Pink Pineapple Sherbet

This pink pineapple sherbet is so refreshing and sweet. Enjoy it in a bowl or an ice cream cone. It's a wonderful treat any season. 

July is National Ice Cream Month and we are celebrating by having our annual virtual ice cream social, hosted by Jolene's Recipe Journal. It's the perfect time of year to try a few new homemade ice cream flavors! 

Grilled Pineapple and Red Onion Salsa

This Grilled Pineapple and Red Onion Salsa is delicious served with tortilla chips as an appetizer. It's also fabulous spooned over grilled fish or added to tacos.

I even mixed some leftovers of this grilled pineapple and red onion salsa into leftover shredded red chili short rib meat and wrapped the mixture into some hot tortillas and topped them with shredded lettuce. The flavors were wonderfully sweet and savory.

Skillet Charred Cod Tacos with Roasted Pineapple Slaw

These skillet charred cod tacos with roasted pineapple slaw are easy to make and loaded with flavor. 

I love, love, love tacos. Any kind of taco. In fact, ever since I made these Crispy Shrimp Snack Shack tacos (the method is a revelation and you can use any kind of prepared filling), tacos have been on rotation here at least four times a week. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Grilled Teriyaki Pork Kebabs

Grilled Teriyaki Pork Kebabs with pineapple, peppers, and red onions flavored with homemade teriyaki sauce and grilled to perfection.

The pork for these grilled teriyaki pork kebabs is marinated in a teriyaki sauce that is deeply flavored with nine ingredients, and then grilled, brushed with more reserved sauce, and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and scallions. They are totally delicious.

Malaysian-Style Stir-Fried Squid and Pineapple | Wok Wednesdays

This Malaysian-Style Stir-Fried Squid and Pineapple dish was created by a chef who grew up with the plain Chinese Hakka style cooking but later learned to love the more spicy and tropical Malaysian style of cuisine. The creator of this recipe, Mei Chau, grew up in Malaysia after her family emigrated from China. She was in charge of making meals for her siblings. While she cooked in the plain Hakka style, she learned to love the spicy Malaysian style food when the family would go out to eat. She eventually moved to New York, where she started her own restaurant, blending the flavors of China, Malaysia, and France.

This dish is another amazing illustration of the Chinese diaspora from Grace Young's book Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge.

The most difficult part of this recipe for this western girl was figuring out what squid to buy. I hit a Korean market first, and saw an amazing array of squid... huge squids... way bigger than called for in the recipe. I was ready to hit my Chinese market, but then decided to stop by a local fish restaurant that has an attached fish market. The price might have been higher, but they cleaned it, chopped it, and answered all of my questions.

The ingredients for this dish include squid, garlic, shallots, pineapple, tomatoes, hot sauce, sugar, salt, and scallions. That's it!

The recipe calls for just 8 ounces of squid, because more than that would cause it to create too much liquid and create a braise. I placed the pieces of squid between paper towels and refrigerated them to make sure they were dry enough for the stir-fry.

The other question mark is the hot sauce. Mei Chau likes to use Lingham's Chilli Sauce, which was not readily available to me. The book suggests Tabasco and sugar as a substitute. I subbed Sriracha sauce and was really happy with the results.

I am participating in Wok Wednesdays. We are stir-frying our way through Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young. As participants, we don't post the recipe, but encourage you to get the book and support the author. It's worth it. I promise.

Tropical Pork and Pineapple Kebabs

These tropical pork and pineapple kebabs were a huge success in our house. The pork was flavorful and juicy, and the vegetables were "tender crisp."

Stir-Fried Chicken with Pineapple and Peppers | Wok Wednesdays

This stir-fried chicken with pineapple and peppers was so easy to make and so fabulously flavored. It's mildly sweet from the pineapple, but also savory-sweet from the soy sauce, caramelized chicken, and red peppers.

The only ingredient that may be somewhat difficult to find is dark soy sauce. Fortunately, I already had a bottle in my refrigerator from another stir frying adventure. Because you only need a teaspoon of it you should still make this stir fry even if you can't find the dark soy sauce. Everything else in this dish is readily available (however, hunting down the dark soy sauce in Asian markets is a lot of fun and worth the effort).

This stir fry is also perfect for the beginning wokker because is requires only a few steps, and, boom, you have dinner. Most of the ingredients... cornstarch, egg yolk, sugar, and soy sauces... are part of the chicken marinade. The only other ingredients are pineapple, red bell peppers, and scallions.

Big thrill? The red peppers in this dish were grown in a big flowerpot in our back patio. Score! We had this with rice made by Mr. Kitchen, who has become the rice cooker expert in our household.

This recipe is from Grace Young's Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge, an amazing collection of recipes and stories, and a James Beard Foundation award winning cookbook.

Check out the Wok Wednesday's site for others' takes on this recipe. If you'd like to wok along, click on the recipe schedule to see what we will be stir frying next.

Visit Grace's site to get the recipe for this dish. And then get the book. It is fabulous.