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- Larb - Thai Pork Salad
- Crackers with Fresh Rosemary
- Grilled Pizza
- Fruit Smoothie
- Sisig - Reinvented
- Chicken Salad Sandwich
- Corn and Mango Salsa
- Green Salad
- Shish kebab
- Chicken Caesar Salad with Homemade Croutons
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About
Larb - Thai Pork Salad
Larb is a Thai dish that typically is made with one of the following meats; beef, chicken, pork, fish, and typically uses fish sauce, and chili peppers. I have been making this one for a few years now, and trust me, it is killer. I made this as a simple snack while my sister-n-law was in town and it rocked her socks off. Heck, it even knocks my socks off every time I make it. This is another simple recipe.
Ingredients:
- Ground Pork (use whatever meat you want, finely chopped, or ground)
- Toasted Rice, ground rice
- Fish Sauce
- Chopped Onion or shallot
- Fresh Mint Leaves
- Thai Chili Peppers
- Lime Juice
The first thing I do is heat a skillet and add about 1/2 to 1 cup of white rice. That’s right, uncooked, white rice. What we are doing her is toasting the rice. You want to cook this rice, moving it ever couple of minutes, for about ten minutes. Careful not to burn the rice, so keep your eye on it. Once the rice is browned, place it into a bowl and off the skillet to prevent it from cooking further. Once cooled, you will want to grind this. You can do this a couple of ways, use a mortar and pestle, or use a coffee bean grinder. 
Grind to a medium to fine blend. Get ready to cook the meat and other ingredients.
Heat a large pan or wok. Once warmed up, add the ground pork and cook through. When the pork is almost done cooking, add about 2 TB of fish sauce, chopped onion, chopped up thai peppers (I use about 8 chopped up chilis as I love spicy food), and 1 TB of lime juice, and the crushed rice. Let this cook over medium for a minute or two. Add about 5 TB of chopped, fresh mint. Toss, place in a bowl and seriously, eat it from there, or serve with cooked white rice, or even better, sticky rice.
Crackers with Fresh Rosemary
There is one thing that I am really enjoying this summer and that is fresh rosemary. I have been using it in my breads, and beef, and it is an herb that is not only great in scent, but also in flavor. I thought I would try something new this week. As I sat back and watched my kids snack on pretty much anything that was in sight, there is something they kept coming back to; crackers. I checked my refrigerator to see what was in stock, and there was a variety of cheese, and what better than cheese and crackers. My goal was to make a cracker with fresh rosemary.
This proved to be really easy to make and overall takes about 30 minutes, from preparation to serving.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup of flour
- 2 tbsp rosemary
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp table salt
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/3 cup olive oil, and more to brush the top
- Sea salt
To a mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. With a spoon, or whisk, blend the dry ingredients. Make a well, or hole into the center of the mix, and into that put the water and oil. Start to mix until it forms a dough.
Now, remove the dough from the bowl and onto a board, knead the dough a few times, not too rough on this one. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. In the meantime, seperate the dough into 3 sections. To each ball, roll out into a 8 to 10 inch circle, square, or other fun shape. The shape does not really matter here because you will break them into rustic chips/cracker when they are finished cooking. Once you have the dough rolled out (go thin), brush to the top of the dough and lightly sprinkle sea salt on it. Place on your baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown. These are a great combination with cheese, especially a lighter cheese such as brie or camembert. Enjoy.
Grilled Pizza
As I have written about pizza in the past (here and here), the beautiful thing about the pizza is how diverse it can be. It can truly be anything you want it to be. In my pursuit of comfort and greatness, a not too long conversation with my colleague and food buddy, Kate asked if I had ever grilled a pizza. I had never cooked a pizza on the grill, as I always considered the grill to cook meats, vegetables, and fruits. I was proved wrong, and the grilled pizza not only had an excellent crisp to it, it also had a great flavor from the grill itself. This one is a true make and is something that will be considered a summer time favorite with the family.
You have choices for your dough:
- Make mine
- buy store bought
- buy from italian grocery/bakery/restaraunt
Get your ingredients together for your pizza. You know how you like it. Your sauce can be a red sauce, olive oil based, or a cream sauce, hence the diversity. Your toppings will include cheeses, vegetables, and possibly meats. My kids love the simple cheese and pepperoni pizza, and as they typically run the house, I let them win on this one.
The grilling part is surprisingly simple, however you probably do not want to turn your back on it. Begin by heating your grill, on high. In the meantime, as the grill comes to temperature, roll out your dough. I prefer mine as a thin crust, however you can do a thicker crust on the grill. When the dough is rolled out, brush with a bit of olive oil, the flip onto a pizza board, lightly covered with finely ground corn meal. Adjust and form your dough to the shape you desire (rectangle, circle, etc).
Now, head outside to your grill and slide the dough onto the grill. Grill your crust uncovered on the grill, lifting gently with tongs. They dough typically does not stick, but I recommend that you initially lift the dough, carefully, with tongs after a few minutes on the grill. Once the dough has began to crisp on the underside, brush more olive oil on the top, then flip over and cook for a couple of minutes, monitoring it so it does not burn. Now, you have to move quick here as you want your ingredients (sauce, cheeses, and other toppings) to melt and come to temperature without burning your crust. Add you sauce, cheese, and toppings, lower the heat, cover the grill, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the pizza from the grill, slice, and enjoy.
Fruit Smoothie
Lately I have been thinking about my daily intake of food and drink. Shockingly enough, I am doing ok on my portions of meat, and vegetables, however I have noticed that I was passing up fruit. Sure, I have use fruit such as mango in my corn and mango salsa, however that is not as nearly enough as I would like. So that got me thinking… what could I do to improve my intake of fruit? Simple. Have a fruit smoothie a day.
The thing I really like about the smoothie is that you can put pretty much whatever fruit you want in it. My visit to the store this week, led me to the fact that blueberries were on sale, as well as strawberries. We grow fresh raspberries in the back so there is no problem there. Now, I simply add in the rest. Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
- 1 ripe banana
- 1/2 cup of cleaned strawberries
- 1/2 cup of raspberries
- 1/2 cup of blueberries
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/2 cup of plain non-fat yogurt
- pinch of sugar
- 5 ice cubes
Add these ingredients to a blender and if you have an option for smoothie, use it, otherwise, blend until, well you know, smooth. After drinking one of these, you will feel full of energy and ready to continue the day. Question to you is, how do you make your smoothie?