M's recipes Archives - Page 17 of 17

Posted by Meaghan Barry on January 24, 2010

Pork Vindaloo is one of my hands down favorite dishes to make. I like it so much that I often double the recipe as it makes great leftovers. This recipe is originally from Cooking Light May 2007 and the online recipe can be found here. I have abridged the recipe slightly to how I like to make it.

Ingredients
Raita:
16 oz container plain, non-fat Greek Yogurt
3/4 cup chopped seeded peeled cucumber (or if you don’t feel like taking the seeds, try an English cucumber)
3/4 cup chopped seeded tomato
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garam masala

Vindaloo:
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced sweet onion
2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (this dish is pretty spicy so adjust this based on your desired heat level)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
Cooking spray
1 cup chopped seeded tomato (or to save time, use a 15 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained)

Sides (can cook one or both):
4 1/2 cups hot cooked basmati rice
pre-packaged garlic naan

Directions

To prepare raita, pour yogurt into a medium sized bowl. Stir in cucumber, 3/4 cup tomato, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and garam masala; cover and refrigerate.

To prepare vindaloo, combine onion and next 13 ingredients (through pork) in a gallon-sized freezer bag; marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes (I sometimes make this a day ahead of time and let it marinate overnight).

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork mixture; sauté 7 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in 1 cup tomato. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes or until pork is tender, stirring occasionally. In the meanwhile, cook the rice and heat up the naan (I like to brush the naan with olive oil before heating it up). Serve with raita, naan, and/or basmati rice.

-M

Posted by Meaghan Barry on January 10, 2010

This past weekend we hosted some college friends that were visiting Boston. I also made a small road trip yesterday our to Chicopee, MA to pick up some letterpress supplies for my new press. When I got home, my husband was entertaining the crew sans snacks. I also was starving as I only had a small breakfast. I decided to whip together my favorite last minute recipe. It’s also a great recipe as I tend to have all of these ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:
-1 can chickpeas with liquid (omit some liquid if you prefer your hummus less watery)
-3/4 tsp kosher salt
-2-4 garlic cloves
-1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste…you can find this in the international aisle in the Middle East or Greek section)
-6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
-8 dashes Tabasco sauce
-1 or 2 package pitas
-olive oil
-salt & pepper
-seasoning: you could use rosemary, italian seasonings, or any other similar type of spice mix

Peel the garlic and through in the food processor until chopped thoroughly. Place the chickpeas, kosher salt, tahini, lemon juice, and Tabasco sauce in the food processor and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Taste for seasoning and serve chilled at room temperature. I also like to drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil over the hummus before serving.

Set the oven to 400 degrees F. Chop the pitas up in small triangles and put on 1 or 2 baking sheets. Pour a few tablespoons extra virgin olive oil and brush the oil over the pitas. Season the pitas with a bit of salt, pepper, and any additional seasoning you desire. Put the baking sheets in the oven and cook for about 10 minutes, flipping the pitas over halfway through the cooking time. Take out of the oven once the edges start turning a golden brown.

If you have any extra vegetables on hand such as carrots or bell peppers, these also make great items to dip into the hummus.

-M

Posted by Meaghan Barry on January 5, 2010

Tonight I made a recipe from this month’s Cooking Light: Lamb Sliders. It was very good and relatively easy to make after work. The husband liked it so much that he asked for a full burger-sized version of it for next time!

To start, I sliced 2 medium-sized onions and threw it in a pan with 1 tsp brown sugar and a bit of olive oil:

After about 10 minutes, they started to carmelize. As I learned during my French Cooking Class at the Cambridge Culinary Institute, don’t stir the onions too often or they will take even longer to cook.

Next, I mixed the ground lamb with a little s&p and mixed it with my hands. (I started to mix it with a spoon and got nowhere fast- just get your hands dirty!) I had a little less lamb than the recipe called for so I was able to make 9 patties out of the ground meat. I cut 6 small rolls in half and put them on a baking sheet to toast them:

I broiled the patties for about 4 minutes on each side (a little longer than the recipe called for). Then, I toasted the buns for about 1 minute a side (which was a little less than the recipe called for). The lesson here: be sure to keep a watchful eye on anything you broil. I can’t tell you how many times I have accidentally burned something I was broiling when I forgot I was cooking it (and once started a small fire in the oven- oops!) Here is what the lamb patties and buns looked like after:

I pulled together the rest of the ingredients: blue cheese, arugula, and the carmelized onions:

And then we put together our lamb sliders!

-M

Posted by Meaghan Barry on January 2, 2010

For this year’s New Year’s Day dinner, I wanted to try a more challenging dish to mark this special occasion. My mom made us Beef Wellington for Christmas in 2008 so I wanted to try this dish on my own. I had also seen a special on the Today Show where they made mini Beef Wellingtons for a NYE appetizer. I definitely want to try to make these for a party sometime as I suspect they would be a huge hit. Searching for a recipe, I found this one on the Food Network site by Paula Deen. All of the commenters seemed to have enjoyed it a lot, so I decided to give this version a try:

Paula Deen’s Beef Wellington with Oyster Pate
Her recipe calls for a 1 1/2 to 2 pounds beef tenderloin, but the smallest one I was able to find was 3 pounds. I knew it was going to be a bit rare given the extra size so I cooked it about 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for. It still ended up being rare, but fortunately, this is how the husband prefers his beef. Paula Deen recommended using the extra pastry to decorate the top…I decided to monogram my Beef Wellington with a big B. Look how pretty it turned out!

It tasted great! I absolutely loved the oyster pate as well. Paula drains the pate using cheesecloth, which I did not have on hand. I just used a few paper towels instead…I thought the pate came out fine. I would highly recommend this recipe for a special occasion dinner. I served it with green olives as an appetizer and sauteed spinach on the side.

I hope you all had a nice new year’s dinner. It is snowing a bit here in Boston today so I need to figure out a warm dish to make for dinner tonight.

-M

Posted by Meaghan Barry on January 2, 2010

Happy New Year! For breakfast yesterday morning (a rather late one since we did not get home from dinner out until 2 a.m), I decided to make my French Omelette. This omelette is inspired by my favorite brunch item at Gaslight, a French bistro in Boston’s South End. My French Omelette does not include their delicious frites, bloody mary, and cappuccino. It was a nice breakfast to start off the new year nevertheless.

French Omelette (serves 2)

Ingredients:
-6 eggs
-1 tablespoon half & half
-1 tsp herbes de provence
-3/4 oz. package of goat cheese
-salt and pepper
-cooking spray

Directions:
Crack the eggs and whip together until smooth. Mix in the half & half and herbes de provence. Start slicing up the goat cheese into small wedges.

Next, heat up your frying pan over medium-high heat. Spray the pan with cooking spray. When it’s hot, pour half the egg mixture into the pan. Using a fork or spatula, lift edges up as they cook to allow the egg liquid to flow under. Once it is nearly finished cooking (only a small amount of the egg liquid remains), place half the goat cheese slices down the middle. Fold the sides of the omelette over onto the goat cheese and flip over the entire omelette afterwards. Plate omelette. Repeat with remaining egg mixture and goat cheese.

I’m still trying to master the perfect omelette, but here are my pictures of my two attempts yesterday. Don’t worry if your omelette doesn’t look perfect- it will most likely still taste delish.

Enjoy!

-M

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on December 31, 2009

Before the holiday season is officially over, I wanted to post my most requested recipe during this time of year (perhaps more towards Thanksgiving time, but this would be a lovely Christmas or NYE dish to make). This is a great item to make if you are asked to bring dessert to a party. It’s ready to serve and you don’t have to bog the host down with getting in some oven-time to heat up the dessert. In my opinion, pie can be a little much after a big meal and this dessert alternative is a refreshing change of pace.

Ingredients:
1 16oz can solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 package vanilla flavor instant pudding and pie filling for 4 servings
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 cups heavy or whipping cream

Directions:
In large bowl, with wire whisk, mix pumpkin, pudding mix, milk, vanilla extract, cinn, ginger, cloves and 1/3 cup packed brown sugar until well blended.

In small bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate 1 cup whipped cream for garnish. Fold remaining whipped cream into pumpkin mixture

Spoon pumpkin mixture into eight 10 oz goblets (I just used small plastic wine glasses if transporting); cover and refrigerate until read to serve. Pumpkin mixture tastes best if refrigerated for at least 30 min prior to serving.

To serve, spoon reserved whipped cream onto pumpkin mixture; sprinkle with sugared pecan.

Sugared Pecans:
1/2 cup pecans chopped
1 tablespoon light brown sugar

In 2 qt saucepan (Med high heat) cook pecans until lightly browned, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat, stir in sugar until it melts and evenly coats pecans. Cool.

When I am bringing it to someone’s house, I’ve found that those clear plastic wine glasses (no stem) work nicely. I cover each cup with saran wrap, put it on a large tray, and take off the saran wrap before serving. Also, put the dollop of whipped cream and sugared pecans on right before you wrap it up so it doesn’t lose it whippiness…

-m

Posted by Meaghan Barry on December 29, 2009

This is a really easy recipe to pull together and it’s a great dish because it’s ready as soon as you come home from work. I am always looking for crock-pot recipes, but many of them require cooking for only 3-4 hours (which isn’t a possibility when you are working 8-9 hours at the office, plus commuting). This recipe cooks for 10 hours. I usually throw the ingredients together in the crock-pot the night before and then put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning before I head out for work, I take it out of the fridge and set the crock-pot to low for 10 hours.

Ingredients:
3-4 lb boneless pork roast or pork shoulder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (add more or less depending on how spicy you want it)
-sliced green pepper
-sliced onion
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-jar of barbecue sauce
-bulkie rolls

Directions:
Trim off any large pieces of fat off pork roast. I sometimes buy bone-in and you can leave this on (just pull it out before serving). Combine pepper, salt, cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper in small bowl. Rub the spice mix over the pork roast.

Put the sliced green peppers, onions, and brown sugar in the the crock-pot. Place the seasoned meat into the crock-pot next. Add 3/4 of the jar of barbecue sauce (add more or less depending on how saucy you want your pulled pork to be…my husband likes less so I usually only add about 1/2 a bottle).

Cook 10 hours on low or until finished. Using a fork, pull meat apart and shred. Use a large spoon to mix all the ingredients together. You can add more barbecue sauce before serving if it looks a bit dry and also can serve a little sauce on the side. I usually serve this on a bulkie roll with either coleslaw, corn bread, or pasta salad as side dishes. You can also serve the pork without rolls.

My preferred barbecue sauce is Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Sensuous Slathering Sauce (http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com). I’ve also tried it with Dinosaur Creole Honey Mustard barbecue sauce, which was also quite good.

-M