Spiced Braised Chuck Roast

I don’t prefer meat cooked any other way, but slow cooked for hours on end. I like to be able to peel the meat apart easily with my fork, I love lushes flavors and bright colored spices to pour out from all ends of the meat.  That to me is a well marinated and the perfect way to cook meat.   It does help if there is some healthiness to any meat dish, I as always choose to grab my recipes from Cooking Light for the obvious reasons, but more importantly because I’m rarely ever let down by the outcome of the dish.  I should be a spokesman for Cooking Light…

Ingredients

• Roast:
• 1  tablespoon  paprika
• 1  tablespoon  dark brown sugar
• 2  teaspoons  garlic powder
• 1  teaspoon  salt
• 1  teaspoon  dry mustard
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground red pepper
• 1  (3-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed
• Sauce:
• Cooking spray
• 1  cup  chopped onion
• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 3  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2  cup  water
• 6  tablespoons  dark brown sugar
• 1/4  cup  red wine vinegar
• 1  tablespoon  tomato paste
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

 

Preparation

1. To prepare roast, combine paprika, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, dry mustard, and ground red pepper; rub over roast. Place roast in a large zip-top plastic bag. Seal and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

2. To prepare sauce, heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, crushed red pepper, and minced garlic; cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Place tomatoes in blender, and process until smooth. Add pureed tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, and the next 3 ingredients (through tomato paste), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

3. Preheat oven to 325°.

4. Remove roast from bag. Add roast to sauce in pan. Cover and bake at 325° for 2 1/2 hours or until tender. Serve with sauce.

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Chicken Shawarma With Tahini Sauce and Tomato Relish

There is this little hole in the wall restaurant by my house that makes the best Chicken Shawarma.  This got me thinking, how can I replicate this dish.  I found a recipe in Bon Appetit using Turkey so I substituted chicken and I did just that, I made this dish but not as good as my home town restaurant.   Still, it was pretty tasty, very flavorful was this chicken, Tahini Sauce and Tomato Relish. I did bake the chicken instead of hitting the grill with it, so next time I will try the grill option and see how much of a difference this will taste.   I would make this again but my friends over at Baba’s Cafe most certainly nails this dish to a perfection.

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Indian Eggplant

This is one of my favorite Indian dishes, I just love the way the spicy Indian flavors work into the Eggplant vegetable.   I crave my mother in laws version of this dish so often.

All you do is heat up a nonstick pan with 2 tbls of oil.  Add mustard Seeds about 2 tbls, let that sauté for a minute than add in ginger/garlic- equal amounts if not combined already.  Than you add 2 TBL of Coriander Powder, 1 tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of tuermeric and I added some besan powder in there this last time I made it and was very delicious so about 2 tblsp of that.  Let the spices cook, than add in your chopped eggplant and 1 potato. Salt, to your liking and let that cook until it is browned very nicely and the eggplant and potatoes are soft.

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Baked Barbecue Pork Ribs

These Ribs are spicy and tasty.  I grabbed this recipe from Bon Appetit so I don’t expect it to be healthy in any way.

• 4 pounds baby back pork ribs
• 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder

 

• 1 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/2 cup bottled chili sauce
• 1/4 cup Sherry
• 4 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil

 

Preparation

Place ribs in large roasting pan. Pierce meat with fork. Sprinkle with Chinese five-spice powder and onion powder; rub mixture into meat.

Whisk remaining ingredients in small bowl to blend. Pour sauce over ribs, turning to coat. Turn ribs meat side down; cover pan with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake ribs, covered, until just tender, about 30 minutes. Uncover and turn ribs meat side up; bake until ribs are cooked through, basting occasionally, about 35 minutes. Cut meat between bones to separate ribs and serve.

 

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My Mom’s Fruit Salad

Add all your favorite types of fruit together and sprinkle with Cayenne or chili powder and lemon juice than toss.  This is so tasty…

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Wild Mushroom and Chicken Stir-Fry With Thai Fried Rice

I know the first picture bites, I didn’t get a clear shot. I only grabbed one shot too.

I like making my own Asian dishes unless it’s Thai food than I prefer to eat out, so I made Chicken with mushrooms and zucchini alongside some Thai Fried Rice with pork.  Very tasty.  The chicken recipe was adapted from Cooking Light. I used Zucchini in substitute of  the sugar snap peas. The Thai fried rice I got the recipe from my Thai cookbook, I refuse to post recipes that I grab from cookbooks just out of  respect for the author I won’t do it.  So if you are interested in the Thai Fried rice recipe, just send me your email address in comments and I will send it to you.

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Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney

My husband enjoyed this dish more than I did.  It was tasty, the apple chutney  tasted like Apple Pie which was a nice  touch to this spicy dish.  I used Indian Chili Powder which gave this a really spicy touch.  Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

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Prosciutto, Fontina, and Fig Panini

Prosciutto Panini adapted from Cooking Light.  I didn’t have any arugula on hand so I substituted some baby spinach and it worked out nicely.  This is more on the sweeter side than what I’m use to.  The only adjustment I would probably make next time is to choose a honey mustard sauce for this sandwich rather than the fig preserves. Regardless, any sandwich with Fontina cheese in it tastes so yummy.

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Spiced Pork with Bourbon Reduction

Spiced Pork with Bourbon Reduction Recipe adapted from Cooking Light.  I used Indian Chili Powder because it has the most heat than most chili powders and this came out so spicy yet good, I recommend to use half a tsp if using Indian Chili Powder.  It goes really nicely with the sauce because the sauce is sweet and the bourbon is strong in this which compliments the heat in the pork.  I’ve for years avoided this meat for it’s lack of flavor but since I’ve been playing with these recipes, I’m learning what spices goes well in the pork.

Ingredients

• Sauce:
• 1/2  cup  bourbon
• 1/4  cup  packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4  cup  low-sodium soy sauce
• 3  tablespoons  cider vinegar
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  bottled minced garlic
• 1/2  teaspoon  black pepper
• Pork:
• 1/2  teaspoon  chili powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground allspice
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1  (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
• Cooking spray

Preparation

To prepare sauce, combine the first 6 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 11 minutes), stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

To prepare pork, combine chili powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt, stirring well; rub evenly over pork. Cut pork crosswise into 12 slices.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Serve with sauce.

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