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Baked Plantains

June 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I think I figured out what my (blogging) problem is: I’ve been making really simple things and I haven’t felt like I should put them up. Sometimes I get caught up in the idea that ‘good’ cooking is and I focus on things with a lot of ingredients or steps or that sounds impressive. That doesn’t always end up in good food though. I can’t count the number of times that my husband has complimented a dinner that I’ve thrown together in 20 minutes more than a dinner I’ve spent on preparing? [Note to husband: this is not your fault, I blame the internet. Hi, internet!]

This is a conclusion I reached while eating the plantains I made on Monday night. They were just so good: slightly sweet, slightly spicy, with a bit of salt to balance it out. As you can, I’m still obsessed with cumin and cinnamon. Either way, this dish is great, it’s quick and easy, perfect for a weeknight dinner. We had this with jerk shrimp and broccoli.

Baked Plantains

2 yellow plantains, with a large amount of black spots and just starting to soften
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
scant 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon butter, melted
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Slice plantains about 1/3″ thick. Combine the butter with the spices, and then toss with the sliced plantains. Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan and bake the plantains for 30 – 35 minutes, slipping once. The plantains should be caramelized on both sides. Serve immediately.

baked plantains

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Honey Apple Pie

March 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

I’ve been swimming in apples lately. Every week, like clockwork, I get two pounds of apples dropped on my doorstep by the local produce ninjas. I’ve made a lot things with them so far: last post’s pork, apple cinnamon mini muffins, chicken salad with apples, cabbage with apples and onions … I’m like Bubba from Forrest Gump. The apples have all been really delicious, but I’m pretty eagerly awaiting not-apples.

Since I had all these apples, obviously pie had to be made. I figured I’d make it with the local honey I got, which is apparently made pretty close to my house [which is kind of alarming - have you seen my neighborhood?!]. I had wanted to make a pie that was a little less sweet than my normal one, so I figured using honey (and less of it) would be a good way to achieve that. Well, honey and a good dose of ginger and cinnamon.

Honey Apple Pie

7 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoons butter, chilled and diced
1 pie crust, homemade or store bought

1 1/2 cup quick oats
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl, toss apples with honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice. Place in the pie crust and then sprinkle diced butter pieces over the apples. For the topping, mix together the oats, butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the pie and bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until the pie is bubbling and the top is brown. Let cool and serve at room temperature.

This is really good; I should have let mine cook longer, but the flavor was just what I wanted. It was slightly spicy from the ginger and had a nice warmth to it from the other spices. While the honey lent some sweetness, it wasn’t cloying which I was slightly apprehensive about. And to give you a better idea about its taste: it was mostly gone within 3 days. There are only two of us that live here.

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Mediterranean Nachos

December 23, 2010 by 1 Comment

One night a month or two ago, my husband and I got some take out with one of our friends. We got it from this great El Salvadorean restaurant that’s close to our old apartment, and it’s good enough that every once in awhile we actually drive over there to pick up the food, since we’re now out of their delivery range. And for people who don’t like leaving their house, this says a lot about the quality of food. The main reason we go to this place is the amazing plate of nachos they make. It’s full of perfectly cooked beef, crema, tomatoes, lettuce, guac and salsa, on top of warm and crispy chips. It’s basically perfect. We started talking about other nachos we like and we were lamenting the lack of Mediterranean nachos in most establishments. Clearly, we had to rectify that.

A few weekends ago I got all of the ingredients ready and we started the process of making our nachos. For the sake of this recipe and my pride, I made my own pita chips. You are more than welcome to skip this step as I don’t think it’s 100% necessary. They were good, but I feel like store bought would’ve been just as good and possibly a bit of a time saver, since we were in the kitchen for quite awhile.

Mediterranean Nachos
8 small pita pockets, cut into quarters
1 medium-large cucumber, chopped
2 tomatoes, seeds removed, diced
1lb ground lamb
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon better than bouillon
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tabouleh
1/2 cup feta
1/2 cup shredded cheese of choice
1/2 cup tzatziki
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Take the pita bread quarters, toss them with the olive oil and make sure they’re all coated. You can add salt and pepper to them, but don’t make the same mistake I did in forgetting that other components to this are salty as well. Bake the pita quarters for about 12 – 15 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and store in air-tight container until ready to use.

Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat. Once ready, add the lamb and cook until nicely browned. Drain off the fat from the pan, add in the Better Than Bouillon, water, paprika and cinnamon. Let that cook together for a few minutes until all of the flavors are absorbed by the lamb and the lamb is still moist – you don’t want all of the water to evaporate. Take off the heat and set aside.

Take out a baking pan and layer your nachos however you’d like: we went with a structure of chips, meat, cheese, repeat. While originally I was going to just use crumbled feta, we decided we needed to have a cheese that would melt well, so we added in some chedder-jack but any cheese will work well. Bake that in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and everything is heated through.

While the nachos are baking, mix together the tabouleh, tomatoes and cucumbers. Once the nachos are out of the oven, plate them and use the tabouleh mixture as a salsa and sprinkle it over the top. Top this with a healthy dollop (or three) of tzatziki and you’re done.

I’m not gonna lie: these were amazing. All the flavors we were wanted were in there and the meat was seasoned perfectly. Our chips ended up being more chewy than crispy, but even with that they were still great.

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