A Lil Asian Inspiration

I love any kind of Asian food. I cook it pretty often so I always have the right ingredients. Almost anything can be given an Asian twist by using hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame seeds..and of course Siracha.
 

Asian Style Pulled Pork

4 Pork Tenderloins
4 tbs hoison sauce
3 tsp rice vinegar
3 tsp low sodium soy sauce
3 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 fresh lime juice
quirt of Siracha, if you like it hot
Sesame seeds

Place your pork in the crockpot.
In a separte bowl combine all the other ingredients.
Pour over pork but be sure to coat all sides.
Cook on high for the first hour, then turn down to low for another 3-4 hours.
Use a fork to shred.
Serve in Romaine lettuce. Top with some sesame seeds.

*If you want to make a sauce to go with this, since the juices from the pulled pork tend to be a bit watery, just pour them into a small saucepan and combine with a teaspoon of cornstarch over medium low heat. Let it come to a boil and it will thicken almost immediately.

My husband was a little hesitant about the lettuce wraps...he loves his carbs...but it just goes so much better with this meal. It's light and fresh and the crunch of the lettuce is the perfect contrast against the tender pulled pork. And it doesn't make you feel like crap afterwards


Carrot and Cabbage Asian Slaw   

Half a purple cabbage, shredded
Half a bag of baby carrots, shredded
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs teriyaki sauce
3 tbs olive oil
Cilantro
Some scallions would be nice too, but I didn't have any

Combine the vinegar, sugar, teriyaki and oil in a bowl.  Toss with the cabbage and carrots.  Tastes best if you refrigerate it for at least an hour. Sprinkle with some fresh cilantro before serving.


Roasted Siracha Cauliflower

Whole head of small cauliflower, about 2 cups broken up
3 tbs low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbs Olive oil
Siracha

Preheat your oven to 400.
Break up the cauliflower into bite size pieces. Spread in a deep baking dish.
Drizzle all the ingredients on top of the cauliflower.
Bake about 25 minutes, turning occasionally.

Homemade Apple Fritters

Every year since I can remember, I've gone to the Apple Festival. People don't go there for the rides or the crafts. They go for the apple fritters. I'm sure I've spent hours waiting for these things, which I honestly don't mind at all since they are after all, the best apple fritters. Ever. These people got it down to a science, and a really well organized assembly line.  The result is a perfectly round, warm, sugar coated, toasty-on-the-outside, soft and moist on the inside, melt-in-your-mouth, ball of diced apple and cinnamony sweet dough.



Yep. It's definitely worth waiting for.  One year, my husband and I got THE last batch of fritters, after waiting hours in line of course. We walked away clutching our white, greased stained paper bags in our arms like it was a million dollars, then devoured half of them in the way back to the car. You really should eat these right away. If not, they lose their nice crispy outside.

This year, I missed it. Sigh. But, I did go apple picking. And was having guests over for dinner. Though lucky for me, I didn't actually have to make dinner. My sister, who went to culinary school, came over on an extremely rare occasion and cooked us an amazing dinner that I cannot do justice by describing with words. She grills a mean steak. So I knew I'd have plenty of time to make fritters and guests to eat them.

Filet with Gorganzola Cream Sauce and Sauteed Portobello Mushrooms served with a Side of Fingerling Potatoes and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Apple Fritters                              

adapted from Seemingly Greek
Makes about a dozen

• 1 heaping cup of flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• oil for frying (I use canola)
• 3 apples, diced should come out to about a cup
• cinnamon and sugar mixture for coating
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine your dry ingredients, minus the extra cinnamon/sugar. Fold in your apples. This tends to help them stay in place.

Combine your milk, egg and vanilla. Carefully add to your flour/apple mixture.

In a medium sized pot over medium heat, pour enough oil so it come up about 3 inches. Heat up to 365 degrees.  If you don't have a thermometer to gauge this, just test it out with a tiny amount of batter. When it's hot enough, it will sizzle instantly.

When the oil is ready, use a mini cookie dough scoop to plop the batter into the oil. If you don't have one, a tablespoon should work good too.

Be careful not to over fill your oil so the fritters have enough room to cook.  They may need to be "flipped" while they fry using a slotted spoon.

Once they are nicely golden brown, transfer them to a paper towel lined plate to absorbs any excess grease.

Right away roll them in your cinnamon and sugar mixture. You can probably use a big ziploc bag for this too or a deep baking dish.

Serve warm or with a piece of chocolate cheesecake after an amazingly delicious meal your sister just cooked. I mean that's what I did....

 

No need to wait in line anymore.

You're Welcome.

Buttery Butternut Bisque...A Perfect Taste of Fall

It's taken me a while to get into this whole fall thing, even though ironically enough, it's my most favorite time of year. Butternut squash screams autumn to me. I bought one, not gonna lie, a few weeks ago. I was planning on making bisque with it but just wasn't quite ready. The temperature is now 54 degrees and the leaves are falling. It's time to cook this squash.

I love it roasted with some butter and brown sugar. But I love it even more if I can eat it with a spoon. With heavy cream. And nutmeg. On the couch, in front of the fire. Butternut squash bisque is super easy to make and will definitely put you in the mood...for fall.

Butternut Squash Bisque
Makes a huge pot full

• One large butternut squash
• 3 stalks of celery, diced
• 1/2 bag of carrots, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 large vidalia onion, diced
• 7-8 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• olive oil
• 2 tsp butter
• 3 tbs brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 350.

Cut your squash in half. Place skin side down on a tray with a little drizzle of olive oil and roast in the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until a knife goes in easy.  I usually roast this a day ahead of time.

Once it's done and completely cooled, peel the squash and chop it into chunks.

In a large pot, over medium heat drizzle some olive oil and about a 2 tsp of butter.

Throw in the onion, celery and carrots. Saute for about 10 minutes or until the onion is translucent.

Pour in the chicken stock. Dump in the butternut squash. Turn up the heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Let cook for about 10 minutes, then turn down heat to medium.

Using an immersion blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, a regular blender will work too.

Once everything is smooth, add your heavy cream, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cover and let simmer for another 15 minutes.

 

 The result is a velvety, smooth, perfectly balanced bisque. 

Serve with a little drizzle of cream and fresh ground cinnamon.

 

You're Welcome.

A Perfect Rainy Day Dinner

Summer has ended...sigh...but I still have tons of tomatoes from my garden and pureed in my freezer. I usually make sauce with them. But even Italians can get sick of homemade sauce so I needed to change it up a bit.

Of course, I ended up making a whole big pot of sauce. We usually make pizza or chicken parm when there's fresh sauce. Been there, done that way too many times lately.  I was in need of something new. I searched through my cabinets and found myself in the liquor cabinet staring at a huuuuge bottle of vodka. Like ginormous. Someone gave it to us a a gift last year...it was that big that it was still unfinished. Bloody Mary's are my favorite so I  always have vodka on hand.

There it was...vodka sauce. What goes better together than tomato and vodka?! It would not come from a jar or from a restaurant. Super easy to make with an already homemade batch of fabulous sauce.

I searched lots of recipes as I usually do the first time I make something. Most of them use crushed tomatoes instead of sauce. Finally found a few, one by my arch nemesis Giada DeLaurentis, which I will admit I was inspired by. She's just a bit too over the top for me, with her forced Italian accent and unnecessarily elaborate cooking methods. She's way too skinny to seriously eat her own food! Anyways, I created my own recipe...

Vodka Sauce

Makes 4 servings

• 3-4 cups of homemade sauce...or one jar of your favorite sauce would do 
• 3/4 cup of vodka
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream, room temp
• 5 slices cooked bacon
• 1/3 cup of grated cheese..I used Romano
• Red pepper flakes
• Garlic Powder
• One pound of pasta

In a saucepan over medium low heat, combine your sauce and vodka. Simmer for about 25 minutes in order to cook all the alcohol out. Stir frequently.

Meanwhile, cook your bacon. Chop into coarse pieces.

Taste the sauce after 25 minutes to make sure it doesn't taste too strongly of vodka...unless you wanna get a bit of a buzz from your dinner.

Slowly add your cream and whisk thoroughly.  Add the grated cheese, garlic powder and red pepper flakes.

Using an immersion blender, puree the sauce til smooth. Lower the heat and simmer for another 10 minutes.

The sauce should be somewhat thick and creamy. And pink!  Then add your bacon.

Serve over your favorite pasta! 

Perfect rainy day meal.

You're Welcome.