Saleena: garlic

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Make ahead: Shredded Pork

Like I mentioned here, I have tried to make dinner-making an easier task by preparing things ahead of time. Can I just say, this worked fabulously? Being able to just reach into my freezer the morning of and set out food for that night is a good feeling (especially when its your hubby doing the cooking ;])

To see other make ahead options, go here.

Ingredients:

2 boneless pork shoulder roasts (about 3 lbs. each)

6 cloves garlic

2 lemons

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Oven to 450 degrees . Cut pork into 2- to 3-inch chunks and discard excess fat. This may take a while...I had no idea how fatty pork is!

Finely chop garlic and zest the lemons.

Place all of the pork in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with the garlic, lemon zest, 1 tbsp. salt and 1 1/2 tsp. pepper. Toss well, massaging the garlic and zest into the meat.

Roast until the meat is browned on top, about 30 minutes. Turn the pork chunks over and roast to brown the other side, 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees

Tightly cover the pan with foil. Continue roasting the pork until nicely tender, about 1 hour 45 minutes. Let the pork cool for at least 15 minutes, then, using 2 forks, shred it a few pieces at a time.

Divide the pork into 1-cup portions and transfer to resealable plastic sandwich bags. Pour a little pork juice into each, squeeze out the air and flatten. Seal and store flat in 2-gallon freezer bags.

When you're ready to used the pork, thaw at room temperature for about 1 hour, or pop into the fridge in the morning and let thaw all day.

<3 Saleena

To see the original recipe from Rachael Ray, go here

Fresh Linguine with Cream and Garlic Sauce

If you know me at all, you know that I love a good bargain. I frequent thrift stores and garage sales in hopes of finding treasures...quite often actually. Fortunately for me (and my hubby) I found a pasta maker for $10 last weekend! I definitely scored. So I wanted to use it right away and found a recipe that would be perfect.

Ingredients:

For Pasta:

2 cups flour

3 eggs

water

For Sauce:

1 cup milk, saved from poaching garlic for puree

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (1/4 tsp if you don't want it too spicy)

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh oregano leaves minced, or 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

1 head garlic

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Table salt and ground black pepper

Directions:

Pulse the flour in a food processor fitted with a steel blade to distribute and aerate it evenly. Add the eggs; process until the dough forms a rough ball, about 30 seconds. (If the dough resembles small pebbles, add water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time; if the dough sticks to the side of hte workbowl, add flour, 1 Tablespoon at a time, and process until the dough forms a rough ball.)

Turn the dough ball and small bits out onto a dry work surface; knead until the dough is smooth, 1-2 m inutes. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for at least 15 minutes, up to 2 hours, to relax.

While the dough rests, discard any loose skin on the garlic head. Then trim off the top quarter, and discard.

Roll out dough and cut in five equal sections. Then take the first section and roll it out as thin as you can.

Using a manual pasta machine, roll out the dough even further. I started on setting one and worked my way to setting five.

Once the dough is very thin, run it though the linguine maker.

Make sure to lay the pasta flat, and keep them separated if possible. This will ensure that they don't stick together when you cook them. (If you have someone to help you with this, it will go a lot faster!)

Once you have your pasta laid out, place the garlic head cut side down into a small sauce pan. Add one cup milk and let simmer for about ten minutes.

Remove garlic from milk (reserving the milk for the sauce) and place on a 8" x 8" piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil.

Wrap garlic head in foil and place in over at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Once garlic is done, remove from oven and let it cool for five minutes.

Squeeze out all the the cloves and mash with a fork.

Bring reserved milk, cream, red pepper, and oregano to boil in a medium saucepan;

simmer, whisking constantly, until milk mixture reduces by half. Lower heat;

whisk in garlic puree until sauce emulsifies slightly, 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in

Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste; cover and keep warm.

Meanwhile add 1 tablespoon salt and the linguine to the boiling water; boil

until linguine is just tender, 7 to 9 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving some of

the cooking water. Toss linguine with sauce. If the sauce is too thick to coat

pasta evenly, add the cooking water 1 tablespoon at a time. Serve with

additional finely grated Parmesan and ground black pepper.

This pasta was very light, and full of flavor. The red pepper flakes gave it a kick, so be sure to reduce the amount if you don't care for spicy foods. In the Cooks Illustrated cookbook, they mentioned that freshly made pasta doesn't re-heat very well, but Matthew and I both had it for lunch the next day, and it was just as good. Hope you enjoy this dish!

<2 Saleena

Rosemary and Garlic Butter Rolls

These are my new favorite dinner rolls. Seriously, they're good. I found this recipe here. She has great step-by-step pictures if its your first time making rolls.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (one packet)
1 stick butter (soft)
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk
2 tbsp sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour
1 rosemary sprig
2 garlic cloves
coarse sea salt (I used Kosher)

Directions:

Dump 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast in a bowl and add 1/4 cup of warm water. Stir and let the yeast sit there for 5 minutes.

Mix 2/3 stick of butter with 1 cup of milk. In a separate container, lightly beat a large egg. Pop the milk & butter mix in the microwave for a minute at full power. It doesn’t have to be hot, just warm. Transfer the yeast water to your mixer bowl. Add 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, pour in the egg and add 1 cup of flour.

Now pour in the milk with butter. Mix until the flour is incorporated before adding another cup of flour. Repeat this process until all the flour is incorporated. As soon as the wet and dry ingredients are combined, turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for 5 minutes before starting the kneading process. (This is when I switch from using my paddle attachment to the dough hook.) Unless you’re doing this by hand, then you start kneading right away and only use extra flour if the dough starts sticking to your hands. The dough will look really sticky at first, but that will resolve itself during kneading as the gluten are developed.

Knead for 6 to 7 minutes, by the end of which the dough will have formed into a ball. If your dough looks impossibly sticky in the final few minutes, add a tbsp flour at a time. But remember, it should still be sticky to the touch! (My dough always looked too sticky...I probably ended up adding about 4 extra Tbsp) Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, apply some oil to the top of the dough to prevent it from drying out. Cover with a towel and let it rise for about an hour, until it doubled in size.

Lightly butter a baking tray.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured cutting board (or clean granite counter top). It should be a really supple and slightly sticky dough.

Flatten it with your hand and using a sharp knife divide the dough into 12 pieces.

In stead of rolling the dough in your hand, you simply fold the sides to the bottom and shape them in the palm of your hand. Transfer them to the buttered baking tray but give them a little room to rise. Cover them with a towel and let them rise for an hour to an hour and a half.

Until they doubled in size.

Break out the pestle and mortar. In order to get the flavor inside the butter, you have to release some of the oils. Strip the rosemary sprig and add 2 garlic cloves.

Now smash the whole thing, reallly bruise the rosemary.

Add the remaining 1/3 stick of butter and lightly mix it. Leave it be for an hour or so, while the dough rises.

Once dough is done rising, microwave the butter mixture. This will intensify the flavor and will make it easier to brush on top of the rolls. Give it 30 seconds at full power.

Brush it all over the dough and don’t be shy, they’re not called butter rolls for nothing! Be sure not to add too much of the rosemary...if it burns it won't taste very good. Last but not least, sprinkle a generous amount of coarse sea/kosher salt all over them.