Tag Archives: Pork

Chicken & Pork Adobado

Posted on by
Reply

adobadoCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

My last dish out of All About Braising was a bit disappointing. The first night we ate this chicken and pork dish, it was really good. The sauce was tangy and full of flavor. Unfortunately, there was only enough sauce for that first meal. Leftovers were dry and tasteless. and I ended up tossing the rest.

Stevens calls this a Philippine-style braised dish. You start out by marinating a mix of chicken thighs and pork ribs in garlic, vinegar, lime zest and soy sauce, then braising the meat in the marinade. Once the thighs and ribs are tender, you panfry them until crispy brown on the outside. The braising liquid gets boiled down into a syrupy sauce which gets served over the meats.

It sounds like a lot of steps, but it really isn’t. As promised panfrying the braised meats crisped the chicken skin into a shiny brown lacquer and gave the ribs a nice color. We served this over white rice, and for me, the star of the meal was the sauce. It was rich and tangy and vinegary, but not overpoweringly so. In fact, I could have just drizzled the sauce over the rice and been happy.

I’m sad to be leaving this book behind. The meals I’ve made from it were deeply satisfying, especially when the weather outside was frightful. None of the recipes were overly complicated, and the results went (mostly) beyond my expectations. I expect to return to this book over and over.

I haven’t picked out the next cookbook, but it will likely be a baking one. I expect I’ll start up again in January, but for now I’m elbow deep in making candies and cookies for the holidays.

Pork Loin Braised in Milk

Posted on by
3

pork_milkCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Here’s another dish that makes this book worth buying. I’ve heard of dishes that use milk as the cooking liquid, but I’ve never tried them. Now I’m a convert.

You start off by inserting slivers of garlic seasoned with sage and fennel seeds into slits made in a pork loin roast. The meat is then browned on all sides. More garlic is added to the pot before it is deglazed with whole milk, then the whole thing is put into a 275 degree oven for just over an hour. Once the meat is cooked, you set it aside to rest while you finish the sauce. At this point, the milk is a caramel color and looks curdled. You boil the liquid down until all you are left with are the milk curds. At this point, the sauce is tasted for seasoning and finished with a bit of lemon juice.

The sauce tasted fine, but I had a problem with the texture and appearance. It just didn’t look very good, so I followed one of Stevens’ variations and whizzed the sauce in a blender until it was smooth and creamy. I served the pork, sliced and drizzled with the sauce, with some brown rice and homemade rolls. Both Bryan and I couldn’t stop talking about how good this was. The pork was perfectly cooked and juicy. The sauce was creamy and salty (in the very best way). I’m already planning on trying this with pork chops or maybe a pork tenderloin cut into chunks.

Braised Pork Chops & Creamy Cabbage

Posted on by
1

pork_chops_cabbageCurrently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Here’s another cabbage dish from Stevens’ book. This time, the cabbage is seasoned with caraway and mustard seeds, shallots and dry white wine and braised with pork chops. The dish is then finished with heavy cream, salt and pepper.

I liked this dish, mostly. The pork was tender and the cabbage was silky and full of flavor, but I thought the caraway was a little overpowering. Next time, I’ll reduce the amount used.

Simple Pork Tenderloin

Posted on by
3

pork_tenderloin2Currently cooking from Tasty by Roy Finamore

Pork tenderloin is so easy to cook, but it can end up bland and boring, so I’m always looking for ways to spice it up. In this recipe, Finamore has you spread a mixture of Dijon mustard and herbs over a tenderloin before rolling the meat in bread crumbs. The meat is then browned on the stovetop before getting baked in the oven until done.

Easy, right? The only problem I had was that the bread crumbs didn’t stay on the tenderloin while I was browning it, and I ended up with meat that looked like it had a skin disease. It tasted great, though, and was moist and tender. This makes a great weekday meal and the leftovers are equally as good.

Pork Souvlaki

Posted on by
2

pork_souvlakiCurrently cooking from The Carefree Cook by Rick Rodgers.

The weather up here in North Idaho has finally warmed up enough to get the grill out of storage, and to celebrate, we made these pork souvlaki skewers.

You start out by marinating cubes of pork in the classic greek flavors of onion, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and oregano for up to 24 hours. After a quick trip to the grill, the skewers were ready to go. This recipe was easy, fast and very, very good. The only thing problem I had was I overcooked the pork, so it was a bit dry. 

If you don’t fancy pork, I think this dish would be equally good with chicken. Leftovers (if you have any) are good served in a pita with some cucumber/yogurt sauce.

Pork Chops in Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Posted on by
2

chops_mushrooms2Currently Cooking out of The Carefree Cook by Rick Rodgers.

The next cookbook under the microscope is The Carefree Cook by Rick Rodgers. The book is aimed at people who don’t have a lot of time to cook, but want great tasting food. As he says in his introduction, “The Carefree Cook is about how to get fantastic flavors in your everyday cooking with a minimum of effort.”

chops_mushroomsRodgers’ book covers everything from soups and salads to side dishes and desserts. Most of the recipes have fewer than 5 steps and contain easy-to-find ingredients, a boon to busy cooks.

The first recipe that I tried (and one of the first I ever marked to try) was pork chops in a creamy mushroom sauce. Bryan loves mushrooms and we both love pork. There was no way this recipe was going to fail. The dish came together fast, just as Rodgers promised. First you brown the pork chops, then saute mushrooms and shallots (I used onions). You use sherry and chicken broth to deglaze the pan and then add the pork chops back in to finish cooking. At the end, sour cream and cornstarch are stirred into the mixture to thicken it.

The only tricky ingredient was a porcini powder that was listed as optional. Lucky for me, I came across this stuff during a stopover at Whole Foods in Portland, OR. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I’m assuming it’s dried porcini mushrooms that have been ground to a powder. It thickened the sauce and added a deep, earthy mushroom flavor.

I served the pork chops and sauce over white rice with a side of roasted broccoli. This stuff was good, as in lick-the-plate-clean good. The only bad thing about it? There’s only enough leftovers for one person . . .

Quinoa and Chili-Scented Pork Chops with Roasted Red Pepper Dressing

Posted on by
2

Quinoa and Chili-Scented Pork Chops with Roasted Red Pepper DressingCurrently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.

I first heard about quinoa a couple of years ago. At the time, it was really hard to find and I soon gave up looking for it. These, days, however, it’s easily found in the natural foods section of most grocery stores. Quinoa was a major protein source for the Incas and is often called a “super grain” because it contains all of the essential amino acids the body needs. It is a tiny, round grain and pops when you bite it. I find quinoa to be fairly neutral tasting, and I prefer to use it like rice. The standard method of cooking it is to boil the grain like pasta, until it is tender. Then drain and use.

QuinoaOne note about quinoa – It is covered with a very bitter substance that must be rinsed off before cooking. I usually rinse the grains for 3-4 minutes under running water.

So, on to the recipe. It was good. The quinoa tossed with the roasted red pepper dressing was light and flavorful and I really liked the addition of corn to it. I can see making this salad during the summer with fresh, grilled corn and maybe some fresh basil. In fact, this salad could easily stand on it’s own, without the meat.

The pork chops are rubbed with a mixture of olive oil, chili powder, garlic, cinnamon and salt before pan frying. The spice rub nicely complimented the pork and wasn’t overpowering. Again, I’d like to try grilling the pork chops.