Pork Chops with Asian Peach Salsa
I had some beautiful bone-in pork chops that were just screaming to be grilled tonight! Of course, I didn't want just plain ol' pork chops... I decided Asian was the ticket!
I made a marinade of:
- soy sauce
- garlic
- sriracha sauce
- sesame oil
- black pepper
- black sesame seeds
and marinated the chops for about an hour. Onto a hot grill they went.
Meanwhile, I made an Asian-Inspired Peach Salsa, similar to what I made for the Peach Iron Chef Cookoff.
- 3 Peaches, diced
- 1/4 Red Onion, diced
- 1/2 tsp Sambal Oleck (Chili Paste)
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Rice Wine
- 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
- Cilantro, chopped
- Basil, chopped
Dice peaches and onions and place in bowl. Add remaining ingredients and lightly mix. Chill until ready to serve.
I topped the pork chops with the salsa, plated some rice and voila! Dinner was served!
Peach Cobbler
We went ot a BBQ at our neighbor's house this afternoon. A fun time with lots of food and drink. I got to bring dessert!
For the 4th, I wanted something slightly traditional, but with a bit of a twist. Enter Tim's Peach Cobbler!
I marinated the peaches overnight in Cointreau... Into the dish they went with a bit of sugar, cinnamon, corn starch, and allspice.
For the topping I took a scone recipe and twisted the concept a bit. I flattened it out, brushed with melted butter and then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. I rolled it up cinnamon-roll-style, cut, and put on top. Into the oven for about 20 minutes and dessert was served!
It was yummy!
Here's the scone recipe I used for the topping:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Gradually add 1 cup cream, mixing until dough comes together. Pat to 1/2-inch thick rectangle.
Spread with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll, slice, and place on fruit.
Bake at 400° about 20 minutes or until fully cooked.
Simplicity-and sooooooo good!
Salad For Dinner
'Tis the season to eat salads! I love 'em!
Tonight was a clean-out-the-refrigerator-salad. My favorite kind.
I started off with the greens and then added two types of plums, peaches, and strawberries. Then there were the blue cheese and/or garlic-stuffed olives... avocados... tomatoes... grilled chicken breasts... and a creamy dressing...
It was a definite stomach-smiler!
Peach Upside Down Cake
We have peaches! And for the first time in a long time, we seem to have good peaches! My stomach is smiling!
But after all the savory peach dishes a few days ago, I thought it time to revisit an old favorite - Peach Upside Down Cake.
Pineapple may be the more traditional fruit, but absolutely anything can be used in an upside down cake. i have used everything from Apricots to Grapes, Peaches, Apples, Bananas... You get the picture. They all work.
I use a 12" cake pan because I have a 12" cake pan! Otherwise, I'd use a 12" skillet like my mother used to do.
Peach Upside Down Cake
The Topping (or bottom...)
Melt between a half to 3/4 stick butter and pour into pan. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of butter. Arrange fruit in pan to look nice when you take it out of the pan. Don't crowd the fruit - you want the batter to reach the bottom of the pan.
The Cake:
There are Bisquik recipes out there, sponge cakes, boiling water cakes, all sorts of things for upside down cakes. I suppose any of them wopuld work. It's what you're used to, I guess.
I make a basic yellow cake and replace the vanilla with whatever flavoring I'm making the cake. If you don't have a cabinet full of flavorings, just use vanilla. If you've never baked a cake from scratch before, this is a really easy one to make. Or... use a mix. BUT... choose a mix that does NOT have partially-hydrogenated fat in it. (Almost all of them do...)
- 2 cups cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla (or flavoring of choice...)
- 3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350°. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla or flavoring to milk. Slowly add flour alternately with milk. Don't overmix, but batter should be smooth.
Carefully pour over fruit and bake 30-35 minutes or until cake is done.
(You can also use this recipe as a layer cake! 2-9" pans, greased and floured, and bake about 20-25 or so minutes.)
It really is that simple!
Iron Chef - Peach
What a day! What a challenge. What FUN FOOD! Every couple of months, the folks at work get together and decide to do an Iron Chef-like competition. An ingredient is chosen and we get to come up with fun foods. My favorite ingrediet upo to this point was when we did pumpkin back in October.
Today was Peach.
Not as many entries as in the past, but what we lacked in quantity, we gained in quality. This was a really unique and rather ingenious crowd!
I made an Asian Peach Salsa, served over a Pork Tenderloin. I have to admit i did a pretty good job on this one!
Asian Peach Salsa
- 12 Peaches, diced
- 1/2 Red Onion, diced
- 2 tsp Sambal Oleck (Chili Paste)
- 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp Rice Wine
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- Cilantro, chopped
- Basil, chopped
- Lenon Verbena, chopped
Dice peaches and onions and place in bowl. Add remaining ingredients and lightly mix. Chill until ready to serve.
The salsa is great with chips, but is really really good with pork, chicken, or fish. It's pretty spicy, but you can adjust the heat by the amount of chili paste you use.
The next recipe was just plain outstanding. Joe Poston made a Peach Salmon Chili. You read that right. Peach Salmon Chili. Definitely one of the more unique dishes I have had. And it really worked!
Peach Salmon Chili
- 2 jars Peach salsa
- 2 cans White Kidney Beans, drained
- 1 1/2 pkgs pre-cooked Salmon
- 1 Mango, sliced ito small pieces
- Chili powder until it is as hot as u like it
Combine ingrediets in a crock pot set on low. Wait. (About 6-7 hours.) Not my recipe, but I'm sue you could let it simmer on a stovetop, too.
I was impressed.
There was also Chicken in a Peach BBQ Sauce, Peach Chipotle Ciabatta Bread, Peach Soda, a salad with a Peach Vinaigrette, and a Peach and soymilk just-like-ice-cream yummy dessert.
More info as I get recipes!
Definitely a good time was had by all!