Seared Pork Roast with Veggies

This is not a new or fancy recipe by any means, but a few tricks make it nice and tasty.

1-2 pound lean pork roast
1-2 sweet potatoes
1-2 russet potatoes
1-2 carrots sliced
½ yellow onion
(Thinly slice the veggies)
4-5 garlic cloves


Sauce:
Cup of beef stock
Tablespoon of soy sauce
Tablespoon of hot sauce
Tablespoon steak sauce
Flour


Rub the roast lightly with flour, salt, pepper, and a bit of the soy sauce. Then place in a hot pan on the stovetop and sear it on all sides with some olive oil. Remove and set aside and then place all the veggies and sear for a few minutes to get the flavors. Add in about a tablespoon of flour and mix/cook it a bit and then add in the stock and other sauces.

Put the roast in baking dish and pour over all the veggies and juice and bake for an hour – hour and half at 300 to 350.

An Easy and Delicious Egg Frittata

If you have ever thought about making a Frittata before but figured it would be too difficult, here is an easy version anyone can make. It is basically a fancy word for what we Norwegian’s call an “egg bake”.



You can use a lot of different ingredients for this one, but here is what I used this time:

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees.

4-5 slices of prosciutto or thick sliced bacon cut into chunks.
2 scallions thinly sliced
2 diced gloves of garlic
½ to 1 cup of frozen (defrost and drain) spinach
¼ cup of grated asiago or parmesan cheese
4-6 eggs beat well with a bit of milk.


Start out with a heavy skillet on the stove top – one you can transfer right to the oven. This important, because you don’t want to try and move it from a skillet to a pan that is oven safe, so use a heavy clad iron skillet.

Drizzle a little olive oil and butter in the pan on the stove top and start to soften/brown the prosciutto or bacon and garlic, cook for a few minutes or so until it starts to get crispy. Now it comes together quickly and the is just basically placement of the rest of the ingredients in the pan. Evenly spread the meat and garlic around the pan, now drop in the spinach, scallions and cheese on top. Then evenly pour over the egg mixture and pepper and salt. Put it right into the over and bake for 10-15 minutes.

It is really an easy and tasty dish. I have made it with all vegetarian items or added in a bit of frozen hash browns as well. Tomatoes are wonderful! The key is you just sear everything for a few minutes on the stove top before baking it and it locks in the flavors. When it is finished, just gently slide it out of the pan onto a plate and cut it up in slices.

The Perfect One Pot Meal

So our good friend Deb is recovering at home from the hospital and today we are dropping over a comfort food meal to help her heal. Also, to avoid her lovely partner from having to test her skills in the kitchen.

This is not original buy any means, but I added a few twists to give it some flavor.



Ingredients:
1.5 lb lean pork roast
6-8 small red potatoes quartered
1 – purple top turnip cut in ¼ inch bite size pieces
1 – rutabaga sliced in bite size pieces
1-2 carrots sliced in bite size pieces
Half a yellow-diced onion
2-3 garlic cloves cut in half
Seasonings:
1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper and
½ teaspoon of sea salt
¼ cup of low sodium or regular soy sauce
¼ cup of olive oil
¼ cup of flour
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of beef, chicken or vegetable stock
1 bay leaf

Get a heavy pan or Dutch oven heated to medium high on the stovetop. In a bowl put in all your veggies and toss them with a mixture of about half the olive oil, butter, and salt and pepper. Cook/sear them in the pan for about 5 minutes, until the flavors cook through. Remove the veggies and set aside in a bowl.

Mix the soy sauce and about half the salt, pepper, and rub it all over the roast and then dust/rub it with the flour. In the same pot add in the rest of the olive oil and sear the roast on all sides – about a minute or two each side.

Roast the Pork first with no juice added for about 30-40 minutes at 375 degrees and then pull out and layer in the veggies all around the roast and pour over the stock and add the bay leaf. Roast at 300 or lower degrees for another 30-40 minutes depending on how you like the roast cooked. We prefer it about medium with the veggies still firm. When you serve it, remove the roast and let it rest for at least 15 minutes, take out all the veggies out as well and then heat the juice up to a quick boil and ladle it all over the sliced meat and veggies. You can also thicken it up if you prefer more of a gravy.

Salmon and Kale

The other day while traveling with my business partner she was talking about the wonderful Kale that her husband makes and how often they eat it. It got me thinking, I need to try and cook it again. I tried before and did not care for the taste and texture. This time is was a hit. Here is the complete dish.

Salmon – cooked in Parchment Paper:

1lb Salmon
¼ cup of chopped fresh ginger
2-3 sliced garlic cloves
2 slices scallions
Fresh Lemon Juice
Drizzle of olive oil
Salt/Pepper

Place the parchment paper in a baking dish (Using enough to wrap it up) cover with the garlic, ginger, scallions and then drizzle lightly with olive oil. Squeeze on some fresh lemon and salt/pepper. Then wrap it up and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Kale:

1 big bunch of Kale – chopped coarsely
2-3 sliced garlic cloves
½ up of vegetable or chicken stock
Lemon juice
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Salt/Pepper


Heat up the olive oil and cook the garlic until soft and then add in the Kale and stock, cover and cook for about 5 mins. Remove the cover and knock the heat back to med and cook down for a couple minutes until the liquid evaporates and then add the lemon juice, sesame oil and salt pepper. Toss it together well.

I served it up with a bit of rice and some fresh heirloom tomatoes on the side. It was a very quick and healthy meal. I am now a fan of Kale!

Crispy Tilapia with Citrus/Savory Sauce

The inspiration from this dish comes from one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, Tangerine. They make it using a sea bass but I tried it with tilapia, any kind of white fish would work well. I think they steam the fish and but I thought trying it with crispy fish would be a cool twist.





Ingredients:
2-4 Tilapia Filets
1 leek finely chopped – green onions will work if you can’t get leek
10-12 cherry tomatoes sliced in half
½ cup of edamame (if frozen, precook in the microwave for a minute) – peas will work as well.
1 tablespoon of finely diced ginger
2 finely diced garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of fresh squeezed citrus. I actually used tangerine, which I had on hand, but lemon or limes would work as well.
1 tablespoon of soy sauce. If you can get it use the really thick soy sauce that you get in Asian markets.
¼- ½ cup of chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of flour

Prep work is key to this dish because it comes together quickly. So start out by getting all your veggies diced and sauces poured in small cups.

To begin get your oven pre-heated to 450 degrees.

For the Fish – on the stove top, heat up a couple table spoons of olive oil to just a high enough heat that is does not smoke, then sear the fish filets (pepper and salt them on each side while cooking) until they are crispy on each side. It only takes a few minutes on each side. As soon as they are crispy and cooked, put them in a pan and into the oven so they stay hot and crisp.

Sauce – using the same pan you cooked the fish in – put in a bit more olive oil and a little butter, add the diced garlic, ginger and leeks and cook for a minute or so. Then add in the flour and brown it up a bit, next the chicken stock, soy sauce and citrus sauce. Bring it to a quick boil and add the edamame and tomatoes. Pepper it up to taste. If the sauce gets to thick just add a bit more stock or water. The sauce will come together quickly, like 5 minutes.

I served it up with steamed brown rice and steamed broccoli and ladled the sauce over the fish and rice. It was so tasty! The combination of flavors really work and over the crispy fish, it is delicious!

One Pot Chicken Dish

This is a really tasty and quick one pot chicken dish. You can change up the veggies if you don't like brussels sprouts, but they are really yummy when roasted like this! Also, if you want add in some diced potato. I prefer to serve it with brown rice.






2 chicken breasts cut each one into 2-3 pieces
4 small chick thighs
(Of course you can use all chicken breast or thighs if you prefer
12-14 Brussels sprouts cut in half
2 large carrots sliced into chunks
½ diced yellow onion
3-4 garlic gloves, diced
2 cups of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
Couple tablespoons of flour
Spices: ½ teaspoon each - salt, pepper, and basil leaves

Salt/pepper the chicken and lightly roll in flour and then put in a hot pan with some olive oil (one you can transfer right to the oven) and sear them on the stove top about 2-3 mins on each side. Now add in the veggies, place them all in/around the chicken pieces. Then add in the chicken stock and soy sauce, pepper and basil leaves. Now bake it in an oven (un covered) at 375-400 for about 15 minutes until the chicken pieces are done and the veggies roasted a bit.

When you serve it you can give each person a taste of both the white and dark chicken with the veggies and then pour the sauce over it. I do think it is good served over the top of rice and then all the juices mix together. It would also be delicious with mashed potato!

Simply Soup

Are you sick of my soup recipes yet? See summer is starting in San Francisco, which means cool and foggy nights so soup works well. I am all about the quick and easy ones and experimenting a bit. Here is one that turned out really tasty. It took a bit longer because I made my own stock, but you could use store bought as well and put it together in under 30 minutes.

Here is all you will need:

8-10 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
(If you make your own follow my Chicken Soup recipe for clear stock)
2 cups of chopped carrots
2 cups of corn (I scored the corn off of corn cobs to get a fresh corn flavor – yummy)
1 cup of peas
Teaspoon of fresh-diced ginger
½ cup of scallions
2 cups of cooked brown rice
2 cups of shredded or cooked chopped chicken breast (you don’t need the chicken if you just want a veggie soup)

Boil the carrots and corn in the stock for about 8-10 minutes and then add the peas and ginger and bring to quick boil.

Now you simply put the bowls together, in each bowl:
Couple table spoons of chicken, a tablespoon of brown rice and then ladle in the broth with the veggies. Top is off with the fresh scallions and pepper/salt to taste.

Serve this one up with some sliced French bread toasted in the oven with Parmesan cheese and garlic salt. I also served some pea pods and hummus on the side.

A Twist on Chili, Hot Dish Style!

Ok, so this is one, which I totally did not expect to post. It is the night before we leave on a trip and I was looking to use up what is left in the fridge and pantry. It is kind of a twist on the hot dishes I grew up with in ND – casseroles for those of you not from the Midwest.





1 – 1-½ pounds of Lean Ground Turkey (If you must, you can use ground beef)
1 can of white chili beans
1 can of cream style corn
1 can of diced tomatoes (I use the ones that have garlic, onion, and chilies in them)
½ yellow onion diced
Couple of garlic cloves chopped
1 large carrot diced
½ teaspoon or more of chili powder
½ teaspoon or more of hot sauce
½ teaspoon of ground black pepper

Brown the ground turkey with the onion, carrots, and garlic. When finished just dump in the canned items and spices and mix it well and then bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

I am serving it up with a little shredded cheese on top, some corn bread and Layer Cake Shiraz wine.

Next time I make it, I am going to add in some fresh-diced red and green pepper. The cream style corn gives it a really nice taste and texture. The dish took about 15 minutes to toss together.

Root Veggie Soup

This is one of my favorite soups. I usually don’t care for pureed soups, but this one is delicious! It can be vegetarian based on the stock base you use. It also takes less than 30 minutes to whip together and has to be healthy with all these veggies! Here goes….



You’ll need:

o 10-12 cups of vegetable or chicken stock (For this one I use the good store bought stuff instead of home made stock
o 1 large sweet potato or yam
o 1 med size squash (any kind will do, so whatever is in season)
o 1 large russet potato
o 1 turnip
o ½ of a fresh ginger root
(If you want to make a large batch, just use more veggies)

Peel all the veggies and the ginger and cut into chunks and boil them till soft in the broth. Once they are cooked puree using a hand mixer or if you have one of those hand stick blenders they work really well. You could also pour small batches into your blender and puree it that way. Do in small batches though and watch out for the heat in your blender. Once you have it all pureed, mix in about 1 tablespoon of real butter and ¼ - ½ cup of milk or if you want to be decadent use real cream. (My Grandma would have for sure!) Salt and pepper to taste, don't salt and pepper it until after you have it all pureed.

This is soooo easy and very yummy on a cool night and also works for summer evenings. Good with some fresh bread of course.

Tilapia Fillets, Mixed Mash and Grilled Asparagus.

Here is a really quick and easy dish for white fish fillets, which I serve up with a mixed mash and grilled asparagus.



Fish Coating: (for 4 fillets)
o 1 cup of course bread crumbs, I love to use panko breadcrumbs
o 1/2 teaspoon each of course pepper, garlic salt and
o 1/4 teaspoon of salt
o 1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese
o Mix or shake this all together in a bag and put in shallow pan or plate.

Dip the fish fillets in some beaten egg whites and then dip in the coating mixture. Place in an already heated non-stick skillet with olive oil and cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes until crispy and crunchy.

Side Dishes:

Mixed Mash
Cut and boil up a mixture of potato, turnip, rutabaga, or sweet potatoes. When they are done, just add a little butter and about ¼ - ½ cup of milk/chicken stock. I always warm my milk and stock before mashing them. You can just use milk, but I like the flavor of the stock in the mashed mixture. Add in pepper and salt to taste.

Grilled Asparagus
Lightly coat them with olive oil and bake at a high heat (425) for about 10 minutes.

A really easy and healthy dish. I don't peel the veggies, but you can if you don't like that texture. Slice up some lemon to squeeze on the fish.

Enjoy and don't forget to post if you try it and/or change it up.

Light and Tasty Chicken Soup

This dish inspired me while traveling in Thailand. One night I had become a little ill and the wonderful cook at our condo made me this clear broth soup with shredded chicken and the flavors of ginger and leeks in the broth. I recreated it at home with a few twists:



Here is what you will need:

For the stock:
o A whole roasted chicken (I buy the ones that are already done in the deli at the store, of course you can roast your own)
o 10 – 12 cups of water
o 1/2 lemon
o 2 gloves of garlic
o 1/2 yellow onion
o 1 root of ginger
o 2 bay leaves

Soup contents:
o 2-3 cups of shredded chicken
o 2-3 med size red potatoes
o 1 cup frozen peas
o 1 cup sliced carrots (make it easy if you want and just use 2 cups of frozen peas and carrots!)
o 1 med size rutabaga or a turnip
o 1 leek (stem trimmed off and then sliced thin) if you can't get leeks, green onions work well too

Start out by shredding all or at least most of the meat off the whole chicken and set it aside.

Take a big piece of cheesecloth (you can just dump all the contents into the water, but the cheese cloth keeps the broth clearer). Fill the cheesecloth with pieces of the chicken/bones -- the leg bones, wings, breast bones, just break them up -- take most of the skin off, but leave a little for flavor in the broth, put in the 1/2 lemon, 2 gloves of garlic, 1/2 onion cut in chunks, a few chunks of the ginger root, and couple bay leaves. Wrap this all in a bundle and tie it together and drop it in the pot of water. If for some reason you don’t have fresh ginger or garlic, you could just add ginger and garlic salt to the water, about a ½ teaspoon of each. After the broth has cooked remove the cheesecloth pouch and discard.

Bring to boil and then simmer it for at least 1 hour, 2-3 is best so the flavors will come through in the broth. If you notice film on top while simmering, just skim it off. Again, if you don't have cheesecloth you will have quite a bit to skim off.

Take about a half-cup of your broth after it has cooked for ½ hour or so and add to the shredded chicken and put that in the oven on a low heat so it stays warm.

About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat the soup:

Cut up the potatoes and rutabaga into small (diced) pieces and boil them in a separate pot for about 10 minutes, you want them cooked but still a bit firm, right before they are done add your peas and carrots to cook about a minute or two.

Then it is time to serve it up:

Take some big deep or oval bowls and start out by placing a couple large table spoons of chicken in each bowl, then add the cooked veggies, then top it with the sliced leeks or green onions and now just ladle in the steaming hot broth in each bowl.

I like topping each bowl with a few fried onions, a bit of fresh Parmesan cheese. Also, I don't put salt or pepper in the broth; I let each person add what he or she wishes.

Serve it up with crunchy french bread, some slices of smoked gouda cheese and olives.

Few other ideas:
o If you really want to make this quickly you can use store bought stock and buy some pre-cooked chicken. Or, you could boil the chicken breasts in stock and shred those.
o You can cook the veggies right in the stock if you want, I prefer to cook them separately and then portion each bowl out before serving.

Let me know if you try the dish and/or if you change it up in any way. It is a very light, comforting and refreshing meal. Good in any season and if you are feeling a little under the weather, perfect!