Mod Meals on Mendenhall

a great spice rub

Pulled pork is probably the easiest thing to make for a crowd (well, at least my crowd since I don’t know too many vegetarians). Depending on what you want to serve, you can doctor a pork shoulder or Boston butt to your liking from pulled pork tacos, BBQ pulled pork or anything else you can imagine. This weekend we made Tyler Florence’s recipe for BBQ Pulled Pork for our Puppy Bowl IV Party. I will warn you this is not is not NC style BBQ but it is very tasty. My sister taught me the best trick to making pulled pork – set the oven very low and let the pork cook while you sleep. Tyler recommends cooking the pork for 6 hours at 300 degrees – we cut corners and set the oven for 250 and went to sleep (about eight hours). The next morning the pork was fall off the bone tender. We let it cool down and put it in the fridge for the day and heated it back up right before dinner. We didn’t make the coleslaw with his recipe but we did make the BBQ sauce. Like I said, it isn’t the eastern NC style BBQ that I grew up with but it is finger licking good! I doubled the brown sugar in the sauce recipe to cut some of the vinegar – so taste as you go and adjust to your liking. I highly recommend this for a crowd!

Look how fun this is!

Please pay close attention to Michael in this photo.

Some of my best friends live all around the country. I miss my friends Michael and Tommy in Chicago dearly – they can make any moment fun and carefree. Thanks to the smart people at Google, I get to see their cute faces more often using Gmail Video Chat. While catching up one day, we thought it would be great fun to cook dinner together over our webcams. Michael only knows how to make about five things and Tommy was excited for him to learn something new. So, I picked my easy fajita recipe, emailed the grocery list and directions for marinating and scheduled a 7:30 eastern standard time webcam cooking class. The class was not only a success but a whole lot of fun! The only challenge was talking loud enough over the sizzling skillet! I highly recommend this recipe and the webcam cooking class experience! 

Webcam Fajitas 

Ingredients: 

2 limes, juiced  
1 splash canola oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 lb chicken breast, sliced 
1 or 2  bell peppers, sliced
1 sweet yellow onion, sliced
sour cream
salsa
sharp cheese
flour tortillas 

Assembly: The next before, marinate the chicken in the first seven ingredients. The next day, heat a large skillet with a splash of oil. Add the chicken and marinade into the pan and cook the chicken until done. The marinade will reduce as you cook. Meanwhile, slice the onions and peppers. Once the chicken is done, set it aside. Add the onions and pepper and cook until caramelized. Once cooked to your preference (my Dad and I like our onions extra caramelized) add the chicken back in to the skillet. Serve with warmed tortillas, cheese, sour cream, and salsa.

I’m the type of person tries to only order out food I know I can’t make at home. That is why you typically can’t  find me at a steakhouse, ordering a hamburger or a bowl of spaghetti (although I am lazy from time to time). Before I started this blog, I don’t think I would have had an itch to try to make something at home after I ate it out at a restaurant, but here I am attempting what is probably the impossible. I don’t expect to ever master the art of Vietnamese, Indian or Thai food at home but it is fun to try.

This year my friend Andrew turned me on to the Ground Chicken with Basil at Rearn Thai on West Market Street. We have convinced ourselves that is it healthy although I’m sure it has more sodium than we would like to imagine. Over Christmas I stole my neighbor’s Food and Wine magazine while I was feeding their cats and ran into a recipe for Thai Ground Pork Salad that looked very much like the Ground Chicken with Basil. I thought this would be a great start to experimenting with this recipe at home.

I made the Food and Wine recipe using ground chicken instead of pork and served rice and spicy sesame snow peas on the side. Like I predicted, the meat needed more salt and didn’t taste exactly like I hoped. The next day for lunch, I combined the left over rice, snow peas and ground chicken, added a little soy and a lot of sriracha and loved the second go-round! Like all cooking experiments - or any experiment for that matter - we live and we learn (look at me trying to be philosophical about the scientific method). Below are the components.  I recommend combining them and serving with soy and lots of sriracha!

Ground Chicken with Fresh Herbs

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1 -2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/2 jalapeño, seeded and minced
• 1 lime, juiced (plus some for serving)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon sriracha
• veggie oil
• 1 small handful fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 small handful fresh mint, chopped
• 1 small handful fresh basil, chopped
• 1/2 cup salted peanuts, chopped (optional)

Assembly: In a bowl, combine the chicken, garlic, shallots and jalapeño. In a separate bowl, combine the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar and sriracha. In a skillet, heat the oil and add the meat mixture. Cook over medium high heat and break apart. Turn off the heat and add the other mixture and herbs. Taste for salt and pepper.

Spicy Sesame Sugar Snap Peas

Ingredients:

• sugar snap peas
• sesame oil, 1 teaspoon
• hot chili oil, 1 teaspoon
• soy or tamari sauce, a splash
• sesame seeds (optional)

Assembly: In a skillet, heat the two oils. Throw in the peas and cook for one minute. Then add a splash of soy or tamari and allow to steam until bright green!

My friend Heather made this risotto for me many moons ago when she and her partner Becci lived in Greensboro. They now live in Madison (which I’m sure you know if you are a MMoM regular like Heather) but were gracious enough to share the recipe. I made this Sunday night and enjoyed it all week for lunches and dinners. Next time I might use half chicken broth and half white wine but it sure is tasty as is! Thanks HH!

Ingredients:

• 28-32 oz diced or canned tomatoes in their juice (if using whole canned tomatoes – chop or puree)
  1 bottle dry white wine (we tend to use Trader Joe’s 2-buck-Chuck Chardonnay)
  1-2 tbsp olive oil
  1 lb sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed (both pork and turkey sausage work well)
  1 large onion, finely chopped
  2+ cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
  1-1/2 tbsp dried Italian seasoning (or just basil if you prefer)
  Coarse salt and ground pepper
  1 cup Aborio rice
  1 can artichoke hearts (do not drain)
  1 small can tomato paste
  6 oz+ sliced crimini or Portobello mushrooms
  9 oz+ bag of fresh baby spinach (or if using regular spinach – chop roughly and remove tough stems)
  ½ cup+ grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for serving if desired)
  2 tbsp butter                                                   
   
  Serves 4 (we tend to double the recipe for leftovers). Takes about an hour to prepare. Quite a crowd pleaser and although a bit fussy not difficult!
   
  Directions:
  -          Combine tomatoes with juice and wine in a saucepan and bring just to a simmer. Keep warm over low heat.
  -          In a larger saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add sausage, onion and garlic – season with salt & pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook, breaking up sausage 3-5 minutes until sausage is opaque and onions are softened.
  -          Add rice to sausage mixture. Stir until well coated, 1-2 minutes. Add 1 cup of tomato-wine mixture and stir until absorbed, 1-2 minutes.
  -          Add undrained can of artichoke hearts, tomato paste, mushrooms and 2 cups of the tomato-wine mixture. Stir well until tomato paste is incorporated. Then, simmer over low heat stirring occasionally until absorbed. Continue adding tomato-wine mixture until only 1 cup of tomato-wine mixture is left. Rice should be getting creamy and just tender – about 25-30 minutes.
  -          Add spinach and remaining tomato-wine mixture and stir until liquid is absorbed and spinach is wilted.
  -          Remove from heat and stir in cheese and butter, season with salt and pepper.
  -          Serve immediately (will thicken as it cools) and sprinkle with additional cheese if desired.

If you really like smokey flavors this pasta is for you. I’ve made Giada’s Smoke Mozzarella and Prosciutto Pasta about two times and both times I’ve been a little overwhelmed by the smokiness of the cheese. The great thing about this dish (like all sauceless pastas) is that you can reheat it and enjoy it throughout the week. I like how the mozzarella reheats and stretches more and more. I think I had this pasta for three nights in a row.

The only change I made in the dish was a sautéed the asparagus and garlic while the pasta was boiling. I would much rather do this than deal with an ice bath. Also, I used just half of the mozzarella because I’m not crazy about all the smoke.