Hal and I like to have a Super Bowl party every year - it prevents us from needing a designated driver. We love the big game, and the big food that comes with it. This year, a small plate of carrots and ranch dip was the only healthy option available. I decided to skip fruit/veggies, and go straight for the all-meat fiesta. It's only once a year, right?
So which three meats? Chicken, pork and beef. I made a
beef vindaloo I saw on Aarti Party, another of Aarti Sequeira's recipes from her blog-
Sriracha Pomegranate Chicken Wings, and an Asian-style honey barbecue pork that I made up. Yes, I'm obsessed with Aarti these days. I've made several of her recipes now, and they've all been fantastic. She's amazing.
The beef vindaloo was about medium-spicy the way I made it (just like her recipe, only I used a sweet onion instead of red). I cooked it on the stove, then transferred to a crock pot. I took the serrano pepper out of the crock once it came to the right spice level for me.
I changed up the chicken a bit more - for starters, I didn't make wings. I made the sauce just like the recipe, using her idea of cooking down pomegranate juice since I didn't find the molasses. Then I used the rub (made with ground cardamom instead of pods - I can't find those anywhere) on some regular chopped up chunks of chicken breast. Once again, I let it cook on the stove after the chicken sat in the rub for a while, and kept warm in a crock pot. Yes, I have two.
I had to borrow the third (thanks Lindsay!). In that one, I put the Asian pork I made. For that, I chopped up a pork tenderloin and cooked it up in a mixture of equal parts hoisin sauce and plum sauce with generous drizzles of soy sauce and honey - I just played with those until I was happy. I didn't want it too sweet. This took about 20 minutes total, including chopping the pork.
The whole meat-topia took about 1.5 hours to create, which I didn't think was bad at all considering the amount of food and things like curry made from scratch. Woot!
There were also 3 great dips. We had my homemade guacamole (original recipe courtesy of my sister Kristin's Cuban sister-in-law), a corn and cheese dip I learned from my sister Shannon, and a killer salsa dip my friend Amanda brought. My guac is just avocado, finely chopped onion and garlic, lots of cilantro and fresh lime juice. The Cuban secret is that you don't mix it - you cut through it with a knife repeatedly until it is well mixed and you still have some great chunks of avocado. It only takes a minute, and it's totally worth it.
Here is the magic corn and cheese dip: 14 oz of fiesta corn (with the peppers in it), 1.75 cups of good lite mayo (trust me, the store-brand stuff makes it weird), 2 cups shredded colby jack, half cup shredded parmesan, and 2 heaping Tbsp finely chopped jalapeno. Stir all of that together, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. That's it. And you can save the world with that dip.
There were also brownies, chips, the poor, out-of-place carrots, a mini-keg of Newcastle and a lovely bucket of sangria. Okay it wasn't actually in a bucket. I feel horribly full again just thinking about all of this. Maybe that's why it took me a week to write about it - I had to let my tummy heal a bit. Or maybe I just didn't want to admit that football season is actually over. Sigh...see you next year, meat-topia.
This year, I made sea scallops, dusted with flour and seared in a garlic-infused olive oil that my mom gave me (Sweetwater Growers in Canton, GA is also a good source...and they ship easily). For sides, I made individual potato gratins from a Melissa d'Arabian recipe, and prosciutto-wrapped plums stuffed with Gorgonzola. I intended to use figs or baby pears, neither of which I could find, so I thought I'd try plums since they are a good size too. I put them in the oven for about 5 minutes to crisp up the prosciutto and melt the cheese - yum! I think the key is not to use TOO much Gorgonzola, and maybe next time I'll add a drizzle of honey. The potato gratins, which involve layering potato slices, scallions and shredded swiss in the cups of a muffin tin, then drizzling with lite cream and baking, I must say were a bit of a disappointment. The cream sort of congealed a bit, and the flavor was just a little bland.
To make up for that, I made Molten Spiced Chocolate Cabernet Cakes that I found in a McCormick ad a while back. These were terribly easy, and very delicious. We each finished about half of one, since they were so dense, but they were really lovely! I was glad the liquid center and cakey outside worked so well. Give these a shot - it only takes a few minutes to make up the batter, which can be done ahead, and about 15 minutes to bake. I cut out a paper heart, put it on top, and dusted powdered sugar all over before removing the heart. They were as cute as they were yummy.
