Tom's Pineapple Salsa

Tom's  Pineapple Salsa

We love this salsa on grilled chicken, pork or steak as well as eggs, tacos or with chips. In fact I think Jennifer and I have caught each other just eating it straight out of the bowl with a spoon. 

Dice the following, combine and stir ; ( I take the time to dice all ingredients quite small and uniformly to insure you taste each incredible ingredient in every bite. I do cut the jalapenos even smaller to keep any bite from being too hot.)

1 fresh pineapple 

2 fresh mangos (optional)

1 1/2 bell pepper (orange or red for color)

1/3 purple onlion (optional for color)

6 green onions (scallions)

2 3" jalepenos (no stem or seeds)

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

1 lime (juice and zest)

1" fresh ginger (finely shredded- I use microplane)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

A little labor-intensive with all the chopping but I I think it's worth it. 

Finally I'm sure you can tell this is a fresh salsa like Pico de Gallo so you don't cook it and remember to keep it in the refrigerator.

Naked Bacon Jalapeño Poppers

Naked Bacon Jalapeño Poppers

I love poppers but my least favorite part of this appetizer is the breading. So I decided to try replacing it with "meat candy" and it works! This reminds me of the comedian Jim Gaffigan's love of bacon when he refers to one of nature's wonders," you feed a pig an apple... and it makes bacon."

See the rest of his bacon schtick here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaK9bjLy3v4

Ingredients-
Raw whole jalapeño peppers
Strips of bacon
1 cup grated cheddar or jack cheese
1 finely chopped green onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
¼ cup brown sugar

1. Wash & dry whole jalapeños.

2. Remove the inside ribs and seeds of the jalapeño.
a. Before handling peppers, rub fingertips with olive oil to provide a barrier that the irritating oil from the pepper cannot penetrate.
b. Lay a pepper on the cutting board. Cut a T by starting ½ inch from the stem end making a horizontal cut from side to side being careful to cut through the top half of the pepper only. We want the stem end to remain attached. Then make a vertical cut starting at the 1st cut and move down the length of the pepper. Again remember to only cut halfway through the pepper.
c. Remove the seeds and ribs by pushing your thumb in the T you created and carefully prying back the two flaps you created exposing the insides. With your finger or small spoon, dig out and discard all the seeds and ribs leaving a hollow pepper.

3. Mix scallions, grated cheese and chopped cilantro and carefully stuff each pepper with the mixture.

4. Wrap each pepper with a slice of bacon. Start with the meaty end of the bacon at the end of the pepper so you end up with the fatty end of the bacon at the stem of the pepper. Because the bacon shrinks while cooking, you want to end up with the fatty end of the bacon at the stem of the pepper so you can pierce the bacon with the stem to keep everything in place.

5. Lay the prepared wrapped peppers in a sheet pan, I use a silpat to prevent sticking.

6. Sprinkle brown sugar on the tops before baking.

7. Bake in a 500 degree oven until bacon is brown, about 20 minutes.

KILLER BBQ SAUCE!

Rocky Mountain Barbecue SauceNot too hot nor too sweet, we think this sauce is perfect! Although the recipe is easy, it is a bit messy so I make it in big batches. You can certainly cut the recipe in half the first time around if you wish.

3 sticks butter
54 ounces ketchup
¾ cup molasses (may substitute brown sugar)
2 cups water
¼ cup Liquid Smoke
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoons dry mustard
3 tablespoons celery seed
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup raisins
Combine all ingredients except raisins in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove two cups of sauce and add to raisins in a blender. ( I use an immersion wand blender but a regular blender would work as well) Blend raisins and sauce until thick and smooth. You should only see specks of raisins the size of pepper flakes. Stir blended mixture back into the remaining sauce and cook for 10 minutes.

You can store the sauce in the refrigerator in quart bottles or better yet, we re-use the empty ketchup bottles. Because of the butter, it is best served warm on everything from chicken and ribs to omelets and home fries.

I don’t have a mind like a steel trap when it comes to remembering trivia. In fact, I rely solely on two subjects when it comes to adding my two cents to any trivia contest. One is the African mole rat. I first saw these nasty rodents on display at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. They live their entire lives hairless and blind and their skin is almost transparent. They also eat their own feces at least 3 times to absorb every bit of nutrient. YUCK!

My second useless morsel of trivia I have remembered since my childhood is the ingredients in A-1 steak sauce. I think this popular condiment is the only way I was able to eat meat loaf growing up. Did you know A-1 has orange peel and raisins as ingredients? Raisins surprised me but they are sweet and earthy and so when I developed this barbecue sauce, borrowing from a recipe here and another there, I decided to try adding pureed raisins. Not only do I love the fuller taste but it thickens the sauce to a richer consistency. Another unusual ingredient in my sauce is butter but there again, most other sauces that are favorites of mine like hollandaise and béarnaise have butter and I always finish my gravy with a little butter- so here you go!

P.S. I still remain a skeptic when it comes to meat loaf. However, they sell a freshly made meat loaf at Tacoma Boys meat & produce market that is completely encased with braided thick cut bacon that isn’t half bad. Bacon does wonders for the lowly water chestnut so why not meat loaf?

Tom’s Top Ten Taste Tips

Tom’s Top Ten Taste Tips

I dare you to say that five times fast. I don’t have a love for the culinary arts, rather what I do love is good food. So my time in the kitchen is a means to an end. That is probably why I look for quick and easy sure fire ways to improve the taste of the meals I do choose to take the time to prepare. I have found that each of these tips raise the bar on both taste and consistency. Nothing earth shattering or new but these tips are money!

1. Instant read thermometer- This single item raised the level of my cooking big time. It helps me serve perfectly cooked chicken, steaks and roasts every single time. No more guess work and no more over cooked protein which I think is the death to any meal. Meat is generally the most expensive part of the meal and so cooking it perfectly should be a priority. They are relatively cheap and all come with cooking charts.
Extra tip- Remember to pull the meat from the heat source 10 degrees cooler than your target temperature. Tent it with foil and as it rests for 10 minutes, the internal temperature will increase another 10 degrees.

2. Freshly Ground Pepper- Grinding pepper releases flavorful volatile oils that begin to evaporate after time. Pre-ground pepper has lost most its flavor.
Extra tip- Adding pepper to a dish before cooking will make the entire dish peppery. Adding it afterwards gives the dish a more hit and miss peppery flavor that many enjoy.

3. Kosher Salt- Replacing table salt with Kosher salt will elevate your cooking in three ways. First, the large coarse grains are easier to pinch and sprinkle. Second, Kosher salt is less salty so it is more forgiving. Correcting an over salted dish is next to impossible. Finally, it is large enough to be more visible, looking better on meats and when garnishing veggies.
Extra tip- Replace your salt shakers that normally clog up anyway with a small bowl or ramekin of Kosher salt for easy serving.

4. Fresh Garlic- We now use fresh garlic exclusively. The only time we use garlic powder, never garlic salt, is when making a meat rub. Simply push the head of the garlic down onto the cutting board with the palm of your hand to break it open and separate the cloves. To skin cloves simply press it with the side of a knife and the skin falls off. We have used the same Pampered Chef garlic press for 20 + years. Most others break.
Extra tip- Fresh garlic becomes bitter if it cooks too long or too hot. Stop cooking before it turns brown.

5. Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper- As easy as microwave popcorn is, it never tastes as good as that popped on a stove with a Whirley Pop. I almost hate sharing this tip because it is our favorite wedding gift to give and I don’t want others doing the same. Anyway, because the kernels are constantly turning, you can put as little cooking oil as you wish.
Extra tip- Take the time and only pop popcorn on medium heat. The crunchiest popcorn is one that looks like an explosion of white in varied directions and NOT the dreaded round ball. If your popcorn looks like round balls, your temp is too hot and they will be tough and hard to chew. I know this sounds strange because most the commercially popped popcorn and caramel corn you buy at the store are round ball shaped with the dark kernel at the bottom. This is specially engineered popping corn that holds it’s shape during shipping and yet still is crunchy. Believe me, the kernels we all buy to pop are different than these commercial ones.

6. Throw away your Bullion cubes. They add little flavor and way too much salt. Think of them as salt cubes and get rid of them. Replace with ‘Better than Bullion’ pastes. They are concentrated and you add by the spoonful to hot water. Of coarse homemade stock is always better but we don’t seem to take the time. These jarred pastes come in beef, chicken and vegetable and always come out on top of taste tests. We buy ours at Costco and once opened they will still keep for 18 months in the fridge although we go through a jar in about 8 weeks.
Extra tip- For pork I use the beef base rather than chicken, it is a bit richer.

7. Take advantage of Taste Tests. My favorites come from America’s Test Kitchen. They have a magazine and a website. They are the Consumer Reports of food. Because they don’t accept advertisers they taste test everything and then recommend food by brand names. Epicurious is another good taste tester sight. These tests changed the brands we buy.
Extra tip- Examples, best ketchup is Hunts, best peanut butter is Peter Pan, best hot dog is Hebrew National, best spaghetti sauce is Barilla's Tomato and Basil and best vanilla ice cream is Ben & Jerry’s for premium and Breyers for non premium.

8. Roast vegetables. Don’t boil when you can roast. Sprinkle any raw vegetable with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast them on a sheet pan in the oven at 400 degrees. The roasted flavor is second to none. Our favorite now is roasted broccoli.
Extra tip- A great way to use up any left behind raw vegetables is to roast them all up as mentioned along with an onion and two garlic cloves. When roasted, put them in a blender with two cups of chicken stock, salt, pepper, basil and couple of table spoons of brown sugar. Add a little cream or a half cup of half and half for an incredible homemade roasted vegetable soup.

9. Baking Bacon- We lay our bacon out on either a broiler pan (preferred) or a sheet cake pan and bake it at 400 degrees until crispy. No more cook top splatter.
Extra tip- Sprinkle fresh ground pepper and/or brown sugar on the top of the slices before baking.

10. Bake with a ‘Sil-Pad’- this rubber like nonstick mat is well worth the small investment. It helps cookies, rolls, roasted potatoes etc, cook evenly and with crunchy bottoms without burning or sticking to the pan.

Extra tip- They can be used for freezing and candy making as well and clean up with soapy water.

Tom's Turkey Stuffing

"...two types of people in this world, those who like wet stuffing and those who like dry stuffing" Dallin H Oaks from 'Life's Lessons Learned'."

Stuffing recipes tend to be sacred from family to family. I guess we usually like what we were raised on. My mom is a great cook and I liked her dressing that wasn't wet and sticky like others I tasted. When it was time to start our own tradition, I kept thinking that adding brown rice, nuts and sausage would add a savory crunch. As great as it tastes, our favorite thing about it is that we get the whole family involved, All eight of us and any visitors. We crank up some Earth Wind & Fire and groove while we chop, stir and cook. Love it!

3 cups cooked brown rice

1lb sausage

2 onions, chopped

4 stalks celery, chopped

3 cups fresh mushrooms, quartered

1 1/2 cups slivered almonds, toasted

1 5oz can sliced water chestnuts

1/3 cup parsley,chopped

1 tsp sage

1 tsp thyme

salt pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cube butter

1/2 cup chicken broth

8 to 10 oz bread crumbs or croutons

3 bay leaves

Brown sausage, drain and set aside. Melt butter over medium heat, add onions, celery, garlic, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Cook until slightly tender. Mix in thyme, sage and parsley. Remove from heat.

To onion mixture add mushrooms, sausage, nuts, water chestnuts, rice and bread. Toss gently to blend. Gradually mix in stock. Stuffing may appear dry but if you're cooking it in the bird it will become moister. Adjust seasonings. Spoon extra stuffing into a buttered dish, dot with butter and maybe add a little stock, Cover and bake at 325 for about 1 hour, uncovering the last 15 minutes.

This recipe will make plenty to stuff a large bird with some left over. I always double, sometimes triple the recipe. In fact we normally make it the night before and throw some in a sauté pan for dinner with fried or scrambled eggs. Also, to mix it up a bit, sometimes we have even added a cup of fruit before baking like pomegranate, apples or dried apricots.  Happy Thankstuffing!

Tom's Root Beer Chili

Tom's Root Beer Chili Recipe
Those that know me know I love root beer! I also love doing taste tests. My favorite Root Beer ins Henry Weinhard's or Stewart's but A&W is my go-to for recipes. I have even been known to give a  baptism / holy ghost talk using root beer as an object lesson if you are interested. So, I have always wanted to try root beer in chili. I switched to pulled pork because I think it goes better than beef with the little sweetness the root beer brings. Don’t let the root beer scare you. Most would never guess it is even an ingredient, yet I think it really adds something unique and tasty. In fact, it's proven to be a favorite at yearly church chili cook-offs. Finally, I am a meat chili guy, the beans are only an accompaniment. I like manly meaty chili with just 2 cans of beans but my wife likes 4 cans so you can certainly add more beans if you are less "manly"!
30 minutes total prep time, 6-8 hours cooking time.
1 lg. crock pot
1 large frying pan

Ingredients:
5-6 lb. pork shoulder
1lb.bacon
28 ounce can diced tomatoes
(3)15.5 ounce cans of chili beans
12 ounce can tomato paste
2 onions
1 bell pepper (green or red)
2 liter bottle root beer
3 T olive oil
3 T Worcestershire sauce
6 cloves garlic
2 T dry BBQ rub or seasoning.
5 t ground cumin
4 t ground coriander
6 t chili powder
½ t cayenne or red pepper flakes
¼ t ground clove
¼ t ground cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

1. Pat dry pork shoulder and rub with 2 T dry BBQ seasoning.
2. Add one T olive oil to hot pan and sear pork shoulder on all sides.
3. Lay seared pork shoulder in crock pot turned to “high” with fat side up .
4. Chop 1 lb. bacon into 1 inch pieces and cook in the same hot fry pan. Stop before it becomes crisp. (It will cook longer with the meat.) Add the bacon to the crock pot and discard bacon fat without cleaning pan leaving a little fat in the pan for next step.
5. Dice one onion and add to fry pan along with 3 cloves of minced garlic. Add onion and garlic to crock pot before garlic turns color.
6. Pour 1 liter (half of the bottle) of root beer into the hot pan and heat until it is about to boil. Then, pour warmed root beer into crock pot and cover.
6. Cook pork shoulder on high for at least 6 hours.
7. After 6 hours, the meat will be falling off the bone. Carefully remove all meat and any pieces of fat and place on a cutting board.
8. Pour remaining juices, onions and bacon from crock pot into a mixing bowl.
9. Remove bone from pork shoulder and with two forks, carefully separate, remove and discard all fat like you would with any pulled pork recipe.
10. Once fat is removed, dice pork into 1 inch pieces.
11. Return meat to the empty crock pot.
12. By this time, the melted fat and grease from the pork juices will have risen to the top of your mixing bowl. With a ladle, remove & discard as much of that liquefied fat sitting on top of the bowl of juices as possible. Pour all the meat juices with the onions and bacon that remain back into the crock pot over the chopped meat.
13. Add 1 T olive oil to frying pan and sauté the second chopped onion and chopped bell pepper.
8. Add 4 cloves minced garlic and continue to sauté until vegetables start showing hints of color then spoon into crock pot.
9. Add all remaining ingredients (*except for the remaining root beer*) to the fry pan.
28 ounce can diced tomatoes
(3)15.5 ounce cans of chili beans
12 ounce can tomato paste
3 T Worcester sauce
5 t ground cumin
4 t ground coriander
6 t chili powder
½ t cayenne or red pepper flakes
¼ t ground clove
¼ t ground cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
10. Cook until warmed through and then add to crock pot and stir all ingredients together.
11. While fry pan is still warm, add remaining 1 liter of root beer and boil until it reduces to about 1- 2 cups. Reserve for later.
12. Continue to cook chili in crock pot long enough for flavors to combine and mellow. (30 min-2 hours)
13. Immediately before serving, stir in the remaining root beer reduction. I do this last minute so the root beer flavoring won’t “cook out”.
14. Enjoy!.

Tom's Spiced Apple Chutney

Tom's Spiced Apple Chutney- serve with Pork Roast or Chops 2 apples 1 onion 2 T butter 1/2 c dried fruit ( raisins, craisins, apricots, dates or a mixture of any of these ) 1 c half and half 3/4 t pumpkin pie spice ( mixture of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger ) 1 T brown sugar 1. Saute diced apples and onions in butter until onions are translucent 2. Add remaining ingredients and heat through. 3. Serve a warm spoonful or two with pork. 4. It will thicken if not served immediately. Simply thin by stirring in a little milk. I believe that other than being invited to someone else's kitchen, there is not a better value to be had than boneless pork roasts. We buy those long vacuum packed ones at Costco. Although the 4' long slab of meat looks a bit embarrassing at the checkout stand, they are cheap and incredibly tasty as chops or roasts. ( By the way, did you hear Costco's CEO James Sinegal's response when asked why Costco doesn't have Express checkout lanes? He simply said, "Why should we reward customers for only buying a few items?" Now that's business sense.) We simply cover our roasts in Dijon mustard and Montreal steak seasoning and bake them at 350 until the internal temperature is 150 degrees. Brining always makes pork better, we just don't seem to remember to do it most of the time. An instant read thermometer however, has been the single best development in our cooking over the last few decades. No more guessing, meat is cooked perfectly every time regardless of cooking methods, oven temperature, etc. As good as these roasts are with gravy, I put together this warm chutney that just seemed to elevate this simple cut of pork. One favorite missionary dinner guest recently told his new companion that my chutney magically turns meat into dessert. Not quite my goal, but I'm glad Elder Durrant liked it!