Update-palooza

This is a bit ridiculous, I know (and I'm sorry!), but I have a few updates to make. I figured I'd do them all in one post to try and be as least obnoxious as possible. I'll also keep the pictures down to one or two per recipe.

In order of first appearance on the blog...

Grilled Salmon with Blueberry Pan Sauce
We enjoyed this! I decided to use the entire amount of balsamic since we both love it, and I'm glad that I did. It was very blueberry-y (obviously), but I thought it paired really well with the salmon. Unfortunately, I didn't have any mint (and didn't want to make a special trip to just get that), so I made it without. As you can see, I served it over a bed of fresh spinach. Yum!

Thai Ground Pork Salad
We seriously loved this. I don't really have much else to say other than that. I pretty much made it exactly as written, except omitted the cilantro (my food arch nemesis... but seriously, the only ingredient I've ever come into contact with that I don't like. And by don't like, I mean despise) and made up for it with extra basil and mint. I also added a bit of extra Sriracha and jalapeno because we like things spicy. Oh, and as you can see I had to use iceberg lettuce instead of Boston (sad!). AND I used regular onion instead of shallots. Hmm, I guess I changed more than I thought, but nothing too drastic. Anyway, we loved it and are looking forward to the next time we have it!


Thumbprint Cookies
YUM! I made these today, and had to restrain myself to only eat two. They're delicious. I had a haunting suspicion that I'd love them given the Nutella and espresso and hazelnuts, and I was definitely correct. So tasty, and I love that they're semi-healthy. (Not really, but they're from Cooking Light, so I can believe that... right?!) I put a little extra salt in because I love when certain cookies have a bit of saltiness to them, and I was so glad I did. It worked perfectly with the sweet Nutella.

Lettuce Wraps

I was skeptical when I started to make this recipe, but I was pleasantly surprised.

As I was getting ready to make this last night, I realized that I didn't have sriracha, but I did have spicy Thai chili garlic sauce. For future reference, this substitution does not provide enough heat, but an extra sprinkle or two of cayenne pepper did the trick.

This was my first time eating a lettuce wrap and I loved it. However, J was not a fan of the lettuce wrap. He liked the meat (although he added even more pepper - I swear he doesn't have any taste buds left), but the whole rolling things up bit was too fussy for him. If I make it again, I will have to find another way to serve it. Maybe I can turn it into a Thai taco salad.

Pigging out

I love Thai food, but I've never made it myself. So I had every intention of being diligent and following this week's recipe to a tee.

But then we went grocery shopping. At first, we couldn't find the ground pork. We would have looked harder until we saw this:

3kg (about 6.6lb) of pork. At $1.72 a pound. We couldn't resist.

"We can grind it with our KitchenAid mixer meat grinder attachment!" said we.

Well, we got home, and remembered what a pain it was to clean that thing. So we went and cut up a quarter of that pork into cubes instead. The rest was portioned and frozen.

(I shall be grateful if more pork recipes are posted over the next few weeks.)

Anyway, despite all this, we loved the recipe. I absolutely loved the sauce. I was actually surprised at how well the sauce coated the meat; I was skeptical when I realized that the recipe didn't call for the meat to be marinated. I'm sure I would have loved it more if we had actually used ground pork, which would have soaked up even more sauce. I have some leftover pork, which I shall be packing with some rice and salad for lunch later this week.

Not pretty. But still delicious.

Thai food is teh awesome.

Like Alyson, I really love the flavours of Thai food.  The blend of spicy, sour, sweet and salty are like magic in my mouth.

We've never done lettuce wraps before, but you can bet we'll be doing them again.  With this recipe, because man, these are good.

I made the recipe as written which was great, since ground pork was on sale this week.

I served the wraps with a mango salad.

Mmm. Lettuce Wraps.

Little know fact: Thai flavours are amongst my favourite.

Mint, purple basil, cilantro

Lime, fish sauce, basil, cilantro, jalapeno... the flavours are just so vibrant and fresh.

This week was like recipe heaven for me.

turkey mixture, lettuce, a little sweet chili sauce

 I used ground turkey instead of pork for this recipe since it was all I had on hand.

Recipe reverse strip tease:

Lettuce and chili sauce

Topped with turkey and what not.

Vin de jour (awesome pairing)

Passion fruit, salted caramel, mint

The perfect ending? Macaroons from the local patisserie.

Yum.

Perfection

This recipe is definitely going in the box of repeats. Loved the flavours, loved the messiness, loved everything!

Thai Ground Pork Salad

It was hard to pick a recipe to post. I decided to first narrow it down to a protein that we haven't used yet.

The first thing I thought of was pork. Well, that should be easy, right? Wrong. Then I had to decide on whether I wanted to do a loin, or ribs, or sausage, or chops, etc... whew.

So, when I was getting frustrated by looking up too many things online, I decided to open my Food & Wine 2010 Annual Cookbook. Looking at their pictures always makes me drool. I flipped right to the pork section, and while it was still difficult to pick something, I decided on this Thai ground pork salad. I'm obsessed with Thai food right now (have been for a few years, actually), and we haven't done anything similar yet, so I thought it was perfect.

If you don't like heat, feel free to reduce or omit the jalapeño (duh). I hope you all enjoy!

Thai Ground Pork Salad
From Food & Wine Annual Cookbook, 2010 (pg. 170)

Total time: 40 min
6 servings

2 pounds ground pork
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 small shallots, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced, plus sliced jalapeño for garnish
Juice of 1 lime, plus lime wedges for serving
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon Sriracha chile sauce, plus more for serving
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped mint
1/2 cup chopped basil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup chopped salted peanuts
1 head Boston or other leafy lettuce

In a bowl, mix the pork, garlic, shallots, and minced jalapeño. In a small bowl, whisk the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, and the 1 teaspoon of Sriracha.

In a skillet, heat the oil. Add the pork mixture; cook over high heat, stirring to break up the meat, until no pink remains, 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime mixture. Let stand 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl; stir in the herbs. Season with salt and pepper. Top with peanuts and sliced jalapeños. Serve with lime wedges, Sriracha, and lettuce for wrapping.

Pair a vivid, lightly sweet Riesling with this meal.