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American Recipes

Pulled pork sandwich

Apr 21st, 2010
by dave.
4 comments

Pulled Pork

Slow cookers are awesome. I only have used it a few times, but I love how you can set it off by itself, come back in a few hours and have a tasty meal ready to go! It’s really helped when preparing multiple dishes for a few guests and most of all, it’s something I can let cook while watching football =)

I recently joined a food blogger community, FoodBlogForum, and everyone there has been a great resource, I’ve learned a ton from organizing recipes on my computer to picking out a tripod for my DSLR. I can’t thank Jaden from SteamyKitchen and Diane from WhiteOnRice enough for their hard work. I wish I could find the time to do half of the things that they manage! I’ll be spending a lot of time there trying to improve on the blog and I hope you all will benefit too. Maybe there will be some more changes to the site after all!

Pulled pork is one of my favorite BBQ foods to eat. Jason (Bite-the-Bullet BBQ post) makes some of the best pulled pork I’ve ever had. I usually prefer the drier pulled pork with a little bit of sauce as opposed to the softer texture pulled pork that this recipe makes but alas, I don’t have a smoker so I had to make do with the slow cooker!

Recipe adapted from Whole Foods

Pulled Pork

Active time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : At least 6 hours
Serves : 4-6

Ingredients:
– 2 – 3 lb Pork shoulder or Pork butt
– 1 Medium Onion, sliced
– 16-20oz BBQ sauce
– 1/2 cup water
– 6-8 cloves garlic
– Pepper/spices to taste

Method:
1. Place half of the sliced onions on the bottom of the slow cooker pot. Add the whole pork shoulder in and place the other half on top of the meat.
2. Pour half the BBQ sauce over the pork and pour the water into the side of the pot. Add the garlic.
3. Cook at least 6 hours on high (My slow cooker only had low/high settings). After a couple hours, use a wooden spoon to break up the meat (Or, do this step later after the pork is finished).
4. Serve with hamburger buns or bread of your choice.

Ribeye Steak

Apr 7th, 2010
by dave.
3 comments

Ribeye

Quick post today, got a lot of catching up to do in the queue, there are about 5 other things to post about and I’m trying to come up with something good to write about :)

Boston got 20+ inches of rain over the past 3 weeks and it’s still flooded in many parts of New England. I traveled home for Easter and figured this time I wouldn’t drive through rush hour and take the train instead. Easy right? Not quite. I got an automated call the night before traveling saying that the train was canceled due to flooding. Yikes! I called the next day and managed to get onto a train that went out west through Springfield and then down into Connecticut…but it was 2.5 hours longer than the normal train was. Not to mention it ran late an extra 30 minutes so 8 hours in the darn train, felt like my legs were going to atrophy.

And of course my train back got canceled too, but I had a friend visiting family in NY and was able to hitch a ride back in what turned out to be massive traffic too. Must’ve been the Easter ham. Or the potatoes. Maybe the ham AND potatoes.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Mar 24th, 2010
by dave.
No comments yet

Spaghetti & Meatballs

This past week has been some of the best weather I’ve seen (for March anyway) in Boston in the past 8 years. After 10-11 inches of rain in 3 days and massive flooding throughout the state, it hit 72 degrees on Saturday. From deluge to shorts weather…freaky. I won’t complain though, I got to dust off the golf clubs and hit up the driving range. And I guess a lot of others had the same idea, ended up waiting 30 minutes to get a booth, the line was 2 deep at one point!!!

I’ve also been on the hunt for a good tripod and head. Up until now, I’ve been shooting without a tripod and most of the time without flash. So it’s been tough to turn out good shots (can’t hold steady) and I’m getting a little tired of sifting through a dozen shots to find out none of them look any good! I’ve heard of a few brands, Manfrotto comes to mind, but I just started really looking this week. Pics to come once I get it though.

Anyway, onto the food. I’m a huge fan of Ree at The Pioneer Woman Cooks. She provides a step by step pictorial on almost all of her dishes as well as interesting tidbits and tips for each dish. But the thing I like the most is how homey the dishes feel, I’m an big admirer of homestyle cooking. There’s something to be said about the creativity home cooks have had over the years to feed their families, good times and bad.

Spaghetti and Meatballs is no exception. When I started cooking I never really paid any attention to staple dishes like this and Macaroni and Cheese. I guess my experience had been mostly cafeteria food and made from a box, so maybe that’s why I was blocking it out! But really, the stuff is classic for a reason, because it’s good AND it’s easy to make!

Recipe originally from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Time: 90 minutes
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
– 1 lb ground beef (85 or 90% lean)
– 1 lb ground pork
– 2 eggs
– 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
– 3/4 cup plain bread crumbs
– 3/4-1 cup grated Romano cheese
– 1/4 cup Italian parsley, minced
– 1/4 tsp salt
– Fresh ground black pepper
– 1-2 tbsp skim milk
– 4 – 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:
– 28oz can Italian plum tomatoes
– 28oz can crushed tomatoes
– 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
– 5 cloves garlic, minced
– 1/2 cup dry white wine
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 2 tsp sugar
– Fresh ground black pepper
– Red pepper flakes
– 1/4 cup Italian parsley, minced
– 1 – 2 lbs Spaghetti, cooked

Method:
1. Combine meat, garlic, breadcrumbs, romano, salt, pepper, parsley, eggs, and milk in a mixing bowl. Mix together well. Roll into meatballs (should be around 30).
2. Heat a dutch oven over medium heat. Add olive oil and cook meatballs, 8 at a time until browned, it’s ok if slightly undercooked, the meatballs will be returned to the sauce later. Remove meatballs and drain.
3. When finished with the meatballs, add onions and garlic, stirring for a couple minutes. Make sure to scrape up the brown bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add in tomatoes, wine, salt, pepper, sugar, and parsley. Stir to combine and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Add meatballs back to the pot, reduce heat, and cook another 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Scallion crusted cod with Mango Salsa

Mar 10th, 2010
by dave.
2 comments

Scallion Cod w/ Mango Salsa

I’m usually more of a fan of a more plain way of preparing fish, just a little salt/pepper/olive oil and that’s usually how I prepare fish at home. But when I’m dining out and want fish, I tend to see more fancier things like different salsas, glazes, and whatnot. So I figured why not give mango salsa a shot…I like mangos, and the recipe I saw in Ming Tsai’s Simply Ming looked really tasty.

One note of caution…the mangos I used weren’t ripe enough, make sure to use ripe mangos! Otherwise, you’ll get a semi-crunchy salsa and wish you waited just a little longer (like me) =P

Recipe originally from Ming Tsai’s Simply Ming.

Scallion crusted cod with Mango Salsa

Time: 30-45 minutes
Serves 4

Mango salsa
- 2 mangos, diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1/2 inch piece ginger, minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp Sriracha
- Juice of 4 limes
- Salt/pepper to taste

Scallion cod
- 4 cod fillets (6-8oz each)
- 2 cups bread crumbs (panko)
- 2 stalks scallions, chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten (for dredging)
- Some flour (for dredging)
- Fresh cilantro

Method:
1. Mix together the ingredients for the salsa, set aside (Make sure those mangos are ripe!)
2. Season the cod with salt and pepper. Combine scallions and bread crumbs. Dredge the cod first in the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.
3. Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add some oil and saute the cod until cooked halfway through. Flip once, cook another few minutes (depends on the thickness of the fish fillets).
4. Mix the salsa with fresh cilantro. Serve the cod over top a scoop of the salsa.

Savory hamburgers!

Feb 3rd, 2010
by dave.
No comments yet

Savory Burger

I wish I had a better name for this post but alas I’m not that creative. Maybe “tasty hamburger” or “zesty burger” might’ve worked (hmm, “goodburger” =P) but I’ll stick with this one for now.

I’ve always been a big fan of marinated burgers (don’t get me wrong, I love the plain ones too!) but I’ve never tried making them myself. I usually end up buying some of the ones at Whole Foods whenever they’re on sale (which is next to never) so needless to say, I don’t have them very often. But I’ve had this on the list of “things to do” for the past 5-6 months so I figured what the heck, I might as well put the new cast-iron pan to good use and make burgers!

This recipe originally came from White On Rice Couple and it’s really amazing how good something can taste with just a few simple ingredients. The folks at White on Rice do a fantastic job with their food. They grow many of their own ingredients and are AWESOME with photography, I really should use some of their tips =P

Anyway, in addition to fish sauce and the other ingredients, I dashed in a little Worcestershire sauce and minced a shallot. I should probably make the recipe word-for-word just to compare tastes but I’ve always liked a little Worcestershire sauce with meatloaf so I figured heck, why not try it with a burger!

Savory hamburgers

Serves 4-6 (depending on burger size)
Time : 30 minutes

Ingredients:
– 2 – 2 1/4 lb Ground beef (I use 90/10)
– 2 – 2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
– 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
– 1 small shallot, minced
– 3 cloves garlic, finely minced then crushed
– 1/2 tsp sugar
– 1 tsp ground black pepper
– Hamburger buns

Method:
1. Combine all of the sauces and spices in a bowl, mix well. Add beef, try as best to get the marinade all over the beef (as evenly distributed as you can) and marinate for 20 minutes.
2. Roll the beef into balls and flatten into patties (roughly 1/2 lb). Make a thumbprint in the middle of the patty, this helps keep the patty uniform when cooking (the middle always rises).
3. Bring a cast-iron pan up over high heat. Lightly oil the pan and add in the hamburgers. Let cook relatively undisturbed (I usually move them slightly to avoid sticking) on each side for 3-5 minutes depending on how well done you like your burger. Time will also depend on the thickness of the patties.

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