Thai Inspired Meal

Tonight’s dinner is Thai inspired. I have coconut milk braised pork tenderloin, sesame peanut noodles, and stir fry bok choy. The pork is one of my husband’s favorite things and my dad taught the basics of the dish to me, but I add some extras that he does not bother with.

Thai Inspired Pork Tenderloin

1 3-4 pound pork tenderloin
1 can of coconut milk
1 tablespoon of lime zest
2 tablespoon of chopped cilantro
1 sliced Thai chili pepper
1teaspoon of sesame oil
Salt and Pepper to season

Heat oven to 200-250 degrees F., while oven is heating in add oil to skillet and heat until almost smoking. In the hot skillet brown tenderloin on all sides. Place tenderloin in a dutch oven or covered casserole dish add coconut milk, lime zest, half of cilantro, and chili pepper. Cover and place in oven for 2-4 hours. Meat should be fork tender, but not so well done that it has lost its shape. Slice into ½ inch thick portions and serve with some of the cooking liquid, garnish with cilantro.

Serve with spicy Thia peanut noodles and stir fry bok choy and red pepper.

Chinese Food Ala Trader Joe’s

Tonight I needed a quick fix meal. So I went to my old standby Trader Joe’s and got some Mandarin Orange Chicken. I like my food a bit spicier than what they offer so I put the sauce on low and added 2-3 tablespoons of red pepper flakes and set the sauce to simmer while the chicken baked in the oven. I made some rice and steamed some green beans and added almond silvers. In about 30 minutes dinner was ready. I hope that you enjoy your meal tonight.

Carne Asada for Rena

Carne Asada

1 Flank Steak or other thin cut steak
1 cup of orange juice or enough to cover steak
2 green onions chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 Tablespoons of Tapitio
1 onion diced
1 bunch of chopped cilantro
corn tortillas
3 limes, sliced

Place OJ, green onions, and Tapitio in a dish, taste to see if you want more hot sauce, add steak and cover for 1 to 3 days. Heat grill on high and cook steak until just done. Slice with a pizza cutter into strips. Serve with diced onion, chopped fresh cilantro, warm corn tortillas, and lime slices. Enjoy.

For Rena

I was asked to add some recipes by Rena so here they are...

Pork Carnitas

1 Pork shoulder/Boston butt under 10 lbs.
1 jar of Safeway brand Salsa Verde
1/2 onion diced
1 lime cut in half

In a crock pot place pork, onion, lime juice, lime halves, and Salsa Verde. Cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. When done shred meat. Place shredded meat in pan and add juices from crock pot trying not to get any of the "chunks" of onion. Place in oven at 425 degrees F for 20 minutes, turn and brown meat again. Serve and enjoy this low fat version of a Mexican classic.

4 year old Favorite's Meal

This was not dinner tonight, but this is a meal that my 4 year old has been asking for since I made it. I have modified this recipe from delish.com http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/pork-stir-fry since I hate ginger. Give this recipe a try I am sure that you will love the addition of the zucchini to any stir fry.

Pork and Vegetable Stir-Fry
Serves: 4 Yields: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 package of thin cut pork chops, about 12-oz., thinly sliced
1 cup(s) (reduced-sodium) chicken broth
2 tablespoon(s) teriyaki sauce
2 teaspoon(s) canola oil
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
8 ounce(s) snow peas, strings removed, fresh or frozen
1 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise , in half and thinly sliced crosswise
3 green onions, cut into 3-inch pieces
Directions
1. Toss pork with garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix broth, teriyaki sauce and soy sauce in a cup; set aside.
2. In a nonstick 12-inch skillet, warm 1 tsp. oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add snow peas, zucchini and green onions, and stir-fry until lightly browned and tender-crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer vegetables to large bowl.
3. In the same skillet, heat remaining 1 tsp. oil; add pork mixture and stir-fry until pork just loses its pink color, about 3 minutes. Transfer pork to bowl with vegetables.
4. Stir sauce mixture to blend; add to skillet and heat to boiling. Boil until sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Return pork and vegetables to skillet, stir to combine with sauce and heat through. Serve with rice, if you like.

Souper Sunday

Today I made two soups. One was based (I only added the toppings) on recipe that the super friendly Wayne, the food taster the Newport News Trader Joe's made. Here is my version of his Soy Chorizo Corn Chowder.

1 package of soy chorizo
1 carton of Trader Joe's creamy corn and roasted red pepper soup
1 can of black beans
1 can of corn
1/3 cup of diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
4 teaspoons of Mexican Crema

1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro


Brown chorizo in soup pot. Add rest of ingredients to pot. Simmer on low for half-hour. Serve garnishing with cheese, red bell pepper and crema. Serve and enjoy.

This made a great lunch and gave me some ideas for new recipes.

Dinner tonight was Clam Chowder. I have to work on my recipe a little, but I should be posting it soon. I love a thick clam chowder and in my opinion have almost got this down. I hope that you enjoy your dinner tonight.

Osso Bucco

So, if there is a way for me to burn the crap out of myself while cooking I will find it. I recieved a great set of stainless steal cookware for Christmas, and decied to use it to make my Osso Bucco. After removing it from the oven, I grabbed the handle with bare hands, thankfully I only got burned on my thumb and index finger, but ouch, stailess steal in a 375 degree oven for two hours if f-ing hot! Anyway, the meal came out great and it was not only well worth my time, it was worth the burn too. Here is my recipe, if you try it I hope that you enjoy it as much as my family and I did.

Osso Bucco

Ingredients:

4-6 veal shanks
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter
2 medium carrots, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tablespoons of fresh thyme leaves
2 cups of tomato sauce
2 cups of beef stock
2 cups of dry white wine

Preheat oven to 375˚ F. Generously salt and pepper veal shanks. In a large stock pot or dutch oven heat olive oil and butter until butter browns. Place shanks in pan and brown for about 5 minutes on each side. Remove shanks and place to side. Reduce heat to medium and add carrots, onion, celery, thyme, and garlic, cook stirring regularly until onions are golden and all vegetables are softened. Add tomato sauce, beef stock, and wine, bring to a boil. Place veal shanks back into pan, making sure that meat is covered at least ¾ of the way. If meat is not covered, add more stock. Cover pan and place in oven for 2 hours or until meat is falling off the bone. Remove meat from pan and cover with tin foil to keep warm. Place pan on burner and reduce mixture until thick and sauce like about 20-30 minutes. While sauce is reducing make Risotto Milanese and gremolata.

Plate by putting risotto on plate, place sauce on top, add meat, and gremolata and enjoy.

Gremolata

Zest of 1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped Italian parsley

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle on top of osso bucco.

Mario Baltali’s Risotto Milanese

¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into ¼ -inch dice
1 teaspoon if Saffron threads
2 cups of Arborio Rice
4 cups of chicken stock (I used 6)
4 tablespoons of butter
½ cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

In a 12-to-14 inch skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook unitl softened and translucent, but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add saffron and cook, stirring, for 1 minutes. Add rice and stir with a wooden spoon until toasted and opaque, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add a 4 to 6 ounce ladle of the stock and cook, stirring until it is absorbed. Continue adding stock a ladle at a time, waiting until liquid is absorbed before adding more. Cook until rice is tender and creamy and yet still a little al dente, about 15 minutes. Stir in butter and cheese until well mixed.