pernil al horno

Pernil al horno is a traditional Puerto Rican preparation of pork shoulder. I've used this method of preparation before with a loin roast, which was decent - but a shoulder roast has more fat running through it as well as on top of it which keeps the meat succulent.

Mmmm, porky goodness!

The method of preparation is dead simple, really. For a 5lb roast, I threw 4 big cloves of garlic, half an onion, 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 2 teaspoons of black pepper, 1 tablespoon of dried oregano, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into a food processor and let it whiz until it was a paste / liquid. The fat cap on top of the roast got scored and then the paste was evenly schmeared over the meat, into every crack and crevice! The roast was put in a pan, covered with foil and stuck in the fridge for about 5 hours, then the oven was preheated to 350 and the roast was added to it. It baked for about 3.5 hours, with the pan being rotated a half-turn every hour or so. I let it sit for about 20 minutes while I prepared my side-dishes, then it was go-time:

The side dishes are spinach sauteed with shallots in a little bit of coconut oil, and a sort of black beak succotash I made up on the fly and really enjoyed. To make the beans, I chopped up a little bit of bacon and let it render in a pot until crispy then scooped it out to drain and reserved about a teaspoon of the fat in the pot. To the hot fat I added half of a chopped yellow onion. I let the onion cook until it was softened a little, then added a can of black beans which I had previously rinsed thoroughly. The beans and onion cooked on medium high for a few minutes, then I added a can of diced tomatoes and a tiny pinch of sugar to balance out the acid. When everything was warmed through, I scooped it into a serving bowl and topped it with the crisp bits of bacon I'd rendered the fat from earlier. It was quite good for just sort of thinking it up on the fly, and while legumes aren't considered part of a "primal" or "paleo" diet, I think enjoying them every once in a while probably isn't that bad. :)

thai green curry with chicken

I picked up a little jar of green curry paste a few weeks ago and then pretty much forgot about it until yesterday afternoon when I was pondering what to make for dinner that would use up some lime I had hanging around. I'd never made green curry before, so I figured it was worth a try!

Here's the actual recipe I used:

Thai Green Curry with Chicken
Serves 4

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 cup sliced shallots (about 5 large)
1 3/4 teaspoons Thai green curry paste
1 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut into thin strips
1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice plus wedges for garnish


Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and curry paste. Stir until shallots soften, about 2 minutes. Add coconut milk and fish sauce; bring to boil. Add chicken and bell pepper; stir until chicken is just cooked through. Stir in chopped basil and lime juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide curry among bowls. Garnish with basil sprigs and lime wedges.

It was super yummy! Normally you would serve it over rice, but we don't eat rice so we just scooped the curry into bowls and ate it like stew.

fajita-style beef salad

Mmm, fajitas. They're one of our favorites, but what's a girl to do when she can't eat tortillas? Stick the fajita fixings on a salad, of course!

I started with some flank steak, which I cut as thinly as possible across the grain. This went into a bowl with a mixture of lime juice, olive oil, cumin, coriander and cayenne pepper and marinated while I sliced up some bell peppers and some mushrooms. I cranked a frying pan up on high and seared the strips of meat in batches, then stir-fried the veggies in the same pan so they'd pick up some of the flavor of the marinade. When the veggies were done I made big beds of spring mix and dressed them with some roasted-garlic salsa, plain yogurt, sliced red onion and a little shredded cheddar cheese. The stir-fried veggies went on top, and then the meat. I topped the whole shebang with some chopped avocado and it was ready to eat. I love the combination of warm meat / veggies with cold lettuce and dressing, and it's hard to beat the tang of lime juice with beef. Yum!

catching up

Sorry I've been gone so long! Here are some of the goodies I've made in the past few weeks. If you're interested in specific recipes for anything, drop me a line or leave a comment and I'll write it up for you and post it. I'll be back to regularly scheduled posts with recipes starting this coming week, I promise. :)

Pot Roast with carrots, onions and gravy:

Home-made almond butter:

Tzatziki burgers with kale chips:

Easter quiche - mushroom and chives:

Ham, zucchini and onion saute:

MOAR QUICHE! Ham, onion and cheddar cheese:

MOAR QUICHE! Ham, onion and cheddar cheese:

gyro salad:

pot roast with onions and carrots, parmesan-roasted asparagus:

super duper salad with salmon:

pardon the interruption :)

Hi all - just a quick note to let you know that I've not dropped off the face of the planet or anything. Just taking some time to get adjusted to my husband's new work schedule (and what that means for my cooking habits). I'll be back soon, I promise! :)

Take care,
Shelby

Boeuf Bourguignon

Another recipe I tried from Mark's Daily Apple this week was his Boeuf Bourguignon recipe.

I'll tell you right off the bat that I've never smelled anything so amazing in my life as this stuff cooking in the oven for hours. Seriously. If I could bottle that smell, I'd be rich!

Anyway - this is basically just a French beef stew. You start with bacon (how can you go wrong?!), render some fat out of it, then brown a bunch of chunks of beef (I used a big chuck roast that I bought on sale and cut up into bits myself) in the hot bacon fat. The beef and bacon then go into a casserole dish, some seasoned flour is sprinkled over it, and it goes in a 425 degree oven for about 10 or 15 minutes, until the flour is absorbed and it starts to crust a little. Meanwhile, you saute a chopped onion, some minced garlic and a couple sliced carrots in the remaining bacon fat, then add some tomato paste, oregano, bay leaf, parsley, beef stock and wine (I used a cheap cabernet sauvignon to great effect). The liquid simmers for 10-15 minutes and is then added to the meat in the casserole dish. The whole thing goes in the oven for anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. This is where that whole smell thing comes in. Brace yourself for that, because it's fairly maddening. ;)

The recipe I was working off of called for browning the mushrooms separately and adding them after, but next time I'll just throw them right in with the meat and liquid before it goes in the oven, as I found the un-incorporated mushrooms kinda...meh. I think if they'd had a couple hours of soaking up wine and beef and bacon flavors, they would have added more to the dish. Also, the original recipe called for straining the meat out of the liquid and then reducing the liquid a bit before serving but I decided mine was thick enough and so I skipped that step.

This stuff was truly wonderful. Rich, thick, velvety, with amazing depth of flavor. All of the connective tissue in the beef (which there's a LOT in chuck cuts) melts during the braising and leaves the meat amazingly tender without being fall-apart soft or mushy. I think this has become one of my new favorite dishes. Even writing about it after the fact is making me salivate. I might have to go pick at the leftovers now. ;)

stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers are my husband's absolute favorite dish. These ones are an adaptation of this recipe from the Mark's Daily Apple blog, which replaces the usual rice stuffing with a mixture of meat, onions, seasonings and grated cauliflower. The original recipe calls for cooking the stuffed peppers in a slow cooker all day, but I figured if I pre-cooked the filling once I mixed it up, I could then cook the peppers in the oven with no problem. Turns out I was right. I cooked the filling in a frying pan until it was probably about half cooked, then stuffed the peppers, added a few pieces of super-sharp cheddar cheese to the tops and put them in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The filling cooked through, the peppers softened, and best of all, the cheese bubbled and toasted on top.

MMMMM. Cheesy! :D

We really enjoyed these. I used half ground beef and half ground pork instead of the 2lbs of pork the recipe called for. The texture was obviously a bit different than traditional stuffed peppers, but in a nice way. Next time I think I might grate my onion rather than chop it, so that it's finer and gets better incorporated into the mix. I might also add a can of diced tomatoes along with the tomato paste. Other than that, I was really happy with these and will definitely make them again.