Crispy Pork Larb

Crispy Pork Larb

This is one of those dinners that is both healthy and delicious.  Trust me when I tell you when you take one bite of this you will be forever grateful that I started this blog--yes it's that good!  For those of you who do not know, Larb is a Thai street food.  It's so good that it'll make you question how we do street food in America.  It's bright, fresh, and full of the umami flavors that will make you go Mmmmmm... If you don't fancy pork, no problem, you can try this with ground chicken, turkey, or even lamb and beef.  Check out my recipe for Chicken larb here.  This is one of my favorite ways to use ground meat, it's so simple that this meal almost makes itself!

Pin It!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground pork

3 large cloves of garlic thinly sliced

1/4 cup of diced red bell pepper

1/2 of a red onion, sliced thinly

1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves

1/2 cup of fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup of fresh cilantro leaves

1 head of romaine lettuce, leaves removed to use as cups

1/2 cup of sliced persian cucumbers

1/3 cup of fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon of a good quality fish sauce, I used red boat

2  tablespoons of soy sauce

1/4 cup of water

Sea salt to taste

2 tablespoons of cooking oil of your choice

red pepper flakes to taste

Directions:

Heat oil, garlic and red bell pepper and cook until garlic is fragrant--about 15 seconds.

Add in ground meat season with sea salt and cook until brown about 5-7 minutes.

Once brown, add in soy sauce, fish sauce, water and red pepper flakes if using.

Cook until liquid evaporates and pork is brown and crispy about 2 minutes. Add in lime juice, toss well, remove from heat.  Add the meat to the lettuce cups, top with a generous amount of the fresh herbs, cucumbers, red onion, red pepper flakes, and a squeeze of additional lime juice, enjoy! So good!

Fried Cauliflower Florets with Creamy Garlic Tahini Sauce

Fried Cauliflower Florets with Creamy Garlic Tahini Sauce

Whenever I eat out at a Mediterranean restaurant, I find it hard to not just compose a meal from the appetizer menu.  With things like lentil soup, lemon and garlic potatoes, hummus and pita bread, fattoush salad, grape leaves, and fried cauliflower on the appetizer menu, who needs a full entree!  I often find myself struggling not to order one of every thing on the appetizer menu.  I usually settle upon the potatoes or the fried cauliflower.  The fried cauliflower is amazingly simple.  Unlike most fried things that come dusted in flour or some other type of breaded base, this doesn't.  This recipe calls for only one ingredient, cauliflower!  The tahini sauce is great with this, but the cauliflower is pretty amazing on its own.  Your kids will love these cauliflower florets, mine did!

Pin It!

 

 

 

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 5-7 minutes

Ingredients:

1 small head of cauliflower

2 cups of grape seed oil or another high temp oil

Sea salt to taste

Ingredients Creamy Garlic Tahini Sauce

4 tablespoons of tahini paste

8 tablespoons of water

1 tablespoon of lemon juice, more if you like

2 cloves of garlic grated

Directions: Pre-heat the oil to 320F in a deep fryer.  Add ingredients for the tahini sauce to a small bowl and mix until well combined and creamy, then set aside. If you want this to be extra creamy, place all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until creamy, then transfer to a bowl.

Cut the cauliflower into florets.

Add the cauliflower florets to the deep fryer.

 

Fry until golden brown.

 

Transfer to a paper towel lined plate, season with sea salt, serve and enjoy!

 

 

 

Herbaceous Grilled Lamp Chops

Herbaceous Grilled Lamb Chops

Last weekend I visited a Persian market.  The market filled me with all sorts of food inspiration, but it mostly left me with a strong desire to eat lamb.  I guessing that desire came from the cooked foods section, which had fresh lamb kabobs and sharma. The market also housed a rather large meat department, it had lamb in every form, hooves, hearts, livers, basically every part of the lamb that a better cook than I am could possibly want to cook. A far cry from the selection at my local Whole Foods! I feel like I hit the lottery if they have stewed lamb meat once every 4 months.  Wouldn't it be fabulous to be able to walk into your local market and find, um..choices?  Like ramps in the spring time, in California--but I digress.  Let's just say, I left the Persian market with market envy.   I shop at Whole Foods so often that when I go into a conventional grocery store, I'm always amazed at how inexpensive things are.  Haha..call it reverse sticker shock! Thank you Whole Foods!  Surprisingly, I did not leave the Persian market with lamb.  I did find some great spices, some pomegranate molasses, and a few other great items.  I left with my new finds and a mission to cook these lamb chops.

Pin It!

Ingredients:

1 lb lamb chops

2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, finely chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic minced

1 teaspoon lemon powder, can sub with lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon of olive oil

Directions: To a small bowl add garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and oil, mix well.

Dry lamb chops, season generously with sea salt. Rub the lamb chops with the herbaceous garlic paste.

Place lamb chops on a hot grill, and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until lamb chops are cooked to your liking.  Remove from grill, serve with a fresh squeeze of lemon and enjoy!

Ground Chicken and Cabbage Curry

Ground Chicken and Cabbage Curry

Do you ever pull out something for dinner and then have no clue what you're going to make with it? I do...all the time! Most of the time it works out, but working out on some days can be relative. Success for me is getting a nutritious meal on the table on most days. This Chicken and Cabbage curry recipe  almost didn't come together. I pulled out the ground chicken, but all I had to go with it was the cabbage. I didn't have any fresh onion, no fresh garlic, none of the ingredients one needs to make something taste good. My fridge was empty because I had put off grocery shopping, and now I had to pay the price. I turned to my cupboards for help. I had a bevy of ground dried spices, curry, onion powder, ground ginger and garlic.  From those dried spices, this meal was born, and let me tell you what a delicious meal it was! It is one of my husbands favorite meals. I've made this with fresh onion and garlic, but the dried spices give this much better flavor.

Pin It!

 

 

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1 lb of ground chicken
1 tablespoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
2 tablespoons of curry powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger powder
2-3 tablespoons of  olive oil, or ghee
1 small head of cabbage, chopped roughly
4 tablespoons of freshly chopped cilantro

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a pan add dried spices and  heat for 20 seconds or just until spices become fragrant. Add in ground meat and brown. Once meat has cooked, add in the cabbage, and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until cabbage wilts a bit. 

Remove from heat, top with cilantro and serve as is, or over a bowl of brown basmati rice and enjoy!

Smokey Paprika and Lime Chicken Kabobs

Smokey Paprika and Lime Chicken Kabobs

I think that there is definitely an art to marinades. I'm still learning that particular art. I recently purchased the highly acclaimed Modernist Cuisine book set. It's massive and filled with information--extremely useful information. I'm only on the second book about 1000 pages into this probably 7000 page set, and the information that I've learned has completely changed the way that I view cooking.  This set is amazing! If you're interested in the how's and why's of cooking, from a scientific perspective---then you want this set. If you can save the $550 plus dollars it costs to buy this book set then I highly recommend it.  Or just stay tuned to my blog, lot's of changes are coming.  Not to mention appliances. One is the immersion circulator that I've been wanting for years.  Another is a vacuum chamber sealer.  I returned my Food saver in preparation for this machine.  This machine makes marination super easy, and effective.  It sucks out all of the air in the chamber and compresses everything in it. Thus making pickles in a matter of minutes, and  infusing steak or chicken and fish with marinades in minutes. Long gone will be my days of marinating anything over night.  I'm really excited for my vacuum chamber to arrive. Not having my Food Saver or a vacuum machine has been torture, but life goes on.  This particular marinade is a mixture of dry and wet ingredients.  It's really delicious, and so flavorful, that it doesn't need more than a few minutes to flavor the chicken--gotta love a quick marinade with no fancy equipment.


Ingredients
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of lime juice
1 lb of skinless boneless chicken thighs, cubed into one inch pieces
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions: Add the onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, olive oil and lime juice to a small bowl and mix well.

Season the chicken generously with sea salt and black pepper, add it to a large bowl.  Add the marinade paste to the chicken then toss well to cover the chicken with the marinade.

Place chicken on skewers and grill cooking until chicken is cooked through about 10-12 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Moroccan Spiced Grilled Lamb Kabobs

Moroccan Spiced Lamb Kabobs

I don't know where you live, but for the last week or so it's been in the high 90's here in Southern California.  When it's hot like this, I resort to making my husband cook on the grill.  No one wants to cook in this kind of heat, but we must eat, so grilling it is. I love grilled meat period.  Lamb was made to be grilled.  I remember several years back introducing my southern family to lamb grilled on the barbecue. I had invited them over for a cook out, and in addition to grilled chicken, I was serving grilled lamb.  When they found out that chicken and lamb were their only meat options, I had a family mutiny on my hands.  "Lamb?!!! We don't eat lamb! You just wasted your money!" "Where is the real food? What happened to the ribs?!" Haha! I still laugh thinking about that day, because, after a bit of convincing I got one of them to try it, and they all quickly fell in line! Ten seconds into them all trying it, they were fighting over who was going to get the last piece!  Now when we have a barbecue, lamb is on the menu, and I'm not the one bringing it, they are!  I've converted several friends of mine who aren't  fans of lamb into eating lamb by serving it to them grilled also. I personally love lamb anyway you serve it. But there is just something about grilled lamb that speaks to everyone's taste bud's.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound of lamb loin cubed

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of coriander

1 teaspoon of garlic paste

2 Tablespoons of lemon juice

1 Tablespoon of finely chopped mint

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

In a  small bowl mix the cumin, coriander, lemon juice, mint and olive oil together.

Season lamb meat generously with sea salt and black pepper. Pour the marinade over the lamb and mix well. 

Add the seasoned lamb to skewers, then grill for 5-7 minutes on each side, or until the lamb reaches your desired level of doneness--about 15 minutes for medium.  Serve with veggie skewers or this cucumber and tomato salad, or this Cucumber Salad with Lemon Basil vinaigrette and this lemon cauliflower rice and enjoy!

Southern Style Fried Catfish

Southern Style Fried Catfish

Last week I was watching a documentary called Soul Food Junkies, it was about the history, and resulting health consequences of eating too much soul food. It was a great  documentary, informative, and inspiring in all the right places. However, I left viewing it with a strong desire to eat collard greens and catfish. My grandmother fried fish, and cooked greens like no one else on this planet,I miss her cooking so much.  I guess one could say that my craving was more of an emotional comfort rather than hunger. Whatever, the reason for my craving, it was one that I had to fulfill. It worked out perfectly as things go, my Whole Foods had 4 catfish fillets on hand, they rarely if ever have catfish, so I took it as a sign that my grandmother was looking out for me and wanted me to have the comfort of the meal I set out to make. I rarely cook fried fish, but when I do I love to have it with collard greens. So I picked up a few bushels at my local farmers market and set out to make this meal. This is not my grandmothers recipe, but it's pretty great on its own. Her recipe involved much more detail than this one does, and that required more time than I had on that Sunday. If you want and have the time you can crack an egg and whisk it as a wash to dip the fish into before putting it into the corn meal. I skipped that option and the fish was still crispy and juicy.

Ingredients:
1 lb of cat fish fillets, quartered
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 cup of corn meal
1/2 cup of grapeseed oil, or safflower oil

Directions: Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet. season the cat fish fillets with sea salt and black pepper. Mix the paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder together in a small bowl, then sprinkle the mixture evenly over both sides of the fish.

Coat the fish with the corn meal then add it to the hot oil, and fry until golden brown, and cooked through...about 7-10 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate, and enjoy!

Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme.

Charbroiled Sardines with Parsley and Thyme

It's not often here that I can walk up to my local Whole Foods Market fish counter and get fresh sardines. So when the opportunity to do so  occurred, I jumped at it.  I am a huge fan of small sustainable fish, like sardines, and smelt.  I'll even go out on a limb and say that I like smelt fish more than sardines, but smelt fish are even harder to come by than fresh sardines.  If you've never made fresh sardines before, then you have been missing out! They're so easy to make, and so delicious!

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 7-10 minutes

1 pound of fresh Sardines split down the middle

1/2 cup of parsley

1/4 cup thyme

1 clove of garlic

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Sea salt and Black pepper to taste

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 400F.  Line a bake sheet with parchment or foil. Pulse all the ingredients with the exception of the sardines in a small blender or processor. You can skip the processor and opt to chop all the herbs finely and then mix with the oil and lemon. Place the sardines on the lined bake sheet, add the herb mixture to the inside of each sardine. Season with sea salt and black pepper then place in the oven and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until sardines are cooked through and have charred on top a bit. Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy!

Makeover Chicken Taco's

Leftover Makeover Chicken Taco's

One of my favorite things to do is reinvent a dinner out of something we ate the night before. Let's face it, leftovers are nice, but a freshly made dinner is better. While buying a whole chicken works out great for our budget, we are always left with leftover chicken. This recipe is result of me and more importantly my husband not wanting to eat the same roast chicken I served the night before. It's super simple to make, and very delicious.


Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time 10 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
2.5 cups of Pre cooked chopped chicken
2 small cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 cup of  diced onion
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of freshly chopped cilantro
6 large organic corn taco shells
Sea salt to taste



Directions:
Heat the oil on a cast iron skillet, add the garlic and onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add in the chicken, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, sea salt and toss well. Cook for another 5-7 minutes. Add in the cilantro, remove from heat, and serve inside corn tortillas, with your choice of toppings.

Citrus Marinaded Chicken Thighs

Citrus Marinated Chicken Thighs

My husband gave me a food saver for Christmas. Most women would balk at such a gift, but not me, I've wanted a Food Saver for a long while now. Among the many great things that a Food Saver does, like resealing opened bags of chips, and preserving veggies for an indefinite amount of time, is marinating meat in under 15 minutes. Who knew that sucking the air out of something would create such great results. You don't need a food saver to make this, just marinate your chicken the old fashioned way, 30 minutes in this marinade is great, but longer is always better.


Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
5-6 skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/4 cup of green onions sliced
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/4 cup of mandarin juice/ orange juice
1 teaspoon of mandarin or orange zest
3 cloves of garlic grated
1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika
Juice of 1 small lime
1 tablespoon of cilantro finely chopped
2 tablespoon of olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Directions:
 In a medium bowl whisk together all the ingredients for the marinade. Add the chicken, mix well, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven 425F. Line a baking sheet with foil, remove the chicken from the marinade, and place it on the foil lined baking sheet. Cook on 425F for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Top with cilantro and enjoy!

Sautéed Kale with Mushrooms

Sautéed Kale and Mushrooms

One of the great things about Kale is that it's so versatile! You can dress kale up with almost any flavor and still end up with a soul satisfying side dish. I love pairing greens of any kind with mushrooms! Mushrooms give the greens a great counter texture, and let's face it, mushrooms make everything fantastic!

Ingredients
3 cups of Lacinto kale chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
1 Tablespoon of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
Sea salt to taste

Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet. Add garlic and mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms take on some color(10 minutes) add in kale and sauté until greens wilt, add in soy sauce and cook for another 5-7 minutes or until greens are tender. Season with sea salt if necessary, serve and enjoy!

Wine Braised Kale

Braised Kale

Thank goodness that the Holidays are over. I feel like I've been on a fast moving train for the last 2 months! I don't know about you, but I love being home and settled into my routine. The Holidays always take me out of routine.  It's nice to get out of routine, but it's heaven to get back into routine also. While I've been away from you, I've been indulging in comfort foods, like stews in wine sauces! I love adding wine to sauces and stews. A wine sauce always makes me want to lick the plate clean! This recipe for Kale is so extremely yummy that if you're not a Kale lover, you may just become a kale lover overnight! Kale gets a bad rap, I think it's because most people don't know how to cook it. People always pull me aside in the grocery store and ask me how I cook it. They whisper the question as if my responding answer will contain the secrets of the earth! Maybe for them it does. If you are not eating kale because you haven't a clue how to make it, I hope that this recipe changes that!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Ingredients:
1 bunch of Lancinto Kale washed and chopped finely
1/4 cup of shallots or brown onion finely chopped
1/4 cup or more of a good white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
1 large clove of garlic sliced thinly
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil

Directions:
Heat olive oil add garlic and shallots and  cook until you can smell the garlic, (20 seconds), add in kale, and sauté until wilted. Add in white wine, sea salt, and pepper, bring to a simmer and lower the heat. Cook covered for 5-7 minutes. It's done when Kale is tender.

Smoked Paprika Lime and Garlic Chicken

Smoked Paprika Lime & Garlic Chicken

One of my favorite Mexican restaurants serves this super yummy and tangy chicken with paprika and lime. As always I love to try to recreate my favorite restaurant meals in my own kitchen. Let's face it, it's not always convenient to eat out, especially with a toddler who doesn't like to sit for an hour with her hands in her lap. This chicken dish can be made with just parts of the chicken, you don't have to use a whole chicken. I used two kinds of paprika, but if you only have one kind use that.


Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook  Time: 45 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon of paprika
1 Tablespoon of smoked paprika
2 large cloves of garlic grated or pasted
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
The juice of two limes
Handful of cilantro
Two tablespoons of oil

Directions:
In a bowl mix the garlic, paprika and oil into a paste, then rub it into the skin of the chicken. Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 425F degrees  for 45 minutes to an hour until the bird is cooked through. Remove bird from the oven, pour on the lime juice and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve and enjoy! It's tangy with a kick from the smoked paprika!