My wonderful husband and I are headed off on a 2 week holiday which means there will be no Reluctant Chef Blogs until after Labour Day. Although the blog will be on hold I am planning on taking lots of pictures of the amazing food I am having while in Jamaica. Make sure to check back September 8th for the full post of pictures.
Have a wonderful two weeks and I look forward to blogging up a storm when I get back.
Happy Cooking,
The Reluctant Chef
Even though my sister is a stay at home mom of a two year old and an 8 week old she somehow has time in her busy day to find recipes to pass on to me. The inspiration for this dish was a Cooking Light recipe she found and it just happens to be a risotto. She assured me that this recipe was easy to make, but the real question is whether she said that as someone who is a great cook or actually thinking about my cooking skills…
Risotto never seemed like a meal to be made during the week. I have this impression of risotto that it is complicated and challenging dish that is meant to be prepared by a proper chef and not someone like me just finding their way around the kitchen.
If I was going to tackle a risotto dish I was going to make it my own and not just follow the recipe by the book. Since I like my food spicy I substituted the sweet turkey sausage for some hot italian sausage and lots of it. I was also surprised to find out that I had no white wine in the house and so replaced the white wine in the recipe with red wine. I also omitted the scallions since I didn’t have any on hand and had already been to the store a few times today. The final substitution to the original recipe was the kale. A good friend of mine introduced me to kale and from the moment I have been trying to find recipes where I can use it. Tonight’s risotto was a great opportunity to try it out and it turned out beautifully.
Although through out this meal I was hesitant that it was going to turn out, much to the delight of my husband the dish turned out wonderfully and has affirmed for me that anyone can make risotto.
It is very encouraging for me when dishes turn out, so much so that I am instantly excited and ready to blog. My husband just laughs at me because apparently it doesn’t take much to make me happy in the kitchen and tonight what made me smile was a well made risotto.
4 cups fat free low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onion (about 1 large)
2 teaspoons sugar
8 ounces Hot Italian Sausage
1 cup Arborio rice
1/3 cup red wine of any variety
2 cups kale
fresh grated Romano cheese
lemon zest
Bring chicken broth and 1/2 cup water to simmer in a sauce pan making sure not to boil. Keep warm over a low heat
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chopped onions and sugar to the pan, saute until onions are golden. Place onions in a bowl and set aside.
Using the same pan, saute sausage until browned, stirring to crumble. Once browned add Arborio rice and saute for 30 seconds. Stir in red wine, allow to cook until the liquid had nearly absorbed, making sure to stir constantly. Once liquid is almost absorbed stir in 1 cup of broth cooking that until nearly absorbed. Continue by adding 1/2 a cup of broth at a time allowing it to nearly absorb before adding the next portion of broth. Making sure through out this process to stir constantly.
As a way to quickly blanch your kale so it doesn’t have that rough texture is by dropping it into the warm chicken broth on the stove for a minute until it turns bright green. Make sure to remove it at this point since you aren’t trying to cook the kale.
Once the rice has absorbed all of the liquid remove from the heat, stir in onions, blanched kale, cheese and lemon zest.
Every week I sit down with my computer and scour the internet for ideas for my weeks meals. I try to incorporate dishes that I know and love but also new recipes to try and make my own. After filling my calendar with the many amazing things for the coming week I compile my grocery list and head for Costco.
Costco is always my first stop on grocery shopping day. I make the quick stop to get my fountain diet coke and then I am off to begin my trip through the store. Regardless of what is on my list I still go down every aisle, since you never know what is new and exciting at Costco. I typically leave the store with a cart full of goodies, many of which I never planned on getting.
Now that I have all the supplies for the week I can hit the ground running when I get home from work every night.
This weeks new recipe is Angry Asian Creations Roast Pork Loin rubbed with Guinness Mustard.
Little did I realize when I opened the recipe that the guinness mustard was suppose to sit for 2 days on the counter before being used in the recipe. I got a little excited when it meant that I was going to have to improvise for this dish to still make it work.
The first thought that popped into my head was to mix up the guinness mustard but instead of waiting for it to sit for 2 days I would just combine it in a sauce pan with a little flour and let it simmer down to a nice thick sauce. The guinness added a richness to the sauce while the vinegar and spices added a kick and the mustard seeds gave the sauce texture.
The end result of this dish was a Guinness Mustard Glazed Pork that was full of flavour and relatively easy to make, which is always good on a week night.
Guinness Mustard Glazed Pork
Adapted from Angry Asian Creations
2 boneless pork chops
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season pork with salt and pepper. Combine oil, cumin, paprika and cayenne and then rub onto the pork. Place in an oven to cook for 15 minutes.
While the pork is cooking begin creating the Guinness Mustard Glaze.
Guinness Mustard Glaze
6 ounces Guinness beer
3/4 cup mustard seeds
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon flour
Combine all ingredient and simmer on low until sauce thickens. To help keep the flour from clumping add the flour to a little bit of the liquid and whisk before adding it to the sauce pan.
Remove the Pork from the oven and let rest on a plate for 5 minutes. Once the pork has rested spoon some of the glaze over the pork and voila you have a new way to serve pork.
