I usually cook only two nights per week, Saturday and Sunday, with Mr Minx handling the grub the rest of the time. During the summer, I can be as creative as I want, doing homemade pasta or other more time-consuming things, but during football season, my Sunday dinner options must either be: 1) long-simmering; or 2) super-fast. We both grew up eating supper early, a habit that we've continued into adult-hood, so a game that starts at 1pm and ends around 4pm doesn't leave much time to put something interesting together. Even if I have a short amount of time I don't want to resort to a cop-out like grilled cheese sandwiches or frozen dinners. (For the record, we don't eat frozen dinners.)

Last year I was introduced to Keystone All-Natural canned meats. Originally I was like, "what?" But then when I considered that the idea of canned fish doesn't give me a problem, why should other canned proteins? And I have to admit, the stuff is actually quite good. We made two delicious dishes with their canned beef, a Thai salad and the obvious chili, so when I had the opportunity to work with Keystone again, I jumped at the chance. This time, we received canned pork and chicken, both of which will be featured here in upcoming posts.

This weekend the Ravens game started at 4:25pm. That put an even bigger time crunch on making dinner, considering we'd be eating while the game is on. I wanted something I could put together at halftime, for second-half consumption. Pork tacos were a natural. But I didn't want to merely heat up meat and slop it on a tortilla, because I'm a creative person. I decided to revisit the recipe for a Cambodian pork dish called nataing that I made a few years back. The original recipe, from the Elephant Walk restaurant in Boston, uses ground pork, but I thought the Keystone All-Natural Pork, which comes in large chunks that could be easily shredded, would be even better in a taco.

The pork and coconut milk mixture is pretty rich, so I wanted to add a tangy element to cut the unctuousness. Pickled red onion, a popular taco addition and something I already had in my fridge, seemed perfect. A healthy dose of cilantro was essential as well, for freshness. And a squeeze of lime. Chips and guac were a perfect side dish.

Already a pretty quick dish to make, the nataing was lightning fast with the canned pork. And it was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

Nataing (Cambodian Pork) Tacos

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 14.5-ounce can Keystone All-Natural Pork, drained
1 dried New Mexico chile, seeded and deveined, ground to a powder or
2 teaspoons New Mexico chile powder (not chili powder!)
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Salt
1/4 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts, coarsely ground
Taco-sized flour tortillas
Pickled red onion (recipe follows)
Fresh cilantro

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the pork and the chile powder, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon. Add the garlic and shallot and cook a minute or two, stirring regularly, so the garlic does not burn. Stir in the coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, and peanuts. Turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, until the shallots have softened. Taste for seasoning and add salt or more fish sauce or both.

Warm the tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds to make them more pliable. Add a few spoonsful of the pork mixture, top with pickled onion and cilantro and eat.

Pickled Red Onion

1 red onion
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
A few peppercorns and a bayleaf (optional)

Slice the onion very thinly and place in a quart jar with a lid. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally so the sugar dissolves. Pour the hot liquid over the onions, making sure the onions are submerged. Add the peppercorns and bayleaf if you want (chiles wouldn't be a bad idea, either.) Allow to come to room temperature before sealing the jar and storing it in the fridge.

Tip: keep the liquid after the onions are eaten to make more pickled onions. I just add fresh ones to the jar and seal up again.

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Posted on Minxeats.com.

It's football time again, and the Ravens have a ton of 1 pm games. I hate that. It really cuts into my ability to make interesting weekend food. You see, I only cook on the weekends (Mr Minx has weeknight kitchen duty) and I like to spread my prep and cooking out over a long period of time. If I spend a big chunk of the afternoon with my eyes glued to a football game, that gives me much less time for prep. So I tend to resort to either long-cooking recipes like chili or fast things like nachos, both of which are rather boring. To me, anyway.

I also like to make things like pulled pork. A pork butt has to cook for hours, so I pop it in the oven before gametime and by the time it's all over, the meat is ready for shredding. But I can't use bottled bbq sauce. I haven't really found one that I like. Most are too sweet, or too smoky. And I figure if I can't make an entirely inventive meal on Sundays, I can at least make one component from scratch. Like bbq sauce.

I like making sauces, and bbq sauce is easy if you have the basics: ketchup; onion; brown sugar; an acid. Mr Minx picked up a bottle of McCormick Red Curry seasoning recently, so I used it to make a Thai-ish bbq sauce. We already had fish sauce and lime juice on hand, so it was pretty easy to throw together and refrigerate before the game. Afterward, I shredded the boneless mini pork butt that was cooking in the oven and made a salad with a bag of broccoli slaw and leftover peanut sauce.

Easy, time efficient, and somewhat interesting. Oh, and tasty, which of course is the most important part.

Thai Red Curry BBQ Sauce
This sauce would also be a great glaze for chicken wings.

Olive oil
1/2 ripe bell pepper (I used yellow), roughly chopped
1 cup roughly chopped onion
Kosher salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 teaspoons McCormick Thai Red Curry seasoning, or more to taste
Small handful torn cilantro
1/2 cup ketchup
6 ounces (1/2 12-oz jar) apricot preserves
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water
Juice of 1 lime
Fish sauce
Brown sugar

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a sauce pan and add the pepper, onion, and a pinch of salt. Cover pot and cook until vegetables are wilted, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and stir well to combine. Cook an additional minute until garlic is fragrant. Add a teaspoon of McCormick Red Curry seasoning to the pan and stir well. Add the cilantro, ketchup, preserves, stock or water, and lime juice and bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat until reduced and thickened to ketchup consistency. Season with additional 1 or 2 teaspoons of curry seasoning, and a few tablespoons of fish sauce. The sauce should be fairly tangy, but if you prefer a sweeter bbq sauce, add a tablespoon or so of brown sugar.

Remove from heat and blend to a fairly smooth puree with a stick blender. Alternatively, use a regular blender, but be very careful with blending hot liquids, as the heat buildup in the blender jar can cause the lid to pop off. Either let the sauce cool a bit, or take the center plastic cap off the blender lid and hold a kitchen towel over the lid while blending.

Store in a covered container in the fridge for up to one week. Makes about a pint.



Posted on Minxeats.com.