Category Archives: Recipe

Aromatic Slow-Cooked Pork

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Lately I’ve been on a bit of a pulled pork craze. And by that I mean I’ve made pulled pork twice this month, hoping to figure out the right amount of time to cook, the right cut of meat, the right ingredients to make succulent and tender meat. Earlier this month I tried using the slow cooker but somehow that didn’t work out as I had hoped. I must have left the pork in the cooker for more than 10 hours and it was still not pull-able - yes that is a word now. The flavours and spices were amazing but it just didn’t have that fall-off-the-bone texture. I had to put it in the oven for a few hours before it was tender enough.

I tried again last night and this time I made the pork in the oven. Slow-cooked for three and a half hours at a low heat of 140C/275F and I was able to get what I wanted – soft, buttery, meat that pulls apart easily with two forks. Heaven. The spices were simple. Cumin, coriander, garlic, cayenne pepper, little salt. The liquids were also simple. Crushed tomatoes, beer, lime juice. The brown sugar was only there to round out the flavours. And most importantly, I used pork shoulder blade – a cut with more fat.

Aromatic Pulled Pork

Aromatic Slow-Cooked Pork

Pork shoulder blade, I had 1.6 kg or about 3 1/2 pounds
1 tsp salt, you can add more if you want
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp cayenne pepper
juice of one lime
1/2 cup beer, I used a Pilsner
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 bay leaves

Preheat oven to 140C/275F.

Mix together the salt and spices and then rub into the pork.

Spices for Aromatic Pulled Pork

Spiced Aromatic Pulled Pork

Let it sit for a few hours or cook right away, like I did.

In a small bowl, mix together the lime juice, beer, crushed tomatoes, brown sugar, and bay leaves.

Sauce for Aromatic Pulled Pork

When you’re ready to cook the pork, place it in a big enough baking dish (preferably one with a lid) and pour the sauce over it, making sure it’s well coated. Cover and place in the oven. Check on the meat every hour or so, turning it so it’s evenly cooked and also exposed bits don’t dry out.

Aromatic Pulled Pork from the oven

Let the pork rest a few minutes before pulling apart. Enjoy!

Aromatic Pulled Pork

Pulling Aromatic Pulled Pork

Aromatic Pulled Pork Mess

Aromatic Pulled Pork Sandwich

Chipotle Chicken Soup with Black Beans and Corn

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There was a can of chipotle peppers in the back of the canned goods cupboard of my kitchen. I purchased said can of peppers months ago because I wanted to make…I don’t even remember what I wanted to make. There comes a day when you just need to use that miscellaneous item that you swore you would use and never did. That day has come.

I originally intended to make a spicy chicken soup with jalapeno pepper, beans, maybe some tomatoes but when I eventually got around to prepping the chicken and the broth, I decided to skip the jalapeno and use the chipotle peppers instead, which are deliciously pungent. The result was a warm, very spicy, and flavour-packed soup that is sure to warm your belly.

Chipotle Chicken Soup with Black Beans and Corn

Serves 4

1/2 bell pepper, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 to 4 ounces canned chipotle peppers – I used 4 ounces and I felt it was almost too spicy for me.

1 can black beans

1 1/2 cups corn kernels

1 1/2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded

4 cups chicken broth

In a large pot heat oil and add the bell pepper and garlic and sautee for about a minute. Add the chipotle peppers, beans, chicken, and corn and stir until everything is well coated with the chipotle. Add the broth and bring to a boil before turning to very low heat. Simmer for about 20 minutes just to allow the flavours to combine.

Beef and Veggies with Blue Cheese Bake

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I’m sure by now you’ve noticed I’m a huge fan of throwing things in a pan and popping that in the oven to make an easy and (almost) quick dinner. Last night it probably took me about ten minutes to prep my ingredients (ie. cutting and mixing), another ten minutes to pan fry, and finally thirty minutes to bake the whole thing. I only had to use one skillet and one baking dish – Jay appreciated that haha.

Anyway, on to the recipe. This dish is a mixture of beef and vegetables and it turned out to be high on the comfort food list even though it did not have pasta or rice in it but the cheese and cream gave it that warm and comforting feeling. It’s perfect for dark, winter nights when you get home from work and you want dinner to be ready “now”.

Beef and Veggies with Blue Cheese Bake

Serves 2 (with second helpings)

approx 1 tbsp butter

1/2 bell pepper, chopped – I used yellow and red peppers

1/2 zucchini, quartered length-wise and then sliced

1/2 onion chopped

2 small potatoes, cubed

320g stir fry beef, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 cups broccoli

3/4 cup half and half cream

1/4 tsp salt

fresh ground pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. In a large skillet heat the first amount of butter on medium heat and then add the bell pepper, onion, zucchini, and potatoes. Cook for about ten minutes and then remove from the skillet and – here’s where I avoided dirtying more dishes – put the vegetables in the baking dish you’ll be using later (I used a loaf pan). Next, to the same skillet, add the beef and fry it until it’s brown. Add the broccoli and return the vegetables back into the skillet and mix well. Add the half and half, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and continue to stir until it starts to boil. Put everything into the baking dish and set aside. In a small bowl (okay I did use more dishes) mix together the flour and baking powder. Add the cold butter and blend it with a fork or knife until it looks crumbly. Add the blue cheese and rolled oats and then sprinkle over the beef and veggies. Place in the oven and bake uncovered for about thirty minutes and enjoy!

 

Dad’s Healthy Cookies

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At the beginning of this year my dad started baking cookies on a regular basis. He told me that when his work relocated to a new location (in what I consider to be the middle of nowhere) he had to pack snacks for the whole day. He would buy gourmet cookies but the cost of that started to add up and one day one of his co-workers brought in a batch of yummy vegan cookies. After that day my dad decided he would do something similar and now it has become a ritual. Every Sunday afternoon he bakes a batch of cookies for the week. And these are not cookies that are packed with refined sugar and fat but instead are almost like a little meal in itself.

After he mailed me a few cookies this past spring I was curious to know what recipes he used but he explained that each week he invents a new recipe and that he plays around with the ingredients. I really wanted to know how he did it so this past Sunday while I was in Toronto visiting, I joined him in my mom’s kitchen where we created, what I call:

Dad’s Sunday (November 4th) Healthy Cookies

Makes 40 cookies

*Ingredients can be adjusted, as my dad explains, depending on how dry or wet the batter looks and feels.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup soy flour
1 cup corn flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp guar gum – be careful about spilling on your counter because it’s sticky once it’s mixed with wet ingredients.
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup sesame seeds

2 eggs
1 ripe banana
approx 1 cup sunflower oil
approx 1/2 to 1 cup milk
approx 1/2 to 1 cup water
1 cup + 2tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate large bowl lightly beat the eggs and mash the banana. Add 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of water, the brown sugar and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing after each addition. If you notice the mixture is too dry you can add more milk or water or oil. Keep adding the dry mixture until it’s all incorporated. The dough will become very tacky and you’ll need upper body strength to mix it. Or you can use a stand mixer if you have one. We had a wooden spoon that I was afraid was going to snap :P

With an ice cream scoop, drop quarter cup-sized balls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet or as my dad does it with parchment paper sprayed with water. Next, press the balls down with the underside of a small plate or bowl dipped in water or the back of a spoon dipped in water. Once you’ve done that, you can press raisins into each cookie. Bake the cookies at 350F for about 16 to 18 minutes, making sure to rotate the trays halfway through.

I love that these cookies actually taste like nutmeg. It was one of the things that I commented on as we mixed ingredients. “You use one whole teaspoon of nutmeg?!” I said in shock because most recipes that call for nutmeg say to use just a pinch. My dad said, “I like the taste so I want to taste it.” Makes sense. I also liked the crunchy bits of sesame seed against the soft texture of the cookie. These are like mini bread cookies, light and subtly sweet. And now that I have this particular recipe I’m going to play around with it and see what I can come up with next time.

Sweetly Simple Cupcakes

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I love cupcakes. I love making them and I especially love eating them. I love trying out different and exotic recipes and I love sharing them with others. The best thing about cupcakes is that they can be so versatile. They can be super sweet or they can be subtly sweet. Sometimes you don’t even have to ice them because they are good on their own.

A few nights ago I had a serious sweet tooth but not that sweet, if that makes any sense. I wanted a simple and sweet, but not too sweet, cupcake. Something that wouldn’t take more than a half hour to make and something that could stand on its own because, really, I  was so not in the mood to make icing haha.

I played around with ingredients and here’s what I came up with:

Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup cake flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add the vanilla and milk and mix just until everything is incorporated. Evenly distribute the batter into a lined cupcake pan and bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and it comes out clean. The cupcakes should spring back when gently touched.

These cupcakes turned out light and perfectly sweet. They were good without icing and amazing with a cup of coffee.

If you’re the kind of cupcake lover who absolutely needs a dollop of icing (I certainly do sometimes) just spread some Nutella on top and enjoy!

Tomato and Pesto Soup With Meatballs

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Care for a warm and fuzzy-feeling inducing soup? I know I did last night. It was cold, rainy, and very windy. But not so inside my tiny kitchen. In there I threw together a few ingredients and in no time I had a fabulous soup thanks to Rachael Ray’s Double Tomato and Pesto Cup-o-Soup from her Cookin’ Round the Clock cookbook. The original recipe uses store-bought basil pesto but a few months back Jay’s mom supplied us with several jars of delicious parsley pesto, which gave the soup a fresh and sweet taste to it. The recipe is also meatless but Rachael suggests adding meatballs, chicken, or bits of seafood to “bump up the protein.” I took her advice and threw in the frozen pork and fennel meatballs I had made a few weeks ago, which were phenomenal and fit perfectly with the tomato soup.

Tomato and Pesto Soup With Meatballs

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 shallot, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

Approx 2 cups meatballs

Fresh ground pepper, to taste

1/2 cup dry sherry, or white wine

3 cups chicken broth

1 28oz can crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup pesto

Heat the oil and butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the shallot, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, carrot, and meatballs and cook about 5 minutes. Season with pepper and salt if you like but I found the soup didn’t need any added salt. Add the sherry and simmer for 2 minutes. Pour in the broth and crushed tomatoes and cook until bubbly. Stir in the pesto until everything is combined and serve with a few sprinkles of Parmesan.

Chili Chicken Indian Hakka Style

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I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before that I have this blue notebook where I’ve cut and pasted magazine clippings with recipes and if I have I’m going to say I’m so glad I put that book together. In this book I’ve got recipes from different magazines like Chatelaine, Canadian Living, Weight Watchers, Homemakers, etc. This is the book I turn to when I can’t find what I’m looking for in my “real” cookbooks and for the most part, the blue book does not disappoint.

Friday night I flipped through the blue book and found a recipe from Homemakers magazine (which appears to have changed to Fresh Juice) for “Indian Hakka Chili Chicken“. Having grown up in the east end of Toronto and having had the pleasure of eating at Frederick’s restaurant, I could certainly understand why I was suddenly salivating over the idea of eating Hakka chili chicken. I immediately got to work as I tried my best to ignore the loud rumblings coming from my stomach.

Here’s my slightly adapted version, which by the way, was amazing and I highly recommend it!

Indian Hakka Chili Chiken

1/3 cup chicken stock

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp ketchup

2 tsp cornstarch

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp rice vinegar

1 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 lb of chicken thighs cut into pieces

1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 1/2 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp five spice powder

5 green onions, chopped

1 cup cilantro

In a bowl, mix together the stock, soy sauce, ketchup, cornstarch, sugar, and vinegar.

In a large pan or pot on medium, heat 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil and add the chopped onion (not the green ones! Sadly I did that and if Jay hadn’t been in the kitchen they would have turned into ugly brown bits). Stir the onions often for about 10 minutes and then add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds before tossing in the chicken pieces. The original recipe says to turn the heat up a little and fry everything but whenever I do that I end up burning more food than I intended so I kept it at a safe medium heat. Cook for about 6 or 7 minutes and then add the hot pepper, cayenne pepper, coriander, cumin, and five spice powder – I have to add here that this spice is AMAZING and I need to use it more often – making sure everything is mixed well so you don’t end up with a clump of cayenne pepper on a single piece of chicken. Add the green onions. Increase the heat (yes, this time I did turn it up to high-ish) and stir in the stock mixture and continue stirring and cooking until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and add the cilantro.

Pesto chicken noodle soup

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Whenever my mom made chicken soup she didn’t cut the chicken into little itty bitty pieces – she’d throw in whole chicken legs and then she’d separate the drumstick and thigh, keeping them both in tact. That is how I like my chicken soups, with an entire drumstick poking out of the broth.

The smell of carrots and onion boiling in a pot of chicken broth is probably the most comforting aroma ever. It takes me back to cold nights as a kid snuggling with my mom, playing games or listening to her stories.

Speaking of moms, Jay’s mom lovingly made us a nice batch of home made pesto, which we’ve been gorging on because it’s so good. I’d previously purchased a bottle of pesto but last night there was no question as to which one I’d be using. Mom’s pesto is way better, in our opinion.

This recipe comes, again, from Jean Pare’s 30 Minute Pantry. Seriously, if you can find that book, get it.

Here’s what I used:

1 carrot, sliced

1 onion, chopped (original recipe says to use celery)

4 cups ready made chicken broth

1 cup water

about 3 handfuls of egg noodles

four chicken drumsticks

another onion, chopped

2 tbsp pesto

Into a pot on medium-high heat put the chicken broth and water. Add the carrot and onion and bring to a boil then add the noodles and cook until carrot is tender. While that’s happening, cook the chicken in a pan with some oil and the other chopped onion. The original recipe says to use boneless chicken thigh cut into small pieces so it will cook faster but because I used drumsticks it took a lot longer. Basically, just cook until it’s not pink inside. The onions started to burn a little so I added a bit of water, which sort of caramelized everything. Once the chicken is cooked through, add the pesto and mix to coat everything. Add to the pot of soup and stir. I let it simmer for a few minutes more to combine flavours.

Home made pesto from Jay’s mom.

Pork chops with lemony gravy and asparagus

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Ok, so I kinda forgot to take a picture because my stomach was too impatient and didn’t give me a chance to take a shot. As Jay put it while rubbing his belly, “Damn, that was the best pork chop I’ve ever had.” I’m gonna have to agree. Normally with pork chops I’ll tear open the package, sprinkle some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper and then toss the pork chop right into a frying pan. The pork chops usually turn out tasty but that’s about it.

Last night I used a recipe from Jean Pare’s The 30 Minute Pantry (is there anyone out there who loves the Company’s Coming series as much as we do?). The instructions are simple and easy to follow and dinner was ready in 30 minutes. Of course it does help if you prep all the ingredients ahead of time like I did.

To prep rinse the pork chops and pat dry with a paper towel and set aside. Mix together about 2 or 3 tbsp of flour with 1/2 tsp of oregano, 1/4 tsp salt and black pepper to taste in a shallow dish (I used my pie plate which unfortunately suffered a fatal accident during the night – for some reason it felt the need to hop off the drying rack and plummet to its death on the floor). Set that aside. In a small bowl combine about a tsp of lemon rind and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. In another small bowl squeeze about 2 tbsp of fresh lemon juice. You will also need a cup of chicken broth. For the asparagus I cut the ends off and then chopped another two cloves of garlic.

To cook the pork chops heat a skillet at medium high heat with a tbsp of butter and a tbsp of  olive oil. Press the the pork chops into the flour mixture to coat both sides then place them in the skillet and cook until the meat is not pink in the middle – about 2-4 minutes on each side depending on the thickness. Reserve the leftover flour mixture. Place pork chops on a plate and cover to keep warm. In the same skillet add the leftover flour and then add the lemon rind, garlic, and lemon juice. Slowly stir in the chicken broth and continue stirring until it thickens. Drizzle over pork chops and serve.

To cook the asparagus heat a pot with butter and olive oil on medium high heat. Throw in the garlic for about 30 seconds then add the asparagus and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper if you want. Cover and let it cook for about 10 minutes if you want them tender. If you want them much softer then cook another 10 minutes. I sort of burnt the garlic and was afraid it would ruin the asparagus but I kept moving it around and it turned out amazing, especially with the lemony gravy on top.

Crack open a bottle of red wine and enjoy!

Garlic Roast Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon

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I bought Rachael Ray’s Cooking ‘Round The Clock a few years ago and since then I’ve made a little over a handful of her recipes. Why haven’t I made more than that? I think my theory is to stick to recipes that looks exceedingly simple and require easy to obtain ingredients.

This has got to stop. Last night I broke out of my restricted Rachael Ray Rolodex of recipes and I made her Turbo Classics Rosemary Lemon Chicken with Pesto Mashed Potatoes. I really can’t explain why I never made this before as it was ridiculously easy to make. I think I have an aversion to buying fresh rosemary because I never use it all and it ends up going bad.

Anyway, please do make this for dinner if and when you want something warm, comforting, and most importantly absolutely delicious. The smell of the chicken as it comes out of the oven is mouth-watering. And where did she get the idea to mash potatoes with pesto? Genius!

Recipe for the chicken can be found here. The potatoes recipe can be found here.

Note – I used chicken thighs instead of chicken breast as I find breast a bit too dry for my taste.