Two Cooks, One Kitchen

Some of you may already know that Ormond moved down to our Florida house (with me!) and is working here in Melbourne now. So bye-bye to the Huntsville apartment, yay, and hello to cooking together, not apart.

If this blog continues it will have to take a different form, since we're not posting to show each other what we created in our separate kitchens.

Today's post is an update on what our culinary life is like now that we're together again.

When Ormond first moved here he was looking for work; in other words, he was home all day every day. It was difficult for me to figure out how to fit him into my established Florida routine, especially because he was in "every day's a weekend" mode. The first few lunches and dinners together were weird to me. First, we were on a very tight budget (no income) and second, I had to consider another person's tastes and timing. I tried making dinners the first week or so, having looked forward to doing that for years, and I tried eating a meager little ham sandwich with him when he sat down for his ham sandwich-apple-almonds lunch every day. That didn't work out. I started gaining weight and soon my clothes didn't fit. We ended up eating what we wanted for breakfast and lunch and eating separately, at our own convenience. Dinners were still together but I tried to make lighter meals, letting Ormond fix "big stuff" on the weekends to satisfy his palate.

Fast forward to now. Ormond's working so I'm on my own for breakfast and lunch. I make the occasional supper for him but I'm trying to stick to my food plan (which I'm pretty good at by now, as long as we don't have weekends at Universal, holidays, hurrications or weddings) so he does a lot of his own cooking. It's working out great. We eat dinner together, just not always the same thing.

Last week I thawed a pork loin roast that was intended for an amazing looking recipe from Serious Eats called Tacos Arabes (more on that later). I had printed out the recipe several weeks ago for the accompaniment, Chipotle Salsa, which I made to serve with some pork or steak tacos Ormond was preparing. It turned out to be really, really good! Ormond went through the stuff quickly so I made a double recipe to keep in the fridge in a squirt bottle.

Back to the pork loin roast. It had been sitting in the fridge for awhile but I ended up not having an opportunity to make Tacos Arabes, so I went ahead and roasted the meat in the oven so it wouldn't spoil.

Last night I decided to make a modified Tacos Arabes with the cooked roast. It was really awesome if I do say so myself. I took a bite of the meat, but stuck with my fish tacos for diet purposes.

The link to the original recipe at Serious Eats is here. I'll write out my quickie version below, but first, the wonderful (and simple) Chipotle Salsa.

CHIPOTLE SALSA

Ingredients:

1 7-oz can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

1 medium clove garlic*

2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon ground dried Mexican oregano

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

water, if needed

Kosher salt to taste

Procedure:

In a blender, combine chipotles and their sauce, garlic, vinegar, oregano, and cumin. Blend at high speed until a smooth puree forms, adding as much water as needed (if any) to reach a thick yet pourable consistency. Season with salt. Can be refrigerated up to 5 days. 

*I always, always add more garlic. For this recipe four cloves of garlic would not be too much.

QUICK TACOS ARABES

Ingredients:

1 2-lb roasted (to 155 degrees) boneless pork loin

1/2 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons ground Mexican oregano

2 teaspoons Kosher salt

8 oz sliced bacon

Procedure:

Refrigerate the roast overnight if possible. When cold, trim off the fat layer and slice very thinly, 1/8 to 1/4 inch.

In large bowl, mix the sliced onion, lime juice, cumin, oregano, and salt. Add the slices of pork and use your hands to toss, coating all slices well with the mixture. Let stand on counter 30 - 60 minutes.

Pre-cook the bacon slices in a skillet set to medium, until soft and greasy. Remove and place on a plate.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Put a layer of sliced pork in the bottom of a rectangular baking dish. Layer some of the bacon on top, then repeat layers until all the pork is used up. Top with a few slices of bacon.

Place the baking dish on a foil-lined baking sheet and cook in the 300 degree oven for 1 hour.

Remove the dish and stir so that some of the bacon from the bottom can be placed on the very top (this helps make crispy bits). Cook another 15 to 20 minutes.

Transfer the meat, bacon and onion mixture in small batches to a cutting board and slice thinly through everything, making little strips. Serve in warmed flour tortillas with the Chipotle Salsa.

Peri's Lime Garlic Prawns

Hi there Ormond! Here's one of our all-time favorite dishes! I've added an ingredient or two to flesh it out more (that means, to make it more veggie-ish so I can feel like I'm eating healthy). But otherwise it's the same simple recipe we know and love. And yet another example of how sometimes the fewer the ingredients, the better the result.

INGREDIENTS

16 oz. raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 t. olive oil
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped (about 4 T.)
1/2 carrot, diced
1/2 celery stalk, diced
1 t. lime zest
1/8 t. red pepper flakes
1/4 c. white wine
1/2 t. salt
2 T. lime juice
1/2 c. cilantro leaves for garnish
brown rice

Diced veggies, and wine + lime juice, staged and ready.

Cooking the shrimp.

PROCEDURE

Saute onion, celery, carrot and jalapeno pepper in the olive oil. Add lime zest. Add shrimp. Cook until shrimp are pink. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer to blend flavors. Serve over brown rice.

Adding the rest of the ingredients.

NOTES

I often cook brown rice in chicken stock, especially when I'm making it to serve people other than me. Some folks don't like the nutty flavor of brown rice and the broth helps with that.

Also, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of The Food Lab and seriouseats.com suggests cooking brown rice in lots and lots of water to cut cooking time nearly in half. I tried this and it works. Rather than 50 minutes, you can cook brown rice in 25 minutes if you fill the pot with plenty of water instead of the suggested 2 cups.

Ready to serve.

Perfect Rice Every Time

If you want perfect rice or rice box mix every time, don't cook it on the stove, cook it in the oven.

Heat the oven to 375 deg.

Start the rice as normal in a sauce pan, bring it to a boil following the directions on the box or packet.

Instead of simmering for 25 minutes (typically), put a lid on the pan and put it in the oven for 25 minutes.  The rice can also be put into a casserole or covered baking dish if you are making a lot.  I recently used a big baking dish covered with aluminum foil.  It worked great.