Macadamia Nuts and Mangoes - Great combination

Macadamia Nut Crusted Tilapia with Mango Salad

 I just adore mangoes and I’m always looking to add them to my diet.  When perfectly ripe they are luscious and sweet.  I also love the combination of mangoes and macadamia nuts.  I’ve read lots of recipes for mango salsas and macadamia nut crusted fish.  So here is my take on this combination.  

Mango Salad

I seriously think this is the best recipe I’ve ever conceived.  I just love this sweet with a bit of heat salad.

2 ripe mangos, diced

1 ripe avocado, diced

¼ c red onion, finely diced

½ green jalapeno, finely diced

1 small red jalapeno, finely diced

2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped

2 Tbsp of Mango Vinegar

1 Tbsp of Lime Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and let sit out for ½ an hour.  If chilled in the refrigerator remove about ½ an hour to 45 minutes prior to eating.   Serves 6 and its 3 WW points plus.

Macadamia Nut Crusted Tilapia

2 – 4oz Tilapia or any firm white fish

1 oz macadamia nuts, finely chopped. 

¼ c of panko bread crumbs

2 tsp of Lime EVOO

Salt and pepper to taste

1 baking sheet covered with aluminum foil

Make sure your fish fillets are for the most part all the same thickness and salt and pepper both sides.  Place on baking sheet.  Mix macadamia nuts, panko and a touch of salt.  Place ½ the nut mixture on each fillet and lastly drizzle 1 tsp of Lime EVOO on top of each nut crusted fillet.  Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for about 6 minutes – depends on the thickness of your fillet.  Turn on broiler and brown the tops of your fish.  I serve this with wild rice or brown rice would be good too.

Serves 2.  Macadamia nuts are very rich and boost up the points a bit more than I expect, but well worth it.  WW Points plus is 8.

Fiberlicious!

Here is a recipe for really good bran muffins. They are packed with fiber and other good things.

I found the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website and I adapted the recipe according to what I had in my pantry when I first made them two weeks ago.

And, if you are following the Weight Watchers program, they come in at 4 points plus for one good sized and filling muffin.

Ingredients:

4 ounces boiling water (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 ounces bran cereal (1/2 cup) (not flakes, preferably a wheat bran) (I used Kellogg's All-Bran)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (I used one of those single serving cups)
1 large egg
5 1/4 ounces King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour (1 1/4 cups)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (I use kosher salt)
4 1/2 ounces currants (3/4 cup)
8 ounces plain fat free Greek yogurt (1 cup)
2 ounces fat free milk (1/4 cup)
1 7/8 ounces brown sugar (1/4 cup)
4 1/2 ounces bran cereal (not flakes) (1 1/2 cups)

Directions:

1) In a small mixing bowl, pour the boiling water over the half cup of bran cereal. When cooled, mix in the applesauce and the egg.

2) While the water/bran mixture cools, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the currants.

3) In a large measuring cup (or bowl), combine the yogurt, milk and brown sugar, and stir into the dry ingredients. Stir in remaining cereal, then the softened bran mixture. Cover the batter and refrigerate overnight.

4) When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Line a muffin tin with papers, and spray the insides of the papers. Or just grease the muffin cups themselves, if you like a crustier muffin edge. (I use the papers).

5) Stir the batter once or twice, then scoop a heaping 1/4 cup of batter into each prepared muffin cup.

6) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

7) Remove from the oven, cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan.

To freeze, wrap each muffin individually in plastic wrap, then into a freezer bag. They will keep for at least one month (if they last that long).

Following are a few ideas for substitutes and add-ins.

- substitute dried cranberries, raisins, dates, dried apricots or dried (or fresh) blueberries for the currants
- add nuts (walnuts, pecans, any kind of nut that you like or have on hand)
- use half boiling water and half molasses to soften the bran cereal in the first step
- add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- add 1 tablespoon of wheat germ
- chop up a fresh apple and add it to the batter
- add a small can of drained pineapple tidbits

Some more information from the King Arthur Flour website:

The batter will keep for up to a week, covered in the refrigerator. You can scoop and bake as much as you need when you need it.

If you only want to bake one or two muffins, you can use greased custard cups instead of the muffin tin. If you use the muffin tin, put an inch of water in the empty wells to keep the pan from warping.

Makes 12 muffins.

Enjoy!

Porchetta

Say it with me. Porchetta. Pronounced 'porketta'. There are many variations of recipes out there for porchetta. We decided to cook one for New Year's Day Dinner. The original inspiration is from Food Network's Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives . He visited an Italian market/restaurant in Chicago and there's a video http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/panozzos-porchetta-with-guy-video/98090.html on the Food Network website showing how the chef prepares the porchetta for the restaurant. I followed the directions for the rub for the pork belly and the pesto for the pork loin. Yes, we used both. Pork belly (don't be put off by the name pork belly. It's basically uncured bacon!). So, on to the rub. There is no recipe at the Food Network webiste so I just watched the video a couple of times and made notes. I also didn't measure any of the ingredients when I made my rub and pesto.  I'll give a rough description/estimate for how I made the rub and the pesto.

For the rub:

fennel seed (I had about half a jar of McCormick and used all of it)
coriander seed (same as fennel seed above)
whole black peppercorns (used probably 4 tablespoons)
fresh bay leaves (I did not have fresh, did not include in my rub)
kosher salt (about 1/4 cup)

Method:

Toast the fennel seed, coriander seed and black peppercorns in a skillet until lightly toasted about 5-6 minutes depending upon how high you set your heat. Let cool and place in a spice grinder and grind until fine.

Rub both sides of the pork belly with the spice rub. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in a jumbo food bag. I did this because the rub is very fragrant and I didn't want my milk to taste like pork belly rub!

For the pesto:

extra virgin olive oil (extra virgin is all I ever use; use what you have)
garlic cloves (I used a lot - maybe 10 cloves)
fresh sage (1 1/2 pkgs of what I got at the market)
fresh rosemary (5-6 sprigs from my garden)

Method:

Place garlic, sage and rosemary in the bowl of a food processor and process until everything is pretty well chopped up. Add the olive oil until you get a smooth paste, as though you were making pesto.

Rub the pork loin all over with the pesto. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in a jumbo food bag. Again, I didn't want my milk to taste like garlic/sage/rosemary pesto.

Oh, one thing I forgot to do was add some of the rub to the pesto. I'm sure it would have made it delicious but the pesto was really flavorful. I'll try to remember to add the rub the next time, because, yes, there will be a next time. This was good food, people.

I marinated both meats for two days. On the day we were going to cook it, we took the meat from the refrigerator and rinsed and dried the pork belly. I don't know why the chef rinsed it but if you watch the video, you will hear him say 'rinse the pork belly'. Anyway, we rinsed and dried the belly, then scored the meat. To score the meat, use a sharp knife (or in this case, we used a box cutter) and make shallow diagonal cuts into the meat side of the pork belly. Turn the piece of meat and make more diagonal cuts - your cuts will look like diamonds) then placed the pork loin in the center of the belly and wrapped the belly around the loin and tied it up with kitchen twine, all nice and neat. Now here is where we veered off the instructions from the chef. We placed the belly-wrapped loin on a rack in a roasted pan. Fired up the grill to 450 degrees and placed the roasting pan on the grill and roasted for one hour. After one hour, we lowered the heat to 300 degrees until a thermometer reached 145 degrees. Took it off the grill and let it rest on the cutting board on the kitchen counter. These cooking instructions were from a recipe on Epicurious. The weight of our pork was closer to the Epicurious recipe than the Food Network recipe. Our pork loin weighed about 4 lbs. and the belly weighed 5 lbs.

When we were ready to serve, we cut the strings off and sliced the meat using a serrated knife.

We served roasted potatoes, carrots and fennel along with "Cavolo E Pancetta Soppresa", a delicious mixture of shredded savoy cabbage, grated fontina and pecorino romano cheese, crumbled blue cheese and heavy cream. Dice some pancetta and sprinkle on top and roast at 500 degrees for 15-18 minutes. From the "Cucina Simpatica" cookbook by Johanne Killeen and George Germon, the chef/owners of the wonderful Al Forno Restaurant in Providence, RI. If you are ever in the area, try to make a reservation. You will not be disappointed.