Again, hardly qualifies as a recipe, but hey.
1. Make slow cooker pulled pork according to this recipe.
2. Instead of the barbecue sauce of your choice, use the teriyaki sauce of your choice. I used Kona Coast Orange Teriyaki marinade. It was perfect.
3. Serve in a bowl on top of steamed rice.
4. Top with any or all of the following:
green onions, chopped as thin as you can
black (roasted) sesame seeds
pineapple chunks
This was ridiculously tasty.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Tomatoey beef stew
I modified this so heavily from the recipe I based it on that I won't even bother to link to the original. Here's what I did.
Ingredients:
1 yellow onion
lots of baby carrots (a couple of handfuls at least)
lots of new potatoes (a couple of handfuls at least)
1 pound stew beef
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
6 oz can tomato paste
2 cups or so beef broth
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup red wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1. Cut the potatoes in half. I found a bag of mixed-variety new potatoes - red, white, and blue, actually. The variety was nice. Don't peel. Don't cut too small. Place in the slow cooker, arranged around the edge of the pot.
2. Cut the carrots in half. Put in slow cooker, arranged around the edge of the pot.
3. Cut the beef into chunks and coat with flour. Brown in a skillet or wok. Transfer to the slow cooker, spreading evenly over bottom of pot.
4. Pour the wine into the pan you browned the beef in and stir until the bits of flour are all taken up. Pour into pot.
5. Chop onion into chunks, place in pot on top of beef.
6. Sprinkle thyme, Italian seasoning, celery seed, W sauce over veggies and beef in pot.
7. Pour tomatoes (don't drain) and tomato sauce over what's in the pot.
8. Add enough beef broth to almost cover ingredients in pot. More or less according to how soupy a stew you like.
9. Cook on low for about 8 hours.
10. Serve with good crusty bread.
This came out pretty good. A little more acidic than I would have preferred, so it's worth fiddling with the flavorings. But still pretty satisfying.
Ingredients:
1 yellow onion
lots of baby carrots (a couple of handfuls at least)
lots of new potatoes (a couple of handfuls at least)
1 pound stew beef
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
6 oz can tomato paste
2 cups or so beef broth
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup red wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1. Cut the potatoes in half. I found a bag of mixed-variety new potatoes - red, white, and blue, actually. The variety was nice. Don't peel. Don't cut too small. Place in the slow cooker, arranged around the edge of the pot.
2. Cut the carrots in half. Put in slow cooker, arranged around the edge of the pot.
3. Cut the beef into chunks and coat with flour. Brown in a skillet or wok. Transfer to the slow cooker, spreading evenly over bottom of pot.
4. Pour the wine into the pan you browned the beef in and stir until the bits of flour are all taken up. Pour into pot.
5. Chop onion into chunks, place in pot on top of beef.
6. Sprinkle thyme, Italian seasoning, celery seed, W sauce over veggies and beef in pot.
7. Pour tomatoes (don't drain) and tomato sauce over what's in the pot.
8. Add enough beef broth to almost cover ingredients in pot. More or less according to how soupy a stew you like.
9. Cook on low for about 8 hours.
10. Serve with good crusty bread.
This came out pretty good. A little more acidic than I would have preferred, so it's worth fiddling with the flavorings. But still pretty satisfying.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
SUNOMONO
When I was growing up, my mother used to thinly slice cucumbers and onions, mix them together with some apple cider vinegar and sugar, and serve them as a freshly pickled salad for dinner. Of course, your Grandmother Munroe had never heard of "sunomono" but I did after marrying Dad. I have a favorite cookbook that is no longer in print called Japanese Country Cookbook. Years ago, Carol Gardner recommended it to me. In it, I found a very basic and simple recipe for sunomono dressing with just three essential ingredients: 6 T vinegar, 2 T sugar, and 1 tsp. shoyu (soy sauce).
If you use rice vinegar, keep in mind that it is weaker than other vinegars and you may have to use more to get the proper acidity. I usually use the apple cider vinegar that I love and grew up on. (The only thing I use white vinegar for is cleaning!) Adjust the ingredients to meet your taste preferences (I usually add more sugar, about 3 T instead of 2T) and experiment with using it on other fresh veggies if you like. At some point in time, Dad and I started adding toasted sesame seed to the mix and we like it that way, too. We always used yellow onions but the only onions we could get in India were red ones that are a bit sweeter and we developed a taste for them. Experiment and come up with something you like. It seems better when it sits for a few hours or overnight.
Peel the cucumbers? We did! If you buy an English cucumber, you don't have to worry about the seeds and may not bother with the peeling either. Make it your own and enjoy!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Tapenade
This is basically a recipe from allrecipes, a little modified.
Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic (peeled, but whole)
1 cup (a little more) kalamata olives, pitted
2 tbsp capers
3 tbsp fresh italian parsley
juice from 1 lemon (fresh squeezed is best)
2 tbsp olive oil
1. Put the garlic in your food processor and chop it.
2. Add everything else and chop it.
3. Careful, you want it to come out chopped, not pureed.
Eat on crackers, bread, raw veggies, etc. Particularly good paired with brie. This recipe came out quite strong tasting, between the capers and the fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Bottled might mollify that a bit, but we liked the intense flavor.
I'm sure everybody's French aunt has her own home recipe for this, but this one was amazingly easy and tasty.
Ingredients:
3 cloves garlic (peeled, but whole)
1 cup (a little more) kalamata olives, pitted
2 tbsp capers
3 tbsp fresh italian parsley
juice from 1 lemon (fresh squeezed is best)
2 tbsp olive oil
1. Put the garlic in your food processor and chop it.
2. Add everything else and chop it.
3. Careful, you want it to come out chopped, not pureed.
Eat on crackers, bread, raw veggies, etc. Particularly good paired with brie. This recipe came out quite strong tasting, between the capers and the fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Bottled might mollify that a bit, but we liked the intense flavor.
I'm sure everybody's French aunt has her own home recipe for this, but this one was amazingly easy and tasty.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Five-Spice Pork with Snap Peas
We got this out of Fine Cooking magazine, which is our new favorite. It's a crockpot dish and really easy.
1/2 cup cooking sherry*
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs Sriracha or other hot sauce
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 lb pork, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 lb sugar snap peas, trimmed
Mix together everything but the pork and snap peas to make the sauce. You can mix them right in the crock if you want. Then stir in the pork, cover, and cook on low for 6 or 7 hours or on high 4 to 5. About 10 minutes before serving, stir in the snap peas and let them soften up just a bit. Serve with rice or bread. Feeds two adults and 3 kids with a bit to spare.
I used Tabasco instead of Sriracha and the dish wasn't spicy at all. The magazine also recommended low-sodium soy sauce but we didn't have any so we used regular and I didn't feel like it turned out too salty. I also think this would be awesome with some broccoli thrown in.
*You could substitute with apple cider or add honey to vinegar; just use something with flavor (not plain water).
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Hoisin Glazed Scallops
These are so easy they're hardly a recipe. Which makes them extra awesome. I got the idea here: A Food Centric Life. I think I got a roasted tomato recipe from this site, too, so you foodies might want to browse a bit.
Step 1: Get some nice scallops and let them sit on your counter until they're room temperature. I live in the mountains, so I thawed some ridiculously expensive frozen scallops and they worked fine. I'm hoping you folks near the coasts can do better than that, though.
Step 2: Pour some hoisin sauce into a bowl. If hoisin by itself is too sweet for you, add a little soy sauce. We used Kikkoman hoisin* with a little Kikkoman soy sauce thrown in. Heat a large saucepan on medium heat and add some vegetable oil.
Step 3: Pat your scallops dry with a paper towel (it helps them brown) and put them in the pan. Cook them a couple minutes, until you can see them browning up on the edges.
Step 4: Turn the scallops over and brush/pour some hoisin on top of them. Cook them another minute or two until they look done. (They should be kind of but not super firm when you poke them with a spatula.)
Pow! Done! Great with stir-fried veggies and rice. You're welcome.
The first time I did scallops for the kids, I just cooked them in butter, and everyone thought they were too sweet. This time, the sweet scallops and salty sauce balanced pretty well and everyone was into the scallops.
*This isn't our favorite hoisin--I can't remember the name of our favorite but I know it when I see it. Kikkoman is easy to find here, though, and not crazy sweet. Kikkoman soy sauce is our favorite, though.
Step 1: Get some nice scallops and let them sit on your counter until they're room temperature. I live in the mountains, so I thawed some ridiculously expensive frozen scallops and they worked fine. I'm hoping you folks near the coasts can do better than that, though.
Step 2: Pour some hoisin sauce into a bowl. If hoisin by itself is too sweet for you, add a little soy sauce. We used Kikkoman hoisin* with a little Kikkoman soy sauce thrown in. Heat a large saucepan on medium heat and add some vegetable oil.
Step 3: Pat your scallops dry with a paper towel (it helps them brown) and put them in the pan. Cook them a couple minutes, until you can see them browning up on the edges.
Step 4: Turn the scallops over and brush/pour some hoisin on top of them. Cook them another minute or two until they look done. (They should be kind of but not super firm when you poke them with a spatula.)
Pow! Done! Great with stir-fried veggies and rice. You're welcome.
The first time I did scallops for the kids, I just cooked them in butter, and everyone thought they were too sweet. This time, the sweet scallops and salty sauce balanced pretty well and everyone was into the scallops.
*This isn't our favorite hoisin--I can't remember the name of our favorite but I know it when I see it. Kikkoman is easy to find here, though, and not crazy sweet. Kikkoman soy sauce is our favorite, though.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Slow Cooker Chicken Marrakesh (or Madras, or Matsumoto)
It's winter, so it's slow cooker season again. (And it's winter break, so I finally have time to think about cooking again. I swear I don't mean to let this project die!) This is a recipe from allrecipes.com, modified according to what we had on hand, and it came out so well I wouldn't change a thing.
Ingredients:
1 large white onion
1 large or two medium sweet potatoes (preferably satsumaimo)
2 large carrots (or half a bag of baby carrots)
2 cloves garlic
2 large boneless chicken breasts
15-oz can garbanzo beans
14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried parsley
1. Cut the chicken into chunks and place in one layer on bottom of slow cooker.
2. Peel the sweet potato(es) and cut into large chunks. Place on top of chicken, near outside wall of slow cooker.
3. Cut carrot and onion into chunks, place in slow cooker.
4. Mince garlic and add to slow cooker.
5. Drain and rinse garbanzos and add to slow cooker.
6. In small bowl mix together garam masala, parsley, and salt, then sprinkle over what's in the cooker.
7. Add tomatoes and stir.
8. Cook on high for 5 hours. Stir near end.
9. Serve with couscous.
Lately supermarkets here have been stocking satsuma-imo, the Japanese sweet potatoes that are purple on the outside and yellow-white on the inside. That's what we used, and they were perfect. I'm sure yams or other Western sweet potatoes would be good too, but satsumaimo have a lighter, almost parsnip-like sweetness that really worked well; plus, they get flaky and fluffy like a regular potato when you cook them, rather than soft and squishy like a yam.
The original recipe called for 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp black pepper instead of the garam masala, but we didn't have all those things while we did have garam masala (which includes those things and more), so we used it, and it was awesome. So this is the recipe.
It went perfectly with couscous.
Ingredients:
1 large white onion
1 large or two medium sweet potatoes (preferably satsumaimo)
2 large carrots (or half a bag of baby carrots)
2 cloves garlic
2 large boneless chicken breasts
15-oz can garbanzo beans
14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried parsley
1. Cut the chicken into chunks and place in one layer on bottom of slow cooker.
2. Peel the sweet potato(es) and cut into large chunks. Place on top of chicken, near outside wall of slow cooker.
3. Cut carrot and onion into chunks, place in slow cooker.
4. Mince garlic and add to slow cooker.
5. Drain and rinse garbanzos and add to slow cooker.
6. In small bowl mix together garam masala, parsley, and salt, then sprinkle over what's in the cooker.
7. Add tomatoes and stir.
8. Cook on high for 5 hours. Stir near end.
9. Serve with couscous.
Lately supermarkets here have been stocking satsuma-imo, the Japanese sweet potatoes that are purple on the outside and yellow-white on the inside. That's what we used, and they were perfect. I'm sure yams or other Western sweet potatoes would be good too, but satsumaimo have a lighter, almost parsnip-like sweetness that really worked well; plus, they get flaky and fluffy like a regular potato when you cook them, rather than soft and squishy like a yam.
The original recipe called for 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp black pepper instead of the garam masala, but we didn't have all those things while we did have garam masala (which includes those things and more), so we used it, and it was awesome. So this is the recipe.
It went perfectly with couscous.
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