Kara Cooks: 2011 January

Entries from January 31st, 2011

sweet pork tacos

Monday, January 31, 2011

So I’m pork-obsessed lately. I think it comes from the fact that I have 8 or 9 pork loins in the freezer that I bought when Publix was having a sale.

sweet pork tacos | © karacooks.com + kara hudson

In keeping with my promise to start working through my archives of saved recipes from 2010, I pulled a recipe that was posted to A Chow Life back in February. It’s a variation of Rick Bayless’ Minced Pork Tacos with Almonds, Raisins, and Sweet Spices (from Authentic Mexican). The recipe helped me realize that it was ok to cook a sweet taco filling, which inspired me to play even more.

So this is definitely not the same recipe I linked (that was just my inspiration), and overall it’s less of a recipe and more of a “what I did”. Oh, and the photo isn’t pretty-pretty … but boy was it good.

You may recall that last summer I went peach-crazy and bought 60 lbs of scratch-n-dent peaches from the local farmer’s market. Part of what I made with those peaches were 10 quarts of a spicy-sweet peach chutney with lots of vinegar, onion, and garlic, and tempered with golden raisins and brown sugar. (Yeah, I know, I never posted the recipe or photos of those either. Sorry! If you’re interested, the recipe I used is here: Spicy Peach Chutney)

In the spirit of the recipe I had archived, but adapting to my own needs, I took my 1.5 pound pork loin and plopped it in the slow cooker, then emptied a quart of the chutney over it. I added about 1/2 cup of water (mostly just swished around the chutney jar to get the bits out), set the heat on “low”, and let it cook for about 6 hours.

After 6 hours I shredded the pork with a fork, and served it in white corn tortillas, with a little sour cream, and some shredded cabbage topping. I paired it with a mixed spring salad with some crumbled feta cheese on top.

To tell you how good it was? I had 3 tacos. H had 5. And scraped the bottom of the pot for whatever little bits were left!

The pork was tender and moist, and the flavor was rich, tart with the vinegar and onion, but still sweet and slightly caramelized from the hours in the crock pot.

The only thing I would do differently next time – we agreed – is to add a couple of dried chili peppers to the crock pot to spice it up a bit. A little heat would have nicely offset the sweetness of the chutney.

I promise the next recipe WON’T be pork!

slow cooked pork loin in beer

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

This is not a recipe per se and the photo is not gorgeous. In fact it’s probably not even borderline attractive. But by the time this pork loin came out of the oven, I was so hungry and it was so good … that I didn’t even think of picking up the camera to take a pretty “food porn” photo before I inhaled it!

slow cooked pork | © karacooks.com & kara hudson

Start with a 1.5 – 2 lb pork loin. Take it out of the packaging and pat it dry. Then brown it in a very hot dutch oven in a little bit of olive or canola oil. Add some chopped garlic (I added 3 cloves!). Once the pork is nicely browned, pour a can of Guinness (or other dark beer) into the pot, cover it, and place it in the oven at 250 deg. Cook it for 6 hours. Don’t open the oven or peek until at least 6 hours are over.

When you take it out of the pot, just touching it with a fork will have it falling apart in shreds. The first night I served this over rice. The second night, I put the leftover shredded pork in folded over corn tortillas with some shredded lettuce, tomatoes, and salsa and made pork tacos.

Try it. I promise you’ll like it!

monday links – jan 24

Monday, January 24, 2011

Good grief this year is already getting away from me! I have 100+ drafts on the blog here and none of them are finished or photographed. I started out with good intentions and then … well I don’t know what happened. Life, I guess.

Here’s my list of links (brief though it is) for this week. I have a ton of other stuff to get caught up on and a recipe (of sorts) coming up on Wednesday. I promise.

This Garlic Ginger Chicken by For the Love of Cooking is really appealing. I’m always looking for more recipes to liven up chicken. I’m definitely putting this on the list for this week.
Pennies on a Platter posted this Hearty Tomato Soup – I know it’s one of at least a dozen tomato soup recipes I’ve saved, but tomato soup is such a comfort food on a cold afternoon. You can never have too many variations.
I don’t just read food blogs – I’m kind of obsessed with design blogs. And every now and then one of them ventures into the realm of food. It kind of goes together doesn’t it? A comfortable home and comfort food? So this sorta-recipe for a chickpea salad from Pure Style Home really caught my attention. It’s the kind of thing that would be great to take to work this summer!
As always, a recipe from Ree’s Pioneer Woman site makes it onto my list. This Pantry Pasta for Two looks like a quick and easy weekday meal that I could whip up!
My aunt lives in Brazil and has for the last 20+ years. About every 4 years, she comes home on furlough and makes some fabulous Brazilian dish for us. My favorite has always been feijoada – a black bean and rice concoction that is so incredibly good. Elise’s recipe brought a smile to my face as it made me remember my aunt.
Love and Olive Oil (isn’t that a great name for a food blog) posted this recipe for a Balsamic Onion Tart with Goat Cheese and Thyme. Really what more is there to say than that. MMmmmmm.
Sea Salt With Food posted this recipe for Grilled Lemongrass Chicken, but really it was the photo that got me. It takes me right back to my childhood in Singapore and eating chicken satay on the riverwalk of the Singapore River. I have to make this just because!

Ok, not too bad a list of links. This coming week I’m really working on a high protein, low carb plan. The last couple of weeks have been rather carb laden and I feel the need to back off the starchy, bready carbs for a bit. Wednesday’s recipe will highlight that. It’s a really good slow cooked pork loin … and dead simple. I promise!

Oh, and by the way, Friday is my birthday. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but surely I can come up with something, right?

mon links – jan 17

Monday, January 17, 2011

french onion soup with bay leaf | © karacooks.com + kara hudson

I re-read the Julie/Julia blog today – the original one on salon.com – and it inspired me to make Julia Child’s French Onion Soup. As it turns out I didn’t pay attention to the recipe exactly and wound up making something not anything like Julia’s soup. It was good, but not hers. Anyway … I’ll be posting the recipe and process later. In the meanwhile, here are this Monday’s links.

For The Love of Cooking posted these Pork Medallions in Cider Sauce … they look pretty good and easy. A nice quick weekday dinner option.
Cassoulet is something I’ve never made and always wanted to. This vegetarian version looks pretty good and would fit in nicely with my diet plan.
It’s still cold enough for me to be wanting to make soup and this Roasted Cauliflower Soup from the Tasty Kitchen website looks really good.
Spicy curry and tandoori recipes seemed to be showing up a lot this week, too. The Chickpea Curry from the Gastronomer’s Guide and Tandoori Marinaded Chicken with Cucumber Lime and Chiles from The Bitten Word both look like something I’d like to try.
Still looking for that perfect lentil recipe … maybe this Red Lentil Soup from Umami Girl will do the trick.
Homesick Texan always has recipes that bring me right back to my grandmother’s house in East Texas. The recipe she posted this week for Steak Fingers with Jalapeno Cream Gravy may not be diet food …but it’s sure comfort food.
And finally this recipe for Chicken Paillards with Clementine Sauce from Bon Appetit looks like a great way to indulge my love of clementines while they’re still in season.

That’s it for the links today. Hope everyone has a good week!!

sourdough from scratch

Friday, January 14, 2011

Last year Donna Currie started a project to create sourdough from scratch. She documented the project in a series of 13 posts on Serious Eats and I followed along avidly.

Now that the holiday craziness has passed and we’re into gray and icky part of winter, I thought I’d try my hand at it. I’ve created my own sourdough before using a cabbage leaf – it went swimmingly until I had a busy week and forgot about it and it fermented. Yuck! But this time I’m determined to keep up with it.

My Day 1 starts just as hers does with 1/2 oz (by weight) of flour and 1 oz (by volume) of tap water. I won’t blog about it every day, but I’ll post periodically and let you know how it’s going.

sourdough starter | © karacooks.com + kara hudson

crockpot: pork loin & green chile

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I love cooking in a crockpot – especially in the winter. It’s wonderful to put something together in the morning before leaving the house and come home to a cooked meal, ready to eat. This recipe is strongly South Western based and is super flexible. Serve it as is as a fantastic one-bowl meal … or use the ingredients (maybe with some black beans added) to make a burrito or to fill tacos.