Red Pork Posole

Red Pork Posole is a great winter soup that can be served instead of chili.  Can be as spicy as you want it or as mild as you want it.  Play with the flavors that you like.  You can add other dried peppers for more heat if you like.  Its great to use if you have left over chicken or turkey.  I made this after Thanksgiving with my leftovers.  Yummy!!!! 

5-7lb Pork Should Roast (Can use shredded chicken or turkey)
4-5 Dried Ancho Chilies
1 Onion, chopped
3 Garlic cloves, chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped   - use 1/2 for the soup and 1/2 for garnish
Cumin
Smoked Paprika
Chili Powder
Pepper
Smoked Salt if you have it or just use regular
Chicken Broth
2 small cans or 1 large can of hominy, drained
2 Limes or more for garnish
1 tbls honey
Pickled Onions - Receipe to follow*

Cover roast in cumin, smoked paprika, chili powder, pepper and smoked salt and let rest at room temperature about 30 minutes. 
Preheat oven to 325.
Get a dutch oven or another type of pan that you can just transfer to the oven.  Sear the pork roast on all sides, add 1/2 c or more chicken broth, cover and put in the oven for 2 hours or unil the meat is falling off the bone tender.
While the pork is cooking, place the dried chilies in a pan and fill with water until it just covers the pepper and bring to boil.  Turn off the heat and let the peppers soak for an hour or so. Once the peppers have cooled put them in a blender with the water and puree, set aside.
Once the pork is tender, take it out of the dutch oven and let rest for 15-20 minutes (or longer).  Save the juices.  I pour them into an old water pitcher and let it cool. Skim off the fat.   While your pork is cooling off, sautee onion, and garlic in the same dutch oven and more of the (1 tbls each) cumin, paprika, chili powder and salt and pepper.   Once the onion is translucent add the shredded pork.  Add some of the remaining juices, the dried chili puree and chicken stock until its a good soupy consistency. Let the soup simmer for about an hour.  Add hominy, juice of the limes and the honey. Cook another 10 minutes before serving. 

* Pickled Onions
1 Large Red Onion, sliced
2 Jalepenos, sliced
1 Red Fresno Pepper, sliced
2 Tbls Pickling Seasoning
1 Tbls Cumin Seeds
1 C. Cider Vinegar
1/2 C. Water
1/2 C. Sugar

Slice the onions and put into a quart sized pickling jar, add sliced peppers. 
Bring vinegar, water, sugar, pickling spices and cumin seeds to a boil until sugar has dissolved. 
Pour hot liquid over onion and seal the jar.  Let sit at room temperature until flavors meld.  Can be stored in fridge for a couple weeks.

Serve soup with pickled onions, sliced limes, cilantro, white mexican cheese.  All of the above is great or none of the above is great too.

I'm Back!

I have been out of commision for the past few months.  I had a baby!  She was born on August 15th, 2011 and has been more than a handful.  She is the love of my life and keeps my time a little limited in the kitchen these days. This is a pic of the little sweetie at 13 weeks old.  I was cleaning up my computer today and came across my blog and had completely forgotten about it.  I guess you can say I have been a bit preoccupied.  I have not quit cooking though and have been staying busy.  Just cooked up Thanksgiving dinner this past week and it turned out marvelous.  I tried a few new recipes and people said they were good, but unfortunetely I had a severe head cold and couldn't taste or smell a thing.   Not smelling the wonderful aromas of roasting turkey, sage, apple cider and simmering cranberry chutney was like torture. 

Now that I found my blog, got my ankles back and have a wonderful husband who tends to the baby while I'm cooking I should start getting to my old ways.  See you in the short future!

Thai Beef Salad

Pregnancy and the swelling of extremities has been a challenge, but for once it was a good weekend for my ankles.   I could see my ankle bones!   This hasn't happened in awhile so I took full advantage and got a few things done including cleaning up my front porch and making it guest ready for wine and appetizers at any given moment.  Who's coming over???

I also had the ambition to try a new recipe.  I got my new Cook's Illustrated in the mail and read it on Sunday morning and had to try this recipe ASAP.   I whipped this up in about 30 minutes and it was delish. 
Even the hubby who is not always the biggest fan of ethnic flavors enjoyed this.  It was a little bit on the spicy side so you may want to lessen the cayenne pepper at first and add more later.  I am a spice lover so I left it as is.

THAI BEEF SALAD

Juice of two limes

2 tbls fish sauce

2 tbls water

1 tsp sugar

Salt

1 tbls of Cayenne
1 tbls of Sweet Paprika
Heat up Cayenne and Paprika in a dry skillet to extract flavors add to dressing

(Mix first 6 ingredients for the dressing and set aside)

1 tbls white rice, toasted in a dry skillet then ground up in a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle

Steak – Grilled to your liking  (I used a sirloin steak that was on sale, but any steak would work) Skirt steak would be awesome.

Lettuce (romaine) chopped

Shallots, one sliced thin

Green Onion, green parts chopped

Mint

Cilantro

Start the grill and get it hot.  Sear your steak to your liking and let it rest under some foil for at least 15 minutes.  Room temperature steak is fine for this recipe. 

For the dressing....start by toasting your spices and adding it to a bowl.  Add the rest of the dressing ingredients, whisk and set aside.  (I added a little more sugar) so be sure to taste it. 

Chop up your romaine lettuce, shallots, green onions, mint and cilantro and toss together.  Save some green onions and cilantro to top the salad with later. 

To combine....toss the salad with a little bit of dressing and put on the plates.  Slice the beef thinly against the grain and toss in the dressing for a few seconds to get it really coated and top the salad with the beef.  Sprinkle some of the toasted rice on top for some crunch (You may not use it all)  top with cilantro and green onions.  Serve room temperature or slightly warm.  

Cook's Illustrated said to serve over some rice instead of salad which would be good too, but I thought the lettuce was even better and a little lighter for a lunch.

Hot Kitchen Months

Salmon Cakes with spicy remoulade

This is an old picture but it still looks good.  Salmon cakes with a spicy remoulade.   I don't even remember the recipe right off hand but will be sure to do a little digging at home.

So proud of my tomatoes

This is probably not the best time to start a blog.  The time I spend on creating new dishes and experimenting with cuisines is way below my average due to the fact that I don't have air conditioning in my kitchen and I'm 7-1/2 months pregnant with my first baby.  Dinners have been more revolved around how long my ankles will hold me up and how fast I can make something before I lose all ambition.   The upside to hot weather cooking is my tiny garden I planted outside and frankly there can't be a garden that gets more attention and love than mine.  I have been patiently waiting for my tomatoes to ripen and have a long list of recipes I want to experiment with.  Hurry up Tomatoes (and baby) !

Grilling corn at my Cinco De Mayo Party

GRILLED MEXICAN CORN
This is an easy way to spice up some summer corn. 
Ingredients:
Corn on the Cob
Mayonaisse
Sour Cream
Cilantro
Chili Powder
Lime Juice
White Mexcian Cheese
Boil the corn for a few minutes like you normally would cook corn on the cob.  In a bowl, mix together some mayonaisse and some sour cream.  Add a bunch of chopped cilantro, chili powder and lime juice (to taste).  Grill the corn until you have some charred spots and toss in the mayo mix or brush it on the corn and sprinkle with a white mexican cheese and sprinkle with more cilantro.