Day: August 9, 2023

Old South Coca-Cola Pork Loin

The addition of Coca-Cola to the sauce in this dish is perfectly well put! This recipe is a must-try! I promise you that it is worth all your time and effort. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

For the Pork Loin:

5-pound pork loin roast

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 cup Coca-Cola

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

3 tbsp. oil

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup ketchup

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp. dry mustard

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. thyme, crushed

For the Glaze:

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

2 tbsp. butter

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

2/3 cup Coca-Cola

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste 

INSTRUCTIONS

To prepare the pork loin:

  • In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients except the meat, to form a marinade.
  • Set the pork roast in a plastic bag with a zip-type seal, pour in the marinade and seal the bag.
  • Set the plastic bag in a serving bowl large enough to steady the roast and keep the marinade ingredients from spreading away from the roast.
  • Let stand for 24 hours, or overnight, in the refrigerator, patting and turning the bag every few hours to ensure the meat marinates evenly. This helps the roast absorb the marinating liquids and creates a tender, juicy and flavorful roast.
  • Remove roast from marinade and discard the marinade.
  • Pre-heat oven to 325°F.
  • Place roast, fat side up, on rack in roasting pan.
  • Insert roast meat thermometer so the bulb is centered in the thickest part.
  • Do not add water.
  • Do not cover.
  • Roast in a slow pre-heated oven until the thermometer registers to 175°F.
  • Allow 30 to 40 minutes per pound for roasting; so for a 5-pound loin roast, you would be roasting for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
  • During last 1 hour of cooking time, brush on the glaze.
  • Remove from the oven and out of the pan onto a platter; cover with foil tent to seal steam and rest the meat 15 minutes before slicing; this results in a much juicier roast.

To prepare the glaze:

  • In a saucepan, mix together all ingredients.
  • Simmer and stir to thicken.
  • Brush or spoon glaze on meat frequently during last 1 hour of cooking.

NOTES

If you prefer, you can just as easily cook on the grill or in the smoker.

Alternatively, you can slow-roast. Instead of roasting at 325°F, use a slow oven at 250°F – 275°F and allow almost twice as long. The meat will be even more tender. Use a meat thermometer, or whatever means you like, to achieve desired degree of meat temperature to consider the roast done. Serve any remaining sauce with the sliced pork if you like.

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Birria Wings with Consome

Sweet chili wings might be a little misleading as this is not intended to be a Thai sweet chili sauce. Nor is it intended to be some sort of Asian inspired sauce either. It came about as nothing more than me messing around in the kitchen and throwing a few ingredients together that I thought tasted quite good. It doesn’t contain sesame oil, ginger, fish sauce (which is most yucky in my humble opinion), or Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce. In fact, the only reason I call this wing sauce sweet chili, is because it’s sweet and it contains chili powder. That reminds me, I should look into being a bit more creative with the names of our recipes.

What You’ll Need

1/4 cup sweet chili sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon hot chili-garlic sauce such as sriracha

2 teaspoons dark sesame oil

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

16 chicken wings wing tips removed

vegetable oil

kosher salt

fresh ground black pepper

How to make it

1. Make the glaze, in a small bowl, whisk the sauces, sesame oil and ginger together.

2. Trim excess skin from the edges of the wings.

3. Lightly brush or spray with the oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Grill the chicken wings over Direct Medium heat until the skin begins to crisp, about 10 minutes, turning once or twice.

5. Brush the wings with the glaze and continue to grill until the meat is no longer pink at the bone, 8 to 10 minutes, turning and brushing with the glaze 2 or 3 times.

6. Serve warm.

Recipe Notes

You may also choose to bake wings at 375 for 45 minutes then slather on the sauce and

bake again at 400 for 20 minutes until the skin is brown and sauce thickens

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Pico De Gallo

Do you love pico de gallo like I do? It’s a classic Mexican tomato dip (or sauce) that adds a fresh, healthy, low-calorie boost of flavor to just about any Mexican meal.

When I was little, I piled pico de gallo on my tortilla chips at our nearby Mexican restaurant and called it dinner (refill, please). I didn’t fully appreciate pico de gallo’s wonder, though, until my family traveled to Mexico one summer when I was in college.

We stayed at an all-you-can-eat resort, which meant all-you-can-eat pico de gallo. Their pico de gallo was super fresh and utterly irresistible, and I piled it onto every single meal. Eggs! Tortillas! Beans! Spaghetti, even! Why not?

It’s funny that I’ve shared so many variations on pico de gallo over the years, but never my classic pico de gallo recipe. Today is the day. Let’s make pico de gallo while the tomatoes are still good.

Pico de gallo is so easy to make. You will need only five ingredients (six if you count the salt): ripe red tomatoes, white onion, jalapeño, cilantro, lime and salt. That’s it!

What’s the difference between pico de gallo and salsa?

Pico de gallo shares the same basic ingredients as traditional red salsa, but the preparation methods are different.

Pico de gallo always uses raw, diced ingredients. It’s less wet, and it adds a wonderful chunky texture and substance to tacos and more. Salsa can call for roasted or stewed tomatoes, and is generally closer to a purée in texture.

Both are delicious, both go great with guacamole, and I often layer pico de gallo over salsa for double the flavor (if only you could see my regular burrito bowl order at Chipotle).

Ingredients

6 tomatoes
3 jalapenos (warning: hot)
1 medium white onion
1/2 a medium red onion
1 cup cilantro (I’m a fiend- so a little less if you aren’t)
5 cloves garlic
3 limes juice (hell, I even threw in some of the pulp)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt (More can always be added but not taken away!)
1 tsp chili powder

Directions

1 cup (2-3 ears) of grilled/pan fried corn. If pan frying it, try putting in 3 tbsps of pineapple juice and 2 tbsp EVOO. Since you are using pans now, I would probably add the garlic, salt, 1/2 the cilantro, cumin and chili powder now.
Sweeten it up with some diced fruit of your choice- pineapple, mango, peach etc.

You can also add lemon or black pepper if you like .

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Best Cauliflower Salad

– Fabulous! My guy is currently on a low carbohydrate diet so I thought I’d give it a try and didn’t expect much. We both loved it and I will continue to do it even after his diet is over. I didn’t use pickles or eggs, but it was just a preference. I will use it in the future. I also made half Duke’s Mayo (no sugar) and half sour cream. Thanks to the person who submitted the application – a real keeper.

– Great “fake potato” salad! We eliminated the s+p, thinking it was a personal preference, and omitted the onions because we didn’t have any. Cauliflower is one of our favorite vegetables, so it’s a clear winner! Thanks for the recipe!

– It was really great. I didn’t add the peas because I wanted it to be low in carbs. I have to admit I was afraid to try it, but it tastes like potato salad.

– This dish is delicious! My husband and I are on a low carbohydrate diet and it tastes just like the real thing. It’s one of the best “fancy” salads I’ve tried – and I didn’t even add the bacon. Thanks for the recipe!

– I love potato salad and all salads in general. I’ve given up on bacon because it reduces sodium and fat, but I bet it would be good. (I didn’t have any on hand)

– I was looking to use my cauliflower before going on vacation and I had all the ingredients on hand. It was very good. It’s not something I have to include in my rotation, but I will use it again when I need a cauliflower head. It’s important to add bacon if you have some on hand.

– It was pretty good. I switched from peas to red bell pepper because I don’t like peas and skipped the bacon to save calories, but it was a nice change that fit well into my low carb diet. Thank you!

Ingredients

1 cauliflower head steamed or boiled until tender in bite-sized pieces
6 boiled eggs (once cooked, peel the eggs, rinse them and separate the yokes in a bowl. Then, crush the yolk and cut the whites into small pieces and mix.
together.
1/3 cup (approx.) miracle whip or mayonnaise (do not use light as it contains more carbohydrates)
3 tablespoons of mustard
3 tablespoons of pickles
1/8 cup chopped onion (uncooked) can use more if you prefer
salt/pepper to taste

Itinerary

mix it all together and you can garnish with slices of egg and parsley
cool down during the night ( 1 cup of cauliflower contains only 3 carbohydrates compared to 1 cup of potato which contains 37 carbohydrates !!)

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