Moroccan Tomato Soup with Couscous - 4 stars

first, let me say that i can't believe i didn't publish a single post in all of march. wow! i cooked & ate plenty in march, and now have a month's worth of catching up to do.

this soup is from my new year's resolution cookbook, Made in Morocco. it was a simple, quick recipe, with few ingredients. i used high quality canned tomatoes in it because fresh tomatoes are so flavorless right now. it tasted great, but i let it simmer too long after adding the couscous - the couscous swelled and lost its crunch. the flavor was still great though.

i had grilled cheese & onion sandwiches AND a salad with the soup - yummy, but way too much food. :)

(i'll add the recipe later - it's in a cookbook at home)

Portobello Mushroom Burger - 4 stars

this was QUITE a yummy treat. i'd rate it five stars, except that i was still starving after eating it. i'm totally a carnivore, i'll be honest. :-) i believe i had potato chips and a small salad with it. if i made this again, i'd make a bigger salad with extra protein ingredients, like garbanzo beans and avocado and some bacon, to go with the burger. or i could make sweet potato fries... mmmmm....

anyway - it was a really easy meal, and the jumbo kaiser rolls were perfect with it. there wasn't quite enough marinade for my mushroom caps, so i'd increase it by 1/2 next time. doubling it would be too much.

enjoy!

Ingredients

Marinade:

• 2 tablespoons brown spicy mustard
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 4 portobello mushroom caps
• 4 slices Gouda cheese
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 4 hamburger rolls
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 4 leaves butter lettuce
• 1 tomato, sliced

Directions

Combine marinade ingredients. Place caps into a baking dish and pour marinade over top. Use a brush to make sure all caps are covered with the marinade. Set aside and let marinate up to 2 hours.

Remove the portobellos from marinade (do not discard marinade) and place gill side down on a preheated gas, electric or charcoal grill over medium-high heat. Grill 3 to 4 minutes per side. Top each cap with cheese 2 minutes to melt before they are finished grilling.

In a medium bowl combine 1/2 cup mayonnaise and 2 tablespoons of the marinade.

Spread the flavored mayonnaise onto each bun and top with portobellos. Serve with sliced onion, lettuce and tomato.

Courtesy of foodnetwork.com

New Year's Resolution + Honeycomb Pancakes - 4 stars

i'm trying a different new year's resolution this year. last year, i vowed to go to the optometrist and the dentist. i did both, though we won't talk about how many of the previous years i didn't do either! :)

this year, i decided i would pick out a type of cuisine, buy a cookbook, and cook my way through it. outside of excessively cheesy recipes, i MUST cook every recipe from the book by the end of this year. i vacillated between lebanese cuisine and moroccan cuisine, and settled on moroccan. i then had to decide between two different moroccan cookbooks:

Made in Morocco
by Julie LeClerc and John Bougeno


Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco
by Paula Wolfert

the reviews for Made in Morocco said it was a good cookbook, but not as authentic as Paula Wolfert's. i decided to try out Paula's. um... not the best idea. it's TOO authentic. i am not ready for that kind of authenticity. the "meat salad" recipes call for animal brains. the tangine recipes called for at least three whole chickens, or ten pounds of lamb. all of the recipes from Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco make massive amounts of food, look quite complicated and often require ingredients that would be extremely difficult for me to obtain.

i want to actually be successful with my new year's resolution, so i took another look at Made in Morocco. it seemed more appropriate for me, so i ordered it. it's fantastic! it has a ton of history and cultural information, and the recipes are much more practical. i'm really excited about working my way through it.

so... i made my first meal on saturday morning from this cookbook. the name of the recipe is honeycomb pancakes. to make them, i dissolved a packet of yeast in warm water, added a teaspoon of sugar, and then combined it with semolina flour, regular flour, one egg, salt, a bit of vanilla extract, and some tepid water. i was supposed to let the batter sit for at least an hour, but i was hungry. i only waited a half hour. bad idea - i'll explain why later.

to cook these pancakes, i warmed a nonstick pan over medium heat, brushed some vegetable oil on the bottom, and put a scoop of the batter in the pan. i did not flip the pancakes; instead, i let them cook until the bottom was golden brown and the top was solid and fluffy and full of holes. well - i got small holes in them, but they didn't end up nearly as fluffy as they should have because i didn't wait the full hour before cooking. i hate when i'm impatient! :)

they were really good though. they had a grittier texture than regular pancakes because of the semolina flour, and they were not sweet either. i served them with honey and butter, and they were just fantastic. i also had some amazing uli's fresh andouille sausage on the side. how un-moroccan of me! :-)

please email me if you would like the recipe - it's at home in my cookbook, so i can't add it right now.





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Cobb Salad - 5 stars

before i met tony, i had no idea there was such a thing as "cobb salad dressing." every restaurant i'd ever ordered it at served it with either vinaigrette, bleu cheese, or ranch. a few months after we started dating, tony suggested i make cobb salad with "REAL cobb dressing." i did some research, and i found a fantastic recipe for cobb salad dressing. mmmmm.

this is a simple dish to assemble - for the salad, i used green leaf this time. i normally use romaine, but i had just used it for caesar, and i wanted to have a good lettuce variety in the week. :-) i topped it with sections of crisp bacon, chunks of avocado, halved cherry tomatos, slices of hardboiled eggs, red onion slivers, and grilled chicken breast. tony's is on the left - i put a pile of gorgonzola crumbles in the center of his.

the dressing is super easy! i minced one shallot and whisked it together with 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and one tablespoon of sherry vinegar. in a separate measuring cup, i combined 1/3c walnut oil & 1/2c vegetable oil. i slowly whisked the oil mixture into the shallot/mustard/vinegar mixture, and seasoned it with some sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. it has a dark tone from all the balsamic vinegar - see below. the dressing is thick and has a fantastic tang, and it tastes really decadent to me - it's the walnut oil that gives it that extra rich flavor. yum!

Spicy Honey Brushed Chicken Thighs - 4 stars

hahaha. the picture of this meal makes me laugh. :-) i was SO hungry; i ate half my plate before i remembered to take a picture. fortunately.... the half that i ate was just steamed asparagus with balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil. nothing too special or difficult to prepare.

the chicken thighs weren't difficult to prepare either, but they sure were something special!! :) the recipe was super easy - mix a bunch of dry spices in a big bowl, dump the package of chicken thighs in the bowl, toss it around to coat all the thighs evenly with the spices, and put it under the broiler in your oven - five minutes on each side. while they're broiling, you mix together a bit of honey and some apple cider vinegar. after the five minutes on each side, brush the honey mixture on one side of the thighs, broil for one minute, turn over, brush the mixture on the other side, broil for one minute. done! :)

the thighs were really, really tasty. i've gotten in the habit lately of just doing a dry spice rub and pan frying thighs in a bit of olive oil. easy, always good, but i feel lazy not trying anything new. :) happily, this new thigh dish was quite a success.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 chicken thighs)

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• Cooking spray
• 6 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Courtesy of Cooking Light

Stuffed Baked Potato + Caesar Salad - 4 stars

happiness! :-) that's what this meal was. i made my classic caesar salad, with just bacon this time - no shrimp or steak. :) tony did have parmesan cheese on his. we also baked potatoes in the oven - approximately an hour and a half at 350f for these. that's mine in the picture, topped with soy cheddar and sour cream, green onions, more bacon, and some fresh cracked black pepper. clearly not a lot of fancy cooking involved for this meal! it was totally satisfying - i was quite full after eating it all. you may look at this picture and think that the meal is missing something - the big steak that is normally had with baked potato & caesar salad! but really... can you imagine eating a steak in addition to this huge stuffed potato and caesar salad? i think not. (though i have done it before... i'll be honest!)

yum yum yum. i left it at four stars because although it was sooo good, and sooo satisfying, and sooo easy and absolutely something i'll eat again and again and again, it wasn't mind-blowing or extraordinary to me.

Roast Pork & Butternut Squash - 4 stars

this tasted much better than it looks in the picture, i promise. :)

this was a frustrating meal, but it was almost worth it. it was also part of a week of EXTREMELY frustrating meals - by wednesday, i said that i hate cooking and food and didn't want anything else to do with it for awhile. :) every meal i made last week took at least a half hour longer than i expected, which meant i wasn't eating until well after 8 o'clock. on week nights, that's just too late for me.

the preparation of this meal wasn't difficult at all though. i had a big pork butt roast that had been on sale at uwajimaya, so i just rubbed a dry bengal masala spice rub all over the outside of it. that rub is made with garam masala (which is a mixture of cinnamon, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cloves, cardamom) brown sugar, kosher salt, granulated garlic, dried chives, smoked paprika, chipotle. it's by tom douglas, part of a group of rubs called Rub with Love. i would highly recommend trying any of them if you find them at the grocery store. they are worth the cost.

i seared the roast on all sides in a heavy skillet, and then popped it in the oven. i'm not sure why i thought it would only need to roast for 30 minutes (i think it was a four or five pound roast!), but it took well over an hour. during this time, i made my spinach salad, ate it, and also roasted some wedges of peeled butternut squash with a bit of olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt.

the pork roast came out really well. it was moist and rich in flavor, and the rub had carmelized on the outside of it. i LOVE butternut squash, and the simplicity of the way that i cooked it really allowed it to shine.

all in all - great, simple meal to have, but definitely takes over an hour for cooking time. i will remember this next time i'm dumb enough to think i can cook a 4-5 lb roast in 30 minutes. :)

Redefining Breakfast: Beef Taco Omelette & Chicken Quesadilla - 4 stars

yes, you read that correctly - beef taco omelette! it's on the right - i made it for tony. he said it was really, really good, but the meat was from the overly spicy batch of beef taco meat, so he wasn't able to finish it. :-( always a sad occasion. and, the pepper grinder sort of fell apart when he was using it, and a bunch of whole peppercorns dumped out onto his sour cream! sad. i've since learned how to tighten the grinder so that it has a finer grind and doesn't fall apart. :-)

i had some leftover grilled chicken in the fridge, and my tummy wasn't up for the spice of the beef taco meat, so i thought hey, why not have a quesadilla for breakfast? it was really good! just grilled chicken and mozzarella - i cooked in the oven wrapped in foil for awhile. i topped it with fresh cilantro, sour cream, and some pico de gallo. perfect.

French Onion Soup - 4 stars

i was so happy to eat this dish. soooooo happy. i haven't had french onion soup in ten years or so - i've never made it, and i've never come across any non-dairy french onion soup topped with soy cheese in a restaurant. :-) it took me a bit to find a recipe that didn't call for an incredible amount of butter in the soup base, but i did... of all chefs, it was paula deen's (the queen of fatty buttery foods) recipe! she uses olive oil in place of butter.

(i could use a recipe that called for butter and substitute margarine instead, but tony is sensitive to "fake tasting" butter, so i try to avoid recipes that call for huge quantities of butter. i'm always afraid he'll taste the margarine and not like it. then there'd be too much food left for me to eat. :) )

the only issue i had with the recipe is that it didn't state what the total weight (or even what the size) of the onions should be. the soup base was too onion-y for me - not in flavor, but the proportion of onion to broth was off. i used medium sized (~3" in diameter) onions - if you use those, use only 5 or 6, not 8. next time, i'll use less onion, which might make the recipe a five star.

this was easy to make - i sauteed the sliced onions for awhile, added a bit of flour, sauteed more, added broth, wine, thyme and bay leaf, and simmered for awhile. when it was ready, i scooped the broth into a bowl, topped it with thick toasted slices of french bread, and the cheese slices. i broiled it on high for a couple minutes to melt the cheese. YUM!

the picture above is tony's dish - it was topped with gruyere, which i believe propelled it to five stars for him. i'm not sure what's on top of the cheese in the picture - maybe cracked black pepper? he grated his cheese - i sliced mine in thin slices so it could overlap the edges of the baking dish.

i have a feeling that there are some richer, more decadent recipes for french onion soup out there... now that i've made it once, i'll research more before i make it again.

French Onion Soup

Prep Time:

30 min

Cook Time:

45 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

4 to 6 bowls of soup

8 onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8 cups beef stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 loaf French bread
2 cups grated Gruyere

Saute onions and garlic in oil over low heat until tender and golden yellow. Sprinkle flour over onions, cook a few minutes more, browning the flour well. Add stock and wine and bring to a boil, add thyme and bay leaf. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently for 20 minutes or so. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Meanwhile, slice French bread into 3/4-inch slices and butter both sides. Toast slices on griddle until golden brown. Ladle soup into an ovenproof bowl, add toasted bread and cover with cheese. Place ovenproof bowl on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Bake at 350 degrees F or 5 minutes under a hot broiler.

Sesame Pork Stirfry - 4 stars

i had some pork tenderloin left over from the pork chops + granny smith apples meal, so i searched through my wok cookbook to see what i could use it in. lo and behold, there was a sesame pork stirfry calling for the exact amount of tenderloin that i had.

it was really easy, and extremely delectable. i made a sauce out of hoisin and teriyaki sauces, added some sesame oil and cornstarch. i stirfried the sliced pork tenderloin in batches first and removed it from the pan. i then stirfried sliced green onion, chopped garlic and fresh ginger for a minute. i added some shredded carrots and sliced snake beans to the wok, and stirfried for a few minutes. i added the sauce and the pork back to the wok, and then stirred in a couple tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds. i had it over steamed jasmine rice with baby romaine salad on the side (instead of spinach, for once! :) ). fantastic and completely satisfying!

Sesame Pork

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Total cooking time: 20 minutes

2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
2 tsp cornflour or cornstarch
1/4 c peanut oil
1 1/4 lb pork loin fillet, thinly sliced across the grain
2 tsp sesame oil
8 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 carrots, julienned
6 1/2 oz snake beans, sliced
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

1. to make the stir-fry sauce, combine the hoisin and teriyaki sauces, cornflour and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl. set aside until needed.

2. heat a wok to hot, add 1 tablespoon peanut oil and swirl. add half the pork and stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until browned. Remove. Repeat.

3. heat the remaining peanut oil and the sesame oil in the work. add the spring onion, garlic and ginger, and stir-fry for 1 minute.

4. add the carrot and beans, and stir-fry for 3 minutes, or until almost cooked. return the pork to the wok, add the stir-fry sauce and stir until the sauce thickens and everything is combined, the meat is tender and the vegetables are just cooked. toss in the sesame seeds, then serve with steamed rice.

Fresh Cranberry Cosmo - 4 stars

i work in the frozen fruit industry (we handle frozen berries, primarily), and we often get samples of frozen berries. i currently have a ton of frozen cranberries & blueberries in the freezer, and i'm trying to come up with good ideas for them. the first thing that always comes to my mind when i think of how to use frozen fruit is.... drinks! :-)

so i found a recipe for making a fresh cranberry granita, and then using it to make cosmopolitan martinis. the fresh cranberry granita takes the place of ice, cranberry juice and triple sec in the cosmo recipe. the granita was much easier to make than i thought it would be.

first, i simmered cranberries with water and sugar until the cranberries began to pop.



then i dumped everything from the pot into the blender and blended it for one minute. be sure to leave the plastic piece out of the top of the blender, and just cover it with a kitchen towel or pot holder instead (it will explode otherwise - fun to watch, not fun to clean up). :-)

i poured the blended mixture through a metal sieve into a glass baking dish (i was supposed to use a metal baking dish, but i don't own any), added some lime zest, stirred it around, and put it in the freezer until frozen (it's supposed to take around 6 hours).



after it seemed frozen, i scraped it with a fork to get the granita texture of shaved ice, and then made my cosmopolitan with it.

i couldn't get it to make that shaved ice texture very well though. i don't know if that had to do with using a glass dish instead of metal... or it might have been that i was too excited to wait, and it wasn't totally frozen when i scraped it with the fork. :-) i think it was only about three or four hours at that point. since it was going into a drink rather than being served as a dessert, i decided i didn't care how pretty it looked.

what a wonderful cosmo it made! it was a bit frothy, which is a first for any cosmo that i've ever made, with a perfect combo of sweet and tart. i could really taste the fresh cranberry (rather than processed cranberry juice). i didn't take a picture of the finished beverage, but i have some of the granita left, so i'll take a picture next time i make a cosmo. :-)

Ingredients

• 1-ounce vodka
• 2 1/2 ounces Cranberry Granita, recipe follows
• 1/2-ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

Directions

Place all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake until the granita melts completely. Pour into a martini glass and serve immediately.

Cranberry Granita:

• 2 cups water
• 5 1/2 ounces cranberries, approximately 1 1/2 cups, washed and sorted
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon lime zest

Place the water, cranberries and sugar into a small saucepan, set over medium-high heat and simmer until the berries begin to pop, approximately 7 minutes. Remove from the heat. Puree with a stick blender, blender or food processor, for 1 minute. Pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer directly into a metal 13 by 9-inch pan. Do not press on the skins. Simply allow the juice to drip through the strainer. Add the zest and stir to combine. Place in the freezer until set, at least 6 hours and up to overnight. Once frozen, scrape the mixture with a fork to create a shaved ice texture. Serve immediately.

(i apologize - i cannot remember where i found this recipe - cocktailtimes.com, maybe?)

Grilled Chicken Sandwich + Spinach Salad - 4 stars

grilled sandwiches are such a great weeknight meal for me to make. there are so many different ways i can make them, and they are ALWAYS good. :-)

for these, i made a dry spice rub called emeril's creole seasoning (aka emeril's essence). it's a spice mixture that's used in a lot of emeril lagasse's recipes. although it's not overly spicy, it does have a bit of a kick to it. it's also a really good way to use up spices that might be getting old.... which i seem to have a lot of. :-)

i rubbed the spice mixture on chicken breasts and cooked them in a pan over medium high heat until they were done. i sliced them into thinner cuts, and layered them on some onion buns with mayo, dijon, onion, tomato, cheese (soy for me!), and pepperoncinis. to "grill" them, i melted a bit of butter in the frying pan, put the sandwich in there, and put a heavy lid on top of it to press the sandwich together and get it good and browned on the outside. mmmmmm.....

had a spinach salad on the side with blueberries, green onion and cucumber. easy and very yum!



Emeril's Creole Seasoning (courtesy of Food Network):

Ingredients

• 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

Directions

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Pork Chops with Granny Smith Apples - 4 stars

this recipe was one of many that i ripped out a of magazine years ago, stuffed in a file to organize (someday! :) ), and never actually tried. pork chops are one of tony's favorite foods, and i never make them for some reason. they're so good too!

to make these, i sliced a pork tenderloin into ~ 1" thick slices. i dipped each in a bit of flour that was mixed with some cumin, salt & pepper. i let those sit for a few minutes while i pan seared granny smith apple halves in olive oil with salt and pepper. once those were done, i removed them from the pan and seared the pork chops in a bit more olive oil. i then removed those from the pan when they were done, and i deglazed the pan with a bit of chicken broth and champagne vinegar to make a sauce. it was so simple. the pork chops were tender and yummy, and the sweet crispness of the granny smith apples complimented them well. i made a spinach salad with fresh herbs, green onions, tomato and dried cranberry to go with the meal.



Pork Chops with Granny Smith Apples 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 6-ounce boneless pork loin chops, or one 1 ½-to 2-pound pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 small Granny Smith apples, halved
1/4 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons champagne or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons coarse grain mustard

Mix together the flour, cumin, salt, and pepper on a large plate. Lightly coat each piece of pork with the flour mixture; set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the apple halves with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the apples cut-side down about 5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the skillet, cover, and set aside.

Place the pork in the skillet, sprinkle with the parsley, and cook until the meat is golden brown and crispy, 4 to 5 minutes per side. While the pork is cooking, whisk together the broth and vinegar. Remove the pork from the skillet and set aside.

Pour the broth mixture into the skillet, stirring and scraping up any browned bits. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened. Divide the pork among 4 plates and pour some pan sauce over each. Before serving, place an apple half and a dab of mustard on each plate.

Yield: Makes 4 servings

Spiced Chicken Thighs + Asparagus - 4 stars!

boneless, skinless chicken thigh is my favorite part of the chicken. the meat is far juicier and much more flavorful than the breast, and so long as you buy skinless, the fat content isn't much higher than the breast either!

for this meal, i pan-seared the chicken thighs instead of grilling them (i think the grill ran out of propane?). i prepared a dry rub out of cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, red pepper and a little salt and rubbed it all over the meat. i cooked them over medium high for ~ 5 minutes on each side in a non stick pan with a bit of cooking spray. SO easy, and far tastier than you'd expect.

i steamed the asparagus, and tossed it with this fantastic balsamic vinegar that my parents gave me for christmas - it's fig and meyer lemon balsamic vinegar. ooooh, yummy.

i also assembled a spinach salad, as i do for the nearly every meal. this picture is crappy, so i can't tell what i topped the salad with. i'm guessing avocado, tomato, dried cranberry and onion of some sort.

it was such a healthy, flavorful, and light but still satisfying meal!

the recipe that i pulled the spice rub from suggested serving this with a yogurt sauce (to tame the spice) over couscous. since i can't eat dairy, i skipped the yogurt sauce - i don't think the rub is very spicy anyway, so i gave up trying to create a soy version.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 chicken thighs, about 1/4 cup yogurt mixture, and 1/2 cup couscous)

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked couscous
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
• 1 (6-ounce) carton plain fat-free yogurt
• Cilantro sprigs (optional)

Preparation

Cook couscous according to package directions, omitting salt and fat.

Combine cumin and next 4 ingredients (through pepper) in a bowl; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle spice mixture over chicken. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done.

Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, chopped cilantro, garlic, and yogurt in a bowl, stirring well. Serve with chicken and couscous. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Courtesy of cookinglight.com

Chipotle Pork Tacos - 4 stars

oh, pork soft tacos, how i adore thee. four stars!

i was afraid that my long break from blogging would cause problems, and... it has! it's been too long since i made these, and i don't remember them very well. i'm reviewing the recipe now to jog my memory. :-)

ok. i used pork tenderloin, my favorite cut of pork, to make these. the pork was so tender and flavorful! i sauteed sliced onion, chopped garlic and the sliced tenderloin together for a few minutes. i then simmered that in chicken broth with cider vinegar, dried oregano, cumin, a couple chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce - first covered for ~ 10 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes. the flavor was fantastic, the meat tender, but the chicken broth / spice mixture never thickened - it was a bit too watery. if i make it again, i'd thicken that up - though i'm not quite sure how! i'd probably try reducing the quantity of chicken broth and increasing the uncovered portion of the simmer time. other than that, i'd leave it alone!

oh - the recipe did call for a fresh pineapple salsa, which i'd like to try as well (if only there were more hours in the day!). we just had it with cheese (soy for me!), cilantro & salsa, and flour tortillas.

Chipotle Pork Soft Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Pork, a common taco filling throughout Latin America, takes well to spices. A slightly sweet fruit salsa helps balance the heat. Serve with lime wedges.

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 2 tortillas, 2/3 cup pork mixture, and 1/2 cup salsa)

Ingredients

• Salsa:
• 2 cups minced pineapple
• 1 cup minced apple
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 
  Tacos:
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
• 1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, chopped (about 2 tablespoons)
• 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas, warmed

Preparation

To prepare salsa, combine the first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir until well blended. Cover and chill.

To prepare tacos, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 2 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes or until pork loses its pink color, stirring occasionally. Stir in broth and next 7 ingredients (through chipotles). Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Uncover and simmer 10 minutes or until liquid is nearly evaporated. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Serve pork mixture with tortillas and salsa.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

391 (19% from fat)

Fat:

8.3g (sat 1.8g,mono 3.6g,poly 2g)

Protein:

29.3g

Carbohydrate:

50.8g

Fiber:

6.9g

Cholesterol:

74mg

Iron:

3.6mg

Sodium:

420mg

Calcium:

161mg

Mark Scarbrough, Cooking Light, MAY 2007

Chicken Biryani - 4 stars

Four Stars!

mmmmmm.... chicken biryani. this dish was so easy to make! a friend of mine introduced me to the recipe a few years ago, and she always made it in a 9x13 glass dish in the oven. the recipe that i found suggested making it in a large saucepan on the stovetop, which is what i ended up doing.

it was a great dish, with rich flavor. i used a pre-made biryani paste to simplify - basically sauteed everything together, stirred in the rice, and let the whole thing simmer for ~ 20 minutes until the liquids were absorbed. YUMMY!

i didn't have basmati rice though! oops. only arborio (for risotto) and jasmine were in the cupboard. i used the arborio because i was afraid the flavor of the jasmine would hurt the dish... the arborio melted into a creamy texture like it does in a risotto (disappointing, but not surprising! :) ), but the flavor was still phenomenal.

outside of the rice issue, the only other disappointing thing in this dish was the fat & calorie content. i'm not sure what led me to believe that the biryani paste would be low in fat and calories, but it was not in the slightest! :-S i ate a small bowl of it, and had a big salad to round the meal out. :)

perhaps using the sturdier basmati rice, plus a homemade biryani paste (to control the fat & calorie content) would propel this to five stars.

Seared Pork (4 stars) + Gnocchi (3 stars) with Spinach Salad

this was a great meal! a little heavy for me, well - the serving you see here wasn't, but i kept picking more gnocchi out of the serving dish. too much gnocchi IS a bad thing.

the salad was more gourmet than my normal ones - it contained avocado and pomegranate seeds. mmmmm. fantastic. plus some other fruits and veggies.

the pork was rubbed in an african peri peri rub and pan seared. the cut of the pork is what made it so special - it's a pork butt roast that i cut into pork chop-type slabs. it's a fatty cut of pork - there are some hunks of fat, which i don't like, but the fat is also ribboned through the meat. it's like the chicken thigh of pork - a nice, rich, moist dark cut.

the gnocchi was good - i used jarred garlic (ew, so lazy!) and fresh parsley, oh, and olive oil to season it. the taste and texture of the parsley didn't go well. it was too rough and tasted bitter. next time, i would use chopped fresh garlic, and saute the garlic and the parsley in olive oil for a minute before tossing w/ the gnocchi.

(fortunately, this used up the last of my jarred garlic, so i will not succumb to laziness again!)

over all - salad + pork = four stars, gnocchi = 3