Peach and Jalapeño Grilled Steak

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

While I’m not a fan of the heat of summer I do love the flavours of summer. The shops are starting to have peaches and other stone fruits which means light delicious meals and desserts.

It’s been a busy week but I wanted to make a nice meal for my husband and myself last night. Peaches sparked an idea and jalapeño is one of my husband’s favourite hot peppers. A match is made!

I prepped the corn by soaking the ears before grilling and dusted the steak with chili powder and cumin.

Slice up a quarter red onion. Begin to sweat them in a hot skillet with olive oil. Slice the jalapeño. I removed the seeds because sometimes the pepper can be very hot and I didn’t want to overwhelm the peach. I also started with half a pepper.

Sauté the pepper and onion for a few minutes. I sliced up three small peaches. You can tell it’s the beginning of the season as the peaches were quite small. Add the peaches. Cook for a few minutes. Fire up the grill to start grilling the corn. I grill the corn, unshucked, 5 minutes a side. Season the peach with chili pepper and cumin. Add a splash of lime juice. After tasting I added the rest of the pepper as there wasn’t much heat.

Grill the steak to the desired doneness. We like ours on the rare side. Once cooked, rest the steak for a few minutes then slice. Shuck the corn. Place the steak on salad greens and spoon the peach over the steak.

Bring on summer flavours, just not the heat. Unless it’s in the food. 🙂

Southwestern Turkey Burgers

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Our Growing Paynes

Winter is back with a vengeance! Mother nature does like to mess with us. Offices were closed so I got a snow day. It was lovely to watch the snow come down in the comfort of home. It also allowed me to catch up with some projects I’m working on. There is a possibility I might have to have hand surgery soon so all my knitting and crocheting projects need to get done. Which might guarantee I won’t need surgery! Fingers crossed.

We are also getting ready for our exchange student to come this weekend. She has actually been here since August but they way they do it now is the student spends three months with a host family then moves on to another one. So now it’s our turn. She is from Denmark and I’m looking forward to trying out recipes from there. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am looking into the Danish rye breads to give that a go.

Before winter returned we had some fabulous warm weather which meant lighter meals. I do miss salads. I thought it would be fun to do turkey burgers, not realising how mushy the ground turkey can be to work with. Very sticky! But if you can get past that you can have a great meal.

To make the burgers I mixed a pound of ground turkey meat with half a cup of freshly grated cheddar cheese, a few splashes of hot sauce, 1-2 tablespoons of chili powder, and a teaspoon of ground cumin. Season with sea salt and pepper. Mix and form into burgers. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Brown both sides.

Finish off in the oven at 350F/175C. Finely chop scallions, peppers, garlic, and mushrooms. Add them to the skillet with 1-2 cups of frozen corn. Add 1-2 tablespoons of chili powder, a teaspoon of ground cumin, 1-2 tablespoons of lime juice, sea salt and pepper, finish with fresh cilantro.

As the burgers finish cooking top with pepper jack cheese to melt. Serve over mixed lettuce greens and top with the veg mix. We also cooked up some sweet potato fries.

An easy dinner to put together when you want loads of flavour on a busy night.

Chicken Dopiaza

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

It is amazing how fast a month can fly by with family visiting. It was a great time but we’re now back to reality with getting the garden cleaned up before the snow comes. Which doesn’t look like it will be long now for snow. Higher towns around us got snow last night though for us it has just been bucketing rain. This week we had the wind show up on time to shake the trees free of their leaves.

Autumn wasn’t as spectacular as it can be but it was lovely to see the colours, fortunately my in-laws were here for the short peak. They got some really nice pictures to bring back home.

We’ve started a sort of a tradition of when we are all together we do a curry night. I do two, one spicy and one on the mild side for my MIL. This dish was definitely spicy but with loads of flavour. I used the recipe for Chicken Dopiaza from “The Best Ever Curry Cookbook”but I changed it a bit. One I was restricted with some ingredients and two I wanted this to use as few dishes as possible. Especially since I was doing two curries!

This would probably be a great dish for a cold given how much onion it calls for. And ginger! A cure for sure. In a skillet heat up vegetable oil and add 8 cardamon pods, 2 bay leaves, and 2-3 chilis, chopped. If you want this dish to be milder (crazy I know!) use less chilis and/or remove the seeds.

Chop two small onions and add to the skillet. Cook for a couple of minutes then add 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped. Cube about a pound of chicken breast and add to the skillet. While the chicken is cooking grate a piece of fresh ginger which is about 1″sq/2.5cmsq.

Then comes the fun part, adding all the fabulous spices! Add 1 tsp of ground coriander, chili powder, and ground cumin. Add 1/2 tsp of turmeric, ground pepper, and sea salt. Add a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Adjust the seasoning as needed. If you want it even spicier add more chili powder.

The recipe calls for 8 small onions. I bought 5 cipollini onions and quartered them. Add them to the skillet and cook through.

My FIL requested peshwari naan for curry night. My husband looked up the recipe and made some. I was a bit worried, given the stuffing, how it would pair but it worked really well.

This had quite the kick to it. One by one our eyes started watering. But the heat didn’t overwhelm the flavour of the dish. Like I said, possible cold cure!

A Gooseberry and Apple Pork

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Things have been very hectic this past week. My in-laws arrived this Wednesday so no more doddling! The list had to be done! Well as much of it we could do at any rate. Not only are my husband’s parents visiting from the UK but his brother is visiting from the west coast. Which means our nutty dog is on the max chill pill we can give him. Hasn’t stopped from doing the I love you, I hate you switch back and forth as they come into different rooms. I love him to bits but he is a handful.

Last night I cooked a special dinner to celebrate everyone being together. I did up leeks with mushrooms and garlic in butter and a cheesy chive mashed potato. For the main event I had a nice piece of pork shoulder to use. As I am trying to make space in our stuffed freezer I thought I would try a gooseberry and apple sauce to go with the pork.

I will tell you how I made it so you too can have loads of leftover sauce. I’m trying to figure out what to do with the leftover sauce but I may just freeze it for the next time we have pork.

About an hour before you begin cooking rub olive oil, cumin, sea salt, and pepper over the pork. Cover and let it sit.

I found some pink lady apples at the co-op. Peel and dice three of them. Chop about a cup of red onion. While you are doing this heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and begin browning the pork.

Remove the pork and add the apple and onion to the skillet. Cook on medium heat until the apple and onion begin to soften.

Add about a cup of gooseberries and cook for a few minutes then add a few teaspoons of fresh thyme. Pour in 4 cups of vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. Season with sea salt and pepper. I also added a few splashes of dry sherry. Simmer for several minutes and taste to make sure the flavour balance is right before adding the pork into the skillet. It’s easier to adjust at this point. Put the pork back into the skillet, cover and simmer until the pork is cooked.

Once the pork has rested, slice and serve. I really liked the tartness of the gooseberries with the sweetness of the apple. It is a very light sauce but holds its own if you know what I mean.

Chili Mushroom Bowls

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

And just like that summer is over, at least for the kids. Off to school they went yesterday. Summer seemed like a blur for all of us. I am ready for autumn to arrive. I am ready to say goodbye to the humidity and heat, which has been pretty bad this year. Bring on the crisp days!

When I was food shopping with my daughter we found large portobello caps that looked like bowls. Which gave me a fun idea. Instead of bread bowls, why not mushroom bowls?

To fill the bowls I made a quick chili. Normally you cook chili over a few hours but as this doesn’t have beans, this can be made in less than a half hour. In a skillet heat up a tablespoon or two of olive oil and begin to saute a half pound of ground beef.

Chop about half a cup of red onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Add that to the skillet.

After the onion starts to soften add a can of diced tomatoes (14oz) and bring to a simmer. Begin to season with chili powder, cumin, and sea salt and pepper. The beauty of this dish is you decide how much seasoning to put in. Some like it hot and some don’t. I would say the ratio of the chili powder to the cumin should be about 4:1. As we like it hot I added a dollop of hot sauce that I made along with chopped bell pepper.

Mix well and cook the peppers for a few minutes. Pre heat the oven to 400F/200C. Fill the mushrooms with the chili mixture.

Top with shredded cheese and bake until the mushrooms are cooked. You don’t want to cook the mushrooms so much that they collapse.

Top with sour cream and enjoy! This is a very easy meal to through together on a weeknight. And it’s a fun twist on the whole food for a bowl thing.

Peach Bourbon Grilled Pork

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

I’ve been trying this week to figure out video editing and the open source software. No success yet. I’m trying not to get frustrated but it drives me batty when my love of technology runs into the wall of not knowing how to make it work for me. So it may be awhile before I get this up and running. Annoying since I have a few ideas and I can see it in my head. Just need to get it through the keyboard onto the screen.

Peaches are in season and they have been showing up at the co-op, yay! And they had pork on sale. I know, I know, meat on sale? Can’t be a good idea. Usually I would agree but I’ve had success with the sales at the co-op.

In a small bowl mix up a dry rub. I used a tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper, 1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon of ground cumin and dried cilantro, and sea salt and pepper.

Mix well and rub on both sides of the pork. Set aside to “marinade”. For the peach bourbon sauce chop up an onion to make about 1/2 a cup and finely chop 3-4 cloves of garlic. Heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet and start cooking the onion and garlic.

Peel and dice one peach. Add to the skillet. Simmer until the peach starts to soften. Add 2-3 tablespoons of bourbon. I used Gentleman Jack but use whatever one you enjoy. Then add brown sugar. I started with a tablespoon but added more as it cooked to balance it with the bourbon. I also seasoned it with a teaspoon of cayenne, sea salt, and pepper.

Continue to simmer until the peaches soften and the sauce reduces a bit. Grill the pork and a peach cut in half.

I could do without the stifling heat of summer but boy do I love the flavours.

Moroccan Chicken and Couscous

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Spring seems to be back! The air is fresh and the days are beautiful. I hope it lasts awhile. I wasn’t ready for summer and the sticky heat. It was lovely being in the garden yesterday getting in the last of the tomatoes. If only we can get rid of the rabbits. They are back! Which means putting more bloodmeal down around the veg so they stay away.

Because it was so cool I took the opportunity to make a warming dish while I still had the chance. My first Moroccan meal, years ago, was a dish similar to this. We ate it with our hands round a coffee table, sitting on the floor, in the traditional way. It was delicious.

Heat up several tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Season chicken thighs with sea salt and pepper on both sides. Preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Brown both sides of the thighs then transfer to the oven to cook through.

In the skillet cook about 1/2 -3/4 cup of chopped onions and 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped until the onions have softened. Add a few sliced mushrooms.

Add a cup of chicken stock and bring to a simmer. I didn’t have any fresh ginger (forgot to put it on the list!) so I used ground ginger. Start with a 1/2 a teaspoon of ground ginger, a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1-2 teaspoons of ground tumeric, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, and 1-2 teaspoons of paprika. Allow to simmer for a bit. Taste the broth and adjust the spices as needed. At this point I added more tumeric and paprika. Everyone’s tastebuds are different.

Dice up half of a red pepper, a great colour to go along with the tumeric, and add the pepper and the chicken to the broth and simmer for a few minutes. While this had been cooking I cooked up the couscous according to the instructions on the package.

Layer the ingredients and serve. Make sure you put enough of the broth on the couscous as couscous can be a bit dry. Which isn’t good for a nice meal!

Beef Vindaloo to Welcome my Husband Home

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

You know, Christmas comes the same time every year. Yet every year I find myself in full scramble to get it all done. I swear I will start in September. Unfortunately good intentions are not a guarantee!

I should finish the gifts I’m making today and get everything wrapped and under the tree. Then there is the dump run and grocery shopping. But I should have plenty of time tomorrow to decorate the Christmas cake.

My husband had to do a business trip last week. Luckily it was only four days rather than the two weeks last December but I still wanted to make a nice home cooked dinner for him.

I was in the mood for curry and thought I’d try beef vindaloo. Beef you say? There are areas in West India that have Muslim and Christian communities that eat beef and add in the fabulous flavours you find in India, amazing dishes happen.

Vindaloo has it’s roots in Portugal and was originally based in wine and garlic but gradually evolved to have vinegar instead of wine. When a lot of people hear vindaloo they think off the charts for spicy food but that isn’t always the case. I didn’t make this crazy spicy but you can if you add more hot pepper.

I adapted a recipe from the Best-Ever Curry cookbook. I used ground cumin instead of the seeds and I could have sworn we had fenugreek but nope so I had to leave that out. The recipe did call for a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds. To be honest I didn’t miss it.

In a spice grinder, grind up 3-4 chili peppers or hot peppers of your choice, 1 teaspoon of black peppercorn, 5 green cardamon pods, and 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds.

In a small bowl add the spice mix, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, and 4 tablespoons of white vinegar.

Set that aside. Chop up a large red onion and saute in olive oil until softened.

In a food processor add the onions and spice mix. Process until it is a paste. In the skillet add a bit more oil and start browning stewing beef. I used just under a pound. The recipe called for two pounds. As it is browning, finely chop a couple of garlic and grate a piece of ginger about 1-2 inches square/3-4 cm square.

Cook for a couple of minutes then add the onion spice paste. In addition to that add a scant tablespoon of ground cumin, 2 teaspoons of ground coriander, and 1/2 a teaspoon of ground tumeric.

Stir well then add 300ml/1 1/4 cups of water. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer. Cook for at least an hour. You want the sauce reduced and the meat tender. My husband made naan to dip into this curry.

I was a bit worried because there was only enough for about 1/2 a cup a serving for the four of us. But with the naan we were stuffed. I love that our kids love the spicy flavours, they really liked this.

Spicy Sausage and Bursting with Pride

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

It’s been quite the week with the kids and the end of year celebrations. Even though I’m not a fan of so called graduations at a level below the end of high school I still enjoy cheering them on. Our son had his 5th grade recognition and received the President’s Award for Academic Improvement. Each child had to do a mini speech about their favourite memory from school. They did really well. It’s not easy speaking in front of a crowd. And the poor kid was struggling through a cold from hell.

Our daughter had her 8th grade recognition yesterday. Somehow she managed to go four years straight without missing a day of school. I have no idea what that is like. I was always sick growing up. She also achieved high honours 11 out of the 12 quarters. We are so proud of our kids and what they have achieved so far.

It’s quite something to see how they are doing on their journey.

We had a chilly day a week ago and my son requested pasta so comfort food was on deck. A local farm had some lovely jalapeno sausages. Good ones too, not like the mealy ones we kept getting at the co-op. So I’ll have to buy them as she has them!

Because of the jalapeno I wanted to go with Mexican flavours to highlight the heat.

Begin by browning the sausages in the skillet with a bit of olive oil. Brown all the sides but don’t worry about cooking all the way through. They’ll be finished off in the dish.

Set aside and add a few cloves of garlic, chopped, and a few mushrooms, sliced. Saute until the garlic is softened. Then add chopped peppers and scallions. Cook for a minute or so then add a chopped tomato.

Add a cup of homemade stock and bring to a simmer. Slice the sausages and add to the mixture. Next add a tablespoon of lime juice, a tablespoon of chili powder, a couple of teaspoons of cumin, and salt and pepper to season. Chop up some fresh cilantro and stir in at the end. Once the sausage is cooked through add the pasta and toss well.

Top with a bit of sour cream and shredded cheese. I really liked this as comfort food. Loads of flavour and colour. And it chased away the chill. 🙂

Tostadas and That Boy has My Number

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

It’s Mother’s Day stateside tomorrow. Luckily we have the kids this week and I suspect I might be spoiled once again with fabulous food and having fun with playing games. Perfect if you ask me. 🙂

As a parent there is always the worry that your child will resent you for being, well, a parent. I constantly worry about that being a step-parent. Yesterday, as my son and I were going a few rounds of I forgot my water bottle at school and I forgot my homework, he showed me what he had to do for writing a short paragraph. The assignment was to write about what he appreciated. It was all about how he appreciated his two moms because we help with his homework, we care, we teach him street smarts, and we love him. You can not stay annoyed with your child when presented with this! I even missed the words that were misspelled. Does he know how to play me or what? LOL It also means the world to me when I get to read stuff like that. Being bonus mum to our two kids is such a gift.

This past Monday, in the spirit of Cinco de Mayo, I thought I’d make homemade tostadas. I’ve been playing round with fresh corn tortillas but haven’t really liked them. Well I should say they worked for soft tacos but I was underwhelmed with the flavour. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong. Recently we went to an authentic Latin restaurant that had amazing food and wouldn’t you know it, I’ve been making them correctly! So I decided to play with adding some ingredients to punch up the flavour first.

Before we get to the tortilla bit the meat has to be prepared first. I chose to slow cook the steak in the oven like I did with the pulled pork. Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. I did a quick mixture of 2 tablespoons of chili powder, a couple of teaspoons of cumin, salt and pepper, and a few dashes of adobe seasoning. Rub the steaks and put into the baking dish. Add 1/2 a cup of chicken stock and a couple of tablespoons of fresh lime juice.

This needs to cook for about 4 hours. Like the pulled pork you want the meat to easily be shredded. This is the most difficult part of the dish. So you can see this is an easy dinner to make! I wanted to make twelve tostadas about 4in/10cm in diameter. In a bowl add 1 1/2 cups of masa, a tablespoon of chili powder, and a pinch of salt. For the liquid you need a cup. I added a tablespoon of lime juice and then the rest was water to make up that cup.

Mix well and then knead until the dough is fully incorporated.

Divide into 12 equal pieces and form them into balls. Line both sides of the tortilla press with cling film and place a ball of dough in the middle.

Press down to flatten.

Heat up a dry skillet on medium high. Cook the tortillas about 30-45 seconds on each side. They will puff a little bit and start to brown.

Wrap the cooked tortillas in a tea towel until it is time to fry. This keeps them warm and soft. Set aside as you prep the rest of the meal. Shred the beef and add chopped pepper and onion to the beef and cook for a few minutes.

Keep the beef warm while frying the tortillas in vegetable oil. As you fry them transfer them to a plate lined with kitchen roll.

Once done layer all the ingredients. For mine I layered sour cream, cheese, salsa, tomato, lettuce, and avocado over the beef.

This was a fun meal to have. It is super easy to make and it’s fun for the kids to assemble their own with what they want. And the lime and chili in the tostadas worked really well.

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

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