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A weekend of cooking...an Indian pork dish and a bell pepper tart

spot

Nov 8, 09 18:55

Post #1 of 6 (124 views)

A weekend of cooking...an Indian pork dish and a bell pepper tart	Can't Post

I had fun cooking this weekend...a bell pepper tart with a wilted spinach salad, and my take on an Indian pork dish.

Battle Bell Pepper, and the winner is...the salad???

So, I hit my favorite market in Springboro, Ohio, and try to figure out what I'm cooking for the weekend. I had pretty much decided that for Battle Bell Pepper I would make a couple of dishes...a pasta dish and a roasted red pepper coulis on some chicken, but then I thought about what I would cook on Sunday. I decided to do a tart on Saturday, and cook something with more meat on Sunday.

So, I headed to the meat department to see what they had for Sunday, and saw a beautiful Boston Butt roast. I grabbed that, not really knowing what to do with it, and decided to go with a tart for Saturday night. I had most of the ingredients I needed for the tart, but I realized that I needed something to go with it...a nice spinach salad, perhaps?

A spinach salad sounded good, but a wilted spinach salad sounded even better. I went to the meat counter and got a 1/4 pound of bacon to go with it, with some other thoughts starting to coalesce about that salad.

I got home, and sliced thin 1 1/2 large onions and 4 bell peppers. I put those in a large skillet with a 1/8 cup olive oil, tossed the mixture to coat everything with the olive oil, and then covered to start the cooking process. I also made the dough for the tart shell, and let that rest on the counter. With that done, I let the onions and peppers cook until thoroughly caramelized, and then pre-baked the tart crust.

As the onions and peppers were cooking, I mixed together some ricotta, goat cheese, and parmesan cheese for coating the tart shell. When the tart shell came out of the oven, I let it cool a bit, and then covered the tart with the cheese, and then put the onions and peppers on top of that. I threw on some cubed pepperoni for some spiciness, sprinkled on some more parmesan cheese, and then covered the whole thing with another piece of pastry dough. I popped that in the oven, and then turned to the salad.

I hard cooked some eggs, washed the spinach and chopped the bacon. I popped the bacon into a skillet and let that start to cook and render the fat. When the bacon was done, I turned down the heat, spooned out the bacon, and then threw in a handful of pecans. I dusted those with some Chipotle chile powder, and let the pecans saute for a while. Meanwhile, I took one other red pepper, and minced it.

I filled some large pasta bowls with the spinach, and then poured the pecan and hot bacon fat on top. I threw on some minced hard cooked egg, the minced red pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. I tossed all that, and served it while it was nice and hot.

So, to make a long story short, Susan loved the salad. It really was good...too good, really. It was a meal in and of itself. That salad along with a baguette and some really good butter would have been plenty for dinner. But, I had worked hard on the tart, so I insisted that we have at least a bit of it. I really liked it, but Susan was right...it was very dense and rich. It would have been good by itself, but following a wilted spinach salad, it was just a little too much.

So there you have it....the salad that was little more than an afterthought turned out to be a bigger hit than the main course!

Green Pork Masala Korma

For Sunday's dinner, I decided to do something with an inexpensive pork roast. I picked up a large Boston Butt, and as I wandered the aisles of my favorite grocery store, I started to think about an Indian dish I had made with cilantro, mint, and jalapeno. That sounded good, so I grabbed those items, plus a couple cans of coconut milk.

On Sunday, I cubed the pork fairly large (2" cubes) and browned it in several batches. Meanwhile, I took the mint, cilantro, 4 garlic cloves, a jalapeno, the juice from one lemon, and pureed that in my food processor. After the meat was browned, I fried my spices: Garam Masala, cardomom, cinnamon, and some Vindaloo powder. Next came the pureed cilantro and mint mixture, and I sauteed that for a while. I threw in the meat and the coconut milk, and then decided that a some nutty flavor would also be nice. I washed the food processor, and then put in about a cup of cashews and a cup of plain yogurt. I processed that, and threw it in the pot.

I let the pork simmer for a couple of hours, and made some Naan to go with the dinner. I used a bit more yogurt than the recipe calls for, because I like the flavor of the Naan with the extra yogurt. The dough was nice and soft, and rose nicely. I changed tactics with my Naan this time, though, by deciding to cook it on a pre-heated stone (500F for 30 minutes) instead of on a buttered cookie sheet. I also rolled it out a bit thinner than I normally do.

The pork masala korma was very nice...although I was hoping that the pork would have been a bit more tender than it was. Maybe another hour would have made it spoon tender. The naan turned out very nice, with a bit of crispiness that is normally not there. The cashew/yogurt mixture gave it a nice nutty flavor that went well with the mint/cilantro/jalapeno puree.

Spot
"Are you Finman enough?"

My blogs: www.georgeraihalaphotography.blogspot.com
wwww.eatdrinkandbemerrywithspot.blogspot.com

Teags

Nov 9, 09 6:32

Post #2 of 6 (108 views)

Re: A weekend of cooking...an Indian pork dish and a bell pepper tart [spot] [In reply to]	Can't Post

Yum! I am going to have to try the pepper tart, sans pepperoni! Good to know that it's very rich as well. It sounds delicious though :)

jkca1

Nov 9, 09 8:23

Post #3 of 6 (91 views)

Re: A weekend of cooking...an Indian pork dish and a bell pepper tart [spot] [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thank you for posting this. I am always looking for a new recipe and I will give this a try.

"They are all crooks, both sides of the aisle."

spot

Nov 9, 09 17:31

Post #4 of 6 (64 views)

Re: A weekend of cooking...an Indian pork dish and a bell pepper tart [Teags] [In reply to]	Can't Post

Yeah, I would recommend trying to lighten in up a bit. Had it for lunch today, and it was too heavy. Very, very tasty, though!

Spot
"Are you Finman enough?"

My blogs: www.georgeraihalaphotography.blogspot.com
wwww.eatdrinkandbemerrywithspot.blogspot.com

Teags

Nov 10, 09 7:58

Post #5 of 6 (50 views)

Re: A weekend of cooking...an Indian pork dish and a bell pepper tart [spot] [In reply to]	Can't Post

Maybe I'll play around with the cheeses (no sprinkling on top) and make it an open tart. Hmmm....

getcereal

Nov 10, 09 8:11

Post #6 of 6 (46 views)

Re: A weekend of cooking...an Indian pork dish and a bell pepper tart [spot] [In reply to]	Can't Post

I think I saw Racheal Ray whip that meal up last week in 30 mins.
Ain't she a peach?