So yea! This was another one of my back dated cooking adventures. Cinco De Mayo passed and i was like DAMN i feel like something spicy with a Mexican flavor. I looked around for what i would like and I saw this article on Brown Rice in May’s Saveur. There was this recipe called Chicken and Brown Rice with Chorizo. It looekd so good on the page that i wanted to cook it. The ingredients were simple and they sounded good! It’s kind of like Arroz Con Pollo but not. Though i might just make Arroz Con Pollo next time! I love Saffron! Anyways back to the food.
Here are the pictures of my little adventure
The Ingredients are
- 4 Chicken Thighs with Skin and Bone
- 1/2 Link of Chorizo (I think it was about 3/4ft Long) Sliced into nice 1″ diagonal slices
- 2 tbsp of Oregano
- 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 4 Cloves of Garlic
- 1 Large Yellow Onion, Thinly Sliced
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 Cup of Long Grain Brown Rice
- 1/2 Cup of White Wine
- 2 Roma Tomatoes, Sliced into quarters
- 3 Cups of Chicken Broth
- 1 Cup of Frozen Peas
So basically start off by preheating the oven to 400F. You need to then find a dutch oven or iron pot which is oven safe. You first season the Chicken Thighs with Salt and Pepper. Heat up the pot on medium-highish heat add some olive oil and sautee the chicken skin down till the skin is a nice brown color about 8 minutes or so. Take the Thighs out and put it aside. Dump out the oil inside the pan. Then sautee the chorizo in the pan. Cook it till it’s lightly brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Then take out the chorizo onto a plate but leave the chorizo oil and juices in there. Throw in the Oregano, Red Pepper Flakes, Garlic, Onion and Bay Leaf and let it cook for a while until the onion is soft and brownish, about 8 minutes. Then add the rice and stir it around coating rice with the oils inside the pan and all around, about 2 minutes. Add the white wine and bring it to a boil to cook off most of the alcohol. That should be around a minute or so. Then throw in the Chicken Thighs, Tomatoes, and Chorizo and pour the chicken broth in along with some salt and pepper for seasoning. Cover the pan and bring it to a boil. After it starts to boil transfer the pot to the oven and let it bake for about 1hr-1hr 10min. By this time everything should be cooked nicely. Be careful about the pan!! I burned myself many times touching the pan because i forgot it was in the oven! Then uncover the pot and throw in the peas. You want to mix them in gently so you don’t shred up all the chicken. The heat of the food will cook the peas. Recover the pot and let it rest for 10 minutes. Everything should be ready to serve! Bon App!!
I have no idea what i made. Yesterday i was talking to Mojtaba about Persian food and i was like damn i should make some Persian Food. I usually do the generic saffron rice but i wanted to play with some spices today. I went through a bunch of different spices and smelled them and tasted them to see if they fit into what i thought of Persian food. Well at the end i came up with Allspice, Cloves, Cumin and Cardomom seeds. It worked out great but i have a feeling they all had similar flavors. I don’t know if that’s suppose to be a good thing or a wasteful thing.
I first preheat the oven to 400F. I didn’t really take pictures of everything this time but basically i made a dry rub of all the spices (minus the shell of the cardamom) and also some fresh peppercorns and salt. I have a spice grinder which is one of the best things i’ve ever bought. I put the dry rub all over some chicken thighs and then let it sit for a while. I then browned the skin of the chicken and then put it aside. I used the left over oil and threw in a bunch of sliced onions. I added some more of the rub mix to the onions. Then i threw in basmati rice, and some blanched almonds. I really like eating basmati with almonds. After tossing it for a while i poured the water to cook the rice. I then put the chicken back in. I grinded a small pinch of saffron with sugar and then melted it in some hot water. This brings out the most of the saffron. After the water in the rice has boiled for a little i poured in the saffron mix. I swished the water around once and then threw it with the top on in the preheated oven. I let it stand for like an hour. I took it out cut up some roma tomatoes. I took out the chicken and then mixed up the tomatoes with the rice. The nice thing about this is that you get a nice crust of rice on the bottom that isn’t burnt but when you stir the rice the crust comes off and you get a really nice crunch with the almonds and rice in the rice. That’s basically it. You can try it and see how it goes. But it was really good. Next time i make it i’ll take pictures. This time it was really just a test.
I’ve been busy recently so i didn’t post but i have been cooking!!! So i’m gonna add these cooking adventures right now!
So today i tried the Pork Loin with Sauteed Onion and Fennel with Fennel Cream. I have to say this was one of my favorite dishes so far. The sauteed onion and fennel was the best part of it. The fennel cream made it even better. The pork was really tender too. So all in all it came out a success. The only thing i didn’t like too much was that there wasn’t much color. I guess it doesn’t really matter though cause it tasted good. I added some fresh rosemary on top and it actually added a nice flavor to the dish. This dish in general takes some time to make. The most time consuming part is making fennel and onions. I don’t know if you have to but i followed the directions and slow cooked it for like 30 minutes or so. This dish took about 1-2 hours total.
Here are the pictures of this one.
- 1 pork loin
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, coarsly grounded
- 1 medium fennel bulbs, quartered, cored, thinly sliced
- 1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 shallots minced
- 1/4 cup white wine (I used 2 buck chuck Chardonnay)
- 3/4 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup whipping cream
So first thing to do is make the onion and fennel. I made it a day before and put it in the fridge and it turns out just fine. Put 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat. Add a teaspoon of the coarse grounded fennel seeds to the oil and stir around till you get a nice fennel fragrance smell from the pot. Don’t let it burn or anything. About 30 seconds or so. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Throw in the fennel and onion slices and stir and cook. You want them to basically caramelize and go almost translucent. This is the time consuming part and should take somewhere between 20-40 minutes. I think it took 30 for me. Then throw in a tablespoon of minced garlic and keep sauteeing for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and put it in a bowl. Either fridge it or cover it with foil to keep it warm.
Now we are going to start the pork. Preheat the oven to 450F and heat a pan at medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season the pork with salt and pepper and throw it in the pan. Basically you want to brown all the sides. I flipped it about ever 2-3 minutes for a total of about 10 minutes. Then move the pork to a baking sheet and throw it in the oven. That should cook for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes take it out and keep it warm in foil.
Now we are making the sauce. Don’t clean the pan you cooked the pork in. You want to save all the flavor. So with the pan on medium heat throw in the minced shallots, 1 teaspoon of coarse ground fennel seeds, and a tablespoon of garlic. Stir it around and try to scrape a little of the pork flavors around. Do that for about 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat to high and pour in the white wine (i used 2 buck chuck). Try to scrape the rest of the pork flavors while the wine boils away. It should slowly start turning into a thicker glaze like consistency. Kinda like a watered down honey look (should take about 2-3 minutes). Then throw in the chicken broth and whipping cream and whisk it around. You want to keep cooking it till the sauce is somewhat thicker. Not like a really thick sauce but so that a spoon gets a nice thin coating around it. Season the sauce with salt and pepper and you’re pretty much done!
Reheat the fennel and onion mix in a pan and then put it on the plate. Place the pork loin on top of the mix and then pout the sauce all over the top! MMMMMMMMM so good. Bon App!
So this was recipe #3 of the festival of pork. This sauce came out really nice. As you can tell all pork recipes are just herb crusted or sauce based. So this is another variation on the cranberry sauce. The pork itself had a very simple spice mix. But even with a simple spice mix both the pork and the sauce came out really well.
Anyways, here are the pictures of the third pork recipe
The ingredients are really short and simple
- 1 Pork loin
- 2 3/4 teaspoons minced rosemary
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 3/4 cup chicken broth
- 3/4 cup Tawny Port
- 1 cup Whole berry cranberry sauce
Basically take some salt, pepper and 1 teaspoon of the rosemary and create a spice mix and spread it all over the pork.
Melt the butter in a skillet on medium/medium-high heat. After the butter melts put in the pork loins. I cooked it around 5 minutes on each side. You should make sure the pork is at around 145F to eat. I just assumed that 10 minutes total would be alright. After it’s cooked set it aside. Then add the broth, port and leftover rosemary to the pan. Let it boil and reduce for about 4 minutes. Then add in the cranberry sauce and simmer it all until it reduces and thickens which should take around 7-10 minutes. Season the sauce a little and then finish plating. I added green beans and potatoes and the onions to the side of the pork loins. Bon App!
Now this is good stuff! This time i followed directions! The sauce and the pork was really nice today. The sauce had a nice tartish taste from the cranberry and a nice sweet taste from the vinegar. Though i did have a booboo where i burnt my hand. My oven towel slipped off the bottom of the pan when i took it out of the oven and the middle of my hand got burnt. I’m pretty much used to getting burnt though so it wasn’t a big deal.
Here are the pics!
So the ingredients are
- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
- 1 pork tenderloin
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (i used a spice grinder with a few pulses)
- 1/2 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
- 1/3 cup canned whole berry cranberry sauce
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
So cooking the pork we do a sear bake thing. Preheat the oven to 450F. So the first thing to do is salt and pepper the pork. Then melt 1/2 tablespoon of the butter in a medium-high oven safe skillet. It needs to be oven safe because we have to put the skillet in the oven. After the butter melts sear the pork in the pan. It’s about 1-2 minutes on each side. After all the sides are seared and the oven is ready throw the pan in the oven. This should sit around 10 minutes. Now you can make the sauce while that is cooking in the oven. Take another skillet and put it on medium-high heat. Melt the rest of the butter in there. After the butter melts put the onion and rosemary in there. Cook till the onions are soft which should take a few minutes. Add the broth, cranberry sauce, and vinegar to the pan and whisk it together for a while. When the pork is done in the oven take it out and place it to the side to sit. (BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOURSELF ON THE PAN) Then scrap all the juices and stuff from the pan to the sauce. Boil the sauce for a while so it reduces to a nice thick sauce. Then you’re done! Slice the pork, plate and pour the sauce over. Once again i did the green beans and potatoes…. 
Bon App
