Sweet N' Sour Pork

I love sweet n sour chicken....but i was out of chicken. I was out of beef, fish...matter of fact the only meat in the house was a lemon herb marinated pork tenderloin. I did not want that. I wanted sweet n sour chicken. So i figured pork, the other white meat. 

Sweet n Sour Pork

1.3 lbs of pork tenderloin
1 cup corn starch
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil

Sauce

1/2 cup ketchup
4 oz pineapple
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs corn starch
3 tbs brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinager

This is actually a pretty easy recipe. Heat the oil in a pan until it begins to smoke. While it is heating cube the meat into 1" pieces. Toss the meat in the one egg to coat.  In a separate bowl  mix corn starch, garlic powder, paprika. Toss the pork and coat it in this mixture. Place into heated oil and brown on all sides.

While browning your meat, put all of the sauce ingredients in a sauce pan and heat to a simmer. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Remove the meat from the oil and drain on a few pieces of paper towel.  Toss meat in the sauce to coat. and serve over rice.

Eggplant Ravioli Filling

Normally I would post a picture of what the filling looks like, but then my readers would run screaming...its not pretty. What it is though, is yummy. I normally like eggplant two ways. As a parmesan or as a roll up stuffed with ricotta. But I had a few left from a farm market excursion (ok so I had 3 of the white ones and one long skinny purplish one) so i decided to get creative.I figured they would make great raviolli, then I figured "why not can the filling for another day!" (actually at this point i was just to lazy to make the raviolli dough so i decided saving it was a better idea. Turns out I was right. It saves on half the work when you already have the filling made.

Eggplant Filling

3 medium white egg plants (ok so, any egg plant will do)
1 long skinny purple egg plant (i think they are Chinese eggplants)
Olive oil (about 1/4 cup)
salt
pepper
2 large purple onion
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 tbs chili flakes (optional)

Roughly cut up all of the vegetables and toss with oil and a touch of salt. Roast in the oven at 300 degrees for about 40-50 minutes.

Let cool and then pulse to mince all ingredients in the food processor.

Prepare your jars and pressure canner as usual. Fill the hot half pint jars and leave 1/2" head space. Place in the pressure canner and following the directions for your canner, can for 85 minutes. The finished product will settle a bit in the jars but thats to be expected.

Never by Hot sauce again.

I love hot sauce, I love peppers. Sriracha is my all time favorite, but in a pinch any hot sauce will work to spice up a meal. But like everything else you buy these days there are additives that do not agree with me...not to mention a bottle of this stuff is almost 5.00 (granted it lasts). So I decided to try to make my own. I found a recipe for my own chili sauce but, it wasn't as flavorful as it could be. I like flavor with my heat, hot for the sake of hot is not something I enjoy.  I found that this is versatile, the cost is roughly 1.20 per 1/2 pint and can easily be turned into a kick ass wing sauce with the addition of a bit more vinegar and brown sugar.

MY HOT SAUCE

3 lbs red hot banana peppers (seeded)
3 Thai Chili
1 handful red chili peppers (i forgot to measure)
2 Poblano chili peppers 
3 tbs Gochutgaru (Korean Chili powder) regular chili powder will work in a pinch though. 
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/8 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tbs fresh ginger-grated
10 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 cup brown sugar (possibly more to taste)
1 tsp salt
3tbs fish sauce




Here is the easy part.

After chopping and de-seeding the peppers (you can leave some seeds in but the more you have the hotter it gets) put it all in a blender and puree.

Put it in a non aluminum pot over low heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Stir often. Place into canning jars leaving 1/4 inch head space, can in your pressure canner for 85 minutes.

Mix and Match Marinade

Some days my larder gets to the point where tumble weeds roll through it. It usually happens this time of year because of vacations. No point in shopping if I am not going to be here to eat it. So when I come back, there is always a day or two of scrounging to make a meal.  In my hunt for food I found some rice (always a staple), a jar of peach preserves that had grown dust. I am not a preserve/jelly/jam fan. I make two kinds for my own use Hot and Hotter. But the sweet stuff isn't really my thing. This jar my best friend gave to me. She makes the sweets. I found one 1/2 good onion (a bit of judicious pealing and there was roughly a 1/2 cup still edible), and yellow squash was found hiding in my garden (I am a plant and hope gardener so it is always a shock to me when something actually grows).  I also had one poor lonely block of tofu, all other protein sources were frozen solid. These are the things that were left to me.  So lets just say I was a bit skeptical on what I could do with this. But it turned out surprisingly yummy.


Normally I would insert a picture here but you will have to wait until I make this again....it didn't stick around long enough to get its picture taken.

One block extra firm tofu (pressed) and cubed
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup peach preserves

1 tbs minced garlic
1/2 tbs fresh ginger (minced)
1/2 cup red onion
1 tsp sriracha
3 tbs rice wine vinegar

Mix the ingredients and pour over the tofu and let marinade over night (I did intend to eat this the day I scrounged up everything but I got to this point and was invited out for sushi....sushi won). After marinading over night, pan fry and serve over white rice.

"Ricotta" Roll Ups

 I love Ricotta cheese...unfortunately it does not like my diet, even the light version. So i found an alternative. Greek Yogurt. Gotta love non-fat, low cal Greek yogurt. I know what your thinking...the consistency isnt the same....Sure it is, if you drain all the liquid out. I have blogged about making yogurt cream cheese, its the same recipe only using Greek yogurt for a bit more tang! Who knew yogurt was so versatile.

 Ingredients:

2 cups of "Greek yogurt ricotta"  (see the yogurt cream cheese recipe for directions)
2 tbs minced garlic
1/4 chopped scallions
1 tbs Italian seasoning
6 tbs parmesean cheese
2 cups panko bread crumbs
"i cant believe its not butter spray"
1 nice sized eggplant.
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
3 egg whites
1 jar pasta sauce of choice

Directions
Mix together in a bowl the yogurt ricotta, scallion, garlic, italian seasoning and 1/2 of the parmesan cheese, then set aside.
In another bowl combine the panko and remaining parmesan, garlic and onion powder.Heat a frying pan over medium heat, spray the pan with the butter spray.
Slice the eggplant into long strips.  Dip the eggplant in the egg white and then coat with panko mixture. Brown the strips on both sides in the pan (about 3-4 minutes per side)
Remove the browned strips and place on a plate, stuff with about 2-3 tbs of the ricotta mixture, roll the strips and secure with a toothpick. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
In a glass baking dish, pour in pasta sauce, settle each roll up on top of the sauce (do not pour sauce over the roll up or your crunch will turn to mush). Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve.

My mother often looks at what I eat like its something alien. After a bit of persuasion I did get her to try this, she raved over it and ate 2 servings, which if you know my mother is a lot! 

Can IT- Peach BBQ sauce

 

I love bbq sauce, but all those nasty preservatives, well....they dont like me. I spend most of my summer canning veggies, freezing veggies, dehydrating veggies and making the occasional jelly or jam. All this preserving of the harvest (the harvest is all from the farmers market, i dont garden...to much dirt)  saves me a ton of money and provides good quality food and I dont need a dictionary to sort out the ingredient list.This year I branched out into sauces. I have to admit, this one was really really really really really kick ass. Really! I also made a spicy jam, good on crackers with cream cheese or as a glaze for pork or chicken.

 

Peach BBQ Sauce

• 1/2 bushel of peaches
• 2 cups sugar (this varies to taste you may need more if your peaches arent that sweet)
• 3 cans of tomato paste
• 4 tbs garlic powder
• 4tbs onion powder
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 cups ketchup
• 1/4 cup lemon juice ( vary amount dependent on the tang you prefer)
• 1/8 cup spicy mustard
• 1 tbs paprika

 Cut peaches in half and remove the pit, Blanch the peaches and remove the skin. Cook with 2 cups water until dessicated. Puree peaches and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and let reduce until it cooks down an 1" on the side of the pot. Bring back to a boil and add in the remaining ingredients. Reduce and let simmer 15 minutes to combine flavors. Hot pack it into prepared canning jars. Process in a water bath 40 minutes.

 

Peach Habanero Jam

• 1/2 bushel of peaches
• 6 cups sugar
• 3 tbs ground habanero pepper
• pectin (packages vary. read the back and it will give you the amount)

• Cut peaches in half and remove the pit, Blanch the peaches and remove the skin. Cook with 2 cups water until dessicated. Puree peaches and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and let reduce until it cooks down an 1" on the side of the pot. Bring back to a boil, add sugar, habanero powder and pectin and stir until dissolved.  Hot pack it into prepared jelly canning jars. Process in a water bath 40 minutes.

Buffalo Tofu Bites

Buffalo Tofu Bites:

I love, love, love...did i mention, love buffalo chicken. But the fried isn't healthy. So I removed the fried, but then the chicken wasn't crispy, and the sauce just slid off,  it just wasn't right. It needed crispy. So I figured I would try Tofu.

It wasn't half bad. I did have to add hot sauce to dip in, it wasn't hot enough for me. But I would make this again.

Ingredients:

1. 14 oz block of tofu, pressed
2. 1 cup Nancy's Hot chicken wing sauce (any wing sauce will do)
3. 1/2 cup panco bread crumbs
4. 1/4 cup cheezit cracker (i know, i know, but they were what i had on hand)
5. 1/4 cup Frenches fried onions. 
6. 1 tsp garlic powder
7. 1/2 cup blue cheese dressing

Process:

Press the tofu.  Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut tofu into cubes.  Marinade the tofu cubes in 1/2 cup of hot sauce for at least 1 hour (its better the longer you leave it).  In a blender combine panko, cheezit's, fried onion and garlic powder.  Roll each cube of tofu carefully into the blended mixture and place on a sprayed baking sheet. Cook for 25 minutes in the oven.  Remove and serve with the remaining hot sauce and blue cheese dressing on the side.

I have made this more than once now and I found that if you like it just a bit hotter you can add a tsp of sriracha to the marinade. I have also turned this into a wrap with cheese and lettuce and tomato. All were very good.

Ever have a day where you just dont feel like cooking, but there are no leftovers and your wallet has more moths than money? I have these days a lot. I had a refrigerator full of condiments and one block of tofu. What to do?

As we all know I am a pinterest addict. So I searched for Tofu recipes and found this: Roasted Tofu w/sauce.

TIP- I had a lot of the sauce left over and found that it makes a great dressing for my cucumbers the next day!

 I take no credit for this recipe. I admit, I stole it and modified it very little (it really did not need modification but i did not have a few of the original ingredients).
Original recipe: http://glutenfreegirl.com/roasted-tofu-with-dipping-sauce/

Roasted tofu with dipping sauce

 

Ingredients:

10 ounces firm tofu, pressed
Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1" nub ginger, peeled
2 tablespoons  soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon wasabi
3 tablespoons sesame oil
9 tablespoons olive oil

Process:
The Tofu:
Preheat the oven to 450°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the tofu into cubes. Season the tofu with salt and pepper. Pour the  2 tbs oil over the tofu and gently toss them to coat.carefully place tofu onto the baking sheet. put into oven and roast the tofu for 15 minutes. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and flip over all the tofu put it back in the oven and roast until the tofu cubes are puffed up and browned, about another 15 minutes.

The Sauce:
  Add all remaining ingredients into a blender and blend smooth.

Remove the tofu from the oven. When they are cool to the touch, dip them in the sauce and eat.

Lemon Butter Pasta

Lemon Butter Pasta

Ingredients:

1. 8 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast
2. 1 cup sliced leek
3. 1 cup snow peas
4. 1 tbs minced garlic
5. 2 tbs butter
6. 1 tbs lemon juice
7. 3 tbs Parmesan cheese
8. salt & pepper
9. 3 cups cooked spiral pasta

Process:

Cut the chicken into small cubes.  In a hot pan add 1 tbs butter and garlic with the chicken, cook chicken through. Add in  leeks and  snow peas and cook another 3 minutes. Add in cooked pasta, toss to combine then toss with remaining butter, lemon and Parmesan. Salt and pepper to taste.  Serves 5

Warm Zucchini Noodles

 ZUCCHINI RIBBONS

Healthy side dishes are not hard to come by, tasty, non repetitive and interesting side dishes are some times difficult to find. I have done zucchini boats, zucchini crisps, zucchini parm....i needed a new go to zucchini recipe. So I did what any desperate girl would do. I googled side dishes made with zucchini After looking at more than a few, I decided on a variation of this.

ZUCCHINI RIBBONS

Ingredients:

1. 2 medium zucchini
2. 1 tbs garlic, minced
3. 1 tbs butter
4. l leek
5. 3 tbs grated parmesan cheese

Process: 

Use a peeler to shave the zucchini into ribbons.  Heat a skillet over medium heat, cook the butter and  the garlic for 2 minutes. Add in sliced leek, cook another 3 minutes, add zucchini ribbons and toss 2-3 minutes until just begining to turn translucent. Remove from heat and toss with parmesan cheese.

Quin-what?

Quinoa: Most commonly considered a grain, quinoa is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard. It is a recently rediscovered ancient "grain" once considered "the gold of the Incas." Having never tried cooking it before I was a little wary, I am horrid at cooking rice, and I figured this would be a lot like cooking that. But it wasn't that difficult.  Once cooked it has and interesting texture, not crunchy, but not soft, it sort of pops when you chew. All together a pleasant sensation.  So the question once cooked became "what do i do with it?" well it turns out it can be what ever you want it to be.

I decided to do what I do best with new foods....experiment.

experiment #1:

Quinoa Quiche (sort of)

1 cup cooked Quinoa
1/2 cup Blue cheese
1/8 lb prosciutto 
1 cup asparagus
5 eggs
1/2 cup scallions
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

Cook the Quinoa according to the package. Dice the asparagus, scallion and prosciutto. Mix everything in a bowl and pour into a sprayed pie tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Slice like a pie and serve.

Addendum: having made this it was very tasty, but I think i would replace the blue cheese with Parmesan or a milder flavored cheese. It took over somewhat.

Orange Peel

You will notice that there are very few sweets on this blog, thats because i am not a baker. I am not really a sweet eater.  But i wouldn't be human if i didn't have a favorite treat. That one thing that I dont get very often. For me it was a treat you could only find once a year in the small specialty candy shop. Candied Orange Peals. Most people think this is the strangest thing they have ever heard of. For me it is the perfect treat. Not to sweet, just enough bite. Even dipped in a bit of chocolate its perfect (i am not a chocolate fan). However its a labor of love to make.  So when I decided to make my own...I made a ton. ;P it keeps well in air tight containers.

Ingredients

• 9 oranges
• Water, to cover peels
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup sugar, optional
• 26 ounces bittersweet chocolate, optional

Directions

Using a sharp knife, cut each orange into quarters. Remove the fruit from the peel, leaving the white membrane or pith attached to the peel. Save the fruit for another use. Slice each quarter peel on a diagonal into strips about 1/2-inch wide. If you cut them evenly, they will look nicer when displayed.

Place the sliced orange peels in a  4-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan and add enough water to cover the peels by about 1-inch. Place over high heat and bring to a rolling boil. Remove from the heat and strain. Return only the peels to the saucepan, cover again with fresh water, and repeat the boiling and draining process three more times. It is really important to change the water because it retains the bitterness of the peel.

After the fourth boil, drain the water as before and return the peels to the saucepan. Add the sugar and enough water to cover the peels by 1-inch. Place over low heat and let simmer for 2 hours. During this time, the sugar will sweeten and preserve the natural flavor of the peels. After 2 hours, they will be soft and translucent and the syrup will be thick. Let the peels cool in the syrup and keep them stored in the syrup, refrigerated, in an airtight container until you are ready to serve. They will keep this way for up to three weeks.


When ready to use, allow the peels to drain on a wire rack for a few hours to remove the excess syrup. Put the rack over a baking sheet so the syrup does not drip all over the work surface. For a longer lasting treat transfer the peals to a food dehydrator for 5 hours to remove excess moisture.


Once fully drained, you have three options for serving: First, you can serve them as they are. Second, you can place the peels in a medium-sized bowl filled with granulated sugar. Roll the peels around in the sugar until they are well coated. Third, you can dip the sugared peels into the bittersweet chocolate.