Fresh Fruit Salsa

23. June 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: cooking, creativity, food, recipe · Tags: , ,

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Sometimes, a little fruit salsa is exactly what a dish needs to make it complete.  I like to serve a fruit salsa with grilled fish, especially swordfish and tuna.  This is one of those recipes where the basics are constant and the star ingredient (the fruit) can change.

Fruit Salsa

1/2 Medium Onion, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground chili powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 jalapeno (optional)
Fruit of your choice, chopped (peaches, pineapple, mango work well)
Juice of one lime

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and let the mixture of goodness sit in the fridge for at least a half hour.  Serve with your favorite grilled fish or with tortilla chips.

BBQ Pork Tacos with Confetti Veggies

15. June 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: cooking, creativity, food, grilling, recipe · Tags: , ,

Okay, so I’ve been dormant for a long time.  My apologies. Maybe this will make up for it.  Maybe not.

Sometimes, you just need to get creative.  Sometimes, creativity comes out of necessity.  Sometimes, it just happens.  That’s what happened tonight.  I hadn’t planned my dinner very well, and found a fridge full of good things, but none that seemed to go together.  I had a smattering of different ingredients, but nothing that really added up to a full on meal.  Or so I thought….

Pork Tenderloin Tacos with Confetti Veggies

Pork Rub

1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp paprika
1/4 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 pork tenderloin (about 3/4 to 1 lbs)

Veggies

1 yellow squash
1/2 Vidalia onion
1 red pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Prep

Rub a single tenderloin with the aforementioned mixture and set aside for a good 30 to 45 minutes.  Light the grill and bring it to a cool 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Use a thermometer.

Cut the veggies into small bite sized pieces, about a half-inch thick (they will contract/shrink on the grill).  Toss them with olive oil and spices.

Veggies Cooking

Use a grill basket.   Place veggies on the grill basket and walk away.  Have a beer, or a whisky, or something to occupy your time.  These suckers will take a bit of time at 350F.  Give them the time they deserve. About 10 minutes later (you should be done with your beer) go and turn them with a pair of tongs.  Put your meat on the grill.



Meat Cooking

You’re going to want to cook this slowly, because it’s pork.  If you cook it fast at a high temp, it will be tough.  I’m not suggesting an all day affair, but give yourself 20 to 30 minutes to cook your tenderloin.  Turn it as often as you like, but make sure you get some good black grill marks on the meat.

Tortillas

I like flour tortillas.  You can choose your own favorites here, really.  I used some small taco sized flour tortillas and just laid them on the grill for about 2 minutes a side.

The Final Product

So far we have some grilled pork, a few tortillas, and some grilled veggies.


The magic happens when you combine them.  Slice the pork into nice bite sized bits, preferably on a bias.  Pile about 2 ozs of pork on each tortilla, add as many veggies as you can fit, and garnish with some cheddar and salsa.

 

Grab a cold one and enjoy!

Not Quite a Pilgrims Progress…but Progress Nonetheless

01. April 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: cooking, cycling, exercise, fitness, food, health, hope, self, weight loss · Tags: , , , ,

Three and a half weeks ago, I took inventory of my goals for 2011 and realized that I was falling short on the most important one of the three.  I’d set out to lose 30 pounds in January and hadn’t changed a thing about my lifestyle that would get me on track.

I’ve been “on weight watchers” now for three and a half weeks.  I’ve had some ups and downs, but overall I’m down by 5.5 pounds.  That’s 18% of my goal, in just three weeks.Looking Down

I expected being “on weight watchers” to be difficult.  I’d done the program before about 10 years ago and it was frustrating.  I felt like I couldn’t eat any of the things that I wanted to eat.  As many people know, I love food.  I’m not just talking about a casual love affair with food, I’m talking about a full-bore passion for food.  Nothing makes me happier than to spend an afternoon cooking a huge meal for friends and then sharing it with them over a few beers and some wine.  I was worried that making changes to my lifestyle would put a damper on my cooking.

But it really hasn’t.

For one thing, the program has changed and there is less emphasis on fiber as the solution to all woes, less emphasis on processed sugar alternatives and more of an emphasis on eating the right amounts of all kinds of foods.  I can use olive oil, sugar, even butter.  I don’t have to deprive myself of the good things in life. I can have a real beer (not a watery light beer) with my meals and not feel guilty.

I even cooked chicken parmesan twice in these three weeks.  And that would have been out of the question on the old program.

Of course, I’m also way more active than I was ten years ago.  Not as active as I’d like to be, but I logged about 120 miles on the bike in March.  I’m keeping track with a great little app on my iPhone now called cyclemeter so next month I won’t be estimating my miles.

Onion and Mushroom Sauce

30. October 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: cooking, creativity, food, recipe

As the days turn cold, I’m hankering for some warming comfort food.  Things like soups, stews, mashed potatoes, and roasted meats are coming to mind.

Last night I didn’t have a plan for dinner, which was not too out of the ordinary for a Friday.  I was planning to go to the store and just figure it out.  One thing led to another and before I knew it, my wife was going to the store and I was staying home with our son.  Mrs. TKD asked if there was anything I wanted but I really was at a loss, so I told her to get whatever she felt like and I’d cook it.

Mrs. TKD came home with fixings for turkey burgers and some bone in pork chops.  I suggested that I’d like to make meatloaf with the ground turkey.  Mrs. TKD was not a fan of that idea last night.  So I needed to come up with something to do with the pork chops.  I did not want to grill them because I really wanted a “Fall” type meal.  So I decided to bread them and bake them.  Mrs. TKD said that she thought some mushroom gravy would be good.  So I put together this sauce based on guidance from Mark Bittman’s book, How to Cook Everything.

Onion and Mushroom Sauce

2 Large Onions (sliced)
1 cup chopped portabello or cremini mushrooms
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. flour
3 cups beef stock (warmed)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Start the onions in a large sauté pan without any butter or oil over medium low heat.  Cook them for about 15 minutes until they are starting to turn translucent and stick to the pan.  Add mushrooms and butter to the pan.  Increase the heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes until the onions have caramelized.  Add flour to the pan and mix in well.  At this point you are basically making a roux.  Cook this for about 5 minutes stirring frequently. The longer you cook it the darker your sauce will be.  Add broth 1 cup at a time and continue cooking until you’ve achieved your desired thickness.  Add salt and pepper.

I served this over the breaded pork chops and paired them with potatoes lyonnaise  and roasted beats.

Smokey Chicken Stock

23. October 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: cooking, food, recipe

One of the things that I really love about cooking is that you can get really creative with your food.  I last wrote about cooking chicken with indirect heat and smoke.  This technique and the simple recipe yielded one great chicken dinner last weekend, but there is more to the story.

I made a smokey chicken stock that became the base for two soups this past week.  Homemade stock really is amazing stuff.  First and foremost it doesn’t have any unpronounceable ingredients that preserve the stock.  Second, there’s nothing like cooking a pot of stock for a few hours to fill the house with honest good smells. More »

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