I am always and forever a fan of things with adobo sauce, but I don’t think before this I had made polenta with chicken stock, and that’s another thing for the favorites list! So obvious, I don’t know how I hadn’t done it before!
Spinach! It’s…a green thing you can eat.
Ingredients:
Pork:
- 1 4 pound pork shoulder roast
- 2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 chipotle pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from can of chipotles in adobo
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
Polenta:
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 3/4 cup polenta
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated
- 2 ounces Fontina cheese, freshly grated
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Optional toppings: sliced green onions, fresh cilantro, sliced radish, fresh lime wedges, extra Parmesan for sprinkling
Coat the pork shoulder in salt and pepper on all sides, then place in a crockpot. Add the garlic, chipotle, adobo, and syrup, then cover and cook on low 8-10 hours.
Remove the cooked meat from the crockpot and shred with 2 forks, then return the meat to the crockpot and stir together with the liquid inside. Cook on high, with the lid off, until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
Meanwhile, to make the polenta, first bring the stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the polenta and reduce the heat to medium-low, continuing to stir until the mixture thickens and is well combined.
Reduce the heat further, to low, and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes, until the mixture is very soft, the liquid is all absorbed, and there are no more dry chunks. Stir in the butter, cheese, salt, and pepper, until the butter and cheese are melted in.
Serve the pork over the polenta, topping with the optional toppings as desired.
I did buy green onions, but I forgot to actually use them. Oh well.
Maple Chipotle Pork with Polenta
From How Sweet It Is.
Pork:
- 1 4-pound pork shoulder roast
- 2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 chipotle pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from can of chipotles in adobo
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
Polenta:
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 3/4 cup polenta
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated
- 2 ounces Fontina cheese, freshly grated
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Optional toppings: sliced green onions, fresh cilantro, sliced radish, fresh lime wedges, extra Parmesan for sprinkling
Coat the pork shoulder in salt and pepper on all sides, then place in a crockpot. Add the garlic, chipotle, adobo, and syrup, then cover and cook on low 8-10 hours. Remove the cooked meat from the crockpot and shred with 2 forks, then return the meat to the crockpot and stir together with the liquid inside. Cook on high, with the lid off, until most of the liquid has been absorbed.
Meanwhile, to make the polenta, first bring the stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the polenta and reduce the heat to medium-low, continuing to stir until the mixture thickens and is well combined. Reduce the heat further, to low, and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes, until the mixture is very soft, the liquid is all absorbed, and there are no more dry chunks. Stir in the butter, cheese, salt, and pepper, until the butter and cheese are melted in.
Serve the pork over the polenta, topping with the optional toppings as desired.
Ingredients:
Lightly grease a 9″ pie plate, then set aside. Do not preheat the oven.
Stir in the walnuts (or chocolate chips) until evenly mixed. You can knead a few times if desired, but it’s not necessary.
Place the banana slices in the greased pie dish, creating one even layer over the bottom.
Combine the cinnamon and sugar for the topping in a small dish, stirring together. Taking tablespoon-sized pieces of the dough, roll each into a ball, then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Place the coated dough balls on top of the banana slices, and repeat until all the dough has been used up.
Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over the dough balls. I sort of spaced it at this step and instead threw out the rest of the cinnamon sugar, so mine weren’t as sweet as they could have been, but they were still real tasty. Drizzle the butter over the dough, then sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the top.
Let cool 10 minutes on a wire rack, then serve still warm. Refrigerate leftovers.
Ingredients:
Add the sugar and beat until smooth, then the coconut oil and vanilla.
Add the flour mixture and beat until just blended.
Stir in the oats and chocolate chips by hand. Cover, and chill the dough for about 1 hour, until it can be shaped into balls.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line to baking sheets with parchment. Scoop the dough by the rounded tablespoon, pressing the dough firmly into a ball, then flattening the ball slightly. Place slightly spaced on the parchment lined sheets.
Bake 10 minutes or until they appear set and a bit browned at the edges. Transfer the cooked cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Ingredients:
Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well mixed.
Gently transfer to the prepared bread pan.
Bake 75-85 minutes, until crusty on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen. Turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.
Ingredients:
Increase the heat to medium-high. Liberally salt and pepper all sides of the meat, then brown 3-5 minutes per side until browned all over.
Cover, and cook 2-3 hours – 2 1/2 will probably be about right, but check at 2 hours, both to see if the meat is tender, and for temperature. Using a meat thermometer, you want it to reach 170 degrees inside. If the meat has reached temperature but isn’t fork-tender yet, you can turn off the heat but return the dish to the still-warm oven for another half hour.
To prepare the donut batter, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl, then create a well in the center of the mixture. Stir together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and oil, then pour into the well in the dry mixture.
Stir together until just combined, then transfer the mixture into a pastry bag, a gallon ziplock bag and then snip off the corner. I find this easiest to do by putting the ziplock in a flower vase with the top of the bag folded down over the edges to hold it up.
Spoon a scant tablespoon of the topping into each well in the donut pan.
Pipe the batter over the topping, to about 3/4 of the way full. (Mine are mostly a bit over-full.)
I put one donut pan on a foil-lined baking sheet, and put that one on the bottom, and was glad I had done so, as a little bit of the cinnamon topping mixture leaked out the sides and was caught on the pan. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until the top springs back slightly when pressed.
Let the donuts cool 5 minutes in the pan, then flip them out onto a wire wrack. Again, I recommend doing this over some foil, as some of the cinnamon topping may leak through the rack. If any of the topping remains in the donut pan, you can spoon it out and onto the donuts.
If you only had one pan, repeat with the remaining cinnamon mixture and batter, re-greasing the pan in between.
Give the glaze a little while to set up, and these are great to bring to a pot luck!
Ingredients:
In a large bowl, beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Add the cream cheese and vanilla and beat until well combined.
Gently fold a quarter of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, lightening the cream cheese mixture, before folding the remaining whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
Gently pour or spoon the filling into the pie plate or mini cheesecake dish, tapping the bottom of the dish on the counter to remove any air pockets. Cover, and freeze overnight.
When ready to serve, if desired beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat a further 30 seconds. Top the cheesecake with whipped cream, Whoppers, and/or hot fudge sauce as desired.
Ingredients:
Pour the sugar mixture over the apples and stir to combine.
Transfer the apple mixture into the bottom crust.
Top with the other crust, pinching together the edges all the way around, to seal, and cutting several slits in the top.
Bake 45-50 minutes, then serve with ice cream!
Ingredients:
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead unto a soft, smooth dough is formed. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a large greased bowl, turning the dough-ball to get it lightly greased all over. Cover with a kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place to ride until the dough has doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
While the dough rises, prepare the apple filling. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. Combine the diced apple with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and spread on the lined sheet.
Bake 15-20 minutes, until the pieces are dry to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Once the dough has risen, increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees, and set a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Line another baking sheet and set aside.
Spread 1/4 of the cheese and 1/4 of the apple down the long side of one of the dough pieces, then repeat with the remaining cheese, apple, and dough pieces.
Lightly brush the opposite long sides with egg wash, then roll the dough around the filling, towards the egg wash side, creating a log, and pinching to make sure the log stays closed around the filling.
Gently tie each log into a basic knot.
Add the baking soda to the boiling water, being careful as it will foam up. Add two of the knots to the boiling water and let them boil for 30 seconds, spooning water over them or flipping them if they are floating half out of the water. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and place on the prepared sheet. Repeat with the remaining pretzels.
Brush the top of each knot with egg wash, then sprinkle with sea salt. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown. 
Let cool 10 minutes before serving.
Super yummy, and not as much work as they may appear!
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim any excess fat or creepy bits (tendons) from the pork, then pat the outside dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and the rosemary evenly all over the pork.
Turn the pork, using tongs, and sear similarly on all the other sides.
Transfer the pan to the oven and cook until an instant read thermometer reads 140 degrees in the center, 12-15 minutes. If you have one of the ones that reads the meat while it’s still in the oven, even better, mine was even hotter at just 12 minutes. Remove the pork to a clean plate/cutting board.
Return the pan to medium high heat and add the cider mixture, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom with a wooden spoon.
When the cider has reached a simmer, return the pork to the pan. Spoon the cider mixture over the pork, tilting the pan as needed to scoop up more mixture.
Continue spooning the cider mixture until it reduces and thickens. Remove the pan from the heat, and remove the pork to a cutting board. Tent with foil and let rest 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving, drizzling with the remaining cider sauce.
