Pork ragout

Yet another slow cooker recipe, from the book. We've been using the slow cooker a lot this fall. Not only is the chilly rainy Oregon winter the kind of thing that makes you crave cocooning food, but I have an evening class, and by the time we get home, if there's not something waiting we end up doing takeout. So: slow cooker.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/4 pound of boneless pork chops
1/4 cup flour
3 tbsp cooking oil
1 and 1/4 cup white wine (don't worry, the alcohol cooks out)
1 pound or so baby red potatoes
1 large carrot or 10-12 baby carrots
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes
1 red onion
2 celery stalks
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
salt

Note: amounts of pork, potatoes, and carrots can be adjusted up or down according to how much your cooker holds, how many people you're cooking for, and how many days you want to eat this.

1. Cut pork into 1-inch cubes. Toss in the flour.

2. Heat the oil in a pan and brown the pork. When the pork is brown, transfer it to the slow cooker, but don't scrape the bottom of the frying pan. The pork should be concentrated in the center of the cooker.

3. Add wine to the frying pan and bring it to a boil, scraping up the flour, oil, and browned bits in the pan. Pour this mix into the slow cooker.

4. Slice the potatoes (unpeeled) into quarters and place them around the pork, up against the sides of the cooker. Slice carrots and add to the cooker.

5. Chop red onion extremely fine - it's best if you use a food processor and chop it until it's almost (but not quite) liquefied. Add to slow cooker.

6. Chop celery extremely fine - again, food processor is best, until almost (but not quite) liquefied. Add to slow cooker.

7. Add diced tomatoes (and the liquid in the can).

8. Add water, garlic, black pepper, and a pinch of salt. Add the cinnamon stick and make sure it's submerged in the liquid.

9. Cook on low for 6 hours or so. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.

Notes: You can do this without browning the pork (I did that the first time I made it), but browning it makes a big difference: it keeps the pork moist inside and adds a great flavor to the outside. But the real secret to this (which I only discovered because I'm lazy) turned out to be using the food processor to chop the onion and celery: rather than being pieces floating in the soup, they ended up being a component of the broth - and you wouldn't think wine, cinnamon, and celery would work together, but they really do. ...I found that adding salt when you eat this really brings out the flavor, but Akiko thought it was better without, so I suggest making it with only a pinch of salt at most and then seasoning to taste. Goes best when served with some nice crusty bread for dipping.

Coconut Marshmallow Kit-Kat Confectionary Creation!

Kibo's Kitty Cat Cage Playpen

So, a couple of weeks ago I was outside building Kibo's Kitty Cage Playpen (see photo) and Dena was grilling hamburgers (with Reese's help). Unbeknownst to me, she was also cooking up a confectionary delight in the form of a lightly toasted coconut marshmallow with a piece of Kit Kat poked in the middle. The result was unbelievably delicious!

Jamaican Jonkanoo Pepper Sauce

Walkerswood 'seriously hot' Jamaican Jonkanoo Pepper Sauce!

Not for the faint of heart!

We bought this at an unexpected venture into an Afro-Caribbean grocery we happened upon. It is hot!
Scotch Bonnet Pepper hot!

Dena doesn't need to use Sudafed to clear her sinuses, hot!

Yummy stuff!! =D

Salmon & Texas Caviar

First of all, the salmon was my addition. I bought some and thought it would go well with this recipe, so I did so! The 'caviar' is supposed to be served with tortilla chips, salsa style.
I made two versions of the caviar- a Cherilyn safe version, and a Dena version. The Cherilyn version is as the recipe came, except I substituted powered garlic due to her allergy. My version had the addition of an habanero pepper and I used roasted minced garlic.

Salmon:
I use my Asian stir fry oil for fish, as I have learned the sesame/peanut/olive oil blend does better at the hotter temps used in pan frying or grilling than olive oil does. I've actually been told not to try to use EEOO for frying, as it breaks down too easily.

Thus my salmon fillet was pan friend with my stir fry oil and grated lemon peel, thyme, and a bit of rosemary. Once one side was browned, I flipped it and browned the other side. This allowed me to easily peal the skin off and serve it in a more diner friendly manner.

I flaked the salmon and served it alongside the caviar and chips.

Texas Caviar (according to the back of the Market Pantry bag of black eyed peas)

1/2lb black eyed peas, soaked, rinsed and drained
1/2 C Italian salad dressing (I used Fat Free Zesty Italian)
2 Tomatoes, diced
1/2 C bell pepper, diced (I used an orange one, great color)
1/2 C diced onion (I used white to try to minimize it for Cherilyn)
2-3 jalapeños, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste
tortilla chips

Combine all ingredients except tortilla chips, refrigerate until chilled. Serve with tortilla chips.

Note to reduce negative side effects of bean consumption:
1) Do the full 6-8 hour soak and change the water mid-soak, rinsing the beans when you swap the water.
2) Add a small amount of vinegar tot he soak water.
3) Rinse the beans thoroughly after the final soak.
It may not prevent the problem all together, but it should prevent the malodorous aspect of it!

Chicken Tropicale

Another from our crock-pot cookbook, which worked without major modification.

Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes
1 parsnip
1 can (8 oz) sliced water chestnuts
1 cup golden raisins
1 20-oz can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained, with juice reserved
2 to 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (depending on size of breasts, size of cooker, number of people)
4 tsp Jamaican jerk seasoning
1/4 cup dried onion flakes
3 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp grated lime peel
1tsp cumin seed, crushed
wild rice

1. Cut your sweet potatoes into 1 to 2 inch cubes and put in slow cooker.

2. Peel your parsnip and cut into 1 inch cubes or rounds and put in slow cooker.

3. Drain the water chestnuts and add to slow cooker.

4. Add raisins and pineapple tidbits (without juice). Stir.

5. Sprinkle jerk seasoning on chicken. Lay chicken breasts on top of potato-parsnip-fruit mixture. Do not submerge.

6. In a bowl, combine pineapple juice, onion flakes, ginger, W sauce, lime peel, and cumin. Pour this mixture over the chicken. The liquid should filter down to the potatoes, while the ginger, onion flakes, lime peel, and crushed cumin should sit on top of the chicken breasts, to mix with the jerk seasoning.

7. Cover and cook on low 7-9 hours or high 3-4 hours, until everything's tender.

8. Serve with wild rice.

The result should be a nicely seasoned and tender potato-parsnip-water chestnut-pineapple stew, and chicken breasts that are basically roasted rather than simmered, with the ginger-lime peel- cumin mixture turning into almost a crust on top of them. Real, real good, especially with the wild rice. The water chestnuts, by the way, are the surprise ingredient that really makes the dish, to my mind.

New Foods! Yay!

I've taken to shopping on Saturday, which is free sample day at both Target and Harmon's, so we've actually eaten some new foods lately. Good for us!

First, Mission artisan tortillas: they only come in little soft taco size, in our store at least, but that's okay. We tried Ancient Grains, which had a nice multigrain flavor, and Flaxseed and Blue Corn, which were pretty sweet for a tortilla and had a smoother texture than tortillas made of just corn.

Eggo Pumpkin Spice Waffles: I don't buy a lot of frozen waffles because I can get Eric to make them from scratch, but these were really good. They were tasty for breakfast, but I bet they'd be good for dessert, too, maybe with vanilla ice cream and some fruit.

We also tried Sea Cuisine frozen coconut crusted tilapia and hated it. One bit is awesome, with just a hint of sweetness. More than one bite and the sweetness takes over, and not in a good way. We also had the mediterranean crusted salmon and it was okay but we probably won't eat it again soon.

Salmon 2: Electric Boogaloo

I didn't ruin the salmon. Yay! I'm pretty sure this is the first fish I've ever cooked from a real fish counter instead of a box, and it went pretty well for a first try.

I used this grilled salmon marinade from allrecipes.com:
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
garlic powder to taste
lemon pepper to taste

The recipe said this was the right amount for 1 1/2 pounds of fish and that's more or less what I had. I was supposed to marinate for 2 hours and then grill, but instead I marinated for about 1/2 an hour ('cause I found the recipe right before dinner--way to be prepared) and then wrapped the fish in foils with some marinade poured around them. One piece of salmon (I think it was a salmon steak? I don't know) per foil, baked at 425F for about 15 minutes.

And it tasted pretty good. The kids asked for more, so that's a bonus. I realized as I was eating that if I was cooking the fish in foil I probably didn't need that much oil in the marinade, but it still didn't feel greasy.