BBQ Ribs or Pork Chops

Folks,

It seems like everyone has a special recipe for ribs, but just in case you don't, here's my recipe. This is pretty useful if you don't have a grill or wood chips to smoke your ribs, yet still wickedly flavorful.

First, preheat your oven to 300 degrees, no higher. The idea is to cook your ribs low and slow.

If you choose the pork chops, I highly recommend you use the pork shoulder chops.

First prepare a rub with the following ingredients to taste:

• Brown sugar
• Seasoned salt
• Black Pepper
• Cayenne Pepper
• Paprika
• Dried or powdered mustard (Optional)

After preparing this rub, rub it into your meat and put your meat in a baking pan and into the oven and allow to cook for one hour without disturbing.

While your meat is beginning to cook, prepare your BBQ sauce by mixing the following ingredients together:

• A cup of vegetable oil
• A cup of white or apple cider vinegar
• A cup of white sugar
• 1/3 cup of soy sauce
• 2 cups of ketchup
• Hot sauce to taste
• 1/4 cup of any brand of BBQ sauce that has hickory
• Seasoned salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• Paprika to taste
• Dried or powdered mustard to taste (optional)

Mix your wet ingredients well and taste to ensure that the flavors are balanced and/or to your liking.

After the meat has cooked for an hour, take a large cooking spoon (not a brush) and baste your ribs every 20-30 minutes until they are done. Depending on how much meat you're cooking, they should take between 3-4 hours to cook; but when they're done they should come off the bone.

Please trust me on this one. The ribs/pork chops will be delicious.

Fabulous Flan

Borrowed from my Advents and Journeys Blog.

The recipe is really easy. Just follow these steps.

Begin by making the caramel: In a small frying pan or sauce pan using medium heat, add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water without stirring until the mixture begins to form a dark golden color. Once this mixture becomes golden, immediately remove from the heat and pour into a pyrex. The smaller the pyrex, the taller the flan. The bigger the pyrex, the flatter the flan. Use your judgment. I don't know the exact size of the pyrex I currently use (sorry). Refrigerate this mixture, allowing it to cool.

• Prepare the flan:
  Pre - heat oven to 350 degrees
  Fill a squared pan with about 2 inches of water. This pan should be large enough to accomodate your pyrex, and place into the oven. In a blender combine the following ingredients:
  1 twelve ounce can of evaporated milk
  1 can of condensed milk
  4 eggs
  1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  

For a cheese flan just add an eight ounce package of cream cheese (I highly recommend this)

Remove the pyrex from the refrigerator and pour the flan mixture into the pyrex

Open the oven and place the pyrex into the square pan. There should at least be a 2 inch distance between your pyrex and this pan

Cooking time: approximately 1 hour (about 1 hour and 45 minutes for the cheese version).

Pastelón Dominicano

Thursday, July 06, 2006 - Borrowed from my Advents and Journey's Blog.

Growing up, my mother used to make a yummy pastelón with really ripe fried plantains, ground meat and eggs. While this was the pastelón I was introduced to early in life, I was completely blown away by my Dominican comadre's version of pastelón.

If you enjoy sweet plantains, then you are sure to love this recipe.Here's what you need:

1 Tbs of salt
9 ripe yellow plantains (just yellow ripe, not extremely ripe)
About 4 tbs of corn oil
About a pound of ground beef
Sofrito (ground cilantro, sweet peppers, garlic cloves, onion, green pepper)
Adobo seasoning
1/2 cup of water
1 Tbs of Tomato paste
1 pound of sliced mozzerella cheese

First:
Take a large pot (large enough to fit the 9 plantains), fill it with water and add the salt
Peel the plantains, cut them in half, and slice in the middle. (One plantain should render 4 slices.)
Once the water comes to a boil, add the plantains

Second:
Put the oil in a medium to large frying pan.
Put the ground meat in a bowl and season with adobo and sofrito.
Place the ground meat mixture in the frying pan, stirring the whole time, while the meat browns under low heat. This allows the meat to separate and not clump together.

Once the meat turns brown, add water, stir in the tomato paste, and cover the pan until the meat is thoroughly cooked. You'll know when it's cooked, because the the meat will develop a thick sauce.

Third:
Once your plantains are cooked, remove them from the pot without draining the water.

As you remove the plantains mash them with a potato masher, adding some of the boiled water to ensure that they come out smooth

Once the plantains are mashed, line the baking pan with a layer of the mashed plantains. The next layer will be your ground meat, and the following layer will be your sliced mozzarella. You then seal this with another layer of mashed plantain, and top with your slices of mozzarella cheese.

Final Step:
Place your casserole in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes. You'll know when this is done, because the cheese will begin to bubble...yum.

Enjoy,
Alma

Easy Turnovers

Everyone,

Here's an easy turnover recipe that I tried out during the holidays.

Ingredients:

A package small of Goya turnover pastry discs.
A package of cream cheese
1 tablespoon of butter
Powdered sugar
One package or can of guava paste (or fruit paste of choice)
1/3 cup of Granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground Cinnamon
Vegetable oil (for frying)

Instructions:

• Cut the discs in half
• Mix about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and the butter into your cream cheese. Mix it well.
• Place about 1 teaspoon of cream cheese and a teaspoon of guava paste into pastry half then fold over and crimp with fork. Continue this process. The package brings 10 pastry discs, but since you cut it in half, you should end up with twenty little pastries.
• Fry the pastries in the vegetable oil
• Combine the cinnamon and granulated sugar together and pour over the fried pastries.
• Dust the pastries with the powdered sugar. Make sure both sides are covered.

Enjoy!

Spinach Flan

Here's a simple recipe for a spinach flan that's really easy and delicious!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 box of frozen Spinach
1/4 cup of butter
1 8oz container of Heavy cream
4 eggs
1 medium wedge of fontina cheese

Preparation:

• Heat your spinach in a sauce pan with butter
• Pour 8 oz container of heavy cream into a blender and mix until the cream is looks fluffy
• Add eggs into blender with the heavy cream one at a time and blend after each addition
• Add spinach mixture to mixture in blender and blend
• Grate fontina cheese and add to mixture in blender
• Spray ramekens with cooking spray and pour blender contents into ramikens. Ramekens should not be more than 3/4 full. If you fill all the way to the top, the contents can flow out.
• Place ramekens in a water bath then place in oven. The water bath should be a pan that is large enough to fit all of the ramekens prepared and the water in the pan should not exceed 2 inches.

Rice Pudding

• 4 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 1/4 cup of short grained rice
• 4 to 6 cinnamon sticks
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 1 can of condensed milk
• 1 15oz can of coconut cream
• 1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
• 1-2 small boxes of raisens
• Powdered cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon of grated ginger
  
  Place 4 cups of water with salt and cinnamon sticks and butter to boil
  Add rice and allow the rice to cook without a cover until it becomes a little soft
  After rice is a little soft, add the evaporated milk
  When rice is totally soft, add coconut cream then condensed milk to taste
  When done adding coconut cream and condensed milk, add vanilla and raisens and cook until raisens soften
  When done, plate, and add cinnamon
• Note: You do not have to cook the rice with a cover, but you must ensure that the rice remains soupy so that it can soften properly.
  
  

Grilled Ravioli Green Salad

Ravioli

Ingredients - for one serving

• 4-5 large round or square ravioli (frozen or fresh)
• Olive oil
• Romaine lettuce or your favorite greens
• Sun dried tomatoes - sliced
• Toasted pine nuts
• Sea Salt (preferably)
• 1 tea spoon of celery seed
• 1/8 tea spoon of red pepper flakes

1. In a bowl pour 1/2 cup of olive oil
2. Place your ravioli in olive oil and add sea salt, celery seed, and pepper flakes
3. Spray grilling pan with non-stick spray and use medium-high heat
4. Once grilling pan is hot, place ravioli (one by one) in pan and cook for about a minute each side or until soft and etched with grill marks
5. In salad bowl place lettuce, pine nuts, and sliced sun dried tomatoes. Mix in your favorite salad dressing. Use your own discretion as to the amount of lettuce, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes you wish to use.
6. Plate mixture and add grilled ravioli - yum.