Feast of Skewers

  September 2013

 

Feast of Skewers!

This week my sweet little steed who carries me to work daily needed a bit of care to carry on through the autumnal weather changes. When I went in to Seven Corners Cycles, Corey was talking about the weather. How long this summer is! So many more opportunities to barbeque!

These recipes have been tried and true this summer so I want to share them with you while you can still cook outside. They are great together, but even just one makes a delicious meal when paired with a few vegetables (mushrooms, tomatoes and asparagus pictured) and a cool Thai cucumber salad.

Beef Satay
This is a modern satay with an amazing blend of flavors. Tamari is wheat free soy sauce that I use on the rare occasion when I have soy. If you are on a strictly soy free diet please just double the fish sauce and leave out the tamari all together. Its just as delicious!

1/3 cup of tamari
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro
2 tbs of grated orange zest or 4 kumkwats seeded and chopped
4 tsb of fish sauce (red boat is the best and only kind I use, as mentioned before)
1 tsp of coconut oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 lb of beef sirloin cut into skewer size pieces (about 1 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick)

1~ Puree tamari, cilantro, orange, fish sauce, oil garlic in a food processor until smooth. Toss in a bowl with the beef and marinade for 4 hours or overnight if preparing your meats a head of time.

2~ Thread the marinated meat onto bamboo or metal skewers. Grill over charcoal for 4-6 minutes, 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until lightly charred.


Muu Satay
Muu means pig in Thailand which is traditional for this dish, but it is not unusual to see it made with chicken. I save the coriander roots from the summer coriander & freeze it in a ziplock bag for use all year round.

1 cup coconut milk
1 chopped lemon grass
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 inch length of galangal
1 1/2 tsp ground tumeric (or 1/2 in of fresh)
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground coriander (or ground coriander root if you can get it)
pinch of cayenne pepper
12 oz of pork or chicken cut into slices for skewering (about 1 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick)

1~Puree all the spices together in a food processor or blender. Toss the paste & the meat into a bowl. Chill for a few hours, or overnight.

2~ Thread the marinated meat onto bamboo or metal skewers. Grill over charcoal for 8-10 minutes, 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until lightly charred.

Satay Kambing
Kambing is the Javanese word for lamb. There are so many amazing lamb recipes! I chose this one because it is less often prepared in the US than the shish kebab which I also deeply enjoy.

1 tbs organic tamarind paste
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp sea salt
3 cloves of garlic chopped
3 large shallots or 1 small strong onion (not sweet) chopped
1 2 inch piece of ginger
1 lb of lamb cut into sliced for skewering (about 1 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick)

1~ Puree all the ingredients but the lamb in a food processor. Combine with the lamb and chill for at least 4 hours. I like to make marinades the day before so the meat is ready to grill when the coals are hot.

2~ Thread the marinated meat onto bamboo or metal skewers. Grill over charcoal for 4-6 minutes, 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until lightly charred.

Thai cucumber salad
In thaliand we eat this dish with all things grilled. Often the recipes call for sugar, which is absolutely unnecessary! It is much tastier without. Red peppers are beautiful and easier to see if some one needs to exercise care with chili otherwise jalapenos work just as well.

3 persian or thin skin cucumbers
1 large shallot sliced thinly
1 Anaheim red pepper seeded and sliced or Serrano red pepper
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar or coconut vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup of cilantro chopped

1~ half the cucumbers length wise and cut into small half circles.

2~ toss all the ingredients together. Let sit for 20 mintues before serving. Makes a delicious relish for all things skewered.
 

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Peas in curried beef

June 2013

Peas in Curried Beef

Fresh peas are a delicious sign that spring is shifting to summer.

When I was 15 years old my father married a Singaporean woman. One of the things we enjoyed doing together was cooking, the other eating. This dish is a modified version of the one she taught me at that time: quick and easy to make, delicious and perfect for the spring peas, which are in abundance right now

Although the photo shows shelled peas, the dish is even more delicious with the crunch of sugar pod peas. After they are stringed cut them into 3 or 4 pieces to add to the dish.

Make sure you do not over cook the peas for the first serving, but if you want leftovers double the recipe. It is delicious the second day!

-1 diced medium sized onion
-2 tablespoons of fat for cooking
-1 lb ground beef (only grassfed & organic of course!)
-2 teaspoons on whole cloves
-1 pinch of ground cloves
-2 teaspoons of fresh minced ginger
-1 tablespoon curry powder

1 lb of peas shelled or chopped (depending on which kind you choose)

salt to taste ( I love grey celtic sea salt in this recipe)

1~Saute the onions and whole cloves in fat over medium heat, until fragrant and transparent
2~ Stir in the beef breaking it up into small pieces as you stir, making sure it doesn’t clump until just cooked through. Lower the heat under the pan.
3~ Add ground cloves, ginger and curry powder and allow to cook for 5-7 minutes.
4~ Stir in the peas. As soon as they turn bright green pour the whole mess into a serving dish & serve with a fresh sliced fennel drizzled with olive oil and salt

Spring Fava Greens

April 2013

Yesterday we grilled a boneless lamb roast in the back yard. Early summer feeling days this spring! Take advantage of them because you never know what tomorrow will bring. We have an unexpected abundance of garlic growing wild in our back yard. They came up last year and this year they are back. So we picked some to throw on the grill.  We had a Portland farmers market treat we purchased for the first time: fava greens! We used grilled green garlic, but you can use cloves if you don’t have fresh on hand. Ever since we found it in our garden, we are seeing it everywhere. Poke around your neighborhood and see what you can find.

Spring Fava Greens

-3 fresh garlic stems or 5 garlic cloves roughly chopped
-1 bunch of fava greens
-2 tablespoons of oil. I use pork fat. Butter, coconut or duck fat would work as well, each imparting a distinctly different flavor to your dish
-a couple of pinches of sea salt or pink salt, larger grains are tasty for this dish

1~ wash the fava greens and dry them well. chop and use the whole thing as the stems are crisp and tender as well.

 2~ heat the pan until it sizzles when a drop of water is sprinkled on it. Add the oil and as soon as it melts completely, add the garlic.

3~ toss the fava greens into the pan and stir until just beyond the wilted point.

4~ slide them onto a serving dish and sprinkle with salt. Serve with any meal and enjoy the taste of spring!
…

Preserved Lemons March-2013

Vibrant preserved lemons: these delicious guys are a staple for quick cooking in my kitchen. they are good for marinating chicken, beef, pork and i use them blended in a small food processor, with garlic & parsley for steak marinade, with anchovies, garlic & rosemary for lamb. they last over a year in the fridge, but mine never do!
You might have noticed the meyer lemons in the market right now. There is an extraordinary crop & the price is great. They are my favorite: tart, sweet and fragrant. This is the way I am able to enjoy them in every season. This year I am following the same recipe with kumquats. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
10-12 well washed lemons 2/3 - 1 cup of beautiful sea salt ( i prefer gray salts for this recipe) 1/4 cup olive oil you will need a jar or two with lids that fit well either one 20 oz or two quarts.
1~ cut 6 of the lemons into 8 pieces and remove the seeds. Toss with the salt into a bowl. 2~pack them into the jar or jars. if there is more than an inch of room at the top, do step one again with one or two more lemons. 3~squeeze enough juice from the remaining lemons to fill the jars until the lemons are just covered with juice (i saved squeezed lemon skins for my broth making endeavors/frozen) 4~leave on the counter or in cupboard for 5 days shaking once a day 5~ add the olive oil on day 5 or 6. Refrigerate... use a clean fork or spoon when getting them out of the jar. Use a clean fork or spoon when getting them out of the jar to use. If you want them to last, don’t double dip! Enjoy…

Paleo Pancakes

February 2013

Simple Recipes from Shawn's cooking fire

Paleo Pancakes

As many of you know we are constantly preaching about the evils of grains and encouraging everyone to find alternatives to this staple of the Standard American Diet (SAD). Most of our digestive systems do much better with squash and root vegetables for complex carbohydrates than grains do, so here’s a recipe for pancakes that I make every other week or so. You can make a large batch of them freeze the extra and put them in the toaster oven when you’re ready to have some more. Also they go great with the soup recipes that Minga has shared with us over the past few months.

Ingredients:
2 cups Squash (1 large squash makes about 2cups)
2tbs arrowroot
2eggs
1tbs coconut oil or organic butter

Start with a large squash. Either butter nut, acorn, kabocha (Japanese pumkin), or pumpkin. Split the squash in half scoop out the seeds and place face down on a cookie rack greased with coconut oil. Bake at 350 F for 45min to 1hour.
Use a fork to check when it’s soft and cooked all the way through. Pull from the oven and let cool until it can be scooped from the rind without burning your hands.

Scoop the flesh into a large mixing bowl measuring 2 cups. Next stir in your 2tbs of arrowroot powder using a fork to break up all the fibers of the squash till you have a smooth paste. Finally beat your two eggs and stir them in to your batter.

Heat an iron skillet or thick pan with medium heat and coat with coconut oil. These pancakes take longer to cook than traditional pancakes to be patient. It takes about 15 minutes for the first side (if they are burning turn the heat down so you can cook them longer) and 10-15 minutes on the second side. When they’re done use generous amounts of organic butter or coconut oil and add a little salt to taste. Enjoy!

Pork Shoulder recipe Jan 2013

January 2013

Traditional Recipes from minga's Kitchen

 

This is an excellent season for roasts. They keep the house warm and fragrant during these cool days. They can be done quickly or slowly depending on your schedule. They are delicious!
This pork shoulder is best with the bone in, but I have done it boneless as well, just decrease the roasting time by an hour. This is the first roast I’m sharing because it creates a fragrant lake of fat, which I use for cooking all week long. The benefits of healthy, free range, organic pork fat are innumerable:  it has antiviral properties, antioxidant properties superior to vitamin E, it is high in monounsaturated like olive oil, and is rich in vitamin D (be gone depression!). Portland is an amazing place to get good pork. Until I moved here I hardly ever ate pork because good pork is so hard to find. These days we enjoy it almost every week.

The dipping sauces can take you in any flavor direction you’d like to go. I’ll add two to this recipe: an Argentine chimichurri and Thai green sauce.

Simple Slow Roast Pork shoulder

1/2 cup sea salt
pork shoulder bone in or out skin on or off what ever you have found from your local pig farmer

1~Rub sea salt into the roast. I like to let my shoulder cure in plain sea salt in a plastic bag with all the air pressed out for a couple of days before rinsing and roasting for the best flavor. No other seasoning need be added. One day is enough if you forget to get an early start.
2~Set the oven to 250 degrees
3 ~Rinse the roast & place on a roasting rack in the roasting pan skin or fat side up.
4~Roast for 9 to 10 hours if bone in & 7-8 hours if boneless. The internal temperature should read 190 to 195. the meat should shred easily with a fork.
5~Remove from the oven and let sit for 20 mins.
6~Serve and enjoy with dipping sauces or pan sauce after you drain and collect the fat. The fat will keep for a week in the fridge or indefinitely in the freezer.

There are many more wonderful sauces but these two are easy favorites of mine.

Chimichurri Sauce

Ingredients
1 cup  fresh parsley leaves, washed and dried
5 medium cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons oregano leaves (fresh if possible)
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (if you’d like it spicy)

1~Place parsley, garlic, and oregano a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, but not a paste.
2~ Transfer to a bowl and stir in oil, vinegar, salt, and red pepper flakes. Can be stored refrigerator for up to 2 days or eaten right away.

Thai Green Chili Sauce

Ingredients
3 fresh green chili- stem and seed discarded (for a very spicy sauce leave in the seeds)
5 stems of cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1   tsp salt
2    tbs red boast fish sauce

Preparation
1~ Coarsely chop the chilis, cilantro and garlic by hand or in a food processor
2~Add vinegar, salt and fish sauce. 
3~ Stir together well and serve!

Beef Stew recipe

December 2012

Traditional Recipes from minga's Kitchen

The hardest part about travels for us is not having our own kitchen. We had a chance to sample some delicious Brazilian fare & will try them out in our kitchen before sharing them with you. When we got home all we wanted was our simple home meals. Amazingly, we had beef and broth waiting in the freezer and herbs in the garden, so I was able to whip together this wonderful beef stew in the morning before running errands & it was ready for lunch. Simple hot meal & enough for leftovers too!

2 lbs of stew meat (beef, lamb or buffalo)

2 ribs of celery cut into half inch pieces

1 large onion cubed

1 bay leaf

1 rosemary sprig

1 leaf of fresh sage

3 sprigs of parsely

2 tablespoon of duck or pork fat

a pinch of ground cloves

lemon rind from one lemon ( from our morning lemon water)

3 carrots cubed

1 large turnip cubed

1 large rutabaga cubed

1 cup frozen peas (I found some in the fridge and decided to throw them in)

6-8 cups of beef broth.

1~ heat your stew pot, add the oil and stir in the meat browning it well. add the celery, onion, herbs, spices and lemon cook until fragrant, about 15 or 20 minutes.

2~ add the broth and let cook over low heat for 90 minutes or so until meat is tender

3~ add vegetables and cook until they start to soften, about 20 minutes. Toss peas in just before you serve, they will heat very quickly.

Serve & enjoy!