An Ode to the Chili

I absolutely LOVE chili - eating them, growing them, cooking with them, decorating with them, you name it!  Whether you're just adding a pinch or really giving some heat to your dish, chili kicks it up a notch!  There are so many different varieties of chilies and nearly every country thinks their chilies are the best in the world.

A few of my favorite dishes featuring this beautifully spicy fruit:

• Grilled Tuna and Mango Salad
• Spiced Pumpkin Soup
• Chimichurri
• Pork Skewers with Thai Dipping Sauce
• Thai-style Grilled Whole Snapper
• Roasted Squash with Chili Citrus Sauce
• Tom Yum Goong
• Grilled Pineapple Skewers
• Gingered Apple-Squash Soup

 Must stop... my mouth is watering...

Find these and many more chili recipes on http://www.therecipediva.com/!

A Dish to Impress!

An elegant crown roast of pork will make a stunning centerpiece for entertaining friends and family. The butcher does most of the work and your guests will be in awe of the gorgeous meal you have created.

I chose to make my stuffing outside of the crown roast to ensure even cooking of the pork, but many people swear by cooking it inside to absorb all of those delicious juices from the pork.  Either way, you can't go wrong!

Crown Roast with Apple Sausage Stuffing



You can easiliy switch out your favorite stuffing recipe, but I'd stick with one with fruit in it.  Pork pairs so well with fruit.  

Check out the full recipe on The Recipe Diva website!

Pizza Off!!!!

I love trying out new, different, and sometimes even strange varieties of pizza.  I certainly have my favorites, but I'll always try out something new!  My fiance, on the other hand, not so much.  He grew up in Chicago, eating a lot of pizza... no, not 'Chicago-style', but the crispy thin-crust pizza that most Chicagoans prefer.  This, in his opinion, is real pizza and it's best topped with Italian sausage, mushrooms, green pepper, and onion.  He has very strong opinions about his pizza.  I think he might even believe pizza was invented in Chicago.

We have yet to ever find his magical combination in Australia so I knew how excited he would be if we re-created it at home.  I was also itching to get him to try some new varieties... this lead to the Pizza Off!!!  He was confident that there wasn't a combination out there that could beat his sausage version so I knew I had to bring out the big guns... a fancy buffalo mozzarella, is there anything better?!  I picked up a nice gorgonzola as well for a pear, gorgonzola and walnut version (which was deemed 'disgusting' when I mentioned it).

We made a big batch of pizza dough and got to work.  As we only had one pizza stone, I was selected to present my dish first.  So let's get to it..., Pizza #1:

Classic Margherita Pizza

Ingredients

1/4 pizza dough (see recipe below)

1 large ball of fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced into rounds

10 basil leaves, chiffonaded

2 roma tomatoes sliced

1/2 cup roasted tomato sugo (see recipe below)

Directions:

1. Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.

2. Flour a surface to roll out dough. Sprinkle with semolina and roll dough evenly to about 1/8 in thick. If available, place dough on a pizza pan or baking tray to slide onto pizza stone.

3. Spread tomato sugo over pizza leaving a 1/2 inch border.  Arrange toppings over pizza. 

4. Cook for 8-10 minutes until golden and crisp. 

The results?  You can't go wrong with margherita pizza.  The success of the combination of tomato, basil and mozzeralla is undeniable.  We both savored every bite but had to leave room for the next contender.  A minor set back for me was getting a little too excited and putting my pizza in before the stone was hot enough, the crust could have been a bit crispier on the bottom.

Onto Pizza #2:

'Real Pizza'

(Italian Sausage, mushrooms, pepper, and onion)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup roasted tomato sugo
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 Italian pork sausage (removed from casing)
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

1. Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.

2. Flour a surface to roll out dough. Sprinkle with semolina and roll dough evenly to about 1/8 in thick. If available, place dough on a pizza pan or baking tray to slide onto pizza stone.

3. Break sausages into small pieces and cook for 5-10 minutes or until sausage is about 3/4 cooked.

4. Spread tomato sugo over pizza leaving a 1/2 inch border.

5. Place Italian sausage pieces throughout as desired and then add chopped onions, green peppers and mushrooms in a similar manner.

6. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and oregano over top of pizza.

7. Cook for 8-10 minutes until golden and crisp.

The verdict?  Both pizzas were fantastic, and very different which was nice!  Pizza #2 won due to it's perfect crust.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr, need to work on my patience...  I demand a rematch!  I don't think our stomachs will mind.  Here are a couple of great recipes for dough and sauce that can be used for a variety of different pizzas.  The dough is enough for 4 pizzas (or calzones) and the sauce can be made in large batches and frozen for future use.  Enjoy!

Pizza Dough

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water

1 sachet of dried yeast

4 teaspoons superfine sugar
1 1/2 lbs “00” flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tablespoons fine salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup milk

Directions
 
1. Dissolve the yeast in a couple tablespoons of water. Add remaining water and sugar and still to dissolve.

2. Put flour and salt into bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook. Turn on low and slowly add yeast mixture. Mix until dough comes together, about 2 minutes.

3. Add oil and milk to bowl and mix until smooth and elastic, 4-5 minutes.

4. Dust a work surface with flour and empty out dough onto surface, making sure to scrape any off of the dough hook. Knead for a few minutes, adding more flour if necessary and shape into ball. Dust a baking sheet with flour and place dough on the sheet under a tea towel. Leave in a warm place for about 30 minutes to prove.

5. Divide the dough into 4 portions and roll into balls. Again, place on flour dusted baking sheet and cover with a tea towel. Leave for 30 minutes.

6. The individual portions are now ready to be rolled out on a floured and semolina dusted work surface.

Roasted Tomato Sugo

Ingredients

1 lb tomatoes, halved

1 garlic bulb, broken into cloves (skin on)
2 sprigs basil
2 sprigs oregano
1 sprig thyme
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tsp baslamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Directions
 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
 
2. Place tomatoes, garlic and herbs on a baking tray and toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sugar.  Season with salt and pepper, and arrang the tomatoes cut side up. 
 
3. Roast for 1 hour and peel tomatoes when cool enough and place in a blender.  Squeeze garlic from the skins and add to the blender.  Blend to a coarse puree and taste to adjust seasoning.

I HOPE the way to your heart is through your stomach!

I know I've been a bit MIA lately... I've been traveling for the last 5 weeks and it was hard to justify spending time on the computer rather than spending time with friends and family, playing with my neice, visiting my 90-year-old grandmother, relaxing on the beach, celebrating my future sister-in-law's wedding... and the list goes on.  Enough excuses, I'll leave it at that.  Please accept my apology and I'll attempt to make amends by offering up one heck of a recipe. 

I didn't have many opportunities to lose myself in the kitchen while I was in the States but I made sure to take advantage of the seasonal summer produce whenever I could.  There's nothing better than going shopping with an open mind and being inspired by the fresh and local produce.  On one of those rare nights that I was able to cook dinner, I was greeted by an enormous display of cherries upon walking into the grocery store.  That made for an easy decision!  Not only are cherries deliciously sweet but they also contain numerous health and healing properties.  I always make sure to look for those that are large, firm and have an even deep red coloring. 

A nice cherry and wine sauce over some browned pork came to mind.  When I hear cherries and wine, I immediately think Pinot Noir, done.  I picked up a few more items and hurried home to the tune of my stomach rumbling.  Let's get to it, I've talked enough.  Without going into any more description, it was too die for!

Spiced Pork with Pinot Noir & Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

Pinot Cherry Sauce:

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and halved
1/2 cup Pinot Noir
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

For the chops:
4 bone-in pork loin chops
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. For cherry sauce, heat oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Add shallots and cook for about 4 minutes or until soft.  Add remaining ingredients and increase heat.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes until desired consistency. 

3. Meanwhile, mix spices for pork chops and season evenly.  Heat oil over medium high in an oven-safe pan and cook pork chops on one side for 4 minutes until browned.  Flip chops and place pan in the oven.  Cook for about 10 minutes until internal temperature reaches 150 degrees F (pork will continue to rise in temperature after removed from the oven).  Cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes. 

4. Serve pork chops with sauce spooned over the top.  Sprinkle with fresh herbs such as thyme or parsley.

Hmmm... what to do with the rest of that bottle of Pinot... 

Salad with an Asian twist!

 

I was making a roasted pork rack basted with a honey soy glaze and I wanted to stick with a somewhat 'Asian theme' in my salad.  I made a mixed green salad accenting it with ingredients typical of an Asian dish. 

The salad turned out great and had nice kick to it!  It was perfect with the sweet and succulent pork. 

Ingredients

Large handful of mixed greens

Small handful of snow peas, halved

1 mango, chopped

1/2 baby cucumber, halved and sliced

1/2 cup of bean sprouts

1/4 cup cashews, toasted 

1 hot chillies, sliced 

 1/4 cup thai basil leaves, torn

Dressing:

1 cucumber, seeds only

2 tsp ginger, chopped 

1 hot chilli

splash of mirin

splash of fish sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp sesame seeds

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients for salad in large serving bowl and set aside.

2. For dressing, use a mortar and pestle to smash all ingredients together.  Halve cucumber and scrape out seeds with a spoon.  Add all ingredients through sesame oil and smash. 

3. Spoon over your salad and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Pork Dumplings

Pork Sui Mai, or as I like to refer to them, Pork Dumplings, make a great appetizer for entertaining.  They aren't too difficult, you can mix your ingredients a few hours before your guests arrive, they look super cute, and most of all EVERYONE loves them, EVERYONE.  You can easily adapt this recipe to fit your guests tastes or eating restrictions and you can always freeze and save half for another occasion!

We were having a small dinner party and I decided to send out a quick note before planning the menu to check if anyone had any dietary or personal restrictions ... at the end of the day (my own pickiness included) we were at no beef, no peas, nothing from the sea, no uncooked mushrooms, no salads with egg, and no lamb.  Luckily pork dumplings fit the bill for an appetizer.  If you steam them in a bamboo steamer, I suggest just serving them right out of there!

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork (about 500 g)
1 cup cabbage shredded (about 1/8 head) plus a few large leaves line steamer
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp ginger, grated
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 egg white
1/2 tsp black pepper
50 wonton wrappers

Dipping Sauce:
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/3 cup green onions, minced
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar

Directions

1. In large bowl, combine all ingredients down to pepper.  Refrigerate until you prepare the dumplings.

2. For dipping sauce, add oil to sauce pan over medium heat and sautee onions and ginger until soft.  Add soy sauce and rice vinegar and bring to boil, remove from  heat and let cool.

3. Line levels of bamboo steamer with cabbage leaves to prevent sticking.  Alternatively, line whatever you are using to steam with baking paper.

4. Working with one wrapper at a time, place a large tsp of mixture into center, wipe water around the edges with your finger,  and pull all of the sides up and squeeze into a beggar's pouch.  Place on backing sheet dusted with cornflour or place directly on steamer and cover with plastic wrap until ready to steam.  Keep wrappers covered with damp paper towel to keep them from drying out. 

5. Steam for 5-7 minutes until pork is cooked through.  Serve with dipping sauce.

To freeze, place uncooked dumplings on baking sheet in freezer.  Once frozen, transfer to aircontainer placing baking paper or plastic wrap between layers.  Steam directly from a frozen state for 10-12 minutes.

Pork Skewers with Thai Dipping Sauce

Australian cuisine is heavily influenced by both Asian and Indian cuisine.  Since living here, my appreciation (and tolerance!) for spice has gone way up!  Ingredients which us North Americans may find somewhat exotic are readily available here.  I've enjoyed experimenting with these ingredients and styles.

My previous boss's wife is from Thailand and we have been lucky enough to experience her traditional thai cuisine, it's delicious!  She has shared some recipes with me and Glenn continues to replenish my supply of hot thai chiles, which brings me to last night's dinner.

Using some of these delicious (and hot!) chiles, I decided to make grilled pork skewers with a thai style dipping sauce accompanied by coconut rice.  It was fantastic!  It took me a couple tries to come up with a sauce that I was satisfied with but I think the end result was great!  See below for the recipes:

Thai Pork Skewers

• 1 kg pork, cut into cubes*
• wooden skewers

Marinade:

• 1/2 c. soy sauce
• 1/2 c. oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp cilantro, leaves and stems chopped
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 thai chiles, seeded, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Dipping Sauce:

• 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1 tbsp water
• 2 tsp palm sugar
• 2 thai chilies, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp shallot, chopped
• handful cilantro, chopped

* I prefer to get pre-diced pork from the butcher, makes life much easier!

1) Soak wooden skewers for atleast 30 minutes to avoid burning.  Combine all ingredients for marinade and marinate pork for 1-4 hours in refridgerator. 
2) Combine all ingrediens for dipping sauce and let sit at room temperature while pork marinates
3) Skewer pork cubes and grill over high heat until slightly charred on outside and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side.
4) Garnish with fresh cilantro if desired and serve pork with dipping sauce


Coconut Rice

• 1 1/2 cups long grain rice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 can light coconut milk
• large handful cilantro, leaves and stemps chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• salt to taste

1) Combine rice, water and milk in large sauce pan and bring to boil
2) Cover and reduce heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes or until almost all liquid is absorved
3) Let sit and steam for atleast 5 minutes.
4) Fluff with fork, stir in cilantro and onion, and season with salt to taste.

Try experimenting with some new ingredients and let me know how it goes!  You'll get used to their flavors and how to make your own new combinations!

Grill Happy!

I’ve spent the last few days moving from a high-rise condo in the heart of the city to a house near the beach in Port Melbourne. I must say, I’m enjoying the change…

While I loved the luxury living in the city, it’s so nice to have fresh air, plants, a backyard… AND A GRILL!!! For our first night in, I took full advantage… I decided to do a spice rubbed pork tenderloin topped with a grilled peach salad and accompanied by a grilled vegetable salad and chipotle potato/parsnip mash. This dinner was obviously inspired by my recently acquired access to a grill but also by your blog comments and an attempt to use up the veggies in the fridge!

Spice rubs are perfect for pork that you are going to throw on the grill.  You can use whatever you find in your pantry and the combinations are endless.  There is no right or wrong when you're making a mixture according to your own preferences.  Some of my favorite spices to combine are cumin, oregano, any kind of pepper, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, chile powder, brown sugar, and the list goes on! Depending on the taste you are going for, create your own combination! You can also make enough rub to save for later uses.

I scoured the pantry and created a spice rub of roughly equal parts paprika, ground black pepper, onion powder, oregano, cumin, and cayenne powder and salt. I then butterflied a pork tenderloin and generously rubbed with the combination of spices.  I grilled until slightly pink in the center as pork has a tendency to dry out if cooked too long, maybe five or so minutes on each side depending on the thickness of your loin.

Pork goes great with fruit so I decided to offset the peppery grilled pork with a sweet grilled peach salad.  I halved and grilled a couple of peaches.  When cooled, I sliced and combined with thinly sliced onions, chopped mint, chopped cilantro and a dressing of lime juice with a splash of sherry vinegar and a pinch of salt.

The combination made for a delicious, fresh and summery main dish.

After digging around the kitchen, I found an eggplant, a red pepper, an onion, and 2 banana peppers.  I sliced, seasoned, oiled, grilled and tossed these with some fresh greens and a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and lemon juice. 

Thanks to your feedback from my previous blog, Chipotle Peppers... Take 2!, I finished this meal off with a smoky potato and parsnip mash.  Being that I only had a few potatoes to feed four, I added an equal amount of parsnips.  Another very easy recipe!  Peel and boil the potatoes and parsnips until they are very tender.  Combine with adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, the amount of sauce varies depending on the how much a kick you'd like!  Add cream or whole milk and season to taste.  I also slightly caramelized and finely chopped about a half of an onion to add a sweet bite to the potatoes and they turned out great!

I'm looking forward to many more dinners on the grill!