Slow Cooker Pork Roast

Slow Cooker Pork Roast with roasted broccoli and mashed sweet potatoes

It’s set-it-and-forget-it season! Actually, the crock pot is good all year, but because it makes pots of lovely hot food, I think people associate it more with winter than summer. I know I do. The first thing I thought when I saw pork roasts on sale was “slow cooker.” But I didn’t really want barbeque. Nothing wrong with it, but it’s a flavor I’m bored of before the leftovers are gone. Molasses is a fall obsession of mine — while the world goes crazy for “pumpkin spice” everything, I want to drown in molasses (not literally. That stuff kills. Science!). So I started with molasses and went from there. Balsamic vinegar and some spices add up to earthy and hearty.

This pork roast will make a lot of leftovers, if it’s just one or two of you, or it’ll feed a crowd. And it is quick enough to be made first thing in the morning. I served this with some roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes — I hope to share the sweet potatoes as soon as I work out some kinks with that recipe. Pork and sweet potatoes are great together, and broccoli goes with everything.

Slow Cooker Pork Roast with roasted broccoli and mashed sweet potatoes

• oil to grease the crock
• 1 sweet onion, halved and sliced thin
• 1/2 teaspoon of oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2-2.5 lb center cut boneless pork roast, fat side up
• 1 Tablespoon molasses
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard
• 1/2 cup broth or stock, whatever you have on hand
• 1/4 cup hot water
• fresh ground pepper, to your taste (I used about 1/2 a teaspoon, not that I measured)

Grease the crock of your slow cooker. Add the sliced onion to the bottom, and drizzle on the 1/2 teaspoon of oil and the 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Place the pork roast on top of the onions, with the fat side up (I do not trim this for the slow cooker — it’s good flavor).

In a small dish or right in a measuring cup, whisk or stir with a fork the next 7 ingredients (molasses through the broth/stock). Pour this over the roast. Use the last 1/4 cup of water to rinse all the seasoning out of the measuring cup, and pour this along the side (don’t rinse off the seasoning that landed atop the pork roast!). Grind the pepper right on top.

Cover and cook all day. Or, you know, 4-6 hours on high, 6-8 hours on low.

When this is done, take just the meat out. Attempt to slice it, and find out that it will shred instead. After breaking it up, put it back in the liquid you cooked it in, and stir well. This lets the meat soak up a little more of the cooking liquid to serve.

Alternately, you could also make a starch slurry (starch of your choice mixed with water, 1:2 ratio) and add that to the liquid for the last 30 minutes or so of cooking — this will give you more of a gravy consistency.

Serve with side dishes of your choice — roasted veg would be great, but go wild. You’re coming home to dinner almost done.

 

Grilled Chimichurri Pork Chops

Grilled Chimichurri Pork Chops. Photo by J. Andrews

A few years ago my friend Liz was up in the Boston area and we went out to dinner somewhere north of Boston. I think it was an Argentinian restaurant, but I’m not 100% sure. This was pre food allergy apocalypse, but I was in a phase of not eating much beef. For whatever reason I ordered pork chops, which, I think, is an odd choice for me — I can’t recall ordering them out before or since. But these were amazing. They were marinated in chimichurri sauce and then grilled. This recipe is my attempt to recreate that meal, but also just to make chimichurri.

Chimichurri sauce, as the internet has well-educated me, is a traditional Argentinian condiment that the non-South American internet has fallen in love with, and, as the internet is wont to do, bastardized. Yes, you can add all sorts of ingredients to all sorts of recipes, but then they are no longer that thing, right? So far as I can tell, this is a reasonably traditional chimichurri. From what I can tell, it doesn’t really need anything else — it’s really good as it is.

The other thing that internet writers rail against is the claim that, in Argentina, chimichurri is used “like ketchup” or “on everything.” Now, I do have one friend who does use ketchup on everything, but overall, ketchup is not all that universal in my opinion. But I do think that the reason writers may say these things about chimichurri is that it really is amazing and, if you make it, YOU might want to use it on everything. And because I’m me, I’m frying my breakfast potatoes in it now. I may need chimichurri in my life forever. See, internet, that’s just projection.

I pulled the parsley apart, measured it, and scaled the recipe to the amount of parsley I had. I’d suggest you consider doing the same unless you are way better at using up leftover parsley than I am. I’m pretty sure that traditionally, fresh oregano would be used. I couldn’t find any. I used dried. I also used a food processor. Tradition only goes so far. This recipe does make way more than you need for a recipe of pork chops, unless you’re cooking for a mob, so make plans for the leftovers. (Breakfast potatoes.)

Chimichurri Sauce Grilled Pork Chops

• 4 cups flat leaf parsley, leaves removed from stems (one bunch of parsley)
• 2 Tablespoons dried oregano
• 6 cloves of garlic, or about 1/4 of the head
• 2 pinches red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (or you know, “enough.” Do people measure freshly ground pepper, really? I never do.)
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1.5 cups olive oil

This is what herbs look like when “ground” in a food processor

With your S-blade in your food processor, pulse the parsley down a bit.

Add the oregano, garlic, salt, and red and black peppers. Pulse until ground.

Scrape the ground herbs and spices into a bowl. Stir in the vinegar, and then the oil — use a fork to get the best mixing.

Let this sit at room temperature for 2 hours to let the flavors meld, and then bottle up and store in the fridge. I’m assuming this will last a few weeks. To use, spoon herbs up from the bottom and use as a marinade, condiment, or anything else you can think up.

For the pork chops:

• thick, bone-in pork chops, however many you need.

In a glass dish, spoon a layer of chimichurri into the bottom of a glass dish. Place pork chops on top of this layer, and top with thick spoonsful of chimichurri. Cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 12 hours or so.

Marinated pork chops. Photo by J. Andrews

Grill by the “piled” method — put all your charcoal to one side (or turn on half the burners). Place the meat over the hot side of the grill to sear the outside, both sides, and then move to the cool side of the grill (which really isn’t cool) and cook until done. For pork, that’s 145°F, remembering to rest the meat for at least three minutes after cooking before cutting into.

Add some extra chimichurri before serving. Then proceed to prove the internet right and use chimichurri on all the things.

(P.S. to my friend Cathy, yes, this is just like when I discovered lefse and put “inappropriate” things on it.)

Quick Thai-Inspired Curry Noodle Stir Fry

 

Quick Thai-Inspired Curry Noodle Stir Fry

Thai food was one of the biggest losses for me.  My husband and I had our first date at a Thai restaurant, and I used to get delivery there so often that the staff knew it was me just from my voice on the telephone. It was not uncommon for us to have Thai once or twice a week, especially when I was still in private practice. But Thai’s kind of hard without coconut.

This recipe’s kind of concept more than a recipe, because there are so many variables and and you can make so many curries, i.e. green, red, yellow, Massaman, etc. I used a commercial curry paste because it looked relatively safe for me, although we’ll see in the next few days whether I got corned or not (corned is like being gluten-ed but obviously with corn). However, there are tons of curry paste recipes on the internet that people can modify for their own diets, if the suggestions are not safe for you. Or you can use use a curry powder spice mix you like. I’ve also used the DIY Singapore Seasoning from our DIY Spice Mix Day post. Also, if you make curry paste, freeze it in an ice cube tray so you can grab a chunk when you want. You can use any meat you want, or not. You can also use whatever vegetables strike your fancy.

Makes about 3-4 servings, depending on serving size.

• 1/2 of a 1 pound package of rice noodles (I used the kind that I would use for pho, but you can pick the width of rice noodle you like)
• 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, grape seed oil, or an oil that’s safe for you
• 1 cup of cashew milk or other non-dairy milk (If you can have coconut milk, by all means use it. I can’t use commercial cashew milk so I make my own, soaking 1 cup of cashews in hot water for a couple of hours, draining the water, and putting them in the blender with two cups of new water. It’ll make more than you need, but it freezes well.)
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 package of Kanokwan Green Curry Paste (they have other flavors too, make sure you read labels); or 1 or 2 Tablespoons of Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste (they have other flavors as well, read labels); or 1 or 2 Tablespoons of Mae Ploy Thai Green Curry Paste (ditto, other flavors, read labels) or 1 or 2 Tablespoons of a curry spice mix you like, similar to those available from Penzey’s.
• 1/2 pound of beef, pork or chicken cut into stir fry sized strips (Chicken’s out for me, but if you can eat it go for it.)
• 3 scallions, sliced into quarter inch pieces
• 1/2 cup of snow peas
• 10-12 asparagus stalks, trimmed and cut into 1″ pieces
• 2 carrots, julienned
• 1 small onion or half a medium onion, cut in half and sliced thinly crosswise to form slices in a curved shape
• 1 medium bok choy (about 6-8 inches long), sliced crosswise to form small bite size pieces
• 2 Thai chilies, de-stemmed and sliced (optional, leave out if really spicy is not your thing)
• 5-6 Thai basil leaves

First up, prepare all your vegetables. Keep the bok choy or any other greens separated from the rest of the vegetables because they will cook quicker and need to be added at end. To do the carrots, I cheat and use a peeler that juliennes.

Julienne Peeler

 

Fill a large stock pot with water and bring to a boil. Add your rice noodles, boil for 6-8 minutes and then drain. If you’re using smaller rice noodles, you might not need as much cooking time, so check your package’s instructions. Place the noodles aside until the curry is finished.

Prepared Rice Noodles

In a large skillet, add the oil, the cashew milk, water, and curry paste or spice mix.  Stir to combine over medium heat.

Curry Paste and Cashew Milk Mixture

Add your meat if you’re using it, and cook until the meat is cooked through. Then add your vegetables with the exception of the bok choy (or other green of choice).

Curry before adding greens

Cover your skillet with its lid and let it simmer for a few minutes to let the asparagus and carrots cook. Then add your bok choy and simmer until the bok choy is ready. When the bok choy is ready, mix in your Thai basil leaves.

Completed Curry/Stir Fry Thing

Place a bed of rice noodles on a plate and spoon your curry over it. If you have extra Thai basil leaves and want to be fancy, garnish your dish with them.

Quick Thai-Inspired Curry Noodle Stir Fry

Hope you enjoy it!

 

Cure Your Own Salt Pork

Two of three ingredients needed to cure salt pork – because uncooked salt pork isn’t that attractive

Since the corn allergy apocalypse, I’ve been making my own baked beans and pressure canning them so they will be relatively free of corn ingredients. Except I’ve been cheating a bit *hangs head in shame* — I’ve been using salt pork from the grocery store which has dextrose and sodium erythorbate, which are corn ingredients. I figured it was only a little bit in each jar (dumb, dumb, please don’t follow my example). But after learning how to cure bacon, I thought, hey, salt pork can’t be that hard right? And then I did some Google-fu and found out that, in fact, making some salt pork would be easier than making the bacon. So I had to do it, because the cleaner I eat, the less full my allergy bucket is, and the better off I am when I have a bigger exposure to something, and the healthier I feel.

Salt Pork

• 1 pound boneless pork belly cut into half inch thick slices, between 1-2 inches long (I removed the skin, but it’s up to you)
• 1/2 cup kosher or non-iodized salt (the stuff they use to iodize the salt is dextrose, a.k.a. corn, get stuff with no other ingredients but salt.)
• 2 Tablespoons cane sugar

Mix the salt and the sugar in a bowl.

Pork belly sliced into half inch thick pieces

Use some of the salt and sugar mixture to rub or dredge the pork belly slices.

Pork belly slices dredged in salt and sugar mixture

In a glass, ceramic, or stainless steel container (I used Pyrex), spread a layer of the salt and sugar mixture. Place a layer of the sugar and salt coated pork belly sliced on top of the layer of the salt and sugar mixture.

Dredged pork belly slices on salt and sugar mixture layer

Sprinkle more of the salt and sugar mixture on top and add another layer of pork belly slices. Continue alternating the pork and salt and sugar mixture until you don’t have any pork belly slices left. Sprinkle the remaining salt and sugar mixture over the top of the pork belly slices.

Completed layers of pork belly slices and salt and sugar mixture

Cover the container with a lid or some plastic wrap and refrigerate it. The pork belly slices will be cured and ready to use in 2-3 days.

Pork belly slices after curing for 2 days in fridge

Rinse the salt and sugar mixture off of the salt pork slices. Pat them dry with a paper towel.

Salt pork rinsed and patted dry on paper towels

They are now ready to use in your beans, chowders (non-dairy of course) or stews, or you can store them in a resealable plastic bag in your freezer.

Salt pork in a resealable plastic bag ready to go into the freezer

Enjoy!

Making Bacon, Squared (i.e. two versions)

Home cured bacon

Bacon. It’s bacon, how do you live without bacon? Unfortunately, commercial bacon has dextrose, sodium erythorbate, ascorbates, and other corn ingredients. At the beginning of my corn-free life, I would cheat a bit, but then I would get a blister on my foot a couple days later, and I eventually decided that it had to go. So no bacon. For months and months. And then I started Googling how to make bacon, and looking for pins on Pinterest. It didn’t look that hard. And compared to fermenting (which I very much enjoy, so this is not a slam), it seemed much less evil scientist-bubbling concoctions, and more of a dry rub marinade in the fridge for several days longer than you would normally. What was the worst that could happen? I mean, besides making myself sick, and that was going to happen if I ate commercial bacon anyway. But I still didn’t do it because I was going to have to make a special effort to get some pork belly, and it’s not like I don’t have enough other stuff to do. But one day, Mary Kate and I were dubbing around at the Saigon Market in Nashua and we saw some pork belly all packaged up and ready to bring home. So I bought it, and I made some bacon. It was good, but I thought the recipe needed some tweaking. So I called McKinnons in Salem and ordered five pounds of pork belly. And I then played around some more.

Now that I’m done experimenting, I’ve got two versions to share with you, one that’s a more basic cure, and one that’s a bit more savory. I like them both, but I prefer the basic cure, as I tend to be a traditionalist about my bacon.

In all likelihood, you are going to special order the fresh pork belly. Some grocery stores may be cooperative, or you might have to go to a specialty butcher store.

Making Bacon (two versions)

• 2 lbs of pork belly, skin removed
• 3 tablespoons sea salt
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar

For a basic cure, you will add:

• 2 teaspoons whole peppercorns

For a more savory cure, you will add:

• 2 teaspoons whole peppercorns
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp celery seed
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves

Put the salt, brown sugar, and the spices for your choice of cure in a blender or food processor, with the exception of the garlic clove in the savory cure. Blend or process until the peppercorns are well ground. If you’re using the savory cure, mince the garlic clove and set it aside.

If your pork belly still has the skin on it, as shown below, you will need to remove it. (The picture below shows five pounds of pork belly. I used it to make approximately two pounds of each bacon cure and one pound of salt pork, the recipe for which will be posted in the not too distant future.)

Five pounds of boneless pork belly before the skin is removed

Using a very sharp knife, remove the skin cutting it as thinly as you can manage. You don’t want to waste any of the pork belly.

Removing the skin from the pork belly

Once you have trimmed off the skin, your pork belly will look like the picture below:

Pork belly with the skin removed

Rinse the pork belly in very cold water and pat it dry with a paper towel. If you are doing the savory cure, now is the time to mix your ground salt, sugar and spice mixture in a bowl with the minced garlic. Spread half your salt, sugar, and spice mixture on a large piece of parchment paper, a large casserole dish, or a sheet pan, whatever you have in your kitchen that’s large enough to accommodate your piece of pork belly. Place the pork belly into the salt, sugar and spice mixture, and pour the remaining mixture over the top of the pork belly. Rub the mixture all over the pork, making sure to get every inch covered.

Put the pork belly in a 1 gallon resealable plastic bag, and add any of the excess salt, sugar, and spice mixture from your parchment paper, casserole dish, or sheet pan to the bag. Close the bag and shake it up to evenly distribute and coat the pork belly with the mixture. After shaking, try to remove as much of the air from the resealable plastic bag as you can so that the spice mixture stays on the pork belly and reseal it.

Pork belly coated with salt, sugar, and spice mix in resealable plastic bag

Place the bag on a plate, tray or small sheet pan so that it can be placed in your refrigerator and stay level. Refrigerate for five to seven days, flipping the bag once a day, until the pork feels firm throughout. The longer you let the pork belly cure, the saltier it will be. I preferred a cure of five days.

When the pork belly is finished curing, remove the pork belly from the resealable plastic bag and wash off the salt, sugar and spice mixture thoroughly under cold water. Pat your pork belly dry with paper towels.

You now have a choice to make. You can slice the bacon as is and then cook it, which appears to be the closest to commercial bacon, and was often referred to as “green bacon” in recipes I saw. Or you can smoke or roast the bacon. I don’t have a smoker, so I’ve not tried smoking it. I did do one batch of the roasted bacon, but I think I prefer the green bacon.

Green bacon:

We got a meat slicer as a wedding gift because my husband really wanted one, so it went on the registry. It was really helpful in slicing the green bacon.

“Green bacon” sliced

I fried some in my cast iron skillet over medium heat, as you would normally cook bacon.  The home cured bacon seems to take longer than commercial bacon to cook.

“Green”bacon” frying in cast iron

Which results in yummy looking bacon:

Fried “green bacon”

Or you can use the oven method to cook your bacon, and you get yummy bacon too:

“Green bacon” cooked in the oven

Roasting the Bacon:  When your bacon has cured, and you’ve rinsed and patted it dry with paper towels, pre-heat your oven to 200°F. Place the bacon in a 9 x 13″ roasting pan and roast until you’ve reached an internal temperature of 150°F. This will take between an hour and a half and two hours.

Bacon roasted in the oven

You don’t want to cook the meat, so once it reaches 150°F, remove the bacon from the oven. Let the bacon cool to room temperature. 

Once your bacon has been roasted or smoked and has cooled, wrap it up in parchment paper and put it in the refrigerator until it has completely chilled. Once chilled, you can slice it and fry it up or use the oven method to cook your bacon. In the picture below, I used a chef’s knife and my knife skills aren’t all that great so the slices are a bit thicker than I would have liked. Which is why I decided to drag out the meat slicer in later experiments.

Roasted bacon after chilling and slicing

We cooked the bacon two ways here too, frying it and using the oven method.

Roasted Bacon, cooked two ways, fried and using the oven method

Smoking the Bacon: Again, I have not tried this because I don’t have a smoker, but one of the recipes I found gives the following directions. When your bacon has cured, and you’ve rinsed and patted it dry with paper towels, smoke it over hickory or apple wood at a very low temperature until bacon reaches an internal temperature of 150°F or about three hours. Let bacon cool to room temperature. Once your bacon has been roasted or smoked and has cooled, wrap it up in parchment paper and put it in the refrigerator until it has completely chilled. Once chilled, you can slice it and fry it up or use the oven method to cook your bacon.

My husband and I both preferred the oven method for cooking the bacon and we both preferred the “green bacon”, but you should experiment and see what you like best. Here’s a chart for how long your bacon will keep from the USDA. The bacon cures presented here would fall under “Bacon cured without nitrites.” I don’t want to weigh in on the nitrites being good or bad issue, it’s just that I can’t get seem to get my hands on curing salt that doesn’t also have corn (dextrose) in it.

I hope this helps those of you who can’t get commercial bacon for whatever reason. Enjoy, I did 🙂

Spicy Green Pork Amazing (a.k.a. Pork Chile Verde) and a bonus recipe!

Spicy Green Pork Amazing (a.k.a. Pork Chile Verde)

So, here’s the thing.  Most of you will be able to make this recipe without making the bonus recipe for Roasted Green Tomatillo Salsa, because you’ll be able to buy safe canned green tomatillo salsa at the grocery store. With the corn allergy, I can’t because it’ll have citric acid or some other corny evil thing in it. I do have some green tomatillo salsa I canned myself earlier in the summer, but since I would end up using it all up for this one dish, and since my local grocery store had tomatillos this week, I made up a fresh batch for this recipe.  You’ll also need a 4 quart or larger crock pot for this recipe and a food processor or a blender if you’re making the salsa.

Spicy Green Pork Amazing (a.k.a. Pork Chile Verde)

• 3 1/2 – 4 pounds of boneless pork butt, cut into cubed pieces about 1-2″ inches square and trimmed of fat or left whole in one piece (see your options below).
• 2 small onions or 1 medium onion, diced into half inch square pieces
• 4 stalks of celery, cut into half inch pieces
• 1 Italian pepper or 1 green bell pepper, de-stemmed and de-seeded and chopped into half inch pieces
  

  Italian Pepper, just for identification and reference

• 3 cups of green tomatillo salsa, either from the grocery store or using the recipe below
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice
• salt to taste when you have finished cooking

If you have safe green tomatillo salsa you can buy, skip past this next part to the ♦ symbol below.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

This recipe is based on the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa from The Barnyard Bistro blog, but I’ve messed with it a bit and altered it for the purposes of this recipe.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

• 2 pounds of tomatillos, husked and washed
• 2 medium onions, chopped into about half to one inch pieces
• 2 Serrano chile peppers, de-stemmed and de-seeded and cut into halves or quarters
• 4 cloves of garlic, trimmed of the stem end
• 1/2 cup of tightly packed cilantro, washed and chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/3 of a cup of water.

Place the tomatillos, the onions, the Serranos and the garlic on a large baking sheet or roasting pan that’s safe for the broiler.

Tomatillos, Serranos, Onions and Garlic on a Baking Sheet

Turn your broiler to 500° and broil until the tomatillos are an olive green color and have browned. You may hear some of them pop, it’s okay.

Broiled Tomatillos, Serranos, Onions and Garlic on a Baking Sheet

Once the tomatillos are done, put the roasted ingredients in a blender or food processor as well as any juices that have cooked out into your pan, making sure that you’ve de-glazed any of the good tasty browned bits too.  Add the cilantro, the salt and the water, and process. You might have to do this in batches, depending on the size of your blender or food processor.  I did.  I used a large bowl hold the batches and then mixed it altogether at the end.  This makes about 4 cups of salsa, so you’ll have enough for the recipe and some to just eat as well.

 ♦  Now that we have our safe salsa, or you’ve gotten some from the grocery store, it’s time to go onto the pork. Depending on your inclination, you can use the pork all in one piece and shred it later when it’s cooked, or you can cut into pieces about 1-2″ inches square and trim off the extra fat as you go. I cubed and trimmed my pork and removed about half a cup of extra fat. 

On the bottom of your crock pot, place the celery and onions that you’ve cut into half inch pieces. Place either the whole piece or the cubed and trimmed pieces of boneless pork butt in the crock pot on top of the celery and onion. Place the chopped Italian or bell pepper on top of the pork.

Pork, Italian Pepper, Onions and Celery in Crock Pot

In a bowl, add the green tomatillo salsa, the minced garlic, the cumin, the dried oregano, the ground black pepper, and the lemon juice. and mix it thoroughly. Pour the mixture over the pork, making sure to scrape the bowl well, and get every bit into the crock pot. I also use a spatula to push the mixture down through the pork pieces if you have cubed the pork. If you like less sauce, you can cut the salsa back by a cup, but I like mine with a lot.

Salsa Mixture over Pork, Italian Pepper, Onions and Celery in Crock Pot before cooking

Put the lid on your crock pot, and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or on high for 4 to 5 hours.

Spicy Green Pork Amazing (a.k.a. Pork Chile Verde) after cooking

You can serve this with safe for you tortillas (there’s a lot of recipes out there) and other fixings, or you can serve it over rice. Also, if you have a dairy free sour cream replacement product you can use, that would be great as a garnish.

Spicy Green Pork Amazing (a.k.a. Pork Chile Verde)

Enjoy!

Spicy Red Wine Cranberry Crusted Pork Loin

Spicy Red Wine Cranberry Crusted Pork Loin

So, if you’ve got leftover cranberries in the freezer from Turkey Day, this is a great way to use them up.  And it doesn’t involve turkey, which you’re probably heartily sick of at this point. I couldn’t resist adding a bit of spice to this recipe, but it’s minimal in the finished product. If spice bothers you, leave the Red Fresno pepper out of the cranberry sauce.  If you like it hotter, use a habanero.

Spicy Red Wine Cranberry Crusted Pork Loin

Serves about 4.

• 1 cup of red wine
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 Red Fresno chile pepper, de-stemmed, seeded, and minced.
• 1 12 ounce bag of cranberries, either fresh or frozen
• 1 1-2 pound pork loin

Preheat your oven to 400°F.  Using an oil mister, or a bit of oil and a paper towel, grease a sheet pan.

Wash the cranberries and pick out the soft, crushed and/or bad ones. In a small non-reactive sauce pan, add the wine, brown sugar, and minced Red Fresno chile pepper, and bring it to a boil.  Once the wine, brown sugar, and chile pepper are boiling, add the cranberries and let it come back to a boil.  Reduce to the heat to medium and boil gently for 10 minutes.  Basically you’re making red wine cranberry sauce with some chile in it.  It’s really good by itself, just saying.

Spicy Red Wine Cranberry “crust” for pork loin

Once you’ve finished the sauce, spread out a little bit of it on the pan, to match the general length and width of your pork loin, so that your pork loin will be resting in a bed of the cranberries.

Bed of cranberries for the pork loin.

Place the pork loin on top of the cranberries, so that if there is a fat layer on the pork loin that the layer rests on the bed of cranberries (or remove it), and then cover the pork loin with the remaining cranberries. You’ll note I have a probe thermometer in the pork loin. It’s one of the best kitchen tools I ever bought, no more overcooked meat.

Pork loin covered with cranberry “crust”

Put the pork loin in the oven.  I set the probe thermometer for an internal temp of 161°F, which is what the FDA says is safe. The actual cooking time was about 45 minutes, but this may vary depending on the size of your pork loin and how well, or not, your oven works.  

Spicy Red Wine Cranberry Crusted Pork Loin just out of the oven.

Let it rest a couple of minutes and then slice it up and serve with some of the cranberries and drippings.  It’s really yummy!

Spicy Red Wine Cranberry Crusted Pork Loin

Simple Jambalaya Stew

Are you sick of turkey, maybe not ready for chicken, but it’s cold outside? Maybe something completely different is in order? And it’s still really cold out?

One of my favorite bad day “anywhere but here” fantasies involves the story my friend Jodi and I like to tell about our future retirement to New Orleans, where it is not cold (no matter what your definition of “cold” is, it’s usually warmer down there in the winter), where we’ll sit on the porch of the pink house and yell at squirrels and kids to get off the lawn. And we will eat. For all the croissants and beignets I can’t eat, there are plenty of shrimp that I can (aren’t we always pretty grateful for the food allergies we don’t have?). If you do have a shellfish allergy, consider substituting cooked chicken for the shrimp, adding it at the end and just heating it up.

This stew is warm enough to take off the chill of a long day spent outside in the raw New England winter (well, this stew and some indoor heat), so hopefully it’ll make your winter warmer, too. Short warning — This is NOT a true traditional New Orleanian jambalaya. This is my quick tossing together of the flavors that remind me of my visits to the city.

Simple Jambalaya (esque) Stew

Serves 5-6

• 1 Tablespoon oil
• 1 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 2-5 stalks celery, chopped
• 12 oz (2 links, one package) andouille sausage, links cut in half lengthwise and then sliced
• 1 1/2 cups brown jasmati rice**
• 5-7 cups chicken or vegetable stock**
• 1 Tablespoon adobo spice mix
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 1 Tablespoon dry sherry
• 1 lb. shrimp, raw, peeled, deveined (see note)

Chop all the vegetables according to your likes — I like the flavor of onions and bell peppers, but in this dish, I don’t want to  taste a chunk of either at any time, so I dice those small. However, I want the crunch and flavor of celery, so I chop that in rather large pieces. I want the very flavorful sausage to flavor the entire dish, so I want them slightly smaller than the shrimp will be when cooked, and I leave the shrimp whole (but take off the tails because I don’t like to fuss — do what works for you). Try this, and then adjust it to suit your tastes.

In a large stockpot, over medium heat, add oil and heat until shimmery hot. Add onions and salt, saute for a few minutes. Add bell pepper, stir, and again saute a few minutes. Add the celery and sausage, stir in well, then add the rice and mix to make sure it’s well-coated with the oil and vegetables. Add the chicken stock.

**You will need to adjust the amount of stock based on the rice you choose. I prefer a brown rice in this, but I’m pretty sure that white rice would be more traditional. I used a jasmati blend (a cross of jasmine and basmati rices) because I had it on hand. It was pretty good. You want enough broth to fully cook the rice, and then a few extra cups for a good soupy finish.

Bring the mixture to a boil and add the adobo, tomato paste, and sherry, turning down the heat to simmer over low for 30 minutes. Check to see if the rice is cooked. If it is, add the shrimp, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let it sit covered for 15 minutes while the shrimp cooks. Taste, and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.

NOTE: If you do have a shellfish allergy, consider substituting chicken or leaving the shrimp out all together. The flavors will still be great.

To reheat, go low and slow. In a large and flat saucepan, heat over low until its hot. In a microwave, short bursts and frequent stirring work best. You don’t want to overcook the shrimp, so low and slow.

Jambalaya Stew

Meatball Sub Meatballs

Meatball Sub Meatballs in Marinara Sauce over Penne

As I stated a week ago in my Quick-ish Marinara Sauce post, I really miss meatball subs. Although I don’t have a safe bread or cheese, this meatball recipe gets me at least part way there.

Meatball Sub Meatballs

Makes about 24 large meatballs, about the size of golf balls or ping pong balls.

• 1 pound of 80/20 ground pork
• 1 pound of ground beef (I prefer a higher fat content for the beef as well, but that’s up to you)
• 1 Tablespoon of ground chia seed
• 3 Tablespoons of water
• 1 Tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 medium onion minced very finely
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon of basil
• 1/2 teaspoon of thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 3/4 cup of gluten-free bread crumbs
• a small amount of olive oil for greasing the baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Take ground pork and ground beef and crumble it into a large mixing bowl.

In a small bowl, mix chia seed, water, and olive oil together to make a chia egg.  Set it aside.

Mince onion and add it to the bowl with the ground pork and ground beef.

Add the salt, ground black pepper, oregano, basil, thyme, and garlic power to the bowl, sprinkling them evenly over the beef and pork (it’ll be easier to mix it in).

Add your bread crumbs and the chia egg, and use your hands to knead the mixture until it is thoroughly combined.

Meatball mix after all ingredients combined

Grease your baking sheet. Form meatballs about the size golf balls. I used a large scoop from Pampered Chef to form my meatballs, but you can use your hands instead. Place them on the baking sheet, spaced out evenly, and put them in the oven.

Meatballs before cooking

Bake them for 30 minutes.  Once they are done (internal temp of 161°F) you can add them to sauce, or you can freeze some of them to use later.

Meatballs after cooking

Enjoy, and if you’ve got ideas for dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, corn-free bread recipes, I want to hear about them!

Meatball Sub Meatballs

Hot Italian Sausage Burgers with Peppers and Onions

Hot Italian Sausage Burger with Peppers and Onions

As we’ve previously discussed, since it’s summer, we need things to grill outside, which means burgers.  I made this burger because buying Italian sausage can be a tricky thing now.  Sometimes I can get some that’s allergy free and sometimes I can’t.  Also, I developed this recipe before the positive result on the allergy scratch test for onions, but since I’m still hoping the challenge will show I’m not really allergic to onions, and since many of you will still be able to enjoy it, here you go.

Hot Italian Sausage Burgers with Peppers and Onions

• 1 pound of ground pork (make sure your pork is not too lean or your burgers may be dry, if it is too lean, see the optional step below)
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
• 1/8 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne
• 1 Tablespoon of red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon of anise seed
• 1/4 teaspoon of fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• 2 Tablespoons of canola oil (you will use an additional teaspoon if you choose the optional step below)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 vidalia onion (or regular yellow onion is fine too)

Place the ground pork into a large bowl.  Sprinkle salt, garlic salt, black pepper, paprika, cayenne over pork.  Pour red wine vinegar over the pork.

Take anise seed, fennel, and red pepper flakes and grind in a spice grinder (or coffee grinder or mortar and pestle).  Take ground spice mixture and mix with oil in a small container.  Pour spice and oil mix over pork, scraping down container to make sure it ends up in pork.

[OPTIONAL: Take a quarter to a half of the red bell pepper, green bell pepper and the vidalia onion (depending on the size of the onions and peppers, you don’t want to use so much that the burgers won’t hold together) and clean and chop them finely. Saute them in teaspoon of canola oil until the peppers are softer and the onions are just barely translucent. Remove them from heat and let them cool.  To hurry this process along, feel free to put them in the freezer for a few minutes until they are cool.  When they are, add them to the pork.]

Mix everything into the ground pork until well blended.  The only way to do this really is with your hands.  Think meatloaf.  Cover bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours so the flavors can blend.

On the day you intend to grill the burgers, clean and de-seed the bell peppers and cut them into slices.  Peel the onion, and slice it into slices.

Sliced Onions

Sliced Peppers

Wrap them up into a sealed foil packet.  Cook them on the grill in the foil packet over indirect heat. (If you want to make this and you don’t have access to a grill, you could also do them in your oven.  Preheat the oven to 4ooºF and place the packet on a cookie sheet.  Check them after twenty minutes to see if they’re sufficiently cooked.  You may need to let them go a little longer, so craft your foil packet so it’s easy to get open and seal back up. And be careful not to burn yourself with escaping steam.)

Cooked Peppers and Onions

Grill the burgers, making sure the pork is sufficiently cooked. (Or fry them in a pan if your’re cooking inside.)

Grilled Hot Italian Sausage Burgers

Serve with buns that are safe for your food restrictions, and the cooked onions and peppers on top.  Enjoy!

Hot Italian Sausage Burger with Peppers and Onions