Monday, July 19, 2021

Easy Pork Vindaloo - Instant Pot

This easy pork vindaloo is a super tasty dish and quick to the table because it’s made in an Instant Pot. Vindaloo is classically a very spicy curry but you can tone that down by scaling back on the red chili peppers. 

Food Lust People Love: This easy pork vindaloo is a super tasty dish and quick to the table because it’s made in an Instant Pot. Vindaloo is classically a very spicy curry but you can tone that down by scaling back on the red chili peppers.

I remember watching a Jamie Oliver show years ago and he was cooking beef stew. He didn’t bother browning the meat saying that he had tried making the stew both ways, browning and not browning, and didn’t see a difference in the flavor of the resulting dish. In fact, for his wife Jool’s Favorite Beef Stew, the beef is chucked into the pot along with the vegetables. (That might have been the dish he was making, I don't recall.)

This story is my way of assuring you that this pork vindaloo is going to turn out just fine, more than fine actually, delicious, even though the pork isn’t browned. In case you were worried. 

Easy Pork Vindaloo - Instant Pot

If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can use a Dutch oven to cook this recipe on your stovetop, slow simmering the pork in the spices until tender. Just keep the lid closed tightly and add more water if necessary. 

Ingredients
1 teaspoon monosodium glutamate
2 1/2 lbs or 1134g pork shoulder, cut into 1.5 in or 4cm cubes
4 tablespoons canola or other light oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
3-4 red chili peppers
4 cloves garlic
1 knob fresh ginger, peeled
2 onions
1/4 cup or 60ml white vinegar
1/2 cup or 120ml water

For the spice mix:
4 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

For garnish: 
cilantro

To serve: cooked rice and/or flatbread


Method
Sprinkle the MSG on the cubed pork. Set aside while you prepare the other items. 


Use a small food processor (or a sharp knife) to mince the garlic, chili peppers and ginger. Cut the onions into quarters and again use the food processor to mince them. 


Press the sauté button on your Instant Pot. Add oil and allow it a minute to heat up. Add the cumin and mustard seeds. 


Once the cumin seeds brown and the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the onions. Sauté for 8-10 minutes or until the onions begin to brown slightly.


Add the pork, garlic, ginger and peppers. Stir well until the pork is coated with the onions, garlic, ginger and chili peppers. 


Add the spice mix, give everything a good stir then add the vinegar and water.


Secure the lid and make sure the pressure valve is closed. Cook for 25 minutes on “normal.” 

Naturally release pressure for 10 minutes, then manual release. 

Remove the lid and press the sauté button. 

Food Lust People Love: This easy pork vindaloo is a super tasty dish and quick to the table because it’s made in an Instant Pot. Vindaloo is classically a very spicy curry but you can tone that down by scaling back on the red chili peppers.

Cook for 5 minutes to boil off some of the liquid and reduce the gravy to a stew like consistency. Taste for salt and add a little more, if needed.  

Garnish with cilantro and serve with cooked rice and/or your favorite flat bread. 

Food Lust People Love: This easy pork vindaloo is a super tasty dish and quick to the table because it’s made in an Instant Pot. Vindaloo is classically a very spicy curry but you can tone that down by scaling back on the red chili peppers.

Enjoy!

It’s MultiCooker Monday and my blogger friends are sharing all sorts of lovely dishes cooked in small appliances. Check out the links below. Many thanks to our organizer and host, Sue of Palatable Pastime


Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group. 


Pin this Easy Pork Vindaloo!

Food Lust People Love: This easy pork vindaloo is a super tasty dish and quick to the table because it’s made in an Instant Pot. Vindaloo is classically a very spicy curry but you can tone that down by scaling back on the red chili peppers.

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Friday, July 16, 2021

Southern-style Tuna Salad

My Southern-style tuna salad is an old family recipe, the one I grew up with. It’s like egg salad but, of course, with added tuna, like we make it in the Southern United States. 

Food Lust People Love: My Southern-style tuna salad is an old family recipe, the one I grew up with. It’s like egg salad but, of course, with added tuna, like we make it in the Southern United States.

Another short tale. Many years ago, I was on the board of the American Association of Malaysia. Once a month, we would meet to deal with association business and we would bring dishes to share for a working lunch. 

One month I made tuna salad sandwiches. They were fancy sandwiches, crusts cut off, this recipe inside. We were discussing some item on the agenda when the chairperson stopped short and looked right at me. “Your egg salad has tuna in it!” she exclaimed. My retort was “No, my tuna salad has eggs in it! Doesn't yours?” 

A lively discussion by the whole board (a mixed group of Americans from all over) followed whereby I learned that there seems to be a north-south divide. In the northern US states tuna salad does not have eggs, southern-style tuna salad does. Who knew? 

Growing up, this is the way I remember my grandmothers and my mother making the “dressing” for not only tuna salad but also potato salad (at least on the days when no one had the wherewithal to whip up homemade mayonnaise.) Homemade mayo was always preferred but, you know, who has time for that? (Another parenthetical aside: My elder daughter would disagree. She always has time for that and she is a pro at homemade mayo! But she is not with me right now and I cannot be bothered.) 

Southern-style Tuna Salad 

You can chop up the egg yolks along with the whites and just add them to the tuna salad but you’ll miss the opportunity to enrich the mayonnaise and mustard dressing and make it seem more like homemade. Trust me, it makes a difference in flavor somehow. 

Ingredients
4 hard-boiled eggs
2 cans (5 oz or 142g) wild-caught chunk white albacore tuna in water
1/2 cup or 120ml mayonnaise
2-3 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 medium onion

To garnish: chopped green onions and a good sprinkle of cayenne

Method
Drain the canned tuna in a sieve and use the can lid to press out as much liquid as you can. If you don't the tuna salad will be a bit "wet."


Cut the boiled eggs in half with a sharp knife and put the yolks in a mixing bowl. Mash them with a fork. 


Add in the mayonnaise, mustard and seasonings then grate in the onion. I use a microplane so the onion is very fine (and juicy) because I like the flavor but personally don’t like to find crunchy bits of onion in my tuna salad. You are welcome to mince the onion with a sharp knife if onion bits don’t bother you. Mix well. 


Chop the egg whites and add them to the mixing bowl, along with the tuna. Mix well to combine. 


Food Lust People Love: My Southern-style tuna salad is an old family recipe, the one I grew up with. It’s like egg salad but, of course, with added tuna, like we make it in the Southern United States.

Garnish with some chopped green onions and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper, if desired. 

Food Lust People Love: My Southern-style tuna salad is an old family recipe, the one I grew up with. It’s like egg salad but, of course, with added tuna, like we make it in the Southern United States.

Chill until ready to serve. This tuna salad is great on bread rolls, sliced bread or crackers. It is perfect for a picnic. Just bring it chilled in the cooler, provide the appropriate starchy things and let everyone help themselves! 

Food Lust People Love: My Southern-style tuna salad is an old family recipe, the one I grew up with. It’s like egg salad but, of course, with added tuna, like we make it in the Southern United States.

Enjoy! 

This month my Fish Friday Foodie friends are going on a picnic. Check out all the picnic friendly recipes below! Many thanks to our host and organizer, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm


Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas. 


Pin this Southern-style Tuna Salad! 

Food Lust People Love: My Southern-style tuna salad is an old family recipe, the one I grew up with. It’s like egg salad but, of course, with added tuna, like we make it in the Southern United States.
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Thursday, July 15, 2021

Piña Colada Bundt Cake #BundtBakers

A delicious treat of the tropical cocktail in cake form, this Piña Colada Bundt Cake is made with pineapple, coconut cream and, of course, rum. It is brushed after baking with a coconut pineapple rum syrup/glaze.

Food Lust People Love: A delicious treat of the tropical cocktail in cake form, this Piña Colada Bundt Cake is made with pineapple, coconut cream and, of course, rum. It is brushed after baking with a coconut pineapple rum syrup/glaze.

Once upon a time, a boy and a girl got married. He wanted to surprise her with the honeymoon so he only said, pack for a beach holiday. So she did. But the funny thing is (and it wasn’t so funny back then) the suitcases went to the Bahamas and the couple went to Barbados. Which was a big surprise for everyone. 

They consoled themselves by ordering cocktails by the pool where they could sit around in the hotel bathrobes and gift shop I 💙  Barbados t-shirts. Many, many, MANY consoling piña coladas were consumed before the suitcases turned up four days later. And they lived happily ever after. 

I’d say “The End” but there’s cake to come!  A tender, pineapple-y, coconutty cake with rum. Read on. 

Piña Colada Bundt Cake

For your canned pineapple, buy the kind in juice, not syrup, so you’ll have the necessary juice for the coconut pineapple rum syrup/glaze. This recipe is adapted from one on Real House Moms. It makes one 6-cup Bundt cake. 

Ingredients
For the cake batter: 
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour, plus extra for preparing the Bundt pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/3 cup or 75g softened butter, plus extra for preparing the Bundt pan
1 egg
1/2 cup or 120ml coconut cream
1 1/2 teaspoons aged rum 
1/2 cup or 90g chopped, canned pineapple, drained juice reserved

For the coconut pineapple rum syrup/glaze:
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/4 cup or 60ml pineapple juice
1/4 cup or 60ml dark rum
3 tablespoons coconut cream 

Optional for decorating:
a few good pinches sweetened flake coconut
diced canned pineapple

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Generously butter then flour a 6-cup Bundt pan. 

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy; add the egg and beat until well mixed.


Add the rum and coconut cream and mix until incorporated.


Tip the pineapple bits in the flour bowl and stir them around till they are coated with flour.  Now add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and beat until the batter is light and glossy. 


Spoon the batter into the Bundt pan and even out the top with a spatula. 


Bake for 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the coconut pineapple rum syrup. Cook the sugar, pineapple juice and rum together in a small pot over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and it has reduced by about one half. 


Take the pot off the heat and leave the mixture to cool. It will thicken up more as it cools. 

Whisk in the coconut cream.

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes then remove cake from pan and cool completely.


Brush with the cake with the syrup/glaze. I spooned the syrup/glaze over the cake to start with but a lot just dripped off despite how thick it was so brushing it on seemed to work better. Keep brushing it on as the syrup/glaze soaks in. You may not use all of the syrup/glaze.

Decorate with a little sweetened flake coconut and bits of the canned pineapple, if desired. 

Food Lust People Love: A delicious treat of the tropical cocktail in cake form, this Piña Colada Bundt Cake is made with pineapple, coconut cream and, of course, rum. It is brushed after baking with a coconut pineapple rum syrup/glaze.

Enjoy! 

Food Lust People Love: A delicious treat of the tropical cocktail in cake form, this Piña Colada Bundt Cake is made with pineapple, coconut cream and, of course, rum. It is brushed after baking with a coconut pineapple rum syrup/glaze.

This month my Bundt Bakers are all sharing boozy Bundt recipes. Check out the links below. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe

BundtBakers

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.
Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.


Pin this Piña Colada Bundt Cake! 

Food Lust People Love: A delicious treat of the tropical cocktail in cake form, this Piña Colada Bundt Cake is made with pineapple, coconut cream and, of course, rum. It is brushed after baking with a coconut pineapple rum syrup/glaze.
 .