You will need: Boneless pork ( I like to buy the kind for skewers or stew so that I don’t have to cut anything up but you can also use shoulder if you don’t mind the bones), two or three peaches, an onion, curry, red chili pepper, black pepper, ginger, brown sugar and an orange
Just put the pork in a crock pot (you can also do this on the stove top if you need it quick), sprinkle with black pepper and salt, add a little curry, ginger and red chili pepper, chopped onion and about a coffee cups worth of water. Follow the instructions for your crock pot for the timing. I usually turn mine on for about four hours on medium. When the pork is done and you are ready for dinner you can start making the sauce. Make some rice now if you want it to be done in time! I always forget to do that! Anyway, the sauce. In a kettle, put your peeled and sliced peaches, black pepper, curry powder, grated ginger if you have it, otherwise the powder is fine, red chili pepper, and brown sugar in and cook on high until this is thick, almost like a jam. I taste this as its cooking add more curry, red pepper or brown sugar as needed. At the very last minute squeeze in the juice of the whole orange.
Plating: Make a neat pile of rice and top with your pork. Pour just a touch of the peach sauce over the top. Done and done. Trust me, this is good. I make ours pretty spicy but you could leave the red pepper out altogether if you need. Goes well with a deep red wine, try Fetzer, Cabernet Sauvignon.
Enjoy!
Risotto with Chargrilled Chicken Breast
This recipe is found in Perfect Italian (I have several of the books in this series and appreciate the beautiful photos that accompany each recipe) Unfortunately, when I tried to find a listing on Amazon so you could see this book, it was not on there. This book, by the same publisher, was all I could find.
Ingredients
Serves 4
4 cups simmering chicken stock
4 boneless skin-on schicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper (I used skinless but you lose a bit of the chargrill effect this way)
grated rind and juice of one lemon
5 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
8 fresh thyme sprigs
3 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 3/8 cups risotto rice (FYI get Arborio rice)
2/3 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan or grana padona cheese (I forgot the cheese when we made ours)
salt and pepper
Method
Place the chicken in a shallow, nonmetallic dish. Combine the lemon rind and juice, four tablespoons of the olive oil, the garlic, and thyme in a bowl and rub into the chicken. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours (we did not plan ahead and just cooked it immediately). Return the chicken to room temperature. Preheat a grill pan over high heat. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook for 10 minutes or until the skin is crisp and starting to brown. Turn over and brown the underside. Reduce the heat and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the juices run clear. Let rest on a carving board for 5 mintures, then cut into thick slices.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter with the remaining oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until soft and starting to turn golden. Reduce the heat, add the rice, and mix to coat in oil and butter. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 mintues, or until the grains are translucent. Add the wine and cook, stirring, for 1 minute until reduced. Gradually add the hot stock, a ladle full at a time (please. We just dumped it all in) Stir constantly and add more liquid as the rice absorbs each addition. Increase the heat to medium so that the liquid bubbles (boils? lol). Cook for 20 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is creamy. Season to taste.
Remove the risotto from the heat and add the remaining butter. Mix well, then stir in the Parmesan until it melts. Put a spoon full of risotto on each plate, add the chicken slices - garnish with lemon slice and thyme - serve immediately.
Linguini with Anchovies, Olives and Capers
This recipe is from the Perfect Italian book mentioned before.
Ingredients
Serves 4
3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
10 anchovy fillets, drained and chopped (I subbed out the anchovies and replaced with 1 lb of mussels and 1 lb of bay scallops, which are the little ones)
1 cup black olives, pitted and chopped
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
1 lb plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (I used two cans of petite diced tomatos instead, so sue me)
pinch of cayenne pepper
14 oz dried linguini (I like to snap my pasta in half before boiling it - so much easier to eat)
2 tbsp chopped fresh leaf parsley
Method
Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottom pan. Add the garlic and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add the anchovies (If you are using the sub-in seafood see my note below) and mash them to a pulp with a fork. Add the olives, capers, and tomatoes and season to taste with cayenne pepper. Cover and let simmer for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a pan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, bring back to a boil, and cook for 8-10 minutes until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain and transfer to a warmed serving dish.
Spoon the sauce into the dish and toss the pasta. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.
If your are doing the mussels and bay scallops - heat 1 tbsp of butter with one minced clove of garlic in a small skillet. When butter is completely melted, add the bay scallops and stir frequently. When the scallops are about half cooked (you can tell by the level of translucency - they become more white as they cook) add the mussels. When the shells open up, the mussels and the scallops should be done. Pour out any extra butter from this skillet and then add the mussels and scallops to the sauce you have prepared.
Side note: Because I bought my mussels and scallops in the freezer section, I ended up spending less than $10 ($8.33) on this meal - and we ended up having about five servings worth of food (the above picture is what I packed myself for lunch).That's about $1.75 a serving. Cheap and delicious! Success!
Chicken, Pasta and Chickpea Stew
This recipe was found in Cooking Light (October 2007) - This is a magazine I always peek at when I'm in the checkout aisle and the ones I've bought I've held onto! They are jam packed with good recipes among other things. This particular edition was all about comfort woods - which is exactly what this stew is.
Shopping List
3 cups basic marinara
1 bunch ccelery
1 package carrots
1 small onion
1 garlic head
1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 wedge of parmesan cheese
1 container (32 oz) chicken broth
1 can chickpeas (I forgot this - it's in the title though - go figure)
1 box ditalini pasta (very short tube shaped macaroni)
Ingredients
1 cup thinly sliced celery
3/4 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups chicken broth
3 cups marinara
1 cup canned chickpeas
3/4 cup uncooked ditalini
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
8 ounces chicken cut into tiny pieces
6 tablespoons shave parmesan cheese
How To
Heat a stock pot over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray, add celery, carrot, and onion to pan; cook 12 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds stirring constantly. Add broth, marinara, chickpeas, ditalini, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 12 minutes or until pasta is tender. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes or until chicken is done. Sprinkle with cheese. Makes six servings.
Terrible picture - It was a lot prettier in real life :(
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