Sweet Pea Journey

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Tagged: super tasty

Cooking

Brown Sugar Carnitas

Save this recipe, I am dead serious! Super easy, super tasty, super satisfying! I used mine for street tacos with home made corn tortilla.

Ingredients:

4 lb pork shoulder, cut into roughly 3 inch chunks, don’t worry about the looks

3 cups of milk, any kind, divided

1/4 of a large white / yellow onion, or half of a small one, cut into chunks

3 cloves of garlic

1 bunch of cilantro stems, yes, stems provides the good flavor, save the leaves for garnish!

1/4 cup of brown sugar

Generous amount of salt and pepper for seasoning

1 tbsp of lard or vegetable shortening. Worst case, use olive oil, don’t fuss about this

Method:

Brown pork in a heavy bottom pot over medium high heat with generous amount of salt and pepper. Leave meat pieces alone for 5 to 6 minutes to thoroughly brown, then flip once and brown for 5 to 6 minutes. You may need to do this in batches. Be patient.

In the mean time, blend the rest of the ingredients except for 1/2 cup of milk and brown sugar in a blender till smooth. Once meat chunks are thoroughly browned, pour milky mixture into pot, stir to combine. When liquid starts to boil again, lid on and lower heat to low and simmer for about 50 minutes. Stir a couple of times during.

When it’s all done and meat is tender, combine remaining milk and brown sugar and pour over meat. Stir, and cook for about 5 minutes. All done! Enjoy over home made tortilla or rice, top pizza dough, make pasta sauce, use it to make pupusas or even enchiladas….

Cooking

Fresh Peach Cobbler – The Best!

This is a quick and easy, super tasty dessert. If you have super ripe fresh peaches on hand, you are in luck!

I happened to have 3 different kinds of peaches on hand, quite ripe. I had 4 medium size southern peaches, 1 large white peach and 1 donut peach left (check these donut peaches out, if you haven’t tries these, super kid friendly!) They are all about to be overly ripe, so I decided to make this amazingly good fresh peach cobbler.

 

Ingredients:

about 6 peaches, peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar + 3/4 cup white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

6 tbsp butter

2 tbsp cinnamon + 2 tbsp sugar, make cinnamon sugar mix

 

Method:

Prepare peaches, peeled, cored, sliced and dump into a medium sauce pan. Add 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp salt, stir peaches on medium heat for a couple of minutes until sugar dissolves and peach releases juices. Set aside to cool.

Slice butter into a 9 x 13 pan, scatter butter patties and put pan into oven. Heat oven to 350F. Melt butter while oven heats up. In the mean time, combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt in a large mixing bowl. Add milk and mix till just combined.

Take baking dish with melted butter out of oven. Pour flour mixture into baking dish, spread around, roughly even out. Spoon peach over batter, evenly cover, pour juices over peaches. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mix over peaches.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Cool slightly, serve warm alone, or, to kick it up a notch, add a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and insert a sprig of mint for garnish. Enjoy!

Cooking

Harrissa Chicken and Veggie Bake

This is another super healthy, super easy dish you would want to make over and over again.

Ingredients:

1 green bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 eggplant

2 onions, I used 1 yellow, 1 purple

5 chicken leg quarters, or drum sticks, or thighs, or a whole chicken, butterflied

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

6 tbsp harrisa paste, I used mild this time, will try spicy next time

 

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Clean and cup all vegetables to bite size, arrange at the bottom of 9 x 13 pan. I used 2 pans to avoid over crowding, but this will not be too much food, I know, amazing! Salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and olive oil go into the veggie goodness and mix with a spoon or hand.

Score chicken down to the bone, salt and pepper chicken, ensure to rub into the cracks of the cuts. Dump harrisa pates onto chicken and veggies and mix really well. Lay chicken on top of veggies, this way all the chicken fat and drippings will flavor the vegetables.

Both trays go into the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Enjoy the goodness!

Note, the mild harrisa paste isn’t spicy at all, at least not to me. I used some of the chicken for my tacos, and had to add some spices. I will try the spicy version next time.