slow cooker pork carnitas braised with dark beer and chipotles

This is an excellent base for many tasty meals, and an easy formula for making tender, pull-apart pork in the slow-cooker. I turned on the slow cooker before leaving the house today, and then came home and made tacos for dinner. Yum.

formula for slow-cooker carnitas

meat + spices  + liquid --> slow cooker = magic

venison with red wine sauce - fit for a new year's feast

This year we had a low-key New Year's Eve at home, just the two of us. Michael and I celebrated Christmas together since he was in Miami and I was in Minnesota over the holidays. I wanted to make a nice dinner, and so I prepared some of the venison tenderloin I got from my dad. I felt so honored - he only had 2 tenderloins and he gave them to me, hoping I would make something delicious with them. I don't have a lot of experience making venison, but I grew up eating a lot of wild game and freshly caught fish thanks to my hunter-fisher father.

You want to cook the venison rare, so it doesn't get tough. The sauce is super tasty - lots of flavor. I am not a huge red-meat eater, and I really loved this one. Michael said it was the best meat he's ever eaten. The edges of the meat get brown and crispy, and the inside is soft and tender (it was also a prime cut). The sauce, Michael said, reminded him of Stuben in Germany where you can get wild boar or venison with a hearty sauce. I served the meat with a fresh carrot salad and a wild rice pilaf with delicata squash.

turkey and zucchini meatballs with green onion and cumin (and sumac-yogurt sauce)

I think this might be the first thing I tried from Ottolenghi and Tamimi's cookbook Jerusalem. I love Ottolenghi's Plenty, which Synne introduced me to, of course. I have absolutely loved everything I've made from it. He has great, flavorful food which isn't too difficult, but it pushes me to try new things. My friend Rachel gave me some sumac spice a while back, and I see that lots of the Jerusalem recipes call for it. This was my first time using sumac. It has a mild flavor, I guess slightly tart and lemony. We had the zucchini meatballs (or "burgers") with a salad of baby kale with toasted pine nuts and parmesan - a really wonderful dinner.

ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

1 large zucchini, coarsely grated

3 green onions, thinly sliced

1 large egg

2 T chopped mint

2 T chopped cilantro

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne

vegetable oil, for browning

sumac-yogurt sauce: mix in a bowl: 2/3 cup yogurt, 1 tsp grated lemon zest, 1 T lemon juice, 1 small clove garlic, crushed; 1 T olive oil, 1 T sumac, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper 

1. Make the sauce and set aside. 

2. Preheat oven to 425 F. Ina bowl, combine all meatball ingredients. Mix with your hands then shape into about 18 patties. I noticed that the mix seemed really wet. the zucchini isn't drained first (as it often is in such recipes), and when I browned them, they started to fall apart a bit. But when I finished them off in the oven (a step that I almost skipped...I have to admit), they got a really nice consistency.

3. Pour oil into a large pan, heat over med until hot, then sear the meatballs in batches on all sides. Cook each about 4 minutes. You may have to add a bit more oil. 

4. Carefully transfer to a baking sheet (I lined it with alu-foil) and bake 5-7 minutes until cooked through. 

5. Serve warm with the sauce. 

how to host a taco party (with pork carnitas and all the fixings...)

Last night we had a couple of friends over for tacos, our first little party in the new place. It was really good food and good company, plus margaritas. No better way to extend summer. :) Tacos are a really fun group/dinner party food, because you can prep almost everything in advance and it's easy to pass stuff around at the table. I had been craving some more good tacos after having some at the Providence Farmer's Market a few weeks back, and going to Isalita (a new restaurant in Ann Arbor) last week. I knew I wanted to make pork carnitas plus a couple kinds of salsa and toppings. This was a lot of firsts for me: first time making carnitas, making pickled onions, first time using tomatillos... But I had really been wanting to do this. Everything was a hit - especially the pineapple salsa. It was a bit of work to put everything together, but the flavors were really good and we have lots of delicious leftovers for the busy week ahead.



Here's the menu:

for the taco fillings:
pork carnitas (recipe below)

vegetarian/vegan option: spicy sweet potatoes and black beans (recipe here)


salsas:
spicy pineapple salsa
guacamole taquero (with tomatillos)
pico de gallo

toppings: 
sliced radish
pickled onion
queso fresco
cilantro
lime

margaritas: blood-orange margaritas (from Smitten Kitchen)

for dinner: turkey-arugula sliders with three sisters succotash

These are some more recipes I ripped out of my magazines while traveling last month... and my second night of cooking in a row! woo-hoo! :) Feels good. Except I put in a long day at the office, and by the time I got groceries, came home and started cooking dinner, I just had to have a bagel with lots of avocado on top before cooking... nearly spoiling my appetite for this veggie goodness. Oh well. I'm on the right track...

Three Sisters Succotash (green beans, corn, summer squash)
12 oz green beans, trimmed, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
2 large ears corn, husked
2 T olive oil

1 T butter*
2 small summer squash or zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
fresh ground pepper
2 scallions, finely chopped (or shallot, or onion)
*vegan if you sub oil for butter

1. Place beans in a large saucepan, add water to cover, salt, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook 10-15 minutes until firm but starting to get tender. D

2. While beans are cooking, cut corn kernels from the cobs. Place an ear in a bowl and use a small sharp knife to cut off the kernels. Then scrape the cob with the back of the knife, scraping the corn "milk" into the bowl.

3. When beans are done, drain off water, saving some of the liquid (about 2 T). Add the corn and squash/zucchini to pot, with a little butter. (If using shallot or onions, add them at this point, too). Cook until the corn and squash are tender, 8-12 minutes. Cover if you need to, or add a bit more liquid. Season with salt and pepper, top with scallions.

From a recipe by Ronni Lundy in Eating Well (author of Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken: The Heart and Soul of Southern Country Kitchens )

produce from the Ann Arbor Wednesday farmer's market!

These Turkey Sliders are nothing special, but it rounded out the meal in a good way, adding a little protein. I ate them like meatballs without the bread, but Bon Appetit suggests serving them with little buns and red onion.

1/4 bunch flat-leaf spinach (I used arugula), chopped, about 2 cups
4 scallions, thinly sliced (or shallot or onion)
1-2 cloves garlic (depending on how much you like garlic...)
1/2 lb ground turkey
3/4 tsp cumin
salt, pepper
oil, for frying

Combine spinach/arugula, scallions/onion, garlic, turkey, cumin in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Using a fork, mix gently just to combine. Form into 6-8 patties about 1/2 inch thick. Heat oil in a large skillet, cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. These would also be good served with guacamole.

ginger-garlic meatballs

These are a Nigel Slater - inspired recipe. I am really enjoying discovering his recipes, and I love his writing style. It's so strange when you feel you get to know someone a bit through his or her writing. The best cookbooks are like that. Synne gave me The Kitchen Diaries for Christmas - and he goes through a year, sharing recipes and food notes. You really feel you get to know him. I am also reading through Appetite and really enjoying it. It has gems like this:

"Putting little bits of leftover food on plates is not a good idea. They will only dry up and haunt you every time you open the fridge door. You might as well throw them away in the first place."

"Use your nose. At first you can only tell when something is burning. The smell of smoke will alert you to the fact that your supper is probably past the point of perfection. Pretty soon you will find that the smell a dish gives off as it cooks can be a good clue to its progress. Butter will smell nuttier, garlic will smell sweeter when it has softened..."

"I loathe gadgets. My idea of hell is a drawer full of those miraculous, time-saving devices specialy designed for cutting pizza/portioning a cake/brushing the soil off mushrooms, etc. ...Before you get carried away with one of those gadget catalogues and your credit card, let me warn you that you by the time you have played hide and seek with your little diddy that does this or that, you could have done the job ten times over."

"butter. Glorious stuff."

"mustard. How I love mustard."

Okay I could go on and on but I will stop myself. :)

hearty soups: shredded pork stew with chipotle tomato sauce

 When we're planning what to cook, Michael often tells me he feels like something "hearty." I'm spending a few days in Providence and my goal is to make him some hearty soups, putting all the leftovers in the freezer so he misses me lots when I'm gone. :)  The first one I came across in a book series from Food & Wine: Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes, taking recipes from what they consider the 25 best cookbooks of the year. (This was a find at the Ann Arbor Public Library, which has an amaaazing selection of cookbooks. Except also a long waiting list for new and popular items. I guess it's a community with a lot of good cooking going on!) This particular recipe is from Lourdes Castro, from the cookbook Simply Mexican. It looked so good, I just had to try it. It was a little on the spicy side, so be careful with the adobo sauce and chipotles - but don't leave them out. This gives the soup its spicy, smoky flavor.

A Valentine's Dinner: beet stew with lamb meatballs and wild rice

 For our Valentine's Day dinner, and what is turning out to be a weekly Ole Reunion dinner, we went with pink food: a beet stew with spiced lamb meatballs. It was meant to be: Katie had the idea for the stew, I had just happened to buy lamb at the farmer's market last weekend. And we added some wild rice to bring in our Minnesota roots. Nicole made a beautiful winter salad with toasted almonds and cranberries and buttermilk dressing, and Peter mixed us ladies some cocktails while we were cooking. This stew is beautiful and so tasty!

Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Almonds served with couscous

My weekly dinner with Katie and Peter ended up being an Ole reunion this week, with another St. Olaf grad, Nicole, joining us. She brought a great spinach salad, Katie and Peter supplied the wine and kitchen, and adorable puppy. We made a chicken tagine with apricots and almonds...mmm...The warm smell of cinnamon is perfect for winter weather!

frohes Neues! happy new year!

I have decided to start the new year off with -- like so many of us -- some new goals and the best of intentions of keeping them. Cooking is one of my true joys in life, bringing balance to my life and making me healthier and happier. So why not start documenting some of the meals worth documenting?

I got several new cookbooks for Christmas and can't wait to cook my way through them. I'm mostly a follow-the-recipe cook, inspired by some of my favorite cookbook authors and bloggers (see the list in the sidebar). I try to incorporate seasonal and local ingredients, and am a member of a CSA, which forces me to eat more vegetables.

Oh, and the name of the blog? Zweites Frühstück. In Germany after your early "first breakfast" there is sometimes a second...what we might call a "mid-morning snack." It's for people who get up early and are so productive they're hungry before lunch. :) I love how some cultures have these other meal traditions...in Germany it's not only the second breakfast but also the mid-afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen, one of my favorite things about that country which has become a second home to me. So aside from the cookbooks I read like novels before bed, and the recipes I find online or from friends, my cooking is also inspired by my time spent abroad and the meals I've had there.

I hope you enjoy!

K.