As I mentioned earlier, My sisters and I threw a big party for my parents last weekend and it was a great success. For the main meal at the party, I did kind of a vaguely middle eastern/greek feast for everyone, the centerpiece being these marinated chicken drumsticks and pork tenderloins. The marinade might seem like a bit of work and a little pricy, but the fact is, it can transform cheaper cuts of meat into a luxurious treat fit for a king.
You guys know I love to make twists on the burrito from all over the world. There are even some good versions in Stuffed! The key to making this work is not just slapping a bunch of exotic ingredients into a tortilla, you really have to take the time to replace all of the burrito staples like rice, beans, meat, and salsa. This week Mandi and I made an incredibly tasty Persian take on the burrito. For the rice, we used a sour cherry rice complete with the crispy bits Persian rice is famous for. In place of beans, we used lentils. The meat was a classic marinaded chicken, salsa was a Persian tomato-cucumber salad, and for sour cream, we made a yogurt sauce.
Did you guys know that hummus makes an awesome alternative to pizza sauce? I used it on pizza at a recent pizza party, and a few people even called it the best pizza there! I decided not to get weird with the flavors like I did yesterday, instead I just topped the pizza with some of hummus’s best friends. Friends like feta, olives, kofta, and tzatziki.
I think this idea came from an old episode of Iron Chef where Bobby Flay cooks some pasta in jalapeno juice. One of my favorite things to cook with jalapeno is bacon, and it seems to be a very popular thing these days. There is even jalapeno crusted bacon in the grocery store! You would think that this dish is all bold intense flavors, but it actually came out more subtle and perfectly balanced. Boiling the pasta in jalapeno juice didn’t give it a crazy spicy taste, but rather imparted the true jalapeno flavor with just a little bit of the heat that it is so well known for. This was a fairly easy dish with unique and delicious flavors that I would highly suggest anyone who has a juicer to make immediately.
A perfectly rare and spiced lamb tenderloin served with a creamy bacon polenta.
