Posted on

Crockpot Al Pastor

This is a lovely Mexican pork dish, traditionally a shaved meat akin to shawarma. I made it like carnitas, but with pastor flavours. I do not crisp mine up, but it would be excellent crisped up if you feel like the extra step. I skimmed a few recipes and came up with this one. You’ll want to marinate the pork for at least 4 hours – I did mine overnight. You could do this in the oven at low heat (325F) if you don’t have a crockpot.

Crockpot Al Pastor
~2# Pork Loin Roast, cut into chunks (if you get a big 4# one, double the marinade)
Marinade
1/2 white onion, large dice
1/2 can pineapple chunks, reserve juice (in juice NOT syrup)
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbl apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Tbl chiles in adobo (I really like La Costeña diced chipotles in adobo. They are med spicy. See photo.)


In the crockpot
1/2 white onion, large dice
1/4 can pineapple chunks, no juice
2 bay leaves
2 guajillo chiles, dried
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 c chiles in adobo
big splash pineapple juice
big splash orange juice
S/P
remaining pineapple chunks
1/4 c cilantro, fresh, chopped

Instructions:
Unwrap and cut up the pork loin roast, season with S/P. Put all marinade ingredients into food processor and pulse until you get a thick loose paste. Put pork and marinade in a plastic bag and let it sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours (I recommend overnight).

When you’re ready to start the crockpot, turn it to HI and spray with nonstick spray. Add onion, pineapple, bay leaves and guajillos to the bottom of the pot, then layer in the pork, try to keep it one layer. Put next 5 ingredients over the pork, then add in the marinade. Cook for about 5-6 hours.

When the pork is done, it will pull apart easily. You’ll need to skim off about 2/3 cup of liquid from the pork once it’s cooked, or your sauce will be too watery. Skim off as much liquid as you can, check S/P, then pull the pork apart. Remove the bay leaves and guajillos. Add in the cilantro and crush up the remaining pineapple into the finished pork. You’ll need to adjust salt and you may want to add more chipotles if the spice level is not to your liking. I like my pastor to be mostly citrus rather than chipotles and adobo.

Serve with tortillas, black beans, sour cream and salsa.

Posted on

Beef Doenjang Soup

Print

Beef Doenjang Soup

This is another riff on my basic doenjang soup. It's my favourite! I encourage you to find an Asian market in your area and get some of these specialty items. Korean is hard to find unless you happen to have a Korean market, but Amazon usually has ALL the things. This one uses a spicy radish - pic in recipe and Korean soup base, which is great for just about any soup.
Course Soup
Cuisine Asian, Korean
Keyword asian soup, beef soup, doenjang, korean, korean soup
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings 10 servings
Author misangela

Ingredients

  • 1 8oz package cremini mushrooms, sliced white mushrooms are ok
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 med shallot, diced
  • 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced sub 1 Tbl ginger paste
  • 3 scallions, cut longways and into 1.5" pieces
  • olive or neutral oil to cook veg
  • 1 Tbl Doenjang paste sub ssamjang
  • 2 tsp Gochujang paste optional, but adds nice flavor for beef
  • 1 Lime, zest and juice
  • 3 cups beef stock sub chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup Korean soup base or Kikkoman Memmi sub soy sauce
  • 2 Tbl Mirin
  • 1 pack Salted Radish optional; sub 6 sliced radishes
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • 8 oz thinly sliced sirloin found in Korean store, or slice yourself
  • scallions cut on bias for garnish

Instructions

  • Put a large stock pot on medium heat with a little oil to cook the veg.
  • Sweat mushrooms, garlic, shallot, ginger and scallions until soft.
  • Add doenjang, gochujang and lime zest and stir until dissolved.
  • Add beef stock, soup base and mirin and bring to simmer.
  • Add salted radish, sesame oil and beef, bring back to simmer for about 5 minutes.
  • Turn off heat and add lime juice.
  • Check seasoning and adjust to your taste.
  • Serve with scallions as garnish.

Notes

As with all soups, feel free to improvise. I rarely make soup the same way twice. It just depends on what's in my fridge at the moment. Leftover rice is always great in these soups. Fish sauce is also a nice addition, as is Chinese cooking wine. 
You may have to add salt, it really depends on your own taste. 
I occasionally add some black pepper to this beef soup. I like black pepper with beef. 
Posted on

Honeyed Fig and Goat Cheese Galette

If you can make this galette dough, you can fill it with ANYTHING. It can be sweet or savoury. It’s a METHOD that I use for all sorts of fruits and stuff. A very good savoury is caprese: tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella. Leave out the sugar or sub salt for savoury, obviously. Adding parmesan would be nice with the caprese I just mentioned…

Honeyed Fig and Goat Cheese Galette


Honeyed Fig and Goat Cheese Galette
1 small carton fresh Mission figs (about 6-8), halved top to bottom, then sliced longways
4 oz goat cheese (I found HONEY goat cheese!!) room temp
3-4 oz cream cheese, room temp
2 Tbl honey
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 egg + 1 Tbl water for wash
large crystal sugar or Demerara sugar

Dough
1 cup A/P flour
1 cup S/R flour
2 Tbl sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom (or cinnamon or even ginger, depending on what you’re putting in it!)
1 stick cold butter (I use salted), diced
1/3-1/2 ice water

Preheat oven to 400F.

Stir together dry dough ingredients. Cut in butter (just like for biscuits) until you have pea sized pieces. Start adding the ice water and stir in with a spatula. Keep adding water until the dough JUST sticks together. Don’t make it wet.

Dump dough onto a floured surface and roll up/knead a couple of times to make sure it’s all together. Don’t overwork. Pat into a 6″ disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least a half hour or even over night.

While the dough is resting, cream together goat cheese, cream cheese, honey and lemon zest.

After dough has rested, turn out on a floured board and roll out to about 1/4″ thick. No need for perfectly round, this is a rustic galette. The rough disk should be about 10-12″ across. Roll up on roller and transfer to a baking sheet ON PARCHMENT PAPER. Do not skip the parchment. It is the only way to get the baked galette off the sheet.

Dump the cheese mixture in center of dough and ever so gently spread it into a disk that stops at least 2″ from the edges of the dough. I used my fingers to spread this, it worked better than the spatula. Place the figs around the edge of the cheese mixture – put extras in the middle. Drizzle with a little honey.

Fold up the dough, making pleats where needed, being careful not to tear it. Brush dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Top the figs with a few thyme leaves and sugar.

Bake in a 400F oven for about 30-40 mins, until the dough is golden. Top with more thyme leaves when you take it from the oven. Wait at least 15 minutes before transferring to a plate or you’ll break it. To transfer, slide the parchment from the baking sheet over to a plate, then pull the parchment out from under the galette. Serve warm or room temp.

Posted on

Southern Biscuits

Biscuits are something that every Southerner should be able to make. And YES you must use White Lily® self rising flour. JUST DO IT. I don’t make biscuits often, but sometimes, like today, I just gotta have a biscuit!! Sadly I did not get pix of making the dough, but I did get a shot of the finished product.

Southern Biscuit!

Here is a handy trick for you! I never have buttermilk on hand, so I make mine like this:

Instant Buttermilk: Put 1 tsp of white vinegar into 1/2 cup milk, half n half or heavy cream. In a couple of minutes, the milk will curdle and voilà! Buttermilk. Just use about 1 tsp of vinegar per every half cup or so.

White Lily® Flour Biscuits
2 cups WL Self Rising Flour
1/4 cup (half stick) butter or shortening, cubed
~1/2 to 2/3 cup buttermilk (more or less)
Yield: about 8 biscuits

Preheat oven to 425ºF

Put flour in a large bowl and cut in butter with dough cutter or two forks. Flour should have a grainy texture with some pea sized bits of butter. Add in 1/2 cup buttermilk and stir in. Keep adding buttermilk until the dough is just sticking together. Turn out on a floured counter and knead just a couple of times to make a ball. Pat out to about 1″ thick and cut out biscuits with a cutter or a glass. Place on ungreased shiny cookie sheet (a shiny sheet will give you a better biscuit crust). Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until biscuits are lightly golden. Serve warm and enjoy!