Pulled Pork

Salty and sweet. Crispy and tender. An all day project, but an easy, mindless one.  Use this as an excuse to stay at home all day long instead of facing the world. Stay tuned for what to do it with it once you make it.

Pulled Pork
From I am a Food Blog

• 3 pound boneless pork shoulder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoon sugar

Mix the salt and sugar together and rub all over the meat. Place in a covered bowl and put in the fridge for at least 4 hours but no more than 24.

Heat oven to 250 degrees F. Place meat (none of the liquid) in  a roasting pan and put in oven to cook for 6 hours.  Baste with the rendered fat and juices every hour.  My pan was too big to soak up any juices so I just flipped the meat every hour.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 30 minutes before pulling apart the meat. Steal as many bites as needed.

Avocado-Shrimp Spring Rolls

Warning: only make these on a lazy weekend or if your kid is OBSESSED with Tumble Leaf and will leave you alone for a long period of time. Feel free to join me in screen-time-induced-guilt gorging of spring rolls afterwards.

Youtube how to roll these because obviously I couldn't figure it out. They still taste good, though. I've never been big on presentation.

Avocado-Shrimp Spring Rolls
From Whats Gaby Cooking

• Rice Paper
• 1 cup cooked rice noodles
• 1 large carrot, thinly julienne cut
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• mint
• cilantro
• 2 avocados
• 1 pound baby shrimp, cooked

Soak one spring roll paper at a time for about 30 seconds in a shallow bowl of water.  Once soaked, place on a clean cutting board.  If they aren't completely soft - dip them back in the water

Place fillings on bottom third of the wrapper. A line of shrimp, noodles, carrots, scallions, a leaf of mint and some cilantro and avocado slices.

Wrap the rice paper over the filling then fold the ends in. Continue rolling until you have a tight roll.  You might want to youtube it. It's trickier than it looks. Transfer the finished roll to a clean plate and start again.  Serve immediately with peanut dipping sauce.

Peanut Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon oil

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together.

Next time: Put a little more heart into the sauce- use smooth peanut butter instead of crunchy. And add butter lettuce to roll. And make it a make your own spring roll party! Its easy to make all the ingredients but a pain in the butt to roll them all- so make your guest do them. Also figure out a way to keep them overnight- my too-damp paper towel left them super soggy.

Beef Enchiladas

I have no idea if this is the politically correct way to make enchiladas but they were good to me and I received only praise from half Mexican at the table. "More is more" is my philosophy when it comes to cheese in cooking and life in general, so you know these can't be bad.

Beef Enchiladas
Serves more than 4

• 1 lb ground beef or turkey
• taco seasoning package
• 1 can refried beans
• 15-20 corn tortillas
• 1 large can enchilada sauce (I used green)
• 2 cups shredded cheese (half monterey jack, half cheddar)
• green onions for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Brown ground beef/turkey in a medium skillet of medium heat until no longer pink. Break into large chunks.  

Add taco seasoning and 2/3 cups water. Stir and let simmer until most of the liquid evaporates and mixture is thick and saucy. Add refried beans to the mixture and stir until well combined. Remove from heat.

Spray the inside of a large casserole dish with vegetable oil spray.- like a lot of it.  

Lightly fry corn tortillas over medium-high heat with a little bit of vegetable oil spray. 

Put meat mixture in fried corn tortillas (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup each), roll it up and pack tightly into the casserole dish seam side down.

Once the casserole dish is packed, cover with enchilada sauce (I didn't use the whole can), top with the shredded cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Add the green onions and serve.  We served with the extra enchilada sauce, hot chunky salsa, and sour cream.

Grilled Fish Tacos

Okay so these fish tacos weren't as good as Alton Brown's but they were a hell of a lot easier and you don't have to start days in advance.  These are weeknight material; save Alton's for the weekend. And I busted out my indoor grill for these but outdoor grilling would have been easier (at least on me because then Steven would have cooked them).

Curtido
Adapted from What's Gaby Cooking

• 1/3 head green cabbage, shredded
• 1/3 head red cabbage, shredded
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1/2 yellow onion, very thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dieed oregano
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Combine vegetables into a large bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in separate bowl, stir until the sugar is dissolved, then pour over the cabbage mixture and stir.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Fish Taco
Adapted from What's Gaby Cooking

• 1 pound cod fish
• olive oil
• kosher salt and pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 lime
• 1 orange
• 8-10 corn tortillas, lightly fried
• Guacamole
• Chunky Salsa,
• Curtido

Preheat indoor or outdoor grill over medium high heat.  

Drizzle cod fish with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Grill the fish on the pre-heated grill for 5 minutes on each side until fully cooked. The fish should flake easily and have a golden brown crust.

Remove the fish from the grill and squeeze fresh lime and orange juice over the fish. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble tacos with fish, guacamole, salsa, and curtido on the lightly fried corn tortilla. Serve immediately.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Apricot Rum Glaze

Since it is apparently not fall, it must still be grilling season.  I don't even know how to turn on our outdoor grill but I sure as hell knew I wasn't grilling indoors and sweating my butt off. So I made Steven do it. 

This was really good but I think the credit goes to the grilling and not the glaze.  It wasn't as candied as I hoped it would be.  Next time I'm doubling up on the apricot jam and cooling down my rum glugs.  

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Apricot Rum Glaze

From Dinner: A Love Story

• 2 tablespoons apricot jam
• couple of glugs of dark rum
• 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
• 1 pound pork tenderloin
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

Heat Jam, rum, rosemary in a small saucepan.  Bring to boil, simmer a few minutes until syrupy and reduced by half (about 4 to 5 minutes). Pour into a bowl and set aside.

Rub the pork tenderloin with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place on preheated grill, turning every few minutes for about ten minutes.  Then, take your glaze and brush it on the meat, coating it as it cooks. Keep coating while cooking for another 5 minutes until brown on all sides and the crust is caramelized.

Remove from grill and let rest for a few minutes before slicing.

Next time: less rum and more apricot jam in the glaze. 

Chicken in Milk

Fall in Houston, Texas- a breezy 88 degrees on this cool-for-us day, so I thought I would cook up this fall meal. This is definitely a winter meal. You use the stove, you use the oven, you open the oven and stick half your body in there.  You are already making chicken so you might as well make mash potatoes. More stove top steam, more heat in the kitchen. Mash potato recipe not included because I'm not good at making them....yet. 

I served on paper plates because our dishwasher is broke and I'm not about to keep my hands in hot water washin' dishes.

Chicken in Milk
Adapted from Jamie Oliver

• 3 pound whole chicken
• salt and pepper
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 stick cinnamon
• 1 handful of fresh sages
• 2 lemon's worth of zest
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 pint milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Melt a stick of butter in a cast iron dutch oven (or other pot with lid that can go in the over) over the stove.  Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper and fry it in the butter, turning the chicken to make it golden all over.  Remove from heat, remove chicken from pot, and throw away the butter left in the pot.  Don't clean the pot.

Put the chicken back in the pot and add the rest of the ingredients.  Cook in the preheated oven for 1.5 hours with the lid on.  Baste with cooking juice occasionally.

To serve, pour plenty of the juice over the chicken.

French Dip Sandwichs

Not much to say about a super easy slow cooker recipe that tastes amazing. So here it is

French Dip Sandwiches

Makes 12 small rolls

• 3 1/2 - 4 lb boneless beef chuck roast
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 cube beef bouillon
• 1 bay leaf
• a couple of grinds of fresh pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dired thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 12 french sandwich rolls, split

Place beef chuck roast in a slow cooker.  Mix the rest of the ingredients (aside from the french rolls obvi) in a bowl and pour over the roast. Add water to the slow cooker until roast is almost covered. Cook on low for 7 hours. Remove roast, reserving broth and discarding bay leaf. Remove the fat from the roast and shred with two forks. Serve in the french rolls and dip in the broth.

Next time: I'm going to throw an onion in there.