I was craving Asian-anything the other night - I didn't care if it was Chinese or Thai or Vietnamese or what. I think I kind of drew from a lot of different Asian cooking influences when I made these meatballs and they came out so bomb! They remind me a little of the filling you get in pot stickers, and are, in fact, very similar to our pot sticker recipe, found here. Lots of veggies in these suckers! In fact as I was chopping all the veggies up and throwing them in the bowl for pics, Justin asked where the meat was? He didn't see that it was in the bottom of the mixing bowl... just covered with a ton of vegetables.
The citrus sauce was Justin's idea. I was just going to do a wine sauce, but we had some oranges and lemons on hand and I really liked the idea of the bright citrus flavour to go with the meatballs. Way tasty! And all served with a cold quinoa and Napa cabbage salad... because you're going to have enough cabbage for both the meatballs and the salad! Might as well use it all up! ( actually only used 1/2 the Napa cabbage and sauted up the other 1/2 with the rest of the red onion the next night!) But the quinoa and cabbage salad was a great contrast - I liked the crunch and lightness of the raw cabbage, cucumber and onion in the salad to go with the meatballs and sauce. It all came together really well and satisfied that Asian food craving!
We'll be headed to a DS-13 show next weekend, so let's listen to a little Swedish hardcore with, "I Don't Wanna Be A Skinhead". Neither do I, dude. Neither do I. -jen
ASIAN MEATBALLS
Napa Cabbage
Prep Time: about 25 minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
Difficulty: Medium
Makes: 60 meatballs
Meatball Ingredients:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground turkey
2 cups finely chopped Napa cabbage
1 cup finely diced carrots (3 medium)
3/4 cup finely diced celery (2 medium)
1 cup finely diced green onions (1 bunch)
1 cup finely diced Anaheim or bell peppers (2 medium)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used 3/4c cilantro, 1/4c basil, 1/4c mint)
3 teaspoons minced ginger
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes (1 tbsp for less spicy - 2 tbsp just has a small kick)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons Chinese mustard
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1 cup panko bread crumbs
canola oil for frying
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients EXCEPT the canola oil and mix until combined. If you have a food processor, I recommend throwing all the veggies into that to get them super-fine diced. While it's not necessary, the meatball will hold together better the finer the veggies are chopped.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Form 1.5 tablespoons of mixture into balls. In a large skillet, add enough oil to cover the bottom and heat to medium-high. Brown in batches. Space balls evenly in pan so that they're not touching. I only browned tops and bottoms. Remove browned meatballs and set on a paper towel to remove excess grease. Once all meatballs are browned, arrange on baking sheet. (Don't rinse out that skillet!) Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until an internal temperature of 165 degrees is reached.
Citrus Sauce Ingredients:
1/2 cup diced red onion
2 tablespoons minced garlic
juice of 1 orange
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth (you'll want 3 cups total of juice, wine and broth)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons cornstarch (and 2 tbsp water)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (used the same ones as in meatballs: cilantro, basil, mint)
In the skillet that you browned the meatballs, you'll want about 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. My pork was lean, so I had to add oil to the pan - if you got higher-fat pork, you may have enough oil in the pan remaining or you may even have to remove some. Saute onions until translucent and tender. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Add your 3 cups combined of citrus juice, wine and broth to the skillet as well as the soy sauce and the citrus zest, making sure you scrape those browned bits off the bottom of the skillet. Bring to a boil and let reduce for about 5 minutes. In a separate bowl combine 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water to make a slurry. Whisk this in to the sauce until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed and stir in fresh herbs. Serve over Asian Meatballs with Quinoa Salad (see recipe below).
In a large sauce pan, over medium-high heat, add quinoa and cook about 2 minutes to toast - you'll see the quinoa start to turn a darker, golden brown and you'll smell that nutty, toasty deliciousness. Stir in chicken broth. Bring to a boil, than cover, lower heat, and simmer for a total of 18 minutes, stirring half-way through. After 18 minutes, turn off heat and let rest with lid on for another 10 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork. Transfer to a large serving bowl and let cool another 10 minutes. Stir in Napa cabbage, diced cucumber and diced onion. Serve at room temp or chilled.
I don't have anything to intro with. I had pumpkin puree in the freezer from last fall when we got a ton of sugar pumpkins from a friend. I knew I'd be home today. I felt like making muffins. They were awesome. There's not much else to say.
It's St. Patrick's Day... and there's really nothing Irish about these muffins. I mean, I'm sure they have pumpkins and muffins in Ireland, so they could be Irish. But that wasn't really my intention or anything. I'm just going to use it as an excuse for an Irish tune. Justin had Dropkick Murphys' "Good Rats" on today, so that's what I'm using. -jen
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line 12-cup muffin tin with paper cups.
In a small bowl, combine all topping ingredients, mix and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, pecans, raisins, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, salt and orange zest. Mix to combine.
In a medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together just until dry ingredients are moist. (Do not over-mix.)
Spoon evenly into paper cups. Sprinkle with topping and bake for 22-25 minutes, until golden brown and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes.
We both grew up with cranberry sauce out of a can... and when we discovered how easy it is to make your own and customize it, I don't think we could ever go back to the canned version. Earlier in the year I discovered Pomanders, which are oranges studded with whole cloves and used as a room freshener. We hung several of them up in our house, in closets, in the hallway, and they really made our house smell amazing... we both fell in love with the smell of oranges and cloves combined. So when I decided to make a cranberry sauce today, I decided to go heavy on the orange and also use cloves. Sweet, tart, slightly spicy... it pretty much smells like the holidays.
I've really been trying to cut back the sugar in recipes and I did so in this one as well. Most cranberry sauce recipes you find will use up to a cup of sugar or honey. With this one, I figured I've got the orange juice, the cranberry juice, the apple, the Triple Sec... plenty of sweet but a lot of tart. If you're not big into tart, you might want to use 1 cup of sugar in the recipe.
And in the holiday spirit, I chose Jim Carroll singing "People Who Died". (I apologize for the video showing Leo and Marky Mark.) -jen
juice and zest of one orange (about 1/3 cup juice)
juice and zest of one lemon (about 3 tablespoons juice)
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1/2 cup sugar
12 oz bag of fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup Triple Sec liqueur
1 apple (your choice), diced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, bring orange juice, lemon juice, cranberry juice and sugar to a boil. Add rinsed cranberries and bring back to a boil (about 5 minutes). Lower heat to a simmer and add citrus zests, Triple Sec, diced apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Simmer for 10-15 minutes (but not more than 15 minutes or it won't set). Remove from heat and let set. Serve at room temp or chilled - it's up to you.
I don't really get into the baking mood much, but on Christmas morning this year, I was overcome with the notorious holiday baking bug. We had two sugar pumpkins getting pretty ripe, so we cut those suckers up and roasted them, then pureed the roasted insides. I had some delicious, dark cider left over in the fridge, and thought I'd use that and mulling spices in the pumpkin bread! It was great! Not especially sweet, but very moist and spiced! I think I might make this a Christmas tradition.
And nothing says Christmas like busting out some old school Agent Orange being "Too Young To Die". (And, you know... pumpkins... orange... etc.) -jen
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously coat 2 loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
Combine brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and cider. Add flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, cardamom, orange zest and baking powder and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in pecans and divide batter equally into the two loaf pans. Bake for 60 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool on baking rack until room temp.
Note: If you'd like to make your own pumpkin puree, quarter a sugar pumpkin and roast at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Let cool, remove skin, and puree in a food processor or with an stick blender. A medium sugar pumpkin will yield about 2 cups of puree.
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients EXCEPT the canola oil and mix until combined. If you have a food processor, I recommend throwing all the veggies into that to get them super-fine diced. While it's not necessary, the meatball will hold together better the finer the veggies are chopped. 
Cook Time: 20 minutes
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