The other day, I noticed some green tomatoes at my local farm stand. They were so pretty, that I had brainstorm that I would try to make Fried Green Tomatoes. There was only one hurdle I needed to cross-- I had never eaten fried green tomatoes, and I've never made them...
Tyler Florence to the rescue! Tyler has roots in the south, so I chose his recipe. I did see that the queen of Butter and Fried Foods, "Paula Deen" had a recipe that used a lot more oil that I'm willing to cook with. Food Networks irritating stars "The Neely's" (love their recipes, but Gina... calm down!) used panko crumbs, but I envisioned using corn meal. I love the crunch of corn meal, and I felt it would be more authentic as a Southern dish. For the record, I think Paula Deen is a lot of fun to watch-- her cackle and her recipes look scrumptious. I love Southern Food! However, I struggle to limit how much fried food I eat, so I don't make it often. I would, if I could!
The recipe looked easy enough...
Tyler says to slice them about 1/2" thick..
I set up a dish with 3 cups of flour, seasoned with garlic powder and cayene... the second shot is me realizing I forgot the cornmeal. In another dish, I poured buttermilk. Tyler recipe has a typo. It calls for 1/2 cup of oil and some butter, but there are no instructions on how to use the butter. I have a cast iron griddle, so I heated the oil and flavored it with the butter. Is this right?
I grilled these for 3-4 minutes per side and blotted them on a paper towel.
I rarely nosh on food while I'm cooking. I broke my own rule, because I could not wait to try this. Tyler says to finish these with a squeeze fresh lemon juice and hot sauce. I'm a wimp, so I don't particularly like hot sauce and I was too impatient to bother with lemon juice...
Mercy! Oh my! I love this! It's hot, and I was fanning my tongue...but the sweet and slight tanginess of the green tomato-- the crunch of the cornmeal and the cayenne paper was just right. My husband loved them, too. I know this is a Southern Dish, but it's going to be a regular dish in my repertoire. Oh, these are good. I served these with a wonderful dinner that I will share later on in the week. I just have to tell you my little secret!
Now, I've been holding on to something a little too long and I have to say it. There is going to be a very special Food & Wine Event in Carmel Valley, California this weekend. The event is called "Food & Wine Harvest to Table" at the beautiful Quail Lodge Resort. I have such a strong connection to the luxury resort, because this was my first job-- working the front desk and reservations. I also got married here (um, in a previous life...before Craig). But the most exciting thing for me...
I get to meet see the guest celebrity chef-- Tyler Florence!!!
Yes, my dear foodie friend/food writer/cookbook author and all-around Food & Wine Guru, Dorothy (who knows Tyler Florence) is involved in this event and I offered to be her personal slave volunteer to have a chance to see him up close and personal. If I'm a really good girl, I will be able to attend the evening private party. I'm already trembling with the thought of stammering asking Tyler for a photograph... though I suspect I will be one of many folks wanting to do the same thing. I'm going to hang on to Dorothy's coat tails, hoping to get one personal "Hello" from Mr. Tyler Florence, himself. I'd probably drop I.Q. points and be at a loss for words, while my finger twitches on my camera button. Yes, I am bringing my camera and 100 extra batteries. I will be blogging about this.
On one of my earlier dates with my husband, he took me to his favorite Thai Restaurant. Other than Chicken Satay, I wasn't familiar with Thai food. I also have an aversion to yellow curry, so I carefully scanned the menu for something I wasn't afraid to try. I ordered Tom Ka (coconut milk) soup and I fell in-love with that dish-- and my husband! I also learned that there is more to curry than just yellow. I love red curry, and recently green curry! I have, since, found a local restaurant that makes excellent Pad Thai, Green Curry dishes -- and I am now a huge fan of Thai Food. I am fond of common ingredients in Thai food-- lemon grass, coconut milk, lime, basil, cilantro and peanuts. Yummy!
I found this particular recipe in Cook's Illustrated in 2007, and I have made this several times-- always with great results. What I like about this version is that you don't need to find an exotic market to find the ingredients.
Here's what Cook's Illustrated had to say about the development of this simple version of Thai Chicken Soup:
So, are you ready?
You need 3 stalks of lemongrass. If you've never worked with this, it's very easy to find in a grocery store nowadays. It looks like scallions on steroids-- only they can be tricky to cut. You need a really sharp knife, or you might want to grab an ax (well, not really). I, once bought, lemongrass in a tube (located in the produce section). It's just not the same-- please buy real lemongrass. I remove the outside leaves, wash them and then...
I cut them into chunks, with a very sharp and sturdy knife.. I also chopped three shallots. Shallots are always in my fridge. I love them, because they are milder than red onion so they don't overpower my sauces, or salad dressings. If you haven't used shallots, much, try them. You'll always want them on hand.
The rest of the ingredients are easy to find-- fresh cilantro, coconut milk (I use the Lite version), chicken broth, red curry paste and fish sauce. Some of you might be crinkling your nose at the thought of fish sauce. I did, too. However, give it a chance. Don't sniff it! It'll scare you. Honestly, the sauce is important and you cannot taste any fish. I wouldn't lie to you!
You want to slice boneless, skinless chicken breasts into really thin strips. The trick is to freeze the chicken for about 15 minutes-- this makes slicing it, on the bias (against the grain), so much easier. Don't cut chunks! You want it nice and thin...you'll see why in a few more steps.
You begin by tenderizing the lemongrass and shallots in a little vegetable oil. Season with 1 Tbsp of fish sauce and the chopped cilantro (which I forgot to do...d'oh!)
Add the chicken broth...
...one can of coconut milk, bring to simmer and cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Once the flavors have infused (don't forget the cilantro, like I did), strain the soup and discard the veggies.
Add one more can of coconut milk, 1 Tablespoon of sugar and bring to a simmer. (This is where I added the cilantro I forgot to before, and it worked out fine.)
Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes. Now, add the thinly sliced chicken and cook until the pink is gone-- stirring often-- 2-3 minutes. This is why you don't want big chunks of chicken!
Remove the chicken from the heat (as in turn off the stove!) and add 3 Tablespoons of fresh squeezed lime juice, the red curry paste. and 2 Tablespoons of fish sauce. You can serve the soup as an appetizer..
But I like to make rice....
...and to ladle soup over the rice, for a heartier meal. This soup comes really close to the authentic Tom Ga Ka Thai soup from my favorite restaurant. We love it! It's very simple to make, and the red curry paste gives a nice little kick to the soup.
Yes, you can easily substitute shrimp instead of chicken. I would even think you could use tofu as well, though I'm not sure if a vegetable stock would taste as authentic. This is a pretty economical dish to make. The Thai ingredients aren't very costly and they last me for a while. I'm still working on perfecting a good Pad Thai dish. I really love that dish, too. If you're wondering what the differences in curries are, a friend of mine gave me this link:
Here's the recipe, below. If you're receiving my feeds on Feed Burner, you'll need to click on my blog link to view this. This one is one of our top favorite soups/dinners. We just love it!
This soup is my week's contribution to Soup Sundays-- Deb at Kahaka Kitchen's weekly blog group where you can submit your posting for a soup, soup-like meal, salad and sandwiches. For details, click here:
I have been recording Melissa d'Arabian's show (Food Network) because I watched this season's "...Next Food Network Star", and she was declared the winner. We definitely enjoyed her simple perfect crispy chicken a l'orange and cripsy potatoes. This time, I decided to try her Succulent Braised Pork with Black Beans. Melissa's Show is called "$10.00 Dinners", which many viewers (including me) thinks is a very risky title. I do think that the $10.00 price tag takes into acccount that many of Melissa's choices of ingredients should be items that would be in any kind of well-stocked pantry.
I confess-- I'm one of those OCD folks who doesn't like to run out of my pantry and refrigerator staples. I do shop once a week, and I always carry a list. The only thing I needed to buy for this menu was the pork butt roast...
...that happened to be on sale for $1.69 a pound. The smallest one I could find weighted 4 pounds.
Have you ever bought tomato paste in a tube? I always keep a box (or two) on hand. It's perfect when a recipe wants 2-3 Tablespoons of tomato paste. I no longer have to open a can of tomato paste and then try to figure out what to do with the rest--though, I've read that you can freeze it. The problem with that, is I forget they're in the freezer!
The rest of the ingredients were, indeed, in my pantry and fridge-- a mire poix (carrots, onion and celery), fresh garlic, salt and pepper, beef broth (you could use chicken) and red wine. Whenever I shop at Trader Joe's, I buy red wine (for cooking) for under $5.00 a bottle. I never buy cooking wine-- it's yucy and salty. Surprisingly, some of TJ's inexpensive wines are quite good to drink with dinner. (Then again, I'm not exactly a wine somelier.) Not pictured is flour, because I was too lazy to measure it. Ha!
Melissa's recipe calls for 2 pounds of pork butt roast. Fine, I'll freeze the other half for either a BBQ pulled pork recipe or even a Mexican themed pulled pork. So that means, I had about $3.50 invested in a meal for four. Not bad!
I cut one half into six large pieces... and chop the vegetables. It's time to sear the pork in olive oil. I adore my cast-iron Dutch Oven. It's heavy, but I love the way it sears and braises.
Back in the day, when I first started cooking on my own, I could never get that beautiful golden crust when I tried to sear meat. I finally learned that you MUST have the meat dry...no moisture on it, please. I also learned to get the oil HOT... I look for a rippling in the oil and just as it's starting to smoke, throw those puppies in the oil jacuzzi. Don't crowd them, either. Fortunately, all six pieces fit in the Dutch Oven just fine.
The next thing I finally figured out, is- DON'T PLAY AROUND WITH THE MEAT for at least 3-5 minutes. Oh, look! C'mon, isn't that pretty? Can't you hear it sizzling? Sear these on each side from 3-5 minutes and remove from the pan...
... and set these aside. I had to stand back and admire my Dutch Oven's work...
It's those beautiful brown bits (fond) that is going to give the veggies a wonderful flavor and color..
...like this. I cook these for about 5-7 minutes, until softened. Ready to build up more flavor? Garlic is always a great way to start. I used to burn garlic, until I learned to add fresh garlic at the end. Burnt garlic is bitter.
Using my Zyliss garlic mincer, I add fresh garlic... then the tomatoe paste and cook that for about 3 minutes. Next, the flour is added and cooked for a couple of minutes-- to get rid of the raw flavor.
I moved the veggies aside and added 1 cup of red wine... which sounded like s-h-h-h-h. This thickened up really fast!
This really smells fabulous! Next, the beef broth is added...
...then the seared pork is placed into the sauce, along with the juices. My oven is preheated to 325F. NOTE: You could, very well, use a slower cooker (or a pressure cooker) at this point. I happened to be home all day, so I didn't mind using my oven. I added a little more water, per Melissa's instructions-- just until the liquid reached the top.
Last, but not least, I cut some of my scroungy looking Italian Parsley and added some Bay Leaves. Into the oven for about 3 hours...
Now, here's where I deviated from Melissa's entire menu. Melissa made black beans (kicked up with vinegar) and drop biscuits with green onion to go with this. I found this to be an "odd" combination. I admit, that I'm not a huge bisquit fan-- but I'm also not from the South. I nixed the biscuits, and opted to make rice, flavored with fresh cilantro and fresh lime juice.
I read the reviews on her black beans, and they were so-so. So, I went back to my fool-proof recipe for black beans that are a little spicy. I was guessing that Melissa was trying to do some sort of Cuban/Latin menu-- so I figured that cilantro and lime would tie in well.
For the beans you can soak them and cook them according to package directions. Or, you can used canned black beans (and these are always in my pantry)...
...because I think they are just as good, much easier and I pay about $1.00 a can.
Drain them, reserving about 1/4 of the liquid. Rinse them well and put into a pot.
I use about 1/4 tsp of Chipotle Chile Powder (this stuff rocks, because it has a nice smoky flavor and it packs heat)....add more, if you don't mind having your tongue on fire. I use about 1 teaspoon of cumin and some kosher salt. That's it! Heat slowly and set aside... (before serving, squeeze a little fresh lime juice, if desired).
For the rice, I cook white (or brown rice) according to package directions. When it's cooked, about the juice of 1-2 fresh lime juice and about one cup of fresh chopped cilantro.
...2 1/2 hours later, the house smelled like something really good was happening.
OMG! This is comfort food! It's time to eat, and we're hungry.
You can see the rice peeking out from underneath this tender plate of braised pork.
The beans deserve a little Lite Sour Cream...
The sauce is amazing and non-greasy. My husband is anxiously awaiting...
Mmmmmmmmm. This reminds me of Osso Bucco... only it's a lot less expensive. In fact, I do think this entire meal stayed within $10.00-- excluding my pantry items I already had on hand.
I think that the braised pork dish would pair perfectly with polenta. It would soak up the sauce (and I would double it, it's that good) and that is exactly what I will do the next time I make this-- and I shall. Craig, who is stingy with rating recipes as "five stars" gave this one two eager thumbs up!
The black beans are delicious, but I don't think I'd pair them with this with this dish, next time. I think they are polar opposites-- the pork has a Parisian Bistro theme and the beans are more Latin inspired. But, that's me... maybe you'd like to try Melissa's version of black beans and drop biscuits. You can view her entire menu here.
What really made this dinner special is that-- after my whining that I didn't want summer to end-- we got a little unexpected rain. I have to say, that the sweet sound of rain made this wonderful meal really feel like a comfort food dinner. I hope that you try this dinner and that you enjoy it as much as we did-- and we shall, again and again.
