Wow. I only missed this by a week? ;- My apologies Maureen, my life's been a little topsy-turvy lately and my time on these forums is pretty limited. Puerco Asado (Pork Roast) is a classic Cuban dish. I highly recommend you first try the quintessential Cuban Garlic Sauce, Mojo Criollo (Moho Cree-o-yo). Make extra if you like, because it'll last for weeks, refrigerated, and you can use the sauce over pork, chicken and it's also served over root vegetables, like yuca (cassava). Mojo Criollo 10 cloves garlic 1 medium onion, thinly sliced ½ cup sour orange, or ½ cup sweet orange juice and ¼ cup each fresh lime and lemon juice ½ cup pure olive oil Use a mortal and pestle or a food processor to crush the garlic and salt to form a paste (If using a food processor, make sure to keep it running when you drop the garlic in, so none of the cloves get buried under the blade. Combine the garlic paste, onion and sour orange juice. You can refrigerate it at this point, or, leave it at room temperature for up to 1 hour. Before you're ready to serve the mojo, heat the oil over medium-high heat, in a medium-size pan until hot, but not too hot or it will splatter when you add the Mojo. Add the garlic sauce, stir quickly and serve hot. For a Cuban Pork Roast, you'll want to start this the night before serving. You can use a 4-5 lb. leg or shoulder of pork, a boneless pork tenderloin or if you're feeling really adventurous, a Lechón, which is a whole Suckling Pig. Puerco Asado 5-6 pound leg or shoulder of pork 10 cloves of garlic 1 teaspoon dried oregano ½ teaspoon ground cumin 1 tablespoon salt ¼ cup olive oil ½ cup sour orange, or ½ cup sweet orange juice and ¼ cup each fresh lime and lemon juice ½ cup dry sherry 2-3 large onions, thinly sliced freshly ground black pepper Pierce the meat all over with the tip of a knife. With a mortar and pestle, or food processor, combine the garlic, oregano, cumin, and salt and mash into a paste. Rub the paste into pork and into the slits. Sprinkle generously with the black pepper. Add the sour orange juice, olive oil, sherry and onions. Cover and refrigerate overnight, turning the meat several times. Four or five hours before serving, preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the meat from the marinade and pat it dry, reserving the marinade. Roast the pork, always with the skin side up, in an aluminum foil lined roasting pan. Roast 1 hour, turning to brown on all sides. Insert a meat thermometer. Lower the oven temperature to 300°F, pour the reserved marinade over it and cover loosely. Cook for another 3-4 hours, basting frequently, until meat registers an internal temperature of about 160°F. You don't want to go over 160°F because once the pork is removed from the oven, and allowed to rest, the residual heat will continue cooking the meat. Remove the foil during the last 30 minutes of roasting. Remove the roast from the oven, and allow it to rest, covered, about 20 minutes before carving. Serve with Mojo Criollo, and the traditional sides: Black Beans and White Rice, or Congrí; Tostones (Fried Green [not ripe] Plantains) or Yuca con Mojo. Enjoy Maureen. Sol

Ever since I got Lorna Sass's last pressure cooking cookbook, this recipe has been a regular in our house. This isn't specifically for chicken thighs, but it is quite tasty if you do use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for the meat choice. Curry in a Hurry This recipe from Lorna Sass’s Pressure Perfect is a quick and easy way to make a pretty tasty curry. You can make it with chicken, beef, lamb or pork, and vary the hotness by using mild or hot curry paste. 2 tablespoons of mild curry paste makes a pleasant-but-wimpy curry; 4 tablespoons of mild paste makes it pleasantly zingy; 4 tablespoons of hot curry paste makes it very hot, near my limit of tolerance (and I really like hot food). I generally use 2 tablespoons of hot and 2 tablespoons of mild curry paste. If you don’t want to mess with the yogurt, peas and cilantro, don’t bother--the dish will still be very tasty, but the sauce won’t be as rich or velvety-smooth. ( I personally don’t like cilantro, so I don’t use it.) The recipe calls for 3 pounds of bone-in chicken; I find it easier to use about 2 or 2.5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs. --Once you get the pressure cooker up to pressure, make a pot of rice. By the time the rice is done, so is this. 1 cup water 4 tablespoons Patak’s Mild Curry Paste 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped 3 pounds bone-in skinless chicken thighs or breasts, or 2-2.5 lbs boneless skinless thighs, or 2 lbs. other meat (see chart below) 1 cup plain yogurt 1 ½ cup frozen peas 3 tablespoons cilantro, chopped (optional) Pour the water into a 4-qt or larger pressure cooker and blend in the curry paste. Place on high heat and add the onion and meat of your choice. Lock the lid in place. Over high heat bring up to high pressure. Reduce the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for the time indicated in the chart. Turn off the heat. Allow the pressure to come down naturally. (If cooking chicken, release any remaining pressure after 4 minutes.) Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow steam to escape. If the chicken or meat isn’t tender, cover again and simmer until done. If necessary, skim off the fat that rises to the surface or degrease the broth in a fat separator. Blend the yogurt into 1 cup of the broth. Stir the peas into the curry and simmer until they are defrosted, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat and stir the yogurt mixture into the curry. Stir in the cilantro and salt to taste. Serve in bowls over rice. Meat choices Cooking times Chicken (see notes above) 8 minutes high pressure, 4 minutes of natural release, then quick release Beef (boneless chuck, 1” cubes) 8 minutes high pressure, then natural release Pork shoulder (1” cubes) 8 minutes high pressure, then natural release Lamb (boneless, 1” cubes) 12 minutes high pressure, then natural release If using beef, pork or lamb, trim off excess fat and cut the meat into approximately 1” cubes before cooking..

AM we don't have Stew Leonard's here so I don't know how this will compare. I have this in my to try file and others have certainly liked it a lot. It was posted on the Mushroom thread. Don't be put off by the length of the post, I included the comments that were on the original post. Lee RE: Cookalong #18----------------MUSHROOMS clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by dishesdone (My Page) on Tue, Dec 29, 09 at 10:32 Renee, this has no cream and it's a fabulous soup. Delicious. It has butter, but I suppose you can use a nice olive oil! Mushroom Soup (posted SusanQ at GB's ~ I found this on Epicurious and posted some of the reader's comments as well. One comment suggests making parmesan croutons which I used and were a wonderful addition) Makes 4 servings. By Anthony Bourdain with Jose de Meirelles and Philippe Lajaunie Bloomsbury 6 tablespoons butter 1 small onion, thinly sliced 12 ounces button mushrooms 4 cups light chicken stock or broth 1 sprig of flat parsley Salt and pepper 2 ounces high-quality sherry (don't use the cheap grocery-store variety; it's salty and unappetizing and will ruin your soup) Equipment Medium saucepan Wooden spoon Blender (I used an immersion blender) In the medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons/28 g of the butter over medium heat and add the onion. Cook until the onion is soft and translucent, then add the mushrooms and the remaining butter. Let the mixture sweat for about 8 minutes, taking care that the onion doesn't take on any brown color. Stir in the chicken stock and the parsley and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour. After an hour, remove the parsley and discard. Let the soup cool for a few minutes, then transfer to the blender and carefully blend at high speed until smooth. Do I have to remind you to do this in stages, with the blender's lid firmly held down, and with the weight of your body keeping that thing from flying off and allowing boiling hot mushroom purée to erupt all over your kitchen? When blended, return the mix to the pot, season with salt and pepper, and bring up to a simmer again. Add the sherry, mix well, and serve immediately. To astound your guests with a Wild Mushroom Soup, simply replace some of those button mushrooms with a few dried cèpes or morels, which have been soaked until soft, drained, and squeezed. Not too many; the dried mushrooms will have a much stronger taste, and you don't want to overwhelm the soup. Pan sear, on high heat, a single small, pretty, fresh chanterelle or morel for each portion, and then slice into a cute fan and float on top in each bowl. And if you really want to ratchet your soup into pretentious (but delicious), drizzle a few tiny drops of truffle oil over the surface just before serving. Why the hell not? Everybody else is doing it. reviews cookykamp on 12/06/06 This soup was an awesome surprise. Imagine, a mushroom soup with no cream that is absolutely to die for! And so easy too. I topped mine with home-made garlic roasted croutons and fresh grated parmesan. Can't wait to try this with Portobellas and beef broth. YUM-O! akalish from New York, NY on 10/30/06 This recipe is amazing, but a few changes are imperative. I used portobello mushrooms because I had them on hand, and I allowed the onions to brown to deepen the flavor (and because I knew the portobellos would darken the soup anyway). I did not bother with the sherry since I didn't have any on hand, nor the parsley because my chicken broth was already quite flavorful. I used a hand blender to make the process a bit easier, and allow it to cool so I could de-fat it the next day since my guests prefer lighter foods. Most importantly(!!!), I finished the soup with a few drops of black truffle oil, which was pungently delicious. I also took a baguette, sliced it and topped each slice with some freshly grated parmesean. I melted them in the oven, inevitably making frico alongside the croutons, until the bread was nice and crusty. I put a crouton in each soup (serving as a garnish) and served a plate of extra croutons and frico on the table alongside the soup. The black truffle oil and the parmesean-croutons MADE this soup. It was phenomenal. This is at the top of my list for my next dinner party. Delicious! And FYI: when I say crouton, I do mean baguette slices, not cubes--more like crostini but without brushing them with oil and baking them first. A Cook from Palo Alto, CA on 10/27/06 wonderful flavor! I doubled the recipe and added one half ounce dried porcini mushrooms, soaked and added the strained mushroom liquid to the broth. I was very glad I doubled the recipe! malby from NYC on 01/16/06 Made this for my second Christmas in a row--guests actually requested it before RSVPing! We loved it again, and I played with it this year by picking up a dried wild mushroom stir-fry mix. Re-moistened the mushrooms as the package instructed and used the reserved water in addition to the chicken stock. Wow! Adina A from Philadelphia, PA on 11/13/05 A very simple yet elegant and complex soup. One way to make it even easier to make is to put the mushrooms and onions in the cuisinart before you fry them. That way you don't have to whiz them after the sou

I hear ya' about the cooking and more cooking and more cooking...... I bake this Moroccan Chicken recipe instead of grill it...have made it 4 times already, it is that good! Grilled/Baked Moroccan Chicken Good with rice pilaf or couscous and a green salad. 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (good quality) 1/4 cup chopped scallions (white part only or chopped onion) 1/4 cup chopped parsley 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1 tablespoon minced garlic 2 teaspoons paprika 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon turmeric 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 8 chicken thighs/pieces or leg quarters or chicken halves Optional use 1 heaping TB ras-al-hanout seasoning instead of the ground spices Combine oil, scallions, parsley, cilantro, garlic, paprika, cumin, salt, turmeric and cayenne pepper in the container of a food processor. Process until smooth. Rub the mixture on both sides of the chicken breasts and let stand 30 minutes. Preheat the grill to medium hot. Grill chicken breasts 5-7 minutes on each side, until done or bake at 375 for one hour for half a chicken or 45 minutes for chicken pieces Pizza Chicken Roll-ups - variation from my friend Keren 4 chicken breast halves sliced horizontally into 2 pieces and pounded thin Deli pepperoni very thin slices, 2-3 slices per roll Deli provolone cheese 1 slice per roll Pasta sauce, large jar of Prego or homemade tomato sauce Mozzarella cheese slices, 1 per roll On each piece of pounded chicken breast, layer on 2-3 slices pepperoni and 1 slice provolone cheese. Roll up and secure with a toothpick. Grease a 9x13 or equivalent baking dish. Pour in 1 cup of the pasta sauce. Place rolls in dish and pour rest of sauce over all. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Uncover and top with the slices of mozzarella then return to oven to melt cheese. Sprinkle with chopped basil or parsley and serve over hot cooked spaghetti that has some melted butter and garlic salt, pepper added.