Red Fettuccine with Goat Cheese Cream Sauce

This seemed like a good idea at the time. My plan was to throw a beet into my food processor, then add my usual amount of flour and eggs and voila, red pasta dough. As it turned out, I had to add a boatload of extra flour in order to get the dough to be well, dough. All in all, it turned out okay. The sauce was fine though, so here’s the recipe for that:

2 Tbs Butter, plus additional for sautéing mushrooms
2 Tbs Flour
½ cup Cream
1.5 cups milk
2 oz. goat cheese
Sliced mushrooms (I used ~7 creminis)
1 Shallot, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
Salt and Pepper
Nutmeg
Oregano

Melt the 2 T butter in a sauce pan, and add the flour. Stir vigorously for a minute or 2, so there aren’t any lumps, until the roux starts turning golden. Add in the cream & milk, and continue to whisk to incorporate. Add in the goat cheese, stirring until it melts. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and oregano.

Meanwhile, in a pan over medium heat, melt some butter and sauté the mushrooms for a few minutes until they start to take on some color. Add the shallot and garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add the cream sauce mixture to the mushroom pan, and stir to incorporate everything. Add the cooked pasta and toss to finish.

Asian-inspired Pulled Pork

As far as regional cuisine goes, this meal is all over the place, but it ended up working really well. The marinade is Chinese, the toppings are Vietnamese, and I served it with Southern potato salad.

Recipe:

¼ cup soy sauce

3 Tbsp hoisin

3 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp Fish Sauce

2 Tbsp Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp Rice vinegar

1.5 Tbsp garlic chilis sauce

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

Black pepper

3.5 lb pork shoulder

Toppings: Zucchini, pickled carrots and daikon, jalapenos, and cilantro

Directions:

Mix all the marinade ingredients together, taste and adjust. Put the pork in your slow cooker and pour on the marinade mixture. Put it on low for 8 hours, turning the meat over about halfway through.

Once the meat is falling apart tender, remove it from the pot, and place it in a roasting pan. Shred the meat with two forks and spread it out so it’s all in one layer. Place under a broiler for 5 minutes or until it gets some color on it. Flip the meat over, and brown the other side under the broiler. Serve with some reserved braising liquid, pickled carrots and daikon, jalapenos, zucchini/cucumber, and cilantro.

Caldeirada Maranhao

I have to admit, I’ve never had Brazilian food, nor do I know the first thing about it. Luckily the internet exists, so I found a recipe from a brazilian food blog to try. Caldeirada Maranhao is a fish stew from the state of Maranhao. Makes sense I suppose. It was an easy dish to make, and came out tasting pretty good. I could definitely see making this again sometime. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

½ pound of shrimp, peeled and deveined

½ pound white fish, diced (I used whatever the fish was I found in my freezer)

Juice of 1 lime

2 hard boiled eggs

1 potato, diced and par-boiled

½ white onion, diced

1 jalapeno, deseeded, deveined and diced

1 side of a bell pepper, diced

1 diced tomato

½ cup tomato sauce

½ cup coconut milk

1 cup water

Parsley

Green onions

Steps:

1. Hard-boil the eggs, par boil the potato for about 10 minutes, and get the rest of your mess in place. Season the fish and shrimp with the lime juice and some salt and let it sit for a few minutes.

 

2. Heat some oil in a dutch oven and sweat the onion, peppers, and tomatoes for about 5 minutes.

 

3. Add the fish, shrimp, tomatoes, water, coconut milk, tomato sauce, eggs, and potatoes and simmer for 15 minutes.

   

  4. Serve over rice, garnished with parsley    
      and green onions

Red Snapper en Papillote

 

This recipe comes straight from Alton Brown. Here’s a link to the recipe on Good Eats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n934RICyqGo&t=360

Ingredients:

1 red snapper

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

 1 cup brussel sprouts, halved

2 lemons, thinly sliced

Bunch of parsley

Fresh oregano

2 tsp minced garlic

2/3 cup white wine

2 Tablespoons butter

Salt

Pepper

Steps to success:

Pre-heat your oven to 425°F

Rinse the couscous in a strainer under cold water. Add some salt and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Cut a piece of parchment paper about twice as long as a baking tray.

 

Use some paper towels to dry off the fish and place it on top of the parchment paper. Season the fish inside and out with salt and pepper, then stuff it with the parsley, oregano, and a few slices of lemon. Spread the couscous around the fish, and top with tomatoes, brussel sprouts, onion slices, and the remaining lemon slices. Dot with pieces of butter, and pour the wine over everything.

Fold the parchment paper over itself and crimp the edges. You’ll probably need to use a stapler.  Put the tray in the oven, and cook for 30 minutes.