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Harissa Coconut Slow Cooker Pork Ribs

Harissa Coconut Pork Ribs

Harissa Coconut Slow Cooker Pork Ribs
2.5# boneless pork shoulder ribs (sometimes labeled country style)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1.5 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 medium onion, large dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 Tbl harissa paste (You can find this at large Kroger stores. If you use powder, use 1 Tbl with 1tsp oil.)
2 small jalapenos or serranos, finely diced
1 small can coconut milk (unsweetened, or half a regular sized can)
1 Tbl soy sauce
S/P
1 tsp coriander
Juice of one lime
fresh cilantro for serving

Clean ribs of all surface fat. Combine next 5 ingredients in a large bowl and coat ribs thoroughly. Heat up a large pan with a couple Tbl of oil and sear the pork ribs. Don’t burn the sugar, but get them nicely browned; season lightly with salt and black pepper. Put ribs back in the spice rub bowl and set aside. Put 3/4 of the onion, garlic, harissa and chiles in the drippings from the ribs and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Add in coconut milk and soy sauce and bring up to boil, kill heat.

In a crock pot, spray the crock with food release such as Pam and put reserved onions in the bottom. Layer in ribs with any leftover rub and drippings. Then sprinkle second tsp of coriander and 1/4 tsp salt over ribs. Pour the veg and coconut milk mixture over ribs. Cook on low for 4-5 hrs or high for about 3-3.5 hours. Feel free to add a little water or stock if you feel they are too dry.

After the ribs are cooked and soft, remove from the crock pot and set aside. Put a screen sieve over a small pan and strain the liquids into the pot (OR if you like a chunkier sauce as I do, just leave all the veg in there and give it a quick whizz with the immersion blender to make the sauce). Let the sauce sit for 15 minutes or so, to let the fat rise to the top. Ladle off as much fat as you can, then put the sauce over medium heat and simmer until it thickens. If it doesn’t get as thick as you’d like, add a tsp of cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbl water and boil for 2 minutes to tighten it up. After the sauce is done and off heat, add the lime juice. (Adding lime juice before a boil will make it bitter.)

Serve over polenta or grits with the sauce spooned over and fresh cilantro leaves on top. Or serve with broccoli or other veg for low carb.

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Shrimp in Creamy Prosecco Sauce with Linguine Fini

This is my take on a VERY old recipe that I pulled from a magazine in the late 80s or early 90s. I still have the clipping (pic below) and it’s still a solidly delicious recipe! I’ve made it many times and not only is it super easy, it’s super deelish! The original recipe calls for champagne and is lacking garlic, but otherwise this is pretty close. You can change up the herbs and give it different flavor profiles. You could even make this Asian by using coconut milk and ginger. It’s a method, the flavour profile is determined by your choice of herbs and spices. I’m going to do Asian next time I make this. I’ll post the results!

Shrimp w/ Creamy Prosecco Sauce

Shrimp in Creamy Prosecco Sauce with Linguine Fini
1 pound medium shrimp, cleaned and deveined
1 Tbl cajun seasoning or dry Old Bay
EVOO
1 Tbl butter
1/2 small package cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 medium shallot, small dice
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
S/P
1 tsp dry basil (or dill or parsley)
1 cup prosecco or champagne
3 Tbl grated parmesan
~1 cup heavy cream
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 package of linguine fini, prepare as instructed on box (substitute: angel hair)

METHOD:
Clean the shrimp and coat in the cajun seasoning, set aside.

Start the pasta water (don’t forget to add salt!!). Cook pasta while you’re doing the next steps.

Start a large nonstick skillet over medium to med hi heat with a few turns of olive oil and the butter. When hot, add shallot, shrooms, garlic and basil. Sauté the veg until the shrooms give off their water, then add shrimp and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes and continue to sauté for another 3-4 minutes. Add prosecco and cook for a minute. Add heavy cream – use enough to create a thick sauce, it’s about a cup, more or less. Bring to boil and cook a couple of minutes. Add parmesan – this is for added flavour and to thicken. Adjust to your taste. Add in about 2/3 of the scallions and save the rest for garnish. Check for S/P levels before serving. Keep in mind that the pasta will negate some of the seasoning, so go a little heavy.

Serve over linguine fini (or angel hair) and garnish with scallions. Drink the rest of the prosecco with dinner. Makes about 4 servings.

Here is the original clipping!

Original recipe clipping!

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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.

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Kitchen Tutorial #1

Since I spent all day writing this stuff out for a friend who needs a lifestyle change, I thought I’d publish for anyone else who might want to start doing low carb and/or cooking more at home. First up: basic kitchen essentials! Basic tools and getting your pantry started.

Basic kitchen utensils you’ll need:
meat thermometer
measuring spoons
measuring cups (dry)
2 cup measuring cup (liquid)
microplane or lemon zester
crock pot (small basic one is OK)
square baking dish
large heavy bottom frying pan nonstick is fine
small nonstick skillet for frittatas!
couple of soup pans, 2 qt
large wide bottom chili pot (or dutch oven if you want to spend $50+, it’s worth it!)
sheet pans for baking
nonstick safe cooking utensils
at least ONE really good, sharp knife

Basic pantry (NO canned veg other than what’s here!):
extra virgin olive oil EVOO (look for dark bottle, around $10 per ltr)
kosher salt (my recipes call for kosher, NOT table salt)
black pepper
sugar
cornstarch
dried basil
dried oregano
dried thyme
dried cilantro
sweet paprika
smoked paprika
red pepper flakes
L&P worcestershire sauce (it’s the best)
your favorite hot sauce
steak sauce
dijon mustard
mayonnaise
seasoned rice wine vinegar
apple cider vinegar
4 boxes chicken stock
4 cans diced toms (I like Hunts fire roasted w/ garlic)
Herdez Salsa Verde (NOT spicy) for green chicken, white chili and green chili
1 tube tomato paste (it keeps the longest, look in Italian section)
capers (for chicken piccata)
2 cans Bush’s chili starter (any flavor, but medium is perfect)
2 cans white beans (great northern)
2 cans seasoned black beans
1 jar sundried tomatoes (for a recipe)
1 jar large pimento stuffed green olives (for recipe)
1 bottle Korean BBQ sauce (BiBiGo is great)
Keep canned soups on hand at all times. Progresso low sodium soups are pretty good. Whatever you get, make sure it’s low sodium.

Fridge:
butter, salted
sliced cheese (real, NOT American!)
shredded parmesan
heavy cream (for sauces, keeps forever)**
deli meat, smoked turkey, ham, etc.
Eggs
**Stay away from low fat dairy. Get full fat cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream and yogurts. It’s been shown that full fat dairy is better for you in the long run than reduced fat stuff.

Veg always on hand:
garlic (the prepared garlic in a jar is OK if you’ll use that more)
white onions
lemons (for piccata and I use for lots of things)

Low carb fresh veg for meals:
cauliflower (toss with EVOO, S/P and roast at 425 for 15 mins)
any colour bell peppers (cut in half, remove ribs/seeds, toss with EVOO and roast skin side up under broiler)
green beans (cut off stems and sautee whole in EVOO with minced garlic and S/P)
greens (baby kale is surprisingly good) Sautee with EVOO, garlic and S/P.
asparagus same as green beans but add some lemon zest and finish with lemon juice

Salad: (eat one per day)
romain hearts
celery
scallions
radishes
carrot sticks
grape tomatoes

OIL & VINEGAR dressing.
Use 2 parts extra virgin olive oil to one part seasoned rice wine vinegar. Season with S/P. Add in some dried basil if you want or even a dollop of dijon if you feel frisky. Whisk thoroughly to emulsify. This can be held at room temp.

Frozen sides and veg are FAR superior to canned veg because of the sodium. Low sodium canned veg is disgusting. Frozen veg keeps all the nutrition and has far less sodium, even if you get it with flavouring.

Basic frozen veg to have on hand:
spinach (get it in the bag so you can use what you need)
stew veg (for easy crockpot stew)
frozen cauliflower is ok for adding to a recipe, not great alone
frozen greens are fine
frozen green peas are the only peas I use
DO not get frozen green beans or asparagus. That stuff gets GROSS when frozen.

You can also get frozen recipe ready veg such as diced onions and peppers, and they are OK, just not as flavourful as fresh. But if you want to sub in the frozen to save you time and effort, that’s just fine.

There are myriad frozen sides out there, but some outstanding ones I’ve found recently are:
Birdseye Protein Blends – usually a grain and veg, various flavours
Green Giant Fire Roasted veg
any veg mix as long as it’s not loaded with sodium

FYI, you can freeze 9 grain bread! It keeps forever and you can’t tell it’s been frozen. Restaurant trick!

Frozen Proteins:
frozen chicken tenders
frozen thin chicken breast if you can find it
frozen boneless skinless chix thighs

For beef I rarely buy it frozen. I buy it on sale and freeze. For quick chili, keep ~1# packs of 90/10 low fat ground beef or ground chicken on hand.

Other meats you’ll need for various recipes:
pork tenderloin
bone in, skin on chicken thighs (or breasts)
Stew meat or chuck steak
flank, skirt or flat iron steak (look for it on sale!)

FROZEN MEALS
If you can’t take leftovers to work (I hear this is a thing??), I suggest going to a boxed frozen solution. One particularly good frozen box meal I found is Stouffers Fit Kitchen. They are good sized portions with a TON of protein and reasonable sodium. They are not the cheapest frozen meals, but they are cheaper than buying lunch every day. Even if you go with the small frozen meals and just buy a small salad, you’ll be doing better nutritionally. Eating sandwiches is better than fast food, but you still get mostly carbs with all that bread. If you could cut down the sandwiches to twice a week and do frozen+salad the rest of the time, you’ll see a difference.