Gingery Pork Meatballs with Swiss Chard

 

Gingery Pork Meatballs with Swiss Chard

The question is…  Do I write this up as I made it or do I write it up as the recipe was written?  Since we LOVED this dish I’m going with how I made it.  This recipe came from Comfort in an Instant by Melissa Clark.  We’ve pretty much been cooking our way through the cookbook.  The one no-go was the Lebanese Chicken Soup.  I found it sounded a lot better than it was.  And, Connie’s not a fan of soup so he certainly didn’t help the process.  Now, back to the pork meatballs!

I put the Swiss Chard stems in ice water to revitalize the droopy leaves.  Then, I pulled out the instant pot.  And the new steamer basket I’d never used.  UGH!  The steamer basket was too big.  So much for following the recipe!  I’d done a taste test in a small skillet so I rolled four meatballs and popped them in the skillet while I thought about how to do the Swiss Chard.  We’ve really enjoyed it sauteed so that ought to work…  After 8 of the meatballs were done I put the chopped stems into the skillet with the last four meatballs.  Then, once those were done I took them out and added in the chopped chard leaves.  On the other side of the stove was a saucepan of fine egg noodles. 

What did we think?  We both LOVED the meatballs and the chard.  For a vegetable that neither of us had tried until a handful of years ago it certainly has moved right up the hit list!  During the summer when we’ve got a garden it’s a weekly favorite.  I added a bit of seasoning to the meatballs.  More garlic, more soy sauce, more fish sauce, more chili garlic sauce.  Oh, wait the chili garlic sauce was a total addition!  LOL. 

Good news there are six meatballs left.  And, there’s also a serving of chicken green bean casserole.  Means that whoever snags whatever has some good eating on the way!

Ingredients:

2 T toasted sesame oil

2 shallots or 1 sm red onion, finely diced

3 oz shitake or cremini mushroom caps, finely diced

1 serrano or jalapeno chile, seeded and finely diced

1 T finely grated fresh ginger

3 garlic cloves, finely grated or minced

Finely grated zest of one lime

2 t soy sauce

2 t Asian fish sauce

Salt

1 lb ground pork or turkey

1/3 c panko bread crumbs

1 egg

1 bunch Swiss Chard, stems and leaves chopped but separate

 

Directions:

Saute the onion and mushrooms and jalapenos in the oil.  NB:  I used olive oil here since the sesame oil’s flavor is a bit fragile.  Add in the garlic, ginger, lime, soy sauce and fish sauce.  Once the onion is translucent and the mushrooms are softened, remove the skillet from the heat.  In a medium bowl combine the pork, egg, panko and mushroom/onion mixture.  Put about a teaspoon of the mixture into a skillet and cook it through to test it for seasoning.  Add more as desired.  I added more of several of the ingredients.  Once you’ve adjusted the seasoning to your liking, roll the meatballs. 

 

Saute the meatballs in a skillet.  For 2” diameter meatballs they’ll take about 3 minutes per side – assuming there are three sides.  Remove the meatballs to a plate.  Once you’re ready for the last batch, toss the chard stems into the middle of the skillet.  Then, when you remove those meatballs, add in the chard leaves.  Again, add seasoning as you desire.  I used a bit of sesame oil and soy sauce.  Let the leaves wilt but don’t let them become soggy. 

 

Serve with rice or noodles. 

adapted from Comfort in an Instant

Chicken Cacciatore and Glazed Carrots plus Sausage Chowder for Lunch

 

Every once in a while I pick up a cookbook and really want to cook my way totally through it.  Comfort in an Instant is one of those.  Even though it’s an instant pot cookbook I’ve done the time math and many of the recipes are quicker on the stovetop.  Risotto is ten minutes to reach power, six under pressure and ten to decompress.  Twenty-six minutes versus twenty-five on the stovetop…  Yes, I do think in numbers and Excel spreadsheets 😊   At any rate, this is really a fun cookbook.  Among the half dozen try now recipes was Chicken Cacciatore.   

Then, after a run through Aldi’s we stopped at Ollie’s to browse the cookbooks.  Where I found Field to Fork.  A collection of recipes from the Old Farmers Almanac.  I opened it to Maple Orange Glazed Carrots and that was all I needed to see.  Into the cart.   

While I was fixing dinner I also made a pot of The Brick’s Sausage Stew.  The Brick is a hole in the wall dive bar in Jonesville.  We’ve been there once.  I can’t particularly recommend it but it’s an institution so is worth a visit.  While I was doing my friend Gail’s review a couple of days ago we started chatting about soups and how good they are this time of year.  She texted me the recipe today and the rest is history.  Lunch tomorrow will be really good!

What did we think about the Chicken Cacciatore?  A five out of five.  Ditto the Maple Orange Glazed Carrots.  Those were amazing.  A dinner that left both of us totally satisfied and looking forward to making both dishes again.

 

Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients:

2T olive oil

2 lbs bone-in, skin on chicken thighs

Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 oz cremini or white button mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 small bell pepper, thinly sliced (I used green, the recipe called for red)

2 cloves garlic (I used minced)

¾ c canned diced tomatoes and their juice

¼ c dry white or red wine (I used white)

2 large sprigs rosemary (I used ½ t crushed)

2 T drained capers

 

Directions:

This recipe works on the stovetop, in an instant pot and in a slow cooker.  I chose the stovetop because the math worked out that that was the quickest method.  Therefore all of the instructions are based on that…  

Heat the olive oil.  Sprinkle the thighs with salt and pepper.  Brown both sides.  Remove the thighs from the skillet and add the onion, pepper, mushrooms and garlic.  Cook until they’re tender.  It’ll take about five minutes.  Add in the tomatoes, wine and rosemary.  Cook for a couple of minutes to tighten the sauce.  Add back the thighs.  Cook on low for another 10-15 minutes.  Or, you can use medium and shorten the time.  Add in the capers just before serving.

Here's how it looked:

adapted from Comfort in an Instant by Melissa Clark

 

Maple Orange Glazed Carrots

Ingredients:

4-6 large carrots (I used baby carrots cut into coins)

1 T butter

¼ c maple syrup

2 T frozen orange juice concentrate

Pinch of salt

Pinch of ground nutmeg

Chopped walnuts – optional for garnish

 

Directions:

Cook the carrots until tender.  Drain and set aside on a warm stove. In a small skillet melt the butter and mix in the other ingredients.  Toss the carrots with the glaze.

adapted from Field to Fork

 

The Brick’s Sausage Chowder

 Ingredients:

1 package sausage (I used Polish Kielbasa) cut into medallions

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, diced

4 Yukon gold potatoes or 2 large russet potatoes, diced

1 can hot chili beans

1 can diced stewed tomatoes

1 4 oz can of diced green chiles

1-2 T brown sugar

1-2 T chili powder

1 t garlic powder

 

Directions:

Saute the sausage, onion and bell pepper in olive oil just until softened.  Add the other ingredients, cover and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through. 

Thank you Gail!

 

 

 

Pizza and Salad

 

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to try more recipes.  All too often last year 6:00 arrived and we had no clue what was for dinner.  Cluster Truck, a trip down the street to Murphy’s at Flynns, grilled cheese…  Time to change.  I created a spreadsheet to track our progress.  Name of the recipe.  Where to find it.  (Not as easy as it sounds with 2500 cookbooks and thousands of saved recipes either in print or electronic version.)  Where have I posted it – blog, biz website?  How did we rate it?  The great news is since December 17, 2022 we’ve tried 18 new recipes.  Eighteen.  That’s kind of a lot.  Average rating of 3.8 on a scale of 1-5.  Actually I’m pretty certain we’ve never had a “1.”  I’ve thrown away some 2’s that I probably should’ve labelled a one.  But I didn’t.  Out of the 18 we had three 2’s.  Two were just incredibly blah.  And one was salty.  Kinda like licking a salt block salty.  That I threw away and it should’ve been a one.  We had three three’s and seven four’s and five five’s.  Not a bad distribution of scores! 

By the weekend I was down to three recipes on the to-try list. Time to hunt in the freezer and figure out what I want to use up over the next week.  Chicken thighs, ground pork, sweet Italian sausage, cod, shrimp and a container of rice from a run to Golden Dragon were all in the freezer.  Some smallish potatoes and some naan bread were hanging out in the kitchen.

Next up, hunting for recipes for all of the goodies.  I love eatyourbooks.com.  And, I’ve usually got a stash of recipes to try on my desktop.  And, then there are the cookbooks I’m in the midst of reading.  A plethora of choices!

Naan bread makes some of my all-time favorite pizzas.  Without the dough-making effort.  On to eatyourbooks.com where I kept seeing references to the Emily Cookbook. Pizza with sausage plus a salad of broccoli, orange and feta would be one evening. 

Cod Florentine with a roasted potato salad on the side would be another.  Then, bacon, egg and shrimp fried rice would use up a bunch of things.  A recipe for chicken and wild rice in a cream sauce would be great with a side of carrots.  And, last but not least lettuce wraps with the ground pork would be wonderful with a side salad of shaved zucchini and radishes.  Connie headed to the grocery for the few items we needed and we were ready to start cooking! 

I’ve been a big fan of broccoli salad ever since my friends Helen and Bob took me to a cute little diner out in the middle of nowhere.  Their broccoli salad was very finely diced.  No horsey sized pieces of broccoli.  Just a lovely mix that meant you got some of everything in every bite.  I feel the same way about vegetable soup where I like all the veggies cut to about the size of a pea or a kernel of corn.  Lots of goodness in every bite!  This broccoli salad came from Taste of the South.  I get the magazine on Readly and love it along with their sister publication that showcases New Orleans. 

We skipped the tomatoes and used Rao’s pizza sauce.  Just like their marinaras I rarely buy any other brand.  It’s just plain the best I’ve had.  We didn’t have cheddar cheese curds but I did have a lovely wedge of white cheddar that would be a good substitute.  Time to cook!

What did we think?  A solid five out of five for both of them.  I think I could’ve just sat down with the bowl of broccoli salad and polished that off for dinner.  It was amazing.  Despite a lot of substitutions the pizza also was a solid five.

Broccoli Orange Feta Salad

Serves 10

Ingredients:

½ c olive oil

¼ c sugar

3 T Dijon

2 T apple cider vinegar

2 T fresh orange juice

2 t kosher salt

½ t ground black pepper

8 c chopped broccoli (about 2 large heads)

2 large navel oranges, sectioned

1 c diced red onion

1 c crumbled feta cheese

½ c sunflower seeds

½ c golden raisins

 

Directions:

Make the dressing first with the first seven ingredients.  Toss together the other ingredients and the dressing.  Chill for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to blend. 

 

Adapted from Taste of the South

 

The Camp Randall Pizza 

Ingredients:

2 large naan breads

½ lb sweet Italian sausage, crumbled, browned and drained

½ c Rao’s pizza sauce (the recipe calls for crushed tomatoes)

¼ c grated pecorino Romano (we used Asiago)

10-12 cheddar cheese curds, cut in half (we used ¼” white cheddar cheese cubes)

12 thin slices green bell pepper (I used ½ of a bell pepper)

6 cremini mushrooms, very thinly sliced

 

Directions:

Spread ¼ c of pizza sauce on each naan bread.  

Top that with the sausage and Asiago or Romano.  Then sprinkle on the bell pepper, mushrooms and cheddar curds or cheese cubes.  

Bake at 500 until the toppings are bubbling, about 5-10 minutes. 

 adapted from The Emily Cookbook

 

 

 

New Year's Day Appetizers

 

We were supposed to head to Cape Cod over the Christmas holiday.  Life interfered.  Big time!  And actually it’s a good thing it did.  I got to focus 100% on a huge office project that wound up coming in exactly on time.  Had I gone east that wouldn’t have happened.  Then, we had the major cold storm.  Our pet sitter had to stay at the Zoo and take care of critters so our furry kids would’ve had to count on neighbors.  And, who wants to ask their neighbors to head out in -30 degree wind chills?  Finally, our beloved next door dog, Blizzard, went over the Rainbow Bridge.  We got to say good-bye.  In fact in our office newsletter I told a story about him:

"Before I get back to the original newsletter, I really want to tell you about Blizzard and Connie. Connie is the food guy. We’d get home and get out of the car and if the boys were out they’d come to the very edge of their invisible fence with tails wagging and a couple of woofs. Connie would split a big dog biscuit and take it over. Blizzard would stick around for an ear scratch and Blaze would take off with his half. Yesterday when I got over to their front porch Blizzard barely lifted his head for me. I loved on him and he acknowledged me. His mama, Shantel, had brought him out hoping to let him take one last walk. Didn’t look like it was going to happen. Then, Connie showed up. Blizzard stood up and wagged his tail and woofed. He’d quit eating even his beloved cheese a day before. Connie asked if he could give him a bone and Shantel said sure. So off to our garage Connie went. And, unbelievably Blizzard stood up, toddled down the steps, down the front walk, across the driveway to HIS spot. And, he ate every bite of that dog bone. Shantel and I just stood on the front porch and cried! We’ve been so very lucky to have such wonderful neighbors!" 

Now, the last part of what we would’ve missed is what I’m hoping will become a new family tradition.  We huddled at my brother’s house for heavy appetizers followed by board games followed by the traditional pork, sauerkraut, mashed potato and gravy dinner.  We LOVE board games.  Used to go to an annual party at our friends Jim and Donna’s house.  Then, they moved up here to Indy and their annual games party ended.  And, sadly after a morning of rising early, cooking like crazy and then said heavy appetizers I wound up taking a nap during the board games hour…  You’re probably wondering what we took…

My sister-in-law’s mother requested that I bring “those” wings.  This is a recipe I just can’t believe I haven’t posted before.  We first made these in November, 2017.  My notes say, “WOW! Kids devoured!”  They’ve totally replaced the La Brea Tar Pit wings I made for years.  They’re just plain addictive!

Next up is Bon Appetit’s Old Bay Chips with Lemon Mayo.  John listed them on the menu as “Kate’s funky chips.”  And, they are.  They’re great without the dip and great with the dip.  And, they’re not too terribly difficult to put together.

Then, there’s Palomino’s Tomato and Feta Relish.  We loved Palomino.  It was our before theatre restaurant downtown.  The food and the service were always great.  It was a sad day when they closed.  Fortunately I’ve been able to find all three of our favorite recipes:  Chop Chop Salad, Portobello Mushroom Soup and the Tomato and Feta Relish.  This says to let it sit overnight to let the flavors blend.  Good luck with that in our home!  LOL

I found a book of pimento cheese recipes.  Yup, a whole book.  Read most of it out loud to Connie as we drove up to my niece’s for Christmas brunch.  We tried to figure out which recipe we were going to try first since and I finally decided the author’s pimento cheese was the one to start with.  It was good.  It had pecans in it.  Otherwise, it was a bit bland.  I added some minced onion and some Chipotle Tabasco.  I’ll wait til we have a real winner from this cookbook before I add one of the recipes to the blog.

Then, there’s brie with mushrooms.  My brother John loves mushrooms.  His wife doesn’t.  Means  they’re an out to dinner treat.  I had a small wheel of brie so thought adding this in would be fun.  Here’s the link:  Brie with Mushrooms. 

And, last and certainly least was the tuna tapenade.  It sounded wonderful.  Tuna, capers, anchovies, brandy.  What’s not to love about that?  Salt.  Both Connie and I are pretty fond of salt.  And neither of us could handle this.  Marked it as don’t think about making it again and tossed the whole dish. 

Let’s get cooking!

Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

5 lbs chicken wings

1 c brown sugar, packed

¾ c dry sherry

½ t dry mustard

2 c soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

 

Directions:

Prep the wings by splitting them and removing the tips.  Or, do what we do and buy the prepped wings at Costco.  Just saying.  Put them in a baking pan or two or three in a single layer.  I use 3 – 9x13 pans lined with aluminum foil.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Pour the sauce over.  Bake for two more hours turning the wings every 30 minutes.  Remember to rotate the pans within your oven.  If your sauce hasn’t cooked down to an appropriately syrupy consistency, you can put it in a saucepan and cook it down.  I usually serve these ribs in a crockpot.  And, one other note, no matter how much you think is enough it usually isn’t. 

 

Adapted from A Taste of Palm Springs

 

Old Bay Chips with Lemon Mayo

 

Ingredients:

1 t powdered sugar

3 t Old Bay seasoning, divided

1 8.5 oz bag kettle cooked chips (we use Cape Cod Chips)

1 lemon

1 garlic clove, finely grated

½ c mayo

2 T finely chopped parsley (nice but not mandatory)

 

Directions: 

Preheat your oven to 425 

Put the chips on a half sheet and sprinkle them with a teaspoon of Old Bay.  Pop them in the oven for 4-5 minutes or until they just start to darken. 

While the chips are baking, mix the remaining two teaspoons of Old Bay with the powdered sugar.  Zest the lemon and then cut it in half

 Mix the mayo and garlic with the juice from one half of the lemon.  This is your sauce. 

As soon as the chips come out of the oven sprinkle them with the Old Bay powdered sugar mix and then the lemon zest.  And, then the parsley if you’d like.

 

Adapted from Bon Appetit

 

Palomino’s Tomato and Feta Relish

 

Ingredients:

1 14 oz can whole tomatoes in juice crushed by hand with juice ( I used petite diced tomatoes)

¼ c extra virgin olive oil

½ t minced garli

Pinch Kosher salt

1 T julienned fresh basil

2 T pitted and coarsely chopped Kalamata olives

1 T finely diced red onion

2 T crumbled feta cheese

2 T red wine vinegar

Sliced ciabatta or baguette for serving

 

Directions:

Mix the ingredients and put them in the fridge in a covered container overnight.  That’ll allow the flavors to blend.  You can toast the bread or not. 

 

Adapted from Palomino Restaurant