How to Make Meatballs

This recipe is intended to be used with my Tomato Sauce recipe that will be posted shortly.  If you don’t want to use that specific method, you can put your favorite tomato sauce in a pot and simmer over medium-low heat, then add the meatballs and cook them in the sauce for 45 minutes.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1.5 hours total (40 minutes in the oven and 45 minutes in the sauce)
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: If you plan on eating the meatballs without cooking them the additional time in the sauce, I suggest you sauté the onions (or grate them with a microplane) and let them cool before adding them to the meat mixture.  You should also increase the cooking time in the oven to 55-60 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (I suggest you grind your own)
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1/4 onion, diced fine
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten

Optional Special Tools: a standard 2 oz ice cream scoop and a cup cake tin

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine. I suggest using your hands to do the mixing as you’re going to get them dirty making the meatballs anyway.

Use the ice cream scoop (if you’re using one) to scoop out 8 portions (if you have more than a pound of meat then you’ll obviously have more meatballs).  Take each portion of meat and roll them in your hands, individually, until you get 8 balls.  Place these in the cup cake tin (that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) or on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper (to prevent sticking).  Bake in a pre-heated 400-degree oven for 40 minutes and you should have something similar to this:

You will notice that the onions are still quite noticeable.  They will melt into the meat after simmering in tomato sauce for 45 minutes and will no longer be visible.  This is why I suggest sauteing the onions beforehand if you aren’t planning on simmering them in tomato sauce.

Buen Provecho!

A Case For Grinding Your Own Meat

As is the case with any dish that requires ground meat in the Belly Full household, I purchase whole cuts and then grind it myself.  Not only do you not know what part of the animal your ground meat came from, but knows what other meat (or non-meat) was pushed through the grinder before my order was ground?  I like to control the variables as much as possible and the only way to make sure that the meat was ground with the minimum amount of cross-contamination danger possible is to do it myself.

We received a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer as a wedding gift about 2 years ago so I purchased a grinding attachment for it and works well enough for my purposes.  You can purchase stand-alone meat grinders (both electric and manual) if you don’t have a stand mixer.  It’s a bit more work to grind your own meat, but I think that being able to do custom mixes with different cuts of meat (i.e. short rib, chuck, sirloin, brisket, etc) is a great trade-off.  To ensure cleanliness and reduce cross-contamination, I make sure to wash the grinding attachment in very hot, soapy water with a bit of vinegar diluted in it after I’m done.

A good tip for grinding your own meat is to put the grinding attachment in the freezer for 2 hours prior to using it.  You also want to start with meat that is as cold as possible to prevent the heat generated by the friction from melting the fat on the meat (trust me, you don’t want that!).  Just cut your meat into small cubes (say one-inch cubes) and then refrigerate until your grinder is cold enough.  If you’re only grinding a small amount of meat, say less than 1 1/2 pounds, you don’t really have to chill everything before using it if you are pressed for time.

Another thing to keep in mind is to not turn the mixer on too high.  I normally turn it on to it’s lowest setting so that I don’t get meat juices (it’s not blood!) splattering on my counter.  After you’re done grinding the meat, it’s always good to put a half slice of bread through the grinder to ensure that all the meat is pushed through.

Here is my grinder set up:

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: None
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: None

Once you have done this once or twice, you will never purchase pre-ground meat again.  You can also grind plenty of meat in advance, form it into meatballs, burger patties, or just lump it together and freeze them for future use.

Buen Provecho!

How To Caramelize Onions

I have found, through many a conversation with amateur cooks, that caramelizing onions is one of the top dishes people are confused or intimidated by.  It’s a simple dish, really, requiring only two ingredients in it’s most basic form (onions and some fat to cook them in) and a long, slow cooking process.  I guess the time it takes for them to caramelize properly, plus the attention needed to ensure they do not burn, tends to be a bit overwhelming.

Onions typically contain about 3-5% of their weight in sugar, even though it’s usually masked by the pungent aroma of sulfur.  Sweet onions, on the other hand, usually have twice the amount of sugar than a regular onion.  I chose to use Vidalia onions for my recipe because they already contain a higher concentration of the sugars we’ll need to attain a deep caramelized flavor without having to add any extra sugar (as some recipes call for).  Feel free to use whatever you have on hand if you can’t find Vidalias.

As for where to use caramelized onions, the sweet, deep, and complex flavors go great with steaks, chops, burgers, pizza, tarts, dips, soups, as an addition to sauces, and can even be consumed all on their own.  You can make a batch and store them in the refrigerator for up to one week but, at least in my house, they never last past a few days.  I made this batch to combat the natural acidity of the tomatoes in a tomato sauce I made this weekend.  Some people use sugar for this purpose but why not add an ingredient that also adds some a great depth of flavor to the sauce?

This is part one of a three-part series of recipes that I’ll be posting this week, culminating in a great, slow-cooked tomato sauce that will be combined with some pasta and meatballs to kick up a classic and comforting dish; stay tuned.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: This requires a lot of attention to the dish and can’t be left unattended for long

Ingredients:

2 large or 4-5 medium Vidalia onions (about 1.25 – 1.5 pounds), julienned
3 tbsp butter (about 1/3 of a stick of butter)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 cup red wine

Procedure:

Melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed, 6-quart pot (preferably a Dutch oven). Add the onions and stir to coat with the melted butter.  Cook the onions for about 20 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes, until they look like the second picture below.

Onions just added to the pot              Onions after cooking for 20 minutes

Add the salt and the thyme and allow the onions to cook for an additional 40 minutes, also stirring every 3-5 minutes.  After 45 minutes, the onions will have browned considerably and will have reduced in volume to less than 1/4 of what you started with. Here is what the onions will look like after 45 minutes of cooking:

Onions after cooking 45 minutes

You want them to caramelize a little further, so cooking them for the full hour is recommended. After the onions have cooked for one hour, add the red wine and deglaze the pot. Once most of the wine has evaporated, about 5 minutes, you can remove the pot from the heat and allow them to cool down. Here is an example of what it should look like:

Notice the deep color that caramelization attained.  This translates into a deep, complex flavor that can’t be attained through shortcuts.  These onions can now be used in the third part of our recipe trilogy (the second part is the meatballs) or for any other recipe that calls for them.  It’s pretty easy to make French onion soup from here, but we’ll deal with that another day.

Buen Provecho!

Summer Spaghetti with Shrimp

I recently discovered a farm stand about one mile south of my house.  I drive past this location every day, twice a day, on my way to and from work (though they’re only there in the afternoons) and finally decided to stop by and see what they had for sale.

It turns out that all the produce is grown by a lady that lives right up the driveway from where the stand sits.  She has a green house and so she sells everything she grows at very reasonable prices.  She also bakes her own bread and sells it at the stand.  Very nice and you can’t really get much more local than a mile down the street and your own back yard.

I found her grape and cherry tomatoes to be absolutely beautiful so I gathered a hand full (about 1 lb) of yellow cherry and red grape tomatoes and placed them on the scale.  Total cost: $1.50.  What a bargain!  So, I went home, tomatoes in hand, trying to think of a way to incorporate them into dinner that night (a full 2 1/2 hours before I usually serve dinner!).  I was immersed in feelings of summer and thought about all the herbs that Mrs. Belly Full has been growing on our deck.  This was my muse that led me to make a summer-inspired dish using very fresh ingredients (picked that very day!).  This dish is the product of my summer inspiration.

Ingredients:

1 lb spaghetti
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined (31-40 is about right)
5 large fresh basil leaves, chiffonaded (about 1 tbsp)
1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped fine
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
4 oz peppered chèvre (goat cheese), divided into eighths
1 cup starchy pasta water (removed right before draining the pasta)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1  tsp Old Bay
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

Alternate Ingredients:

• You can substitute regular goat cheese and crushed black pepper (about 6 peppercorns) for the peppered goat cheese. If you can’t find either, you can use ricotta.
• You can also substitute salt and pepper for the Old Bay.  I know Old Bay isn’t very Italian, but this is summer spaghetti and not a traditional Italian dish.
• If you don’t have fresh herbs, you can substitute dried ones.  Just use half as much.

Preparation:

The first thing you should do is cut the tomatoes in half, lengthwise, and place them on a cookie sheet.  Toss them with 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Place in a pre-heated 400-degree oven for 12-15 minutes, until they are nicely roasted, tossing once or twice during cooking.

Season the shrimp with the Old Bay.  Cook the pasta according to the package directions.  Once the pasta is in the water for about 5 minutes, place 2 tbsp each of olive oil and butter in a large, straight-sided pan over medium heat.  Once the butter is melted and begins to foam, about 3-4 minutes, toss the shrimp into the pan.  Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the oregano right before you drain the pasta which, by this time, should be ready.  Reserve one cup of the pasta water and drain the rest.

Place the spaghetti in the pan with the shrimp.  Spread the goat cheese evenly over the pasta, then pour about 1/4 cup of the pasta liquid into the pot.  Stir to combine until the cheese is melted and incorporated.  You might need a bit more pasta water, which is why I suggest saving a full cup of it (though I doubt you’ll need more than 1/2 a cup).  Just add it in 1/4 cup increments until you’re satisfied.  If you add too much, don’t worry, as it will evaporate soon enough.

Once the pasta, shrimp, and goat cheese has been combined and the sauce is the consistency you like, remove from the heat and add the roasted tomatoes, stirring to combine.  If you add them before this step they might get over mixed and break up too much (you want them to remain as “whole” as possible).    Once you plate the pasta, top it with the toasted pine nuts and the basil before serving.

Serves 5-6 people.

Buen Provecho!

Review: Only Burger

It’s Saturday, so we went down to the Durham Farmers Market again this morning, this time with an ulterior motive.  Sure, we planned on walking the market and purchasing some produce, meat, and cheeses for our enjoyment during the rest of the week, but we also wanted to try Only Burger‘s breakfast burger.  The breakfast special is a fried green tomato, pimento cheese, and fried egg burger and he gets his ingredients straight from the farmers market (why not, it’s only 50 feet away).  Although I’ve been following them on Twitter for a while (@onlyburger) and stop by about twice a month for my burger fix, I had never had the pleasure of trying this particular special.

As far as I can tell, mostly from reading local articles about them, co-owners Brian Bottger and Tom Ferguson decided to open a restaurant but wanted to make it simple, due to the downturn in the economy.  They decided that a burger truck was a good idea and their success and cult-like following has proven them right.  The owners are planning on opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the near future, but their plans have been delayed and pushed back several times and are now expecting to have their restaurant open by the end of August.

I’ve talked up their burgers enough that Mrs. Belly Full finally decided that she’d had enough and needed to try it for herself.  After walking around the farmers market for a while, we stopped by the truck and ordered our special.  I asked Brian if he had ever considered adding bacon to his breakfast special.  He replied that he had and that, rather than take away from the burger, it added a great layer of flavor and texture and offered to add bacon to my burger so I could see for myself.  I’ve never tried the burger without the bacon, but I can tell you that I thought it was one of the star elements in the burger and I would’ve missed it had it not been added.

What I thought of the burger:

The burger is quite big.  You need to really press it down in order to be able to bite into it.  The pimento cheese is noticeable, but it doesn’t completely take over the sandwich (it acts more like mayo and kind of stays in the background a bit).  The fried green tomatoes (FGT) are a bit tart but in a good way.  They add a great element of fruitiness to the burger without the mushiness and moisture that a regular tomato slice would bring, but they can be a bit greasy (grease is good for lubricating the heart, right?  Isn’t that what they say down here in the south?).  If you’re a big FGT fan (as we are), then you’ll be pleasantly surprised as they are a textbook example of a good FGT.  The egg is your typical fried egg, nothing special.  It’s exactly what you would expect from a fresh-off-the-farm egg.  To tell the truth, I don’t even know if I would miss it but I guess it wouldn’t be a breakfast burger without it.

The burger seems to be a 5-6oz patty (pre-cooked weight).  I know that Only Burger has their meat ground daily and they use 100% fresh (never frozen) chuck and then form the patties by hand.  The care that goes into the burger is obvious when you first bite into one.  As you can see from the half-burger picture, though, the burger was cooked all the way through.  This is probably the 10th burger I’ve purchased from them and this is the first time that there wasn’t a bit of pink near the center (I usually go for a medium burger).  I know Brian will do his best to please a customer so if you like your burger at a cooler temperature, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to accommodate such a request.  The patty is seasoned well and, unlike other burger places out there, you can actually taste the flavor of the meat itself.

There is one last element of the Only Burger experience I’d like to mention: the service.  Brian has a great personality and my wife thought he was a very nice, likable guy.  He seems to really enjoy speaking with the customers and having some fun, which makes the visit to his truck just that much better.  I don’t know what the plan or design is for the brick and mortar, but I hope that Brian stays in a position that allows him to interact with the customer.  It’s just good for business!

Grade:

Taste: 9.5/10
Value: 9/10
Would I eat it again?  Just try and stop me!

Recipe: Pimento Cheese and Tomato Open-Faced Sandwich

It’s summer here in Durham, NC, with means only one thing: weekly trips to the farmers market.  Ok, so it means more than just that, but what can you expect, I’m writing a food blog.  The Durham farmers market runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays in downtown Durham and is the place to be if you’re looking for farm-fresh, local ingredients.  Most of the vendors here will tell you that they aren’t certified Organic but that they do tend to their produce and livestock in a way consistent with Organic practices.  Since it can cost upwards of $2,000 a year in fees to be certified by the USDA, not to mention all of the paperwork, I can’t say I blame the small farmers for not wanting to incur the extra expense.

I believe it’s more important to eat locally than it is to eat something certified Organic, especially since almost 20 percent of all organic products sold in the US are imported from countries such as Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and, yes, even China (GASP!). The USDA had this to say: “Organic imports have played a significant role in the U.S. market expansion for organic products. Again, concrete data are not yet available, but FAS estimates that imports accounted for 12-18 percent of the $8.6 billion in U.S. organic retail sales in 2002.”  Plus, most Organic foods available for purchase in local mega-marts (such as Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, and Wal-Mart) come from large, industrial farms, not from the small, family farmers that most of us think of when we think of Organic produce.  Since I’m all about supporting the small farmer, I prefer to purchase directly from them at my local farmers market.

Before I get off on a tangent, the reason for this post is to tell everyone of my new addiction.  No, I’m not hooked on crack or meth, but this sandwich is just as addicting as any drug on the market.  This entire meal can be done with products found at the Durham farmers market, although my ingredients didn’t all come from there (this time).  The stars of the show are the purple Russian heirloom tomatoes and the pimento cheese, which were purchased from the Chapel Hill Creamery (see pic below), a small, local farm operation not too far from where we live.  The Ingredients are labeled as “cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos, and spices” but, from what I could tell, the only spice was sweet paprika (which gave it the pinkish/orange color).

If you want to make your own pimento cheese, please see my previous post here.  I made that batch about a week ago and ran out so I took the lazy route and opted to purchase it already mixed in order to feed my addiction quickly.  So, without further ado, here’s what you’ll need to become addicted:

Ingredients:

1 purple Russian heirloom tomato, sliced 1/4″ thick
1 egg
1 slice of wheat bread, toasted
1 slice of thick-cut bacon
2 tbsp pimento cheese
1 tsp of salt, plus one pinch
2 cups water
1 tbsp white vinegar

Procedure:

Place the egg in a small pot and pour the water over it to make sure that the water level covers the egg by at least one inch.  Remove the egg and place the pot over high heat and let it come to a boil. Meanwhile, cut the slice of bacon in half and place in a cold skillet. Place the skillet over medium heat and cook the bacon until crispy on both sides (8-10 minutes). Alternatively, you can place the slice of bacon on a tray in your cold toaster oven and then turn it up to 400 degrees and let it cook for about 10-12 minutes, until crispy (don’t microwave the bacon or it just won’t taste right).

When the water starts to boil, turn it down to medium-low and add 1 tsp of salt and 1 tbsp of white vinegar, stirring to dissolve. Crack the egg in a ramekin or bowl and pour it into the now-simmering water very slowly. Set your kitchen timer for 4 minutes and let the egg cook. I normally take a slotted spoon and make sure that the egg isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan after about 1 minute into the cooking time (just nudge it gently) to ensure even cooking.  Once the 4 minutes have passed, check the egg and make sure that the whites have set completely (if you don’t like your yolk very runny, you can let it cook for up to 1 additional minute in the hot water, then pull it out). Once the yolks are cooked to your liking, carefully remove the poached egg with a slotted spoon and place it on a plate lined with paper towels.  Here is a quick video I uploaded to YouTube on how to poach an egg:

At this point, the bacon will probably be ready, so remove the bacon to the same plate as the egg. Place your bread in the toaster and toast to your desired level of darkness (I like a medium-dark piece of toast). Once the bread comes out, and while it’s still warm, spread 1 tbsp of pimento cheese over it. Place the bacon, then the tomato on top of the toast and then sprinkle the tomato with one pinch of salt. Top it all off with the poached egg and enjoy!

Buen Provecho!

Recipe: Pimento Grilled Cheese

My wife and I moved to Durham, NC about a year ago so that she could go back to school (go Tarheels!). Having never lived in the South, we never had many of the dishes that are so popular to this region of the country.  Between fried green tomatoes, Eastern Carolina BBQ, grits, biscuits and gravy, and fried chicken, I think we’ve done enough to try to catch up to other southerners in our age group.  However, the one thing we had not tried since moving here is pimento cheese.

I saw an episode of a Paula Dean cooking show on the Food Network the other day where she and her son, Bobby, made pimento cheese for a party.  Being the Queen of Southern Cuisine, Paula Dean doesn’t normally tell you the exact quantities of each ingredient, so I was left with two choices: look up the recipe on the Food Network website or just try putting all the ingredients together in my own proportions and see what turns out.  I didn’t feel like going online (I had a craving to squash, after all), so I decided to go with the later solution.

I left out some of the ingredients that Paula Dean added to hers, namely the salt and swapped the grated onion for grated shallot (I tasted it before adding salt and it didn’t need it). Feel free to add these to your mixture if you’d like, but I thought it turned out pretty good.  I’ve seen pimento cheese that had other ingredients added to it, such as paprika, Worcestershire sauce, jalapeños, and hot sauce, so feel free to play with your food and add whatever ingredients you think will make it appeal to your palette.  You might also notice that I used small kaiser rolls for the sandwich.  I had them laying around from making sliders the other day, so I used them instead of the traditional white bread.  This should make enough for four slicers or two sandwiches if you use sandwich bread.

Ingredients:

2 oz each white cheddar cheese and Monterey jack cheese, grated fine
2 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp grated shallot
3 oz roasted pimentos, chopped
1/8 tsp granulated garlic
Your bread of choice

Quick note: I used white cheddar because I wanted the pimento cheese to be white and not yellow (for aesthetic reasons).  Feel free to use yellow cheddar if that’s what you have lying around.

Procedure:

Allow the cheeses to come to room temperature for 35-40 minutes before mixing them. Once this time has passed, place all ingredients (except the bread, obviously) in a bowl and fold to combine. Let the flavors marry in the refrigerator for 2 hours before using.

After the mixture has had time to rest in the fridge, simply spread it on the bread of your choice and place the sandwich on a buttered non-stick skillet over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes a side. Serve while hot.

Buen Provecho!

Recipe: Hawaiian Ratatouille

I know the title says “Hawaiian” so, before anyone asks, the answer is no, I’m not using SPAM in my recipe :-p

I have a special place in my heart for anything Hawaiian.  We spent 9 days in Maui for our honeymoon two years ago and we truly enjoyed our time there (especially the time spent diving with Shaka Doug).  We traveled around the island, taking in the sites, and doing  most of the touristy stuff like going to a Lu’au, driving to Hana, visiting the Surfing Goat dairy farm, lounging by the Black Rock in Ka’anapali beach, and enjoying a good mixed plate or two (we really enjoyed Aloha Mixed Plate in Lahaina, Maui).  We even had some run-ins with the local pests that my wife called “land eels” because of how “disgusting” they were (it’s really a mongoose).

Excluding what we saw 60 feet under the waters off the western coast of Maui, our best views came from visiting the Alii Kula Lavender fields in the mountains of Maui (see pictures below).  We purchased a can of their Gourmet Lavender Seasoning at the gift shop and have tried it on everything from burgers, to vegetables, to fish.  We’re about to run out of the seasoning so I just ordered another two cans and it served as inspiration to make a Hawaiian-themed dish.

Instead of just making a traditional Hawaiian dish, I decided to fuse Hawaiian and French cuisines (the rice, onion, and pineapple are the Hawaiian elements while the ratatouille is obviously French).  We have plenty of fresh vegetables thanks to our neighbors, who have a huge vegetable patch in their yard and grow more than they could possibly eat (thanks, neighbors!), so a vegetarian dish was the most convenient.  Both sides of the fusion are staples of their respective cuisines and the elements of this dish really go well together.  Also, these are foods that were, at least typically, consumed by the poor or lower classes of their respective societies.

Ingredients:

3 tsp Alii Kula Lavender Seasoning
2 tsp each chopped fresh thyme, basil, and parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram (substitute oregano if you don’t have it)
3 medium Heirloom tomato(s), diced
1 each green zucchini and yellow squash, cut in half, lengthwise, then sliced 1/4″ thick
1/2 an eggplant (or one Japanese eggplant), peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1/2 Maui onion (if you can’t find a Maui onion, use a Vidalia onion), julienned
1/2 green bell pepper, julienned
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
1 clove garlic, minced very fine
1 tbsp tomato paste
6 oz fresh pineapple chunks
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup chicken stock (substitute vegetable stock to keep it vegan)
1 cup cooked white long-grain rice

Procedure:

Note: notice the last ingredient is cooked rice.  I didn’t want to include instructions on how to cook white rice, especially when I already posted them in my Cuban Cordon Bleu recipe post. My suggestion is to make it according to the package instructions and to start cooking it before doing any chopping so that it is ready by the time the vegetables are done.  Also, you might want to reserve about 1/2 tsp of basil to garnish the dish after it has been served.

Place a heavy, straight-sided skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil.  Let it come to temperature for 2-3 minutes, then add the onions, green and red peppers, and 1 tsp of the Hawaiian seasoning.  Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions and peppers soften and the onions just begin to caramelize, about 5 minutes.  Lower the heat to medium and stir in the garlic and the tomato paste.  Let it cook, stirring occasionally, for about 1 minute, then add the pineapple chunks and cook another minute.  Stir in the zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, tomatoes, and the rest of the seasoning and herbs.  Continue to cook for about 3-4 minutes, until the vegetables are halfway cooked.  Add the chicken stock and cook for another 3-4 minutes (until the liquid has mostly evaporated).

Serve on a plate with the white rice and some garlic bread for texture (you’ll need something crunchy on the plate).  You can easily make a compound garlic butter to spread on the toasted French bread slices, but that’s better left for another blog post.  This recipe serves 2-3 people.

Buen Provecho, Bon Appetit, and E ‘ai ka-kou!

Recipe: Easy Carolina Cheerwine Cupcakes

This post is Guest-Blogged by Mrs. Belly Full (those close to me know that I don’t bake and I’m not big on sweets/cakes/desserts).  She normally blogs at Wooldurham.com. Here’s her post:

This weekend I stumbled upon a tasty and stylish dessert that happened to be extremely easy and cheap.  Got 30 minutes? You, too, can go from this:

To this:

Inspired by this Shelterrific post , I made a typical boxed Vanilla cake mix, but substituted soda for half the water called for in the directions.  The retro ballet-slipper pink of this batch is from none other than the classic Carolina red soda, Cheerwine.

If you are reading from outside Carolina, you may not know about this unusual soft drink. It has sort of a cherry-vanilla or grenadine taste. If you are in North Carolina, you should be able to find this beverage in your supermarket soda aisle.  Outside Carolina, if you are really dedicated, you can try the company’s website.  It is difficult to think of a perfect substitute for this beverage, but cherry 7-Up or raspberry gingerale might come close.

I followed the mix directions exactly, except for the substitution I made (soda for half the water).  Here’s how my cupcakes looked before frosting:

The soda imbues a sweet and slightly fruity flavor on the cake, so I paired mine with a simple cream cheese frosting.  Combine a block of cream cheese with 6 tablespoons softened unsalted butter and a cup of powdered sugar (or a little more if needed).  I also added a splash of the soda for color and a splash of vanilla for flavor.

Here is the finished product:

I think you could come up with many interesting combinations of soda and cake mix, but this one worked particularly well. If you try this, drop us a note and/or a photo. We’d love to hear how yours turn out.

Bon Appétit!

Recipe: Cuban Cordon Bleu

I love Cuban sandwiches.  I grew up in Puerto Rico and went to school right down the street from a Spanish pastry and sandwich shop called Panadería y Repostería España, where I would stop by for a sandwich at least once a week.  A good Cuban sandwich is hard to find but, when I find one, it makes me feel warm and cozy all over (and it’s not because of the beer I’ll drink with it).

The hardest part about making a good Cuban sandwich is getting the right bread.  So many people pick the wrong type of bread and it just doesn’t taste right.  My inspiration for this dish was a combination of two main factors: I wanted to eliminate the biggest flaw in most Cuban sandwiches (not having the correct type of bread) and the fact that Mrs. Belly Full doesn’t much care for sandwiches at dinner time.  I’ve had a craving for some good Cuban food lately and have been wanting to try a pork roulade for some time, so I decided to combine the famous Chicken Cordon Bleu with a Cuban sandwich.

I’ve made roulades with lamb, chicken, and beef before, but never with pork.  The main reason why I never tried doing it with pork is because I felt it would dry out before it cooked through.  Now that I’ve grown to love eating my pork cooked to medium, this wasn’t a concern anymore.

I started out with a nice two-pound section of Nieman Ranch pork loin.  I used them because their pork isn’t 30% solution, by weight, like most other pork products available at the grocery store.  Let’s be honest, if I’m going to pay for a good cut of pork, I don’t want 30% of my money being spent on salty water.  I cut the loin in half since I decided to use only one pound for this recipe.  I butterflied the loin (fat side down) at the 1/3 mark (leaving 2/3 on the upper side) and then butterflied that section down the middle and ended up with a long piece of pork that was about 1/3 as thick as the original piece.  I then pounded it out to about half as thin as that, to about 1/4 of an inch thick.  If you don’t feel comfortable butterflying your meat, you can ask your butcher to do it for you or you can just make a stuffed pork chop with the same ingredients.

Ingredients:

For the Pork Seasoning:

1/4 tsp each salt, pepper, ground coriander
1/2 tsp each ground cumin and Mexican oregano
1/2 tsp grated garlic (with a microplane), about half a large clove
1 tsp lime juice
2 tsp olive oil

Combine them all in a dish and make a paste.

For the stuffing:

5-6 thin slices of ham
3 thick slices of swiss cheese
8 pickles

For the Mustard Sauce:

1/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp finely chopped shallots (about one small shallot)
1/2 tsp grated garlic
4 tsp dijon mustard

For the Cilantro Rice:

2 cups water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup long-grain rice
4 tsp lime juice
2 tbsp fresh cilantro (chopped fine)

Procedure:

Take the seasoning paste and spread half of it on each side of the pork, then place the ham, cheese, and pickles inside the pork and roll it up.  This is what it should look like before it goes in the oven:

Place in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 40-50 minutes. An instant-read thermometer should read between 145-150 degrees when the temperature is taken at the center (I pulled mine out of the oven at 140 because I like my pork cooked medium, but some people might not want to eat pink pork). Remove from the oven and cover in foil. Let the meat rest 10 minutes before carving.

While the pork cooks, start working on the other two parts of this recipe:

Mustard Sauce:

Place the wine and shallots in a small saucier over medium-high heat. Once the wine reduces by half (about 5-7 minutes), add the cream, reduce the heat to medium, and again allow to reduce by half (about 8-10 minutes). Strain the sauce into a bowl or measuring cup (you should have about 1/4 of a cup of liquid) and stir in the mustard. You can place the unused portion in a jar and keep in the refrigerator for about 1 week (or until expiration date for the  cream you used, whichever comes first).

Cilantro and Lime Rice:

Feel free to cook the rice according to the package’s instructions; I do it a bit differently than instructed. Pour 2 cups of water in a pot and bring it to a boil, then add 1 1/2 tsp salt and stir to dissolve.  Once the salt is dissolved, add 1 1/3 cup long-grain rice and stir.  Let it sit and boil for about 1 minute, then stir again, cover, and lower the heat to low.  Let the rice cook for 20-25 minutes, then remove from the heat and fluff with a fork.

Once you have fluffed the rice, pour the lime juice over the rice, add the chopped cilantro and stir to combine.  Serve with the pork and a nice salad on the side.

Buen Provecho!