Rosemary Tenderloin With Warm Asparagus Salad

Haven't made tenderloin in a while so trying it again. It's actually pretty easy to cook. Yes it would be better if I cooked part of it in the oven, but who has time to remember it's in there when I've got things on the stove top and a baby to watch. Right? 

Pork Tenderloin
Cornstarch - seals in the juices
Soy sauce
Rosemary
Cumin
Garlic

Warm salad:
Asparagus
Butter
Salt
Costco kale salad (minus fixings)

Marinate the tenderloin and then pan sear...I think 5 min per side? You want it to be medium in the middle. Yes, contrary to what I've been taught all my life, good quality pork can be eaten medium! So much juicier and softer!

The salad is prepared by sauteing the asparagus in butter. As it's getting soft I add the Costco kale salad. And when everything is warmed, but not wilted, it goes onto the plate. The seasoning is kept simple because of time...but let me know what seasoning you find works!

Enjoy!

Perfect Prime Rib Roast

When I read that with this technique you're guaranteed a perfect medium rare prime rib roast, I was a little skeptical. At the same time, if it was true, then that's fantastic. Who wouldn't want to find a way to make a perfect prime rib roast every time? You pay some serious money to buy that stuff! So, we tried it for the first time for Christmas Eve dinner. I know. Probably should've tried it on our own before trying it for a large family Christmas meal....just upped the anti right? This better work. Well....

It worked.

It was beautiful. Perfect.
Sorry we don't have a picture to prove it, but it was beautiful. 

And this is how you do it:

To calculate your cooking time, multiply the exact weight of the roast in pounds (including the bones) by 5. Round the resulting number to the nearest whole number. The rib is cooked at 500 degrees F for exactly that many minutes. 

For example, we had a 4.34 kg roast. 4.34 kg = 9.548 lb, 9.548 x 5= 47.7 so cooking time at 500 F is 48 minutes. Once that time is up, turn the oven off and wait 2 hours before opening the oven door. And seriously, do not touch the door during those 2 hours. Just walk away. 

Remove the prime rib and slice into the most perfectly medium-rare meat you've ever seen. 

Important : roast MUST be cooked from room temperature

For the dry rub we used Emeril's Creole Seasoning:
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
(But we substituted real minced garlic and onion instead of the powered stuff)

Leftover makeover : Thanksgiving

One of the best parts of thanksgiving dinner is having enough leftovers for days. The annoying part is having the exact same thing for days. This is one way to use many leftovers up at one time:

Turkey bones (I only used the two thigh/drum bones and froze the rest)
Leftover roasted veggies chopped
Leftover gravy
Leftover pumpkin soup
Roasted turkey liver chopped
Roasted bacon chopped
Shredded leftover turkey meat - add this a few minutes before eating so that the meat doesn't dry up.

Boil it all together...simmer for an hour. Maybe throw in a bay leaf or two. And an onion if it wasn't included in the leftover roast veggies.

Now one meal eat it with pasta as a turkey noodle soup.
Another meal you can re-boil with mushrooms, kale and leftover rice as a hearty soup.

So good....that I keep eating it up before remembering to take a picture.

Classic Chicken wing stew

Stews make easy meals as well...I can chop veggies during Baby's early afternoon nap and then during the early evening nap I put everything into a pot/slow cooker/thermal cooker and let it simmer for a couple hours until Hubby's home and it's all ready to eat. And if the stew is chocked full of veggies then I don't have to prepare that either. Just make rice and enjoy!

Here I actually pan seared the wings first, added the veggies, a bit of stock (not too much because the veggies let out a fair bit of water too) and seasoning and then covered for 45min on low heat. Chicken wings cook pretty fast...especially if seared already. 

Chicken Wings

Various veggies you can find: Carrots and Green & Yellow zucchinis were in my fridge this time

Soy sauce (dark and light)

Sugar

Cornstarch (to dust the chicken wings in before searing)

Cooking wine

Sesame Oil

Enjoy!

Apple Cumin Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is actually pretty easy to cook...especially when baking it. I made this similarly to this recipe which was baked with fennel. This time, it's baked with apple. 

Pork tenderloin

Apple

Onion

Cumin

Cinnamon

S&P

I rubbed the tenderloin with the seasoning spices while the onions were browning in a pan. Then I added the pork loin to sear for about a minute on each side. The whole thing is transferred to a baking sheet, apple slices added, covered with foil, and  baked until internal temp of tenderloin is 130 F. Baking time gives me time to cook the Brussels Sprouts and barley.

Cumin wings on sweet potato spinach salad

 

I love chicken wings...and so I bought some. I was too lazy to mince garlic for some honey garlic wings (plus I can't really eat the honey right now) so I went with my next favorite flavor which is curry/cumin wings. There was a random sweet potato in my fridge so this got worked in as well.

Chicken Wings

Cumin

Soy sauce

Coconut sugar (or any sugar you want....I just used a slight pinch though normally I'd probably use a tbsp or two)

Salad:

Gouda cheese

Sweet potato - cubed and pan seared in butter

Spinach

Dressing:

Grainy mustard

Olive oil

Cider vinegar

a couple drops of Stevia (plant based, zero glycemic index, sweetener)

It was a nice hearty salad. The sweet potato was filling when paired with some meat. Yum.

Warm Israeli couscous salad

 

Another meal where I didn't have enough of anything to make as a main....but the bits and pieces could come together in one of my favorite catch-alls : a salad. Other great catch-alls...stir fry. Stew. Soup. Fried rice. Pita pockets. Lots. =)

Pork cubes

Soy sauce
Israeli Couscous
Cumin
Yams
Gailan
Pine nuts
Butter
Green Onions
Garlic  

S&P

Basically...cook everything separately and then toss together. The only exception are the green onions. That I tossed in at the end when assembling. That way it won't brown and get mushy.

Beef stew

 

Another stew...cuz it's still cold out. =)

I used veal brisket as stewing meat...and these ingredients:

 

Tomatoes
Onions
Caraway seeds
Paprika
Cumin
Ketchup
Srirracha   

Rice wine

S&P to taste

Onions were softened first with the herbs. Then the brisket pieces were browned with the onions. Then a dash of rice wine (I didn't have red wine in the house.) The tomatoes went in after that along with ketchup (I didn't have tomato paste in the house) and srirracha. Heat was turned low for a nice simmer. And the consistency turned out just fine with the tomatoes releasing the water it had. I didn't have to add any more liquid surprisingly.

The only down side was that I only had about 40 minutes to stew the meat before it was served. While it was cooked through, it remained on the chewy side. It tasted great though.

My husband made a variation of this recently but it got to sit in a thermal cooker overnight. OMG. The brisket was melt in your mouth. I just need to plan a little further in advance....like I would need to for the ox tail stew. =)

Nine Bean Pork Stew

 

Every now and then I have enough foresight to presoak the handy nine-bean mix from Costco. And then I decide what to do with it the next day. In this case, it was another cold day, and a stew was in order. This was super simple...and quite tasty...

 

Pork chops cubed

Costco nine bean mix - soaked over night, cooked ~40 min, drained
Veggie stock - I used the Trader Joe low sodium one
Thyme
Sage
Onion

Quinoa

The onion and herbs were sauteed together first...then the pork cubes added. Once sufficiently browned, I took the pork out. Then I added the stock and scraped the charred bits off the bottom of the pot. I figure that adds flavor. Once the stock came to a low boil, I added some quinoa for fibre. Once the little curly tails of the quinoa was visible I added the pork back, then I tipped in the cooked beans and simmered everything until the pork was cooked through. My husband added extra heat (i.e. sirracha) to his bowl. Served with a dollop of  sour cream made it so nice.

Variation - don't add pork...and just enjoy a bowl of vegetarian stew. 

Variation - add way more stock...and make it a hearty soup.

Kimchi Tofu & Chicken Stew

 

I've made some pseudo kimchi stews, but this is more like the real thing...though maybe less soupy than I've had it at Korean restaurants. Makes perfect use of the leftover kimchi juices when the tub of kimchi is finished. 

Chicken

Tofu
Carrots
Onion
Green onion
Soy sauce
Kimchi juice 

The chicken is marinated in soy sauce and some kimchi juice, then pan seared separately. In a pot I browned the onions then added carrots as those take the longest to cook. Tofu cubes added and once the pot has warmed back up to a simmer, I added chicken and more kimchi juice to the level of soupiness I want. Green onions added last so it retains the green color. I didn't need to add extra water because a lot of moisture comes out of the tofu once you cook it. 

Enjoy!

Ox-tail Stew

 

Winter is stew season....love! Hence this will be the Valentines post....though oxtail doesn't sound romantic. I'm non-cliche like that.

This is my first try at ox tail stew. Actually, I bought the ox-tail for soup, but since I didn't have any other meat defrosted, I used it for dinner instead. 

 

Ox tail

Tomatoes
Carrots
Veggie stock
Onion
Garlic
Wine
Ketchup (decent substitute for color when you don't have tomato paste)
S&p

Stews need to simmer for a while to get the meat fall-off-the-bone soft. I started cooking it at 5:30pm and we ate at 7pm. While it tasted very good, especially on rice, it was chewy. In this case, ox tail also has some tendon/cartilage that adds to the chewiness if not cooked long enough. I should've started the stew after lunch and then let it stew away in a slow cooker or thermal cooker for the afternoon before consuming at dinner. Ah well, lesson learned. Still tasty. =)

Sweet Potato Pork Pasta

Alliteration! I'm referring to the "potato pork pasta" bit. Anyways....I had bits of everything in the pantry and fridge and none of it was enough by itself to make a meal for two. So I mixed it all together into a pasta dish. Kinda like how you mix in bits of everything into fried rice.

Butter
Yam
Sweet potatoes
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic salt
S&P
Pork
Pasta
Chipotle mayo


The yam and sweet potato was cubed and pan fried in a bit of butter and seasoning to start things off while the pasta was cooking. I sliced up the leftover chipotle mayo port chop and warmed it with the yam/potatoes, then added the pasta at the end. I added more chipotle mayo as seasoning (because I love chipotle mayo with yam fries) and the end result was tasty and filling.

Chipotle Mayo Pork Chops on Spaghetti Squash

I asked my husband to help marinate the pork chops we got and he creatively put this marinade together:

Chipotle mayo
Soy sauce
Mustard

Quite a tasty marinade I must say. The chops were pan seared...about seven minutes on each side because it was so thick. I've started to be daring and take pork to a medium well instead of fully cooking it. It's so much juicier and tender that way. It was served topped with mango salsa (from Costco). The flavors worked really well together!

As for the spaghetti squash...after it was baked and scraped into a large pan, I added all the little extras for additional flavor and texture and color. Hard to go wrong.

Squash
Onion
Garlic
S&P
Tomato
Cilantro
Parmesan

Pomegranate Kale Salad

I whipped this up one day when trying to figure something out for vegetables. I had the kale, which I shredded. There was pomegranate in the fridge which I though would add some nice color and sweet tartness to the mix. A loose carrot "peeled" into the salad gave additional color and flavor. Considering kale was on the nuttier bitter side, I thought a sweeter salad with the pomegranate and carrot would be nice. Then I added the seeds and nuts for protein.

Pomegranate seeds
Baby kale leaves
Carrot shreds
Chia seeds
Hemp hearts
Pine nuts

Dressing :
Tahini
Garlic
Cider vinegar
Maple syrup
Grainy mustard

It was the second time I tried using tahini to make a dressing. The first time failed because I tried to thin it with oil...but it caused the mixture to break up and get really goopy. This time, it's thinned with vinegar or water, which worked out really well. Overall, I really enjoyed this combo for a tahini dressing...will be definitely repeated!

And Ta-da....a nice bright'n colorful'n tasty side.

And with that, here's to a happy and healthy New Year in 2014!! Keep cooking, experimenting and creating. God bless!

Not Quite Kim Chi Stew

We finish another bucket of kimchi and all the kimchi juice sat in my fridge waiting to be used. That stuff is too good to be poured down the sink! One day I found the perfect combo of ingredients in the fridge to make something like kimchi stew, but drier. Since I didn't have a whole lot of kimchi juice left.

Napa cabbage
KimChi juice
Sliced pork
Tofu
Green Onions

I pan seared the sliced pork first and then removed it while cooking the napa cabbage. Once it was half done I poured the kimchi juice over it, added tofu, green onions and pork in then just let it simmer until the veggies were soft. Great with rice. Great for a cold day. Enjoy!

Christmas Steak

And just like that, Christmas is upon us! This isn't Christmas dinner, but it's close.

Boneless rib steak:
Montreal Steak Spice
Chopped cilantro
Olive Oil

Mushrooms:
Garlic
Paprika
Cumin
S&P

Salad:
Baby Kale
Chick Peas
Pomegranate
Avocado

Dressing:
Tahini
Grainy Mustard
Maple Syrup
Lime juice

Everything was delicious. The steak was eaten with a wedge of lime for a nice citrus note. And, the vitamin C from the lime helps your body absorb the iron better from the red meat. Just FYI.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. 

The Love, Joy and Peace of Christ be upon your household. 

And may every good and perfect gift find its way to you in the New Year!

Warm Brussels Sprouts & Kale Salad

I burned the last batch of brussel sprouts I made so this is a redemption effort. Still not the way I like it because it didn't char as much as I like this time. I used my favorite brussel sprouts recipe and then mixed it with sauteed kale in a kind of salad. It's served over quinoa rice and topped with the pre-seasoned New Zealand rack of lamb that you can quickly throw in the toaster oven and make.

Brussel Sprouts
Fish sauce
Sugar
Grapeseed oil
Kale
S&P

Steamed Turbot

 
Growing up, I loved eating steamed fish. When fresh, it tastes fantastic dipped in soy sauce over steaming white rice. Now that my thyroid's been stable for a year, I'm slowly reintroducing seafood back into my diet.

Turbot...it doesn't even sound like a fish...but it's like a cross between sole and halibut. They're all flat, bottom dwelling type fish that swim on it's side...with two eyes on the same side of the head. Pretty creepy looking but pretty cool. Anyways....really easy to cook:

Corn starch - lightly rubbed on after fish is gutted, washed, patted dry
Ginger - steam WITH the fish to reduce the "fishy" scent

Green onions
Light soy sauce
Sesame oil

These last three ingredients you add when the fish is confirmed cooked. Just add and cover for a minute so the steam softens the onions a little. Then enjoy!

Pot Braised Ribs

I love eating ribs...the meat is especially tasty and tender. Probably because of all the fat...but whatevs. If you're going to eat ribs, it better be fatty and good. Just don't eat it often. I cut up the ribs into two's and then boiled it in water for ten minutes to get rid of some of the fat and scuz. Then I drained the ribs and in another pot, started the marinade in which I'll eventually braise the ribs in:

Onion - sauteed until almost carmelized
Tomatoes
Paprika
Bbq sauce
Ketchup
Sirracha
Honey
Chicken stock
Apple cider vinegar

The ribs simmered in that sauce for...I dunno....40 minutes? Until the meat was soft and everything smelled heavenly. Then it was served and paired with the Beet and Brussel Sprouts salad.

I liked the sauce with onions and tomatoes more than I liked the ribs...but I think that's account my pregnancy tastebuds still throwing off the taste of meat. One day...in five months or so...this will taste as good as it smelled.

My Go-To Trout

Trout has become a bit of a regular in our kitchen. My husband tells me it's not "fishy" like salmon can be. It's also super easy to cook. I just wash, scale (because I like eating the skin) and then put these ingredients on top:

Garlic
Rosemary
S&p
Olive Oil

Pop in the oven for 17-20 min (until the meat can be sliced easily with a blunt object)...or pan fry until the same consistency is reached (that'll take less than 10 min). Serve with a squeeze of lemon...or not. Because it's not fishy. Enjoy!