Cochinita Pibil--Mexican Pulled Pork

A while ago I watched a video on this dish, and while I've never tried it before, and never cooked pulled pork, I really wanted to try this. Partially for those two reasons--I really enjoy trying something new and different, and this has two new things for me to try. Plus it is basically served as tacos at the end--which I know I like, so not a big risk. I hadn't gotten to it for a while, because of the fear of the meat--what cut should I use? Will it be fatty? Am I going to gain a gazillion pounds from this dish? Anyways, I found a package of pork picnic roasts on sale at the store on Friday and that is the cut for this dish--and 4$ for 3.5 lbs, it was a deal I couldn't resist! So here is my attempt--we'll have to see if it makes me gain a gazillion pounds!

This is a recipe from Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday with some variations, though I also drew on his longer recipe on-line.

Ingredients:
1/2 package achiote seasoning
juice of one lime, half of one orange, half of one lemon
lime zest
salt
3 lbs pork picnic roast
1 1/2 yellow onion, chopped roughly
4-5 garlic cloves
cumin, cinnamon, cloves, salt and pepper

This is actually pretty simple--if each step takes a while to work before moving to the next, it is much less work overall then I would have thought. First mix up the marinate--which is mostly just the achiote paste. I bought the paste a while ago, when I first started thinking about this dish, and it is an interesting flavor profile--it already has some spices in--I added more to get the flavor I wanted. It went into my mini blender with a couple of cloves of garlic, the lime zest, the lime, lemon, and orange juice, salt and pepper, some cinnamon, cloves, and cumin. This is blended smooth and poured over the roast.

It will stain your hands, so I put the roast (trimmed of obvious fat concentrations) in a gallon zip lock bag and then just poured the marinade in the bag over the roast, being careful not to get it on me. Then I can zip the top and really rub the marinate in. That goes in the fridge overnight or for up to 24 hours to really get the flavors in. My roast was actually two roasts in one package, so even more flavor can get into the meat.

When you are ready to cook the roast, toss half an onion roughly chopped in the bottom of your crock pot, then dump the roast on top and the marinade.The rest of the onion is sprinkled on top of the roast, and then I added half a cup of water to the bag to get the rest of the marinade out and poured that over the onions. I added a few pealed cloves of garlic to the sauce as well.

That cooks on high for about 6 hours, though I turned it over at about 4 hours and it was well on its way. I turned it down to low at that point for another three hours. Once it is done, I took the roasts out and put them on a plate with all the onions. Then I strained some fat off the top of the liquid, and reduced the rest to make a slightly thicker sauce. The meat is basically crumbling at this point, so I used my fingers to shred it and then poured the sauce over the pork.

The Verdict: This is a new flavor for me--sour and citrusy, a little sweet from the orange, but not spicy at all. It does go well with spicy, but isn't of itself very spicy. A little goes a long way in a taco shell, especially if you serve it with roasted veggies, as I did. Which will hopefully keep me from ballooning as I eat it all week!

Baked Kibbeh and Carmelized Onions

I went to graduate school in Ohio, and at that time did a lot more eating out than I do now. Mediterranean food was one of my favorites--pita, felafel, hummus, and kibbeh. So when I saw a recipe for a baked kibbeh that was pretty easy, I wanted to give it a try. The kibbeh I used to eat was a fried beef fritter, cinnamon scented and flavorful. This recipe is baked and uses lamb--though I added some beef as the ground lamb was over 8 dollars a pound. I also changed the recipe by making the caramelized onions in the slow cooker--which actually worked and only ended up with one night overwhelming onion scented apartment.

Ingredients:

2/3 c cracked bulgar wheat
1/2 lbs lamb
1/4 lbs beef
1 large onion
 tsp cinnamon
alspice
salt and pepper

Topping:
Lots of onions
1/4 c pinenuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
allspice
salt and pepper

So this recipe has two parts, and I made them on two different days, bringing them together on a third day. Though it really isn't a complicated recipe, I just spread it out. One the first day I made the kibbeh base, the second I caramelized the onions, and the third I brought it all together.

First the bulgur needs to be rinsed and drained, and set aside to dry. The onion is peeled and then pureed, and added to the meat, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and a bit of allspice. I used my immersion blender to blend it all to a paste. Even though I used ground beef and ground lamb, this took some doing to break down the gristle. Once that was a paste, the bulgur is added and blended again.

This mixture is pressed into a baking dish--a large tart pan would work, or a 9x13 inch dish, which is what I used. Then it is scored. At this point I covered the pan and froze it until I was ready to cook.


So as I was contemplating making this dish, I was researching caramelized onions for tips and tricks, since I've never done it before. Somewhere on line I read that you could do it in a crock pot, and that it would be hands off and produce lovely caramelized onions with much less work. Well, of course I had to give it a try and since my crock pot is enormous I had to get a bunch of onions!

Monday night, around 10 pm when I was off of work, I chopped 5 lbs or so of onions and filled my crock pot to the brim. I pre-sprayed the pot with cooking spray before hand, but didn't add anything else. I cooked them on low all night long--and my apartment smelled SO strongly of onions I had to shut the bedroom door. In the morning I drained a bunch of the liquid and then I turned them down to warm when I went to work for another 9 hours. When I got home I cranked it to hot with the lid off to get any remaining liquid.

I didn't use all of the onions in this topping, though there is no shortage of things one can do with a lovely pot of caramelized onions! For the topping I toasted the pinenuts in a hot pan and then added a bunch of the onions, the cinnamon, salt and pepper, and a bit of allspice.


The kibbeh base goes in a 375 degree oven until it turns brown on top and is cooked through--depending on how thick it is in the pan will change how long it needs to cook. I overcooked mine, because I didn't check it quickly enough, so be careful. The kibbeh base is topped with the onion pinenut mixture. I served it with zucchini fritters and leftover spinach salad.

The Verdict: Fragrant and delicious--it isn't the same as what I had in Columbus, but it was still the same flavors. The cinnamon in the meat really worked, especially with the onions. If I did it again,I'd use more of the onions for the topping and increase the amount of topping.

A Morrocan Beef and Vegetable Tagine

So I'm once again venturing outside of my cookbooks and my comfort zone to try something new and different. Inspired by my bright and sunny jar of lemons slowly being salted on the counter top, I ventured to North Africa to make a rich and savory Tagine--though I should say a stew since I made it in my crock pot not one of these gorgeous dishes. I don't have any cookbooks with Morrocan recipes in it, but with two key ingredients in mind and a little google-fu I found a bunch of ideas and made this dish up as I went along. This is largely inspired by Jamie Oliver's recipe as interpreted by this blog post. I made a number of changes and additions--but it is essentially a stew, so it is pretty flexible!

Ingredients:

12 oz beef sirloin steak
1 1/2 lbs butternut squash pealed and chopped
2 cans diced tomatos
3 cups vegetable broth
1 yellow onion
1 medium head cauliflower
1 large egg plant
4 cloves garlic
1 small bunch cilantro
Sea Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
2 tsp  Ras El Hanout Spice mix
2 tsp ground Cumin
2 tsp ground Cinnamon
2 tsp ground Ginger
2 tsp Sweet Paprika
Harissa to taste

 The first step is to prepare the dry rub. I was surprised to find the ras el hanout at Winco--and it was 2$ for the whole jar--that is not a lot! I had the rest of the spices--though this cleans me out of cumin and ginger, both of which I use a lot of in my cooking. I cut the steak up into cubes and tossed it in the spice rub. Ideally, I would have left it in the fridge for the seasoning to really infuse the meat. But I didn't get going until too late--and it was only in the fridge for about an hour.

The meat is lightly browned on all sides and then diced onion is added along with the chopped stems of the cilantro. These are sauteed until they slightly softened and then I slowly added the broth to de-glaze the pan. There was so much of the spices that sort of stuck to the pan that this was an important step--it toasted the spices and got them into the broth, which thickened it.

At this point I poured it all into the slow-cooker, along with two cans of diced tomatoes. The original recipe called for garbanzo beans, but I felt like I had enough protein with the beef and enough fiber from all the veggies. That got stirred up pretty well, and cooked for two hours on high. While that cooked I pealed and chopped the butternut squash and cut and salted the eggplant.

I added half of the butternut squash after 2 hours of cooking, and the rest after 3.5 hours. This allowed some to really break down and become part of the sauce, while some still had some texture left at the end. I also added some of the harissa to the pot to increase the spice.

While that continued to cook, I chopped the cauliflower and tossed it with some harrisa and lemon juice to marinate before being added to the pot. That went into the pot at the same time as the rest of the butternut squash. The eggplant, which doesn't need as much time to cook was added at about 4.5 hours.

At this point it was almost 9 p.m. and I was pretty hungry--though I'd been nibbling on the butternut squash and tasting the beef all along. I stirred in more harrisa, and served it with some chopped fresh cilantro on top. Total cooking time was 6 hrs on high, though it should have gone a bit more. to get the beef equally tender.

The Verdict: This is a rich and hearty stew--with very complex and developed flavors from all of the time cooking. The veggies provide a variety of textures, from some very soft butternut squash, to the cauliflower that still has some bite. Some of the beef was really tender and some was still pretty chewy--I think this is more the type of beef I used, I should have gotten more of a fatty cut and cooked longer and lower. It was still very good and I'm excited to play around with these flavors!

What a Croc! Giving the slo-cooker another chance

They want a 2nd chance, after a head bump

So I love the idea of turning on the crock pot when I leave for work and coming back to dinner ready to go--but both times I've tried it the food did not turn out well. Over cooked chicken one time and bitter parsnips and overcooked chicken the second time. Blogs and books sing the praises of the crock pot--and I so want it to work. So I'm going to give it another chance--this time with chili, a dish traditionally cooked for a long time. My plan is to prepare the pot on Sunday and keep it in the fridge to put on Tuesday morning with a timer to start two hours after I leave.So it will cook only 8 and not 10 hours, and then throw the fresh veggies in before I go to a water aerobics class Tuesday night, so when I get back it will be ready!

Chili is one of those dishes where recipes are hard for me to follow--I like it spicy, with lots of veggies and beans. I'm going to use chicken, because I already have it, and black and kidney beans because that is what I have. One of my cookbooks--Robin to the Rescue--has a recipe for a crock pot chili, and while I'm not following it (it is a Cincinnati style with cinnamon and not much spice), she did mention that it could be made two days before and stored in the fridge before cooking.

Ingredients:

1 can (15oz) black beans
1 can (15oz) kidney beans
3 cans (14.5oz) tomatoes (I used fire roasted, with jalapenos, and with chili seasonings)
1 can whole tomatos strained (this was the cherry tomatoes I mistakenly bought for the tomato soup)
1 green bell pepper
2 chicken breasts (about 1.75 lbs)
1 medium onion
1 bag frozen cubed butternut squash
1 pkt chili powder--I used parts of hot and regular
3 cloves garlic
2-3 chipolte in adobo
vegetable stock

This was pretty easy to throw together--lots of cans to open and combine! I drained and rinsed the black and kidney beans, and added them and the three cans of tomatoes to my crock pot. I roughly chopped the green pepper and the onion, and tossed it in with the frozen squash. I chopped the chipolte and tossed it in as well--I have never cooked with it before so I had to try it--SPICY but smokey and yummy! I stirred in the powders and grated the garlic. The chicken was cut in large cubes and added.

Because it was so thick and my pot is so large, I added some broth and some of the drained tomato juice. This should make a TON of chili--it is a good thing I just cleaned out my freezer! I have room in there for some of this yumminess.

So this morning I pulled it out of the fridge, gave it a stir, plugged it in, set it on low for 8 hours, and left for work with some trepidation. I always think I'm going to burn my apartment down when I do this. Fortunately, when I came home some 9.5 hours later my house smelled delicious, and not like smoke (well a little like delicious smoke.) I pulled out the chicken chunks, shredded them, and stirred them back in the pot.

 It smelled so good, but was a little more liquid than I would have thought after all that cooking. I guess the crock pot keeps a lot of the moisture from evaporating, and a lot of liquid must have come out of the veggies and chicken. Interestingly, I had thrown in a package of frozen chopped butternut squash, because I thought it would handle the long cooking well and add some veggies. But it cooked down and completely disappeared into the broth, but it added an important flavor component, so I'm not sad I added it.

As for toppings, I added a scoop of plain Greek yogurt, and some shredded chipolte cheddar. But I think it would be great with some cilantro, sour cream, guacamole, or even corn chips. I just wanted to dig into this chili and enjoy!

The Verdict:

This is a definite win for the crock pot--the end result was spicy, but with smokey and sweet notes from the chipolte and butternut squash. I'd read that the long cooking muted the flavors so I added plenty of chilies, in the tomatoes, in the seasonings, and with the chipoltes. I cut the peppers and onions into pretty big pieces and was surprised at how well they held up to the cooking--I could still get some texture to them. As I noted earlier, the butternut squash flavor was not apparent, besides in some sweetness and in the texture. It made a huge batch--I'll be eating this for the next week--with some spaghetti squash, with eggs, and anything else I can think of. It should also freeze well.

Slow Cooker Turkey Breast

Even though my first effort at cooking turkey was less than successful--tasted good, but dry as the dessert and tough, I embarked on this ginormous hunk of meat with confidence. I spent a lot of time on the internet scouring recipes and techniques to find the best way to cook moist and delicious  turkey. The recipe I settled on was this Crock Pot Turkey recipe from SkinnyTaste--love that blog! Of course, I'm bad at following directions, and I'd read so many other recipes and tips, so I figured that before I put the turkey in the pot I'd do a little dry rub to get some extra flavor in. I found the outline of the dry rub on this website, and modified it somewhat for my smaller bird. I will say going in that I didn't use all of the rub and I used too much, so go easy if you follow this--though the flavor is really really good!

Ingredients:

Dry Rub:
1 tbs black peppercorns
1/2 tbs pink peppercorns
1/2 tbs white peppercorns
3 or so bay leaves
fresh thyme, sage, and rosemary
1/4 c kosher salt
zest of one orange and two lemons

I bought a mix of peppercorns, instead of each color separately--I couldn't find whole white peppercorns, and the pink ones were over 15$ for a bottle. I did pick out the pink and white and green ones to go with the black ones. They were all tossed in a small skillet and toasted until they became fragrant, keeping them moving so they don't burn. Once that was done, I zested the orange and lemons, and tossed that, the peppercorns, bay leaves, salt, and fresh herbs in my blender with the grinder blade on. YUM--the rub is so fragrant and full of bold flavors, and putting it in the blender made it easy to spread on the bird.

I used my fingers to pull up the turkey's skin and pushed the rub all over the flesh, making sure to get it all over both sides. This was my very first time doing this, and I used WAY too much rub--see how dark it is? I put the dry rubbed breast in a plastic bag and in another bag and in the freezer overnight. The original Skinnytaste recipe didn't call for any brining, and while it looked yummy, I worried about the flavor. Besides this step, I mostly followed the directions.


Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots chopped medium (my carrots were very small0
2 celery rib, chopped medium
6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1/3 cup flour
2 cups low sodium broth (I used vegetable, because I didn't have any chicken broth)
1 cup water
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tbsp fresh sage
2 bay leaves
4-6 lb whole bone-in turkey breast, skin on, trimmed of fat (my turkey was bigger than the original recipe--and it was the smallest in the store!)
salt and pepper

In a skillet heated to medium high heat, I cooked the onions carrots, and celery in the olive oil until the onions had started to soften. Then stirred in the flour and cooked until it was golden brown. I added the white wine to deglaze the pan and get all of the flour and any golden bits up. This mix is added to a crockpot and the rest of the broth was added and mixed together. To this, I added the turkey breast--which I had used paper towels to wipe off the excess dry rub.

This went on low for 5-7 hours--though I checked the temp around 4 hours and it was showing 180 in some spots, but I was worried it wasn't consistently cooked, so I flipped it around and let it cook for another hour or so while I worked on the sides. I served this with cauliflower mash and roasted brussels sprouts. Once they were going, I took out the turkey and let it rest on a cutting board covered with tinfoil for about 20 minutes.

The liquid and veggies sat for 5 minutes in the pot, so it could settle, and then the fat layer was skimmed off and discarded. Because of the dry rub it was really salty and peppery--too much so to use. So after straining and removing the celery I discarded half of the liquid and added broth and water and pureed the veggies in the liquid. After that cooked down for a bit, it was not too seasoned, and was delicious!






The Verdict: This is absolutely something I will do again! The turkey was so flavorful and juicy, the gravy turned out an excellent partnership with the turkey and the cauliflower. It made a lot of turkey, but it was so easy to use in a lot of dishes that I ate the whole thing within a week. I'd probably go easier on the dry rub next time, but it did give the turkey a robust flavor unlike some slow cooked meats that are more mushy.