Tomato and Soppresata Salad

Balance. I'm an constantly seeking it, but somehow it eludes me. Every once in a while I catch it, but never hold on. I am a passionate person who seeks and craves change but needs routine and structure. So I tend to run after the change full force, forgetting to slow down and re-visit the things proven to make me happy. Eventually I stop running and realize how much I miss the routine. Ah, the joys of growing older, the increased insight is awesome and so often the thing you need most is right in front of you.

One of my favorite routines is going to Bill's Imported Foods on Lake St. and Lyndale Ave in Minneapolis. Just going through each of the aisles, looking at strange and familiar foods, planning our next meal or snack is a calming, restorative routine. Often our eyes are bigger than what we'll actually ever eat and we end up with exotic syrups, preserves and fabulous halva that will go bad before the perfect meal was formed. One of the things we always use up and can always be found in the brown paper bag that leaves the store with us is Soppresata sausage. Go ahead, re-visit some of our old posts, I'll bet it's in half our recipes. Huge fans of cured meats- nitrates and all- Bill's is where we find our staples. Soppresata is an Italian-style cured sausage. It comes as a link about 1.5" round and 10" long. We prefer the one labeled "hot". It's not really, it's just spicier and more flavorful than the other option. Sometimes we cut thin slices to serve with cheese, but the real miracle is it's versatility. Chopped finely, it provides the perfect amount of saltiness, bite and extra flavor to nearly everything.

This recipe makes use of all the extra tomatoes and basil you're going to have to pick tonight before the deep freeze. It's incredibly simple and a fabulous side dish to place next to your favorite entree tonight. You're basically going to core, de-seed and chop a couple tomatoes, add diced basil (sweet, lemon, thai, whatever you like), some good quality olive oil, a splash of a nice balsamic and thin slices of the Soppresata I just told you about. Salt and black pepper finish it off. Simple, fresh, delicious way to say good bye to summer.

Glazed Salmon Steaks with Oranges and Leeks

So, the recipes have been slow coming. Yes, AC is still cooking most nights, but even he admits to feeling somewhat uninspired. I guess I've been feeling similarly, after taking so many pictures of his amazing creations, I'm getting pickier about what I post. I assume you're probably interested in variety, rather than hearing about every variation on chicken, beef, salmon we've come up with.

On this night, the energy in the kitchen was just different. AC was quieter, taking a bit longer and opening and closing cabinet doors throughout the kitchen- all signs of new ideas. When the plate was set in front of me, I frantically looked for my camera...the AC is back.

This recipe uses two salmon steaks, resulting in two servings, isn't that convenient? You'll make the sauce, then the salad and then broil both with the fish.

Glaze for Salmon:
1/2 c red wine
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp minced shallot
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp lavender
1/8 tsp orange oil
black and cayenne peppers to taste
2 tsp sugar
1 pat butter

Add the above ingredients (except butter) to a frying pan on med heat, and reduce until very thick. When reduced, add the butter, let thicken and then cool.

Leek and Orange Salad
1 leek, sliced very thin (for those who don't know, only use the white part)
1 summer squash (yellow zucchini) sliced thin
2 pinches of salt
Olive oil
Sections from one large honey orange (or other orange/tangerine of your choice)
2 oz diced brie cheese
1/4 c minced, flat leaf parsely
10 marcona salted almonds

Lightly coat the leeks and summer squash in olive oil, salt and pepper. You'll use the remaining ingredients later.

Turn your attention to the salmon steaks. Pat both steaks dry with a paper towel and salt both sides of each steak. Brush the sauce on both sides of the steaks, saving just enough sauce to "refresh" one side on each of the salmon steaks when done cooking (I hope that makes sense).

Position a rack in your oven approximately 5" below your broiler.

Put the salmon steaks in the middle of a cookie sheet lined with foil. Divide the leek, summer squash, olive oil mix into two portions and place in a thin layer on either side of the salmon steaks.

Put the pan in the oven and broil on low heat for 4 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and flip the salmon. Brush the uncooked side of the salmon with the remaining sauce. Add the oranges, salt, brie, parsley and almonds to the leek salad (just spread around evenly).

Place the pan back under the low broiler for 3 minutes, then turn the broiler to high and cook for 1 additional
minute. 

The salmon steaks were perfect: buttery, moist, peppery and sweet.

The salad was fresh, citrusy, salty, creamy. I challenge you to find another dish that can be described with those adjectives, all in one meal.

Again, another simple, not very time consuming, flavor bomb to shock yourself and your family out of whatever rut you may be finding yourselves in. Go home and try it tonight.

Prairie Pride Farm's Pulled Pork: Three Days, Three Meals

We love the St. Paul Farmer's Market. Yes, Minneapolis has many, but St. Paul's is special. For one, everything sold there is completely local. It has a warm, community feel, there's always free parking and making trips there helps me keep up with all the new restaurants and shops popping up in St. Paul. But there is one more reason- the presence of Prairie Pride farm  . They sell pork. And it is amazing pork. Check out their website and they'll give you the details. We have two favorites, the pulled pork and the (ready??) cinnamon bacon. You had to have guessed that bacon had something to do with it. Cinnamon bacon is just that, bacon infused with cinnamon. It is delicious with our weekend morning oatmeal. Yum. Even better, the leftover fat can be stored and used to enhance many recipes, we have found that it combines amazingly with Salmon. But this post is about pulled pork, specifically, how easy it can make your life. One may not think of versatility when they hear pulled pork, but oh how versatile it is. You can go traditional and pair it with BBQ sauce, in fact Prairie Pride farm makes a kick-ass blackberry and chile BBQ sauce that is really good with the pork. In my opinion, though, just dousing the meat in BBQ, although classically delicious, just doesn't use it to it's potential.

Prairie Pride sells the pulled pork frozen in 1.5 lb. packages. Generally we buy one, bring it home to thaw and eat it for at least three meals. The goal is to make dishes that are so different we don't think "pulled pork again?" (I guess I do that a lot).

Day One: Salad style
This dish consists of three main parts. Pulled Pork, black beans and a salad, which will all be mixed together.
Salad:
1 shallot, sliced thin.
1 tomato, cored and diced.
2 Serrano peppers
Black pepper and salt.
Basil flavored oil and white balsamic vinegar.
Flat leaf parsley.
Fresh ground parmesan.
Slice shallot and immerse in the white balsamic, let it soak for about 20 minutes. Do this before you start the black beans and then use the extra time to make a margarita or mojito. Chop your tomato and sprinkle it with basil oil and salt. Dice parsley (enough for just a bit more than a garnish), the serrano peppers and add black pepper to taste. Mix all the above ingredients together and set aside. 

Pork :You'll need 1/2 lb Pulled Pork and an Achiote Annato sauce (at any Mexican grocer, or select Cub foods) it's basically a red Mexican hot sauce- not vinegary. Mix the pork with the sauce, and heat in a frying pan until warm.

Beans: We used 1 can of Kuner's southwestern spiced black beans and modified. Open the can and pour into a sauce pan over medium heat. Mix with black pepper, 2 small cloves garlic, cinnamon and 1/2 tsp dried oregano.

Assemble: Mix it all together (with about half the black beans) and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Day Two: Add an egg. Yum. 
So this is more like a hash. Completely different feel from day one, but you'll use a lot of the same ingredients. As you'll notice above, I said to use half the black beans, that's because you're going to use them again, see the picture?

This dish consists of four parts, you'll notice a vegetable slaw, the pulled pork, leftover beans and a fried egg. You're going to use the pork almost exactly as it comes, without sauce, but you'll add a bit of cayenne pepper to it. Then, in a frying pan coated lightly with butter, saute some onions, bell pepper and garlic, when the onions become translucent, add a fistful of parsley and 1/2 tsp dried oregano. In a sauce pan, heat the leftover black beans. Plate the slaw and heat the pork in the same pan you cooked the slaw. When heated through, place heated pork next to the slaw on the plate. Cook an egg (could use the same frying pan, too, it'll cook fast). Top with the egg and then add the black beans. Top with some slices of sun-dried tomato. Doesn't that look good? It tasted great, and I usually don't like runny yolk. You can cook the egg more if you wish, but the yolk adds sweetness.




Day Three: Pulled Pork Sandwich with Peach compote
If you're buying pulled pork, you do have to make a sandwich. This is the
easiest of all the recipes and equally as delicious. Simply take the remainder of the pulled pork, mix with a conservative amount of your favorite BBQ sauce (you can always add more, too much will ruin it). Buy a nice bun, add a slice of cheese and you're there.

To make this meal more than just a sandwich, the AC created an amazing peach compote. Pretty much dessert-worthy. Not healthy by any stretch. That's your warning.

Sweet Peach Compote: Put 1/2 c brown sugar in a sauce pan with a 1/2 c of water, bring to a boil and cook until the sugar completely dissolves, you're making a simple syrup of sorts, actually more like a caramel. While the syrup is cooking, grind 4-5 cloves and 3 allspice seeds with a mortar and pestle. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the ground spices to the pan with 1/4 tsp powdered ginger, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 1/8 tsp coconut extract, 1/8 tsp cayenne and a pinch of salt. Let the sauce reduce to about half and add two thinly sliced peaches and 1/2 tbsp butter, turn heat to simmer and cook until the peaches are soft. Remove the peaches from the sauce and continue to let the sauce reduce until thick. Pour the sauce over the peaches and garnish with fresh mint.

There you are. Three completely different, ridiculously simple, fairly cheap meals to serve three days in a row without any boredom. Don't eat pork? Bummer.

Pork Lost in Mexico

My dream is for my man to be on Top Chef. He could do it, but he wouldn't because he hates reality TV. However, supporting my claim of being the ultimate beta, he has upped the ante on presentation and creativity since I started documenting his cooking. It's a win, win. I document, he continues to try to impress.  I should have thought of this a long time ago.

He is insisting on naming this dish "Pork Lost in Mexico" he created it, he has naming rights. Relationship tip: choose your battles. Check this out.

There are three components to this meal, pork loin, cilantro and tomato salad and black bean gratin. The pork is covered in an amazing sauce made with chipotle peppers. It is all much easier than it looks, or so he says.

For the pork: start with dry roasting (just drop in a pan without any oil) 3/4 tsp coriander seed, 1/2 tsp cumin seed and 1/8 tsp anise seed. Roast until fragrant, pull from heat and grind with a mortar and pestle. Put in a small food processor. Add to the processor the juice of a medium lemon, 2 cloves roughly chopped garlic, 1/2 handful fresh cilantro, 2 chipotle peppers. 1 1/2 tsp olive oil and 1 tbs of adobo sauce (I'll describe later). Blend all ingredients into a paste in the food processor. Smear the sauce onto both sides of the raw pork loin and set aside for about 20 minutes to marinate. Set aside 1/2 tsp of the sauce to use in the Black Bean Gratin.

To cook: heat a frying pan on medium to medium low heat, put the pork in the pan and scrape the remaining sauce into the pan, cover with lid and let cook for 3-4 minutes, flip the pork, cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Garnish with finely sliced red bell pepper marinated in balsamic vinegar and salt (let it marinate for the same amount of time as the pork, shake out excess balsamic before plating.

Salad: This is a fabulously simple, fresh tasting dish that provided a perfect counterbalance to the other dishes. Here's the formula- take 2 parts grape tomatoes sliced in thirds, 1 part cilantro, 1 part chopped green onion, add a little olive oil, salt and lemon juice to taste.

Burning the alcohol

Black Bean Gratin: Few would argue the merit of dried vs. canned beans, however, you can't argue the convenience. We like canned black beans, especially Kuner's brand, for quick, weekday cooking (I hope we don't lose too much cred with our foodie friends). Pour 1/2 shot (1 oz) of tequila and 1/4 shot cointreau into a sauce pan, heat pot until lightly boiling and then light on fire to burn off the excess alcohol.

Our favorite black beans and chipotle in adobo

Just before the flame extinguishes, pour in the can of black beans, add a 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp of the pork sauce, 1/2 tsp powdered garlic. Bring to a very low simmer, keep covered. Put into ramekins, add cheese (we used Cypress Grove Midnight Moon Goat Cheese) and place under broiler to melt.