Jerk Pork Chops with Mango Salsa

These pork chops are Jamaican me crave some more Jerk!

My first experience with Jamaica was as an elementary school kid watching Cool Runnings, the story of the Jamaican Bobsled team.  The country portrayed in that movie made me want to go so badly, so when the Mad Scientist told me to pick the destination for our honeymoon, I only considered Jamaica (well, Thailand was briefly in the running but I had concerns about the water and limited vacation time).

Jamaica was everything advertised and more. The Mountains of Jamaica seem to rise directly out of the ocean.  All the foliage is enormous and beautiful.  During our honeymoon, every day we would walk down the mountain to the beach and stop and the Mad Scientist would take about 600 pictures of flowers or insects or goats doing their goat thing (lots of goats in Jamaica, not always tied up either).

The food of Jamaica was actually one of my favorite parts of the vacation although the Mad Scientist and I only ate out a few times while we were there.  On the first day of our vacation, we wandered into a Supermarket and I was fascinated by all the ingredients, so much so that we actually bought several days worth of groceries and cooked at home.

One of the foods we bought we thought was Jicama, but when we ate it raw it made our mouths all buzzy and weird feeling, so we started frying that in coconut oil and it was delicious.  It may have just been a really large sweet potato.

However, when we did go out to eat, we stopped at a barefoot Jerk meat stand, and ate the traditional barbecue with Red Stripe beer while listening to blasting Reggae (when in Jamaica). Jerk is a fusion of Indian, Carribean, African and Chinese influences and delicious.

This spice rub mimics some of the best flavors that we had while in Jamaica (cooking in coconut oil is an added bonus if you have it).  It is slightly sweet, but has a hot kick.  The hand rubbed pork chops are finger-licking good and have that addictive sweet and spicy combination combined with juicy, mildly smoky, seared bone-in pork chop. The mango salsa is the perfect complement (although not the most traditional).  The chuncky salsa actually plays the role that a chutney plays in Indian cuisine (cools the palate but it makes you crave more spice).  Depending on how much of a chili head you are, you can choose to up the Jalapeno amount to meet your own preferences.

Do you need an island vacation? This meal will transport you to the Carribean, but don't forget the Red Stripe (or the Dragon Stout which is the best beer that we discovered in Jamaica).

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Jerk Pork Chops

by Hannah Rounds 

This spice rub yields perfectly craveable sweet and spicy qualities of traditional Jamaican Cuisine.

Ingredients

• 4 Bone In Pork Chops
• 3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 2 Bay Leaves Torn into tiny pieces
• 2 Teaspoons Oregano
• 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1 Teaspoon Hot Paprika
• 1/2 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
• 1/2 Teaspoon Coriander
• 1/2 Teaspoon Allspice
• 1/2 Teaspoon Tumeric
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Instructions

1. Mix all spices and brown sugar together.2. Thoroughly coat and rub thawed pork with spice rub.3. Store in Fridge for at least 8 hours (up to 48 hours)4. Heat oil (coconut oil is best) in a large skillet to medium heat. Cook pork chops 6 minutes on the first side and 3 minutes on the second

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 9 hour Yield: 4 Pork Chops

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Mango Salsa

by Hannah Rounds 

This mango salsa is perfect for serving over meat or on its own

Ingredients

• 1 Mango Finely Diced
• 2 Cups Pineapple Diced into small Chuncks
• 1/2 Bunch Cilantro
• 1 Jalapeno- deveined and seeded, finely diced
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients2. Allow ingredients to meld with each other for at least 30 minutes or up to three days.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: Total time: 15 mins Yield: 3 Cups

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Fancy Frugal Foodie #4: Coconut Peanut Red Thai Curry

It's time for a curry party in my belly!

Pretty much every Friday night, we eat the same thing at my house... Pizza! And pizza is the ultimate in Friday night Fare, but every once in a while you are out of an essential ingredient or five.  In fact, I was down to little tidbits of this and that, and I was about to call in  the support squad (488-8888 Pizza Hut delivery is Really Great!), when the Mad Scientist grabbed a can of coconut milk and gave me big puppy dog eyes and said, "I thought you were going to make something with coconut milk this week."

Never being one to back down from a challenge, I grabbed this recipe from Pinch of Yum and made it, and it is one seriously delicious meal.  The sauce is creamy and rich and addictive. The heat from the curry paste makes you feel alive, but the sweet from the coconut 

What makes this fancy and frugal? Well, for starters this meal kept us from ordering pizza, but for another I cannot tell you how many leftover ingredients get used up every time I make a curry.  One third of a box of rice noodles? Check.  Two already cooked chicken thighs? Checked. Languishing asparagus? Check. 1/8 of a bunch of cilantro? Check. Sriracha? Check.

It's always a check with Sriracha.

The original recipe calls for Peanut Butter, Coconut Milk, Red Curry Paste, Fish sauce which aren't staples for everyone, but they are for me.  I did have to make a few substitutions and omissions from the original, so I've decided to include a recipe here, even though it is super similar.

Additionally, any food that can be made and photographed with this cute of baby around, deserves to be called fancy. Littlest has now mastered forward crawling which puts the Mad Scientist and I at a major risk for disaster if we don't pay attention to him pretty much every second.

Oh, and if you are wondering if those are my flip flops laying around in the middle of my living room floor, the answer is maybe.

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Coconut Peanut Red Thai Curry

by Pinch Of Yum 

This delicious red curry sauce comes from Pinch of Yum! I've only changed one ingredient and omitted a few of the extra ingredients. Check out the original here

Ingredients

• 1 Can Coconut Milk (I prefer full fat)
• 1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Red Curry Paste
• 1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
• 1.5 Tablespoons Vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 3 Cloves Pressed Garlic

Instructions

1. Melt peanut butter in the bottom of a sauce pan on medium heat.2. Add garlic and red curry paste and allow it to cook for about a minute. Then add coconut milk3. Add the Vinegar, brown sugar and fish sauce.4.If you want a fairly thick sauce like the one above, allow the mixture to simmer but not boil for 10-20 minutes. If you want a thinner mixture allow it to boil for about ten minutes then use chicken broth or water to thin it to your desired thickness.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 25 mins Yield: 4 Servings

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Fried Fish Tacos with Sriracha Sour Cream

Fried fish tacos; it's like being at the beach...sort of.

When I first heard of fried fish tacos in college I turned up my nose at them because I had exactly zero good experiences with fried fish.  My first experience with fried fish was an undercooked fish stick in my grade school cafeteria (this is one of about eight times that I threw up in the cafeteria in second grade; all the other times involved boiled hot dogs).  My second experience did not actually involve me eating fish, but our church hosted a catfish fry, and the church reeked of fish for months afterwards.  To make a short story, long, I was not predisposed to trying fried fish tacos.

To be completely honest, I wasn't predisposed to liking any seafood at all.  I pretty much avoided it with relative ease until the fateful summer after my sophomore year in college when I was living and working in Myrtle Beach.  I went to some generic beachy restaurant and every single person in the group ordered fish tacos. "Ahh, fish tacos, I wanted a hamburger, but everyone else is having fish- why can't Christian be here? She would order bread with cheese!" I thought to myself.

I let out a meek, "Me, too, with a diet coke."

"Is diet Pepsi okay?" the overly perky waitress asked?

"I'll take water."

Begin Rant *Really, why do waitresses ask if Diet Pepsi will be okay? It is not even on remotely the same playing field as Diet Coke.  Water is a healthier choice anyhow.* End Rant

When the fish tacos arrived, I was surprised by how beautiful they were.  The bright purple coleslaw and pineapple and red onion salsa actually looked appealing, and the fish didn't smell fishy at all.  I would be lying if I said the tacos were amazing, but they were solidly okay, and I realized that I didn't have to hate fish anymore.

Over time, I've come to appreciate the sweet umami flavor from a perfectly cooked flaky fish, and I really love how the different marinades, dressings, and techniques can drastically alter the profile of the dish.

These fried fish tacos are made with the least fishy of the fish, Tilapia which I recommend for this recipe because its the flavor medley that is the star, not the fish.  Rather than cornmeal which is traditional for frying fish, I used a spicy corn flour breading which is lighter than cornmeal.  In my opinion the lighter flour gives all the flavor and crunch without the unnecessary dry crumb. I stuffed these in homemade corn flour tortillas and topped it with a sweet slaw (recipe in this post) and Sriracha Sour Cream.  The sweet slaw could easily be replaced with any sweet slaw or salsa (pineapple mango anyone?), but you should brave the heat and try the Sriracha Sour Cream. The Sriracha gives this dish a flavor punch and the sour cream gives the dish that rich fattiness that would otherwise be lacking.

The only bad thing about these fish tacos is that your house will smell a little weird for about 16 hours (on average).

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Fried Fish Tacos with Sriracha Sour Cream

by Hannah Rounds 

Fried tilapia, sweet coleslaw and spicy sour cream wrapped in a warm corn tortilla. What's not to love?

Details

Prep time: 25 mins Cook time: 5 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 8 Small Tacos

Ingredients

• 4 Tilapia Fillets- approx 3 oz each, thawed
• 1/2 Cup Corn Flour
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Pepper
• 3/4 Cup Sweet Coleslaw
• 1/4 Cup Sour Cream
• 2 Tablespoons Sriracha
• 1/2 Cup Canola Oil for frying
• 8 Corn Tortillas
• 1 Egg- Whisked

Instructions

1. Combine corn flour, cayenne, pepper, parika, garlic powder and salt in a shallow dish. Mix thoroughly2. Dip tilapia filet in egg then in corn flour mixture. Coat thoroughly but not thickly (no clumps). Set aside and repeat for all four fillets.3. Heat oil to medium heat, then fry fillets one side at a time until golden brown. For me this was about 2.5 minutes on the first side and about 45 seconds on the second side. The inside should be thoroughly cooked and flaky at this point.4. Set fried fillets aside to cool. Combine sour cream and sriracha5. Choose your method for portioning fish. I like big flaky chunks, so I cut my fillets against the grain using a sharp paring knife. You could also choose to leave the fillets much larger depending on your preferences.6. Assemble tacos, don't forget to serve with cilantro and lemon

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Greek Pulled Pork Pitas

Where did Caeser keep his armies? Up his sleevies!

How could I possibly resist the joke- I am after all talking about Greece and that is probably in my top three jokes of all time. (Interestingly, nobody has told me to quit my day job to go into a comedy career).

All jokes aside, this is one of the best homemade sandwiches that I've ever made.  I daresay, it surpasses food truck fare, and you know its getting serious when I say that.  

When I cooked the pork I used warmer aromatics like allspice, cinnamon and oregano to highlight the flavor of the pork without overwhelming it with spice.  Tomatoes, cucumbers and onions brought a fresh crunch to the party, and the sweet and tangy notes of the tzatziki sauce rounded out the flavor profile to make a rich and satisfying meal.  And that's before I've even begun to wax poetic about the virtues of the homemade pita bread.

If you are ever going to make one item from this blog, this is the one I recommend.  You can play with the proportions to your liking, but you are not going to regret eating this.

This recipe really started a few years ago, when the newly married Mad Scientis and I went onto a bit of a Greek food kick that started by eating Mousaka from Christos in Minneapolis.

Not taken at Christos, but we look so cute that I couldn't resist.

That Mousaka was the food of the Gods (contrary to popular belief they eat Mousaka not pomegranate and nectar), and I've never been able to recreate it well.  It seems like I can never get my proportions of eggplant to beef correct.  The Mousaka fail hasn't stopped me from trying a wide range of other Greek favorites like Spanikopita, Baklava, Pastisio and now this pita sandwich (which cannot properly called a Gyro but is close enough to fall into the category of Greek food).

As the Mad Scientist says, this one's a keeper!

Tzatziki Sauce

by Hannah Rounds

Easy Tzatziki sauce gives any sandwich, salad, or plate of meat a Greek flair. A more traditional version would use dill instead of oregano, but I guess I don't own any dill.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins  Yield: 2 Cups

Ingredients

• 1.5 Cups Greek Yogurt
• 1 Cucumber- peeled and finely diced
• About half a lemon's worth Lemon Zest
• One Lemon's worth Lemon Juice
• 3 Cloves Garlic Pressed
• 2 Teaspoons Oregano
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
• To Taste Salt

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.2. Using either a food processor or an immersion blender, blend until mostly smooth.3. Refridgerate for at least one hour prior to use (keeps about a week in fridge)

Greek Pulled Pork Pitas

by Hannah Rounds

Greek food for the masses. This mock gyro is easy to make and delicious.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 20 mins Yield: 4 Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 2 Homemade Pita sliced in half
• 1 lb Pre-cooked Pulled Pork
• 3/4 Cup Stock or broth
• 1 Teaspoon All Spice
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon Oregano
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Pepper
• 1.5 Roma Tomatoes Sliced
• 1/2 Cucumber Sliced
• 1/4 White Onion Thinly sliced
• To Taste Parsley
• 6 Tablespoons Tzatziki Sauce

Instructions

1. Infuse pork with Greek flavor by reheating it on low in a crockpot or regular pot with stock and all spices for at least 30 minutes (More than one hour in crockpot)2. Spread Meat onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 450 for ten minutes (to add a crisp texture to the pork)3. Layer sandwich ingredients inside pita bread as desired. Be careful not to tear pita bread. Alternatively, you can make these Gyro style by rolling the filling inside a whole pita bread.

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Update on the Blog

Sometimes, I think I've got this blog thing down, and then do you know what happens?  I look at the layout, and think, "Hey self, my blog looks a little weird maybe I should fix it."  

Then I ruin all the things.  Luckily my hard work and determination is likely to result in the following...

Tomorrow my blog will look as good as it did two days ago, and seven of the most recent posts will have visually appealing formatted recipes! Tell me your not impressed by that.  I dare you.

Also, I have to learn how to make memes using the world wide web because I guess it's a little amateur to do it in Picasa (but so easy).

So tune in tomorrow for more food fun, but until then you can browse anywhere else on the worldwide web.

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Tabouli Salad

If you thought parsley was a garnish, you've never eaten Tabouli Salad.

Has anyone ever had an experience where they experienced something as an adult which retroactively ruined their childhood.  I had one of those a few months back... Perkins.  Growing up Perkins was sort of a fancy restaurant that we went to with my grandparents or parents after certain events like Piano recitals or basketball games.  (In retrospect, I was a sweaty eleven year old in sweats, so I don't know why I thought of Perkins as fancy).

In my minds eye, Perkins was fancy (the only restaurant from my childhood that had parsley on the plate) and incredibly delicious.  I remember the big juicy burgers and the amazing shakes.

So, when we were driving to Raleigh from Minneapolis, I begged Rob to stop at Perkins for just one meal.  Though he applied to my sensibilities, I insisted. And when we sat down, the table was a little sticky, and there were other crying babies with sticky mouths and the booths were a little sticky too.  My burger was a little overdone, and not really anything special, and I was too carsick to order a shake.

I ruined it.  Perkins is fine, edible, American cuisine, but it was so perfect in my memories that I cannot believe that I would allow myself to sully the past by going into a Perkins restaurant as an adult.

As a parent, I wonder how many more opportunities I will have to retroactively ruin my childhood.  Does the zoo suck? What about water parks?  Are picnics even fun? Is summer really the best season?

(Since I need a little validation, here's a link to someone who had a similar experience to mine).

Even though Perkins is ruined for me, I will still hold some memories dear.  Like the time my cousin Bjorn tried to convince me that if I ate the parsley on my Omlette plate it would kill me, and I ate it and didn't die.  Afterwards, I asked my mom if parsley was edible, and she said something about edible garnishes like rose petals (which I took to mean no).

It turns out that parsley is not just great for garnishing plates at large chain diners, it actually has a great flavor too.  I've eaten it in stuffed chicken, on pastas and other Italian dishes, but one of the best uses for parsley is in cold salads especially this Tabouli Salad.

I made this salad since I've made a public commitment to not buying more rice until our 20 lbs of couscous is used up, but I once again have found that this is actually a dish worth eating and sharing.  Couscous is arguably best eaten cold when the grains have the opportunity to show off their pearl like texture rather than taste sort of weirdly gritty.  This tabouli salad is light on the palate, citrusy, quick to fix and overall delicious.  I hope you enjoy this (however, if you are going to buy couscous consider a small 1-2lb bag).

On an unrelated note, Littlest has two teeth, but they are just barely poking through so no pictures just yet.

Tabouli Salad

by Hannah Rounds

This tabouli salad is the perfect summertime side. With cold couscous's pearly texture taking center stage accented by herbacious parsley and zesty lemon

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: Total time: 15 mins Yield: 6 Servings

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Couscous
• Approximately 2 Cups Boiling Water
• 3 Cloves Garlic pressed (or minced)
• 1 bunch Parsley Chopped
• 3 Roma Tomatoes Diced
• 3 Green Onions Finely sliced
• 1 Lemon's worth Lemon Juice
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Pour water on couscous and allow the couscous to absorb the water. 2. Allow couscous to cool for a few minutes. 3. Add lemon juice, olive oil and garlic to couscous and mix thoroughly 4. Add salt and pepper until you like the flavor of your couscous. Then add the rest of your ingredients and mix thoroughly. 5. Set salad aside for at least 30 minutes. You can store this in your fridge for several days.

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Pita Bread

Warm pita bread- fresh from the oven. Delicious and actually easy to make!

I did it! I actually created a baked good that is worthy of sharing on this blog!  Okay, I did make these pretzels and this grapefruit quick bread but those don't count because sugar hides a multitude of sins (except gluttony).

This pita bread is actually quite easy to make and the hands on time is minimal, but it is about a day and half long project and requires storing the dough in the fridge, so be sure you clear out space before you embark on this journey.  You might also consider bringing some friends along for the ride.  I brought Littlest. He ate frozen peas while I mixed the dough, and by the time he finished his peas, I was done with the hands on part for the day.  The next day, he took a nap and I finished the pitas.

The inspiration for these came from a repin of a recipe that is no longer available on Damn Delicious but I'm linking there anyways because that is some good food (or at least good food photography which I appreciate more every day).  She apparently used to have a recipe for a pulled pork Gyro, which is a great idea because really who knows how to cook lamb.  Not to mention that's like $27 a pound around here (possibly slight exaggeration, they don't actually sell it at the two closest grocery stores, so I wouldn't really know the price).

Anyhow, the Pin inspired me to make homemade pitas, and for once in my life it worked.  I had to adapt this recipe from Smitten Kitchen because my first few didn't turn out like I would have liked.

Once I got the technique down, the pitas poofed beautifully with a pocket of steam and a single slice yielded that traditional pocket that just waits to be stuffed with all kinds of Greek goodness (or lets be honest here, turkey and Sriracha work nicely too).

Deb of Smitten Kitchen compares the process of making these to the process of making pizza dough, but I disagree somewhat.  If you've ever done the "wet dough" technique associated with artisan bread in 5 minutes a day (sorry no link, to lazy and I'm not Amazon affiliate so there's really no point in my Googling this on your behalf) its more like that.  The basic difference is that with pizza dough, the rise really isn't that important, but with pita bread the rise is very important.

Also, before you start you're going to need some essential tools.

1. Large 2 Quart Mixing Bowl (Ice cream buckets work too)
2. Rolling Pin
3. Plastic Wrap

Homemade Pita Bread

by Hannah Rounds

Pita Bread- It's like a carb pocket ready to be filled with Greek goodness

Details

Prep time: 1 hour Cook time: 4 mins Total time: Yield: 6 Full Pitas

Ingredients

• 3 Cups +1/2 Cup for sprinkling Flour
• 1.3 Cups + A few teaspoons for sprinkling Warm Water
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Yeast
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Instructions

1. Mix water, yeast and sugar and allow yeast to proof ten minutes. 2. Add three cups flour, salt and olive oil and mix well. Then knead the dough briefly (2-3 minutes) and allow dough to rest 10 minutes 3. After resting, flour surface generously and begin kneading the dough. You may find that the dough gets too dry or to sticky. Add more water when the dough is too dry or more flour when its sticky. Knead for about five minutes 4. Oil a bowl and put dough in the bowl to rest. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least eight hours (but don't ignore my next instruction)5. For the first four hours of the rise, punch the dough down about once per hour. 6. When you are ready to make the pitas, flour a large surface, then grab a chunk of dough and make a ball about the size of a tennis ball. Flatten the ball into a disk (about the size of a CD) 7. Cover the disk in oiled plastic (reuse the covering of the bowl) and then repeat for all 6 pitas. 8. Allow dough to rest under the plastic for about 10-20 minutes. 9. Using a floured rolling pin on a floured surface roll out on pita disk at a time. The dough should be thin but not see through. Put the flat dough on a plate to rest. Generously rub the dough with water. If the dough starts to tear, you screwed up and you should start back on step 6 with that particular ball of dough. 10. Heat oven and a baking tray to 475 (ie put the baking tray in the oven while it preheats) 11. Place one pita on the hot baking tray and bake for four minutes and 15 seconds (basically for 45 seconds after the dough poofs, but the pita shouldn't be brown yet). 12. If you resist eating it right away, it's nice to cover these with a clean tea towel

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