Ginger Shrimp Pasta

This recipe is a bit odd, but I do have to say came out really well. I will be making this pasta again. It all came about very haphazardly, I needed a quick dinner for that night, I saw the cilantro and that started it, I knew I had shrimp at home and that would be quick and I wanted something spicy. When I saw the coconut milk it all started to jell in my mind.



1/2 lb pasta
1 tbs oil
½ sweet onion
½ red pepper
2 small cans diced tomatoes
1 tbs ginger
2 tbs soy sauce
¼ c. red wine.
1 lb shrimp (cleaned, I used precooked because it is what I had, raw shrimp would be far better)
1 clove garlic
red pepper flakes to taste (I used about ¼ tsp)
salt
½ bunch chopped cilantro
½ can coconut milk

Add oil to skillet and heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté for 10 minutes.

Meahwhile, put pasta on to boil.

Add the tomatoes, ginger, soy, red peppers and wine and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile coat the shrimp in salt and red pepper flakes.


Once pasta is done, drain and set aside.

Add shrimp and cook and additional 5-7 minutes. Add cilantro and coconut milk cook 2-3 more

Pork Loin with Apple Stuffing

This dish was made in honor of the arrival of one Ms. Verity Grace. Our neighbors (and good friends) had their very first wee one and she is just lovely. I decided to help by stocking the fridge and freezer with a bit of food.



3-5 lb pork loin

Stuffing

2 TBS oil
¼ c. onion
2 celery stalks
1 large tart apple (I used granny smith)
1 c. of raisins
½ tsp salt
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 clove of garlic crushed
Pepper
1 cup of stock
6 pieces of whole wheat bread
1 egg

Sauce
½ c. maple syrup
6 tbs Dijon mustard
2tbs soy sauce

Heat oven to 400.

For the sauce combine all ingredients, mix until well blended and set aside.

For the stuffing, heat the oil and add celery, apple and onion and sauté for 5 minutes until soft.
Add raisins, salt, poultry seasoning, garlic, pepper and stock and bring to a boil.
Break bread into pieces and add to mixture until all the stock is absorbed (you may need a piece or two more or less. Add a piece at a time until you all liquid is absorbed but it is not dry). The bread should be mushy.
Take the stuffing off the heat and let cool.
Filet open the pork tenderloin. Salt and pepper it.

Once the stuffing has cooled a bit, add the egg. Lay the stuffing in the middle and roll. Secure with butcher string (I found out after I started I did NOT have butcher string so I had to toothpick it with this.)

Put the loin in a roasting pan and cover with roughly 1/3 of the sauce. Put in the oven and bake covered for 15 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 and add another 1/3 of the sauce to the meat, recover and bake another 20 minutes.
Add the final 1/3 uncover the meat and bake another 15-20 until done.
Let meat set 10-15 minutes before cutting into.

Mushroom Chicken

2 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion sliced
3 large chicken breast bone in skin on (3.5 lb)
4 tbs of flour
4 c. chicken broth
2 c. of quartered mushrooms
1 c. dry white wine
2 tbs marjoram
1 Turkish bay leaf
½ c Greek yogurt or sour cream

I could not have been more pleased with the way this came out. It was creamy and earthy and wonderful (if I do say so myself!) I, have a love affair with Greek yogurt. It allows me to have all the yummy goodness of sour cream with ¼ of the fat and calories. My husband, who I can’t get to eat anything that is adjacent to light and healthy loves it and told me I could stop buying sour cream. For those of you that hate mushrooms (and I know you odd things are out there) you could omit them and substitute peppers or potatoes. I used bone in/skin on chicken. I think keeping the skin on made this a very rich and wonderful dish, but I think you could easily (and I did) take the skin off the chicken and eat the meat without it, I just recommend cooking with it.

Add butter and olive oil to stock pot or Dutch-oven and melt butter.
Add the onion and sauté over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
Salt and pepper chicken (I also used a little onion salt) and lay on bottom of pot.
Sprinkle with 4 tbs of flour then add 4 cup of chicken broth and bring to a boil.
Once boiling reduce to simmer and simmer for 20 minutes. Add 1 cup of dry white wine, mushrooms, bay leaf and 2 tablespoons of marjoram and simmer for 40 minutes.
Take about ½-1 cup of hot liquid and add to your yogurt or sour cream, stir, and then put the mixture back into the pot. Doing this keeps the milk from curdling.
Heat for 5 more minutes and serve.

For those of you doing weight watchers this would be about 9 points per breast the best I can tell (they don’t give you a raw, bone in skin on choice??) . I served this with mashed potatoes that I put skim milk and about 3 tbs of greek yogurt in and it was great and about 1.5 per ½ c. serving.

Pork Taco’s and Lentil Soup

This ends up being 2 meals. Half the pork tenderloin is used for the pork tacos and half is used for the lentils. The lentils form almost like a chili, it is a very hearty bean soup. Also note, I used the tenderloin, not a loin roast. I think that is much better for this dish. If you want more information on costs and meals go to the most neglected blog in the world, family meals for less and check it out.


Pork lion 2.5 lb
1 Onion chopped
1 bag of red lentils
2 tbs cumin
1 jar of sofrito sauce
6 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of red wine
1 tbs oil
Salt and pepper to taste




We used this as two separate meals. The first meal was pork tacos, with refried beans and rice. The second meal is a pork and lentil soup with salad.

Here is how I did it. In a stock pot I sautéed the onions in a bit of oil. Add the bullion and lentils. Add the wine and sofrito sauce. Bring to a boil. Salt pepper pork tenderloin and add to pot. Add cumin. Reduce and allow to simmer for 45 minutes. Check periodically to make sure tenderloin is under liquid and stir the beans. Once the tenderloin is good and tender take it out and shred the meat. Add half back into the lentils. We set the lentils aside for another day, you could have them in or with the tacos too. The meat that is left is for the pork tacos. It should have a good flavor form cooking in the lentils, but if you want you add more cumin.

To top the tacos I made a quick salsa with three tomatillos. I cleaned three put it in the processor with 1 garlic clove, a pinch of red pepper, salt pepper and 2 tsp of lemon juice. Also, I put a little lime juice and salt in the sour cream too. We had our pork tacos with lettuce, sour cream and salsa on corn tortillas. I have to say, they were pretty tasty.

Apples and Pork

I love a good sweet/savory combo. I get some folks can’t stand it. Nothing is better than good old pork and apples. My intent was to get some nice thick chops to do this, however at the market they only had super thin ones, and when they are thin like that I always opt for boneless. I really like how this came out and I think next time I do this I will go to the butcher.



Marinade
1.5 lb of pork chops(I used boneless)
½ c vinegar
2 c apple cider
1/8 c. salt

Mix vinegar, cider and salt in Ziploc bag. Add pork chops. Let rest 4-8 hours.

Pork
2 tbs oil
½ red onion chopped
3 tsp flour
1.5 c. apple cider
1 tsp fresh thyme (removed from stem)

Garnish
2 slices of green apple per chop
2 tbs butter
Salt
Dash of sugar

Sautee onion in oil add pork chops and cook on both sides for 2 minutes each (these were thin boneless chops, otherwise cook until almost done). Sprinkle with flour. Add thyme and apple cider and let simmer for 10 minutes or until liquid is thick

While sauce thicking heat 2 tbs butter and put slices of apple in and cook until done. Once browned pull out and sprinkle lightly with salt an sugar.

Top chops with apple and sauce. One thing I will say is I fully expected the apple slice to be a garnish, however I think it really made the dish special. So I my opinion, don’t skip that step.

Mahi Mahi with Israeli Cous Cous

The other night I had in mind that I wanted to coat some mahi mahi with some panko and rosemary and then fry it up. I wanted to lay that over some Israeli cous cous that was set in a Bouillabaisse like broth. In my mind it would be a soupy, rich, oily tomato based sauce. Something went wrong. Mind you, it did come out well… it really did. It just did not come out they way I had it in my mind. Perhaps I should have read some bouillabaisse recipes. Perhaps you can’t cheat 3 different kinds of fish, with some clam juice and fish bullions? The problem with the end product was that it really just tasted like a red sauce. It was a good red sauce, definitely Stromboli dipping worthy, but just a red sauce. Any suggestions are welcome.

3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
3 tbs of shallot or red onion finely chopped
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs butter
1 can crushed tomato
1 bottle of clam juice
3tbs fish sauce (if you have, I use it to add richness and salt)
1 c. red wine
2 fish bullion
1 c. water
Pinch of sugar
2 tbs Italian seasoning

Heat oil and butter together. Add onion/shallot and garlic. Sautee for 2 minutes. Add Italian seasoning. Sautee for another 2 minutes. Add tomato, clam juice, fish sauce, wine, bullion, water and sugar. Let simmer for 20 minutes.

I then made the cous cous to the package instructions, cut the mahi mahi into small pieces and coated and fried. I put some sauce on the bottom of the dish, the cous cous went on top and the fish on top of the cous cous. I finished with just a bit more sauce. Again it was good, but it lacked richness and depth. I am open for help here.

Lamb and Rosemary Stew

This is an adaptation on one of my favorite winter dishes. The original is a wine stew with beef. I simply change the beef out with a leg of lamb, and added rosemary.

3-4 lbs of cubed lamb
1 qt (small bottle) red wine
2 can tomato soup
2T kitchen bouquet (can find in seasoning isle)
3bay leaves
2 TBS fresh rosemary chopped up
6 medium potatoes quartered
6 carrots chunked
6 stalks of celery in chunks
4 medium onions (cut into large piece, quarter than half the quarter)
2 c. frozen peas
Salt to taste
1 tbs of fresh rosemary chopped up

Season meat (salt pepper, garlic..whatever) and brown. Combine the first 6 ingredients and cook over low heat for 2 hours. Add vegetables and cook an additional 40 minutes before serving. Stir occasionally add water if needed. Add the last TBS of rosemary about 10 minutes before done or when you reheat it if you make this the day before serving (see note below).

One very important thing to note with this is that it is better if made a day a head of time which makes it ideal for a dinner party.

Pork With Apple Stuffing

It is sad, my aunts and uncles and cousins are all having a pig roast this weekend in Indiana. I couldn’t go. So I am missing all the food and all the fun. So I decided in honor of them, I would do a little pig myself. Not exactly a pig roast, but hey… it is just two of us after all.

3 lb pork tenderloin
Filet Pork tenderloin (you slice horizontally, essentially making a V on it’s side so that instead of one big round piece of meat you have a wide flat piece you can stuff and roll). Salt and pepper heavily.

Stuffing
1 tbs olive oil
2 celery stalks chopped
1 onion chopped
3 small apples chopped (I used Macintosh You need a good tart cooking apple)
2 cups chicken stalk
5 pieces bread
2 tbs fresh sage
1 c. raisins
Salt pepper
1 egg
Heat oil and sauté onion and celery. Cook on medium for about 3 minutes. Add apples. Cook on medium for 5 minutes. Add chicken stalk, sage and raisins. Bring to simmer and let simmer 3 minutes. Add bread breaking apart before adding. I used whole wheat because I like the nutty flavor, but use what you want. Season to taste before adding egg. Cook until liquid is absorbed by bread. Should be mushy but not wet. If need to add more bread a little at a time. Remove from stovetop, add egg.
You will only need about ½-¾ of the stuffing. Put a generous amount along the center of the meat. You want a good amount of stuffing but need to still be able to bring the meant up around and secure. You can secure with toothpicks or string.
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. While baking make glaze.



Glaze
Finely chop one apple (I used Macintosh You need a good tart cooking apple)
1 cup sherry
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
Add all ingredients to skillet and cook for 5-7 minutes on medium low until apples are soft and liquid reduced by half. Let cool, put in food processor and process until smooth.
After roast has cooked for 35 minutes turn up the heat to 400. Pour glaze over top of roast and cook uncovered for 10 more minutes. Pull out and let stand for 10 minutes. Slice and serve.

Green Tomato Pasta

Tis that time of year again. Green tomato season! So here is another attempt at using up those green tomatoes. Not bad!
1/2 lb pasta
5 medium green tomatoes chopped
1 small onion diced
¼ lb chopped pancetta (you can get this at Trader Joes!!)
1 c. marinated artichoke heats
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs lemon zest
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of red pepper

Sauté tomatoes, onions and pancetta in olive oil for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile boil the pasta. When pasta is almost done, take one ladle full of the water and add it to sauce. Add artichokes and seasoning. Sauté for about 5 minutes or until sauce thickened a bit. Add lemons zest and cook one more minute. Drain pasta, toss immediately and serve.

Beef Satay Lo Mien

Okay this is t three-parter but is easy… trust me! Plus if you do a larger cut of meat like the london broil you will have that left over for another meal… so it is a two-fer! If you don’t love the spice you can leave off the Sriacha sauce in the sauce.

MeatLondon Broil or other cut of beef
Fish sauce
salt
Garlic
Garlic Chili Sauce

Lo Mien
1 package of lo mien
1 cup of broccoli (just floret, small pieces)
3 carrots
½ sweet onion or 1 bunch of green onion

Sauce
6 TBS peanut butter (or ¼ c plus 2 tablespoon, I just hate to dirty two thing!)
1 c. cilantro
Juice of two limes or about 3 tablespoons
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tbs water
2 tsp sriracha hot sauce


How much garlic, salt and fish sauce depends on the size of the cut you decide on. (I used about 2 lb cut of london broil. I used 3 TBS of minced garlic. 3 TBS fish sauce, 2 tsp salt. ) I put the meat in a bag and put the fish sauce, garlic and salt and let is sit for about an hour. Make sure the meat is coated fist. While meat is setting, heat oven to 350. Bake meat for 30 minutes. Pull out and coat the top with a thin layer for the garlic chili sauce (if you don’t have it skip it and just keep cooking meat for another 15 minutes of so). Once coated put under the broiler for 7-10 minutes. Let set.
Cook lo mien noodles to package instructions. Drain and cool. Add broccoli (chop to small florets) onion and carrot. Toss.
Add all the sauce ingredients to food processor or bender (or you can hand stir) and process. Do not add the sauce until right before you are ready to serve or the lo mien dries out.
Plate lo mien (once sauce is added) top with 4-5 pieces of thinly sliced beef. Enjoy…

Pasta Ceviche

Okay this really isn’t ceviche... at all, but it was the best way I could describe the flavor of the dish. I used crab and scallop pieces but shrimp and a whitefish would be really good too. I have to confess this was ENTIRELY my husband idea, I just was the short order cook here. It was soooo wonderfully good. Just a hint of spice, sweet from the seafood, and a little tart from the lime. Whooo-hoo!! Now you know one little reason I love my husband so much!!

¼ red onion
2 TBS butter
1 TBS olive oil
1 c. white wine
1 red bell pepper minced
1 TBS garlic
½ lb crab
½ lb scallop
1 c. cilantro leaves
1 lime
Salt/ pepper and a pinch of red pepper

Melt butter and oil and add onion. Sautee for 3 minutes wine. Cook until reduced until about half. Add peepers and let cook 2 minutes. Meanwhile boil pasta. When pasta is done, but before your drain, add one ladle of the starchy water to the sauce mixtures (Thank you Follow The Cook http://followthecook.blogspot.com/ !!). After you add pasta water, add garlic, crab scallop and salt and pepper. Cook for about 3-4 just until scallops are done. Remove entirely from heat. Squeeze the juice of one lime into the sauce. Plate pasta and top with fresh cilantro and…EJOY!!

Almost Heaven

I am not weighing myself for a week at least. The tomatoes were fresh and so were the pork biscuits! And a fresh tomato on the pork tenderloin biscuit…. Forgetaboutit! While I did not make it to Lowells for a hot dog, there was a new restaurant in Hinton that overlooked the New River and had great Barbeque that I thoroughly enjoyed!
I am not an outdoorsman. A cabin on the River is really as rustic as this chick wants to go, but in West Virginia I can see why someone could overcome their fear of all things icky just for the chance to sleep underneath the stars. I never realized how many stars were in the sky really. I often say, that West Virginia is like an America I have read about but never got to grow up in. Some of the sterotypes are a bit true. It is a rural area. However, it is lovely and the people lovely too. As I watch the kids along the river, out until dusk, fishing without a grown up in sight, I think of some Norman Rockwell painting that somehow missed being painted. West Virginia is often, I feel, the greatest gift I will give to my children, not only for the beauty they will get to experience but the contrast it provides to their life here in the city. So if you ever get a chance to visit anywhere in West Virginia, but specifically anywhere along the Greenbrier River in Summers County West Virginia, do not pass up the opportunity.
That said, I made a great, and I mean great pasta recipe while we were up there. I got the idea from Rachel Ray, she calls it California pasta. I don’t think I changed much if anything other than omitting what I didn’t have (orange rind). It is super easy and really summery and fresh.
1 bunch of leeks slices and cleaned
1-1.5 cups artichoke hearts (you can use, canned, marinated or frozen, I used marinated because I had it)
1 pound pasta
Pesto
1 cup flat leaf parsley
½ c Olive oil
½ c parmesan
1tsp lemon rind
1tsp lime rind
1tsp orange rind

To clean leeks slice the white part, separate and put in a bowl of water. Swish around a bit to give it a “bath.” Discard water. Sautee in a bit of oil leeks until wilted add artichoke and sauté to warm through. Meanwhile start pasta. Combine, parsley, parmesan, the zests of the lemon, lime and orange (I did not have orange so I used a bit more lemon. I didn’t measure how much zest either, I just zested one and a half lemon and one lime.) pulse. Add oil and process until smooth. Once pasta done, add leek dish and pesto to pasta and combine. Serve.
I am sure if you look at Rachel’s recipe on line I didn’t follow it to a “T” however, it was close and man it was good.

Fig Salad

I don’t know where you are but here it is fresh fig season. The figs that are grown locally, are not super flavorful, which is the reason for “drying” them in the oven to concentrate the flavor. The dressing is the most complicated part of this simple salad. It is really good, and very pretty. If you don’t like goats cheese, use feta.

Dressing
10 figs sliced
½ c. balsamic vinegar
¼ c, oil
2 tbs raisins
1 tsp brown sugar

Heat oven to 250. (note below this is a good time to toast walnuts) Line a baking sheet with sliced figs and cook for 1 hour. You still want them moist, you are just trying to concentrate the flavor. Put into blender of food processor. Add all other ingredients and mix until fairly smooth. This will be a thick dressing.

Salad
Bag of spinach
¼ of onion thinly sliced
¼ c. walnuts
½ c. goat cheese
3 fresh figs

Toast walnuts in oven for about 10 minutes. Set aside. Combine spinach, onion, goat cheese in a bowl. Top with walnuts and garnish with slices of the fresh fig. I would serve into bowls and put a dollop of dressing in the middle of each salad.

Summer Pot Roast

Use whatever vegetables you have on hand. We used some parsnips and sweet potato that needed to be used, but summer squash, onion and tomato would be great. However, if you use a vegetable that requires less cooking time, wait to put it in about 15-20 minutes before roast is done.

2-3 lb pork lion
3 parsnips
3 stalks celery
2 sweet potatoes
Salt/pepper
Penzeys Greek seasoning
2 c. chicken stock
2 tbs garlic

Set oven to 350. Season meat really well with salt, pepper, Greek seasoning and garlic. If using root vegetables cut into small pieces and line the bottom of roasting pan with them (if you are using other vegetables, wait to add (you will want about 3 cups of vegetables per pound). Place seasoned meat on top. Season vegetables if you wish as well. Add stock and put in hot oven. Cook meat for about 30-40 minutes.

Summers Winding Down

Now is a perfect time to enjoy the evenings outside. It seems like the weather here has finally broken and a bit early to boot. The evenings are so beautiful. It is a great time to have a fresh from the garden pitch in. Have everyone bring something fresh from the garden and a bottle of wine or something else to drink. Afraid you will get a bunch of cucumber salad, and tomatoes with mozzarella (could you really have too much of that?) Here are some ideas
Using cucumbers or zucchini slice into 1 ½-2” disks, and hollow out seed center. This will leave you with a vegetable “donut”. Fill the center with some Boursin cheese and top with an olive. This is good, easy and really pretty.
Take those same veggies and fill with tuna or chicken salad and a sprig of cilantro.
Make some gazpacho with those fresh tomatoes!
1 clove crushed garlic
Salt
2 tbs olive oil
5-6 tomatoes chopped
1onion chopped
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp paprika
1 ½ tbs vinegar
1 ½ c. beef bullion
Mix all and refrigerate overnight. Put in a blender, and blend, add salt if needed and serve. This is also great with some cucumber or zucchini too.
Or make some fresh salsa with the tomatoes. Mmmm. Just make it easy, make it fresh and enjoy the weather with friends!

Zucchini Pasta for Two

I haven’t had this yet, but apparently is so good that has been a summer staple over at my folks house this summer. This is a recipe of my mothers making. It apparently started its incarnation with just the zucchini, onion and seasoning and that is how they had it several times. Tonight she had a couple tomatoes and threw them is as well and thought it was too good not to share. She said this was born out of an over abundance of zucchinis this year that needed to be used. She promises that she will share a zucchini with me so I can try this lovely creation….however the summer is almost over and she is just NOW telling me about it. I don’t hold out much hope, I think they just might be enjoying it too much to share right now!
2TBS butter
1TBS olive oil
½ onion diced
1 small zucchini diced
2 medium tomatoes chopped
Salt
Pepper
2 cloves garlic
Basil
½ lb pasta
Parmesan


Put past on to cook meanwhile, heat butter and olive oil together. Add onion saute just until soft. Add diced zucchini and cook about 5 minutes, just until almost done, but not mushy. Season with garlic, salt, pepper and basil to taste. Add tomatoes cook 3-5 more minutes or until heated through. Serve over pasta and grate fresh parmesan over.