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Fennel & Chili Spiced Ribs

March 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

I was reading Heidi Swanson’s beautiful blog 101 Cookbooks a while back, and she mentioned that her newest cookbook was a contestant in The Piglet at Food 52. I had never heard of either of these, so I clicked over to find out more. Turns out that Food 52 is a fairly awesome online foodie community, and The Piglet is a cookbook tournament hosted by the site. The tournament pits 16 cookbooks against each other in a bracket, and well-known foodie types (and a few non-foodie types) review them to decide who makes it to the next round. Heidi’s cookbook, Super Natural Every Day, was up against a cookbook called Cooking in the Moment, and Nigella Lawson was the judge. She wrote a wonderfully informative review of both cookbooks and spoke so highly of these spareribs with crushed fennel and red chilis from Cooking in the Moment that I immediately Googled the recipe.

I did a bit of tweaking, but this is pretty much the simplest recipe I’ve ever seen for ribs and also one of the tastiest. I usually like ribs slathered in some kind of sauce, but I’ve made this dry-rub version about four times now, and it’s quickly becoming my favorite way to make ribs. Fennel can be a fairly strong flavour, but the roasting it gets in the oven mellows it out and melds it really well with the heat of the chilis. My one piece of advice would be to be sure to use a dedicated coffee grinder just for spices, as I’m pretty sure mine will never not smell like fennel from now on! (Good thing I’m not a coffee drinker!)

Fennel & Chili Spiced Ribs

Adapted from Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing

Preheat the oven to 450˚F while you prepare the ribs.

Spice Rub

In a coffee or spice grinder, pulverise:

2 tbsp whole fennel seeds

1 tbsp dried chili flakes (use more or less to adjust the heat to your preference)

(A word of caution: hold your breath when taking the lid off the grinder, unless you want to inhale fennel-chili dust and then sneeze for 10 minutes straight!)

Mix the pulverised spices with:

1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

scant 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

Set aside.

Ribs

2 lbs pork spareribs (I used slightly less than this)

Turn the ribs over, bone-side up, and peel off the thin membrane. Rub the ribs on both sides with 1 tbsp vegetable oil, then cover both sides with the spice rub.

Place the ribs on a rack over a roasting pan and roast at 450˚F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375˚F and roast for another hour or so, until the meat comes away from the bones easily.

Cut into individual ribs by cutting between the bones.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: chili, Cooking in the Moment, dinner, fennel, recipe, spareribs

Turkey Pie with Parmesan & Black Pepper Biscuits

March 6, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 4 Comments

I know it’s about three months late to be posting a recipe for using up Christmas turkey, but I’ve had some turkey leftovers languishing in my freezer just begging to be made into a pie. Who am I to refuse such a request? This pie will not only make your house smell fantastic, but its comfort food mix of turkey, roasted root vegetables, and biscuits will make a dreary mid-winter day seem less so!

I chose to top this pie with biscuits because they are easy and good for soaking up gravy, but it would be equally tasty with your favorite pie crust in place of the biscuits (make it a single or double crust – your choice). If you go the pie crust route, I recommend working some parmesan and black pepper into it – it’s a great combination.

Turkey Pie with Parmesan & Black Pepper Biscuits

Biscuits

In a medium bowl, stir together:

1 1/2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

large pinch of salt

With a pastry cutter, cut it:

5 tbsp cold unsalted butter

Blend until the butter is in pea-sized chunks. Add:

1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Toss the parmesan into the butter-flour mixture, then make a well in the center and add:

3/4 cup cold milk

With a fork, stir in the milk with as few strokes as possible, using a folding motion to blend in the flour from the bottom of the bowl. It should just come together in a shaggy, sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently 2 – 3 times to gather it all together. Pat it out into a rectangular shape and fold it in thirds like a letter.

Pat it down again into a rectangle and repeat. After the second fold, shape the dough into a circle and pat it out into a 7-inch round. Cut it into 8 wedges with a sharp knife, using a straight downward cutting motion (this will help the cut edge rise up and be flaky).

Transfer the wedges to a lightly floured plate, cover them with plastic, and refrigerate while you make the filling.

Turkey & Roasted Vegetable Filling

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Chop the following into 1/2 inch chunks:

2 medium carrots (about 1 cup)

2 medium parsnips (about 1 cup)

4 – 5 button mushrooms (about 1 cup)

1 large or 2 small leeks, white part only (about 1 1/2 cups – wash them very well!)

Spread the vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet and toss with:

a few tablespoons of olive oil

generous salt and pepper

Roast the vegetables for 20 – 25 minutes, stirring halfway through, until softened and starting to brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the gravy. In a large pan over medium heat, melt:

2 tbsp unsalted butter

When it foams, add:

2 heaping tbsp all purpose flour

Whisk and cook for a few minutes, until it starts to smell nutty.

While whisking constantly, slowly pour in:

2 cups chicken or turkey stock

It will seem very thin and watery but will thicken up when it reaches a boil. Raise the heat to medium-high to bring it to a boil and thicken, then reduce back down to medium-low.

Season to taste with:

a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce

~ 1 tbsp soy sauce (less if using salted stock)

~ 1 – 2 tsp Marmite

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp dried thyme

salt and pepper

Worchestershire, soy sauce, and Marmite are my fail-safe ingredients for awesome gravy. They add great umami taste as well as saltiness, and they give the gravy a beautiful rich, dark colour. Marmite weirds some people out, but it is killer in gravy.

Remove the gravy from the heat. To make it a bit creamy (totally optional), stir in:

2 tbsp sour cream or cream cheese

Mix into the gravy:

the roasted vegetables (straight from the oven, preferably)

3 – 4 cups of chopped cooked turkey

Pour the whole thing into a 9-inch pie plate.

Top it with the chilled biscuits and brush them with an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp water).

Bake the pie at 425˚F for 20-25 minutes, until the gravy is bubbling and the biscuits are golden brown and puffed. Let it cool for just a few minutes before serving.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: biscuits, comfort food, cooking, recipe, turkey pie, winter

Filipino Chicken Adobo

February 19, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 18 Comments

Chicken adobo is a Filipino dish that I’ve had my eye on for quite a while. I worked with a girl who would bring chicken adobo leftovers for lunch and then rave about how it was her favorite thing ever, so naturally my interest was piqued. I did a few internet searches and discovered that adobo just means vinegary sauce (hence “chipotles in adobo” is essentially smoked jalapenos in vinegar), and that there are as many versions of chicken adobo as there are people making it (which is to say, a lot!). The main ingredients in Filipino adobo are soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, black pepper corns, bay leaves, and sometimes coconut milk, and the meat can be either chicken or pork or both.

I found an awesome-sounding chicken adobo recipe and sort of had it in mind to make one of these days, when the other day I was browsing through the latest issue of Cook’s Illustrated and lo-and-behold, there was a chicken adobo recipe! Cook’s Illustrated does some pretty serious recipe testing so I was quite sure this one would be good – and it is. Tangy and salty but not too much of either, it also has coconut milk in the sauce – which doesn’t make it taste coconutty, but rather cuts the sourness of the sauce and gives it some nice body. One of the drawbacks to most of the recipes I looked at was that they required a long marinating time, whereas this one can be done in an hour, including marinating, and manages to taste dang good. And it only requires basic pantry items. Make this for dinner – you will thank yourself!

Filipino Chicken Adobo

Adapted from the March/April 2012 issue of Cook’s Illustrated. Serves 2 and can easily be doubled.

In a ziplock bag or bowl, combine:

4 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs and/or drumsticks

3 scant tbsp soy sauce

Marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove the chicken from the soy sauce, let the excess drip off, and place the chicken, skin side down, in a cold 8″ skillet (non-stick is recommended!). Reserve the soy sauce in a bowl.

Place the skillet over medium-high heat and cook until the chicken skin is browned and the fat under the skin has rendered out, 5 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the reserved soy sauce with:

1/2 a can of coconut milk

6 tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper (or 1/2 tsp ground and 1/2 tsp whole pepper corns)

2-3 bay leaves

When the chicken has browned, remove it to a plate and pour the fat out of the pan. Return the chicken to the pan, skin side down, and pour in the soy-coconut-vinegar mixture.

Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.

Turn the chicken over and simmer for another 15 minutes, or until the chicken reaches 175˚F on a thermometer.

Put the chicken on a plate and cover it lightly with foil. Skim any fat out of the sauce left in the pan and remove the bay leaves. Return the sauce to medium-high heat and simmer to thicken if needed – or you can add a few tablespoons of water if it is too thick already (in my case!).

Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve with steamed rice.

(10 points if you can figure out what colour shirt I was wearing when I took the first photo in this post!)

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: chicken, chicken adobo, dinner, Filipino cuisine, quick, recipe

A recipe that will make you love lentils

February 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

When I was growing up, “lentil” was practically a bad word in our house. I think my Mum over-did it with lentils when my parents were young hippies living on a shoestring (lentils are cheap and filling!), and as a result, my Dad basically refused to eat them. So, my experience thus far with lentils has been pretty limited and tinged with a prejudice of “yecch”.

But I guess my hippie mother rubbed off on me, because I still wanted to like lentils. When I was writing my resolution post, I came across this lentil curry recipe (aka dal), and now I can honestly say it is one of the best things I have made – and eaten – in a while! Incredibly flavourful, a little bit spicy, and really simple to make: boil lentils, make a masala (a flavour base of sautéed spices, onion, and tomatoes in ghee), stir in some spinach, and voila. Delicious! This will make you see lentils in a very positive light ;).

Lentil Curry

From Vij’s Elegant & Inspired Indian Cuisine. Serves 4-6.

Lentils

Orange lentils (masur dal) hold their shape when cooked, while moong dal (yellow lentils) dissolve more during cooking. You can use either or both – the consistency of the final dish will just a be a little different. I couldn’t find yellow lentils, so I used brown, which were a good substitute.

In a bowl, combine:

1/2 cup split orange lentils (aka masur dal)

1/2 cup split yellow lentils (aka moong dal) (or substitute brown lentils)

Rift through the lentils to remove any debris or tiny stones, then rinse several times in cold water. Pour them into a large pot with a tight fitting lid. Add:

5 1/2 – 7 1/2 cups water (7 1/2 cups will give you soup)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric

Stir, then bring the lentils to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat. The lentils will be foamy-looking. Stir, then reduce the heat to medium-low and partially cover the pot with the lid, leaving a 1 inch space (this will stop the lentils from foaming over as they boil). When the foaming has subsided (5 – 8 minutes later), cover the pot fully and let simmer for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are tender.

Meanwhile, make the ghee and masala.

Ghee

Ghee, aka clarified butter, is butter with all the milk solids removed so that it can be heated to a higher temperature. You can use vegetable oil instead of ghee (and skip this step altogether), but ghee adds delicious flavour.

In a small pot over medium heat, melt:

6 tbsp of unsalted butter

When it has melted, reduce the heat slightly and let it boil gently for a few minutes. A white foam of milk solids will form on top. With a spoon, carefully scoop out the foamy milk solids (be careful to leave the yellow butterfat behind). Continue boiling gently, scooping out the foam every few minutes. After about 10 minutes, the ghee will start to form bubbles on top rather than white foam. Scoop out the bubbles. At this point, the ghee should smell slightly nutty and be turning from yellow to light golden brown. You will know it is ready when there is no more foam or bubbles and it stops boiling – this means that all the milk solids (which were causing the boiling and foaming) are gone and all that remains is pure, delicious butterfat. Pour the ghee into a bowl and set aside. You should have about 1/4 cup of ghee.

Masala

In a shallow frying pan over medium-high, heat 1/4 cup ghee for about 45 seconds. Add:

1 tbsp whole cumin seeds

Sizzle for 15 seconds, then reduce the heat to medium and add:

3/4 cup finely chopped onion (about 1/2 a medium onion)

Sauté until brown, 8 – 10 minutes. Add:

3/4 cup finely chopped tomato (about 1 1/2 roma tomatoes)

1 tbsp grated ginger

1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Sauté, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until the ghee glistens on top of the masala.

Add the masala to the cooked lentils and stir well. While the lentils are still very hot, stir in:

3-4 handfuls of chopped spinach leaves (I also threw in a handful of kale leaves)

Just before serving, stir in:

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Serve over steamed basmati rice with a dollop of yogurt.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes, Vegetables Tagged With: cooking, curry, Indian cuisine, lentils, recipe, spicy food, vegetarian, Vij's

Homesick Texan Sloppy Joes

February 6, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

I can’t honestly remember the last time I even had a sloppy Joe, but I can assure you, it was not as good as these ones were. I am a sucker for anything Tex-Mex, so as soon as I saw this recipe on Homesick Texan (which was about 8 am on a Saturday morning!), I knew I was making them for dinner. They were awesome. A little bit spicy, a little bit sweet, a really nice mix of flavours from all the spices, a bit of creaminess from the guacamole, and very, very sloppy. I made a few changes simply because I didn’t have everything that was called for, and they still came out great. And the leftovers made fantastic huevos rancheros the next morning with some tortillas, refried beans, cheese, and eggs!

To make the chipotle purée that I used in this recipe (and that I use all the time because I friggin’ love chipotle), chuck a can of chipotle peppers in adobo in the blender and purée. Store the purée in a small container in the fridge. I usually freeze half because it takes me a while to go through a whole batch – this stuff is spicy!

And as for the guacamole that tops these sloppy Joes, feel free to make your own favorite version. I don’t have a set guacamole recipe, but it usually involves avocados (of course!), minced garlic, lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper, and a dash of hot sauce. If guacamole feels like too much work, sliced or mashed avocado would do the trick.

Please try these. They are really really good!

Tex-Mex Sloppy Joes

Adapted very slightly from Homesick Texan. Serves 2 with left-overs.

In a heavy skillet over medium/medium-high heat, brown:

3/4 – 1 lb of ground beef

Drain off all but 1 tbsp of fat, then add:

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 yellow onion, diced

1/4 green pepper, diced

Cook until the vegetables are slightly softened, then add:

1 small, 213 ml can of tomato sauce (about 7 oz)

1-2 heaping tsp chipotle purée

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground ancho chili (or smoked paprika – I didn’t have any)

1/8 tsp ground allspice

dash of cayenne pepper

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 tbsp ketchup

3/4 cup chicken stock (or Mexican beer! This would be so good with beer, but again, I didn’t have any :(. It still came out fine though.)

2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Stir it all together and let it simmer, uncovered, for about 15 minutes or until thickened. When it looks thick enough to spoon onto a bun without completely falling off, stir in:

2 tbsp chopped cilantro

lime juice, to taste

salt and pepper

To serve, slice 2 soft buns in half. Smear the top half with guacamole, and spoon the sloppy Joe mixture onto the bottom. Top it with grated cheese (I used white cheddar), chopped onion, and more cilantro (jalapenos are also a tasty-sounding option if you want more heat). Serve with a large side of napkins ;).

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, Homesick Texan, recipe, sandwich, sloppy Joe, Tex-Mex

Leek, Swiss Chard & Prosciutto Quiche (and a non-shrinking tart crust!)

December 18, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

The thing that always stumps me about quiche is the crust. The pastry crust for quiche needs to be par-baked before adding the filling, otherwise it won’t cook through and will be soggy (and nobody likes a soggy-bottomed quiche). My go-to pie crust has a tendency to shrink a lot when par-baked, and other pie crust recipes I’ve tried that are supposed to be “more suited” to par-baking come out with the texture of cardboard (just as bad as a soggy-bottomed crust).

So, I’ve been looking for a pastry crust that stays flaky and doesn’t shrink too much when par-baked, and I finally found one! Also, I discovered the secret to stopping the pastry from sliding down the sides of the pie plate while baking. Success!

Minimum shrinkage and maximum flakiness

…

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Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: food, leeks, pastry, quiche, recipe, swiss chard, tart crust

Spiced Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

November 4, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

Pasta is one of my favorite comfort foods, and spaghetti and meatballs is pretty much the ultimate incarnation of that. What makes these meatballs special is the spices: cumin, coriander, and cayenne, inspired by the Middle Eastern Spicy Kebabs in Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day (the kebabs are supposed to go with homemade naan bread, which explains why they are included in a bread-making book!). However if you have a craving for the more traditional “Italian” meatball, you can just replace those spices with a few handfuls of chopped parsley and grated parmesan cheese and whatever herbs you feel like. Both the “Middle Eastern” and “Italian” versions are tasty. My trusted friend Martha first taught me how to make meatballs in tomato sauce, so I follow her method of browning the well-seasoned meatballs and then simmering them with a can of chopped tomatoes. This makes for a fairly plain but delicious tomato sauce where the meatballs are the star. If you want, you can jazz up the tomato sauce with some sautéed onion or garlic, but I find that the meatballs have enough flavour on their own. Serving these on fresh pasta (rather than dried) just makes the meal a little bit more delicious :). One day I’ll make my own homemade pasta, but that seems a little too ambitious for a weeknight!

Spiced Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

I prefer to use a combination of ground beef and pork for meatballs – it gives good flavour and texture – but feel free to use all beef, or even ground turkey, instead. This recipe makes a double amount of meatballs – enough for two meals – so I usually freeze half of them for later.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine:

300-350 grams each lean ground beef and lean ground pork

2 handfuls of breadcrumbs (I use panko)

1 egg

2 cloves garlic, smashed

generous 1 tsp ground cumin

generous 1 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more if you want more heat)

generous salt and pepper

Mix it all together gently with your hands. Form the mixture into 1-inch balls and place them on a plate. You should get about 30 meatballs. Freeze half of them for later.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining 15-or-so meatballs to the pan and brown them on all sides, either by turning them with tongs or by giving the pan a violent shake to dislodge them from the bottom of the pan. When they are thoroughly browned, add:

1 28-oz can of chopped tomatoes

Stir, cover, bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low and continue simmering for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid and check the seasoning of the tomato sauce – the meatballs should have given it some flavour, but it will probably need salt and pepper. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until the sauce reaches the desired thickness. Serve over cooked, long pasta (spaghetti or linguini or whatever) with lots of parmesan cheese. Serves 2-3.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Pasta Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, cumin, meatballs, pasta, recipe, tomato sauce

Chili Pepper Pork Chops with Tequila

September 15, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

We have a recipe from Nate’s parents involving baked pork loin with green chili peppers and onions in a creamy sauce made with a little sour cream. With those ingredients you can’t really go wrong, but I still decided to play around with it a bit. I used bone-in pork chops (the bone adds more flavour and keeps them juicy) instead of pork loin, roasted peppers instead of canned jalapenos, and added some cumin. I also added tequila because – well, why not? I was feeling a slightly Mexican vibe from the peppers and cumin and it just seemed right. Turns out it was!

Actually I added tequila twice… 😉

Making this is a little bit time consuming because you have to roast the peppers, but if you plan ahead you could roast the peppers while you brown the pork chops, then peel and chop them while the onion is sautéeing. If you’re the plan ahead type, that is. I usually seem to be cooking by the seat of my pants, so to speak.

So, plan ahead and make this. It’s delicious served over brown rice to soak up the sauce, which has a little bit of a tequila kick. Or maybe I’m just a lightweight ;).

Chili Pepper Pork Chops with Tequila

Serves 2.

First, roast the peppers:

2-3 medium-sized peppers, cut in half lengthwise (I used a poblano pepper, a white Hungarian pepper, and half a green bell pepper, which are all quite mild, but feel free to use a variety with more heat)

Place the peppers cut-side down on a foil lined baking sheet. Broil until the skin is charred, then put the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let them steam for a few minutes, then remove the seeds and membranes, peel off the skins, and slice into strips. Set aside.

Turn the oven to 350˚F. Prepare the pork chops:

2 bone-in pork chops

Season on both sides with:

salt

pepper

a little granulated sugar (to help with browning and caramelizing, not make them sweet!)

Heat a splash of olive oil and little butter in an oven-proof frying pan over medium heat and cook the pork chops on both sides until golden brown. Remove the pork chops  from the pan and add:

1 small sliced onion

1 minced garlic clove

Sauté  in the frying pan until browned and soft, and season with:

salt

pepper

1 tsp cumin powder

Deglaze the pan with a shot of tequila, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Nestle the pork chops back in the pan, cover with the roasted peppers, and sprinkle with more salt, pepper, and cumin.

Bake in a 350˚F oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove the pork chops, leaving the onions and peppers in the pan, and place the pan over medium heat. Stir in:

2 tbsp sour cream

1 shot tequila

Simmer for a few minutes, then return the pork chops to the pan and coat with the sauce. Serve over brown rice.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: cooking, dinner, food, pork chops, recipe, roasted peppers, tequila

Blackberry Summer, Part 2: Blackberry Ribs

September 9, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

After making galettes and scones I still had a bunch of blackberries left, and my thoughts turned to a blackberry barbeque sauce for pork ribs. I’d heard of other fruit-based barbeque sauces, such as peach, and a quick Google search came up with several such recipes featuring blackberries. The one I went with is from Bon Appetit magazine, and includes honey, ginger, and hot sauce (which I substituted for chipotle pureé, because I put that stuff in everything!). It also makes a TON of sauce, so feel free to scale down the recipe.

Rather than puréeing the sauce in a blender and then straining it and using it to baste the baked ribs as the recipe originally instructs, I gently mashed the berries and didn’t bother straining, to end up with a chunkier texture. My favorite way to cook ribs involves smothering them in sauce and baking them, rather than just basting them with sauce at the end, and the berries broke down quite a bit with cooking, so next time I might just leave them mostly whole to begin with.These ribs, while not particularly photogenic, came out tasting fantastic. Pork works especially well with fruit, and the blackberries gave a nice tangy sweet flavour to the sauce. This recipe is definitely a keeper – I imagine the sauce would be equally delicious on chicken or steak.

Baked Ribs with Spicy Blackberry Barbeque Sauce

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit. As I mentioned, this makes a LOT of sauce – probably half would still be enough for this amount of of ribs. I thought about parboiling the ribs (partially cooking them in boiling water to make them cook faster in the oven), but after reading some rib-lovers’ opinions on the matter (sacrilege!), I changed my mind – essentially it just boils out the flavour, which is never a good thing. Turns out they only took a little over an hour to bake anyway, so I didn’t really have anything to worry about.

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Mix together the spice rub:

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 tsp chili powder

1 tsp each salt and pepper

Rub the spices over both sides of 1 3/4 – 2 lbs of ribs (baby back, spare, whatever). Arrange the ribs in a baking dish.

For the sauce, combine:

2 1/2 cups blackberries

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup fresh grated ginger (about 1″ chunk)

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tsp chipotle purée (or regular hot sauce)

salt and pepper

Stir gently to keep some of the berries whole (alternately, purée in a blender and strain through a fine mesh strainer). Pour the sauce over the ribs, turning to coat (make sure they are meaty side down when you’re done).

Those should be meaty side down!

Cover the baking dish with foil and bake in a 325˚F oven for about 1 hour, until the meat pulls away from the bone easily but is not totally falling apart. Remove the lid, flip the ribs over (meaty side up) and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes or so. Remove from the oven, put the ribs on a plate, and pour the sauce into a saucepan. Taste to check the seasoning (add salt and pepper as needed) and then bring it to a boil and simmer to thicken it. Cut the ribs between the bones into individual ribs, and serve smothered with sauce. Mashed potatoes work well to soak up the extra :).


Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: barbeque sauce, blackberries, cooking, food, pork, recipe, ribs

Chicken Fajita Lettuce Wraps

August 12, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Nate and I have recently sworn off sugar and starchy refined carbs six days a week, with a cheat day on Saturday (you certainly would not guess this based on the amount of sugary, cakey recipes that I’ve been posting lately, but that’s precisely why we’re doing this!). It hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be; it just means reinventing some recipes, mostly by adding more vegetables. Fajitas are an easy one – you replace the tortilla with a leaf of lettuce, and it’s just as good, plus you get another serving of vegetables in the meal. This recipe would also be good with beef or pork, cut into thin strips, and obviously, whatever toppings you want. You could even put the filling into a wheat or corn tortilla – but lettuce is a little more adventurous (and messier!!) 😉 I really like this method of broiling the peppers and onions – it gives the filling a nice charbroiled taste.

And for anyone who is wondering, I’m waiting to see if I can get some good photos from the wedding before I post about the wedding cake. It’s coming, I promise!…

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Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes Tagged With: chicken, cooking, dinner, fajita, food, lettuce, low carb, Mexican, recipe

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I'm Korena: cook, baker, dirty-dishes-maker. My favourite things include flour, butter, sugar, and chocolate. Read More…

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All content © Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen, 2011 – 2021. Please contact me before duplicating any content, including pictures. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Korena Vezerian and Korena in the Kitchen with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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