Pork Fried Rice

Back to it after getting the dog threw off both my cooking and my noting of it...

Pork Chops
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
Oyster Sauce
1 TB Sesame Oil
Ground Ginger
Brown Sugar
Red pepper flakes
Instant Brown Rice
1/4 cup Chopped Scallions
1 Tsp grated Ginger
2 cloves minced Garlic
2 cups chopped Pineapple
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
1 Red Pepper, diced
3 TB Peanut Oil

I cobbled this together from a couple of different recipes I looked at, with the basic formula coming from Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I made a marinade with 2 TB soy sauce, a dash of fish sauce, 1 TB sesame oil, some red pepper flakes, and about a TB of ground ginger, and let the pork sit for a little while. I roasted it at 375 for 45 min to an hour, checking it periodically to flip and baste, while it got good and crisped. When it cooled, I shredded it.

Prepare the rice according to the packaging. Mix a sauce with 2 TB soy, 1 TB oyster sauce, dash fish sauce, red pepper flakes, and about 1 TB brown sugar. Heat the oil in a wok on high (though you may need to put the heat down a bit - it started spitting all over the kitchen), then sautee the garlic, ginger, and scallion for a couple of minutes. Add the pepper and sautee for a minute. Put the heat to medium high, add pork and rice, and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the pineapple and stir for a minute. Make a hole in the middle and add the egg, scrambling it until cooked and then mixing it into the rice. Cook for a minute, stir in sauce, and serve.

We ate tons, and only had 2 leftover servings, but probably could have gotten 3 out of it if we'd not been so hungry...

Note: The rice had way too much moisture content - everything I looked at recommended using day old rice, but I tried to go the instant route. I'd do the day old route next time, or try to cook the rice with less water.

Southwest Fritatta

Cleaning out the pantry to avoid going to the grocery store on a really cold day...

5 Eggs
1 Can Diced Tomatoes, strained
1 Can Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained
1 Red Pepper, diced.
1 Shallot
1 clove Garlic
2 TB Butter
2 small Chipotle peppers
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Seasoning (used Ancho chile powder, herbes de provence, salt & pepper)

Sautee the shallot and garlic, set aside. Preheat oven to 350, heat butter in medium skillet, beat eggs with seasoning and Chipotle, stir in the cheese and other ingredients. Pour into skillet, cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, then put in oven and cook until top is no longer runny (15-20 minutes).

We had 2 servings for leftovers (will make a good breakfast), but could easily have eaten a little less and had 3 or 4 leftover servings. Infinitely variable as a fritatta. Also, I toyed with the idea of making this a risotto instead of a fritatta, and that would work just as well with these ingredients... just rice and chicken stock instead of the eggs.

Chili with Chipotle and Chocolate

Last night's dinner was this recipe from the December issue of Cooking Light... Makes tons of leftovers; we probably have four good portions left. There's a good half-hour of ingredient prep here, but, the actual cooking is pretty easy. Variations that might work are Green Peppers instead of red, fresh tomatoes rather than canned, and other meat than turkey. Also to try: replace the chicken stock with a bottle of beer.

Stuffed Red Peppers with Spinach and Ricotta

A meatless variation on stuffed peppers, though it would easily accommodate meat.

4 red bell peppers
1 small container Ricotta cheese
Handful of Pine Nuts, toasted
1 Onion
Spinach
Parsley, chopped

Hollow the peppers and steam for 5-10 minutes (could also boil according to some references. I also wonder how it would work if I didn't do either).
Caramelize the onion
Chop the spinach and sautee so slightly wilted
Fold onion, parsley, spinach and pine nuts into the Ricotta
fill Peppers, bake 375 for 20 minutes (time and heat variable)

Served with link of italian sausage. Had two peppers left over, but not sure how well they'll store.

Note: it probably would have tasted a little more flavorful with some spice - some of the references I consulted mentioned nutmeg, so I should try that next time. Garlic would be a good addition as well. Any number of herbs would add something to this, too. And could use uncased italian sausage, browned, mixed in with cheese, and stuffed directly in the peppers