Roasted Butternut Squash with Cardamom and Lime

This is another great recipe from Ottolenghi. I love butternut squash, and in this recipe it takes on a really different flavor than the usual roasted squash. 

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 limes

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 lb)

2 tbsp cardamom pods

1 tsp ground allspice

1/2 cup greek yogurt

2 1/2 tsp tahini

1 tbsp lime juice

1 green chile, thinly sliced

2/3 cup picked cilantro leaves

Lime Ginger Soda

My brother in law got me the Thug Kitchen cookbook for Christmas last year, and it's hilarious. (Read more about it here.) It's totally vegan and has lots of healthy recipes, but it's riddles with curses words and is fun to read. I made this fresh soda from their recipe. It's so fresh and tasty and bright; great plain with soda water or with a little booze thrown in. 

mojo pork

It may be because it's Groundhog's Day and I'm told winter's almost over, or how much Dexter I've been watching lately, but I'm in the mood for some citrusy Cuban food. I've always wanted to try to make mojo, and I'm expiramenting on a small scale since it's a Wednesday and only two of us will be eating. I made the marinade last night, then added garlic this morning. Below is my method so far... will add cooking methods and reviews later...
Ingredients:
2 boneless pork chops
3 large oranges
2 limes
6 cloves garlic, divided (4 crushed, 2 sliced into little spears)
1/4 white onion, sliced

Directions:
Juice two of the oranges and zest half of the third into a sauce pan. Squeeze in the two limes, add the crushed garlic cloves and the onion slices and cook until reduced in half. Squeeze in the third orange and salt to taste. Once cool, poor over the pork in a bag or shallow dish and marinate over night. In the morning, flip the pork chops and with a skewer, poke holes in the meat and insert the garlic spears to fill the holes. Put back in the marinade.


Here's the rest!

Take the chops out of the marinade and pat dry. Salt and pepper and then sear them in a hot skillet w/ some olive oil. Take out the chops and pour the marinade and a little water into the pan and scrape up the brown bits. Put the chops back in and cook about 5-10 minutes each side. Serve them with some sauce on top.

These were really tasty and a great, new way way to have pork chops. They had a citrusy, fresh taste and the sauce was a sort of citrus gravy. I served it with a slice of orange and a slice of lime.