Empanada Night

Empanada Night!! They took forever with my two left hands, but were delicious. Some things are worth waiting for an 8:30 dinner time. Maybe this is why Argentina eats so late.

Empanadas de Carne
makes 12-16

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick unsalted butter
1 t salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Put everything in the food processor and pulse until crumbles are formed. Ball the dough into a, well, ball, and put in fridge while you work on the other stuff.

Picadillo:
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, chopped finely
6 seville olives, halved
2 t paprika
2 t dried oregano
1 t cumin
1 t red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Brown the ground beef, drain fat. Saute onions until translucent, and add to beef. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Set aside to let cool.

Putting them all together:
1 egg, white and yolk separated (white=glue, yolk=varnish)

Preheat oven to 400.

Roll out the ball of dough into a thin layer and then using a small bowl, or a cutout if you're dorky enough to own proper tools, cut circles of about 3-4 inches in diameter.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon of picadillo onto each dough round, making sure to top each with an olive half. Dip your finger into the egg white and run it around the circumfrence of the dough. Fold the dough over and press edges together to seal. Feel free to do something fancy with the edges and fork tines, I didn't bother. Brush the tops with the beaten egg yolk.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tops are nicely golden brown. Empanadas are best piping hot, right out of the oven. Thanks to Miriam in CA and laylita.com for my empanada education.

Ellie's Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

This week's Craving Ellie recipe was Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers. They are full of vitamin C (red bell peppers have twice the amount of C as an orange), fiber, lycopene...and beef and cheese! I used Arizona grass-fed beef from San Rafael Valley Beef, so my peps had lots of omega 3's too. Most importantly though, they were delicious!

I, of course, made a few tweaks to Ellie's original recipe, which you can find online here. Rather than bulgur wheat, I used a 7 grain blend from Seeds of Change, which had Long Grain Brown Rice, Barley, Rye, Bulgur, Red Winter Wheat Berries, Quinoa, and Wild Rice. I didn't have any plain bulgur, plus the more grains the merrier, right? I also browned the beef and onions a bit to cut down on the oven time, used different veggies and cheese, because that's what I had on hand, and made a quick marinara to serve with the little guys, so they were nice and saucy. Oh, and I added garlic of course! Below is a rundown of my version, but this recipe is pretty forgiving for whatever you have in the fridge.


Stuffed Peppers
adapted from The Food You Crave, by Ellie Kreiger

3 red bell peppers
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
1 small white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small zucchini, coarsely shredded
1/2 a carrot, finely shredded
1 cup cooked grains or brown rice (I used a 7 grain blend)
1 egg
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup marinara sauce

Preheat oven to 375. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds, ribs, and cores. Sweat the onions and garlic in olive oil for a couple minutes, then add ground beef for another 5 minutes or until just barely pink. Remove to a plate to let cool. Beat egg, and then add in zucchini, carrot, grains, oregano, salt and pepper, 4 tablespoons marinara, and cooled off beef, and stir to combine. Place peppers in a ovenproof dish, fill with beef mixture, spoon a dollop of tomato sauce on top of each pepper and sprinkle with a little mozzarella. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then remove foil and cook for another 15 minutes, until tops are browned, gooey and beautiful. Serve with extra marinara on the side.

Thank you to Healthy Hostess for suggesting this recipe, and check out the CEimB blogroll to see how everyone else fared with their peppers this week.

If you'd be interested in cooking a healthy recipe every week with our group, we are actively recruiting! I'm having fun so far trying recipes I probably wouldn't try on my own, and it's great to see all the other blogs and their gorgeous photos. Check us out at http://www.cravingellieinmybelly.blogspot.com/ to see more!

Girls like chicken and beer too

My pictoral response to Man Night.

Magic Pork

These are really really good, but they take a lot of stovetop time. I usually make the effort when boneless country style ribs go on sale for less than $2/lb and I have a leisurely Sunday afternoon to spare, like today!

Have faith. For 95% of the prep time the pork looks pale and unappetizing, and then TADA! The last ten minutes magically turns it brown, caramelized, crispy, tasty and delicious...

Stovetop Carnitas

2 lbs boneless country style (pork) ribs
1 cup water
3/4 cup orange juice
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp orange or lemon zest
1/8 cup brandy

Cut pork into thirds. Add to deep skillet, along with water, OJ, garlic, zest and salt. Bring to boil then lower to simmer and cover. Simmer til tender, about 1 hr 45 min. Uncover and boil til liquid is reduced by half, about 15 min.

Stir in brandy and boil until liquid completely evaporates, about 30 min. Watch closely as once liquid is gone, meat burns easily. Once cool enough, shred into chunks, discarding super fatty parts. If they've turned cold after all the shredding, return to skillet with 1 tablespoon water to reheat and absorb delicious bits from pan.

Lousy picture, I forgot to get the camera out until we after we'd started eating

Man Ribs

Men love these. I make these when I am trying to get out of a major scrape. They are not my recipe, but from Roy Yamaguchi, creator of the Roy's Hawaiian Fusion restaurant chain, one of the few chains I love.

Roy's Szechuan Style Baby Back Ribs

For the ribs

2 1/2 lb baby-back pork ribs
3 qt water or chicken stock
1 Tbsp minced ginger
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
2 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro

For the Szechuan sauce
5 Tbsp white miso or apple-cider vinegar
2/3 cup hoisin sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp minced ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp sake
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp chili paste

1. Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate at least 1 hour, preferably overnight. (The amount of ribs shown will yield about four per person—just enough to whet an appetite but not enough to make your guests feel stuffed.)

2. Pour the water or chicken stock into a large, ovenproof skillet. (You'll use the same one later to bake the ribs.) Add the ginger, parsley, and cilantro to the liquid, and put the ribs into the pan. Bring to a full boil; then reduce the heat to medium and let a slow, steady, soft boil continue for about 30 minutes. This tenderizes the ribs and imparts flavor.

3. Remove the pan from the stove and drain the liquid. Now take the Szechuan sauce and reserve about 1 cup of it; brush the rest gently on the ribs, covering them thoroughly on both sides. If cooking in the oven, broil the ribs for several minutes.

4. Reset the oven to bake at 450°F; then cook the ribs for 15 to 20 minutes, until the meat is tender, brown, and falling off the bone. (Or you can grill the ribs over mesquite wood, as Yamaguchi does.) Serve with the reserved sauce on the side for dipping.

http://www.roysrestaurant.com/

Turkey Burgers

By the way, my camera broke (I can't find the charger), so no new pictures for a while. So use your imagination to picture these delicious, fiber and fruit added, much better than regular, burgers. Perfect for a summer dinner with some grilled corn on the cob, mmm.

1 lb. ground turkey
1 small green apple, like Granny Smith
1 small white onion
1 stalk celery
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
salt and pepper
1 can cranberry sauce (the kind that you can cut into slices)
Sourdough English Muffins
Red leaf lettuce
Extra sharp cheddar cheese(optional)

Grate the apple, onion and celery until you almost grate your fingers off, then mince the rest very finely. Combine this mixture with the ground turkey, herbs, and S&P and form patties. Add the apple mixture gradually, sometimes it is too much for the amount of meat. The patties should still be mostly turkey or they'll fall apart. Grill or George Foreman or pan fry, then serve on a toasted sourdough english muffin with a slice of cranberry, cheese, and lettuce.