Sunday Dinner- Beef Pot Roast

Beef Pot Roast

Adapted from Michael Symon
ingredients

• One 2-2 1/2-pound chuck blade roast, silver skin removed
• Salt
• 4 slices bacon, large dice
• 2 shallot bulbs peeled and left whole
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 tablespoons coriander seeds

• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 fresh bay leaves (dry are o.k. too)
• 1 cup apple cider or other mild flavor juice (if you don't have any, use water and 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup beef stock

Directions

Sprinkle the roast liberally with salt (about 3 tablespoons), and refrigerate at least 3 hours or up to overnight. Pull the meat out an hour before cooking to take the chill off of it.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, render the bacon until slightly crispy. Remove and reserve. Dry off the meat with a paper towel and begin to brown it in the same pan over medium-high heat for 2 minutes per side; remove and reserve.
Reduce the heat to medium, add the shallots, carrots, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt and sweat until slightly caramelized and the vegetables start to release their aromas, about 4 minutes. Add the coriander, thyme and bay leaves, and continue to sweat for 1 minute.
Deglaze the pan with the cider, scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to get all of the caramelized bits into the sauce. Add the beef stock and wine and bring to a simmer.
Add the beef back in along with the bacon The liquid should be about three-quarters of the way up the meat. Baste the meat with the liquid, top with a lid and place in the oven until tender, for 3 to 4 hours.
Skim off any excess fat and gently remove the meat to a platter. Spoon the vegetables on top.
Delicious with rosemary Parmesan popovers

Green Enchiladas

Quite often, at a potluck at church, you can find a dish or two of green enchiladas.
I generally avoid green-sauced things, mostly because I discovered as a teenager they didn't like me. My mom always made red enchiladas, a favorite dish around our house that consisted corn tortillas filled with shredded, canned chicken and processed cheese. If we were lucky there were black olives on top and sour cream....mmm just thinking about it makes me miss mom's enchiladas. But that's not why we are here today.
I tried some enchiladas a few years back at a church potluck that blew my socks off. Now, I really, really like Mexican food (by now you have probably figured out that I really, really like any food), but I have a bone to pick with the Senoritas that make enchiladas. Many times the meat is bland. And I know why. They boil it, add the teeniest bit of salt and pepper and throw it in a tortilla and rely on the sauce on the top to deliver the flavor. I advocate highly seasoned food. I want every bite to be filled with flavor and make me so desirous of my next bite I don't chew my food properly. That is how these enchiladas were. After I stuffed my face with them, I hurried back to the line to see if there were any more. No luck. Others must have discovered this well-kept secret. After asking around a bit, I discovered who made them. One of the senior Spanish ladies, probably the sweetest person I know. After drowning her in flattery for about five full minutes, I asked her if she would share her recipe. It was sooooo easy I couldn't believe it! I made them that week, and my husband was pretty much in shock. I shared them with my family, next, and they have become quite a hit around here. I actually was planning on making them tomorrow or the next day when someone asked me for the recipe. Now, there are two ways you can go about making this, and I highly recommend making extra sauce and freezing it for the next time you make enchiladas. This lady who makes them also said you can freeze the whole pan and just pop it into the oven. They never last that long around here.... You can use fresh tomatillos when they are in season and just puree them in a blender or food processor, or you can just buy the can.

So here it is.

For the Sauce
2 cans green enchilada sauce (the large ones)
or
2-3 lbs. tomatillos, peeled, washed and pureed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 of a medium onion, finely chopped
4 teaspoons chicken bouillon
2 teaspoons cumin


For the Chicken
2 or 3 fresh or frozen chicken breasts, boiled until cooked and shredded
salt and pepper to taste
Enchilada Sauce

For the Tortillas
1/2 lb jack cheese
24 medium size corn tortillas
Enchilada Sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Prepare the sauce. Combine all listed sauce ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. Adjust seasoning as necessary. In the meantime, boil and shred the chicken, and add about each of salt and pepper, and 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350.
To make the enchiladas, heat vegetable oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. Dunk tortillas in the enchilada sauce, then fry them for a few seconds on each side. Place in a prepared baking dish. Add chicken and roll up the tortilla. Repeat until the ingredients are gone.
Add more sauce to the edges of the rolled shells, and sprinkle jack cheese on top. Place in oven and bake for about 10 minutes, or until cheese has melted.
Top with sour cream if desired, and serve!

The Go-To Dinner: Pork Chops

We love to have company over and there is one meal I make more than any other when we have people over: Pork chops. Not just any pork chops, pork chops with apples. When I was a kid, I remember my dad talking about eating pork chops with applesauce. I thought that was pretty disgusting. Right up there with creamed tuna on toast and 'ramen-a-la-dada' (trust me, you don't want to know). Alright, I'll tell you. Ramen noodles cooked as usual and accompanied by cut-up hard-boiled eggs, mixed frozen vegetables and soy sauce. Not a big fan.
Anyway, back to the pork chops. As a young teenager, I made sure nothing on my plate touched the other items on my plate. I hated it when people served me and the mashed potatoes were touching the corn, and the gravy from my Salisbury steak was rushing to meet my buttered piece of wheat bread. Yucky! Or so I thought. When I began cooking as an adult, I realized some of the delicious unions that occur when foods meet.

I am not talking about those bland, tough chops with mealy applesauce smeared on top. This, I assure you, is not the meal I am describing to you. This meal is easily and quickly prepared, looks amazing and impresses every time. Don't you wish all meals went like that?
For starters, the pork chops are 'cured' in a mixture of salt, brown sugar and rosemary, that imparts a wonderful depth of flavor  and allows the pork chops to cook quickly and retain their moisture.
Secondly, the chops are fried in bacon grease. Now, if you are not in the habit of keeping bacon grease, get into it! Green beans, eggs, breaded zucchini and more reach astronomical levels when fried in bacon grease. Before you know it, you will be eating it with your breakfast cereal (ok, maybe not).
Then, you cook peeled apple pieces in the leftover grease with a bit of chicken stock, cinnamon and apricot jam. the emerging sauce has a hint of sweetness and gives you that magical union of fruit and meat. My husband asks for this meal at least every few weeks, and is always elated to find it on the menu for dinner.
I assure you, you will come back to this recipe time and time again-whether its to impress company, a quick weeknight dinner, or a way to use those lonely apples sitting on your counter.
Trust me.

Pan Fried Pork Chops with Glazed Apples

Serves 4
2 Tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
4 Thin-cut pork chops (about 1/2 inch thick each)
Freshly ground pepper
1 Tablespoon bacon grease, plus more if needed
2 Small to medium crisp apples such as honey crisp, gala, pink lady, Fuji or jazz, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 Cups chicken stock
1/3 Cup apricot jam
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or another if you don't have it)

Combine the brown sugar, kosher salt, and rosemary in a small bowl and stir together. Coat the pork chops on both sides with the mixture, gently massaging the meat with your fingers to jump start the curing process. Let stand for 15 minutes. Rinse the chops and pat dry with paper towels. Season the chops on both sides with pepper to taste.
Melt the 1 tablespoon bacon grease in a large heavy skillet over high heat, add the pork chips, and cook until crispy brown, about 2 minutes on each side.
Transfer the pork chops to a plate and cover with foil. Add the apples to the skillet and cook, stirring gently to brown slightly, about 30 seconds, adding a bit more bacon grease if the pan is dry. Add the stock, jam, vinegar and cinnamon and stir well. Cook until the sauce thickens and is rich brown in color, about 10 minutes. (Don't cook down the sauce too much, but if you do, simply add a little more stock.)
Uncover the pork chops and top with the glazed apples.
For a beautiful and festive variation, add 1/4-1/2 cup of dried cranberries when you add the stock.
We like to eat this with Green Beans....

Take in-Lettuce Wraps

Ok, so I know this is another Asian food recipe, but I really need help in this area. Asian food always presents a far more difficult puzzle to me than does any other style of food that I have experimented with. When I taste something with those influences, I taste only the final result, none of the comprising flavors. When I came upon this recipe, in a food magazine, I wanted to try it. It is a recipe for PF Chang's chicken lettuce wraps. It's really good. Soon on the horizon, I will offer you Chili's Honey Chipotle Sauce (my husband's faaaavorite), but for now, more Chinese.
Back to the lettuce wraps. The first time I made the recipe, I followed the directions as closely as possible. You saute some cellophane noodles in peanut oil, to throw into the wraps, and I definitely would do it if I was making a meal for friends, but on a family night I would just skip the noodles. They are a little fickle, time consuming, and don't come apart very easily.
So, second time around, skipped the noodles. And the lettuce. I also skipped the 1-hour marinade and just drizzled a little teriyaki on and added cornstarch, salt and pepper about ten minutes before stir frying. I skipped the mushrooms (didn't have 'em) and the water chestnuts (I don't really like them) I put the whole thing on top of rice and used beef instead of chicken. It was still a hit. As a matter of fact, my husband, who absolutely does not eat leftovers, heated up the leftovers for himself the next day! Its a bit spicy, but I don't de-seed the jalapeno. My hubby likes spicy stuff. I also threw in a sliced summer squash and a sliced zucchini during the last two minutes of the stir fry and it was really good! I cut them into 1/2-inch thick half-moons.
I'm going to include the original directions for you, and you can make my changes if you want. Be sure the chicken or beef is pretty finely cut up, or it can be a bit tough with this high heat.
Sorry for the lack of photos, my camera had a four-year-old happen to it.
P.F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

FOR THE CHICKEN
1 large egg white
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, diced

FOR THE STIR-FRY SAUCE
2 tablespoons oyster sauce (I only found oyster flavored sauce)
1 tablespoon hoisen sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoons cornstarch

FOR THE NOODLES
2 bundles cellophane noodles (only called bean thread noodles at my grocery store)
Peanut oil, for frying

FOR THE STIR-FRY
4 tablespoons peanut oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon peeled ginger (or minced ginger-found in the refrigerated produce section)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
4 scallions; 2 minced, 2 cut into 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, stemmed and diced (I used whatever mushrooms I could find-probably white button)
3/4 cup diced water chestnuts
small lettuce leaves, for serving (butter leaves are nice)
soy sauce, chili paste and/or hot mustard, for serving

1. Prepare the chicken: Whisk the egg white, cornstarch and rice wine vinegar in a bowl. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. In the mean time, prepare all other ingredients. I would recommend reading ahead in the recipe and combining all the items that will be added at the same time. The stir-fry comes together very quickly.
2. Make the stir-fry sauce: Whisk 1/3 cup water, the oyster, hoisin and soy sauces, and the sesame oil in a bowl, then whisk in the cornstarch  until dissolved.
3. Fry the noodles: Pull the noodles apart into sections. Heat 3/4 inch peanut oil in a medium saucepan until a deep-fry thermometer registers 380 F. Working in batches, press the noodles into the oil with a spatula until they puff, 5 to 10 seconds. Drain on paper towels. (This is a bit of an acquired skill)
4. Make the stir-fry: Heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, stirring 2 to 3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons peanut oil to the skillet; when almost smoking, stir in the garlic, ginger, jalapeno and minced scallions, then add 1/2 teaspoon salt and the sugar and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms, water chestnuts and scallion pieces and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add the stir-fry sauce and chicken and cook 1 minute.
5. Make a bed of noodles on a platter and top with the chicken mixture. Serve the noodles and stir-fry with lettuce leaves and soy sauce for dipping.

Orange You Glad?

Do you ever find yourself buying an ingredient because it looks fun or you really want to try it? Or you use one tablespoon of an ingredient, only to be left with an entire jar of tahini paste, unsure of what to do with the leftovers? I used to do that all the time (and still do more often than I would like to admit), but recently I have been trying to find recipes that use all of the abnormal ingredient.
I like recipes that use all of the special ingredient, or perhaps some suggestions on what to do with the leftovers, so I don't have a giant bottle of fish paste in my fridge for the next three years, or until I have moved so many times I finally just decide to throw it away.
When I ran across this recipe, I fell in love instantly. To be completely honest, I saw it on the Food Network. If I am ever at a hotel or friends house I absolutely cannot tear myself away. I sit in front of the TV for hours watching reruns of Emeril's homemade sausage or Iron Chef America. I could watch food tv all day! Anyway, this dish looked absolutely amazing, so I decided to try it. The recipe originally called for pork tenderloin, but I used chicken instead, because that was what I had readily available.
The chicken is threaded onto skewers and drenched in a spicy orange marmalade sauce. It is grilled outdoors or you could use and indoor grill, or, my favorite, just broil it. More spicy-sweet sauce is lathered on, leaving you with a delicious, fire-kissed skewer with a bit of caramelized jam and burnt orange dancing on your tongue.
I made a few changes, like pumping up the jalapeño flavor a bit and I served this heavenly chicken to my in-laws. My father-in-law instantly began reminiscing about his childhood. The hot summers in southern California, eating sun-kissed oranges.
These skewers could be served as a fun appetizer, or on a bed of white rice for a main dish. Another great thing about it, it uses a whole jar of marmalade.

Chicken Skewers with Sweet and Spicy Marmalade
Makes 6 servings

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (if they are very thick cut in half like cutlets)

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon butter

1 jalapeño pepper and minced

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1 (18-ounce) jar orange marmalade

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

Special equipment: 12 wooden skewers soaked in water for 20 minutes

For the chicken, Pat chicken dry and cut lengthwise into 12 pieces. Place in resealable plastic bag. Combine soy sauce, olive oil and garlic in a nonreactive bowl and pour into resealable bag. Seal and massage slightly with your fingertips. Let marinade for 20 minutes to one hour. Drain chicken and pat dry. Preheat broiler.

Thread chicken on to skewers in an S shape and season with kosher salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and position oven rack in its highest position. When preheated, place tray in oven and cook skewers for 2-3 minutes per side.

For the sweet and spicy marmalade, Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add pepper cook until soft. Add ginger, and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium-low, and stir in marmalade, lime juice, salt and orange juice concentrate. Simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Baste chicken with sweet and spicy marmalade and serve with white rice, or as an appetizer.