Sweet n Sour pork, using this recipe: <a class="postlink" href="http://chinese.food.com/recipe/chinese-take-out-sweet-and-sour-pork-323235?scaleto=8&mode=null&st=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://chinese.food.com/recipe/chinese- ... ll&st=true</a> Awesome Chinese take out knock off and it was super easy to make.
I'm cooking dinner for a friend on Friday, and I plan to stuff chicken breasts, brush them with pesto, wrap them in filo pastry, and serve with a mustard cream sauce. My initial plan was to stuff them with bacon and leek and maybe cheese, although as she's pregnant I gather that a lot of cheeses are out. However, I'm wondering if an avocado would be better. Does anyone know if you can / should bake avocado? Will it just turn into a disgusting runny liquid? Does anyone have a better suggestion for a filling? Also, does anyone have a suggestion for a good starter to pair with this? Thanks!
Maybe I'm just a sucker for spanakopita, but why not stuff it with some spinach and feta or something along those lines? I think avocado baked in chicken might be weird, not because it liquefies or anything, just because I tend to think warm avocado is icky (except tempura avocado because YUM). I don't know what you had in mind for a "starter", but I pretty much make salads with whatever is for dinner. For some reason people don't realize that salads are hugely versatile and can be totally different. I'm really into arugula right now and have been making a roast beet, avocado, pecan and goat cheese salad sometimes, and a watermelon and feta salad with a really light balsamic vinaigrette when I'm feeling lazy.
Avocado is already very soft raw and ripe, so cooking it would only liquefy it. Stuffing it in a chicken breast would create a slimy mess. I'd consider a slice of prosciutto, pine nuts, and/or sundried tomatoes. Maybe a pat of butter if cheese is out of the question. As Sisterkat mentioned, a salad would balance out the meal. Some of the lesser known varieties like mizuna and argula, are found much more common outside of Whole Foods and are 10x more flavorful than Iceberg.
I don't have a picture because the food is all packed up for el husband to take to work, but today I made knock off Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. I used this recipe and it will be repeated a lot. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/07/homemade-chick-fil-a-sandwiches-recipe.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012 ... ecipe.html</a>
I have this giant bag of Israeli couscous in the cupboard, and I can't seem to do anything creative with it. I've been mixing in sauteed onions and peppers and a giant pile of spinach and serving it with some chicken, which was good the first time, but less good the third time. I've been looking around online and have yet to find anything that looks particularly inspired or exciting. Help?
I used mine with sugar and cinnamon, a dash of salt, and raisins. Israeli couscous is usually a savory side dish so it was an interesting change.
You could make a version of Tabouleh Salad. Cook couscous, chill. Add olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, tomato, diced onion, salt and pepper. I like to make a batch and keep it in the fridge. Good for quick snacks.
The bento boxes didn't turn out as purty as I envisioned. Probably has something to do with the tin foil cup and tupperware. Oh well, I try.
Thanks to everyone who gave me useful answers to my cooking question. I took them all on board, and this is what I ended up making. Like all my favourite dishes, it appears fancy to the untrained eye but doesn't actually require any technique. I served it with each of the three sauces in different jugs so guests could choose what they wanted, but that's probably overkill. It was fucking awesome. Stuffed Chicken Breast Parcels Ingredients: 4 chicken breasts, with a pocket cut into them. (Just put a knife into the fattest part. Easy). 4 rashers of bacon, diced. 1 leek, chopped finely. 1/2 cup pitted & sliced kalamata olives. 1/2 cup semi-sundried tomatoes. 8 sheets phyllo pastry. Mustard cream sauce: 300ml cream 2 heaped tablespoons wholegrain mustard. Tablespoon of flour, mixed into a little water. Optional sauces: Avocado (mashed, and steal a tablespoon of cream from the above sauce for a nice creamy texture if you choose). Basil pesto. Method: 1. Preheat oven to 200c. Fry up your bacon and leek, then add them to your olives and tomatoes. Stuff this mixture into chicken breasts. 2. Wrap breasts in pastry, brush with margarine, put in oven for 30 minutes. 3. Heat cream, mustard, and flour together over a medium low heat, stirring frequently and not boiling. 4. Once chicken is cooked and sauce has thickened, serve. Crispy pastry + moist chicken is ridiculously good. I also had bowls of avocado and pesto because I'm indecisive and love chicken and avocado.
I've been thinking about what to make my mom for Mother's Day brunch and was wondering if any of you have made a savory bread pudding. I haven't ever had it, let alone cooked it, but it sounds good in theory and savory french toast is delicious so maybe this would be, too. Maybe with ham and arugula and little chunks of brie or something? Any advice would be appreciated, though regardless I think it warrants a test run. Worst case scenario it's not as good in reality as it is in my brain, and I'll just make frittatas instead.
My mom makes an amazing stuffed French toast that you might be interested in replicating for your own mom. The egg wash has a little nutmeg and cinnamon in it and the filling is sausage (she flattens out the lb of sausage into a sheet on her griddle and then cuts squares to put inside the bread) and provolone. Key: the French toast bread must be day old/slightly stale. Trust. Otherwise you get really soggy bread that falls apart when you dip and soak. For a slightly lighter (well, depending on how you make your sauce, I cheat and use cream of chicken as my base) and fancy looking food item, try eggs Benedict. That shit is the bomb.
Shegirl wanted to know what I put in my box. These had pineapple chunks, edamame, a few shrimp tempura, miso soup, and a sushi roll with cream cheese, crab, cucumber, and avocado. That's all, folks!
I'm curoius that way I guess. From The Pioneer Woman: Orange-Vanilla Monkey Bread Prep Time:10 Minutes Cook Time:25 Minutes Difficulty:Easy Servings:12 3 cans (7.5 Ounces Each) Buttermilk Biscuits (not The Flaky Kind), Cold 1 cup Sugar 2 whole Oranges, Zested 1 dash Salt 2 sticks Salted Butter 3/4 cups Brown Sugar 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract Preparation Instructions Preheat the oven to 350 F. First, make sure all the biscuit cans are very cold. Open all the cans of biscuits and cut the biscuits into quarters. Fill a large Ziplock bag with the granulated sugar, the orange zest, and the dash of salt. Seal the bag and shake it around until the zest and the sugar are totally combined. Add the biscuit pieces to the bag, seal it and shake/toss it around until all the biscuit pieces are coated in the orange sugar. Pour the pieces into a bundt or tube pan and set it aside. In a medium pan over medium heat, melt the butter then stir in the brown sugar and vanilla until just barely combined. Pour the mixture all over the biscuit pieces, scraping the pan to get all the butter/brown sugar out of there. Let it settle for a second, then place the pan in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top of the biscuits are golden brown. Then remove the pan from the oven and set it on a rack. Let the pan sit for at least 10 minutes (but no more than 15), then turn the cake out of the pan onto a cake plate. Note: When it first comes out of the pan, the melted sugar/caramel will be a little on the hot side. Wait a few minutes after turning it out before serving. Oh my.
Instead of flooding the absolute hell out of this thread I'm just blogging it. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.merrymeridional.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.merrymeridional.com/</a> in case you are into that kind of thing.
Our turn to cook for Mother's Day this year. I'm doing surf and turf, steaks and shrimp on the grill. I'm thinking of just dusting the shrimp with tony chachere's and doing some kind of mango salsa to put over it, but I'm looking for other suggestions on how to grill the shrimp. In the alternative, anyone have any good mango salsa recipes?
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mango-Salsa-5707" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... Salsa-5707</a> 2 cups chopped pitted peeled mango 1 cup chopped red bell pepper 2/3 cup chopped green onions 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 4 teaspoons olive oil Keep it simple, works for me every time.
Crock Pot Carnitas Bewildered, this seems like it would be your wheelhouse. Ingredients 2-4 pounds pork shoulder, bone in Salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 teaspoons dried oregano 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 onion, coarsely chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 jalapeno, seeded and ribs removed, chopped 1 orange, cut in half 1 lime, cut in half Handful of cilantro 3 tablespoons vegetable oil Directions Rinse and dry the pork shoulder. Salt and pepper liberally. Mix the oregano and the cumin with olive oil and rub all over pork. Place the pork in a slow cooker and top with the onion, garlic, cilantro, and jalapeno. Squeeze over the juice of the orange and lime and add the halves. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high 4 hours. Once the meat is tender, remove from slow cooker and let cool slightly before pulling apart with a fork. In a large saute pan, heat the vegetable oil over high heat. Press the carnitas into the oil and fry until crusty on one side. Serve with queso fresco, finely chopped onion and jalapeños, avocado, cilantro, lime, and fresh tortillas. So damn good.