Spicy, Southern Rice & Pork

I know that pork is the other white meat, the healthy low-fat meat and the perfect pairing with everything.  I agree with all of those points, but because of those things, it needs some help from tasty sides.

For this dinner I made one of my new favorites which I am calling "spicy, southern rice."  I'm not in love with the name though, let me know if you can come up with something better?!?!

Spicy, Southern Rice

1 pkg. yellow rice (I like Carolina brand)

Fresh okra (we buy it in a dry pint at the farmer's market ... you want about two cups when cut)

1 long hot pepper (or other spicy pepper like jalapeno)

2 cloves garlic

Chop the okra into rings about 1/2" thick.  Smash the garlic cloves and then roughly chop.  De-seed the peppers and then chop them as well.  Add the the above and the rice to a cold pan, follow directions on rice package for the amount of water to add.  Stir well, increase heat to medium-low and then cover.  Once the rice comes to a simmer, turn the temperature down to low and cook, covered, until the water is absorbed by the rice.  Stir occasionally.

Once the rice is fully cooked, allow to sit off the heat, covered for about 10 minutes and then plate and enjoy!

Grilled pork loin w/ spicy, Southern rice, avocado puree and sautéed collard greens.

My take on Veggie Hash

The traditional hash, at least as I think about it, is chopped up potatoes with some corned beef and onions served for breakfast with runny eggs over the top.  For this dinner I decided to do something a little different and went with a potato+veggie combination.

For this dish, feeding two, you'll want the following:

2 small-medium white potatoes

1 small red bell pepper

1 small yellow bell pepper

1 large green tomato

1 avocado

I started with small white potatoes, cut into french fry style strips and cooked them in a sauté pan with a tablespoon of light olive oil.

While the potatoes are cooking, slice the peppers with a similar size.  Once the potatoes have started to brown toss in the sliced peppers and allow the mixture to continue to cook for about five minutes.  Continue to agitate so that things don't stick.

After the five minutes of peppers cooking, add the chopped green tomato and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

If there is still water in the pan after 10 minutes, cook until water has evaporated and then remove from heat and plate.  I served it with a white fish, avocado and sautéed squash, but you can serve it with whatever you'd like, enjoy!

Creamy Mushroom Polenta with Scallops

For this dinner I made a creamy, cheesy mushroom polenta topped with scallops and a garlic avocado puree.

Creamy Mushroom Polenta
1/2 cup yellow grits (not instant)
3 cups water
2 cups roughly chopped shiitake mushrooms
2 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
Salt & pepper to taste

Cook the shiitake mushrooms in a hot pan with a little bit of olive oil until they release and re-absorb their water.  While the mushrooms are

cooking, put the grits and water in a saute pot and bring to a boil before turning the heat to low and covering.  Whisk the polenta every 5-10 minutes to ensure it doesn't stick or burn.  Once the polenta has begun to thicken, add the mushrooms and the salt and pepper.  When the polenta has finished cooking, remove from heat, stir in the cream and cheese and serve!




I cooked the scallops in a very hot pan with butter in order to get a nice crusty and caramelized finish on the scallops which still allowing them to be cooked correctly.  I served them over the polenta and topped with an avocado puree.  Try it and enjoy!

Spicy Black Bean Cakes, they go great with BBQ pork

With the winter wrapping up (I hope) it was time to dust off the big grill and put the grill pan back into the cupboard for a few months.  I had a couple of thick cut, bone-in, pork chops to grill, but for this dinner I wanted to do something a little bit different to go along with the bar-b-que pork.

While mashed potatoes are a standard accompaniment for this sort of dish, I decided to try make spicy black bean cakes for this one.

Black Bean Cakes
1 14.5 oz can Black Beans (I prefer Goya)
1 4.5 oz can Diced Green Chilies
1 cup masa (or all purpose flour)
Salt and Pepper to taste

I started a can of black beans in a 3qt pan and added 2 Tbsp of drained diced green chilies (canned) and salt and pepper.  In hindsight I should have drained the black beans first, so if you're going to make this at home please do that.  I cooked the mix down until it had gotten soft and then mashed it.  While the mix was cooling some, I put the flour on a clean plate and started a pan over medium high heat.  Once cool enough to handle I then shaped the bean mixture into patties and then dragged them through the flour to give a light outside coating.  I put a thin layer of oil into the pan, enough so that the patties would fry a bit, and then cooked the patties, flipping after about 5 minutes to allow both sides to get crispy.

Try it and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Puree

So I didn't have much time to play with my new toy (Vitamix) before we left town for holiday, but this was one dish that I was able to use it for.  The vitamix is a great tool for creating smooth purees that don't need to be super liquidy (you can make perfect mashed potatoes in a vitamix, for instance) and that was exactly what I was after for this dinner.

This sweet potato was really closer to mashed potatoes, from a consistency perspective, than a sauce ... which is exactly what I wanted as a base for this grilled pork and greens dish.  If you do not have a vitamix to use for this, instead of using a blender, you will want to do it the old fashioned way with a bowl, masher and spoon.

Sweet Potato Puree

2 large sweet potatoes (peeled and chopped into cubes)
1/2 cup milk
1/6 cup parmesan cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage (1 tsp if using dried)
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Put the sweet potato cubes, milk and sage into a heavy sauce pan and add a couple of pinches of salt and pepper (based on your taste).  Put the sauce pan on lowest heat setting and cover to allow the sweet potato to cook slowly.  You will want to cook the potatoes until soft (a knife should pass into the flesh easily) about 30 - 45 minutes depending on the size of the cubes.  The milk may separate a little bit and leave white curds on the potatoes, that is ok.

Once the sweet potato is softened, transfer the potatoes to the vitamix and add the butter, parmesan and 1 tbsp of milk.  Begin mixing the mixture, adding milk by the tbsp until you get to your desired texture for the puree, plate and enjoy!

Contrary to popular belief, a twice baked potato is four times as good

Ok, so you caught me ... sometimes a twice baked potato is 16 times as good as a regular baked potato (although Shells doesn't believe that).  I love making twice baked potatoes, and they are so super easy, I don't know why you wouldn't want to make them too.  For this dinner I paired up a couple of twice baked potatoes with steak & mushrooms and some nice broiled asparagus; but really they go with anything.

Twice Baked Potatoes (for 2 people)

2 medium/small baking potatoes (you can use 1 large as well if you want 1 side per person), washed

2 slices bacon

5 tbsp shredded cheese blend (your choice, whatever you like)

1 green onion, washed

1 tbsp milk

1/2 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 425F and the rub the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook in the 425F oven for about 45 minutes or until soft.  While the potatoes are cooking, pan fry the bacon, drain and then roughly chop.  Dice the green onion.

Once the potatoes are cooked ... put the bacon, 3 tbsp of cheese, milk, green onion and butter in a bowl.  Use a hot glove, or a towel, and a sharp knife to cut the potatoes straight through the middle long-wise.  Use a large spoon to scoop the middle out of the potato halves, you should leave about 1/4 - 1/5 inch of potato on the side of the skin to allow it to keep it's shape.  Transfer the scooped middle to the bowl with the other ingredients and then mix well until smooth.

Switch oven to broil.

Spoon the smooth mixture back into the potato skin halves until it is all used and then top with the reserved cheese.  Put under the broiler until the cheese is bubbling, serve and enjoy!

Scallops with a spicy polenta

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a bit is surely starting to think that we have an infatuation with scallops ... my question back would be: why don't you?

That being said, sometimes just cooking some scallops over pasta gets a little boring, so for this dinner we were looking to spice it up.  I decided to whip up a batch of polenta and make that the flavor base for this dish by adding some heat to it.

Spicy Polenta
1 cup yellow corn grits (not instant)
6 cups water
1/4 cup of diced green chilies (canned, found in the Mexican food section of your grocer)
1 jalapeno
1/2 tsp garlic pepper
1 tbsp whole milk
2 tbsp grated asiago cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to a boil and add grits.  Turn down heat to a simmer and continue to stir grits with a whisk frequently (to keep from sticking and burning) for about 30 minutes.  While this is going on, drain the green chilis and dice the jalapeno (deseeded if you would like less heat).  After the 30 minutes add the chilies, jalapeno and garlic pepper and continue to stir occasionally to allow the polenta to thicken (about 15-20 minutes).  After the polenta has thickened, remove from heat, stir in the milk and cheese and any salt and pepper you want to add, serve and enjoy!

Blistered (my mouth) salsa with steak and sweet potato puree

For this dinner I decided that I wanted to throw a curveball to a somewhat basic combination of sweet potato puree and steak.  I made a fairly basic sweet potato puree and served sliced grilled steak over the top of that.  But the part of this dinner that really lit it up was the salsa.

Blister (my mouth) salsa
10 Cherry Tomatoes
1/2 red onion (quartered)
2 large jalapenos
6 garlic cloves

Pre-heat an oven to 425F (I use my counter-top for this) and wash all the veggies.  Put the onion and the jalapenos on the pan and into the oven once pre-heated. Cook for about 10 minutes and then flip the jalapenos and onion and then put the tomatoes on the pan.  After 10 minutes add the garlic.  Continue checking the veg until it is all shriveled and the garlic is soft (if the garlic begins to blacken pull it out).

Allow the veggies to cool for about 10 minutes before the next step.  If you want to take a little of the heat out of the salsa, cut a slit into the slides of the jalapenos and remove the seeds (discarding them).  Remove the back most part of the jalapenos and then roughly chop all of the veggies before mixing them well in a bowl and then spooning on top of the food of your choice, enjoy!