Archive for the ‘PORK’ Category
Dorito Taco Salad
Excellent salad and the family loved it, and oddly enough, I prefer a taco salad over tacos, any day. I did use a variant by using chickpeas in place of pinto beans. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams ground beef, or ground pork, (1 lb)
- 1 packet taco seasoning mix, (Shortcut)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 head lettuce, chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup black olives, sliced
- 1 can Pinto beans, rinsed, drained, or 1 1/2 cups cooked, (Shortcut)
- 1 cup tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 cup spring onion, sliced, reserve some for garnish
- 1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 bag Nacho Cheese Doritos, slightly crushed, (200 grams / 10 oz for US)
- 2 cups catalina dressing, (Shortcut)
- sour cream, optional, as desired for garnish
Instructions
- Heat a non stick pan and add the ground meat and onion. I used mince pork. Cook until no pink is visible then drain off the fat, return the pan to the burner.
- Add the taco seasoning mix and the water, stir to mix together.
- Simmer until the water is evaporated, stirring occasionally. After it is cooked, set the pan aside to cool while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
- Prep the lettuce, bell peppers, olives, spring onions, tomatoes, and beans as stated in the ingredients list. Place each item as prepped into a large mixing bowl and mix together.
- Add the cooled seasoned meat and cheese and mix together. Then mix in the partially crushed Doritos, then finally, pour on the dressing and mix that it.
- Garnish with sour cream as desired and the reserved spring onion. Serve immediately and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving for 8 servings.
Shortcuts: Taco Seasoning Mix, Pinto Beans (Pressure Cooker), Catalina Dressing, Chickpeas (Pressure Cooker).
Variants: 1. Use chickpeas in place of pinto beans. 2. Add fresh chopped cilantro. 3. Do not mix in the Doritos, just have them on the side and people can sprinkle them on as they like.
Inspired by Spend With Pennies and theĀ link to this recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
Taco Spring Rolls
I came up with this on a whim, seemed like a good idea, and it was! Very well liked by the family. This does take time as the meat mixture needs to cool to room temperature, as the key to making spring rolls is to use room temp filling, a warm filling will break the wrappers when you roll them. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams ground pork, or beef, (1 lb)
- 1 packet taco seasoning mix, (Shortcut)
- 1 cup water
- 120 grams lettuce, chopped, (4 oz)
- 150 grams Cheddar cheese, or a cheese blend, shredded, (5 oz)
- 1 package spring roll wrappers, 5.5 x 5.5 inch wrappers, at least 20 wrappers, thawed
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1-2 tablespoons water
- cooking oil, for frying
- dipping sauce of your choice, salsa would be good, and in Thailand, sweet chili sauce
Instructions
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and add the ground pork. Break it up as it cooks with your spatula.
- Break the meat up finely and to cook until little to no pink is visible. Since I used pork, I drained the fat.
- Once the meat is drained, add the taco seasoning packet and 1 cup of water.
- Stir together and simmer the seasoned meat until the water is all evaporated, stirring occasionally. Once no liquid remains, remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. If you are pushed for time, you can add the meat mixture to a mixing bowl to cool, but why dirty up another bowl, just leave it in the pan on an unused burner or counter top. To cool takes 1-2 hours.
- Take the spring roll wrappers out of the freezer and place on the counter to thaw. Go ahead and prep the lettuce and cheese.
- When you are ready to roll the spring roll, add the lettuce and cheese to the cooled meat mixture.
- Give the filling a good stir to mix everything together, there, you just made the filling, which is much faster than traditional spring rolls. In a small bowl, mix together the corn starch and 1-2 tablespoons of water, this is your glue for the next step.
- For this step, it is best to have two people, one to pull the wrappers, one to roll. Lay a spring roll wrapper, smooth side down on the counter with one corner pointed towards you. Place about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of filling near the corner closest to you. Fold the corner nearest you up and over the filling and roll away until you are at the widest point of the wrapper. Use your fingers and dip into the glue and rub that on the two side that are away from you, be generous. Now fold one side, left or right, towards the middle, the repeat with the other side, now it should look like an open envelope. Now continue rolling away from you to complete the roll. If the point flap does not stay glued down, just dab a bit more glue on it. Repeat until the filling is all used. I made 21 rolls, you may make 18 or 25, depending on how much filling you are using. Once you have done this a few times this actually goes pretty fast. The reason for the two people is you do not want the wrappers drying or they will tear when pulling them apart.
- And here they are all rolled. My wife and I made these at about 3 pm but did not dry them until about 10 pm, so we just covered them with foil and placed in the fridge.
- When you are ready to fry them, heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a pan, you want it hot but not smoking. When the oil is hot, fry 4 to 5 rolls at a time until golden brown then turn over until the other side is golden brown. Drain on paper towels and continue frying in batches until all are cooked.
- Serve with dipping sauces of your choice. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcut: Taco Seasoning Mix.
Made this on a whim, I researched this idea for spring rolls and every recipe seemed way over engineered, this seemed like the most logical way, and it worked perfectly.
Broken Meatball Spaghetti
The author of this recipe stated she never had enough meatballs in her spaghetti, she solved that problem with this recipe, and it is good! Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry spaghetti, or linguine, (1 lb)
- 500 grams ground beef, or pork, (1 lb)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, (Shortcut)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs, (Shortcut)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cups pasta sauce, (Shortcut)
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Cheddar cheese, shredded, for topping, optional, as desired
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add the beef, onion, bread crumbs, egg, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Get in there with your hands and mix everything together. Now at this point, you are thinking you are going to make meatballs, well, you're not, just mix well and go wash off your hands.
- Now heat a large pot of salted water to a boil, when the water is boiling, add the spaghetti (I used linguine) and cook until just tender. Drain.
- While the water is heating/pasta cooking, Heat a large non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the meat mixture you made, flatten out the meat and chop it up roughly with the spatula, don't break up the meat to much, goal is large chunks but not meatball size. Now just let it cook, no more breaking it up, just let it cook until you start to see the edges cooked.
- When the edges are cooked through, turn the meat over, break it up just a bit, keeping the chunks large, not quite meat ball size, but nice large pieces.
- When there is no more red in the meat, add the pasta sauce and cayenne pepper and stir into the meat, reduce heat to low and let the sauce get hot. Now that, is a meat sauce!
- Once the pasta is drained, add to the pan and mix with the sauce.
- Add to plates, top with shredded cheese as desired, enjoy.
Notes
I will say fair cost per serving based on the beef alone.
Shortcuts: Italian Seasoning, Italian Bread Crumbs, Pasta Sauce.
Provided by Lori Harbin-Combs of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
Sirloin & Provolone Surprise aka Ham & Cheese Pizza Lasagna
This recipe is an original from a good friend, and Chef, and it is tasty! This can be tailored many ways to make it your own. The recipe as stated is for using one 5 inch ramekin. For the photos, I doubled the ingredients and used three 5 x 7 inch baking dishes (Tesco).
Ingredients
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 cup carrot, diced small
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
- 250 grams ground sirloin, (1/2 lb)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3-5 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 3 slices Provolone cheese
Instructions
- You are going to need a small baking dish, the dish used by the Chef was a ramekin measuring 5 inches across and 2 1/2 inches deep with a volume of 10 ounces.
- Prep the tomatoes and carrots. Measure out all the spices. I also added some fresh Shiitake mushrooms sliced on an angle.
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F).
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and when hot add the sirloin, breaking up the meat as it cooks until just a little pink remains visible, about 3-5 minutes. I used minced pork, so you have to drain the fat from that once it is cooked through.
- Add the garlic, cumin, basil, oregano, parsley, black pepper, and salt and give the meat a stir and cook for about 1 minute.
- Add the tomatoes, carrot, and tomato sauce, and stir together. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust salt and pepper or spices, as needed. If using mushrooms, add them now as well.
- Coat the inside of your ramekin or other suitable oven safe dish with some olive oil. Add a slice of Provolone to the bottom of the dish. I used 5 x 7 inch baking dishes, I added two slices of smoked ham to the bottom of each dish, then topped that with cheese. Cheese I used was Gouda, which is square so went with 1 1/2 slices for each layer.
- Add half the meat sauce and spread evenly.
- Top the sauce with another slice of Provolone, then add the rest of the meat sauce and top that with the last slice of Provolone. I also added two slices of smoked ham in the middle layer followed by the cheese.
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Increase the heat to 190 C (375 F) and let the the cheese brown a little, about 3-4 minutes. If using a counter top oven (like me) switch to the top coil for the last 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve with bread or sides of your choice and enjoy. The 5 x 7 inch dishes were perfect for 2 servings.
Notes
Low cost per serving as written, when using larger baking dishes, more cheese is needed taking this up to fair value per serving. Some of the variants will also increase the per serving cost as well.
Variants: 1. Replace the sirloin with regular ground beef or pork but drain the fat before adding the spices and tomatoes and such. 2. In place of Provolone, use Gouda, Emmental (Swiss), Cheddar, or cheese of your choice. 3. Add some cayenne pepper to the sauce. 4. Add a handful of al dente pasta to the sauce at the last 3 minutes of cooking. 5. Add 1-2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce. 6. Add sauteed mushrooms to the sauce. 7. Add a layer of pepperoni on each layer of cheese. 8. Add a layer of thin sliced smoked ham to each layer.
Provided by Chef Andy Anderson of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe isĀ here.
United States.
United States.
Asian Goulash
The inspiration for this dish, as well as the name comes from a person who posted a similar photo of this dish, I took that as a challenge to make that dish, here is my results. Basically this is a minced pork and rice noodle dish, and it is delicious! Read the Variants in the Recipe Notes section, many ways to tailor this to your liking.
Ingredients
- 220 grams dry rice noodles, (7.7 oz)
- 500 grams ground pork, (1 lb)
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 spring onions, sliced, white and green parts, reserve some green for garnish
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil, plus extra for the noodles
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- salt and white pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Everything prepped and ready to start. Reserve some of the spring onion greens for garnish if desired.
- Heat a pot of water to a boil, then add the rice noodles, stir often and cook until tender, drain. Add a teaspoon or so of sesame oil to the drained noodles to keep them from sticking together.
- While the water is heating for the noodles, heat a non stick pan or a wok, on medium heat, add the ground pork and garlic. Break up the pork with your spatula as it cooks. Stir fry to cook the pork through, drain the fat. Add the spring onion and cilantro and stir fry to wilt the cilantro.
- When the noodles are cooked and drained, add the noodles to the pan and toss with the pork. Now add the fish sauce, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, and toss to mix.
- Divide into bowls, garnish with some spring onion greens, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Add sliced and sauteed Shiitake mushrooms. 2. Add some diced carrots or mixed vegetables. 3. Add sugar peas.
Inspired by wynnskitchen.
Winter Melon & Minced Pork (å¬ēé¦čēčē²¹)
Great sounding recipe from a friend in Singapore. This is a Chinese dish and sounds easy, and tasty.
Ingredients
- 700 grams winter melon, (about 1Ā½ lb)
- 8 Shiitake mushrooms
- 150 grams ground pork, (5-6 oz)
- 1 carrot
- 2 slices fresh ginger
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- salt, to taste, as desired
- extra light olive oil, as needed
For the Marinade
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon Shaoxing rice wine
- dash white pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Add the ground pork to a bowl and add the Marinade ingredients, mix together and set aside to marinate.
- Peel the winter melon, slice in half lengthwise and scoop out and discard the seeds. Cut the two halves into bite size cubes.
- Chop or rangiri the carrot. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and dice the caps and finely dice the stems.
- In a large non stick pan, heat 2 tablespoons of extra light olive oil, when hot, add the ginger and stir fry until fragrant.
- Add the mushrooms and stir fry for 2-3 minutes to soften them.
- Add the ground pork and mix into the mushrooms.
- Add the melon, carrot, and water. Heat to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook until the melon is tender, stirring occasionally.
- Drizzle in the sesame oil, taste, and season with salt as desired. Place in a serving bowl and serve family style. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Rangiri cut for carrots -Ā to cut carrots like this, cut a piece of the carrot off at an angle, then rotate the carrot Ā¼ turn, cut another piece off at an angle, repeat the turning and cutting. This makes for bite size pieces that gives more surface area per piece. This is a perfect shape for soups, stews, Japanese curry, simmered dishes.
Pork Rib Curry II
This is another version of pork rib curry, this will use young kaffir lime leaves, they have to be the tender ones as they are eaten. Many ways to prepare this each time to make it different and by regional areas as well. This is a spicy version.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo pork ribs, (2 lbs)
- 2-3 handfuls young kaffir lime leaves
- 1-2 handfuls Thai basil leaves
- 1/4 cup red chili paste
- 2 tablespoons shrimp paste
- pork broth, as needed, you make this during the cooking
- salt, to taste, as desired
Instructions
- Rinse the strip of ribs and cut between each bone.
- Place ribs in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low boil. Cook the ribs for about 30 to 40 minutes. Use a large spoon and skim off any foam. You are making a basic pork broth and the ribs will be nice and tender.
- While the ribs are cooking, prep the kaffir lime leaves, rinse them, makes sure all are tender, and just roughly tear them up.
- Pull the basil leaves from the stems, rinse, and squeeze out the excess water.
- When the ribs have cooked 30-40 minutes and are good and tender, you can turn them off. Place another pot on the stove, add the red chili paste and shrimp paste.
- Now ladle in some of the pork broth from the cooked ribs, about 1 1/2 to 2 cups.
- Stir and mash the pastes into the broth until you get a nice smooth curry. There, you just made a standard red Thai curry.
- Use a slotted spoon and scoop out the ribs from the first pot and place into the curry.
- Stir the ribs into the curry, and turn the heat on to bring to a low boil.
- Add the Thai basil.
- Stir and let the basil completely wilt and mix into the curry.
- Add the kaffir lime leaves.
- Stir the lime leaves in, turn off the heat, and pour into a large serving dish, serve family style with plenty of rice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Recipe provided and cooked by my wife, Rrayada Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Pork Rib Soup with Winter Melon
This is a Thai, non spicy soup, that is common in the rural areas due to the melon being very common and low cost. It is delicious yet so simple to make. There is many ways to make pork rib soup, this one uses winter melon. The melon, called Fock in Thai, is often grown in peoples yards, and readily available in local markets for low cost, so the only items to purchase are large shallots and pork ribs.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo pork ribs, (2 lbs)
- 1 large winter melon
- 2 large shallots
- salt, to taste, as desired
Instructions
- Rinse the strip of ribs and cut between each bone.
- Place ribs in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of water and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a low boil. Cook the ribs for about 30 to 40 minutes. Use a large spoon and skim off any foam. You are making a basic pork broth and the ribs will be nice and tender.
- While the ribs are cooking, prep the winter melon by peeling it first. slice off each end. Cut the melon in half lengthwise, use a spoon and scrape out the seeds, then cut each half into 2-3 long slices as well. Chop the long slices into about 1 inch pieces.
- This is what a winter melon looks like, you will want to peel it before you cut it apart. Winter melon is also known as wax melon and ash gourd.
- Prep the large shallots, trim of each end, peel, then quarter. Use a heavy pestle, rolling pin, or meat tenderizer and smash the quarters, this does two things, releases the liquid in the shallots, and keeps the pieces large, as a diced shallot would simply disappear in the soup during cooking. This photo shows our tool of choice for this, a 3 lb granite pestle.
- Add the shallot to the pot between 30 and 40 minutes into cooking, leave on a low boil for another 5-10 minutes. Taste the broth and season with salt as desired.
- Add the winter melon and cook on a low boil for about 20 minutes or until the melon is tender. Taste the broth and season with salt as desired.
- Typically served family style in a large serving bowl in the center of the table, and people have a bowl of rice, they scoop out some ribs, melon, and broth over their rice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Recipe provided and cooked by my wife, Rrayada Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup
This is Vietnamese in nature and has pork ribs and glass (bean curd) noodles. Bitter melon is also known as bitter gourd. A similar dish is made in Thailand without the ribs or noodles but with mushrooms and carrot instead.
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 500 grams baby back pork ribs, the short ones, (1 lb)
- water, as directed
- ā cup fish sauce
- Ā¼ cup sugar
- Ā½ teaspoon salt, as directed
- Ā½ onion, minced, other half to be used in melons
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 packages bean vermicelli, (glass noodles), about 40 grams per package
For the Stuffed Melon
- 2 bitter melon
- 250 grams ground pork, (8 oz)
- 1 dried medium wood ear mushroom, soaked in warm water, patted dry, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Ā½ onion, minced, other half was used in the soup
- Ā¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ā teaspoon salt
- ā teaspoon black pepper
- Ā½ teaspoon vegetable oil
Instructions
For the Soup
- First thing is to 'clean' the ribs, and this is a common Chinese way to do this. Rinse the ribs and cut between each bone to make small pieces.
- Place the ribs in a pot and just cover with water, stir in a pinch of salt, and put on high heat. Bring to a boil then turn off the heat, you are not cooking the ribs, just 'cleaning' them. Drain the ribs and rinse and discard the water. Now we have 'cleaned' ribs.
- Same pot, add the ribs back, add 3 quarts (12 cups) of water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for 45 minutes. This is doing two things, first, we are tenderizing the ribs (they will be fall off the bone tender, and two, we are making pork broth. Win win. While the ribs are simmering, go ahead and make the stuffed bitter melon listed below.
- When 45 minutes have passed, go ahead and taste for tenderness (Chef's treat, try a rib, just go with it), now add the onion, garlic, stir, then add the stuffed bitter melon. Let simmer for another 20 minutes.
- Then add the fish sauce, sugar, and salt. Stir and taste and adjust the salt as desired. Cook another 5 minutes.
- Now add the noodles, cook for another 3-5 minutes. This not only cooks the noodles, which cook very quickly, but also reduces the bitterness of the melon.
- Serve with a few ribs, some noodles, and 3 pieces of the bitter melon, and the broth. Enjoy.
For the Stuffed Bitter Melon
- You can prepare this while the soup is simmering. Take the two bitter melons, and trim off each end, then slice crosswise into 1Ā½ inch sections. Take a paring knife and cut around the center and push that out, so you have a tube left over. Set these aside.
- In a mixing bowl, add the ground pork and the rest of the stuffing ingredients except of course, the bitter melon pieces. Mix together and let marinate for 15 minutes.
- Mix the meat mixture again then stuff the melon pieces with the meat mixture.
- Add the stuffed melon pieces to the soup at the 45 minute mark when cooking the soup then follow the rest of the soup instructions.
Notes
Pork ribs, ground pork, and bitter melon are inexpensive. This is a low cost meal per serving.
Steamed Egg Tofu & Pork
This is Chinese/Singaporean in origin, and sounds very good as I do like egg tofu in soups with pork so this should be perfect. The one ingredient, wolfberries, makes this very Chinese. This is a season as desired recipe, when I make this, I will try and nail down some accurate measurements. I look forward to making and tasting this.
Equipment
- Rice Cooker with Steamer Tray
- Steamer Handles
Ingredients
- 1 tube egg tofu
- ground pork
- soy sauce
- white pepper
- sesame oil
- dried Goji berries, aka Wolfberries
- water, as needed
Instructions
- For the steamer, I use my rice cooker that has a steamer tray. A basic pot with a trivet also works. Steamer handles are recommended to lift plates in and out of the steamer tray or trivet.
- Mix the ground pork with some soy sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil as desired. Set aside.
- Place some goji berries in a bowl of water to soften, set aside.
- Remove the egg tofu from the tube and slice about Ā½ to Ā¾ inch thick and place them in a heatproof plate that will fit in your steamer.
- Use a small spoon, scoop up some of the ground pork and shape into a half moon shape, place it flat side down on a slice of tofu. Repeat for the remaining tofu slices.
- Drain the water from the goji berries, place a berry on top of each mound of pork. Extra berries, just scatter those around the tofu.
- Heat the steamer of your choice with 1 inch of water, either a pot with a steamer tray or trivet, or as I will use, a rice cooker with a steamer tray.
- Mix together some water and a splash of soy sauce, pour this into the dish to be steamed, only about Ā½ as high as the tofu.
- When the water is boiling in your steamer, lift the dish with steamer handles (preferred method) and place in the steamer and cover immediately.
- Steam for 10 to 12 minutes, ensure the pork is cooked through. When the time is up, remove with the steamer handles, use a large spoon and scoop out the tofu to serving plates, 2-3 pieces per serving and serve with rice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Add fresh chopped coriander and or spring onion to the ground pork when mixing. 2. Replace the goji berries with half a shrimp. 3. Replace the ground pork with chopped shrimp/prawn.
