Grilled Citrus Pork

Our friend came over today and brought pork chops for dinner. I decided on a citrus marinade because we had a bunch of oranges that needed to be used up. I found a recipe, but it called for reducing the juice, added some super spicy peppers, etc. I just combined a couple recipes that called for ingredients that sounded good, and went for it.

The pork was tasty, tangy and delicious, perfectly grilled by Number One. Try this marinade, you won't be sorry! Just don't overcook your pork, or you will be sorry!


Citrus Marinade

Juice of 4 oranges (just over 1 cup)
Juice of 2 limes (about 1/4 cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
freshly ground pepper
kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a large plastic bag. Add pork, seal and refrigerate for several hours, turning bag about every half hour.

Heat grill, remove pork from marinade and grill until pork is done, being sure not to overcook it.

Taste & Create XX: Indian Spinach Flatbread

My first partner this month for Taste & Create is Dipali from Centaur Cooks. I'm hoping she still finds time to submit her entry from my website!

Dipali's is a relatively new blog, but right off the bat her Indian Spinach Flatbread caught my eye. I'm usually a pretty good "flatbread" maker (tortillas, anyway), but I can definitely use some practice with this recipe. I added too much water from the start, resulting in a very sticky dough which required more flour than I wanted to add and made the bread difficult to roll out, which also resulted in a floury look which resulted in me feeling like I needed to use more oil, which resulted in some greasiness. I also didn't use enough salt, but salting the bread as it was frying was an easy fix.


So. The flatbread is tasty. Would be tastier if I hadn't had all the issues listed above, and possibly more attractive too. (thankfully sunlight improves the bread's appearance, just don't enlarge that picture!) But it was a nice complement to our chicken masala. I will definitely try this again, after we're moved into our brand-new kitchen!


Palak Thepla or Indian Spinach Flatbread

1 cup wheat flour

2 tbsp besan/chickpea flour (didn't have access to this, so I used flax meal)

1 cup cut palak/methi (spinach)

2 tsp cooking oil (I used olive oil)

a pinch of aseofetida (I used garlic powder)

a pinch of tumeric

1/2 tsp of red chile powder (I used 1/4 heaping teaspoon)

1/4 tsp of crushed cumin (I used ground cumin)

1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

2 tbsp fine jaggery (I used raw sugar) + 2 tbsp lime juice (I used juice of 1/2 lime)

salt to taste

Mix all these ingredients and add water (I used about 1/2 cup, which was a bit too much) to form a firm but malleable dough. Dab with oil and rest for 10-15 mins. Form into small balls, sprinkle with dry flour and roll out. Lay on hot pan or griddle.

Turn once and apply some oil on the surface. Turn and pat with a flat wooden spatula.

Apply oil (just spread back of an oil covered spoon) and turn and pat the other side.

Take off the griddle when spots appear.

Thai-Style Chicken with Coconut Curry

Taste & Create is such a great event. It helps me discover sooo many new recipes. This recipe isn't even from my partner(s) this month, I just saw it, had all the ingredients and thought it would make a fabulous dinner. And it did!

Go to the Taste & Create website and see what scrumptious dishes you are tempted to make!

The recipe comes from Christine of Kits Chow, who got it from Marthe of Culinary Delights, both of whom participated in T&C last month. I modified a couple of ingredients, so here's how I made it.

It was a beautiful dish, easy and delicious , we couldn't stop eating it! We ate our chicken with artisan bread to soak up the curry.


Thai-Style Chicken with Coconut Curry

1 shallot, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons curry paste (I used green)
2 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
6 chicken thighs
1 lime
2 green onions, chopped

Fry shallot in oil until beginning to brown. Add garlic and curry paste, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add chicken broth, simmer for 5 minutes. Add coconut milk, stir until combined, then add chicken. Bring mixture to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes or until chicken is done. Stir in juice of one lime and green onions; serve.

Cold Spaghetti Salad

This is an old recipe of my mom's, I have no idea where she got it. It is delicious and refreshing on a hot summer's day, and quite easy to put together. I decided I would make it when I saw how many radishes Wifey has in her garden today, and she offered me some.

The only catch is the McCormick's Salad Supreme, sometimes it's hard to find in stores. When I see it, I usually buy at least 3 bottles so I won't run out. Someday I will try to figure out what spices go into it and then amend the recipe here. But not today!

I realize it's called "spaghetti" salad, but I prefer linguine. You try it, and let me know which you prefer. This time, however, I didn't have linguine, so spaghetti it was!


Cold Spaghetti Salad

1 pound linguini, boiled
1 cup chopped green pepper (this time I plan to use a mix of sweet, multi-colored peppers)
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup chopped radishes
1 8-ounce bottle Wishbone Italian Salad Dressing
1/2 bottle McCormick's Salad Supreme

Prepare pasta and chopped ingredients, then toss together in large bowl. Sprinkle with salad dressing and salad supreme, mix well. Let sit, refrigerated, for several hours to allow the flavors to develop.

Serve cold.

Taste & Create XX Partner List

Once again, the fabulous Taste & Create partner list! Please remember that your submissions are due by June 24. Sign in and submit your entries on the Taste & Create website, please do not email them to me. Feel free to contact me at cowgirlmin [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any questions at all.

The deadline for sign-ups for July's Taste & Create is July 8th, please email your sign-up information to me at cowgirlmin [at] gmail [dot] com. And encourage all your friends to sign up as well!

If you're wondering, the partner list is truly random. We had an odd number of entrants, so it falls to me, Min, to have two partners. You see The Bad Girl's Kitchen on the list 3 times because my friend and fellow Bad Girl, Shell, is participating as well~it's such a great event!

Tasty Treats & Perrys' Plate

Dish It Up & One Frugal Foodie

My Hawaiian Home & Cinnamon En Spice

The Bad Girl's Kitchen (Min) & Centaur Cooks

My Kitchen Treasures & Cupcake Project

What's For Supper & eat me, delicious

The Spiced Life & Love Big, Bake Often

The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch & Culinary Delights

Yumsilicious Bakes & No Reason Needed

Dil Se.. & Res-o-puh-leese

Bombay Foodie & The Bad Girl's Kitchen (Shell)

La Recette du Jour & Piccante Dolce

Let Them Eat Cake & The Bad Girl's Kitchen (Min)

White Bean & Tuna Salad

This recipe comes from Giada de Laurentiis' cookbook, Everyday Italian. It is a really simple salad to put together, and most of the ingredients may already be in your pantry. Once you try this salad, you'll be sure to stock the ingredients anyway.

I've served this salad several times, most recently with our Gourmet Burgers. It is fresh and tangy and delicious. Red onions really add something to this salad, but I have substituted yellow or white in a pinch. While the resulting salad lacks the color the red onions give, the taste is still quite good.

White Bean and Tuna Salad
Throw these pantry ingredients together and you've got a terrific salad. You could add other ingredients to jazz it up, like 1/2 cup capers, 1 cup cherry tomatoes and some fresh basil leaves, and you could even serve it over 2 cups fresh arugula.

4 main-course servings

2 (6-ounce) cans dark meat tuna, packed in olive oil (I just had tuna in water, so I drained it and added a couple tablespoons olive oil to the salad)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini (white kidney) beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
6 tablespoons red wine vinegar

In a large bowl, add the tuna with its olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Using a fork, break up the tuna into bite-size pieces, then gently toss in the beans and onions. Drizzle with the red wine vinegar and season with more salt and pepper, if needed, to taste. Transfer the salad to plates and serve.

I garnished mine with some fresh chopped flat parsley for a bit more color.