Category Archives: Mains

Dec29

Christmas 2014 – Rosemary Sage Garlic Stuffed Pork

Posted on December 29, 2014 by athaidek

Merry Chrisma-hanna-kwanzaa, my friends! I am writing to you from sunny Florida, jittery from the delicacy that is free hotel continental breakfast “homemade” waffles. Before I go any further, if any of you celebrate Kwanzaa, can you explain to me how your holiday meals were passed down? As my roommate and I tried planning a holiday fest that welcomed all winter holidays, Pinterest suggested that the “traditional” Kwanzaa meals included southern mac ‘n’ cheese, fried chicken, Gina Neely’s collard greens, and sweet potato pie. While I realize the holiday’s origins are in the US to commemorate the African heritage of African Americans, I’m curious if there are any dishes families actually make that are traced back to their African roots. Just some questions for you all…

This year, my Christmas was more adult that ever – we didn’t even open presents until 3 pm on Christmas day and skipped the crazy Christmas Eve masses for a quieter one on Christmas morning. I had a wonderful time in the presence of my closest friends and family and wanted to serve them the best dishes possible for their holidays!

Traditionally, my family has served rosemary crusted lamb chops for Christmas Eve, yet we never seem to find chops with enough meat on them from the butcher. This year, I thought a stuffed pork loin might be comparable and fulfill all the shortcomings of the lamb chop – tender, juicy meat that goes well with the same herby, garlic crust we like on the lamb. Turns out nobody on the internet had exactly what I had in mind. I really wanted to have the pork stuffed and rolled in a spiral so you could see all the pretty herbs on the inside, and I wanted to marinate it for at least 8 hours to ensure the flavors soaked in completely.

Thanks to all of you who helped me with your recipe recommendations! Here are some of the best ones that were recommended to me that influenced this recipe!

Katie’s Rosemary Sage Garlic Stuffed Pork for the holidays

Serves 10-12

1 5 lb boneless pork loin, not too fatty

8-10 cloves of garlic, minced

1/3 cup chopped rosemary

1/4-1/3 cup chopped sage

1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

1.5 TBS dijon mustard

2 TBS olive oil

4 slices of bacon

1 1/2 TBS kosher salt

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup chicken broth

kitchen twine or white sewing thread if you don’t have any twine

1. Prepping the pork loin: To ensure the maximum flavor richness and moisture, the best thing is to marinate the pork in the morning or the night before you’re going to cook it. This will also help if you’re pressed for time at night making other dishes and want to make it easier on yourself 🙂 Rinse the pork off if it’s in plastic packaging, and pat dry with some paper towels (getting it dry will help ensure the pork gets crispy). Here’s the best video I could find for butterflying a pork loin in thirds, but I can explain briefly as well. If you watch that video , skip to 1:13 for the important stuff. Also make sure to listen to T-swift jammin.

You want to make this big rectangle so that you’re able to roll up the pork and seal in the herbs. If you’re facing the short end of the pork you want to cut along the width of the pork so that it will open up like a book. We want to cut it twice so you’ll triple the width of the pork. Start cutting from the opposite short end of the pork to the bottom and the point you’ll pick is where you’ve cut about a third of the height of the pork. So, 2/3 of the pork is still together and we’ll cut that part in half in a minute. Cut the pork from the right into the center until it looks like a book and you’ve cut almost all the way through the spine. At this point, start from the “spine” and cut the 2/3 portion of the pork that’s still together in half so you’ve formed like a tri-fold poster board (for all you science fair experts). Here you are! If I’ve confused you thoroughly, watch the video above a few times.

Cover the pork with plastic wrap while prepping the herbs.

2. Chop up your herbs and garlic. The herbs dont have to be perfectly minced or anything, just not so big that you’d take a huge bite out of a rosemary stem. For the garlic, I minced it and then used the side of my knife to crush the garlic into a sort of paste. this can help get more of the flavors out of the garlic. For the pine nuts, I toasted them briefly then chopped them lightly.

3. Mix your herbs, garlic, salt, pepper flakes and black pepper, olive oil, mustard, and pine nuts in a small bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Try to press them together with the back of your spoon to make the whole mixture meld together.

4. Take the plastic wrap off of the pork and start massaging the herby mixture onto the pork (yea we’re getting graphic here). If you think it looks a bit dry, drizzle some olive oil over the pork and press it all into the pork.

5. If you have somebody around, this is the part where it’s helpful to have help!! The same way that you cut the pork is the way to roll it up. Starting from left to right, roll the pork into a log, making sure your stuffing stays inside. Once you’ve rolled the log tightly, use twine or thread to tie the roll together. I used about 5 pieces of twine and knotted at the top after rolling the log up.

6. Drizzle some olive oil on the outside of the pork and coat with any leftover filling, salt , and pepper. Cover with foil or plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator either overnight or at least 8 hours before ready to cook.

7. One to two hours before cooking the pork, take it out of the refrigerator to let the meat come to room temperature. Get your bacon out and drape over the top of the pork (this was a game time decision for me and such a good call). I cut the pieces of bacon in half.

8. Heat the oven to 450. Place pork in a roasting pan and place in the oven. We’re getting a crust on the pork before dropping the temp to cook the inside. Roast at 450 for about 10 minutes then drop the temperature down to 350. Make sure not to cook too long at 450 or the bacon will burn. Add the chicken broth to the pan to keep the pork moist. Bake at 350 for 60-75 minutes, or until a meat thermometer stuck in the middle of the pork registers 145 degrees.

9. Take pork out of the oven and cover lightly with aluminum foil for 20 minutes. This will seal in all the juices. Slice into coins/rounds and serve!!!

Joyeux Noel!

our delicious potato galette sides…

Dec22

Indian Mulligatawny Soup

Posted on December 22, 2014 by athaidek

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The inspiration for this soup comes from a lunch date I had about a year ago with a fierce friend of mine, the lovely Katherine Selko. Katherine, the biggest soup fan I’ve ever met, came to Atlanta on the dreariest day ever and lucky for her, the perfect day for soup.

We ventured to my favorite and maybe the only place I know of with good soup in ATL, Souperjenny. Mulligatawny happened to be the special that day, and I was so intrigued. Apples in soup?? Curry, lentils, potatoes, coconut milk, apples?? It was a combination of my favorite Indian curry recipes from home and some North African/Mediterranean spices. Needless to say, I’m sitting here all perplexed with the flavors and Katherine’s all – “Girl, you’re thinking way too much into this.”

A whole year later, I finally tried a mulligatawny recipe on a night when 1) I felt sick and therefore craved soup and 2) my roommate was out so I could make a mess with a billion spices. One thing I’m going to recommend is that you make this when you can actually smell (I had a cold and it kinda messed with my cooking mojo) because most importantly the flavors are intense and smell amazing. But also because if you burn your almonds/peanuts in the oven and maybe light them on fire accidentally you’ll actually be able to smell the smoke….just a tip.

Indian Mulligatawny soup, adapted very slightly from the Wanderlust Kitchen

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

1 chopped yellow onion

1 carrot, chopped (I didn’t peel mine but you can, otherwise just give it a good scrub)

1 green jalapeno, seeded and diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp peeled and minced/grated fresh ginger root

2 small Granny smith apples, peeled, cored, diced

1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)

1 TBS curry powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/3 cup red or green lentils, dried

3 cups chicken broth (low sodium)

2/3 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 cup chopped scallions

1/2 cup chopped cashews or almonds

1. Wow there are a lot of spices here but don’t worry. You’ve got time to prep them. Start by focusing on your basic veggies. Melt your butter on low heat in a large Dutch oven/soup pot. While the butter’s melting, chop up the jalapeno, carrot and onion. Drop those into the pot and let them saute until the onions are starting to look clear and add a pinch of salt and pepp.

2. While the veggies are starting to soften, go ahead and grate or mince your ginger and garlic. Chop up the apples and open the can of tomatoes. After the veggies have soften slightly, maybe 5-7 minutes, add the ginger, garlic, apples and tomatoes.

3. Ok measure spices now!! Sometimes it’s easier to get a tiny bowl and measure out all your spices into it at once instead of having to scramble to add all the spices at the same time to the pot. If you’re going with the tiny bowl method, measure out the spices while the tomato mixture is bubbling and then add all the spices at once after about 3 minutes.

4. Add lentils and broth, give the pot a quick stir and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes – took more like 45 for me.

5. After 30-45 minutes, really you just want to make sure the lentils are cooked, puree about 50-75% of the mixture in a blender or food processor. This is completely dependent upon how chunky you like your soup. After you’ve pureed however much you like, add it all back into the pot and add the coconut milk and adjust the flavoring with salt and pepp.

6. Serve with scallions and some chopped toasted almonds or cashews (I think a little toast brings out the flavors of nuts).

7. Brag to your friends and make soups that they like so they come visit you in Atlanta!! (Katherine see you soon!!)

Nov24

Eggplant Porcini Mushroom meatballs with crusty bread and basil

Posted on November 24, 2014 by athaidek

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I am embarassingly late reporting back to you with the findings on my meatless meatballs adventure, friends and family. I made this dish about two months ago and have been holding it from you. I’m sure some of you have seen it on Amelia Morris’ bonappetempt blog where I found it and were perplexed by the meatless meatball.

Even if you’re not into the meatless meatball (how many times can you read that phrase without laughing??), the sauce alone is to die for. Here’s how I know: My roommate is a marinara sauce aficionado and she loved it PLUS a friend was over and along with eating my avocado cupcakes essentially licked the tupper ware clean. The magic that is slow-cooked tomato+garlic+olive oil+porcini mushroom flavored liquid was that much more special just because it was served at a Sunday night dinner.

I had an old friend and new friend over for dinner at my parents’ house when my grandmother was in town and wanted to get back to this kind of evening I used to have often. The first year out of college I thought that cooking was a way of guaranteeing the success of the evening – and I think many people see food this way. If I can crack the recipe, I can be sure something’s going right today.

My recent meatless mushroom meatball dinner gave me another view of what was really going on during most of my dinners. My old friend who attended has been a comrade in my adventures exploring adult life in Atlanta and my new friend reminded me of those sentiments of starting out in a new place. As we figured out which bars people go to in summer versus winter and how to not get lost parking at the Braves game (yes I am a native Atlantan and barely can figure that out), we always had Sundays every month or so at my parents’ house to remind us that the road is long and the bumps smooth out.

I realized that although the constant questioning of my life might not be there as much any more, Sunday night dinner will always be a peacemaker for somebody’s soul that night. My parents have always been a comforter and steadfast for me – I started thinking, maybe being an adult means that I am going to start being THEIR comforter on Sunday nights.

All of this is to say that I’m thankful for old friends who want to continue discussing politics (I always need a refresher), will taste my food, will sit and take a deep breath before starting the week, and never, ever, skimp on Sunday night dessert.

I hope you enjoy this!

(I doubled the recipe so don’t worry if yours doesn’t look like this much!)

1 large eggplant (1 1/4 pounds)

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
Boiling water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, finely grated
Two 28-ounce cans imported whole Italian tomatoes, seeded and pureed with their juices ( I didn’t actually seed them before I pureed them – get the Cento kind they are really good!!
2 tablespoons chopped basil, plus leaves for garnish
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
3 cups fresh bread crumbs (from 6 ounces crustless country bread)
2 large eggs, beaten
2 ounces PArmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus more for serving
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
All-purpose flour, for coating

Crusty bread

1, Roast the eggplant after pricking it all over with a fork, at 350 for about 45 mins to an hour until it gets really soft.I’d wait a few minutes to scrape out the insides – but yes, you’ll want to get rid of as much of the skin as possible

2. While the eggplant is roasting, boil 1.5 cups water and pour over the mushrooms in a heatproof bowl. After 30 minutes strain but reserve the liquid. Rub the mushrooms of any grit and chop coarsely.

3. While you’ve got the eggplant in the oven and mushrooms soaking, heat the olive oil in a large deep skillet. Add onion and half the garlic until fragrant, careful not to burn the garlic. Puree your tomatoes at this point if you havent already. Add the tomatoes and mushroom soaking liquid and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat for about an hour, honestly the longer the better. I think mine went for about 1.5 hours. Then add half the basil towards the end and taste test with salt and pepper.

4. Here’s where things get weird. Fold together the mushrooms, breadcrumbs, insides of the eggplant, rest of the garlic, rest of the basil, parsley, and cheese. It says 2 ounces of cheese – I did one batch with cheese and one without and both were delicious. Add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Fold your mixture into small golf ball sized balls, dust with flour and refrigerate on a baking sheet for 20 mins.

5. When ready, heat a skillet to moderately high heat with a sheet of vegetable oil. Sear the meatballs until browned all over. After browning, drain them off on paper towels and add to your magical tomato sauce. It says simmer for 5 mins, I’d give it ten. Serve with crusty bread, torn basil and chocolate cake for dessert!!

Bon appetit

So whose coming for dinner next Sunday?

Oct28

Sriracha Honey Chicken Wings and Garlic Grilled Broccoli

Posted on October 28, 2014 by athaidek

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In college we used to go to this thing called Two times Tuesdays where you could get 2 for 1 wings. I’d like to formally and publicly apologize to Two times Tuesdays for not respecting the wonderful tradition of bone-in chicken wings. Yes, all, I am a boneless wings person. That is, until I tried these wings.

Oh I’ve had my fair share of chicken wings – but the sweet and tangyness of these combined with the slight grill char were SO ON PAR for an evening that I’d describe as fall clinging on to a past relationship that is summer (i.e. we are ready for fall food, but it’s kind of still hot in Atlanta). I have to say thank you to my friend Mike for teaching me how to make chicken wings and for prepping this whole meal! If you are low on dollars and low on time, I’d highly suggest this meal! The chicken only took around twenty minutes on the grill, and the marinade for the garlic should only take the day to absorb flavors.

So I’m actually talking from the perspective of Mike considering I did very little work here – but I’d love to transfer knowledge over to any of you all who are also first time wings grillers so I’ll share from my perspective.

The chicken did not have any marinade. I didn’t know this about wings! All you really have to do is cook the wings on their own (skin on) and then add the sauce in at the end. WHABAM – deliciousness. For some reason I feel very cartoonish about wings, like they should have some kitschy thought bubble that speaks with Emeril Lagasse’s voice saying “Bam!”

Anyways, so Mike was kind enough to cut the wing tips off the wings for us before we cooked and had prepped the sauce for the Honey Sriracha Wings. This is literally all we did:

Prepped the grill – make sure to take your time to let it heat up medium/medium high heat. Mike had already prepped the sauce so we just put it on low on a burner to keep the sauce warm. If you hadn’t prepped in advance, make sauce. Add the chicken wings onto the grill, rotating every 2 minutes or so to evenly cook them. After about 20-25 minutes, wings were about done and we tossed them in the sauce and voila! a carnivorous meal.

This is the recipe for the Neely’s Spenser’s Grilled Broccoli. The great thing about something like this is you can really use whatever kind of vinegar you have on hand or dry rub. I think Mike has his own dry rub that he likes to use for grilling and had red wine instead of white wine vinegar. All the power to ya to use your fave flavor. I really think the only thing you need to nail here is 1) not overcooking the broccoli and 2) adding garlic.

You want to blanch the broccoli so that it just barely cooks. That way, when you add it to the grill, it won’t take very long to cook but will get a nice smoky grill flavor. So, if you think once you’ve blanched the broccoli it still looks raw – that’s actually a good thing. Mike marinated this for the day I think? and we simply put it on some aluminum foil on the grill about 5 minutes before the chicken were done cooking.

Make this please!! And put your feet up, relax, and drink some Sweetwater 420 like we did to celebrate the fact that it’s a Thursday night and you just grilled chicken wings and managed to complete a long jog with the maniac that is Mike Kerrigan. Woo!

Sep15

Chinese Pulled Pork and Goodbye to summer

Posted on September 15, 2014 by athaidek

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What are you happy about today? I am happy for my family’s health, the existence of music (good and bad included I guess), and this barbeque I had on Saturday. My roommate put it perfectly: this is one of those times where Katie wants to make something, so she asks people to come over and try it. It’s less that I’m good at entertaining and more that when people smell food, they flock like sheep. Is that a phrase?

I was so excited to eat real food after a week of recovering from wisdom teeth surgery. While I didn’t let it stop me from nomming hard, it did stink not being able to chew. Poor me, I got to try Zesto milkshakes for the first time and had a banana pudding milkshake that rocked my world.

I recently visited the Dekalb Farmers Market in Atlanta and had a love affair I think. It was one of those lazy Sundays when I wanted to get lost somewhere and found myself purchasing a 4 pound pork BUTT for no reason in particular. I tried to ask the butcher what people usually get for BBQ and he was all “girl you’re on your OWN.” After being shuffled through the baking aisle by some intense bakers and drooling over bags of the coolest whole spices you’ve ever seen, I went on my way with my big ole pork butt.

One week later, I found myself declaring “I’m making this pork butt TODAY”. And no, I don’t think I even thought about who’d eat it other than myself, but it was eaten! I started my pulled pork experience with an Asian recipe and found success!

It wasn’t too bad! The reviews from this recipe made it seem very versatile and easy to play around with. The recipe only calls for 2.5 lbs of meat, and I used 4 without changing the proportions too much. The recipe says to cook this pork on the stove, but I ended up doing a combo of stove and crock-pot

With this pork, we served Cookie and Kate’s peanut sesame noodle slaw and had TOO MUCH FUN using our new food processor. Then we sort of strayed away from Asian and served a good-bye summer panzanella salad. We tried to come up with some unique names for the dishes so that they could be dubbed as Katie and Christine’s special recipes, but the only thing suggested was Jamarcus and Chastity’s pulled pork. No good.

I’m smiling now, thinking of my friends hunched around our teeny porch nomming on pulled pork. Love it! My weekend ended with the most beautiful singing from the church choir at this new church I’ve been going to. One of those moments when you get all goosebumpy, don’t you love that?! Put me in a great mood.

Chinese Pulled Pork, adapted slightly from this food52 recipe

4 lb Boston butt, pork butt

2 tbs olive oil

1 small onion, peeled and sliced thin

3 slices of .5 inch thick ginger, peeled

3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped roughly

1 piece star anise

1/4 cup dried shitake mushrooms (I couldnt find presliced so just broke them up in my hands)

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup white wine

1 cup low sodium chicken stock

2 tbs rice wine vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

1. Take a paper towel and make sure your pork is dry before you start cooking it. This’ll help it get a good sear in the pan. Get out a big dutch oven. Cut the pork into large chunks, doesnt have to be fancy bc it’s going to fall apart

2. Heat the oil on medium high heat and start to brown the meat in batches. You don’t want to put too much in all at once bc you really want a good crisp on the outside of the pork. Just brown the pieces on 2 sides, doesn’t have to be the whole cube

3. After each batch is done, set the pork aside on a separate plate. After you finish all the pork, add the onion, garlic, and ginger (pork should be out of the pan) and saute on medium heat until the onions are sweating and the flavors are fragrant, scraping up the brown parts on the bottom of the pan. (says 5-8 minutes mine was closer to 5)

4. Add the star anise and mushrooms for just a minute to get them sweating. Then add your pork back to the pan and mix with the sauteed onions/garlic/etc. Add in the soy sauce, white wine, stock, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to very low heat. If you’re on a high burner, put the pot on the smallest burner. Keep it at a gentle, moderate simmer (I found this hard to keep steady so had to come back and check periodically) for 2 hours.

5. After two hours, skim the excess fat and shred the pork. Discard the star anise pod and cook the sauce down. At this point I put some of the sauce and the shredded pork in the crockpot and cooked it on low for another 2 hours.

Serve on potato buns with slaw or the reduced sauce! bon appetit!