It's been hot and humid here in Maine, which is unusual. For example, for a good portion of June I still needed to wear a jacket and leggings on my bike ride to work. I'm enjoying the heat and hope it lasts long enough for me to want it to go away. I have to say, this summer has been absolutely beautiful. While it may not have been hot in June, it didn't rain all month like last year. I'm not sure if a lack of rain (well, it's rained, but not constantly, day after day) is affecting the farm. They mentioned in the last newsletter that it's been dry enough for them to dry and bale hay. And the vegetables are still coming. They think next week they will also have flowers in the pick-your-own section, which is cool.
So, where am I with my vegetables from last week? Mostly gone, though I still have some napa cabbage, a small cabbage, some lettuce, and the zucchini left. Perhaps I'll make some coleslaw inspired salad this weekend. Most of the remaining vegetables went into my dinner last night, a hot and sour soup inspired stew. The hot and sour soup recipe I use is from Ken Hom's Fool Proof Chinese Cooking. If you've never made Hot and Sour soup, you really should pick up a copy of this book and try his out. I've never been a fan of the glutinous vibrant red variety in most Chinese restaurants in the US. Hom's recipe, however, is a proper soup and the only vibrant red comes from the hot pepper oil. It's absolutely delicious.
I was already considering using his marinade for some ground pork I had and as I got going I decided to make a stew that I could put over rice. His recipe has tofu, egg, pork, woodears and shitake mushrooms. I used the egg, pork, and shitake mushrooms and added broccoli, baby bok choy leaves, napa cabbage and some spicy red peppers. It's important, when making his soup, to make a chicken stock. I didn't have any, so I used bouillon and simmered it with slices of ginger, crushed garlic, and onion to make the base. After making that, the rest of the soup went together rather quickly. And despite the heat, it was a perfect meal.
Vegetable Hot and Sour Stew
6 c water
2 tsp chicken bouillon
4 inches of ginger, sliced
6 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
1/2 c sliced red onion
12 shitake mushrooms, stems and tops separated; slice tops
1/2 lb pork
4 tsp soy sauce
4 tsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
12 napa cabbage leaves, washed and sliced into 1 inch strips
8 to 10 baby bok choy, leaves separated from stems
3 c broccoli pieces*
2 hot peppers, sliced into rounds
2 eggs
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
8 tbsp rice vinegar
3 tsp chili oil
1/4 c cilantro
2 tsp sesame oil
cooked rice
In a stock pot, combine water, bouillon, ginger, garlic, onion, and stems from the shitake mushrooms.
Bring to a boil, turn down a tad and let cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
While the base is boiling, mix the 4 tsp soy sauce, 4 tsp rice wine, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp sugar and pork.
Use a wire strainer to remove the ginger, garlic, onion, and shitake stems from the base.
Turn down heat so base is simmering, then slowly add the pork, breaking it into small pieces. Allow to simmer for a few minutes.
Once pork is no longer visibly pink, add the cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, shitake caps, and red pepper. Allow to cook until broccoli is bright green and cabbage and bok choy are wilted.
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the 1 tbsp sesame oil.
Push the vegetables to the sides of the pan, clearing a space where there is mostly broth in the center. Slowly pour the egg into this space, stirring with a fork to break it up, then stir.
Add the remaining ingredients and allow to simmer for a few minutes.
Remove from heat and serve in a bowl over cooked rice.
*I typically cut the long stemmed florets off the sides, until I reach the heart of the top. Then I cut this from the stem and break into pieces. I then cut off the bottom of the stem, peel the skin off the main stem at the bottom, and then quarter lengthwise and cut into 2 inch lengths.
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pork. Show all posts
Friday, July 9, 2010
Monday, May 5, 2008
Pan Cooked Pork Chops with Cilantro Rice and Fresh Salsa
I had some unused ingredients from my Mango Jicama Salsa and some tomatoes in my kitchen, so this dinner started with the salsa. Then I decided to finally cook a couple pork chops I had in the freezer for a while and added the rice to round out the meal. I ate the salsa more like a side salad than a condiment.
Fresh Salsa
4 tomatoes, seeded, stemmed and chopped
2 thin slices of red onion, chopped fine
1 jalapeno, seeded, stemmed and minced
1/4 c chopped cilantro leaves
1 to 2 tsp tabasco sauce
juice from 1 lime
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp sugar
Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix.
Set aside while preparing the rest of the meal.
Cilantro Rice
1 c rice
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
Fill a medium stock pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat.
Add salt, mix.
Add rice, stirring until water returns to a boil.
Boil rice until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.
When rice is done, drain in a sieve.
Melt butter in empty, warm pan.
Add rice back to the pan and stir in the butter.
Sprinkle in cilantro and stir.
Pan Cooked Pork Chops
1 tbsp oil
2 boneless pork chops
adobo, to taste
Heat a cast iron pan over medium to medium high heat.
Sprinkle pork chops with adobo on both sides.
Add oil to hot pan.
Add pork chops and cook until browned well on one side.
Turn pork chops over and cook until done.
Fresh Salsa
4 tomatoes, seeded, stemmed and chopped
2 thin slices of red onion, chopped fine
1 jalapeno, seeded, stemmed and minced
1/4 c chopped cilantro leaves
1 to 2 tsp tabasco sauce
juice from 1 lime
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp sugar
Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix.
Set aside while preparing the rest of the meal.
Cilantro Rice
1 c rice
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp cilantro, chopped
Fill a medium stock pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat.
Add salt, mix.
Add rice, stirring until water returns to a boil.
Boil rice until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.
When rice is done, drain in a sieve.
Melt butter in empty, warm pan.
Add rice back to the pan and stir in the butter.
Sprinkle in cilantro and stir.
Pan Cooked Pork Chops
1 tbsp oil
2 boneless pork chops
adobo, to taste
Heat a cast iron pan over medium to medium high heat.
Sprinkle pork chops with adobo on both sides.
Add oil to hot pan.
Add pork chops and cook until browned well on one side.
Turn pork chops over and cook until done.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
After losing my internet at home, I have been strongly neglecting my blog, but last night I devised a plan to finally update you on some of the recipes I’ve been making lately. Type the posts at home and upload them before work.
We begin this long journey into my recent past with a recipe for a Pasty potpie style. Some of my coworkers and I have created a cooking club and I was hosting the first round. We chose to do our club like a potluck, since we would be holding them on work nights. We also felt that a theme would help ensure that the foods would complement one another. The first theme was fall foods, which I was forced to enforce with certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, but had chosen the theme and suggested she bring a spring vegetable. Ahem. My strict enforcement of the theme prompted a rather unflattering association between myself and a certain WWII German political party. I, personally, had no trouble deciding what I was making. I had been craving a good pasty, but I had never made one and wasn’t quite sure what gave it its delicious flavor. Enter the internet and it’s perpetual eagerness to find what I needed in less than 4.832 seconds. I found that a generous helping of pepper and onion was the key, as was rutabaga. Done. Many of the recipes had their own pastry recipe, but our family has a tried and true recipe that I opted to use due to its dependability. I did alter the pastry recipe slightly, since I was out of sugar, but I did have some honey and it worked just as well. The pasty ended up tasting exactly how I wanted it to, thank you mom for teaching me how to smell for flavor, rather than tasting.
Pasty (potpie style)
1 double pie crust
1 lb ground pork
1 ½ onions, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large rutabaga, peeled and cubed a little smaller than the potato, but not as small as the carrots
freshly ground black pepper to taste (somewhere between 2 tsp and 1 tbsp)
salt to taste (about 1 tsp)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place the ground pork and onions in a cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat. You do not want the pork to brown, but you do want it to cook all the way through. Stir it often enough to prevent browning.
In a large pot, put the potatoes, carrots and rutabaga, covering with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat a bit so that it does not boil over, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water to stop cooking.
Once the pork is cooked through, mix in the cooked vegetables and add the black pepper and salt. Smell the mixture, you should smell a good amount of pepper. If you don’t, add more. Then add about ¼ c water to moisten the mixture a bit.
Roll out one half of the pie crust and place in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour in the filling (I ended up with a little extra. My dog loved that!). Roll out the second crust for the top. Before laying the second crust on top of the mixture, use some cool water and moisten the edges of the bottom crust, along the rim of the baking dish. Gently roll the second crust onto your rolling pin and lay over the pie. Gently press down when you moistened the bottom crust. Trim both crusts so that you have just over 1 inch of crust over hanging. Roll under and crimp the edges. Use a sharp knife to slice a couple slits in the top of the crust.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden.
One of my coworkers is engages to the son of cranberry grower, which means that at harvest time she kindly brought many of use a bag of fresh cranberries. Yum! I used them to make Cranberry Walnut Pancakes, a fruit cobbler and a filling for crepes. The cobbler came of another day where I was trying to make something from what I had in the house while also attempting to sate a sweets craving. I’ve been making crepes on the weekends recently. They are just so delicious. I’m going to share the fruit cobbler recipe I made and how I’m going to make my next batch of crepes.
Fall Fruit Cobbler
2 soft apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and sliced thin
½ c cranberries, washed and halved
¼ c brown sugar
¼ c flour
dash of salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
¼ c honey
½ c walnuts
½ to 1 c rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place apples, pear, and cranberries in a bowl. Sprinkle with brown sugar, flour, and salt and coat well. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Pour the fruit into a bread dish.
With your hands, mix together the butter, honey, walnuts and oats. Spread over the top of the fruit.
Bake until a fork meets no resistance when inserted into the cobbler.
Orange Crepes with Cranberries
Crepes (make approximately 6):
¾ c flour
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 c milk
1 egg, beaten
½ tsp vanilla
1 tbsp melted butter
zest of ½ an orange
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until completely smooth.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Using a stick of butter with the paper turned back, quickly grease the pan. Pour in ¼ c of the batter and quickly tilt pan in a circular motion to spread the mixture thinly over the bottom of the pan. Cook until slightly brown on one side, flip and brown other side. To keep the crepes warm, place in a covered dish in an oven set to warm.
Cranberries:
¼ lb cranberries
6 tbsp sugar
½ c water
zest of ½ an orange
Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick.
To serve:
Place a crepe on a large plate, put a line of filling along the middle 1/3 of the crepe. Fold over one side, then the other. Slide aside and repeat until the desired number of crepes are on the plate. If desired, you can sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of the cranberry sauce before folding the crepes.
The past few days I’ve been craving Indian food, but I’ve also been watching my budget. This means using up what I have in the house. I discovered that I have three half-full bags of lentils in my cupboard, one of regular lentils, one of red lentils, and the last of Moroccan lentils. I used two with the following soup that was inspired by dal.
Indian-spiced Lentil Soup
1 tbsp oil
½ an onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp Indian curry powder (the kind that is not spicy)
½ lb of red lentils
½ lb of Moroccan lentils
Enough water to cover, plus more to maintain soup consistency while cooking
1 tsp chicken boullion
salt to taste
Heat the oil in a soup pan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
Add cumin seeds and curry powder and cook until fragrant.
Pour in lentils, stir to coat, the add water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Stir in the chicken boullion.
Add water as the soup cooks. You want to maintain a slightly thick consistancy.
Once red lentils have cooked away and Moroccan lentils are tender, add the salt.
Heat a bit more, then serve.
I let this soup simmer for a few hours before eating it.
Tonight I had a craving for Indian, but also for cream of potato soup. This was the result (though, I did have to run to the store for a couple of things). Warning, this is a bit spicy!
Creamy and Spicy Potato Soup
4 red potatoes (big enough that you can’t quite fit your hand around them), washed and cubed
2 ½ tbsp butter
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ a medium onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp flour
2 ½ c milk
salt to taste
Place potatoes in a soup pan, cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Heat the butter in the same pan over medium heat.
Once the butter has melted, add the mustard seeds and cook for a couple minutes.
Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
Add ground ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and cumin seeds and cook until fragrant.
Add the flour and cook for about 1 minute.
Slowly add the milk, then heat over medium-high heat until thick.
Once the sauce is thick, add the salt and potatoes and stir. Bring to desired serving temperature and serve.
Now that I’ve devised my system of continuing my blog, you’ll be hearing from me more often!
We begin this long journey into my recent past with a recipe for a Pasty potpie style. Some of my coworkers and I have created a cooking club and I was hosting the first round. We chose to do our club like a potluck, since we would be holding them on work nights. We also felt that a theme would help ensure that the foods would complement one another. The first theme was fall foods, which I was forced to enforce with certain individuals, who shall remain nameless, but had chosen the theme and suggested she bring a spring vegetable. Ahem. My strict enforcement of the theme prompted a rather unflattering association between myself and a certain WWII German political party. I, personally, had no trouble deciding what I was making. I had been craving a good pasty, but I had never made one and wasn’t quite sure what gave it its delicious flavor. Enter the internet and it’s perpetual eagerness to find what I needed in less than 4.832 seconds. I found that a generous helping of pepper and onion was the key, as was rutabaga. Done. Many of the recipes had their own pastry recipe, but our family has a tried and true recipe that I opted to use due to its dependability. I did alter the pastry recipe slightly, since I was out of sugar, but I did have some honey and it worked just as well. The pasty ended up tasting exactly how I wanted it to, thank you mom for teaching me how to smell for flavor, rather than tasting.
Pasty (potpie style)
1 double pie crust
1 lb ground pork
1 ½ onions, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large rutabaga, peeled and cubed a little smaller than the potato, but not as small as the carrots
freshly ground black pepper to taste (somewhere between 2 tsp and 1 tbsp)
salt to taste (about 1 tsp)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place the ground pork and onions in a cast iron skillet and cook over medium heat. You do not want the pork to brown, but you do want it to cook all the way through. Stir it often enough to prevent browning.
In a large pot, put the potatoes, carrots and rutabaga, covering with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat a bit so that it does not boil over, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water to stop cooking.
Once the pork is cooked through, mix in the cooked vegetables and add the black pepper and salt. Smell the mixture, you should smell a good amount of pepper. If you don’t, add more. Then add about ¼ c water to moisten the mixture a bit.
Roll out one half of the pie crust and place in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour in the filling (I ended up with a little extra. My dog loved that!). Roll out the second crust for the top. Before laying the second crust on top of the mixture, use some cool water and moisten the edges of the bottom crust, along the rim of the baking dish. Gently roll the second crust onto your rolling pin and lay over the pie. Gently press down when you moistened the bottom crust. Trim both crusts so that you have just over 1 inch of crust over hanging. Roll under and crimp the edges. Use a sharp knife to slice a couple slits in the top of the crust.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden.
One of my coworkers is engages to the son of cranberry grower, which means that at harvest time she kindly brought many of use a bag of fresh cranberries. Yum! I used them to make Cranberry Walnut Pancakes, a fruit cobbler and a filling for crepes. The cobbler came of another day where I was trying to make something from what I had in the house while also attempting to sate a sweets craving. I’ve been making crepes on the weekends recently. They are just so delicious. I’m going to share the fruit cobbler recipe I made and how I’m going to make my next batch of crepes.
Fall Fruit Cobbler
2 soft apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and sliced thin
½ c cranberries, washed and halved
¼ c brown sugar
¼ c flour
dash of salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
¼ c honey
½ c walnuts
½ to 1 c rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place apples, pear, and cranberries in a bowl. Sprinkle with brown sugar, flour, and salt and coat well. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Pour the fruit into a bread dish.
With your hands, mix together the butter, honey, walnuts and oats. Spread over the top of the fruit.
Bake until a fork meets no resistance when inserted into the cobbler.
Orange Crepes with Cranberries
Crepes (make approximately 6):
¾ c flour
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 c milk
1 egg, beaten
½ tsp vanilla
1 tbsp melted butter
zest of ½ an orange
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add all remaining ingredients and whisk until completely smooth.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Using a stick of butter with the paper turned back, quickly grease the pan. Pour in ¼ c of the batter and quickly tilt pan in a circular motion to spread the mixture thinly over the bottom of the pan. Cook until slightly brown on one side, flip and brown other side. To keep the crepes warm, place in a covered dish in an oven set to warm.
Cranberries:
¼ lb cranberries
6 tbsp sugar
½ c water
zest of ½ an orange
Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick.
To serve:
Place a crepe on a large plate, put a line of filling along the middle 1/3 of the crepe. Fold over one side, then the other. Slide aside and repeat until the desired number of crepes are on the plate. If desired, you can sprinkle chopped walnuts on top of the cranberry sauce before folding the crepes.
The past few days I’ve been craving Indian food, but I’ve also been watching my budget. This means using up what I have in the house. I discovered that I have three half-full bags of lentils in my cupboard, one of regular lentils, one of red lentils, and the last of Moroccan lentils. I used two with the following soup that was inspired by dal.
Indian-spiced Lentil Soup
1 tbsp oil
½ an onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp Indian curry powder (the kind that is not spicy)
½ lb of red lentils
½ lb of Moroccan lentils
Enough water to cover, plus more to maintain soup consistency while cooking
1 tsp chicken boullion
salt to taste
Heat the oil in a soup pan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
Add cumin seeds and curry powder and cook until fragrant.
Pour in lentils, stir to coat, the add water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Stir in the chicken boullion.
Add water as the soup cooks. You want to maintain a slightly thick consistancy.
Once red lentils have cooked away and Moroccan lentils are tender, add the salt.
Heat a bit more, then serve.
I let this soup simmer for a few hours before eating it.
Tonight I had a craving for Indian, but also for cream of potato soup. This was the result (though, I did have to run to the store for a couple of things). Warning, this is a bit spicy!
Creamy and Spicy Potato Soup
4 red potatoes (big enough that you can’t quite fit your hand around them), washed and cubed
2 ½ tbsp butter
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ a medium onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp flour
2 ½ c milk
salt to taste
Place potatoes in a soup pan, cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Heat the butter in the same pan over medium heat.
Once the butter has melted, add the mustard seeds and cook for a couple minutes.
Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
Add ground ginger, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and cumin seeds and cook until fragrant.
Add the flour and cook for about 1 minute.
Slowly add the milk, then heat over medium-high heat until thick.
Once the sauce is thick, add the salt and potatoes and stir. Bring to desired serving temperature and serve.
Now that I’ve devised my system of continuing my blog, you’ll be hearing from me more often!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Honey Mustard Sauce and Excuses
I'm afraid that both parts of this post will be boring. The more boring part: excuses:
For not posting often enough:
I'm preparing to move across the country and have been extremely busy.
For not having photos:
I'm lazy, plus see the note above.
For not having my homework ready to hand in:
I did it, I must have left it on the kitchen table.
The less boring part: my experiment with making a honey mustard sauce:
I suppose the easy thing to do would have been to find a recipe in a cookbook, but after shopping all day Saturday (I hate shopping, except for shoe shopping or when I have a specific item that I NEED to buy. The latter has a maximum time limit of 2 hours to ensure that I don't lose all brain function) and then moving my boxes out of the attic for a good part of Sunday, I didn't even think to look in a cookbook. I just took the pork tenderloin and butterflied it. I dry roasted some yellow mustard seed (about 1 tbsp) in a small cast iron pan, allowed it to cool, and crushed in plastic wrap with a meat mallet. I fried a large white onion in a pan, added the crushed mustard, then added the tenderloin to brown. I figured it was cooking too quickly, so I put two cups of chicken broth and a quarter cup of honey in the pan. It was at this point that I realized that I was near ruining pork tenderloin.
Luckily, mom was there to save the meal. She took the pork out and put it in a dry cast iron pan to brown (and get rid of that porky smell). Then she instructed me to start the sauce separately because the pork had left nasty little balls in the sauce (gross). This time I started with 1/3 cup of prepared Dijon mustard (the other stuff hadn't even smelled like anything), slowly added 2 cups of chicken broth and then whisked in 1/4 c honey. I think I added salt and pepper as well. When it had boiled a bit, mom deglazed the browning pan with a bit of water and added it to the sauce. Then I added a bit of cornstarch/water mixture until it was thick enough to glaze. We put the pork in the sauce and allowed it to sit, covered, but without heat until we were finished preparing the accompanying dishes (corn and mashed potatoes).
Perhaps it was my mood that made me not love this dish, but my dad seemed to really like it. I'll have to try again, perhaps with tenderloin that is grilled (tenderloin tastes best grilled) and using the sauce as an accompaniment rather than the sauce in which it cooks.
For not posting often enough:
I'm preparing to move across the country and have been extremely busy.
For not having photos:
I'm lazy, plus see the note above.
For not having my homework ready to hand in:
I did it, I must have left it on the kitchen table.
The less boring part: my experiment with making a honey mustard sauce:
I suppose the easy thing to do would have been to find a recipe in a cookbook, but after shopping all day Saturday (I hate shopping, except for shoe shopping or when I have a specific item that I NEED to buy. The latter has a maximum time limit of 2 hours to ensure that I don't lose all brain function) and then moving my boxes out of the attic for a good part of Sunday, I didn't even think to look in a cookbook. I just took the pork tenderloin and butterflied it. I dry roasted some yellow mustard seed (about 1 tbsp) in a small cast iron pan, allowed it to cool, and crushed in plastic wrap with a meat mallet. I fried a large white onion in a pan, added the crushed mustard, then added the tenderloin to brown. I figured it was cooking too quickly, so I put two cups of chicken broth and a quarter cup of honey in the pan. It was at this point that I realized that I was near ruining pork tenderloin.
Luckily, mom was there to save the meal. She took the pork out and put it in a dry cast iron pan to brown (and get rid of that porky smell). Then she instructed me to start the sauce separately because the pork had left nasty little balls in the sauce (gross). This time I started with 1/3 cup of prepared Dijon mustard (the other stuff hadn't even smelled like anything), slowly added 2 cups of chicken broth and then whisked in 1/4 c honey. I think I added salt and pepper as well. When it had boiled a bit, mom deglazed the browning pan with a bit of water and added it to the sauce. Then I added a bit of cornstarch/water mixture until it was thick enough to glaze. We put the pork in the sauce and allowed it to sit, covered, but without heat until we were finished preparing the accompanying dishes (corn and mashed potatoes).
Perhaps it was my mood that made me not love this dish, but my dad seemed to really like it. I'll have to try again, perhaps with tenderloin that is grilled (tenderloin tastes best grilled) and using the sauce as an accompaniment rather than the sauce in which it cooks.
Friday, March 23, 2007
The Second Chayote Experiment
A while back I got around to trying the chayote squash in a savory dish. The result was rather tasty, if I say so myself, but the other taste testers also enjoyed it. This was a far superior preparation of this vegetable compared to the dessert that I made with it. I have to say, the texture of this squash, when cooked, is very similar to cooked cucumber. Perhaps most of you haven't had cooked cucumber, but I have. The people in the area of China where I lived used cucumber in a variety of cooked dishes. At first I thought it was strange, but came to really enjoy it.
Back to the stuffed chayote. My very handy "Field Guide to Produce" listed both chorizo, seafood, and lime as good mates for the chayote. I took this and ran with it. (Oh, and please pardon the sketchy measurements. I will remedy the most offensive ones once back home.)
4 chayote squash, halved and seeded
1 tbsp oil
1/2 green or yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 of a tube of chorizo (Mexican) [see what I meant by sketchy measurements?]
1 1/2 c chopped, raw shrimp
adobo con pimienta, to taste
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground oregano
1/4 c cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake the chayote squash, face down, in a glass baking dish until tender (1/2 to 1 hour).
Remove the chayote from the oven, turn over and allow to cool while preparing stuffing.
Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat.
Add the bell pepper and onion and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook one minute.
Add the chorizo and cook until firm.
Add the shrimp and cook.
When the shrimp is mostly done cooking, sprinkle on the adobo (I think I did two passes over the pan), cumin, oregano, and cilantro.
When shrimp is fully cooked, use a spoon to scoop the flesh out of the chayote and add that to the pan. Make sure to leave enough flesh inside the chayote, since the skin is thin and will not hold its own shape.
Add the lime juice to the pan, stir thoroughly.
Stuff the squash with the stuffing and place back in the glass pan.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake until heated through (15 minutes to 1/2 hour).
I served these with homemade tortillas. Just a note, the skin of the chayote is tender enough to eat. No waste! How great is that?
Back to the stuffed chayote. My very handy "Field Guide to Produce" listed both chorizo, seafood, and lime as good mates for the chayote. I took this and ran with it. (Oh, and please pardon the sketchy measurements. I will remedy the most offensive ones once back home.)
4 chayote squash, halved and seeded
1 tbsp oil
1/2 green or yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 of a tube of chorizo (Mexican) [see what I meant by sketchy measurements?]
1 1/2 c chopped, raw shrimp
adobo con pimienta, to taste
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground oregano
1/4 c cilantro, chopped
juice of one lime
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake the chayote squash, face down, in a glass baking dish until tender (1/2 to 1 hour).
Remove the chayote from the oven, turn over and allow to cool while preparing stuffing.
Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat.
Add the bell pepper and onion and cook for about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook one minute.
Add the chorizo and cook until firm.
Add the shrimp and cook.
When the shrimp is mostly done cooking, sprinkle on the adobo (I think I did two passes over the pan), cumin, oregano, and cilantro.
When shrimp is fully cooked, use a spoon to scoop the flesh out of the chayote and add that to the pan. Make sure to leave enough flesh inside the chayote, since the skin is thin and will not hold its own shape.
Add the lime juice to the pan, stir thoroughly.
Stuff the squash with the stuffing and place back in the glass pan.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake until heated through (15 minutes to 1/2 hour).
I served these with homemade tortillas. Just a note, the skin of the chayote is tender enough to eat. No waste! How great is that?
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Never tease a starving person
The other night I went to the gym for an intense aerobic workout (heavy bag, 3 1/5 mile run and 20 minutes on the stationary bike). I would have done some stair climber as well, but my ride had arrived. On the the way home, hunger pangs stabbing, I inquired as to what we were having for dinner. The response? "Leftover pea soup." I love pea soup, but like anything, I don't like eating it repeatedly within a short period of time. The excuse was that mom didn't feel like cooking and he was "lazy." I was angry. I admit it. The result was a less than enthusiastic response when I found out he HAD cooked. I snapped. I'm ashamed. I blame hunger and a not-so-hot day. A sorry excuse I guess.Now, the family joke is, when dad cooks dinner is one of the following:
Frozen pizza
Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
Chicken cacciatore
(and more recently:)
meatloaf
spaghetti
That evening, though, dad had gotten creative. A pork dish reminiscent of Caribbean dishes, asparagus, and (sweet) cornbread. It was delicious. I ate a bit before taking a picture. *sheepish grin* This is how he described making this dish.
He found a recipe for stuffed pork and sort of followed it, but not really. He chopped half of a large onion, an apple and some walnuts. He cooked the pork loin, which he had sliced, in a pan with water. He sauteed the onion, apple and walnuts together and added undefined amounts of sage, marjoram, cinnamon, salt, pepper and honey. The result was a slightly sweet pork dish. It was so good. The asparagus was boiled. The cornbread (from a Land o' Lakes cookbook) was baked. My angry stomach monster was assuaged. Thanks Dad!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Split Pea Soup
Here is the split pea soup. Not exactly the most appetizing looking dish, but delicious nonetheless. [I will refrain from inserting any unnecessary movie references here.] We decided to save this dish for the night that I worked (a rare occurrence while I'm attempting to find full-time work and doing random temp work). Next to it are some Dare whole grain crackers. Very tasty. For dipping into this soup they are far superior to saltines. Though, there were individuals in our household who chose buttered saltines. I prefer those with tomato soup (canned, but with extra black pepper). Here is our family "recipe" for split pea soup. We tend to... "some of this" and "some of that" for a lot of our well-known recipes. Don't most families? I know it's almost impossible to get a straight recipe out of my sister-in-law's parents for any of their Puerto Rican dishes. I think perhaps I'll have to spend some time hanging around their kitchen and forcing them to show me how to cook. I never can get the Pollo Guisado right. It's either completely tasteless or way too salty. But I digress. Didn't I say a while back I was giving you the recipe for split pea soup?1 smoked ham hock
4 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 bag of dried split peas
Place the ham hock, carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves and salt and pepper in a large stock pot.
Cover with water and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for at least 3 hours (add water if necessary, but if you have the heat low enough you shouldn't have to). We typically start this part in the morning and let it cook slowly all day, thus, it requires a weekend day or someone to be home. Or, you could make the stock one night and continue the next night with the following:
Add the split peas and enough water to cover an inch or so.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until peas have cooked thoroughly.
Add water to prevent burning, if necessary.
You can remove the bay leaves, or be lazy like me and leave them in. If someone tries to eat it, they'll quickly realize it isn't exactly fun to chew on.
Remove the the ham hock and bits of meat that have fallen off. Let cool a bit, then shred, removing as much of the superfluous fat as possible.
Return the meat to the pot and heat a few minutes.
Serve.
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