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Garden Noodles with Pork

9/20/2019

1 Comment

 
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I made this nearly four years ago for the first time, and it never seemed worth writing down, except that I have continued to make it and it's good every time. Mysteriously, my whole family likes it. Recently there was an incident where a little extra protein snuck in with the broccoli and we had to take a little break. So just in case I stop making this for a while and begin again only to forget, here it is.
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Ingredients:
1 pound of ground pork
1-2 cups of either pork broth, chicken broth, or cream
minced garlic
any combination of vegetables from the garden, chopped fairly small
1 pound of dried pasta
grated or shredded parmesan cheese to taste

Directions:
​In a big sauté pan, fry the meat and garlic. Once the meat has browned, add in the vegetables. Season lightly with salt and pepper, and once the vegetables have begun to wilt, add the stock or cream and bring to a boil. Cover, and simmer until everything is tender. Season once again to taste with salt and pepper. 

Meanwhile, cook a pound of pasta according to the directions on the packet. Hopefully you've done this before! Strain the pasta and pour it into the sauce. Add loads and loads of cheese and stir it up. Enjoy. 
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1 Comment

Puchero: the Colombian Everything Soup

4/3/2015

1 Comment

 
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Luca's plate. He was our seven year old guest who told me this soup needed raw tomatoes. I think he was right.
I made a horrible, lean, watery cabbage soup that I had to feed to the chickens because it was so bad. I had trusted the cookbook author and followed the recipe exactly. Big mistake, but here is the antidote. Chicken, beef, AND pork! It's rich and satisfying. It won't leave you wondering if times are really so desperate after all, and it serves 12. So make it for a big group, or make it once and freeze the rest for future dinners when you need something instant. You need an ENORMOUS pot. 

This recipe calls for yuca, or cassava. You can usually find it in a Latin grocery store, and sometimes already peeled in the frozen section. It has a nice gummy texture; I believe tapioca is made from yuca. The preparation is simple. Peel it, cut it into manageable 2" sections, and remove the tough cord that grows down the center since it's impossible to chew. It wasn't until later that I read somewhere that it's poisonous before you cook it. It would have been nice to know earlier, but I was never tempted to pop the woody tuber in my mouth anyway. Here is a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to prepare yuca for cooking if you feel like you need it. 

The tomato sauce that seasons the whole dish is so good I will at least double it next time. It would be so good over eggs or spooned onto just about anything. This recipe is from Saveur, and they based it on a recipe from Secrets of Colombian Cooking by Patricia McCausland-Gallo. 
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Yuca. It's probably imported from Costa Rica, so you can hardly call it local. Try it once anyway.
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Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large tomato
3/4 cup chopped scallions
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons minced cilantro

1 whole chicken
1-1/2 pounds pork spareribs, separated
1 pound beef brisket or stew meat
3 scallions
a few springs of cilantro
1 tablespoon salt
4 cloves garlic

2 pounds cassava, peeled and cut into 2" pieces
2 pounds of potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

3 avocados sliced for serving
white rice to serve along with the soup
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Directions:
1. Begin with the tomato sauce. Heat up olive oil in a skillet, and sauté the tomato, scallions, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and saffron until it's soft. Add the cilantro, turn the heat down, and cook until it's all very soft. Put it in a small bowl and set it aside. 
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2. Put the spareribs, chicken, beef, salt, garlic, whole scallions, and cilantro springs into a huge pot and cover it all with water by 1". Bring it to a boil, skim the scum, and lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer it until the chicken is cooked through, a little over an hour. 
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3. Remove the chicken from the pot. When it is cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the skin and bones. Set the chicken meat aside. Add the yuca and potatoes to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes. Add in the cabbage, cover the pot loosely, and simmer it until the vegetables are tender, another 20-30 minutes. When the potatoes and yuca feel tender, add the chicken meat back to the pot and stir in the reserved tomato sauce. Season it with salt and pepper and allow it to simmer for a few more minutes to blend the flavors. Serve the soup in large bowls with avocado and rice on the side. 
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So yes, the avocado and rice are supposed to be on the side, but it was good in the soup too.
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The pot on the left is the one I use to make this. The one on the right is my normal stock pot.
1 Comment

Braised Spareribs with Bell Pepper Paste

11/10/2014

0 Comments

 
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I compromised everything I believe in and bought conventionally grown red bell peppers at the farmer's market. They were 4 for a dollar, and I guess if the price is right...

I've read about massa de pimentão, a Portuguese paste used to marinate meats, but I've only made my own, so I can't tell you how much this resembles the original. I've tried this with chicken and pork, and while both were good, the pork was mouthwateringly delicious. Once the meat is tender, you finish cooking it on a bed of potatoes that absorb the juices from the bell pepper sauce and the meat. It's very simple, and very good. In fact, it only uses 5 ingredients: spareribs, bell peppers, potatoes, salt, and pepper. 

So when bell peppers are seasonal and cheap, buy a lot of them and make enough of this paste to freeze for later. It's incredibly simple, but it is something you have to do ahead of time. This is a wonderful, warming winter dish but the bell pepper paste gives it a bright note. 

I followed the recipe (more or less) from Saveur. There were a few things I changed slightly- I cut the recipe in half, used less salt because 1/2 inch of salt between layers of bell pepper really seemed excessive, and I couldn't get the same cut of ribs. It didn't matter! I peel bell peppers because the skin is so hard to digest and these weren't organic, so I'm hoping this cut down on the pesticide residue. 

Bell Pepper Paste (Massa de Pimentao)

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For the Red Sauce:
8 bell peppers, peeled and sliced
kosher salt

Directions:
Layer the bell pepper strips in a strainer with plenty of salt. Put the strainer in a bowl, cover it with a plate, and weigh it down. You can put it in the refrigerator and leave it for a couple days or leave it out on the kitchen counter overnight. 

Take out the bell pepper and wipe off as much of the salt as you can. Blend it in a food processor and freeze or refrigerate. 

Braised Spareribs with Potatoes (Entrecosto no Forno con Batatas)

Ingredients:
1-1/2 to 2 cups Bell Pepper Paste
3 pounds spareribs
about 1-1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced
freshly ground pepper

Directions:
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1. Marinate the ribs in the pepper paste either in a roasting pan covered with aluminum foil or in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator. Let it marinate overnight or for a few days. 
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2. Let the ribs come to room temperature and put in a roasting pan if they aren't already. Season with pepper and roast in a 325 degree oven for about 2 hours or until they are tender. Take them out of the oven and turn it up to 425 degrees. 
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3. Remove the ribs and set them aside, scraping off as much of the pepper paste as you can into a bowl. Pour in about half of the drippings and whisk them together. 
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4. Add the potatoes to the baking dish and season them with pepper. 
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5. Put the ribs back on the potatoes and pour the paste/drippings mixture over the whole thing. Return it to the 425 degree oven and roast for another 45 minutes to an hour, until the potatoes are fully cooked and soft. 
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6. The original recipe has you broil the ribs for a few minutes to char them just a little, but the picture to the left shows what mine looked like by the time the potatoes were tender, and it was unnecessary. 

Enjoy! 

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    Author

    I love trying new foods, cooking, and gardening. I hope to share these experiences on this site. Thanks for taking a look! 
            -Megan

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