Pulled Pork

I LOVE pulled pork. I don't exactly remember where this love affair began, but it's only been in my adult life. I almost always order it when it's presented on a menu and only a couple times has it ever left me wanting.
Browsing through the meat aisle the other day, there were these little cryo-vac packages of pork with a label that read "for pulled pork". With my re-invigorated crock pot usage in my head, I thought, can I do this in my crock pot? The answer, is YES! And it was De.Lic.Ious. Granted, this is not BBQ pulled pork, there is no smoking involved. Of course that adds another dimension to the dish that is amazingly good. Sadly, I have not yet taken the leap into backyard smoking (it's on my list), but until I do, this will satisfy any pulled pork urge I have.
To make this pulled pork I put a dry rub on the meat and let it set in the fridge overnight. My usually go-to dry rub is a recipe from Alton Brown's "Who Loves Ya Baby Back", which can easily be tweaked with whatever spices you prefer. Then I set it in the slow cooker (juices will be produced over night so make sure it's a vessel to catch those and go ahead and pour them in the cooker) on low for about 4 hours, until I pierced it with a fork and it fell apart. Then I pulled the pork with two forks and slathered with BBQ sauce. A bulkie roll is a great way to go with this, but I also like it on a green salad. Sounds weird, but I had it at a BBQ joint once and now I'm hooked.

Slow-Cooker Chicken: Mexican Style

A friend emailed me an easy slow cooker recipe for a Mexican pulled chicken dish. I was so happy to get some other ideas for the slow cooker which I mostly use for pot roast or beef stew (which, let's be honest are almost the same thing). The recipe is this: 4 chicken breasts, a jar of salsa, a can of black beans, and a can of corn. Dump in the slow cooker until the chicken shreds with a fork. I used a pineapple salsa which added a nice sweetness to the spiciness. I also used some frozen corn instead of canned corn. It took about 3 hours for the chicken to be easily shredded. I served it on a tortilla with some lettuce, scallions and cheese.

Not Your Average Sloppy Joe

I have been inspired by the Food Network show "Aarti's Party" which is the first show of the Next Food Network Star winner, Aarti. She is from India and some of her recipes are American favorites with an Indian twist. I purchased some Indian spices to be able to try some of her recipes, namely Turmeric, Cardamom, and Garam Masala (an Indian spice mix). She also uses a lot of fresh ginger and had a great tip that you can peel and grate or mince fresh ginger and freeze it in that form. This was super helpful because I don't use it all that often and would get frustrated throwing away half of "hand" of ginger.
You can see her Bombay Sloppy Joe recipe. I used it as inspiration, but changed it up quite a bit. Mostly because I didn't have a lot of the things she uses on hand (like pistachios and serrano peppers) and just to suit my own tastes (Raisins, Aarti? Really?). But that's the great thing about cooking! You see something you find interesting, use what you like, change what you don't. I loved the Indian spice twist that this recipe provided. I think this was my favorite batch of sloppy joes I've ever made.
I decided to do it all in one pot instead of cooking the meat and sauce in separate vessels. I also used ground beef instead of ground turkey, because that is just what was in the fridge. For the sauce, I like the depth and richness of tomato paste in my sloppy joes so I used that instead of tomato sauce, but then added a can of diced tomatoes for a brighter tomato flavor and variety of texture. I garnished with some Muenster cheese for some creaminess and spinach to add some texture and make it feel a little healthier :)

Happy Halloween!

So after you do this to your pumpkins:




You should definitely try this with the seeds!

This was my first attempt at roasting pumpkin seeds and they are so good! I can't believe I've never done it before. Plus, they are full of fiber and antioxidants. Go pumpkins!
There are lots of ways to approach this. First, obviously, you have to separate the seeds from the rest of the "pumpkin guts." Rinse them well. After that I found many ideas online including boiling them in salt water and then roasting, drying them for 24 hours before roasting, and various seasoning mixtures. I was too lazy for either the pre-boil or drying, so I just tossed them with some butter and olive oil and seasoning and put them in a 275 degree oven in a thin layer in a pan, stirring occasionally until they were lightly browned and crispy. I made two seasoning attempts- one with onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika and salt. The other with cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves and salt. I think I like my cinnamon/ginger combo better so far.
Happy Halloween!

Runner-Up Pie

 

I entered the Manard Farmer's Market apple pie contest this past weekend with this pie. It was the runner-up in the "Tastiest" category. The categories were "Prettiest", "Tastiest", "Most creative filling", and "Best crust". There were 25 pies entered. My pie used the Cooks Illustrated "Foolproof pie crust" recipe, which was great. It uses half water and half vodka as the wet ingredients because vodka doesn't make gluten with the flour like water does, creating a more tender crust. I highly recommend looking it up and trying it. For the filling, I used local ginger gold and cortland apples. I like my pie filling to be pretty spicy, so I use a healthy dose of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. One of the biggest dissapointments with apple pie can be cutting into it to reveal a watery mess. Two things can help this: 1) don't cut it hot!! Let it cool- I think it even best the morning/day after it has been cooked. 2) Use a binder in the filling- either flour or corn starch. I typically use flour in an apple pie (a tablespoon or two) and then dot the filling with butter before putting the top crust layer on. It's hard to gage how watery your apples are going to be, but the fresher they are, the more water content they usually have. Plus some varieties of apple just seem to be more watery than others- I've had trouble with macs in the water department.
Happy Pie baking!

Taking on a dreaded veggie

If you ask my Papa what vegetable I refused to eat as a child (though he did make me try them) he would easily answer, without much though I imagine, brussel sprouts. No offense Papa, but I think it had to do with the fact that they were frozen to start, boiled to mush, and no amount of slathered butter took away that cabbage flavor (something I also wasn't a huge fan of).
Recently, I have come to enjoy cabbage (both in slaw and boiled) and I decided it was time to take on this old-time hatred.
I remembered reading something a while ago with fresh brussel sprouts with bacon and I thought that sounded interesting. I mean, really, few things aren't made better with bacon, right? Perhaps it takes away from the "I'm healthy!" status of the dish, but hey, I'm trying to overcome a deep rooted disliking here.
Taking that memory of that dish, I decided to go all out with flavors and add shallots and apples to the dish. To start, I cut the bacon into little pieces and put them in a frying pan until they were crispy. I poured off the excess fat, and removed them to a plate with a paper towel. I added a little olive oil to the pan and added some sliced shallots and let them soften a bit before adding the sprouts. To prep the fresh sprouts, I peeled off the outermost layers of leaves, which are a nice dark green, but some were a little browned on the tips and I knew would be tougher. Then I cut them in half and added them to the pan and sprinkled with kosher salt. I covered the pan so that they would cook through faster and more evenly. Soon they were getting a beautiful caramelized crust on their flat sides and I added one Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced. Covered again to cook some more. When the sprouts were just about tender with a fork, I added the bacon back in, stirred a bit and put them out to serve.
This dish has everything! It's pleasing to the eye with the vivid green, rusty red and white. It has tons of texture with the leafy sprouts, soft apple and crunchy bacon. Plus it mixes sweet and salty in a way that is not jarring to the pallet.
I prefer the sprouts not crunchy, but in no way mushy. They need to still hold together and make you have to chew them. But of course, that is a matter of taste- you could eat them raw if you wanted or cooked to a paste. So experiment! And perhaps take a look back as some childhood aversions of your own.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Browned Butter

Ooooh.... sounds fancy! It's totally not. The sweet potato gnocchi was super easy. I didn't even use a food mill or strainer or anything for the potato, I just mashed it into the dumpling mixture. Other than a large sweet potato, the dough was flour, an egg, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. After they were boiled till they floated for a couple minutes, I put them in a pan with the sage browned butter to get a little color. Browned butter is just butter that has been cooked until it darkens in color and brings out an almost nutty flavor- just go slow and don't burn it! When the butter begins to brown, add whole sage leaves until they crisp and toss with the gnocchi.
The mix of spicy sweetness and savory herbness (that's not a word is it) was fantastic. The only thing I will change next time is the size of the gnocchi. I made them a bit too large. It was quite a mouthful.

I served these with some pork chops and homemade apple sauce. Too much brown for a well balanced plate, but still yummy!

Black Beans and Rice DuJour

I was stumped for dinner and turned to the pantry. I had some jasmine rice and saw a can of black beans. I'm sure real bean connoisseurs go with dry beans and do the whole overnight soaking and hour boiling thing, but having only discovered that beans are not evil recently, I haven't gone that far. Canned suits me just fine.
While cooking the rice per the package instructions, I sauteed some chopped onions and garlic in a pan with olive oil. Then I added some fresh spinach that I happened to have on hand in the fridge and let it wilt. I rinsed the beans well so they wouldn't "muddy" up the rice and added them to start heating. When the rice was done, I added that, and some butter. I finished it off with some salt, pepper, a "table blend" of seasonings and some cumin.
It was delicious, cheap, and it can be switched up in numerous ways. Today was spinach, next time... who knows?

Best. French toast. Ever.

I splurged on an expensive loaf of cinnamon swirl bread from Idylwilde. I've bought this before. It is sooooooo good. It's made within a couple days of purchase at the most and the ingredient list on the label has only a handful on things- mostly flour, eggs and cinnamon. I decided to use it for french toast this weekend and it was phenomenal. I sliced it thick and let it soak in my egg and half and half mixture (which also had a splash of vanilla extract added to it) for about an hour before putting it on the griddle. The end result was super flavorful and like a soft custard on the inside. Fantastic!

This is a vegetable?

I discovered spaghetti squash after seeing someone cook with it on TV. Basically, you just put it in the oven whole and when it's fork tender, cut it in half, remove the seeds and then use the fork to pull the spaghetti-like insides out. My first time cooking it, I did not cook it enough and the insides were not letting go of the sides, and what I did get out was still crunchy. Properly cooked, it comes out easily and is only slightly more "al dente" than pasta. At first I went simple with some butter and parmesan cheese, which is quite tasty. This time I decided to take it up a notch and see how far this squash could substitute for pasta. I found these gorgeous, thin, fresh asparagus on sale and made a cream sauce for these two veggies to swim in. I prepared the asparagus but breaking the ends off with my hands (the spear will let you know where the end gets tough if you just hold it by each end and bend it in the middle till it snaps) and steaming them until just tender with a fork. This dish was rich enough to be a main course, and also reheated quite well. Plus, it was really nutritious (aside from a bit of fat and calories with the cream sauce, but that could easily be cut down). Here is info on all the good things about asparagus http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2316/2
and spaghetti squash
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2655/2.
Suffice it to say, you get a lot less calories, more fiber and vitamins with two veggies than pasta. I think I'll let the cream sauce sneak by ;)

Scallop Scampi(ish)

At the seafood counter today they had nice looking scallops on sale. I hadn't cooked scallops in a long time so I was inspired. When I got home I looked around and came up with a game plan for them. I started with scampi style over angel hair pasta as my jumping off point. Then I thought some color and added veggie would be more appealing visually and texturally, not to mention, add some nutritional value. My hand passed a can of diced tomatoes in the cabinet and I grabbed that, and I remembered an opened bag of fresh spinach in the fridge. The dish then came together in my head.

First I put some butter and olive oil in a skillet and added some finely chopped garlic. Then I added the scallops and browned them on both sides. I added some white wine and squeezed half a lemon into it. After that, I put in the can of diced tomatoes (drained) and the fresh spinach and cooked it all till the spinach wilted and the tomatoes were heated through. I wanted it to thicken slightly, so I added a bit of flour and stirred vigorously to avoid lumps. I seasoned the dish Old Bay, seasoning salt and pepper and then tossed with the pasta.

It was very pretty on the plate. If I were to go back and change something, I would have just seared the scallops off first and removed them from the pan, then built my sauce and added them back in with the spinach and tomatoes. They didn't get quite enough crust on them for my taste and were slightly overdone by the time the rest of the dish came together. Instead of tossing the pasta with the sauce, you could certainly put the pasta on the plate first and then lay the sauce over it.

Leftover Cold Cuts

We had a party this past weekend that included a big cold cut platter from the deli. We had ample leftovers. After eating about a dozen sandwiches, I was hunting for ideas to use the more of them up that didn't involve two pieces of bread and mayo. I decided on breakfast for dinner! I used ham and cheese in the frittata and pastrami in the hash. Breakfast for dinner is always fun, easy, and for some reason just easier to wrap my head around making after a long day than a traditional dinner. The hash also let me use up some leftover vegetable crudite as well. Hash is great like that- it's a good catch-all.

When a potato is a meal

I have a memory of having twice baked potatoes at my Aunt Kris's house when I was visiting for an overnight when I was in middle school and loving them. As I've mentioned before, I love potatoes with a passion. This treatment takes the potato into main course territory because it is so filling and has nearly every food group in it! I've had trouble in the past with how long to cook the potato in the first baking and in scooping it out to create the filling. I initially figured I should slightly under cook the potato at first, as I would macaroni for a baked ziti for example- leaving some of the cooking for the second time around to avoid a mushy mess. This is not the way to go with twice baked potatoes because if they are still "crunchy" at all when you pull them to scoop them out, you can't mash the potato properly and the end result, even when baked the second time, ends up being lumpy with harder, not quite cooked enough, pieces. My second mistake was scooping out the potato too much- leaving barely more than the skin. If you do that, the potato loses shape and can topple and make a mess. You need to leave a good lip of potato intact all around the skin.
With those tips in mind, here's how I did my twice baked potatoes.
Rub the potato with olive oil and sprinkle with Kosher salt before baking on a cookie sheet until they are easily pierced with a fork. Do NOT cover your potatoes with aluminum foil. You will steam them, and the skin will not crisp at all. That crispy, salted skin is one of the best parts!
When the potatoes are done, cut them in half and let them sit for a few minutes, just until they are cool enough to handle. Then carefully scoop out the meat of the potato, leaving a good amount all around the skin to hold their shape and give them the strength to hold the filling.
Put the potato insides in a bowl and then the sky's the limit with filling additions. I went relatively traditional here, with crisp bacon pieces, scallions, sour cream, butter, shredded cheese, salt and pepper. I've seen recipes that add chopped shrimp, crab, chicken, and others, so use your imagination.
Put the filled potato halves back in the oven until heated through and enjoy!

Harvest Moon Pancakes

Erik made the name up for these. They are our favorite weekend breakfast at this point. It's a simple pancake mix (Bisquick Heart Smart to be exact) which I make as directed except with Buttermilk instead of plain milk, and then add about a cup of canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and then blueberries. They are soooo yummy, filling and have some extra vitamins from the berries and pumpkin. What's not to like?!
I have also used cooked, pureed butternut squash, and cooked, pureed or mashed sweet potato as additions to pancakes. Both are good too. So go experiment with your pancakes this weekend and enjoy!

Ever Hot Soup

Erik coined the phrase "Ever hot soup" for this. It has to do with the potatoes really- they hold their heat so well, he's nearly burned his tongue after thinking he let it cool enough.
I've been making this soup for a few years now. The recipe came from Kathleen Daelmans from a Food Network show called Cooking Thin. It is a low fat, healthy soup that makes a very satisfying meal on a cold day. It also only uses one pot, which is great for weeknight meal cleanup. I _never_ would have thought about steaming/poaching fish on top of a soup before I saw her show about it. Before this dish, in my mind, white fish = fried with fries. This soup turned that around for me.
I am sure I've altered the recipe a bit through making it over and over again- sort of like playing telephone with myself- but here's how I do it. To begin, you saute some chopped onion until it's soft and then add some chopped garlic (in a pot you can make the rest of the soup in). Then you add a can of stewed tomatoes (which you can chop up into smaller chunks if they are big half-tomatoes), about 2lbs of either red bliss or other boiling potatoes, chopped into bite-sized chunks and enough chicken stock or broth to cover the potatoes. Add some salt, dried herbs of your choice (I usually go with some oregano and maybe basil), and if you want a little kick, some red pepper flakes. Let this come to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are _almost_ done. At that point, lay a whole cod fillet (you could probably use haddock too, the original recipe just called for cod so that's why I've always used) on top of the soup and cover until the fish has turned opaque and starts to flake apart.
I finished the meal off with some garlic bread this time and it was a wonderfully comforting Winter meal, without the guilt of some of my usual "comfort foods."

For you, I'll make an exception

I invented a new salad this week that has challenged my usual preferences in salad. Previously, I have been prejudice against salads with fruit involved. I liked my salads savory, and don't go near me with Raspberry Vinaigrette. Recently, though, we had a friend visit who brought a salad that had pomegranate seeds in it and where I normally would have shunned such an offering (on a restaurant menu, say), I tried it because I wanted to be appreciative of my guest. I was shocked at how much I actually enjoyed it! I am a fan of pomegranate, so that wasn't a breakthrough, but to have it on mesclun greens was all new to me. This inspired me to branch out of my comfort zone and make a green salad that utilized fruit for myself. I remembered a salad that was popular in restaurants in recent years that had Granny Smith apples, gorganzola and walnuts. I took that as a jumping off point. I don't like walnuts much, so I went with cashews instead. The Granny Smiths sounded good, and I love gorganzola, plus I wanted to go with the pomegranate seeds again. To dress the salad I made my own "apple vinaigrette." I used apple cider vinegar, a splash of apple juice, a pinch of sugar, salt, pepper, some oregano and then drizzled in the olive oil while whisking to create an emulsion. The dressing turned out really well, and thickened nicely after a lot of whisking. This is something I will definitely experiment with more in the future (although I still wouldn't say I'm a big fan of the raspberry version). I may never buy another bottle of vinaigrette again!

It Brings a Tier to my Eye

Papa gave me a set of 3-inch tall, round cake pans in sizes 8, 10, 12 and 14 inch for Christmas. I have been watching a lot of Cake Boss lately, and fancy myself a baker. I had to try out my new found affinity to see what I could accomplish. First, I needed some more hardware, so I purchased a large off set spatula, a set of spatulas/groomers that can do fun lines in the side of cakes if you want, or are just good for smoothing, and a turn table to put the cake on and spin it to make frosting easier. I figured, if this is going to be a new hobby, I might as well go all-out.
I knew I wanted to do a pound cake for stability and a butter cream frosting. I researched some recipes, and found the frosting recipe in another Christmas gift (Thank you, Becky)- The New Best Recipe book by Cooks Illustrated. I went to the grocery store and bought _A LOT_ of baking pantry items. I didn't actually need them all for this particular cake, but the pile of them looked impressive on the counter.
Thankfully, my pans came with a handy chart of how much batter and frosting you need for each size pan. I figured out I needed two batches of the pound cake recipe and frosting recipe to do the job. I think I ended up spending almost $10 on butter alone!

The cake recipe was pretty straight forward. I love the use of sour cream in pound cake, and did I mention the butter? I could tell from stealing a lick on the spatula it was going to be good- provided I didn't over cook it. I had never cooked in 3-inch pans before so I was a bit nervous. Once again, my handy chart proved very useful to give me a ballpark to work with. What surprised me though, was that the 10-inch only took a few minutes longer than the 8-inch. I had expected more of a difference there, but it's possible my 8-inch was just _slightly_ overdone.
The real fun (and new territory for me) began with the butter cream frosting. What a fun chemistry experiment in the kitchen! The first step involves whisking eggs and sugar together in a double boiler until it reaches 160 degrees to cook the eggs. You have to keep whisking constantly (although not terribly fast) to avoid having scrambled eggs. When you do it right, it turns into this gorgeous creamy substance that only gets better after a spin in the kitchen aid (which also cools it down to room temperature- important before adding the butter). I was enthralled by my beautiful creation.
Then you add the butter in, a table spoon at a time while the machine in running. Halfway through (one whole stick added), my lovely, smooth mixture became a disgusting looking, curdled mess.

But that's okay! In fact, thankfully, or I might have started crying at this point, the book warned me of this happening. Just keep adding the butter and magically, that smooth consistency returns, only thicker and stands up on the whisk instead of ribboning off. This is why I love cooking so much.
When the cakes were cooled, it was time for frosting. First, I cut the cakes in half so I could add a layer of chocolate frosting (just from a can, it was a last minute decision and I happened to have a can in my pantry) in the middle. Then, I leveled off the tops of the cakes (as best I could eye ball anyway). Next, it was time for the "crumb layer" of frosting. This is the first layer of frosting to keep all the cake crumbs in so that your next layer can be all pretty. This is important after shaving off the tops of the cakes to level them because that natural crusty outer protection is gone on top and it's crumbs gone wild underneath! I found the butter cream to be a bit soft and was worried I wouldn't get anywhere near a smooth finish in the next layer, but after the cake was in the fridge to "set up" a bit after the crumb layer, the second layer went on easier.
To build the cake, I cut out a piece of cardboard the size of the top layer and covered it with aluminum foil and sat the smaller layer on that. I cut straws the height of the bottom layer and put 5 in the middle. I was going to do wooden dowels, but 1) I forgot to buy them and 2) it was only a two-tier and the pound cake was dense enough to hold some weight on its own. Once both cakes were frosted, I plopped the top one on the bottom. Admittedly, I missed slightly, as it wasn't perfectly centered. Then I decided to practice with my star tip on my pastry bag. I figure the only way to be able to produce the perfect little star every time is do practice... a lot. So here is my "Stars Gone Wild" two-tiered cake.

Here's to you, 2009!

We spent a quiet evening at home for New Year's Eve (two small kids will do that to you). As I looked back on this year, I contemplated one cocktail that I would like to say goodbye to it with. I decided on a Cosmopolitan. Sadly, I didn't have Cointreau, so used Triple Sec instead. I also make it slightly heavy on the cranberry juice, as I'm a light weight drinker. It was very festive, though, and a great way to hold up a glass to 2009! Happy New Year!