slow-cooker teriyaki pork

okay, by now we all realise that i love to cook and that i should have been food blogging long ago. it's just too much fun. this recipe, however, has not been mastered by me but by my fabulous husband who is often handed recipes that involve the preparation and cooking of raw meats. yes, i'm that girl :). we've tried the recipe several times now, and we're equally delighted every time, which is confirmed by lots of "MMM" sounds floating around the room :P. super simple and easy. we usually serve it with crispy potato wedges or whole grain basmati rice and a salad. last night, though, i made some super yummy zucchini chips on the fly :D.  ENJOY!

serves 4-6 
INGREDIENTS (measurements in English and Swedish):

• 2 tbsp/msk olive oil
• 2 lbs/1 kg pork loin (the cheaper and fatter the cut, the better, actually. think BBQ)
• 1/2 c/1 dl teriyaki sauce
• 1/4 c/0,5 dl brown sugar (farinsocker)
• 1 c/2,5 dl chicken broth (kycklingbuljong)
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 fresh red chile peppers, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• pinch/nypa black pepper

DIRECTONS

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Brown pork on all sides, which, depending on the cut of meat you use, should take 5-10 mins. Meanwhile, mix together teriyaki sauce, chicken broth, and brown sugar in a small bowl.

2. If you're a) using a large cast iron pot (like a LeCrueset), you can brown the pork and then add in the teriyaki mix, chiles, onion, and pepper at this point. Otherwise, b) transfer all ingredients to your slow-cooker. 

3. a) Put the pot in the oven at 165 C/325 F, and let bake a few hours; turn 2-3 times to ensure even doneness. When the pork falls into pieces, it's done :). b) Cook on High in the slow-cooker for about 4 hours. 

Sadly, I don't have a picture of this culinary delight to share, but if you just imagine the best BBQ you've ever had and how it looked, this is better :P. 

homemade chicken enchiladas and fredagsmys

while we're on the recipes kick, last week i went into google land in search of a recipe that would enable me to use up the cottage cheese that i had randomly purchased but failed to use. my search surprisingly lead me to the absolute best chicken enchiladas i have ever eaten, EVER. as most swedes don't even know what enchiladas are, i have never been able to find enchilada sauce in the stores here. and i must note that most swedes refer to all things mexican as "tacos". "tacos" have even become the national choice food for the incredibly swedish concept of "fredagsmys," loosely translated as "cosy fridays," friday evenings that generally consist of staying in, making dinner with friends and/or family, watching movies and/or playing games, and eating chips and/or candy. cosy, huh? :P and don't get me started on the extreme lack of authentic mexican food in this country. some days, i don't know how i'm gonna survive ;).

wow, that spiraled out of control! anyway, so i was basically forced to make my own sauce to accompany these delectable enchiladas, creating quite a bit more work for me, but OH, OH, OH! it was sooooooo worth the effort!

i made them in advance, so my husband and i both ate them first for lunch the next day. just after i'd eaten mine and ooh'ed and ahh'ed over them for half an hour, i got a text from him saying that i had made him the best lunch box he'd ever had :)! these little pieces of heaven were the result:

now you really want the recipe, right? well, you can check it out here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cottage-Cheese-Chicken-Enchiladas/Detail.aspx

as usual, i made slight modifications: less cheese on top; whole wheat flour tortillas; light crème fraiche instead of sour cream; and enchilada spices instead of taco seasoning mix. and the crazy thing is that after chopping the chicken in the food processor, i started filling the tortillas without frying the meat and adding the spices. NO PROBLEM! i just sprinkled some of the spice into the whole mixture and added some fresh sprigs of coriander/cilantro (as we're slightly obsessed with it), and they turned out FABULOUSLY! i even had some extra spice mix left over, so i used it to season my whole grain & black rice with black beans side dish i whipped up, and it was SUPER yummy! :P 

one modification i should mention, though, is one i read in the comments of the recipe. using my scrumptious homemade enchilada sauce, i covered the base of my 9x13 dish and then basically covered each tortilla with sauce (inside and out) to keep everything juicy and flavourful...so glad i did! not a cruncy bit of tortilla to be found!

oh yeah, i also made a few changes to enchilada sauce; what else is new? i didn't have any ancho chiles at home, so i used the regular chiles that i did have and added in some chipotle sauce and smoked paprika spice that i had on had to give it that lovely smokey taste. and since the half-full tube of tomato paste i had at home wasn't quite enough, i threw in a handfull of sun-dried tomatoes and puréed away! perfect! (i love improvising in the kitchen; keeps life exciting!) :)

happy creating!

chorizo and other randomness

okay, so i SERIOUSLY need to start blogging more frequently. thank you, sister, for helping me realise that!!

i think i got bogged down with thinking that i had to write something profound everytime i posted. well, if you know me well enough, then you know that that doesn't happen all too frequently. i'm way too practical to be profound! :P

and then the other day i started to look up a recipe for some dish i'd made awhile back, and i remembered that i'd taken a pic of it and put it up on FB. and i thought, why don't i have some sort of food blog?? but i obviously can't have several blogs if i have trouble keeping up with one. THEREFORE, i have come to the conclusion that this blog is going to be all about whatever the heck i feel like writing at the moment. how freeing!!! so watch out. this is your warning. there could be everything from deep theology to a quirky thought to a random recipe to all the miraculous things i see God doing in everyday life. you just never know...;)

we'll start with something easy like chorizo. see, my fabulous husband and i try to sit down together once a week and plan out the week's menu; it's honestly fun and it seriously saves us heaps of money. we're all about saving money and being wise with the resources with which the Lord has blessed us AND all about creating good, healthy, exciting food, so it's just what we do.

anyway, there was a deal on chorizo and other spicy sausages this week, so my smart man said that we should make this recipe we tried at a dinner party with friends (after first eating it at our friends' cathy and gustaf's) that we just loved. barley, chorizo, pears, red onion, balsamic vinegar...it's healthy and the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. unfortunately i don't have a great picture of it, but you get the idea. we generally serve it with salad greens on the side, and this time around, we had hearty muffins with zucchini and feta cheese to boot...nice!

this pic from www.recept.nu where we found the recipe--mine recipe is a bit modified, of course--is much better and enables you to get a better look :).

so, here it comes, european measurements and all. if you're an american reading this, convert or learn the metric system. it's so much better, simpler, smarter, and easier. enjoy!

Ingredienser

• 150 g rökt sidfläsk, skuret i tärningar (salt pork, chopped into small pieces)...we actually omit this ingredient. totally unnecessary, and that's saying a lot since we love bacon so much!
• 3 st päron, urkärnade och klyftade (3 pears, deseeded and sliced into wedges)
• 2 st små rödlökar, finhackad (2 small red onions (or one large), diced)...we normally slice them into pretty strips instead :)
• 1 msk rapsolja (1 tbsp rapeseed oil)...we normally use olive oil
• 0.5 dl balsamvinäger (.5 dl balsamic vinegar)
• 4 st chorizo (eller annan smakrik korv) (4 chorizo or another spicy sausage, sliced into small wedges)
• 4 dl okokt matvete (uncooked barley)
• 100 g plocksallad, till exempel ruccola, mangoldskott, machésallad (salad greens, i.e. arugula, maché, baby spinach) 
• 0.5 kruka färsk timjan, bladen plockas från kvistarna (1/2 cup fresh thyme, leaves only)
• havssalt och svartpeppar (sea salt and black pepper)
• ev hyvlad eller riven parmesan (eller annan smakrik ost) (sliced parmesan or another flavourful cheese)

Gör så här

1. Stek chorizon tills de får en fin stekyta. Lägg åt siden. 

2. Koka matvetet enligt förpackningen och låt stå. 

3. Fräs rödlök och päron på svag värme i olivolja ett par minuter. De ska inte få färg utan bara mjukna något. Salta och peppra och slå slutligen på balsamvinägern. Låt allt koka samman i någon minut. 

4. Blanda samman balsamicofräs, matvete och chorizo med valfri plocksallad och färskplockad timjan. Smaka av med havssalt och svartpeppar och servera eventuellt med hyvlad parmesan.

Instructions in English

1. Fry the chorizo until golden. Place to the side. 

2. Cook the barley according to directions on package and then let stand.

3. Sautée onion and pear in olive oil on medium-low heat until soft. Add balsamic vinegar and let everything cook together a few mins until the vinegar dissolves. Add salt and pepper if needed. 

4. Blend together barley, chorizo, and the balsamic mixture and then toss in thyme and salad--we normally serve the salad on the side to keep things fresher just in case there are leftovers!--Add sliced parmesan.