Pineapple Fried Rice

Alex and I got married at the Wynn hotel here in Las Vegas almost five years ago; our anniversary is next week!

That may make us kind of partial to the place but they really do have some pretty great restaurants.  One of our favorites is Wazuzu at Encore.  Wazuzu is a Pan-Asian restaurant so you can get sushi and dim sum, Thai or Indian food.  And you can get Pineapple Fried Rice.

Since dinners out are much less frequent now that we have twins running (well, crawling) around, we figured we'd try making this dish here at home.  We found a recipe from The Neely's on foodnetwork.com, made a couple of changes, and we are in love. With each other AND the rice ;)  Our recipe unfortunately doesn't include roast duck, and we've substituted bacon for the Chinese sausage, but it's still pretty darn delicious.

Pineapple Fried Rice, adapted from The Neely's
1/4 lb bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and diced
2 green onions, sliced (both white and green  parts)
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 thai chili, chopped
1 cup diced pineapple
4 cups cooked rice (can be a day or two old!)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

Put the chopped bacon in a large cold skillet, bring to medium-high heat and cook.  Set aside.  Add peanut oil to the pan and once it begins to shimmer, put in the onions, garlic, ginger and green onions.  Cook them until they are softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the bell pepper, thai chili and bacon to the pan and cook for an additional 3 minutes or so.  Now stir in the rice and pineapple.  Saute the rice for about 5 minutes or until it begins to turn a light brown.  Stir in the sesame oil and soy sauce.  Once combined add the shrimp.  Cook just until the shrimp turn pink, about 5 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl and serve!

Fish and Chips

Despite the fact that I have in the past said there was no way I was ever buying a deep fryer; we bought a deep fryer last week. (This one to be exact) I didn't want a deep fryer because I know how we are.  With a new toy we are likely to fry anything we can get our hands on for the next month.  I know I saw Alex eyeing the brownies last night. But alas, a sale flyer for Kohl's came along with a coupon and off to the store we went.  And somehow we found room in the cabinets.  And somehow we have NOT fried any brownies...yet.

Instead we made fish and chips and they were delicious!!  Beer-battered flaky cod and crispy french fries.  It was great.  We used a beer-batter recipe from The Neely's and adapted some of Gina's spicy tartar sauce too.  The fries we made mostly using the instructions on the machine.  I won't say it was the quickest dinner ever, but it was fun hanging out around the fryer in the kitchen drinking a beer or two with the hubby and watching some of our back logged Hell's Kitchen episodes.  (It's a pretty exciting life we lead, no?)  The machine made frying less dangerous (have I ever mentioned the time Alex splashed hot oil in my eye?) and the clean-up was just about non-existent. So without further ado, fish and chips.  Hope you enjoy them.

Beer-Battered Fish and Chips, adapted from The Neely's
Canola Oil for frying
3 large russet potatoes, cut into 1 inch wedges
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/3 c. cornstarch
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne powder
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. baking powder
freshly ground black pepper
8 oz beer
4 (4 oz) cod fillets
For the Tartar Sauce
1/2 c. mayonnaise
3 Tbsp. chopped spicy pickles
2 tsp hot sauce
salt and pepper

Ok.  Kind of a lot of moving parts here.  First up, make your tartar sauce.  Combine all your ingredients in a small bowl and put in the refrigerator. Next, cut the potatoes and put them in a pot of cold water to keep them from turning brown while you are getting everything else ready.  We actually cut ours up earlier in the day (nap time!) to cut down on the prep time later.  Now turn on your fryer or heat your oil in a heavy pan on the stove to 325 F. While it is heating up, get your beer-battering station ready.  Put 1 cup of flour in a pie plate and then whisk the other cup of flour, cornstarch, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, and baking powder with the beer in a medium bowl.  Drain your potatoes and dump them on a baking tray, use some paper towels to blot away any excess water. Start frying your potatoes in batches (just two in our fryer!) for about 6 minutes or until cooked through.  Once done set them aside on your baking tray and turn up the heat to get your oil to 375 F.  When the oil is ready coat your fish fillets first in the flour, then dip them into the beer-batter to coat them.  Put two fillets into your fryer and cook for just 2-3 minutes.  Repeat with the remaining two fillets.  Now back to the fries!  To get them nice and crispy and golden brown put them back into the fryer (with the oil still at 375 F) for about 2-3 minutes more. Season with salt.

This was seriously good stuff, and not at all greasy.  Alex and I were super impressed with how great it all came out. I'm glad we got the darn machine after all.  Truth be told, I was tired of that little clip-on thermometer falling into the pot all the time. :)

Southern Sunday Sides

Did you happen to notice the other items on the plate with the Smoke Box Ribs? Side dishes are the hidden gems of a meal and they need to be prepared with the same care as the main course. If you are going to spend time making a great meal why would you open a can of green beans to complete the meal? Not to mention canned vegetables have sort of been banned at my house. Two side dishes I have grown to love are grits and greens. My wife loves both, so we have them quite often. Just keeping in touch with her southern roots I guess. Let me start off with the grits.

Grits by themselves, are not my favorite thing to eat. Grits with cheese? Now THAT is something I like. Cheesy grits are not difficult to make, in fact they are really easy. We based these on a recipe by Ina Garten and they are pretty awesome.

Creamy Cheddar Grits, adapted from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics by Ina Garten

4 Cups Water
2 tsp kosher salt
1 Cup of Quick Grits
2 Tbsp of Butter
¾ cup whole milk
¾ cup heavy cream
1 ½ cup sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 ear of corn, roasted on the grill
½ cup of green onions, chopped
pepper to taste

Bring the water to boil and add the salt, then slowly pour in the grits while stirring. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the grits thicken, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Next, stir in the milk, butter and cream. Bring the pot back to a simmer then let the grits cook on low for about 30 to 45 minutes stirring occasionally. Once the grits are smooth and creamy remove from heat and add in cheese, corn, green onion and pepper. A note on the corn: we used roasted corn on the cob to give the grits a nice flavor and texture…the original recipe doesn’t include this step so if it is too much trouble for you feel free to skip it. We just threw the corn on the grill with the ribs! These are easily the creamiest grits I’ve ever had and with the crunch from the onions and corn? They are really good, try them.

Boozy Braised Collard Greens

Now "Greens" are a labor of love, they take a while to cook (1 ½ hours!) but once they are done they are just so good. And really, after you get everything in the pot, you are just leaving it to cook on its own. We have done quick greens recipes and the results just never measure up, they really are worth the extra time. Like cheesy grits, greens recipes are going to be similar with just a variation or two. We adapted the Boozy Braised Collard Green recipe from the Neely’s. Down Home with the Neely’s is a great show (on Food Network); they really do seem to get along well with each other and have a good time in the kitchen like my better half and I do. Has anybody ever been to their restaurant? Definitely a place I’d like to try. You can find their recipe here. We replaced the Bourbon with Jack Daniels and used a mixture of Collard and Mustard Greens. I know not everyone is familiar with Greens but they really are amazing cooked like this. I hope you try them!