Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder

 We love Asian food at our house, unfortunately I am not great at cooking it. I love to cook, but because of my four kids, I am usually trying to find something quick and simple for dinner. Asian food usually doesn't fall into this category. Fortunately I have been able to find several quick and easy, including this Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder recipe. This was so good, and the meat super tender. We all loved it, and I will certainly be making it again.  

Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons chili-garlic sauce (found in the Asian aisle of the supermarket)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder (optional)
kosher salt and black pepper
2 1/2 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup long-grain white rice
1 medium head bok choy, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
2 scallions, sliced

1. In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the soy sauce, sugar, chili-garlic sauce, ginger, five-spice powder (if using), ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Add the pork and toss to coat. Cook, covered, until the pork is tender, on high for 4 to 5 hours (this will shorten total cooking time) or on low for 7 to 8 hours.
2. Twenty-five minutes before serving, cook the rice according to the package directions.
3. Meanwhile, skim off and discard any fat from the pork. Gently fold the bok choy into the pork and cook, covered, until heated through, 2 to 4 minutes. Serve with the rice and sprinkle with the scallions.

Chile Verde

This is another great family recipe. I am going to give credit to my husbands Aunt for this one, because frankly she deserves the credit! It is a hard recipe to master because there are not exact measurements. You kind of just throw it all together, and add more until it tastes good and looks right. So, I encourage you to branch out, test yourself and try it out! We served it with my favorite Spanish rice recipe from my friend Jamie. It is my favorite because it is the only Spanish rice that I have actually liked, so that's saying a lot!

Chile Verde

Pork Roast, cut up in small pieces
Small can of chopped jalapenos (or use fresh, that way you can control the heat)
Flour
Water
Tomato Sauce
Garlic Powder
Salt
Cumin

Brown pork roast in pan with oil and jalapenos. Sprinkle meat mixture with flour and cook slightly. Add water and stir until thickened. Add small amount of tomato sauce. Add garlic powder,salt and cumin to taste. Serve with flour tortillas, re-fried beans, and Spanish rice

*It should be a bit liquidy, so that you can scoop it up into a tortilla. I struggled making it this time, so the picture isn't good, it isn't liquid enough!

Spanish Rice

1 1/2 c rice
1 tbsp oil
3 c water
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 chicken bullion cubes
1 tbsp dried onion
1 small can tomato sauce

Fry rice in oil until browned. Add remaining ingredients, stir to mix. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 30 min.

Curry Coconut Chicken

This is a recipe we have had for several years, and it is a family favorite. I we love curry's and rice a lot, plus I find it easy to hide vegetables in it! I have been known on occasion to make this a little spicy, so be careful when putting in the red pepper flakes, you probably will not want to use the whole amount it asks for.

Curry Coconut Chicken

1 1/4 c cocnut milk
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp red pepper
1 1/2 tbps minced garlic
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts

Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces or strips, cook in olive with salt and pepper, then set aside. Combine coconut milk, soy sauce, sugar and salt in a bowl and set aside. In a wok or large skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. When hot, add red pepper, minced garlic, and curry powder (this is also when I throw in extra veggies like peas, carrots, broccoli) and stir fry for 15 sec. Add coconut milk mixture and chicken to garlic mixture and cook until sauce is thickened. Serve over noodles or rice.

Tiki Masala and Flat Bread

 I love Indian food, but sadly this is my only Indian food recipe. I do not even know how authentic it is, but is is very good, and can be very spicy if you want. For the flat bread, I have tried a few different recipes and have not liked the results. This one I tried for the first time and is now my new favorite. It is not a traditional flat bread you would normally get at an Indian restaurant, but it is very good, and goes well with this dish!

Tiki Masala

Marinade
1 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground red pepper (for less heat, use less)
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp ginger
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes

Sauce
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno chile, minced (remove seeds for less heat)
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup whipping cream
1 can of chopped tomatos, drained
¼ c shredded carrots
½ cup frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

For marinade, combine sour cream, lemon juice, cumin, red pepper, black pepper, cinnamon, salt and ginger in a medium bowl or food-safe plastic bag; stir in chicken, marinate in refrigerator 1 hour.
 For sauce, melt butter in a large, deep skillet over medium heat, add garlic and jalapeno; cook 1 minute.
Stir in coriander, cumin, paprika, garam masala and salt.
Stir in tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, carrots and peas. Simmer 15 minutes, stir in cream; simmer until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat pan to medium-high.
Remove chicken from refrigerator.
 Cook chicken either in the oven or in a frying pan over medium heat, turning occasionally, until cooked through, about 8 minutes.
Add chicken to sauce
Simmer 5 minutes. Add cilantro.
Serve with rice.
*Garam masala is sold in Indian markets and some specialty stores. I found it at the regular grocery store in McCormick's brand.

Flat Bread
from Our Best Bites

1 c. warm water
2 packets or 1 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/4-2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. Kosher salt, divided

In a small bowl, combine water, yeast, and sugar and allow to stand for 10 minutes or until bubbly.
In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer, combine 2 c. flour, olive oil, and 1 1/2 tsp. salt. Add in yeast mixture and mix until combined. Add in another 1/4-1/2 c. of flour or until a very soft dough is formed. Cover with a clean towel and allow to stand about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.
Spray a baking sheet and then your hands with cooking spray. Punch dough down and then remove the dough from the bowl and shape into a ball. Place on prepared baking sheet and spread into a circle about 1/2" thick and 11-12"-ish inches in diameter. Cover and allow to rise another 30 minutes.
While dough is rising, preheat oven to 400. When dough has risen, use your fingers to make indentations in the dough. Lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with remaining Kosher salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Thai Red Curry

This is a recipe I have had for a while. It is from the April 2007 Real Simple Magazine. I love this recipe, it is very easy and it is fun to do your own things to it, like add carrots, or do chicken instead of shrimp, or rice instead of noodles. Word of advice, do not use low fat coconut milk with it, it needs the fat to carry flavor. Also, red curry paste is very spicy, so use with caution!

Thai Red Curry

 

12 ounces chow mein noodles or spaghetti (I do about four servings of rice instead of noodles)
1 1/2 tablespoons red curry paste
2 14-ounce cans coconut milk
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces sugar snap peas, cut in half
4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced ( don't use mushrooms, we don't like them)
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (I almost always do chicken, but this time I did shrimp)
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves

 

Cook the noodles according to the package directions.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, over medium-high heat, combine the curry paste, coconut milk, broth, ginger, and salt. Bring to a boil.
Add the peas, mushrooms, and shrimp. Lower the heat and simmer until the shrimp are cooked through and the vegetables are tender, about 4 minutes.
Divide the noodles and soup among individual bowls. Sprinkle with the cilantro.

Pork Barbacoa Salad: Cafe Rio Style

This is one of my new favorite meals. I have to thank my friend Amanda for this knock off of a Cafe Rio recipe. I am not a fan of Cafe Rio, mainly because their food is not spicy and it taste like candy, so I was hesitant. My friend promised me that I would love this version, and that it is spicy and not too sweet. I trusted her, and I am so glad I did! Along with the pork barbacoa, I also made a Cafe Rio style rice recipe that I found in our church cookbook and then a version of the tomatillo dressing also from our church cookbook (the same one I made here). Together with all this I had black beans, fried yellow corn tortilla strips, shredded cheese, lettuce, and homemade taco bowls.

Pork Barbacoa

5-6 lb. pork roast
21 oz. Dr. Pepper (or Coke, do NOT use diet soda)
1 cup brown sugar ( I used 3/4 c)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
7 oz. can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
6-ish oz. red taco sauce (I used hot)
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Place roast in crock-pot, cover half-way with water and cook on low for 12 hours. Do not be afraid of the long cooking times... it really does turn out. A good thing to do is start this before you go to bed at night. After 12 hours, drain pork
Mix remaining ingredients until sugar dissolves. If you want it super spicy, you can add all the chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, but it will be super spicy, I did this, but I love spicy and it was perfect for me. (The chilies are found in the Mexican food aisle next to the other canned peppers). My friend did not keep the actual chilies, she dumped the can into a bowl and added enough Dr. Pepper to get all the sauce off of the chilies, then fished out the chilies and threw them out. She also rinsed out the can with Dr. Pepper for more adobo goodness.
Add Dr. Pepper mixture to the roast and cook on low an additional 4 hours. Shred roast, and cook for 2 more hours. At this point the meat was so tender it practically shredded itself.

Cafe Rio Style Rice

3 c water (or 6 if you are using a rice cooker)
4 tsp chicken bouillon (or about 2 cubes)
4 tsp minced garlic
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 can green chilies
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
1/2 onion
3 c rice
Blend cilantro, green chilies and onion together in a food processor. Bring water to a boil and add other ingredients. Simmer covered for 30 min. Or throw everything in a rice cooked, like I did.

Go here for the tomatillo dressing recipe

For the beans I just used canned black beans and heated them up in a sauce pan, liquid and all. The yellow corn tortilla strips were made from yellow corn tortillas (duh) and then deep fried at 375 for 5-6 minutes, then salted. The homemade tortilla bowls is my greatest invention yet. I used the cook your own tortillas from Wal-Mart or Costco, and squished into a oven safe bowl and baked it at 400 for about 10 minutes, it was perfect!

To assemble the salad and grab my taco bowl, filled it with lettuce and then layered it with the pork, rice, beans, cheese, dressing and tortilla strips. You can also load it all in a tortilla and eat it burrito style. It was all so good, I cried when I was full.

Oh, and this makes a lot of food, so be sure to invite a crowd over when you make it (and that better include me).

Jambalaya

I have never made this on my own, I usually just by the boxed stuff, which really is not that good. This is a great recipe, and very easy too. A great way to use up leftover sausage!

Jambalaya from Our best Bites

2 1/2 c. white rice

5 c. water

2-3 Tbsp. butter

1 green pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

A lot of garlic (probably 5-6 cloves), minced

1/2 lb. high-quality smoked sausage(approximately; you can actually use a little less if you buy, say, a 14-oz. package of sausage)

1/2 lb. ham (you can also substitute leftover chicken, shrimp, or other shellfish; however, you'll also need to compensate for the smokey flavor and the salt from the ham, so be prepared with liquid smoke and salt to taste. And you'll want it to have a distinct smokey flavor.)

1 8-oz. can tomato sauce

Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning (you could use another Cajun or Creole seasoning, but this brand is widely accessible and cheap) to taste. I actually just made some homemade seasoning from here.

 

Combine rice and water in a medium-large saucepan and cover with lid. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and cook 20 minutes or until rice is cooked. Remove from heat and allow to stand an additional five minutes.

While rice is cooking, finely chop sausage and ham (in your food processor if you have one)

and set aside. Melt butter over medium heat in a very large skillet. When butter is hot and bubbly, add onion, green onions, green pepper, and celery and cook until tender. Add chopped meat and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes. Add tomato sauce and then add cooked rice. Now start seasoning with the Cajun seasoning. It's hot, I won't lie, so if you find that it's getting spicy enough for your taste but it's still not salty enough, leave the Cajun seasoning alone and just finish seasoning it with Kosher salt. Cook for about 10 more minutes, stirring frequently. 

One change I would make is to not grind up the sausage, I think cutting it into  bite sized pieces would make it a better texture. Also do the same with the veggies so there is some chunk to the rice. 

Lemon Rice

This is a new recipe my husband found. It is a great side dish when serving seafood. We had it with our salmon this week and it was delicious. This is definitely a keeper.


Lemon Rice

1 cup water
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 teaspoons butter or margarine
1 cup uncooked rice, long grain
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/8-1/4 teaspoon grated lemon, zest of
1 1/4 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT lemon pepper in saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.
Cover pot and allow to simmer slowly for 20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with lemon pepper before serving

Salt and Pepper Shrimp with Thai Fried Rice

This is a recipe I found in the February 2008 issue of Real Simple. The shrimp part of this recipe was delicious. I have never cooked shrimp in the oven, but it worked! My kids devoured the shrimp... though seafood never lasts long at our house. I had to hide some so my husband (who was late getting off work) could have some too. The Thai fried rice was a little disappointing. It lacked flavor, and I wasn't sure what made it Thai. I was excepting it to have curry in our something, but it doesn't. The only thing that made it different then any other fried rice was it had chorizo in it, but that doesn't make it Thai for me. This recipe is worth having just for the shrimp!

 Salt and Pepper Shrimp with Thai Fried Rice

• 1 pound frozen peeled and deveined large shrimp
• kosher salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
• 4 cups frozen or day-old cooked rice
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 3 ounces Spanish chorizo (cured sausage), chopped (optional)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced

1. Heat oven to 450° F.
2. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the shrimp with 3/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Roast the shrimp until bright pink and cooked through, 15 minutes.
3. Heat the remaining olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and ginger and cook for 2 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown and crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the peas and chorizo, if using, and cook for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium.
4. Make a space in the center of the rice and pour in the eggs, sesame oil, soy sauce, and scallions. Scramble the eggs until set, then stir them into the rice. Divide among bowls and serve with the shrimp.

Chili Rice Dish

This meal has very fond memories for me. My husband invented this when we were poor college students, and we literally could only afford rice, beans and pasta for dinner. Now that we have a little more money to spend on food, I like to throw this meal in to remember where we were not too long ago. My husband on the other hand is no longer a fan of this dinner, but I love it and so do my kids, so he can suffer through it once and a while. I love this meal because it is good, healthy, filling, cheap, so easy to make and it makes a lot with the few ingredients it uses!

Chili Rice Dish

1 can of chili
2 servings of white rice, cooked (1 cup uncooked, two cups cooked)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 c water
shredded cheese, tortillas, and sour cream

Cook rice per package directions. In a large skillet over medium heat add rice, can of chili, tomato paste, and water. Let heat up and cook until liquid has cooked out. This will serve at least 6 people.

My husband and I eat it this way: Place a pile of shredded cheddar, a pile of sour cream, and a pile of chili rice on your plate. Tear up pices of tortilla and scoop a little bit of each into your tortilla like shown below.

My kids like to eat it burrito style and pile everything in their tortilla and roll it up! Either way, it taste delicious!

Indonesian Rice

This is a fun recipe my husband introduced to me, and is now a staple in our dinner rotation. This recipe comes from my husbands aunt who was actually Indonesian. This recipe is the epitome of comfort food: rich, warm, and delicious.  Do not be scared of the fried egg on top. I was, until my husband forced me to try it, and now I love it.

Indonesian Rice

1/2 lb bacon
1/2 lb hamburger
4 servings of white rice
2 diced onions
1 tsp galic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp bouillion
1 c diced green onions

Cook rice per package directions. Cook bacon in frying pan until well done, then crumble and set aside, reserving frying pan and bacon fat to cook fried eggs. Cook ground beef in a separate large frying pan with onion, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and bullion. When meat is completely cooked add rice and green onions  and mix together. Let cook for about 3-5 min so all the flavors mix together. Meanwhile cook fried eggs (one per person) in the bacon frying pan. The best way is to cook the eggs so the yolks are still runny. When fried eggs are done serve rice and top with fried egg. Cut up the egg into the rice and enjoy!