Kung Pao Tofu

Sushi!

Mesquite & Lime pulled pork

Shrimp and Broccoli

Gobi Manchurian and Chili Chicken

Grilled Chocolate Cheddar Samich

Tofu Veggie Stir-Fry

Tilapia with Caper Butter Sauce

Busting out the grill

Veggie Pot Pie

Cumin Kebabs with Greek Salad

Romansco and veggie chips

Savoury Tomato Pie

Swedish buffet in New Glarus, WI

Apple Tart

Black Bean Soup

Smart Ones Vs. Richa

I was watching tv when I saw a commercial for the Smart Ones Fiesta Quesadilla. I'm not completely against boxed entreés, but not a huge fan of them either. They're usually pretty crappy, with very little food that doesn't look anything like the picture on the cover and full of tons of sodium. But I do like the combinations they come up with. So I got inspired to do my own take on a "Fiesta Quesadilla" with what I had in my pantry. I wish I had more cheese, it would have helped keep the two layers together, but it was a tasty and filling dinner regardless.

Richa's Fiesta Quesadilla

Flour Tortillas
Grated cheese, I used Cheddar, but pepper jack, or any other melting cheese should do fine.

The Filling:
A can on white beans (cannelini)
A can of corn
Green bell pepper, diced
Red onion, diced
Jalapeno, diced (optional)
Juice of half a lime
Salt & Pepper


• Mix all the filling ingredients well
• You are now ready to assemble the quesadilla
• Oil a large non-stick frying pan. Place a tortilla and layer it with an even layer of the bean mix on half of the tortilla.
(note: I tried to do one giant one, and failed miserably. Mine refused to flip over. I lost most of the contents trying. For the next one, I tried puting stuff on half of the tortilla and doing a half-moon - it worked like a charm)


• Evenly distribute a portion of the cheese
• Flip over the other half of the tortilla to form a half moon
• Fry to a golden brown on each side.
• Slice and serve.

Manglorean Lamb Shank

My first experience with a lamb shank was in Chicago at a Indian-Latin fusion restaurant called "Vermillion". Although I wasn't the one who ordered the shank, I got to taste the falling-off-the-bone tender deliciousness. I've noticed it on a lot of menus and food network lately - and decided I must give it a shot. I looked it up Vermillion's menu which describes is as "Lamb Shank Gassi : mangalorean braised domestic lamb shank, mango panch puran rice" Whhosh! I don't even know what Manglorean means - so I just made it up. Here's my take on it -

Manglorean Braised Lamb Shank

Lamb shank
Sliced onions
mix the rest of the ingredients to make a slurry:
paprika
cumin powder
coriander powder
red chili powder
salt
chopped garlic
chopped ginger
dry mustard powder
fenugreek powder
garam masala
a can of tomato puree
a can of water

• Set the shank in a slow cooker
• Pour above mix
• Add onions
• Set on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
• Serve on a bed of Basmati rice.

Bon Appetite!

Pepsi Pork

My inspiration for today's dish came from a "Top Chef: Masters" episode. The one where the quick fire round involved vending machine finds only. Seemed like everyone ended up using Dr. Pepper as an ingredient, and I've been wanting to do that since. I figured pork was the best medium here, as it lends itself to a hot and sweet dish. I started out with some pork medallions and a half full bottle of Cherry Pepsi (Dr. Pepper was not on sale!) and basically ran with my idea of braised pork.

Cherry Pepsi braised Pork medallions

Pork medallions
Cherry Pepsi
Garlic
Ginger
Paprika
Salt
Pepper
Cinnamon (I almost regretted this ingredient later, feel free to leave it out)
Celery
Carrots

• Mix all except the pork and veggies in a mixing bowl.
• Place medallions in a slow cooker, add above concoction, add veggies. Let cook on medium for a few hours, until nice and tender.
• Pick out the medallions, and drain the veggies, reserving the cooking liquids.
• Add a bit of oil to a pan and sear the chops to get some color.
• Meanwhile, start reducing the cooking liquids in a small saucepan.
• As the sauce starts getting thicker and stickier, add a pat of butter and some thinly sliced scallions (optional) and take off the heat.
• Plate your braised pork with a spoonful of Cherry Pepsi reduction glaze and the veggies.

I served mine with an Orzo Salad and a simple Jicama Slaw:

Roasted Tomato and Spinach Orzo Salad

Orzo
Spinach
Grape tomatoes
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Fresh mozzarella

• Wash, pat dry tomatoes and dress with salt, pepper, garlic and a bit of oil.
• Place in a baking dish and roast the tomatoes at 400º for 45mins to and hour.
• Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to package instructions
• Chop the fresh spinach coarsely, and add to the pasta cooking water, just before take the pot off the heat.
• Run under cold water and drain.
• In a large enough mixing bowl add the orzo and spinach, diced fresh mozzarella, the roasted grape tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and some balsamic vinegar.
• A dash of olive oil on top to seal the deal.
• Serve with your favorite entree, in this case Pepsi Pork. Works well as a summery salad as well.

Jicama Slaw

• Julianne jicama
• Add lemon juice and salt.
• Enjoy!

Onward and squid-wards

Seems like its been so long since I've posted anything here. Maybe cause its actually been quite a while since I've posted (or cooked) anything in a while. With my new gig taking over my entire day, its been hard to make time and find energy to cook. But I intend to fix that and get back into the kitchen - with a vengeance!

Squid was my food of choice for today. Most of my experience with calamari is deep fried calamari, which I absolutely love. I've even discovered how easy and inexpensive it is to fry it up yourself at home. But, I had some Spanish-style non-fried calamari recently, and have been craving more of it since. When I finally made my trip out to Fairway and back in the blazing heat, I decided to lighten up my original plan of calamari in a sea of olive oil and spices, to a more summer friendly grilled/sautéed calamari. I did save all the tentacles to fry up at a later date. Stay tuned for that!

After an initial google search - I went with a honey-mirin glazed grilled calamari. As always, I put my own spin on the recipe, when ever I didn't have the requisite ingredients. Here's my version of the recipe:

Honey Glazed Calamari

Honey
Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Red pepper flakes
Garlic powder
Oil

• Wash and pat dry calamari tubes.
• Slice into rings and coat with salt, pepper, red pepper, garlic and oil.
• Drop into hot pan and "grill" till translucent. (this is where I wish I had a grill, or even a grilling pan)
• Mix together honey and vinegar = the glaze. Nuke it for 10 secs if the honey doesn't dissovle.
• Add the glaze to the calamari and sauté for another minute or 2.
• Remove from heat.

I served this on a bed of Wilted Garlic Spinach:

Fresh spinach
diced onion
diced red pepper
Chopped Garlic

• Drop the garlic, onion and red pepper into a super hot pan with a tsp of oil. Let sizzle for a minute. You don't want to let this brown.
• Add chopped spinach. Turn once and turn off heat. Spinach will wilt almost immediately. You don't want to kill the spinach. This spinach dish shouldn't take you more than 5 mins. The spinach will maintain its flavor, color and vitamins.

Plate the spinach, top it off with the Honey Glazed Calamari. A light summer fare will do you good. Good Eatings!

Pulled Pork

This was my first time using a slow cooker and I am in LOVE! I still can't believe how easy it was to make pulled pork. I loosely followed Tyler Florence's recipe, but made some changes along the way (my recipe follows). All in all, pork is very forgiving if you don't have all of the ingredients. It gets soft like butter in the slow cooker.

Most recipes I looked up called for a pork butt, boston butt or pork tenderloin. I am not sure what a boston butt is, and my local supermarket only had pork picnic shoulder cut (aka pernil, in spanish). So that is what I used. It came in full size (about 6-8lbs) or half (about 3-4lbs). My 3.2lbs shoulder fed 3 adults and I have enough leftovers to feed 3 again.

Richa's Pulled Pork

Dry Rub

Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Mustard Powder
Brown Sugar
Salt
Pepper

Mix all ingredients and "rub" on to a washed and patted dry pork shoulder.
Slice up one onion and spread it on the bottom of the slow cooker.
Set the pork shoulder on the onions.
Prepare sauce

Sauce

White Vinegar
Ketchup
Mustard
Chili Powder
Brown Sugar
Garlic Powder
Salt

I eye-balled everything, mixing and tasting along the way.
Whisk everything and pour on top of the pork.
Set the slow cooker on high, and leave it alone!
I left it for about 5 hours.


This is what it looked like after 5 hours in the cooker.


The meat just melted off the bone, with just a nudge of the fork...

Very little effort was needed to "pull" and shred the pork.
We enjoyed our pork in some whole wheat hamburger buns with a quick cole slaw -

Cole Slaw

Shred half a cabbage, 3 Carrots and 1 Red onion.
Make dressing by mixing Mayonnaise, Mustard, Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Sugar.
Mix, chill and eat.

Hope you enjoy some pulled pork. Total prep time was about 15mins. Cooking time was 5 hours.