Recipe Review from 10/19/09

I don’t know what I’ve been doing with my time, but it certainly hasn’t been knitting, or reading. It’s been ages since I’ve had a book review and I have two new projects on the needles but haven’t made much progress. The weather outside has been less than stellar - cold and wet punctuated by the occasional snow squall. Any garden work that needed to get done will have to wait till spring now, unless we get a stretch of dry weather.

But somehow I’ve managed to make a few recipes:



Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Apples (Ckng Lght, Nov 09, pg 150) 3.0
This was super easy, but both the Husband and I agreed that the dish lacked flavor. Perhaps it was my choice of apples, or I didn’t toss the sprouts in enough olive oil, or it could have been the sprouts themselves. One item of note: recipe said serves 2, there was enough for 4.

½ cup diced apple
8 oz Brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered
2 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider
1 tsp minced fresh thyme
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

1)Preheat oven to 375*.
2)Combine apple and sprouts in a small baking dish.
3)Add apple cider, olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper; Toss well.
4)Bake for 25 minutes or until sprouts are tender.

Smoky Slow Cooker Chili (Ckng Lght, Jan/Feb 2009) 4.0
I don’t know what I’ve been doing with my time, but it certainly hasn’t been cooking, knitting, or reading. It’s been ages since I’ve had a book review and I have two new projects on the needles but haven’t made much progress. The weather outside has been less than stellar - cold and wet punctuated by the occasional snow squall. Any garden work that needed to get done will have to wait till spring now, unless we get a stretch of dry weather.

But somehow I’ve managed to make a few recipes:

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Apples (Ckng Lght, Nov 09, pg 150) 3.0
This was super easy, but both the Husband and I agreed that the dish lacked flavor. Perhaps it was my choice of apples, or I didn’t toss the sprouts in enough olive oil, or it could have been the sprouts themselves. One item of note: recipe said serves 2, there was enough for 4.

½ cup diced apple
8 oz Brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered
2 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider
1 tsp minced fresh thyme
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

1)Preheat oven to 375*.
2)Combine apple and sprouts in a small baking dish.
3)Add apple cider, olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper; Toss well.
4)Bake for 25 minutes or until sprouts are tender.


Smoky Slow Cooker Chili (Ckng Lght, Jan/Feb 2009) 4.0

This was a surprisingly good chili. I did make some notable modifications: I dropped the ground pork altogether. I don’t care for ground meat in my soups/stews/chilies. I ended up using a center cut pork and dicing it into cubes – it was the closest thing we could find at the store. The store also didn’t carry ham hocks – we bought something else that the butcher said was comparable and would add that same smoky flavor (sorry, I don’t remember what it was!). And for the green pepper I used red. I think green pepper tends to be a bit bitter and I prefer the sweetness of a red in most of my dishes. And lastly, the store was out of fresh tomatillos so I used canned. Worked pretty slick!


Ingredients
•1 pound boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
•3 cups chopped onion
•1 3/4 cups chopped red bell pepper
•3 garlic cloves, minced
•3 tablespoons tomato paste
•1 cup lager-style beer (such as Budweiser)
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•3 tablespoons chili powder
•1 tablespoon ground cumin
•2 teaspoons dried oregano
•3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
•6 tomatillos, quartered (or 1 can tomatillos, drained)
•2 bay leaves
•2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans stewed plum tomatoes, undrained and chopped
•1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added pinto beans, drained
•1 (7 3/4-ounce) can Mexican hot-style tomato sauce (such as El Paso)
•1 smoked ham hock (about 8 ounces)

•1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled queso fresco

Preparation
1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork shoulder; cook 5 minutes or until lightly browned, turning occasionally. Transfer pork to slow cooker.

2. Recoat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and bell pepper; sauté 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add tomato paste; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in beer; cook 1 minute. Transfer onion mixture to slow cooker.

3.Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, chili powder, and next 9 ingredients (through ham hock) to slow cooker. Cover and cook on MEDIUM** 5 hours or until meat is tender. Remove bay leaves and ham hock; discard. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and sugar. Ladle about 1 1/3 cups chili into each of 8 bowls; top each serving with 1 tablespoon cheese.

**Chili was done in about 4-5 hours on Medium.