Nothing like a little Southern Comfort

Comfort food that is. Although SoCo is pretty delicious too. Anyways, I've got a double recipe for y'alls today (Double recipe? What does it meaaaaaan????), both of which are partly inspired by Southern style cooking. We're talking hearty meals that satisfy body and soul. Just like momma used to make. Mmmhmm.

-=Pork Two Ways Harvest Soup=-

1/2 lb ground pork

3 strips thick cut farm raised bacon (or substitute 1/2 lb regular bacon), chopped

2 large sweet potatoes, cubed

1 onion, chopped

1 cup corn kernels

1 cup green beans

garlic salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, crushed red pepper flakes

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

6 cups water

In a large soup pot, bring the water to a boil and start cooking the sweet potatoes and onions, about 10 minutes, then turn down to a low simmer. Heat a medium skillet on high. Cook the bacon until it starts to get crispy, but not too crunchy. When done, add the bacon to the pot, but reserve the bacon grease to cook the ground pork. Add garlic salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, and red pepper flakes to the pork to taste. When the ground pork is fully cooked through, add that to the pot. If you really want, you can strain out the fat, but I recommend keeping it; it adds a lot of flavor. Finally, add in the corn, green beans, and condensed soup, and stir until even. Let simmer another 5 to 10 minutes, serve hot.

-=Reds n Greens=-

1/2 lb ham, cubed

2 strips thick cut farm raised bacon (or substitute 1/3 lb regular bacon), chopped 

1/2 lb collard greens

garlic salt

This one's real simple. Heat a large skillet on high and start cooking down the collard greens with a little garlic salt and the bacon. When those are done (the greens should have shrunken down quite a bit, and be a bit crisp), add the ham, and toss together on medium heat for a few minutes more. Done! You can add a can of cooked black eyed peas with some milk and corn starch to add a creamy sauce as well; I would have, but I didn't have any on hand.

Epic Meatloaf

So, it was 11, and I felt hungry, and decided to cook something. And then it just sorta...snowballed into this. Feel free to substitute out some of the more obscure ingredients. Seriously though, it's delicious, and those obscure items are worth getting. Trust me.

-Meatloaf-
3 Italian Sausages, removed from casing
2 cups spinach, diced
1 slice potato bread
rosemary
fennel seed
garlic salt
truffle oil
Parmesan cheese
smoked oysters
2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350. Chop up the bread into small pieces. In a small skillet, heat up some olive oil on high, and toss in the bread for toasting. Add 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp fennel seed, and garlic salt to taste. Drizzle a little truffle oil, ~ 1/2 tsp, over the bread crumbs. Toast until crispy and set aside.

Combine sausage, spinach, and bread crumbs in a mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan, and about 6 oysters, chopped. Add the milk, and another drizzle of truffle oil.  Press the meatloaf together, transfer into a baking dish, and place in oven for 10-15 minutes.

-Sauce-
1 cup Puttanesca sauce
1-2 ounces gin
6 cloves garlic, minced

In a small saucepot, toast the garlic with some oil. Add the puttanesca sauce and the gin, and simmer on low heat. When the meatloaf has cooked for 10-15 minutes, and the outer surface is starting to brown, pour the sauce over the meatloaf in the baking dish. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes or until meat is cooked through.

New Blog

Hey guys, just a quick plug for my new blog, "Diaries of a Budding Supervillain." It's about playing the Devil's Advocate, and discussing hard topics that may otherwise be taboo or uncomfortable to think about. Check it out at phdinhorribleness.blogspot.com.

More recipes to come soon!

Vegan Chili

Today's recipe is brought to you as a collaboration between myself and fellow blogger kolorbynumber (although really, she lead the charge on this one). This hearty chili is entirely vegan (no milk and eggs, bitch.....or chicken for that matter), so unless you have a friend who happens to have some random allergy to cumin or something, this is a recipe that can be enjoyed by any and all. And you're going to want to have some friends over, because this recipe makes enough to feed a lot of people. Or you know, you could also just pack up a ton of leftovers, and enjoy the deliciousness yourself.

-=Vegan Chili=-

2 small sweet onions, chopped

6 cloves garlic, crushed

2 jalapeno peppers, diced, (seed one if you don't want it too spicy)

2 large green bell peppers, julienned

2 heads broccoli, chopped

1/2 head cauliflower, chopped

6 tomatoes, chopped

1 cup frozen corn

2 cups pinto beans

2 cups black beans

1 cup water

1 tsp vegetable bouillon (~ 1 cube)

6 oz baby bella mushrooms

1.5 cups kale

1 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp paprika

1 Tbsp chili powder

2 Tbsp cumin

black pepper

Start by pouring some oil into a large pot, heating on high. Add the onions, garlic, jalapeno, and bell peppers, and cook until ingredients are tender. Turn the heat down to medium. Next, add the broccoli and cauliflower and continue cooking until soft, stirring often so everything cooks evenly. Then add the tomatoes, followed by the corn, and then the beans. Add the water and bouillon, and stir to mix. Lastly, add the mushrooms and kale, followed by the spices, and black pepper to taste. Let simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes, and you're done!

.zip Recipes 1: Steamed Salmon

As January rolls along, people are starting to return to college, or for some, may even already have started class. Therefore, I wanted to go back to some simpler recipes like the ones I posted when this blog first started. These .zip Recipes will mostly be quick meals that can be thrown together with little to no prior preparation and use a minimum of pots to cook. This first one only requires 1 saucepot, and only takes about 15 minutes.

-=.zip Recipes: Steamed Salmon=-

3/4 cup rice

1 cup water

chopped cabbage, about 1 cup

1 salmon filet, about 6 oz.

dried herbs, spices

In a medium saucepot, combine the rice and water and swirl around to even out the rice a bit. place the chopped cabbage over the rice, and the salmon on top. Add seasonings to taste (I used garlic salt, rosemary, dill, and paprika) over both the fish and the rice beneath. Cover, and heat on high until the water boils. You should see the steam leaking out from under the lid. Turn the heat down to low, and simmer until liquid is absorbed by the rice and the fish is soft and flaky, about 10 minutes. Move the fish to a plate, and stir the cabbage and rice together, then serve. Quick and easy.

Tea Encrusted Salmon

I've been wanting to cook with tea for the longest time, but until now, I had never come up with a good idea. This recipe has chopped tea leaves in the breading, which adds a subtle flavor to the fish. It's served with a simple salad consisting of collard greens and mushrooms

-=Tea Encrusted Salmon=-

1 Salmon Filet (~6 oz)

1 egg

1 Tbsp milk

1/8 cup Italian bread crumbs

3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp garlic powder

2-4 Tbsp tea leaves finely chopped

sesame oil

4-5 collard green leaves

2-4 mushrooms

Salt

Beat the egg and add the milk, mixing until smooth. Combine the bread crumbs, cheese, cumin, garlic, and tea leaves in a small bowl. I used Silver Needle white tea, although any green or white tea will work. Coat the salmon in the egg and then coat with the tea leaf mixture. In a small pan, melt 1 Tbsp butter on high. Sear the salmon on both sides, and add a bit of sesame oil. Then, turn the heat down to medium low, and cook until done. Remove from pan, and slice. Turn the heat back up to high, and toss in the collard greens and mushrooms. Season lightly with salt, cooking for about a minute. Place a bed of white rice on a plate, and add a dash of sushi vinegar and some sesame seeds. Lay the salmon on the rice, with the salad on the side. Done!

Greco-Italian Stir-Fry

Cooking for yourself, there's often the dilemma of quantity. Sometimes, making just enough for one portion is difficult, since you can't really go out and buy a quarter head of cabbage. Besides, the less you make at a time, the more often you have to cook, the more time you spend cleaning things, etc etc, and sometimes you find yourself not having time to cook at all, staring at a slab of raw meat in the fridge that is completely useless to you at this point in time. So leftovers are pretty much a constant, and this often holds true even when you're not just cooking for one. This recipe was born thanks to a large bowl of leftover Greek salad from dinner the day before. Welcome to the Mediterranean, folks, as we'll be spending the next couple posts here. You are now free to roam about the cabin.

-=Greco-Italian Stir-Fry=-

8-12 shrimp, peeled

6 asparagus spears

4 tbsp butter

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp dill weed

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Garlic salt

=Greek Salad=

1 roma tomato, cubed

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1/4 red onion, chopped

1/4 white onion, chopped

1/4 cup feta cheese

1/4 cup sliced olives

1/4 cucumber, chopped

Melt the butter in a medium-large wok and start cooking the shrimp. Add the dill weed, lemon juice, and garlic salt to taste. Stir gently to coat shrimp evenly. Trim and cut the asparagus into thirds (peeling is optional, depending on whether you find asparagus too fiber-y). Add to the wok and cook for a few minutes until tender. Next add the tomato, pepper, onions, olives, and cucumber, cooking until tender but not mushy. Finally, add the cheese and mustard and mix thoroughly, allowing the cheese to melt around the rest of the ingredients. Serve!