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Slow Cooked Pork with Ginger Beer BBQ Sauce

September 14, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 11 comments

My blog is fixed! The below post was meant to post last Friday after a truly dreary week. Over the weekend, with lots of crazy work stuff and the anniversary of 9/11 happening, along with my blog being down, I got to take some time to let go, not really by choice, but it was kind of nice and reminded me how great my life is. It’s something I am trying to remember every day, and I am really happy to be back blogging.

I am loving the below recipe, which will be perfect for these chillier nights.

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Well, despite my best efforts to ignore the change, summer seemed to slip away this week, bringing unnecessary rain and cold. The downside? Rain and cold. The upside? It was a perfect time to do some slow-cooking of something I had a major craving for, pulled pork. The vegetarian in me is always surprised, but I do love well-spiced pork, cooked for a day, falling apart in a spicy sauce.

I picked up a pork roast at Market Basket over the weekend and put the rub on over 24 hours before cooking. My rub was a mix of all sorts of things: cinnamon, cayenne pepper, Tyler Florence’s brown sugar pork rub, garlic powder (lots!), My Spice Sage BBQ seasoning, black pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes.

dry rub

Once the spices were mixed, I gave the roast a good rub, liberally coating it with the mix. It smelled amazing.

dry rub

On cooking day, I pulled out the pork, already hanging out in the slow cooker bowl. To the slow cooker I added a can of Gosling’s ginger beer (also perfect for cocktails) and a whole can of tomato paste.

ginger beer

I also chopped up a small handful of the beautiful local peppers I bought for my cod dish. I’d done a quick pickle to preserve them, and they added a bright, spicy, and vinegar-y touch to the pork. I also poured in about 1/2 cup white vinegar.

pickled peppers

The ginger beer and tomato paste broke down into a rich, spicy sauce with a hint of sweet and made for some of the most tender pulled pork I have ever had.

pulled pork

We ate it atop salads with a homemade peach salsa, mountains of cilantro, and Greek yogurt, and again the next day in Tortilla Land tortillas with the same toppings. It was the stuff that chilly fall Sundays are made of, and I will definitely be repeating this recipe.

pulled pork

Annnnd I am glad that the weekend is going to be warm and sunny. I refuse to acknowledge the end of summer until the boat is in winter storage.

Are you still with me in summer, have you moved to fall or are you feeling somewhere in between?

Tags: cooking, Food, pork, recipe, salad

Creamy Eggplant Dip

September 13, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 5 comments

Hello faithful readers! I have missed you. I had a great weekend starting with the chocolate bar preview at the Langham Hotel, lots of cooking, boating (I made a silly little video, would it be lame to upload it?), eating at a couple of Dorchester restaurants, and more cooking, plus some online shopping and a slow acceptance of fall’s imminent arrival.

I’m happy to say my blog is fixed, and I am SO excited to start cranking out posts. It’s kind of nice that I missed it! Since I am a little behind and could not blog until late last evening, I thought I would share a super simple recipe I brought on board the boat this weekend for hanging out with friends. It’s an easy, creamy eggplant and tomato dip that is made flavorful with just a few simple ingredients.

1 whole eggplant, cut into slices and generously coated with olive oil

6-8 Roma tomatoes, cut in half, coated with olive oil

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 clove fresh garlic

eggplant and tomatoesToss the eggplant and tomatoes together in the oil, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper. Put into a 420 oven for 40 minutes. In order to get even roasting, I cut the eggplant thin and the tomatoes thick. I only like eggplant that is falling-apart cooked, and I wanted to make sure it got there.

roasted eggplant

I think the 40 minutes did the trick. Once the veggies were cooled, I added them, along with about 1/4 cup of olive oil, plus the juices that were created in cooking to the blender with a clove of garlic.

eggplant dip

I blended until smooth, adding a bit more olive oil and a pinch of sea salt before packing up this dip to store away for the next day. Except that I didn’t pack it all away. I ate almost half of the tupperware container, first with carrots and then tortilla chips. I wasn’t even planning on blogging this dip, but in its simplicity, it is pretty spectacular. We ate it the next day on bagel chips which were awesome, and I think it would also be great with pita and a simple tzatziki. It definitely got me thinking of a Mediterranean-inspired party or dinner, and I was happy to enjoy the flavors of summer as they hang out in my kitchen a little longer.

Have you had any pleasant kitchen surprises lately?

Tags: appetizer, Food, recipe, vegetarian recipe

Spicy Cod with Heirloom Tomatoes

September 6, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 10 comments

Summer produce really hits its peak at the end of August and in early September here in Massachusetts. It takes us quite awhile to warm up, but when we do, there is no shortage of colorful, flavorful, local beauty. It’s comforting, when everything becomes so much about autumn, that our summer gets to linger a little in the form of vegetables, warm days, and meals outside.

As I mentioned in my Saturday post, we both had a rough work week. I won’t get into it, but it was more than your average bad week, and it brought a lot of uncertainty, one of my least favorite things.

What do I do in those tough times? I cook and take pictures of food, of course!

I found these glorious, spicy local peppers and knew that I needed them, not just to eat, but to photograph. I arranged and re-arranged them and took more than a few shots before chopping them for a Spicy Cod with Heirloom Tomatoes.

spicy peppers

This summer I have fallen in love with these sweet little gems, Sun Gold tomatoes. They are truly sunshine in a little bite, and I had a hard time not eating them all on the way home.

sungold tomatoes

Other ingredients in this simpler is better summer dish included cilantro, lime, and fresh ginger.

cilantro and lime

And of course about 2.5 pounds of beautiful cod.

cod

Making this dish was simple; I did not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen on a perfect evening after a long day, so I simply chopped a bunch of the peppers and added them, along with tomatoes, to the cod, which I sliced in thin fillets. I drizzled the fish with a beautiful olive oil I picked up at Trader Joe’s, a spicy but fruity, aromatic oil that only cost about $6. A sprinkle of sea salt, and I put the fish into the oven at 400 until it was nice and flaky, about 12 minutes. Definitely keep an eye on it, as you don’t want it to dry out.

Spicy Cod with Heirloom Tomatoes

When I plated the fish, I made sure to include lots of peppers and bursting tomatoes, as well as adding a squeeze of fresh lime juice, grated ginger, and cilantro.

Spicy Cod with Heirloom Tomatoes

Perfect, summery, simple. And I should mention, inspired by Michelle’s recent fish with tomatoes and cilantro.

How are you enjoying the simple pleasures of the last lingering bits of summer?

Tags: dinner, fish, Food, produce, recipe, summer, vegetables

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