Sweet and spicy pulled-pork

I've been prepping for a party and wanted to share a recipe with you for pulled pork with a kick.

Here's my menu, it's great for the summer, and full of big flavors.

spicy gazpacho
black beans
coconut rice
skirt steak with chimichurri
pulled pork
tostones with sugared lime zest
green salad with pickled red onions, garbanzo beans and sun-dried tomatoes

Here's my recipe for sweet and spicy pulled pork:
2 C. apricot jam
3 thinly sliced red onions
1 C. sliced picked jalapenos (you can also use fresh, but use 1/2 C.)
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt and pepper
1/4 c lime juice
4 lb. pork shoulder
Handful of cilantro leaves for garnish

Preheat oven to 400.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Line a deep roasting pan with aluminum foil, (you will be wrapping the foil around pork, so be sure it's one large piece) and add pork shoulder. Rub entire mixture over pork and cover with foil. Bake for 3 hours, remove pork and break apart using 2 forks. Add back to pan and let cook uncovered for another 40 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro leaves before serving.

Coconut curried chicken with vegetables

I love coconut curry, but don't often make it at home.

Here's my recipe for coconut curry chicken with vegetables:

1 tbs. olive oil
1 cube frozen garlic
1 cube frozen ginger
2 tsp. red curry paste
4 pieces boneless, skinless, chicken thighs- cut into cubes
8 oz. coconut milk
1 C. quartered mushrooms
2 peeled and sliced carrots
1 C. thinly sliced peppers, (red, green, yellow)
1 C. snap peas
Kosher salt to taste
cayenne pepper (optional)

Heat oil in a large nonstick pan with a lid on high heat. Add ginger and garlic and stir to melt. Add cubed chicken and curry paste and stir to combine. Let chicken brown for 2 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Add coconut milk and carrots and reduce heat to medium. Cover and let cook for 8 minutes. Add peppers and mushrooms and season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste, and continue cooking for another 10 minutes. Add snap peas before serving. The heat from the chicken will steam the snap peas.

I served the curry with basmati rice.

Herbed black pepper compound butter

I haven't made a compound butter in a while, but a friend brought me a gigantic bunch of fresh oregano.

Compound butter is simply a combination of herbs and butter. It's delicious on bread, fish, corn, even tossed into pasta. Compound butter freezes beautifully and makes a nice dinner party gift. Make a big log and keep it in the freezer, when you need some simply slice what you need, and if you're gifting some, wrap a nice log in parchment paper, then wrap it in some pretty tissue and a ribbon.

Here's my recipe for herbed black-pepper compound butter.

3 tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. kosher salt
2 Tbs. cracked black pepper
1/4 C. basil leaves (or 3 cubes frozen basil)
1/4 C. oregano leaves
1/4 C. Italian parsley leaves
1/4 C. chives
4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into smallish cubes

Combine olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs into a Cuisinart. Process until smooth. While the Cuisinart is running, add in cubes of butter until thoroughly processed and smooth.

Lay a large piece of parchment paper on the counter and add compound butter to the center. Form a long log (like cookie dough) and enclose in remaining parchment paper. Next cover with Saran Wrap and freeze.

This is a great way to use fresh herbs during the summer and makes a unique gift from your kitchen.

Pasta salad for a crowd

The girls have their last softball game tomorrow, and I am making a pasta salad for the post softball BBQ.

Here is the recipe:

Boil 1 bag pasta (farfalle or penne works well).

While the pasta cooks rinse and slice 1 C. cherry tomatoes, 1 can of black olives, 1 can of rinsed garbanzo beans, and 2 finely sliced green onions. Add into a large bowl.

Add 1 C. shredded carrots, 1/4 C. balsamic vinegar, 1 C. olive oil., 2 tsp. Lawry's Seasoning salt, 1/4 C. prepared pesto, and 1/4 C. freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Add to the bowl.

Drain and rinse the pasta under cool water until the pasta has cooled, add to bowl and stir until thoroughly combined.

Cover with saran wrap and chill until ready to serve.

Asian Watercress Pesto

I have been messing around with a new recipe for Asian Watercress pesto, it's good on anything, tonight we ate it smeared over some grilled chicken.

Here is my recipe for Asian Watercress Pesto:

1 bunch watercress
3 cubes frozen garlic
3 cubes frozen ginger
3 cubes frozen cilantro
1/2 C. toasted walnuts, pine nuts or pecans
kosher salt
zest and juice from 1 lime
1 1/2 C. olive oil

Combine all ingredients except olive oil into a food processor. Process and slowly add olive oil. This pesto can be thinned out with more olive oil or kept on the thick side. It freezes beautifully if you happen to have a run on watercress. It's delicious tossed in with udon noodles, smeared on salmon then roasted or even used as a thinned out sauce for steak.

Give it a try, it's a delicious variation on traditional pesto.

Spanish quiche torta

We officially have a dozen eggs from our chickens so I decided to make a quiche. I don't love quiches that are overly eggy so I combined a quiche with a Spanish Torta which has potato in it. This recipe made 2 quiches and turned out amazing!

Here's the recipe:

2 pie crusts (store bought is fine)
1/2 lb. bacon
1/2 onion, finely chopped
5 C. fresh baby spinach
1 potato, peeled, and chopped into small cubes
1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese ( Feta would be a delicious substitute!)
8 eggs
3/4 C. fat-free milk
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook bacon in a large pan on medium high heat. While the bacon cooks, snip it into pieces with scissors. It should take 8-10 minutes. While the bacon cooks, boil the potato cubes in another pot until cooked through, about 10 minutes. The bacon should be cooked through but NOT crisp. Drain bacon and remove from the pan. In the same pan saute onions for 4 minutes then add all of the spinach a handful at a time until the spinach has cooked down. This only takes a minute.

Whisk eggs and milk together, then add a pinch of salt and a good big pinch of ground black pepper. Add onion and spinach mixture, cooked potato, shredded cheese and crumbled bacon. Whisk together and pour half of the mixture into each pie shell.

Bake for 35 minutes or until quiche is springy and firm.

Quiche freezes beautifully and is delicious for breakfast, lunch of dinner with a salad of fresh arugula, peas, cherry tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper

Blog is now searchable

My blog is finally searchable. If you are looking for a recipe from 2 years ago, like the Roasted pulled pork you can now type in "pork" in the search bar to find the recipe.

I taught one of my "recession buster" 15 Minute Meals classes today at the Christopher Peacock Cabinetry showroom. I made a panko crusted broiled scallop today and forgot just how much I loved scallops. They were sweet and buttery and the panko gave it just a little crunch.

There are a few more classes available before the end of the season, but private classes are always available.

Grilled snapper with white wine and chives

It was a beautiful evening for grilling, and I had picked up a nice piece of snapper earlier in the day. We bought some tiny beets at the farmers market on Sunday, and I was planning on making some jasmine rice with chives, celery and almonds using the chives from our garden.

Here are the recipes in order of how to prepare this dinner:

Preheat oven to 450. Cut the tops off the beets and rinse. Wrap beets in foil and bake for 25 minutes or until a knife can easily be inserted into the beet. Once beets are cooked, slide the skin off under cool running water.

While the beets cook, start the rice. Boil 1 1/2 C. of water and 1/2 tsp. of the chicken base (or Better than Bouillon). When the water boils, add 1 C. of jasmine rice. Cover and reduce heat to medium low. Finely chop 1 celery stalk and 1/4 of an onion. Saute in a tsp. of olive oil for 3 minutes on high heat. Add 1/4 C. of slivered almonds, 1/4 C. of diced chives and add to rice mixture. Cook rice until all liquid has evaporated.

Preheat the grill to medium high. Drizzle a little olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and the juice from 1/2 lemon to the snapper filet. Once the grill is hot, add the fish, skin side down. Cover and let cook for 5 minutes. Remove fish from the grill and add it to a glass casserole dish. Add 1/4 C. white wine and a 1/4 C. chopped chives. Bake in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Abby loved the beets and ate the fish (but thought it was chicken), and oddly neither of them liked the rice, but Kirk thought it was the best rice and fish he's ever had!