grilled Pork Chops

Ingredients:
1 tbsp Lowry’s Seasoning Salt
2 tsp crushed black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
Olive Oil

Directions: Sprinkle the seasonings onto the meat, stab each piece with a fork a few times. Allow to sit and come up to room temp. Spritz with olive oil just before going on the grill. Serve.

Street-Style Tacos

What are street-style tacos? They’re also known as cantina tacos, or some know them as just plain tacos. They are a little more “authentic” Mexican, or at least that is what I am told. Every Friday, my department at work goes to Mexican Town, which is an area of Detroit near the Canadian border where there are countless Mexican restaurants. We’ve really discovered 2 styles. The first is what I’d term a more “common” Mexican food. Enchiladas, tacos, burritos, all with cheese and rice and beans on the side. Then there are the smaller, hole-in-the-wall places that serve al la carte tacos. For $1.25 you can get a taco with meat, onions, cilantro, and salsa. That’s it. We’ve seen a lot of meat, ranging from chicken, beef, and pork to tripe and cow tongue!

Now, I am not very brave. Plus, I don’t like cilantro (my boss calls me the worst foodie ever, which is probably true). Nonetheless, I absolutely love this style of taco. The onions and salsa have a totally different flavor than a taco with lettuce, tomato, and cheese. The other primary difference is that these tacos tend to be served on smaller, corn tortillas.

This is my take on the style. My husband loved them, though he did cheat and add a little sour cream. We served the tacos with corn on the cob from our organic delivery, and the sour cream is from our local farm.

Street-Style Chicken Tacos

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cut into very small pieces
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
Salsa of your choice, though I recommend a thinner salsa like a picante
Corn tortillas
Fresh Cilantro, chopped (just don’t bring it to my house)
Cumin
Chili powder
Cayenne pepper
Garlic powder
Salt, pepper
EVOO

Directions:
Mix the spices and the raw chicken in a bowl, allow to marinate for about 30 minutes. Heat the olive oil until spitting, then add the chicken. Cook until done completely.

While the chicken is cooking, heat a flat griddle pan and coat in olive oil. Place the tortillas on the heated pan. Serve the hot tortillas with the chicken, fresh onion and cilantro, top with salsa.

Oven Fried Lemon Garlic Chicken

Don’t let the long title scare you, this recipe is easy and delicious. We were in the mood for something crispy but not strictly fried. My husband even ate the leftovers cold the next day and was already asking for it again! Enjoy.

Oven Fried Lemon Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
2 cloves garlic or 1 tbsp garlic powder
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp parsley, dried or fresh
3 chicken breasts or 5 chicken thighs, boneless
Cooking Spray

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the garlic and lemon. Allow to sit for a few minutes, stirring, and remove from heat once it is completely melted. Place on a hotpad on the counter (no need to dirty another dish here).

Mix the bread crumbs and spices in another bowl. Dredge the chicken in the butter followed by the panko mixture. Place on a greased cooking sheet. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees.

Chicken Tikka Masala

This was my second attempt at homemade Indian food. If you remember last time, the dish came out super bland, and I had to go back and re-spice to make it edible. Well, it looks like this time I used a bit too much of a heavy-hand… the final dish ended up about a medium plus! OOPS! Now, we tend to like things at a medium, so it was still edible, we just need to supplement the meal with milk.

I did not love the textures in this dish, it felt to creamy and with no real feel to it besides the chicken. I’d substitute the tomato puree with diced tomatoes instead.

Enjoy!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients:
1 cup plain yogurt
3 chicken thighs, bone and skin removed
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chili pwoder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp corriander
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cayenne
8oz can tomato puree
1 medium onion, cut julienne
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp fresh ginger
1 cup cream
2 tsp mustard seed
More spices (chili powder, garam masala, corrainder, cardamom, tumeric, cayenne, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin)
Fresh Cilantro (omitted)
EVOO
Cooked rice or nan

Directions:
Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces. You really want to use thighs here, the meat is more tender and absorbs the flavor better. Every Indian person will tell you that. Marinate the chicken in the yogurt and the spices listed and the lemon juice. Leave for at least 2 hours, though overnight is best.

In a deep saute pan, heat about 3 tbsp oil until hot. Add the mustard seed and some crushed black peppercorns. Heat 3-5 minutes or until the seeds start to pop, much like popcorn. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger, then heat until the onions are carmalized and brown.

Add the tomato puree (if you’re using the diced tomatoes, let them saute for about 5 minutes for canned, 10 for fresh). Then add the marinated chicken and all of the yogurt. Additionally, add more spices at this time. Use your discretion as to how much, but the rule of thumb is:

For more flavor overall, use cumin, garam masala, corriander, cumin, salt, garlic
For more spice, use cayenne, chili powder, black pepper

Heat for 20-30 minutes on med-low until the chicken is cooked through. Use a meat thermometer if you’re not sure. Add the cream and allow to cook for 10 more minutes. Check the spices again and adjust as necessary.

Serve over rice or with nan. Top with fresh cilantro.

Beef and Snow Peas

Today was my bi-weekly organic produce delivery. Inside the cooler was a small bag of snow peas, which inspired a dinner. Stir fry, for some reason, intimidates me. I guess the sauce always ends up a bit bitter and I don’t enjoy it. While my steak defrosted, I found a few tips online that I will now share with you.

Beef and Snow Peas

Ingredients:

1 8oz NY Strip Steak
1/4 lb snow peas
3 green onions
2 dried spicey peppers
3 gloves garlic
1 tbsp dried minced onion
2 tbsp sugar, divided
Salt, pepper to taste
3 tbsp soy sauce, divided
2 tbsp rice vinegar
Dash tobasco sauce
4 tbsp peanut oil

White rice, cooked

Directions:
Slice the steak against the grain into thin pieces and place on a plate or shallow bowl. Mince the garlic and add to the steak along with the minced onion, 1 tbsp sugar, salt/pepper, 2 tbsp soy sauce, tobasco sauce. Place in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes but no more than 2 hours.

Cook the rice, wait until almost done. Heat the peanut oil in the wok to spitting, then add the snow peas and dried peppers for 2-3 minutes.

Remove from the heat (leave the peppers) and then add the steak. Add to the wok 1 more tbsp soy sauce, rice vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar. The sauce will become a bit cloudy and thicken slightly. Cook for a minute, then add the snow peas back and the green onion.

Remove the peppers and serve.

TIPS FOR A BITTER-LESS STIR FRY
*Use sugar to sweeten
*Orange juice as part of the marinade will tenderize the meat even more and provide the sweetness required
*Carrots and onions can also balance a bitter sauce

Homemade Pasta Sauce, Take 2

I made homemade pasta sauce once before, but I wasn’t in love with it. I think it was the tomatoes I used that time (basic garden tomatoes, too watery and flavorless). This time I used about 9 organic roma tomatoes plus a can of tomato paste (mostly for thickening and color, since the romas are lighter red and the sauce looked odd, almost like vodka sauce).

This time I also made it a meat sauce. It turned out fantastic! As usual, I tend to spice things up because I like spice. This time I used cayenne, red jalapenos, and crushed red pepper to add a kick. It was maybe a 3 out of 10, so mild enough for most to enjoy.

And as a bonus, I got to use my immersion blender!

Homemade Pasta Sauce, Take 2

Ingredients (makes about 8 servings)

9 roma tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 can (small) tomato sauce
1lb ground beef
1 medium onion
5-6 cloves garlic
EVOO

The following to taste:
Italian seasoning
Oregano
Basil
Garlic powder
Cayenne pepper
Crushed red pepper
Black pepper
Kosher salt

Pasta

Directions:

First thing we need to do is remove the skins from the tomatoes. Bring a medium sized pan full of water to a boil. Set a bowl of icewater on the side.

While you wait for the water to boil, chop the onion and garlic to a fine mince, though if you like your onion pieces bigger, you’re welcome to do so.

Once the water is at a steady and rapid boil, drop a tomato into the boiling water and watch until it sinks. Then pull it out and place it in the icewater for a few moments, until cool enough to touch. Remove the skins of the tomato, it should slide right off. Complete this will all of your tomatoes.

Using a tomato knife, or any other smaller knife you have good control with, remove the tops and then slice the tomato in half. Carefully, use the knife to scrape out the seeds and watery parts of the inside of the tomato. Then, over the sink, squeeze the tomato to remove as much of the seeds and water as possible. Place the tomato in a strainer to allow it to continue draining. Do this for each of your tomatoes. Remember, seeds make it bitter, so get as many out as you can!

It is now decision making time. Do you like your sauce with chunks of tomato or mostly smooth? If you want a more textured, chunky sauce, you will want to dice almost all of your tomatoes. If you want a smoother sauce, you will want to use a blender, immersion blender, or food processor to pulverize your tomatoes. I personally went for a 2:1 pulverized to diced ratio, resulting in a perfect sauce where my husband can’t find the chunks of tomato but I still get a bit of texture. Dice the tomatoes and while you’re at it, dice the red jalapeno peppers if you’re using them. Also, if anyone can tell me why there were carrots in my can of red peppers, you will be my hero.

If you’re going to blend/pulverize your tomatoes, place them in your kitchen gadget of choice and add a bit of olive oil.

Now, it is cooking time. Add some EVOO to a pan and heat. Add the onions and garlic to the oil and cook until soft and slightly browned. Add the ground beef and season with your spices, about 2/3 of your intended amount (you will add more to the sauce later). Once the beef is mostly browned, add the diced tomatoes and heat for 5 minutes.

Once heated, add all of the rest of your tomatoes including the canned paste and sauce. The sauce here was mostly for color, you can eliminate it if your tomatoes provide the right color. The paste is necessary to thicken the sauce.

Now add the rest of your spice and allow to simmer for at least 1 hour.

Remember, the most important part of making a sauce is adjusting on the fly. If you taste your sauce and it is too… well, anything… you CAN save it! Here are my hints for enhancing or even rescuing a doomed sauce:

My sauce is….

Too bland – Add more spices, start with garlic and Italian seasoning, if you want more kick… CAYENNE!
Too spicy – Add another can of tomato sauce or a can of diced tomatoes
Too bitter – Add a tablespoon or 2 of brown sugar, bitter sauces are common
Too sweet – Add another can of tomato paste, the concentrated acid will help immensely
I burned it – Good job. Don’t worry, I’ve done this too. To save it, you can do any of the following:
*Peel a potato, add the whole thing to the sauce, let it sit for about an hour, keep stirring it
*Add 2-3 pieces of toast to the sauce, allow them to sit on top or slightly submerged for 20-30 min
*Add 3-4 tbsp peanut butter. I am not lying.

So now that you’ve saved your sauce, let it simmer. Honestly, it could simmer for 4-5 hours and still be great. Whenever you’re ready to eat, boil your pasta and serve with a little bit of cheese on top.

Enjoy!

Buffalo and Blue Burgers

I’ve personally eaten buffalo and bison meat in the past and I find it to be delicious. I really enjoy it in burger form, but it is best suited for chili and pasta, where its natural early flavor can compliment the italian or chili spices. It is a leaner meat, so it is a bit healthier. Locally, I can get it a few places, but I’m hoping my organic produce delivery will offer it as an option in the coming months.

My husband wanted to try buffalo meat in burger form first, so I made some basic burgers with blue cheese. They are delicious! Enjoy!

Buffalo and Blue Burgers

Ingredients:
Buffalo meat, I had .6 lbs for 2 burgers of good size
Blue cheese
Buns
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix the buffalo meat with the salt and pepper and any other spices you’d like to use. Garlic would be good, and cayenne pepper. Pat the meat into burger form, then use your fingers to depress the center. This will prevent the meat from fluffing up in the middle, creating more of a burger-meatball.

Heat your grill or stovetop grillpan to medium heat and allow a few minutes to heat completely. You want the burgers to sizzle when you put them on. Place the burgers on the grill and cook on each side for 3-5 minutes depending upon how done you want them. Use a meat thermometer for acurate internal temperatures.

While the burgers cook, cut up or crumble the blue cheese:

Serve with lettuce, tomato, and other toppings as you’d like!