Apricot Pork Chops
Spending the day restoring and reinstalling programs on a new computer doesn't mean we go hungry around here. Nope. Not us. The web will wait There's food to be consumed!
I do have to admit I did about the easiest meal I could thing of, though! Pan-fried pork chops (I really do need to get some gas for the grill!) finished in the oven.
Just as they were done, I put the pan back on the stove and added a hefty splash of brandy, cooked it down for a moment, and then added a couple of tablespoons of apricot preserves. It coated the chops nicely and gave it that sweet and savory flavor I like so well.
The broccolini was steamed and then drizzled with lemon balsamic vinegar and the potatoes were oven-roasted for about 30 minutes (at 375°) with herbs d'Provence and a bit of olive oil.
From start-to-finish, it took about 45 minutes of cutting, prep, and cooking. Most of it was done in the oven, so I could continually check on file transfers.
I can see variations on this happening for a while! Soy sauce mixed with those preserves... Or balsamic vinegar...
Definitely some variations...
Chili and Corn Sticks
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by a Facebook conversation we had with a friend of ours. She was looking for a cornbread recipe, I posted Mike's recipe, Victor asked me what we were having for dinner (it wasn't cornbread) and said he would love corn sticks.
How could I refuse?!? He's leaving before the crack of dawn for Dallas tomorrow. Besides, it really did sound better than what I was planning - a ground lamb in puff pastry...
And corn sticks require chili because I wasn't doing fried chicken and greens and all that.
Chili. Yum. And perfect for the hot dogs and chili burgers I'll be consuming this week.
Perfect.
So out came the corn stick pan. Rumor has it it came out of a school down South Carolina way. It's cast iron. Probably made a million corn sticks in its time. It could probably stand to be re-seasoned one of these days. It sticks. But it still makes a damned fine corn stick. And the beauty of this corn bread is it's flour-free. Yes, you gluten-intolerant people out there. You can eat it!
Mike's Corn Bread
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 450°.
- Two cups self-rising white or yellow cornmeal, or add 3 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt to plain cornmeal
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- One egg, beaten
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted fat (I used bacon fat)
- 1-1/4 cups buttermilk (or plain milk with 2 tsp vinegar to sour it)
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil to coat pan
Take the 1/4 cup of the vegetable oil and put it in the frying pan. Turn the pan to coat the bottom and sides well. Too much is better than not enough. You should be able to see a shallow pool of oil in the bottom of the pan. Put pan in oven to heat.
Put dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add the wet ingredients all at once and stir to make the batter.
When the oil is HOT! (smoking slightly), pour the batter into the pan and enjoy the sizzle. Return it to the oven for 20 minutes. It is done when a knife inserted into the top comes out clean.
Turn out of pan upside-down onto a plate. Stand and be amazed at the reddish brown crackled crust approximately 1/8” thick covering it.
Just perfect.
I baked the sticks for about 15 minutes.
But before all that, I made the chili.
Pork Chili
- 1 1/2 lbs cubed pork
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 qt beef broth
- 1 jar Sofrito sauce
- 1 can diced tomatoes in juice
- 2 cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp chipotle powder
- salt and pepper, to taste
- cheddar cheese
- sour cream
Brown pork and onions in a splash of oil. Add spices and cook until very fragrant. Add broth, scrapte up bits in pan, and then add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and then simmer until pork is tender.
Top with cheddar cheese and sour cream.
For an unplanned throw-together dinner, this rocked.
The corn sticks were perfectly crunchy on the outside and tender in the center. They tasted faintly of bacon which complimented the chili perfectly.
The chili was juuuuust smoky-and-spicy enough. Not too thick, not too thin, and the corn sticks dipped into it perfectly.
And I have enough left over for a couple of good meals this week!
Life is good.
Pork, Peppers, and Pasta
Let's see...
Change the peppers from green to red, the polenta to pasta, the pork chops to pork strips, and it's just like the dinner we had the other night!
Okay. Not quite.
But it does show how changing a few things can totally change the dish. And that, I think, is really a big part of how I cook in the first place.
The mind works in mysterious ways, and my mind - especially when it comes to putting food together - is definitely one of the more mysterious. I read a recipe and I'm immediately changing things as I'm going down the list. Changing ingredients, changing cooking methods... A recipe for a salad can become a soup without any effort, at all.
There are just so many different combinations of things that it's difficult to say that this one is "it." At any given moment, any number of things could be "it." And with very few exceptions, it's why I rarely ever make the same thing twice - or at least, twice the exact same way!
I'm sure it drives Victor crazy at times.
I could be asked by two different people within 60 seconds what to do with a pork tenderloin and odds are I would come up with two vastly different ideas.
Ideas.
Precise ingredients, measurements, cooking times and/or temperatures elude me. As many who have read this blog over the years can attest, I'm horrible at writing recipes. I'm good at giving ideas. Not that good at telling you how to precisely execute them.
I guess I kinda figure that you're supposed to take the idea and make it your own, too.
Making something for the two of us is different than you making it for the two - or six - of you.
Funny, though, because I have done menu and recipe development professionally and was very good at it. But when you get me out of a professional kitchen, I just don't have the same focus. Of course, there's also the part about someone else paying for everything and paying me, as well.
I can focus really well for the right salary!
So tonight I had a couple of boneless pork chops. We had chops a couple of nights ago so I wanted something a bit different.
I also had three red bell peppers.
And lots of pasta.
I sliced the pork chops into strips and sauteed them in a splash of olive oil. I added half an onion, and the three peppers, sliced into strips. And a clove of garlic, minced.
I added one 15oz can of diced tomatoes in juice, brought everything to a boil, covered the pan, reduced the heat to simmer, and let it all stew for about 90 minutes. Added a bit of salt and pepper.
Served over pasta.
I thought of adding a bit of cayenne or chili flakes but decided against it at the last minute. The peppers were really sweet and they worked well as they were. Some spice would have been nice, but tonight it was unnecessary.
Italian seasoning, fresh basil or other herbs, all sorts of things could go into this.
See?!? Always thinking of a different way to do something.
I think it's cooking ADD.
Pork and Peppers
The inspiration for dinner tonight was a huge display of peppers I saw at the grocery store, today. Well... a big container of fried peppers was what I first thought of when I saw them. The inspiration for dinner came while I was frying them.
We have fried peppers in the refrigerator about 6 months out of the year. The cubanelles and long hots come into season and either Victor or I am frying up a storm. And hacking and coughing with tears streaming. Cubanelles are sweet, but long hots are - hot. Ya get a good whiff of them cooking and it's all over. Good ventilation is a must.
I have to admit that I never wear gloves when dealing with hot peppers. There have been a few times in my life that I definitely should not have rubbed my eyes or touched things, but for the most part I just try and be careful.
Frying peppers is easy. Slice and clean - and be careful with the hots - and then fry in a bit of olive oil. I start off high and then go low. It takes about 30 minutes to get them just right. I may add a bit of garlic towards the end, sometimes a bit of sugar.
I put them into a tupperware-type container and just let them sit in the 'fridge. The longer they sit, the better they get. The sweets take on some heat and the hot ones mellow.
They're perfect on sandwiches, chopped into egg salad, put into omelettes, burgers... you name it.
Tonight they went atop breaded pork chops.
The bread crumbs were from dried out baguettes. I added cayenne pepper, pico de gallo spice, Mexican oregano, salt, and pepper. The chops were first dredged in flour, then into egg, and then the seasoned crumbs. I browned them on the stove and finished them in a 350° oven.
The sweet potato bed was fun.
I decided they should continue that Mexican-ish flavor. I still have a couple of small jars of Bronco Bob's Roasted Mango Chipotle Sauce I pick up at Cost Plus every time I'm home, so one of them went into the mashed sweet potatoes. (They have a Raspberry Chipotle that is also fun!)
It added just the right amount of smoky flavor. They definitely weren't your typical Thanksgiving Sweets!
They were good.
Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
I've been spending an inordinate amount of time trying to get a new website configured (FINALLY got everything in place a little while ago!) but my cooking and writing about it have suffered a bit. Today, Victor finally figured that if he was going to eat dinner, he would probably have to cook it, himself. It's not that I don't want to cook or eat, it's just that time can get away from me a bit when I'm up to my neck in things that should work - but don't.
So just as I was about to throw my hands up in the air and run screaming out of the room, Victor said he would cook dinner.
He just knows.....
I had brought home a pork tenderloin and there was some Italian sausage in the 'fridge from last night, so a stuffed pork tenderloin was created!
The stuffing was fresh breadcrumbs, hot Italian sausage, celery, carrot, leeks, dates, and a bit of chicken broth.
The hot sausage and the sweet dates really worked well together! And he roasted a sweet potato and some broccoli with olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar.
It was perfect.
Snow has started to fall and I have a bunch of stuff to redo since migrating databases and upgrading servers wreaked havoc.
Oh well. It's keeping me from baking a cake right now.
Ham Steaks and Potatoes
Early in my hotel career, I worked with an Executive Chef named Peter Koenig at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe. Peter initially hired me as a cook at the gourmet restaurant Hugos Rotisserie on the lake, and then brought me up to the main hotel restaurant. Peter was an exacting and demanding chef - but not in the temperamental and egotistical manner that seems so fashionable today. Peter just expected things to be done the right way. He took the time to teach and show you how to do it and how he wanted it done and then expected you to do it correctly every time you did it. I was a quick learn. I just knew it wouldn't be wise to piss him off.
It paid off. Peter actually hired me twice. First as a cook and then after a brief interlude back in San Francisco, to run the short-lived Ponderosa Buffet off the hotel casino. It was from the Ponderosa that I went to Alpine Jack's and started managing the restaurant I once cooked for.
I learned a lot from Peter from cooking and technique to presentation and management. How to nit-pick on the seemingly minor details because the minor details were what were actually important. Or when to come down heavy on an employee for screwing up and when to create a "learning experience." We butted heads now and again but it always was a learning experience.....
He was good.
Really good to be remembered 35 years after that initial hire!
But I remembered him today because of a ham. A Cure 81 Ham. I really don't recall the exact scenario, but it basically had to do with us getting the wrong ham. I think that at one time Cure 81's were pretty much only available to the industry and they were the top "deli ham" of the day. They could be shaved thin for sandwiches or sliced thick for ham steaks. For whatever reason, we got the wrong ham and Peter was not amused.
Fast-forward 30-whatever years and I'm at the grocery store, look down, and see a Cure 81 ham.
It's amazing how something as simple as a ham can trigger such a flood of memories. It was (still) not cheap but I had to buy it.
A dozen recipe ideas were running through my mind. But the first one was the simplest and most appealing. Fried Ham Steak.
The ham steaks tonight were simply fried in a pat of butter. And fried ham needs potatoes and peas. But not just any potato... A thin-sliced-soft-in-the-center-and-crispy-on-the-outside potato.
I sliced the potatoes nice and thin using a mandoline (go buy one - they're fantastic!) and layered them in a small skillet. I drizzled a bit of butter on them as I built the layers and added a pinch of salt and pepper now and again, as well.
When I got to the top I sprinkled them with dill.
They went onto the stovetop for about 5 minutes and then covered, into a 375° oven for 45 minutes.
The last three or so minutes were under the broiler to crisp the top.
I inverted the pan onto a cutting board and sliced in half. They came out just as I wanted - crispy on the outside and nice and soft and buttery on the inside.
I think Peter would have approved.
Malloreddus with Victor's Homemade Sauce
Tonight's Monday Pasta comes half-way from La Cucina Italiana magazine. The pasta is from the magazine, but the sauce is pure Victor.
He was looking in the magazine for recipes when I asked in my most-pleading voice if he would make his red sauce tonight. The pasta was almost secondary. I was craving the red sauce.
And to make it even better, we had pork ribs in the freezer that would become fall-off-the-bone-tender after simmering in the sauce all day. And they did.
There's no recipe** for the sauce. It just is. There are as many variations of this simple sauce as there are Italian households out there. Everyone's is the best - except Victor's really is!
**EDITED TO ADD** Victor's Spaghetti Sauce. He finally wrote it down.
The semolina pasta has substance to it. It works well shaped into the malloreddus, but would work equally well as a linguine or papardelle.
This was perfect. Exactly what I was hoping for.
My stomach is smiling.
Malloreddus
- Sea Salt
- 1 ¼ cups semolina flour
- ¾ cup unbleached all purpose flour
- Extra virgin olive oil
Gnocchi board or a table fork
Dissolve 1 tsp salt in ¾ cup warm water. In a large bowl whisk together semolina and all purpose flour; mound and form a well in the center.
Add water mixture and 2 tsp olive oil to the well. Using your hand or a fork, slowly incorporate flour from inside the rim of the well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead in bowl until dough forms a complete mass (dough will be slightly sticky).
Transfer dough to a well floured work surface and knead, dusting with a bit more flour as needed just to keep dough from sticking to your hands, for 5 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Break off about 1/8 of the dough; tightly rewrap remaining dough. Roll dough into ½ inch cylinder, and cut into ¼ inch thick pieces. Pressing with your thumb, roll each piece on a gnocchi board (or down the back of a fork) to give it the characteristic ridges, and put on a floured baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
To cook fresh Malloreddus, bring a large pot of salted water to a bill. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 6 minutes after water returns to a boil. Drain, transfer to a large serving bowl and immediately toss with sauce and serve.
Jerk Pork Chops
Tonight's dinner was definitely one of those to there and back again meals. I really wasn't sure what I was going to cook. I hadn't taken anything out of the freezer and I wasn't going to be home right away after work.
I needed to stop by Victor's mom's house and pick up her prescriptions to drop off at the Acme pharmacy. Acme. Usually my least-favorite store.
I dropped off the prescriptions and started aimlessly wandering the store. I had the sweet potatoes at home, but that was it. Pork goes with sweet potatoes, so I wandered over to the meat department and picked up a couple of boneless pork chops. I then headed to the produce section. I was standing in the middle of the produce section, totally lost in thought when one of the employees asked me if I needed any help. I laughed and said I was just lost in thought. I wandered around a bit more and standing there, another employee asked me if I needed any help. If you ever need to go into the Witness Protection Program, don't go grocery shopping with me. People either ask me if I need something or ask me if I work there. Anonymity and grocery shopping do not go together.
I finally decided on an apple and some broccoli.
Armed with my goodies and a crossword book for Nonna, I headed to the self-check where I ran into a friend from work. Small-talk and small purchases and we were on our merry ways.
When I finally got home and started dinner, I decided that sweet potatoes called for jerk pork chops. I like the spicy blends of island fare, but don't often make it. No particular reason... I have all the various herbs and spices at hand. I just don't often blend them together.
I would imagine there are any number of jerk seasoning recipes out there, but I tend to lean towards thyme, allspice, cayenne, and onion. The recipe is an approximation. It's teaspoon/teaspoon/half-teaspoon measurements that can be translated to tablespoon/tablespoon or cut to less.
Jerk Seasoning
Mix together:
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less, to taste)
It's pretty simple to pull together with spices most folks probably already have in the kitchen. And it does invoke that island taste!
I rubbed it liberally on the chops and seared them on the stove top and then put them into a 350° oven for about 15 minutes.
Before the chops went into the oven, I peeled and cut up a sweet potato, mixed it with a cut up apple and into the oven it all went. When they came out I drizzled it all with a bit of maple syrup.
Steamed broccoli finished the plate.
It definitely worked. The chops were juicy and really flavorful, the apples worked perfectly with the sweet potatoes, and maple syrup... well... maple syrup makes everything better.
The Pumpkin That Keeps On Giving
Not quite 4 weeks ago I roasted and pureed a fairytale pumpkin. A big fairytale pumpkin. After making pumpkin pies, pumpkin cupcakes, chicken with pumpkin, pumpkin butter, and pork with pumpkin, I decided pasta with pumpkin needed to be done. Pumpkin is just so versatile. You can do anything with it.
So I started out with the rest of the sage sausage I bought yesterday for the sausage gravy. I browned it off, added a couple of cups of pumpkin puree, maybe a quarter-cup of heavy cream (clean out the refrigerator) and about a half-teaspoon of dried sage, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Served over butternut squash ravioli.
Creamy goodness.
I'm lovin' that pumpkin, which is a good thing... I have pumpkin for days in the freezer... More pies, pumpkin rolls... and I really need to do a pumpkin soup...
Yeah... definitely lovin' it!
Cranberry Pumpkin Pork
The curse of being a cook. Or, rather, of having a knife and three minutes of time. And an active imagination.
The basis for tonight's dinner came about after seeing bags of diced butternut squash. They looked beautiful - bright orange, fresh-looking... The mind started playing all sorts of recipe-games. It's fun to play the "what if I did this..." game. The mind can really start racing with ideas. As I was contemplating what I could do, I espied whole butternut squash. Immediately I knew I was bringing home a whole squash. Try as I might, I just can't justify someone else cutting my vegetables for me. I know that packaged, pre-packaged, pre-cut/chopped/diced everything is the wave of the future. I know that there are many people out there who believe that pushing a button on a microwave is too much work. And I know that not everyone likes to cook.
I just don't happen to be one of them.
I plan on being a cranky old man when I grow up spouting things like "When I was your age I used to get lemon juice from a natural container - a lemon!" Or... "I remember when we used to buy fruits and vegetables that looked like fruits and vegetables. Before they were all genetically modified."
I think it will be fun.
But back to dinner tonight...
The squash was easy. I peeled, seeded, and diced the squash and drizzled it with maple syrup, sage, salt, and pepper. Into a 375° oven it went for 20 minutes. I used the same timer for the rice.
I heated the pumpkin puree (I still have lots!) and then added a handful of fresh cranberries, salt, and pepper. Very simple. I wanted the flavor of the pumpkin to predominate.
I cut a small pork tenderloin into about 1/2" slices and covered them in a mixture of flour, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I sauteed them in a bit of olive oil, and after flipping them over, added the pumpkin and cranberry mixture and simmered everything for about 6 or 7 minutes.
The timer went off and everything was ready!
Butternut squash with maple syrup is a natural combination and a hint of sage balanced the sweetness. The tart cranberries balanced the sweetness of the pumpkin and the garlic in the flour added that little bit more of a savory edge.
It worked on every level.
I love Fall.
Pork Tenderloin and Brussels Sprouts
Brussels Sprouts. The greatest little vegetable in the whole wide world.
Really.
I loved brussels sprouts back when the only way I ever saw them was from a frozen square box. Even over-cooked and mushy they were great.
And then one day I found them fresh. Brussels sprouts could actually have a crunch when cooked! What a revelation! My love affair deepened. I tried them any number of different ways. And I liked them all.
Boiled, broiled, roasted, steamed, or fried... no matter how you do 'em, I'm there. For years, I was hooked on brussels sprouts in a mustard sauce. Then I went into a rut with balsamic vinegar. Lately, I've been slicing them really thin and sauteing them.
Tonight, I cut two slices of bacon into matchsticks and fried the shredded/sliced brussels sprouts with the bacon - and a pinch of salt and pepper. They were outrageously good.
For folks who aren't huge brussels sprouts fans, slicing/shredding the sprouts turns them into a much sweeter vegetable. They lose a lot of that bitter cabbagy taste that many dislike.
And, of course, the fresher the better...
And speaking of fresh... Did you know that brussels sprouts grow on stalks?!? The picture above is about half the stalk I started with. With easily 3 1/2 pounds of sprouts on a stalk, it's a bit of a commitment for two people. I may just blanch and freeze some.
And here's what a cup of Brussels Sprouts will give you:
Only 60 calories without anything on them. Bacon does add calories and fat. Go figure.
Nutrient |
Amount |
% RDV |
Nutrient Density |
| vitamin K | 218.80 mcg | 273.5 | 80.9 |
| vitamin C | 96.72 mg | 161.2 | 47.7 |
| folate | 93.60 mcg | 23.4 | 6.9 |
| vitamin A | 1121.64 IU | 22.4 | 6.6 |
| manganese | 0.35 mg | 17.5 | 5.2 |
| dietary fiber | 4.06 g | 16.2 | 4.8 |
| potassium | 494.52 mg | 14.1 | 4.2 |
| vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) | 0.28 mg | 14 | 4.1 |
| tryptophan | 0.04 g | 12.5 | 3.7 |
| vitamin B1 (thiamin) | 0.17 mg | 11.3 | 3.4 |
| omega 3 fatty acids | 0.26 g | 10.8 | 3.2 |
| iron | 1.87 mg | 10.4 | 3.1 |
| phosphorus | 87.36 mg | 8.7 | 2.6 |
| protein | 3.98 g | 8 | 2.4 |
| magnesium | 31.20 mg | 7.8 | 2.3 |
| vitamin B2 (riboflavin) | 0.12 mg | 7.1 | 2.1 |
| vitamin E | 1.33 mg | 6.7 | 2 |
| copper | 0.13 mg | 6.5 | 1.9 |
| calcium | 56.16 mg | 5.6 | 1.7 |
As for the rest of dinner...
I took a small pork tenderloin and cut it into six pieces. I dipped them in an egg and then rolled them in chopped pecans. Into a skillet they went and I browned one side, flipped them, browned the other a bit, and then put thye skillet into a hot oven for about 10 minutes.
Perfectly cooked.
The potato was a yellow sweet potato mixed with a bit of melted butter, brown sugar, and a pinch of allspice. Into a hot oven for about 25 minutes.
No baseball tonight. It's a travel day to Texas.
Maybe I'll get to bed at a decent hour, tonight. But not before the peanut butter cookies Victor made for dessert.
More on those later.....
Risotto
My friend Vanessa had given me a big ol' zucchini she had grown in her garden. My plan was to stuff it today with a risotto-ish filling. Sadly, when I cut into it to hollow it out a bit, it was just too fibrous for eating.
But having a risotto-ish dish on my mind, I decided to just make ::drum roll, please:: Risotto!
I know... What a concept. But since we're going to be gone next week gettin' married, and all, it actually makes sense to use up the stuff in the house.
Risotto can be made with anything (and around our house, it usually is.) This is a recipe based on ingredients we had on hand.
It starts off with Vialone Nano rice. Here in the USofA, arborio is the most widely-used risotto rice, but in northern Italy the rices of choice are Vialone Nano or Carnaroli.
Vialone Nano is the regional rice of Veneto. It is a round, short-grain rice (nano means “dwarf”) perfectly suited to risotto. The round shape of its grains enables it to absorb twice its weight in liquid, making for incredibly flavorful and rich dishes. This was my first time using it. It won't be my last.
Pork and Sausage Risotto
- 1 small pork tenderloin
- 2 hot Italian sausages
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 oz mushrooms, chopped
- 1 cup Vialone Nano rice (or arborio, or carnaroli)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 4 cups hot stock (I used the turkey stock I made the other day)
- 1/2 tsp basil
- 1/2 tsp Greek oregano
- 2 oz grana padano (or parmesan, romano...)
- salt and pepper, to taste
Begin by sauteing onion in a bit of olive oil. Add garlic. Chop tenderloin into small pieces. Remove sausage from casing.and then add pork and sausage to pan. Brown well. Add 1 cup rice and stir well, coating the rice with the oil.
Add spices. Add wine and stirring constantly, scrape everything up and stir until wine is absorbed.
Add hot broth, one ladle at a time, continually stirring until broth is absorbed. Total cooking time for rice will be about 15 minutes if using Vialone Nano and 20 minutes using arborio.
Stir in cheese and check for seasoning.
Enjoy.
Risotto has a certain mystique about it. Don't tell anybody, but it really is one of the easiest dishes one can make. And you really can make it with anything.
Give it a try.