Greek Pork Chops

I was looking for something to do with pork chops, and since Bruce had made Hummus as an appetizer, I wanted something Greek. I found a recipe (I can't remember the site), and modified it a bit.  I also made lemon potatoes, recipe another time (once I figure out how to get the lemon flavour without quite so much tartness).

4 medium thick pork chops (I used boneless)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tsp oregano
1 roasted red pepper
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
1 cup crumbled feta

Chop roasted pepper (you can use a jar, I roasted mine (and used a yellow one)), mix with lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, oregano, and parsley. Mix flour with pepper and cayenne. Dredge pork chops in flour, brown in oven-proof skillet, 2 minutes per side. Pour red pepper mixture over chops, bake at 400F for 5 minutes, covered. Add feta and bake 4-5 minutes longer, until cheese is melted.

Thai Quinoa Salad

Bruce's cousin posted this recipe a couple of weeks ago on facebook. I've modified it slightly; its a Thai-inspired quinoa with lots of veggies and a peanut sauce.

Ingredients:

 ¾ cup uncooked quinoa
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 red bell pepper, diced
½ red onion, diced
1 cup shredded carrots
½ cup chopped cilantro
¼ cup diced green onions
½ cup cashew halves or peanuts

 For the dressing:
¼ cup all natural peanut butter
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
3 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon olive oil
Water to thin, if necessary
Fresh lime, for a bit of tang

Instructions:

 To cook quinoa: Rinse with cold water in mesh strainer. In a saucepan, bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil. Add in quinoa and bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes or until quinoa has absorbed all of the water. Remove from heat and fluff quinoa with fork; place in large bowl and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. You should have a little over 2 cups of quinoa.

Fold red pepper, onion, cabbage, carrots, and cilantro into the quinoa. Garnish with cashews and green onions.

To make dressing: Add peanut butter and honey or agave to a medium microwave safe bowl; heat in microwave for 20 seconds. Add in ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, and both sesame and olive oil and stir until mixture is smooth and creamy. If you want a thinner dressing, simply stir in a teaspoon or two of water or olive oil. Add to quinoa.

Serve at room temperature with lime wedges if desired.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Last weekend, my son made me this delicious soup. He got the recipe from his school Foods class.

2 tbsp butter

1/4 onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp flour

2 1/2 cups milk

6-8 mushrooms, chopped

1 tsp parsley, oregano and basil

Dash salt and pepper

1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (or cheddar)

1 tbsp (or cube) stock

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add onion and saute until onion is soft, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour to form a roux. Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Using a whisk, slowly stir in milk, ensuring a smooth consistency. Continue stirring occasionally until mixture has thickened (boil gently). Meanwhile, steam the mushrooms for 2-3 minutes. Then add to soup with herbs and stock. Cook at a simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding vegetable steaming water if necessary. Add grated cheese, stir until melted, serve immediately

Asian Beef Lettuce Wraps

I found this recipe via Canadian Living, modified it a bit.  It was very tasty and something different to do with ground beef.

1 medium cucumber
1 red pepper
1 carrot
3 green onions
1 head of Boston lettuce (or leaf lettuce)
1 lime, cut into wedges
1 lb lean ground beef
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp minced gingerroot
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
1/4 cup hoisin sauce (or barbeque sauce)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Asian chili sauce (Siracha, aka Red Rooster sauce)

Prepare the veggies: Slice the cucumber green onions, and red pepper thinly and grate the carrot.  Arrange on a platter with the lettuce (washed and separated into leaves) and lime.

In large pan, fry beef until no longer pink.  Drain off fat, then add garlic, ginger and five-spice powder.  Cook about 2 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and cook until hot, about 4-5 minutes.  Transfer to bowl.

To eat, each person takes a lettuce leaf, and adds a spoonful of meat and tops it with the rest of the veggies and squeeze some lime juice over it all. Then you try to wrap the lettuce around the filling and eat it with out spilling.  If you wanted to be neater, you could just make a salad and eat it with a fork, but that's not as much fun!

Risotto

I've discovered that I love risotto.  If it's on a menu, I will probably be ordering it (unless it has seafood).  It's not too difficult to make, just a bit time consuming.  Prepare everything before hand, so that you can stay at the stove stirring.  (And you can stop stirring for a minute every now and then, it won't hurt the dish.)  I've tried a few recipes, but the basics remain the same.  Feel free to substitute the veggies; mushrooms are good as well as asparagus or broccoli.  You want to think about the timing, and add them part way through the adding-the-broth part or they could get mushy.  Or cook separately and add at the end.

4 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp olive oil
half an onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups risotto rice (arborio)
1/2 cup white wine
salt and pepper
1/4 red pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese


Heat the stock to simmering.  In a separate pan, melt 1/2 the butter.  Fry the onion, celery and garlic until the onion is soft but not browned. Add oil, then rice and stir until it is slightly translucent.  Add wine and keep stirring.  Add a ladleful of hot stock and stir at a simmer. you want to "massage" the broth into the rice, so push the back of the spoon (wooden is best) through.  Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring constantly until it is absorbed in to the rice before adding the next.  It will take at least 20 minutes, probably more like 30 to add all the stock.  The rice should be soft but still have a slight bite.  Remove form heat and stir in cheese, red pepper and seasonings.  Serve right away for the best taste, but it can be kept warm in a warm oven (covered) for a while and still be tasty.

We get our arborio rice from an Italian deli/store, but it is available in some of the bigger grocery stores.  I've never tried it with ordinary rice, but Italian cookbooks can give you more guidance on types of rice and their results.  You can get whole grain arborio, it will take longer to cook (and a bit more broth, maybe 5 cups)

Pad Thai

My daughter found this recipe and modified it.  It's pretty quick to make and very tasty.  It needs "instant stir fry noodles", which I found under the brand name Six Fortune.  They are the kind of noodle you get in Ichiban or Mr Noodles, you could use two packages of that.


1-2 chicken breasts, thinly sliced
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped red, green and/or orange peppers
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 can coconut milk
1/4 cup cashews (or peanuts)
1 lime, juiced
4 tbsp fish sauce
5 tbsp brown sugar
red rooster hot sauce
3-4 cups water or chicken broth
1/2 package instant stir fry noodles

Marinate chicken in soy sauce and cornstarch while chopping veggies.  Mix coconut milk, lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and hot sauce in small bowl or cup.  Boil water or broth and cook noodles 2-3 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid.  Heat oil in wok or large frying pan.  Stir fry chicken, remove from wok, then fry veggies.  Add sauce, noodles and chicken.  You might want to add some of the noodle-cooking liquid, depending on how soupy you like it, and sprinkle with cashews.

I forgot to take the photo until we had eaten most of it, but it will make enough to feed 3-5 people, depending on if they are growing teenagers or not!

Vanilla cupcakes

This is a nice, simple cupcake recipe. I love making mini cupcakes, this recipe makes 12 regular or 24 mini.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry. Fill muffin cups (lined) 3/4 full and bake at 350F for 22-24 minutes for full size, 12-15 for mini.

You can make these chocolate by replacing 1/2 cup flour with cocoa powder. They aren't as rich as my chocolate cupcake recipe, but are still very tasty.

You can ice these with ganache, or a simple buttercream icing. I sometimes get all fancy and flavour and colour small amounts of icing to have a variety (like a fancy cupcake shop)