Spicy Pork in Lettuce

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

When the kids are away the parents will play. While the kids were off having the time of their life at camp we thought it would be fun to have friends over for dinner. I was still going through the withdrawal from the fibro meds so food had to be simple. I was a hot mess and a few days before I couldn’t really get out of bed so my husband was questioning my sanity. I won’t go into detail on how often he does that. 😉

I was in the mood to do Asian tapas. I did up chicken satay, Korean BBQ steak, some spring rolls and spicy pork in lettuce. If you can find the type of lettuce that gives you small cups go for that. I couldn’t so had to use Romaine lettuce.

I chopped up a healthy handful of scallions and 2 garlic cloves. Peel an inch/2.5cm cube of ginger and set aside. In a skillet add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and heat up. Once the oil is hot add a pound of ground pork. As it starts browning add the scallion, garlic and grate the ginger into the skillet

Add a few tablespoons of Gochujang, which is a fermented hot chili paste, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and a few splashes of lime juice. Simmer to allow the flavours to develop.

Adjust the spicy heat as needed. If you want more, add more Gochujang or red pepper flakes. Season with fresh ground black pepper. You shouldn’t need salt given the other ingredients.

As I was finishing this dish our friends showed up so it was a quick photo so not to be rude. Plus I had to make the Mai Tais. First time making them and we’re totally hooked. Such a good drink to go with Asian tapas. 🙂

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 Avocado Salad and a Frost Advisory

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

Correct me if I’m wrong but it’s still summer, right? So it was completely insane to me to find us under a frost advisory. Sunday afternoon we grabbed as many tomatoes as we could as the plants were too tall for us to cover. The only other veg we really had to worry about were the peppers. So we got those covered. Turns out the temperature stayed just high enough but we have two more evenings this week that may get close to frost. I had to dig out my winter hat to walk the dogs!

For Saturday I wanted to do a light healthy meal with chicken and avocado. I was put in the mood for this last week when we had some gorgeous weather. Saturday rolls round and it’s raw and cold. I would not be dissuaded! I put on more layers and got on with it. 🙂

This is super simple with layered flavours and it’s quick to put together. The longest bit was the side of roasted potatoes.

Cook up 5-6 rashers of streaky bacon.

Set aside the cooked bacon on paper towels and pour out most of the bacon fat and save for other dishes. You only need a tablespoon or two. Thinly slice a chicken breast and start browning it in the bacon fat. Add a couple of chopped garlic cloves and a couple of mushrooms.

As the chicken cooked I made the dressing. This was a bit of an experiment as I had an idea of what flavour I wanted as well as consistency. But wasn’t sure how to get there. I started with a base of mayo.

In hindsight I should have started with half the mayo I actually used. I added sriracha sauce, lime juice and cilantro. The important thing is not to have the aftertaste of mayo.

To serve I layered lettuce leaves with the chicken, mushrooms, and chopped bacon.

Add sliced avocado and fresh tomatoes. Drizzle the dressing over and serve.

Now the idea was to make these as wraps but I served it this way because there was a lot of food. Kudos for my family for being game and making them into wraps. The thing I loved about this dish was it was filling but not heavy. I hate feeling stuffed but also dislike being hungry a short time after so this was perfect. And we had just enough room for popcorn and watching “Young Frankenstein” with the kids.

Weather or not…

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Our Growing Paynes

There are times when everything lines up and comes together for a flavourful experience. And when the weather behaves so it makes sense for this meal, well life is really good. November can be really dreary up here. The autumn colours are long gone, the city has picked up the leaves, days are no longer crisp and clear, no beautiful snow shots at the moment to ease the cold. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anxious to start shoveling the white stuff. But this past Saturday? Gorgeous. Bright sun with a warmth in the air. Salad weather if you can believe it.

Which is just what I wanted. I had several ingredients that would make a perfect salad but it is soup weather. So Saturday was a real treat. I had posted about pomegranates and two bloggers gave me a great idea to use in salads. First Richard from REMCooks mentioned his wife likes the pomegranates in a salad and then Claire from An Eye For Food mentioned pomegranates with smoked salmon. Plus I had figs to use up. Perfect! 🙂

I made a quick fig jam, very rustic but very good. I chopped up the figs and in a small saucepan heated them up.

I mushed them as they started to heat up and added about 1/2 cup of organic apple cider. While that was cooking I started plating the salad. I used mixed spring greens, yellow and orange peppers, smoked salmon, goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, and then once the jam was done I spooned that round. Finished with a lemon chive dressing. I confess, I bought the dressing. But it looked good and it was. 🙂

This was the best salad I’ve made. All the flavours came together so well. It was, I fear, the last hooray for salads until spring now. This Sunday we’ll wake up to temps of 10F/-12C with wind that will keep us in the negative wind chills most of the day. I have a feeling the snow pants will be making their first appearance when we walk the dogs.

Our Growing Paynes

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Tag Archives: lettuce

Spicy Pork in Lettuce

Southwestern Turkey Burgers

Chicken Avocado Salad and a Frost Advisory

Weather or not…