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Browsing Tag: ground pork

Rakott Káposzta

I came across this recipe over the summer and found it interesting enough to bookmark it. I knew there was no way I would make this during the summer, but winter is a whole different story. This dish screams cold weather comfort food to me and after our little brush with snow and below freezing temperatures this week, it is high time I made it. The recipe it is based on feeds 12, so paring this bad boy down to a smaller portion is going to be the challenge. But you all know that is what I set my focus on in writing this blog, crafting smaller portion recipes from wonderful recipes that would overwhelm a single diner (or a small family in this case). I will admit…

Mapo Ragù

This dish comes from New York’s Momofuku Ssam Bar by way of Sam Sifton and the NY Times. I saw this dish in a recent email and thought ‘dang, that looks good!’ and upon reading more, I just knew I had to make it. Chefs David Chang and Tien Ho have created a deeply flavorful fusion of Korean, Chinese and Italian cuisine with this dish. Of course, I made a few minor adjustments in order to cook this dish for one. This dish follows closely on the tails of its distant cousin Italian recipe – Pasta Genovese – the slow cooked onion sauce with beef. Except for needing to cook the onions a lengthy time, the similarities stop there. The rest of this dish…

Three Meat/Three Bean Chili

Tonight’s recipe is a close approximation to the party favorite chili I make for events. While I have claimed I would never share this recipe when requested for it in the past, I just cannot be that selfish. This variant is a small batch version of the original; primarily only missing bell peppers and onions from the recipe. The secret ingredient is the enchilada sauce – which jump starts the chili flavors without having to roast and re-hydrate dried peppers, etc. So the secret ingredient makes this dish a quick cooking chili as well. The beauty of using enchilada sauce is that you can control the initial heat level by the type of red enchilada sauce used. I selected a milder sauce tonight to allow…

Egg Roll Noodle Bowl

Tonight’s dish is one I have never made before but found (quite by accident) while researching a different dish. I like egg rolls and in the past had many people over to the house for my prawn or chicken egg rolls. They were big and bold, vegetable filled and flavorful. Then I just stopped making them and began to experiment with different cuisines. But egg rolls were always there – only I enjoyed them when I would go out. Well it is time to rectify my oversight of homemade egg rolls and this dish provides all the flavors of an egg roll in a bowl – how nice it that? Save Print Egg Roll Noodle Bowl Prep time:  15 mins Cook time:  15 mins…

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Are you ready for another ‘comfort food’ dish? Tonight, I made spaghetti and meatballs. To fit the bill for comfort food and satisfy my hunger, I wanted the meatballs well seasoned and the sauce flavorful. For the meatballs, I used a mixture of beef and pork spiced with traditional Italian flavors of onion, garlic, parsley, basil and oregano.  I then made a green pepper and fire roasted tomato sauce with sweetness from a grated carrot and a spicy hint of smoked paprika. This dish fires on all cylinders for me – tender and flavorful meatballs under a blanket of robust red sauce on a bed of thin spaghetti, accented with fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese. To be honest, I should have made this dish on a…