Good afternoon all!
For lunch today I made Potato and Cheese Pierogi from;
You can find the recipe in the link above.
These were delicious! I would recommend these to everyone, they were even a hit with my very picky
one year old. They are a little time consuming to make, but worth it.
I'd also like to add that these can not be screwed up. I am the worst at measuring and reading
recipes, it's sheer laziness! I didn't measure anything on this and it came out terrific!!
One thing I did tweak was I added a lot of salt and I fried them up a bit more, I liked them a little crunchier than they look in their original picture on Beckham & Blooms Blog.
I am a salt lover. I added it to the potatoes and then
I sprinkled some over the finished product and added a small dollop of sour cream.
Yum-o.
There were lots of extra potatoes, and this is fine because they were delicious and I'll just serve them at dinner tomorrow night. The garlic and onion in the mashed potatoes really made them delicious.
I cut the dough with a wine glass and then rolled the circle out a little bigger
Rolled out and ready
All fried up
Stay tuned because tonight is going to be a brand new meal as well....and it's a pretty involved one (for me at least...lol)
Ok, now for dinner....
I made Fried Chicken, Cuban Style (don't know why it's called fried chicken cause it's not fried but whatever) I also made Easy No-Fail Black Beans and Cuban Rice and Fried Sweet Plantains from Cuba Cocina cookbook by Joyce Lafray.
These recipes were AMAZING. Seriously, the best food I've ever made... and I'm a pretty good cook!
It was very time consuming, don't know why the beans are called easy cause they were a pain in the butt.
It took about 2 hours to finish (tons of dicing and slicing... thank goodness for my slap chop! lol) dinner up.
The food was worth every second! And I hate dinners that take forever to make.
Now for the recipes;
Fried Chicken, Cuban Style
Pretty quick and easy!
4 to 4.5 lbs. chicken pieces (I used boneless skinless chicken thighs)
3 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 lime, sliced, seeds removed
3/4 cup sour orange juice **
1 large onion, very thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil, for frying
1/4 jar chopped pimento pieces
1 teaspoon pepper
Salt, to taste
Wash and pat dry chicken pieces. Set aside, Mix together garlic, cumin, lime slices and sour orange juice. Pour onto chicken, cover with rings of onion and marinate for 3 hours or longer.
Heat skillet and oil, saute onion slices until light brown. Add pimento, pepper and salt. Add chicken and marinade. Cook over medium-high heat for 5 mins. and then flip and cook an additional 25 to 30 mins. until done.
**To make sour orange juice mix 1/4 cup lime juice with 3/4 cups orange juice.
Easy No-Fail Black Beans
(Not as easy as they claim it to be! lol)
2 slices smoked bacon, diced
1/2 ounce salt pork, cut into pieces (I didn't have this so I used an extra slice of bacon & extra salt)
1 tbs. butter or margarine
2 garlic cloves, peeled and pressed
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
2 tbs minced celery
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 cups cooked black beans (follow cooking directions on package- remember to cook ahead, they take about 2 hours to cook)
1 quart fat free chicken broth
2 bay leaves
3/4 cup dry sherry (didn't have so I used white cooking wine)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 tbs olive oil
Salt
Heat medium saucepan on medium heat, add bacon and salt pork, when bacon turns translucent, add butter.
When melted add garlic, onion, green peppers and celery, stirring constantly until vegetables are just done. Add cumin, mix thoroughly, then add cooked black beans, chicken stock and bay leaves. Reduce to a simmer and cook additional 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain beans, reserving the broth liquid. (I used my colander and put a pot under it to catch the liquid)
Heat another medium saucepan over high, add sherry and vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook until reduced to half of the amount of liquid. Add the reserved broth liquid and olive oil and reduce by about a third.
Add black beans and more water if necessary, cook for another 10 minutes. Remove 1 cup of beans and puree or fork mash, put back into pot... this will help thicken the sauce up. Season with salt.
Cuban Rice
Super easy and yummy!
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups long grain white rice
1 cup tomato sauce
1 bay leaf, crushed (but not torn apart)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 cup chicken broth
Salt, to taste
Preheat oven to 325. Heat large skillet and add olive oil. When oil is heated, add onion and garlic and cook until not quite brown. Add rice, tomato sauce, bay leaf, oregano and broth. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and place into oven for about 20 minutes. (I moved the rice mixture from my pan to a casserole dish as my pan can't go in the oven) Season with salt to taste.
Fried Sweet Plantains
My favorite, first time I ever made them and they were just as great, easy too!
4 ripe plantains, peeled and cut diagonally into 3/4 inch pieces (I used two, also get black ones that look rotten for this)
2 tbs olive or vegetable oil
2 tbs butter or margarine (optional, added a nice flavor to them)
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt
Heat oil in skillet, add plantain slices and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. (I cooked about 2 cause my oil was super hot)
Remove and drain on paper bag or paper towels. Place on serving platter and sprinkle with lime juice and salt. (I didn't use lime juice or salt, and they were great! I didn't know how it would taste)
Chicken while marinating
Chicken while cooking (doesn't it look amazing? It was!!)
My plate
Fried sweet plantains
