Summer Recipes

Love being back home in my own kitchen after almost a 2 month hiatus. Now I can get back to my cookbook and also get back to trying some new recipes. Prior to leaving for the east coast, I was on a jackfruit kick. I made Jackfruit “Carnitas” Tacos and Taco Bowl. I had been wanting to do something else with it that would require BBQ sauce because who doesn’t love BBQ sauce? After researching some ideas, I was inspired by The Veg Life blog to create a Hawaiian Jackfruit & Pineapple Kabob.

This was exactly the type of jackfruit recipe that I was looking for because it includes one of my favorite things to eat: pineapples! It’s so simple to make. Just cut up red and green bell peppers, red onions, and pineapples into thick slices. Marinate the jackfruit chunks (unripe from a can) in your favorite bbq sauce. Then stack them all up on a skewer and grill. I don’t have a grill, so I sauteed everything on a frying pan and then placed them all on a skewer afterwards for presentation. I cooked my jackfruit separately so that I could give them a nice char. I also made fire-roasted tomato rice to serve with it and smothered additional bbq sauce over my cooked skewers. I highly suggest the fire-roasted tomato rice. I used canned fire-roasted diced tomatoes and cooked the rice in that with chicken broth (you can use water if you want to keep the entire recipe vegan). I also sauteed fried garlic and onions separately to mix into the cooked rice and topped it with chopped cilantro.

While I was in NYC this summer, I also made Tomato & Roasted Corn salad and Yucca Pizza Crust. The Tomato & Roasted Corn salad is a pretty basic recipe but it’s delicious and so refreshing. Mix tomatoes, roasted corn, red onions, and shredded basil, sprinkle salt and pepper, and then top with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. I love both tomatoes and corn so I can easily devour this salad. The Yucca Pizza Crust I have made before and have included the recipe in a previous post. This time I made a BBQ Cauliflower Yucca Crust Pizza (pictured above in the back), which is a great alternative to BBQ Chicken Pizza, and a Margherita Pizza (pictured above in the front) with pineapple and mushrooms. I got carried away and added too much cheese though so the pizza slices were harder to pick up. It’s just sometimes challenging to hold back on the cheese, ya know? Mmmm…

An old favorite recipe of mine, which I think can be made all year round, is tomato confit. You can find my recipe in a previous post. It’s really easy to make and you can do so much with it. I personally like to mix it with pasta (noodle-y pasta is my preference) or smother it over my fried eggs in the morning for breakfast. But you can also serve it on a crostini as an appetizer, use it in a sandwich or on toast as a spread, and drizzle over grilled meats or fish. The aroma after you take the tomato confit out of the oven is amazing. Try it!

Which summer recipes would you recommend? I could always use some more ideas!

Jackfruit "Carnitas" Tacos with Pineapple

I love learning new vegetarian recipes. Lately, I feel like I’ve been eating too much meat. I miss how my body felt when I used to be a vegetarian. But it’s so hard to go back to that lifestyle, especially right now as I’m working on the Cambodian cookbook.

After recently having jackfruit kabobs at Elf, a vegetarian Mediterranean restaurant in Silverlake, I felt inspired to try making something savory with it myself. When I think of jackfruit, I think of the sweet fleshy, orange fruit that I’ve had during my travels through Southeast Asia. However, green jackfruit (young) from the can tastes nothing like it. It’s sort of bland but does have a nice meaty texture. This is actually a good thing for me because I’ve discovered that I’m allergic to the ripe, orange version of the fruit. If you haven’t tasted fresh, ripe jackfruit, you need to try it! It’s so good!

While there are so many options for jackfruit recipes that I want to try, I started with carnitas tacos. Because who doesn’t love tacos?! I adapted my pork carnitas recipe to this one. I think the pineapple slices really make the taco. But I’m biased because I love pineapple on everything!

I want to try making bbq jackfruit “pulled pork” or jackfruit “chicken” teriyaki next time. If you have any other suggestions, let me know! I’d love to hear your ideas!

Jackfruit “Carnitas” Tacos (makes about 8-10 small tacos)

Ingredients:

·      1 can of green jackfruit

·      1 package of small corn tortilla

·      ½ sweet yellow onion, diced

·      1 jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced (optional – too spicy for me!)

·      ½ cup of tangerine or orange juice

·      2 tsp oregano

·      1 tsp cumin

·      1 tsp paprika

·      1 tsp salt

·      ½ tsp pepper

·      1 tsp honey

·      1 tbsp lime juice

·      1 tbsp olive oil

Toppings:

·      ¼ sweet yellow onion, finely diced

·      ¼ cup of cilantro, finely diced

·      1 cup of pineapple, sliced

·      ½ cup of radishes, thinly sliced

·      salsa (I made my own, see previous blog post)

·      1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

In a large bowl, break apart the jackfruit and remove any seeds.  Add tangerine juice (or orange juice), oregano, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, honey, and lime juice.  Mix thoroughly and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with olive oil.  Saute the onions.  Once it starts to turn a golden brown color, add jalapeno slices if you like spice.  Otherwise, pour in the jackfruit mixture and braise for about 8-10 minutes.  You may need to lower the heat to medium. Stir occasionally. If the mixture gets too dry, you can add a little more tangerine/orange juice.

Serve over corn tortilla with fresh salsa.  Top with fresh onions, cilantro, radishes, pineapple slices, and lime wedges.