Tag Archives: cooking

All Purpose Salt & Pepper Blend

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I discover that a rib rub actually makes an excellent everyday seasoning.

A few weeks ago, I watched a cooking video titled “Salt & Pepper Spare Ribs” by Allrecipes.com‘s Chef John. Although Chef John’s sing-songy narration drives me bonkers, he shares a lot of good recipes and this was definitely one of them. (You can find the recipe without listening to his voice here.) I made the ribs, using baby backs because St. Louis (which I prefer) weren’t available, and they were great.

I did find myself with some extra rub after preparing the ribs. (Baby backs are smaller than St. Louis.) I put it in a jar in my pantry. This morning, on a whim, I sprinkled some on my breakfast scramble. Today, that included bacon; onions, yellow squash, and potatoes from my garden; spinach; and tomatoes with an egg on top. The small amount of “rib rub” I put on my breakfast really made the flavor explode. I regret not putting more on. (Tomorrow is another day.)

The blend is easy. Just mix these five ingredients together:

  • Ingredients
    Just five ingredients. Can’t get any easier than that!

    4 teaspoons kosher salt. I actually used regular iodized salt, which is I had in my pantry and wanted to use up.

  • 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper. Sadly my pepper mill doesn’t properly grind pepper — it cracks it. Not what I wanted in this recipe so I used pre-ground pepper. (Do not use flake pepper. Ever. If you have any, throw it away. It’s garbage.)
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper. I wouldn’t even know where to buy white peppercorns in the rural area where I live. I consider myself lucky to find ground white pepper so that’s what I used.
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper. I’ll admit I used a little less than this because I don’t like super spicy food. The ribs were definitely spicy enough for me.
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. Honestly, I think this is what made it so good on my breakfast.

Put it in a jar that you can seal tightly. I try to save spice jars with sprinkle tops just for this purpose. Then use it on anything you would normally sprinkle with salt and pepper. You won’t be disappointed.

That rib recipe won’t disappoint you, either. It’s especially good if you don’t have a smoker or just want something different. It can’t be any easier to make.

Instant Pot Pork, Cabbage, Apples, & Onions

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Quick and healthy Instant Pot meal.

I made this yesterday. It’s a recipe I dreamed up and it came out great!

Ingredients:

I listed them in the title, but here are the details:

  • 1-2 tablespoons oil. I used light olive oil because I only buy olive oil. I use regular when I want the olive oil taste and light when I just need some oil.
  • Pork loin or tenderloin. I’ve said before that pressure cooking pork tenderloin is a waste of a good cut of meat — it’s much better grilled — but that’s what I had and that’s what I used. I used one of the two tenderloins in the package because I also used my smaller Instant Pot and, let’s face it, I’m feeding a party of one. If I wanted to make more, I could have used both tenderloins.
  • Salt and pepper. I use coarsely fresh ground sea salt and pepper.
  • Onion. I used one large one, cut into narrow wedges. If you cut it too small, it “melts” while pressure cooking.
  • Cabbage. I used half a cabbage because (again) I was cooking for one in a small Instant Pot. I cut it in half, removed the core, and cut that half in half. If you’re cooking for more in a regular sized Instant Pot, use the whole thing, cored and quartered.
  • Apples. I used 2 gala apples. I’d bought them and they were terrible for snacking. Kind of soft and mealy. Not crisp like you’d want an apple. I had two choices: cook with them or give them to my chickens. I peeled and cored these (saving peels and cores for my chickens) and cut them into 1/8 wedges.

Instructions:

  1. Heat the oil in the Instant Pot on Sauté.
  2. Generously salt and pepper all sides of the pork.
  3. Brown all sides of the pork. (Because I used a small Instant Pot, I cut the pork tenderloin in half so it would fit better.) This should take 5-10 minutes.
  4. Remove pork from the Instant Pot and turn it off.
  5. Add onions, apples, pork, and cabbage in that order. (In my case, I could barely get the lid on when it was done.) Do not add any liquid.
  6. Seal the lid and set the Instant Pot on Manual (or Pressure, depending on the model) for 30 minutes. Make sure the steam vent is closed.
  7. Clean up the kitchen. You shouldn’t have much of a mess. Cutting board? Knife? Don’t forget to wash your hands!
  8. When the 30 minutes is up, wait 10 minutes and then carefully release the steam and open the pot.
  9. Remove the pork and slice into 1 to 1-1/2 inch slices. Serve with vegetables and the juice created in the pot by cooking them.

You’re welcome.

This made enough for me for at least 2 meals. I suppose I could eat it with rice, but I’m really trying to minimize carbs and there’s quite enough in the apples and onions.

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Oh, you want a photo? I didn’t take one. But if you make this and send me a photo of it on Twitter (@mlanger), I’ll put it in this blog post.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: Fire Roasted Yams

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My absolute favorite camping food.

One of the things I like best about camping with friends along the Colorado River is the evening campfires. It’s not just sitting around a warm fire with friends on a cool desert evening — it’s the fact that I can roast up some yams or sweet potatoes to snack on the next day.

The trick is to get the fire going early enough in the evening so that we have plenty of hot coals to roast the potatoes on. Then I scrub each potato and wrap it in aluminum foil. I use enough foil so that the potato has at least two layers around it on all sides. Then I lay the potatoes on the coals and turn them occasionally as we sit around the fire chatting about this or that. The hotter the coals are, the more often I turn them and the quicker they get cooked.

Fire Roasted Yam
OMG. How’s this for a fire-roasted yam?

The other night, we burned the bundle of fruitwood I’d brought from home. (Long story there.) It’s a hard wood and very slow burning, but it did make good coals. Trouble is, it took so long to burn down that we were ready to call it a night before the potatoes I’d thrown on — four regular potatoes from my garden and two yams from the supermarket — were done. So I moved the regular potatoes over to the side of the fire pit and left the yams right on top of the fading coals. Then I went to bed.

In the morning, the fire pit was cold (as we expected). I pulled out one of the yams and my fingers immediately smushed it. Uh-oh, I thought. I ruined this one. But when I unwrapped it, I found the potato skin only mildly scorched. I broke the potato open and was thrilled to see a uniformly soft orange center.

I ate it with a spoon.

The regular potatoes came out okay, too, but they’re not nearly as tasty cold as the yams are. I’ll peel the scorched skins off, chop up the flesh, and add it to my breakfast scrambles.