Pork Hock, Lentil & Corn Soup

A good soup for a cool fall/winter day. I like a bit of heat with the pork and lentils. It gives the soup a bit of character and really jacks up the warming effect of the soup. The soup would work just as well without the dried chilli peppers but I would use peppercorns to still provide a bit of warmth.

I used three different chillies here as I had them in on hand. You could just go with cayenne as they are more common.

Thursday Sandwich Challenge: Blackened Shrimp & Tzatziki

On Thursdays I work late so I can go straight from work to the dance class I teach without going home. So I usually end up packing a sandwich to have in lieu of supper. I hope to post a few of my sandwich creations here.

I have learned a few things about sandwiches over the past winter.

1. Probably the first rule of sandwiches is that they should be built on site. If you make your sandwich the night before, by the time I get to eat it might as well have been put through a car wash. Pretty soggy. Especially, if there is anything remotely moist like a pickle of any kind. While you can structure your sandwich so there is a barrier between the wet stuff and the bread it won't hold up all day.

2. Toasted is better. Unless your bread came straight from the oven toast the bread. I don't mean warm the bread, I want to see some mahogany color on the bread. I'm at work so I have to contend with the toaster here.I don't always achieve the level of toasting that I like.

Blackened Shrimp & Tzatziki Sandwich

For the Shrimp
10-15 shrimp (31-40 count), shell & tail removed
1 tbsp Blackening season - don't ask me, google it, I just had it in the cupboard.
1 tsp oil

Season the shrimp with the blackening seasoning
Heat a frying pan over high heat. Add the oil. Cook the shrimp until just done, flipping them half way through. Remove from pan and set aside to cool.

For Tzatziki
2 long english cucumber, pealed, seeds removed and shredded.
1/2 cup 0%fat greek yogurt
1 lemon, juice and zest
1 clove garlic, finely diced


When the cucumber has been shredded put in a colander to drain for 3-4 hours

Combine the cucumber, yogurt, lemon juice & zest and garlic. Done

For sandwich
Combine about 2 tbsp of Tzatziki with the cooked shrimp.
Toast the bread
Spread the shrimp mixture over the bread, Eat

Food Revolution Day - Cola Braised Pork Ribs

Here is my contribution to the Food Revolution Day promoted by Jamie Oliver. The revolution is all about getting people back in the kitchen and cooking. I'm already there so I decided to throw together this little ditty.


I'm using cola as the braising liquid because we have a case or so left over from some party or workshop we held over the year or so. Desperate to use up this liquid candy bar some how. The ginger and chipolte and ginger give it nice spiciness. I would probably add more chipolte next time to give it a bit more kick. I would have used fresh ginger but I didn't have any on hand. I also had the citrus rub and thought it would be a good use of it.

Yet Another Chilli

Since the dancing season has finally come to an end I have time to start posting some of the recipes. Here is a chilli using some of the exotic dried chillies and some fresh wild garlic available in the area this time of year. In this recipes I put the green tops in with the dried beans as they cooked along with the dried chillies.

It seems everyone has their ultimate chilli recipe. Well, I don't have the ultimate chilli recipe. Every time I make chilli it's different. I use different chillis, different meat, different beans. This recipe make use of the sofrito technique. This is slowly cooking the vegetable to concentrate their flavour.

Spicy Lentil and Seafood Stew

Here is a new soup/stew I've created using some lentils and frozen seafood I had on hand. The recipe also uses a selection of the dried chilli peppers that I have on hand. I kept the peppers to some basic ones that should be available. If you can't find them just used some cayenne to get the heat but the stew won't have that red colour.

Oxtail & Rice Soup

After making the oxtail consomme I ended up with about 1kg of oxtail meat. I made a few tortellini with the meat but it's just way too much. I would be making tortellini until the second coming! Well here is a soup I made to use up half of the meat. I also had some great turkey stock made from the second turkey I bought at Christmas. (I took off all the meat and roasted the bones with carrot, celery, onion and garlic)

As well I had some vegetable mix from a lamb stock a made a last year. I reserved the vegetables, ground them up and put in the freezer. They also had a great meaty taste.

1 cup brown rice
2 cups brown chicken stock
1 Leek, cut in half and sliced
2 large carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 bulb garlic
2 tbsp oil
500g beef oxtail meat
500g leftover veggies from lamb stock
8 cups brown chicken stock
4 dried Arbol chile peppers
50g fresh parsley
Salt & pepper

Cook the rice with the 2 cups stock

Feed the meat and veggie stuff through a food grinder
Heat the oil in the soup pot and add the garlic. When the garlic is fragrant add the leeks, carrot and celery. Season with salt and pepper.  Cook the veggies until they start to stick to the bottom of the pot. Add the meat and ground vegetable matter. and 8 cups stock and cooked rice and arbol chiles. Bring to a boil and simmer for about half an hour.

Remove the chiles and finely chop the chiles and add back to the pot. Add the parsley and serve.

As I said above. A great beefy taste to the soup with a little heat from the chile.

Oxtail Consomme

Here is my first post of 2012. I am following the Oxtail Consomme recipe from Jennifer McLagan in her book Bones. I see the recipe has been reproduced on the web word for word. Just search for "Oxtail Consomme with Sherry".

Here is my interpretation of the recipe. I did try to follow it quite closely. However, I did make a few alterations due to the ingredients I had on hand. In particular, I didn't have any sherry.

The original recipe is supposed to yield six cups. I got 8 cups out of it. I should have reduced it to concentrate the flavours as I found it a bit thin on flavour. The leek flavour was a little strong so I would try to reduce the amount used in the raft a little bit next time.

For Oxtail Stock
Ingredients
2 Carrots
2 celery
2 onion
1 bulb garlic
granulated garlic
2.1kg Oxtail
1/4cup Port
2 cups water
2 tbsp dried thyme
4 or 5 bay leaves
1 tbsp peppercorns
10 cup water

Preheat the oven to 400F

Slice the carrots, celery and onion and add to the roasting pan. Slice the garlic bulb in half and add to the pan. Season the oxtail with salt, pepper and granulated garlic and add to the pan on top of the vegetables.

Oxtails Ready to Roast

Roast for 1 hour, turning the oxtail pieces half way through.

Roasted Oxtails

When done move all the oxtail and vegetables to a stock pot. De-glaze the roasting pan with the port and 2 cups water. Add to the stock pot with thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 hours.

Strain the stock through a sieve. Reserve the oxtails and discard the rest of the debris. Cool the stock and refrigerate over night so the fat turns solid. The remove the oxtail meat from the bones and use in soups, pasta sauces or any application where you want a nice beefy taste.

For the Raft
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1/2 large leek
175g medium ground beef
2 egg whites
2 tbsp water

Dice the carrot, celery and slice leeks and add to a food processor. Process until smooth. Add the ground beef, egg white and water. Process until well combined.

Remove the stock from the fridge. Skim the solid fat off the top. Move the gelled stock to a pot. There will be some debris at the bottom, try to leave that out. Warm the stock in the pot to liquify it again. Add the raft and bring to a boil stirring frequently to keep the raft from sticking. When it starts to boil create a hole in the raft to allow the steam to escape and simmer for 45 minutes.

Jelled Stock

Move the raft to a bowl and strain the consomme through cheese cloth.

Consommé

Done!