Love Pizza

Who needs it to be Valentines Day to do a cheesy romantic gesture? These are always much more fun every other day of the year.  Around Valentines Day this year all of my usual amusing picture websites were flooded with images of terribly constructed heat shaped pizzas which people ordered for home delivery on V Day. We all know that V Day is a completely commercialised venture, and it would seem that a variety of (primarily American) franchise pizza establishments required their franchises to create something "romantic" with very limited training. This did not work. We can do better.

Chicken Gumby - a healthy and delicious Gumbo

Traditional gumbo is an amazing Louisiana casserole with Creole flavours - smoked paprika, cumin, coriander seed and dried oregano.   Yum.  It is to Louisiana as Chilli is to Texas.  Naturally this makes me curious.  While onion, celery and carrot make the basis of much French and Italian food, the trinity of Louisiana cooking is onion, celery and green capsicum, and is central to making a good gumbo.  This meal is economical and delicious.

Gumbo is basically a casserole made with some sort of thickener (roux, filé or okra), veggies and delicious herbs and spices.  For most modern Louisiana cooks, gumbo starts by making a roux using a cup of flour and a cup of butter.  To begin, you melt the butter and slowly add flour (stirring constantly, being careful not to burn the roux).  Once the roux turns a red-brown/chocolate-brown colour, it is ready to go and the vegetables can be added.  This process takes approximately 45 minutes to an hour.

I've chosen to skip the roux (sacrilege I know!) to make a tasty version which is easier on the old arteries.  I've also made it quicker to throw together on a weeknight.  Basically, I love traditional gumbo, but it loves my hips too much.  I've made my own version, by shaking wholemeal flour and spices with the chicken rather than doing it the traditional way.  I've always found that this thickens the sauce well and results in a nice tender chicken.  Basically I've created something akin to the flavour of gumbo, but I call mine gumby because it is not completely authentic.  Plus I do love that little green slab of clay.  This meal serves 4-6.

American Style Pulled Pork 'n' Beans

My original plan was to make a home made baked beans recipe, however as per usual I got excited when I saw a pork shoulder in the grocery store.  So I decided to make something a little different.  I've been posting a lot of vegetarian food here lately.  I LOVE a good vegetarian meal and try to eat veggo at least 1-2 nights a week lately.  I think it has helped my weight loss actually.  But tonight I wanted to make some good hearty old fashioned American fare that could be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Traditional pork and beans uses haricot beans, but I have a soft spot for butter beans and kidney beans, so please forgive me this transgression. It is a great meal to make on a Sunday when you have time to slow cook some meat and take your time with the beans.  The recipe will feed 6-8 depending on your serving size, and it really does taste better each successive night as the flavours infuse more into the sauce.  Served with a piece of crusty bread or just on its own, this is a heart and tummy warming treat.

Chilli Con Carne (with Chocolate!)

Chocolate in chilli? Really?   I was not convinced when I first came across this idea.  I mean chilli in chocolate is one thing.  But chocolate in chilli con carne?  I was not so sure. But I stewed on it for a while and decided to give it a go.  I'm so glad I did. I won't make chilli without it anymore.  Recently I had a hankering for some good old fashioned American comfort food.  I searched and searched for my old healthy vegetarian chilli recipe and couldn't find it anywhere. I remembered that it had cinnamon in it and heaps of beans, corn, tomatoes and that's all I could remember.  I'd never made it for the Dragon so he didn't know either, and requested that I include one special ingredient: meat.  So a new dish came to be.  Meat included, to make it man-friendly.

In this dish, there is a good balance between the spices, the acidity of the lime and the sweetness of the chocolate melted through.  You can't actually taste the lime or the chocolate if you do this right, but they do add subtle layers of flavours to this dish.  It makes six servings so it is good to make on a Sunday to avoid having to cook at the beginning of the week.  The other good thing about this dish - instant excuse to eat the leftover dark chocolate for desert - we can't have that going to waste now can we?