7 Days of Super Food!

It is that time of year and while I could care less about the teams playing, I still love having friends over and sharing great food and fun while watching football and maybe even more importantly for me this year great new commercials. So in honor of the Super Bowl I am doing my first annual super food countdown to game day. Each day for the next seven day enjoy a great recipe that will be sure to score a touchdown with guests at your game day party. Today's recipe is a a spicy red pepper hummus. This is super easy to make and the level of heat can easily be adjusted to suit your taste buds.

Spicy Red Pepper Hummus

 3 cups of canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons of Tahini
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of roasted red peppers, drained and patted dry
2 tablespoons of red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
a dash of paprika

Place all ingredients but olive oil in food processor, turn on and add olive oil until mixture is smooth. Serve with pita chips, slices of cucumber, cheery tomatoes, and baby carrots.

Farmer's Market Surprise Meal

I call this a surprise meal because I was taking my son to a birthday party in Hampton, and low and behold there was a farmer's market going on right next to the museum. I found some little neck clams, shallots, and a wonderful baguette. All I needed to do was stop off at Total Wine and a meal was born. To make these great steamed clams, I diced two shallots, and cooked them for about 2 minutes with a small amount of butter, I then added a bottle of Kitchen Sink White Wine, the clams, some red pepper flakes, and cranked up the heat. The clams were open and ready to go in a little under 8 minutes, I garnished with some fresh parsley from the garden, and dinner was done. The only plus to this meal would have been if we could have gotten our 5 year old to try it, but that is probably an ambitious undertaking on our part.

Rainier Cherries, a meal...

When you find Rainier Cherries at $2.88 a pound, you are going to buy them even if you live 4 hours away and are not leaving for another day. By the time the cherries and I got home, they needed to be used. Trying to figure out what to do with 2 pounds of cherries that need to be used and not wanting to make a dessert item gives one a definite challenge. Here is what I came up with....

Rainier Cherry Sauce

3 cups pitted Rainier Cherries

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup chopped shallot

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
a pinch of thyme

In large saucepan, combine all ingredients; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes or until mixture thickens, stirring frequently. Serve over grilled salmon.

Note: I served this with salmon, and will not do so again, this is a perfect pork chop sauce and should be used as such...

Rainier Cherry Salad

1/2 cup of pitted Rainier Cherries

1 package of Arugula or Mixed Greens

1/4 cup of red onion or shallot, sliced thin

1/2 tablespoon of orange muscat vinegar (available from Trader Joe's)

1/4 cup of olive oil

a pinch of red pepper flakes

2 oz. of goat cheese, crumbled

salt and pepper

In a large bowl mix vinegar, olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper, combine until emulsified. Mix in lettuce, coating with dressing, add shallot, and cherries, top with cheese. If on hand add some homemade croutons and serve.

Prig Khing Green Beans

Trader Joe's sells a frozen version of these, but I
really do not like the sauce that comes with them. I figured this would be an easy flavor to recreate, so I did. I served these will my Thai Snapper last night and I think that my son liked this better than the fish, go figure, but what do you expect from a 5 year old?

Prig Khing Green Beans

1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 pound of green beans, ends cut
1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
1 handful of peanuts, mashed
1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce
a pinch of garlic powder or minced garlic

In a large skillet heat oil, before oil starts to smoke add green beans and stir fry for 3 to 5 minutes. Add soy sauce, garlic, peanuts, and red pepper flakes and stir fry for an addition 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from skillet and serve.

Slow Cooker Asian Pork

OK, so I so forgot how nice it is too cook with a slow cooker. Fix it and forget about it until dinner is done. One of my husband's favorite recipes is an Italian Beef. Take a round roast, add a jar of spaghetti sauce, cook on low for 6-8 hours, shred meat, serve on toasted rolls with provolone cheese. I decided to make that up for him and the baby is loving it too. I check out a book at the library and was intrigued by the idea of a recipe in it and decided to play around and see what came out of the slow cooker six hours later. Just a little tip for this one, the recipe I got the idea for said that this was 6 servings, try closer to 8 or more.

Asian Pork

1/8 cup of honey

the juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup of brown sugar

5 lbs of country style pork ribs

1 cup of soy sauce

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons of red pepper flakes

if you must 1 tablespoon of minced ginger

1 bunch of green onions chopped

3 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds

Put chopped onion into the bottom of the slow cooker. Place all other ingredients but pork, green onion, and sesame seeds in a bowl and mix until all are incorporated. dip pork into sauce and add to slow cooker, pour remaining sauce of meat. Put cover on the slow cooker and cook on low or at least 6 hours. Remove meat and garnish with green onion and sesame seeds.