I was reading about Portuguese Cuisine and read that common flavors in Portuguese Cuisine are Piri Piri, Cinnamon, Paprika and Bayleaf. I thought that would be easy to put in a meatloaf so that’s what I did. The Piri Piri Pepper is hard to come by so I used Nando’s Brand Piri Piri Sauce that contains real Piri Piri Peppers. For the sauce I used slow roasted tomatoes that I cooked at 200 degrees F for most of a day that are very concentrated and sweet. You can use canned or roasted but your tomatoes might not be as sweet so you might have to adjust and add sugar. I served the meatloaf with black rice cooked in vegetable broth with black beans.

Ingredients for 8 servings

1/2 medium sweet onion – chopped fine

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste

2 XL eggs – slightly beaten

1 Tablespoon vegetarian soup base (This is instead of salt as it’s salt with flavor)

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons Hot Piri Piri sauce (I used Nando’s Brand)

1/3 cup lager

1 cup panko bread crumbs (I used whole wheat)

1 lb ground turkey

1/4 cup parsley

non stick spray

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (for sauce)

14 oz cooked tomatoes (mine were slow roasted and concentrated, you might need sugar) (for sauce)

1 red bell pepper – chopped fine (for sauce)

1/2 medium sweet onion – chopped fine (for sauce)

1 celery rib – chopped fine (for sauce)

4 garlic cloves – ground to paste (for sauce)

1 Tablespoon – course sea salt (for sauce)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper (for sauce)

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (for sauce)

5 bay leaves (for sauce)

8 black olives – quartered (for sauce)

Directions set oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray baking sheet(s) with non stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl combine 1/2 onion, 3 ground garlic cloves, eggs, soup base, 3/4 black pepper, 1 teaspoon thyme, both paprikas, cinnamon, piri piri sauce, lager and panko. Mix well.

Mix in the turkey and parsley. The mixture will be extremely moist. Measure out  the individual meatloaf in 4 ounce portions and place on sprayed baking sheet(s) like this.

Place them in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked and then remove from oven.

To make the sauce

Put a sauce pot on medium high heat with the olive oil. When hot add the bell pepper, onions and celery and salt. Cook till tender. Add garlic till mixture seems fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients. The sauce might be ready in a few minutes depending on how your tomatoes are…Cook till you think your tomatoes are ready and do a taste test for seasoning. You might need a small amount of sugar if your tomatoes aren’t sweet enough. REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE BAY LEAVES).

Enjoy!

Delicious!

 

I got this idea for Buffalo Blue Cheese Potato Pancakes. Well……..The pancakes came out good but not infused with much buffalo blue cheese flavor…so I came up with a topping for the pancakes. Potato pancakes are pretty easy to prepare and you don’t really need a recipe for them. Basically for about 35 pancakes that freeze well you need about 3 lbs potatoes shredded mixed with a whole grated onion mix in with potatoes (doesn’t turn brown) squeeze out liquid and mix with about two eggs, 1/2 cup of some kind of starch and season. Potato pancakes normally get served with sour cream and chives or sometimes apple sauce. But like I said earlier I got this Buffalo Blue Cheese idea….This topping taste terrific. It’s got this amazing melty texture and it’s very flavorful. A thin spread goes a long way here. You might want to use it on bagels and other things like on sandwiches too. I’m thinking maybe it can kick up a grilled cheese sandwich in an interesting way too. Well anyways it sure makes the Potato Pancake a little more fun and tasty!

Ingredients for about 12 servings

12 oz whipped cream cheese – room temperature

7 Tablespoons cayenne pepper sauce (preferably Franks Red Hot)

4 Tablespoons dijon mustard

4 oz sweet butter – room temperature

1 Tablespoon sugar

7 oz blue cheese

Directions

Get a large bowl and mix in ingredients one at a time in order until done.

Forking Delicious!

 

 

 

 

Had a bunch of orange bell peppers and came up with a stuffed pepper that’s surprisingly light and very flavorful with pleasing texture. It’s creamy but not really creamy and I used some of the very flavorful cooking water from a pan of corn I cooked in the oven instead of more butter or cream. This is an easy recipe to prepare. Just throw everything in the oven and let the oven do the work. The size of the peppers I used may differ from yours so we might be a difference in servings. I used medium sized bell peppers.

Ingredients for about 9 servings

9 orange bell peppers – tops cut off and seeds and membrane removed – (you can use whatever color you want but they all taste different) (you should trim the tops and save the pepper and use)

3 brown skin potatoes (not large but good medium sized…my potatoes were about  7-8 oz each)

1 1/2  teaspoons canola or vegetable oil

5 corn ears (I cooked 5 but only used about 2 1/2 ears of corn….if you cook less corn the water that you use latter won’t be as flavorful)

2 teaspoons course sea salt

2 oz sweet butter

1/2 cup cooking water from corn

1 1/2 oz fired roasted hatch chile – stem, seeds, most of skin and core removed -chopped

1/2 roasted red bell pepper – stem, seeds, skin and core removed – chopped

1/2 roasted jalapeno – stem, seeds, core removed – chopped

3 1/2 oz pepper jack cheese – shredded

1/4 cup cilantro – chopped

1/4 cup scallions – chopped

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

pinch of white pepper

non stick canola or vegetable spray

Directions

Set oven at 350 degrees F

Wash potatoes well then dry well. Prick them all over with a fork. Rub the potatoes with oil and place on baking sheet.

Place peppers upside down on baking sheet that was lightly sprayed with non  stick spray.

Put peeled corn in a pan or baking dish and add water to cover the corn by about about three quarters. Add 2 teaspoon salt and the butter. Cover pan with foil.

Place the potatoes, the cut bell peppers and corn in the oven.

In one hour the peppers should be wrinkled but still have body to them. (you should check the potatoes but in my oven they needed another 1/2 hour. Potatoes will have a slightly wrinkled skin.

At one and one half hours or thirty minutes latter the corn will be very fragrant and should be done with the potatoes.

When corn is cool enough to handle remove from cob. Use two and a half cobs and put the rest in your refrigerator or freezer for something else.

When the potatoes are still warm but cool enough to handle then you peel the skin off. On my potatoes I was able to just pull the skin off. Place in a large bowl and mash by hand with a potato masher. Add warm corn water, white and black pepper, hatch pepper, red pepper, jalapeño, corn, cheese, cilantro and scallions. Mix gently with a spoon and try not to bust up the corn all the way. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Fill peppers tight as you can with the potato mixture and place each filled pepper in a non stick sprayed pan.

The filled peppers will take about one hour until they get some color on the top.

I chilled this pan and latter reheated two peppers for dinner.

They came out scrumptious! Forking yummy!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa is delicious on grilled meats and on tortillas. The Tomatillo is related to the Gooseberry and looks like a green tomato but comes in a husk you have to peel off.  Tomatillo do differ in flavor as some are very sweet and some have little flavor. Sometimes you get them when the husk is still green and fresh and seals the tomatillo completely. Most of the time the husk is very dry and comes with dirt inside. Either way you should peel and wash the tomatillos. This recipe is easy to prepare but involves  cleaned up peppers that are roasted, peeled with the seeds and stems of all the peppers removed. The produce always differs in flavor so some adjustments are to be expected.

Ingredients for about 10 servings

5 lbs tomatillos – husk removed, washed, cut in quarters

1 lb sweet onions – chopped

12 garlic cloves – shredded

1 Tablespoon oil (I used canola)

4 oz poblano pepper – roasted, cleaned, chopped

6 oz hatch chili – roasted, cleaned chopped

2 oz jalapeno chili – roasted, cleaned chopped

1/2 cup fresh cilantro – chopped

1/2 cup scallions – chopped

5 epazote leaves – torn very small (skip this if you don’t have it or use a pinch of very finely chopped fresh oregano)

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cumin

2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions

Turn the oven to 425 degrees F

Put the tomatillos on sheet pan (s) and keep in the oven about an hour or until the tomatoes are somewhat charred.

While the Tomatillos are roasting……

Put on a sauce pot on medium high heat and add the oil. When it’s hot add the onions and when they start to look cooked add the garlic and continue to cook till onions are translucent.

Turn down the heat to medium low.

Add all the peppers.

It should be aromatic by now.

Around now or soon the tomatillos are done.

Add them to the pot.

Add all dry spices and simmer about a half an hour. Stir occasionally.

Shut the heat off and add the fresh herbs and lime juice.

Taste and adjust.

This is a bright light salsa…The sweetness of the Tomatillos cuts all the heat from the hot peppers.