O me O my!
Last week I received a Ninja Cooking System as a freebie from IFBC 2012 in Portland, Oregon. The enthusiastic PR job at the conference had all of us excited and true to their word, most of us received our Ninjas in 6-8 weeks.
I planned a weekend of cooking … with my new Ninja! It claims to have stovetop, oven and slow cooker functions along with being able to steam cook/bake. (One minor gripe was we were promised accessories including a cookbook but they didn’t arrive with the Ninja.)
I made carnitas Friday night and inhaled them with a friend who “stopped by” briefly. It was smelling so good she decided to hang out. So Saturday I made pulled pork and another batch of carnitas.
I wish I could show you the final product but, em we inhaled them, too! I promise to make posts on both recipes with photos in the future. To go along with the pulled pork, I made a homemade kansas city style bbq. DELICIOUS!
This morning I took out a cornish game hen for dinner. No game plan.
Seasoned up the cornish hen with salt & pepper, crushed rosemary and stuffed it with lemon quarters. And into the Ninja for searing …..
After searing the bird, I added garlic, lemon and chicken broth, changed the function to Oven and set the timer for 1 hour. (my only suggestion is read the instructions!)
Home by 4:30p; dinner in the oven by 4:50p! As an afterthought, I added a baking potato to the baking rack.
…. and went for a walk! An hour aerobic walk before walking into the smell of lemon heaven. I could tell by the fragrance, my hen was done. WHEEEEEE!
While the hen rested, I added broccoli spears with the potato and continued steaming.
10 min later, I had dinner on the table. Potato and broccoli perfectly done; cornish hen tasty and moist!
Plus leftovers for lunch.
** Tips: Add oil/butter to the nonstick surface to get a toasty brown sear.
** Tips: Have an extra cup of liquid (water, broth, wine, etc) handy in case the initial liquid evaporates.