Recipes... share them

[indecks]

indecks' mom's "Calabaza con Pollo." (Zucchini and chicken)

Ingreds:
3 or 4 'calabaza' style zucchini, uh... zucchinis. Honestly, any zucchini will work, but I prefer the ones like these.
4 or 5 pcs chicken (pref dark meat, but not required)
corn (fresh shucked, frozen, canned, whatevs)
2 cubed tomatoes (fresh, optional)
chicken bullion powder (Knorr powdered bullion)
cilantro
cumin
1/2 cup water
1 diced onion (or half, if you're not big on onion)
about a tbsp of minced garlic
olive oil
pepper, salt, etc.

*Note* - this goes REALLY well with the previous Mexican Rice recipe I posted.

chop up the zucchini, essentially quartering it. cube 2 tomatoes, and set aside. Dice your onion, then sautee with your garlic, and a little pepper in 1tbsp of olive oil. Once the onions are sweating, toss in your chopped chicken to brown for a bit. Don't fully cook the chicken, especially if using breast, it will dry out. season with pepper if you haven't already, as well as a little chicken bullion, but not too much. Use it as if you're adding salt to your meal (you essentially are, btw). Ad a few dashes of cumin.

Once the chicken is browned, add your 1/2 cup of water, a small bit of cilantro, chopped zucchini, tomatoes, and corn, add a little more chicken bullion powder, and cook on medium heat stirring every so often for about 15-20 minutes , or until the zucchini is nice and tender but not mushy. If cooked too long your zucchini will disintegrate. Boo.

Once it's ready, enjoy!

[REPO Man]

I'm looking for a recipe for biscotti made from Froot Loops. I found it years ago on the back of a box of Food Lion imitation Froot Loops, and it looked awesome. If anyone knows of this recipe or something like it, could someone please help me? I Google'd it and couldn't find it.

[puke_face]

SLOW ROASTED PORK SHOULDER

serves: lots

ingredients:
8-10 lb pork shoulder
3 small onions or 1 large onion, sliced
2 oranges, peel left on, sliced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T fennel seeds
salt and pepper

method:
Place the onions and oranges on the bottom of a roasting pan. Score the fat side of the pork in a diamond pattern and place it on top of the onions/oranges. Rub the garlic and fennel into the pork and season with salt and pepper. Cover and marinate overnight in the fridge. The next day, uncover and roast at 275 degrees for 7-8 hours.

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The pork will be almost meltingly tender and the fat nice and crispy. You can serve it right away with the juices from the pan.

[indecks]

That looks amazing.

[fastbilly1]

Ive used the recipe with Lamb Loin and Beef back roast and it has come out fine both ways, lamb is better though.

Either cut of meat - make sure it will fit in your crock pot (recipe is based on a 4qt crockpot and cooking for two).
Minced Garlic in water - I keep a jar of Spice World Garlic in my fridge at all times
Potatoes/Carrots/other veggies you like slow cooked

Roughly a tablespoon of each:
1. Salt - Kosher or Sea is preferred
2. Cracked Pepper - you can use ground pepper if you dont have cracked (Kroger sells an excellent three pepper blend in a pepper grinder for cheap).
3. Rosemary
4. Minced Garlic - dry
4. Basil

Score the meat and stuff the Minced Garlic in water into the cracks. If you have a lamb loin, you can just add it between the ribs so you dont have to score it.

Cut veggies into sizes you like and put a layer down in the bottom of the crockpot. Personally I like to use Baby Carrots and either chunks of potato or potato slices that are 3/8th's of an inch (gogo Mandolin slicer).

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and rub it on the meat and place into crock pot. Add more veggies. If I do back roast I typically put a layer of carrots between the layers of meat.

Once you have all of your food in there, you can add half a cup to a cup of water - depending on how long you want to cook it. If you cook it four hours on high, use a cup, if you are doing it for 6-7 hours on low, use half a cup.

Once you put the lid on it and start it cooking, do not open it. It will smell awesome, but do not open it.

I usually serve it with a spinach salad (Dole has a bag of it at most big chain grocery stores that is $2.50 where I live), and a bread - a ready to go loaf, a heat and eat, a bake at home, or a day old Kroger bread that is .75 cents and I can throw it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 and it is awesome for thirty minutes and bird food in an hour.

All in all, if you have the spices, it can be done twice for under $20:
Back roast is $4-5 usually - one set of two per meal
Carrots - $3 for enough carrots to do it five times, or do it twice and make carrot chips
Potatoes - $2 for four big ones, two per meal.
Spinach - $2.50 for four sizable salads
Bread - $1ish a loaf (loaf can usually make it two meals).

I can usually get it down to twice for $15 - which is why we do it atleast once a week. Next up is trying to do lasagna in the crock pot.

[Luke]

^A few suggestions to something that sounds like a great recipe.

Place a few slits in the roast and slide fresh garlic cloves into said slits. Before placing in the crock pot, salt and sear the roast on every side in a hot cast iron skillet.

Substitute veggie, chicken, or beef stock for water.

Whole peppercorns work well in the crock pot and add tons of flavor. Remove before serving.

When making a meal like this, use around a quarter cup of stock for every cup of fresh veggies.

Use sweet basil sparingly, and add a bay leaf.

A splash of red wine doesn't hurt.

Parsnips and Turnips are PERFECT for this kind of cooking.

If not using a crock pot liner or bag, place a row of sliced onions of the bottom of the pot. It adds flavor, soaks up oils, and makes cleaning the pot easier. Plus, the onions are tasty.

[fastbilly1]

I do not use wine in cooking unless I have to. No real bias against it other than Ive just never liked to do it because of the cleanup and it can be expensive. I use the veggies at the bottom for the same reason you stated to use the onions - onions and I dont get along very well so I use them sparingly. Sadly the back roast is alittle on the thin side so searing it might be too much, but Ill give that a go next time and see how it works.

I never thought about using stock or actual peppercorns. Great ideas. A bay leaf (or half of a bay leaf in our cooker) would be good for the beef, lamb wouldnt need it.

My view on cooking is to make everything as simple as possible with as few expensive ingredients. This is a meal that someone could make in about 10 minutes before they go to work in the morning and eat well (and fairly healthy) when they get home. Ive actually made it with beef, and left it in the crockpot for an hour and put the crockpot on a lamp timer to start an hour later. The difference was I froze the beef after scoring it and adding garlic.

Edit:
Sorry that that sounded so harsh Luke. I really appreciate the advice.

[Luke]

Edit:
Sorry that that sounded so harsh Luke. I really appreciate the advice.

Didn't sound even a tad harsh and no need to ever apologize.

You're right about Bay Leaves; too much can make anything taste "mediciney", and they don't pair well with lamb. You're also right that onions aren't for everyone, especially when it comes to digestion. I made Mapo Chicken not too long ago, and I'm still burping up onion breath. Hell, my bath towels even smell like onions sometimes after I eat a bunch of those yellow bastards.

One day you have got to try searing a chuck roast and then flopping into a slow cooker. Not only does it make a mean roast, the leftovers topped with horseradish makes the meanest sandwich on planet Earth.

And it sounds to me that if you don't own a clay pot, you need to invest in one. You can't beat Amish beef stew in a clay pot. They're bulky, a real pain to clean, the pot itself needs to be soaked for half an hour prior to cooking, but damned if it isn't worth all the guff. There's something magical about those lunks.

[fastbilly1]

Claypot is on the "to buy list" after we get the rest of the house situated. And after I figure out how to get the cauldron up here. My wife was given a multi gallon cast iron cauldron from a friend of her families. Its big enough that we need a truck and four people to move it (its big enough I can bath the cats in it if I wanted to. It has a hairline crack that has to be welded back, and luckily her brother was a welder for several years. But honestly, we might keep that at the farm since it is a bear to move.

[Luke]

^If a Clay Pot could speak, it would never stop reminding you that "Any job worth doing is worth doing well". If I'd ever had a love/hate relationship, it would be with the clay pot. Mutherbugger is such a chore to store and clean, and soak, and maintain...but boy oh boy it makes the best pot roast.

Please get the cauldron even if the only reason is for you to say "Nice pot. *rolls eyes* You should see my cauldron".