24 posts tagged “pork”
I never ate Chinese food as a child. My dad is an incredibly picky eater, and this is something he absolutely refused (and still refuses) to eat, so you can see where I got it. But, one chicken chop suey at a restaurant while out with my mom, and I was hooked. Thing is, I got stuck on chicken chop suey and never tried anything else.
As a freshman in college, I fell head over heels for a local Japanese and Chinese restaurant that was a few blocks from campus. But once again, I got into an ordering funk and stuck to my signature dish--there, it was chicken fried rice. I liked this fried rice more than any others I'd had because it had finely sliced peapods (my absolute favorite), and lots of other veggies; not just the standard (or, what I thought was the standard) peas and carrots.
These days, it's pretty rare for me to order fried rice or even chop suey at a Chinese restaurant. I tend to be more into Kung Pao or sesame chicken, or Mongolian beef. So there you have it, the timeline of my Chinese food eating.
Still, I get cravings for chop suey or lo mein from time to time, but I try to make those dishes at home rather than ordering them out. I mean, if I am going to eat all those calories, I might as well have something that tastes deliciously unhealthy, like fried sesame chicken, rather than something that seems almost healthy (even though it usually isn't) like chop suey.
This is a recipe for a healthier version of pork fried rice. It uses lean pork tenderloin and brown rice, as well as minimal oil. It comes in at just under 500 calories for a healthy sized portion. But don't worry, it still tastes great and will definitely nip your craving for Chinese food in the bud! For a little more oomph, you can drizzle some toasted sesame oil over the top.
Pork Fried Rice
Serves 4
2 eggs, lightly beaten and a little oil or cooking spray
2 Tbsp. canola oil, divided
1 (1 lb.) pork tenderloin, cut into bite sized pieces
1 bunch green onions, sliced (greens and whites separated)
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 small carrots, sliced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 knob of ginger, peeled & grated or minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 cup frozen peas
3-4 cups cold cooked brown rice (from 1 cup raw)
1 cup peapods, sliced
2-3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
Heat a large pan or wok over medium heat and add a little oil or cooking spray. Add the eggs and swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Cook the eggs without scrambling (so they look like a pancake). Remove from the pan and cut into pieces. Set aside.
Add 2 tsp. of oil to the pan and increase the heat. Season the pork with salt and pepper, and then add to the hot oil. Cook for a minute before adding the white parts of the green onions (set the sliced green tops aside), celery, carrots, garlic, mushrooms, ginger and red pepper flakes. Stir fry for about 2 minutes or until vegetables are tender-crisp.
Add the remaining 4 tsp. of oil to the pan. Add the rice, peapods and peas. Stir to coat with the oil and allow to warm through and start to get "fried" for a minute or two. Add the soy sauce and the egg you sliced earlier. Season to taste, and top with the sliced green onion tops.
I have been absolutely exhausted lately. I've been busy at home and on the weekends, and I've been working at a different office (that takes longer to get to/from) during the week. I've been neglecting blogs (including my own!) and emails, and I apologize.
Normally I have some sort of rambling at the beginning of my posts but today you're getting just the food! No rambling (for those of you who bother to even read my rambling, that is).
We had these chops last week so I can only hope that I got the measurements right because it's been a while. But, if I were to make these from scratch today this is how I would make them so I assume this is how I made them last week :) As you know, I am a smoked gouda fanatic and while it lends itself to many dishes and flavors, I think smoked gouda pairs best with pork. And when you add caramelized onions, mushrooms and thyme, the complementary flavors only enhance. Enjoy!
Pork Chops with Smoked Gouda, Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms
Serves 2
2 pork chops
1 oz. shredded or sliced smoked gouda
1 tsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 yellow or vidalia onion, cut in half and sliced
2 sprigs thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp. dry sherry or marsala
1/3 cup beef broth
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 350. Slice a pocket into each pork chop and fill it with the gouda. Season the chops with salt and pepper. Heat an ovenproof skillet over medium heat and add the oil. Sear the pork chops for about a minute per side, just to brown them. Move the chops to a baking dish and cook in the oven until just slightly underdone.
Meanwhile, melt the butter to the skillet in which you pan-fried the chops, over low heat. Stir in the onions and thyme and cook over low heat until golden brown, stirring occasionally--about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and the mushrooms and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Increase the heat to medium high and add the sherry. Scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan and cook until the sherry is almost completely evaporated, a couple minutes. Stir in the broth and cook it for another couple minutes to reduce it, slightly, too. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the pork chops back into the skillet, spooning the onions and sauce over them. Place the skillet in the oven for about 5 minutes or until the pork chops have cooked and the sauce has thickened slightly.
There are dozens of great flavor combinations that I just love to use over and over, either because they complement one another so nicely or they are ingredients I always have around (or both)! One of my favorite combinations is garlic and ginger. I think these two flavors marry exceptionally well together and they taste so, so good. Am I right or am I right?
With that in mind, I set out to make an Asian-spiced pork burger. Ginger and garlic can be used in many dishes and in different cuisines, but my favorite application of the two ingredients is in Asian cooking. I topped these with a really simple warm slaw of sorts. We don't eat burgers a lot (and I have no idea why), so this was a nice change of pace. Plus, did you know that May is National Hamburger Month? I couldn't let that go by without celebrating!
And if all those reasons weren't already enough to tempt me into making burgers, while I am marrying ginger and garlic, my friend Joelen is marrying her real-life cooking group with her online cooking followers. If you haven't already seen Joelen's blog, you should definitely check out all the great things she does! Be sure to visit her blog on June 30 for the roundup of burgers, both from the burger cooking class she is holding on June 29 and the submissions she gets from blogs.
Asian Pork Burgers
1 lb. ground pork
1.5 Tbsp. low sodium soy sauce
2 scallions (whites and greens), sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 knob ginger, peeled and minced or grated
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
salt (not a lot since you have the soy sauce) and pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients together (being careful not to overmix) and form into patties. Grill until done, about 6 minutes per side.
For the slaw, I don't have a real recipe. All I did was stir fry some veggies (shredded cabbage and carrots, bean sprouts, and mushrooms) and then stirred in a little soy sauce and fish sauce at the end).
During the holidays, I read Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table. Reichl, now the editor of Gourmet magazine, used to be the food critic for the New York Times. This book is about some of her earlier adventures in life, food and otherwise. I really enjoyed the book, though I think I prefered Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, which focused on her time as the NYT critic. At any rate, one of the great things about Reichl's books is that they are sprinkled with recipes throughout. When I saw the recipe for a pork and tomatillo stew based on the version at a restaurant where Reichl used to waitress (The Swallow), I bookmarked it to try soon.
I made the stew tonight, with a few changes since I can never follow a recipe, and it turned out well. It was a little too liquidy for my tastes and the orange flavor just a tad too strong. I would probably reduce the OJ by a couple ounces next time around. It wasn't overly orange-y, I would have just prefered it to be slightly less sweet. I did think it might be too much at the beginning but I figured the beer and tomatillos would mellow it out--and it did quite a bit. Don't get me wrong...it doesn't taste like it has 12 oz of orange juice in it :)
Unfortunately, I don't like cilantro. I have tried and tried and tried but it just tastes like potpourri to me. It's one of those things I really wish I loved. In my experience, you either love cilantro or you loathe it. If necessary, I can tolerate it in small amounts, but I'd rather not So, although they don't really have similar flavors, I used parsley in this recipe instead because it's more palatable for me.
The Swallow's Pork and Tomatillo Stew
adapted from Ruth Reichl
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used 2 Tbsp. canola oil)
8 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 lbs. lean pork, cut into cubes
1 bottle dark beer (I used a Goose Island ale)
12 oz. orange juice (would use 1 cup next time)
1 lb. tomatillos, halved
1 lb. Roma tomatoes, peeled and cut in half
2 large onions, chopped
2 jalapenos, diced
1 bunch cilantro or parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp. ground cumin (not in original recipe)
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper
Topping
1 cup sour cream
juice of one lime
In a saucepan, add the beer, orange juice, tomatoes and tomatillos. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, simmering until the tomatoes are soft. Set aside.
Meanwhile, heat the canola oil in a dutch oven or stockpot. Add the garlic cloves and stir to coat with the oil. Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper and then add it to the oil, in batches, to brown on all sides. Remove from the dutch oven. Add the onion and jalapeno and saute until tender, 5 or 6 minutes.
Add the tomatillo mixture to the dutch oven, scraping the bottom of the pot to be sure you are getting all the browned bits. Add the pork, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cook, partially covered, for about 2 hours.
Taste for seasoning. Add the black beans and cook an additional ten minutes, uncovered.
For the topping, stir the lime juice into the sour cream.
Serve the stew over rice, and top it with the sour cream.
About once a month, I find myself with a couple of thawed pork chops and no ideas for them. See, I am not crazy about pork chops. I will definitely eat them, but they're not my favorite. My husband, on the other hand, loves pork chops...which is why I try to make them about once a month.
After a day out in Chicago's "wintry mix" of snow, rain, wind and ice, I was definitely not up for making a run to the grocery store, so I had to work with what I had on hand--which wasn't much. I figured I would marinate the pork chops in something simple, and then remembered a marinade Giada used on her show for drumettes, so I decided to use that. I have made this recipe with chicken before here and it's great.
After marinating the chops, I pan fried them for a couple minutes to caramelize before putting them in the oven. I actually preferred this marinade with the pork over the chicken! I definitely recommend the pan frying because the caramelization gives them extra flavor and makes them so good.
We had this with some brown rice and a really simple recipe for golden-crusted brussels sprouts. It was so easy and turned out delicious! I used grana padano for the cheese.
Balsamic Pork Chops
adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
2-3 pork chops (I used center cut, boneless)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 Tbsp. canola oil
pinch of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
In a ziplock bag, combine the vinegar, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary and garlic. Shake/squeeze the bag to dissolve the brown sugar. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Place the pork chops in the bag and massage the marinade into them. Marinate the chops for 3-4 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400*
Heat the canola oil in an oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Add the pork chops (reserving the marinade) and cook for about 2-3 minutes per side, until they caramelize. Place the skillet in the oven and cook for about 15 minutes or until pork chops reach an internal temperature of 150.
Meanwhile, add the reserved marinade and a pinch of red pepper flakes to a small saucepan. Bring the marinade to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook until thickened (the 15 minutes the pork chops are in the oven should do it).
Brush the cooked pork chops with the marinade and serve.
Maybe not quite...but almost. Clearly I should have used my big 8qt stockpot, but I just *heart* my dutch oven so much I didn't even think twice about how enough soup for an army would fit into it.
Talk about a soup that eats like a meal! Despite that this soup's only accompaniment was some garlic and herb bread, my husband could barely finish half his bowl because he got stuffed to the gills.
I was originally going to make Ina's lentil sausage soup, but I didn't have a few things (leeks, green lentils) and had some other things (regular brown lentils, a potato). I saw a lentil soup with sausage and potato recipe in my Joy of Cooking book, so the recipe below is essentially a mixture of those two recipes.
I ended up freezing about a quart of this soup and hopefully we can manage to make it through the rest this week for lunch, etc.
Lentil Sausage Soup
Serves: an army :)
3 Tbsp. olive oil
3 medium yellow onions, diced
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. kosher salt
ground pepper to taste
2 thyme sprigs
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup tomato paste
12 cups chicken broth
1 lb. lentils, rinsed and picked over
2 small or medium russet potatoes, cubed
1 lb. kielbasa or other smoked sausage, sliced in half-rounds
2 Tbsp. red wine
Grated grana padano/parmesan for serving
In a large stockpot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, cumin, salt, pepper and thyme and cook until the onions are translucent, about 10-15 minutes.
Add the carrots, celery and garlic and saute for about 8 more minutes. Stir around the tomato paste to cook it off for a couple minutes.
Pour in the chicken broth and the lentils. Cover the pot and bring the soup to a boil. Remove the lid and simmer for about 25-30 minutes, until the lentils are just tender.
Add the cubed potato and simmer for 5 minutes before adding the sausage and red wine. Simmer an additional 5 minutes or so until potatoes are cooked and sausage is heated through. Pluck out the woody thyme sprigs.
Ladel into bowls and top with grana padano or parmesan cheese (which I forgot to add before taking the picture :)
Judging by the absolutely ridiculous number of goat cheese posts on this blog, you'd probably think it was my favorite cheese. It's definitely up there, but if I had to pick a favorite cheese (and I hope I never have to do that because, man, do I love cheese) it could very possibly be smoked gouda. It is just so absolutely delicious and complements so many other flavors.
Know what else complements so many other things? Bacon. I think you could add it to pretty much anything and it would taste better. Hell, one of the best chocolate places, Vosges, has a new applewood smoked bacon and smoked salt chocolate bar.
Tonight we had a pork tenderloin stuffed with smoked gouda and bacon. This is a meal that my husband and I both really enjoy but I rarely make because it's not especially good for you. However, Tom got bacon from the butcher (aka best bacon ever), so how could I say no?
Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Smoked Gouda and Bacon
Serves 4 if you are being good, 2 if you are being oinky ;)
1 (about 1 lb.) pork tenderloin
1/4 lb. bacon, chopped
3 oz. smoked gouda, shredded
fresh or dried parsley, to taste
fresh or dried sage, to taste
salt and pepper
olive oil (optional)
Cook the chopped bacon in a skillet and remove with a slotted spoon.
Butterfly pork tenderloin and pound slightly to thin it out. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, sage and parsley. Top with the gouda and the cooked bacon.
Starting at one end, roll the pork tenderloin up end to end (or tri-fold it, like you would a letter). Secure with kitchen twine or toothpicks.
Here is where you have a couple options:
~ Sprinkle salt and pepper on the rolled up tenderloin and roast it in the oven until done (I do 140ish, I like my pork just a little pink and it will cook a little more when it's out of the oven).
~ Rub the tenderloin with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Sear it in a hot pan to brown on all sides, and then put it in the oven to finish cooking.
~ Sprinkle salt and pepper on the rolled up tenderloin and sear it in the super-delicious bacon fat to brown on all sides, and then move the skillet to the oven to finish cooking.
After you remove the tenderloin from the oven, put it under a foil tent to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing it.
Another day, another pork chop.
We are pretty limited with both our freezer and fridge selections at the moment, so I needed something simple and with common ingredients for tonight's dinner. I decided to just use Giada's extremely basic, easy recipe for parmesan pork chops. I used romano instead of parmesan because that is the cheese I always have on hand (I prefer it to parmesan). These were great. Nothing absolutely amazing but they come together very quickly and are an extremely easy weeknight meal.
I made a really simple salad of baby romaine and grape tomatoes tossed with lemon vinaigrette. All I did for that was crush a clove of garlic, squeeze the juice out of one lemon, and add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. I let it sit while I made the rest of the meal to marry the flavors and plucked the garlic clove out before tossing with the greens.
Tonight we had pork chops stuffed with goat cheese and spinach, and couscous pilaf with carrots/celery/mushrooms/onions/garlic.
Notice anything similar to last night's meal? Oh, right...pretty much the same ingredients. Originally the reason I bought carrots and celery was to make a beef stew. Well, then I realized we were going out of town this weekend and the leftovers would go to waste. Besides, the weather was MUCH hotter than I thought it would be this week, so not really weather for soup or stew.
Stuffed tenderloin, chicken, flank steak, chops, etc. are always my "go to" when I need a dinner idea because you can fill them with whatever you have sitting in your fridge. And as you know, there is always goat cheese sitting in my fridge :)
Pork chops stuffed with goat cheese and spinach
2 boneless pork chops
1 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped or torn
Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
1-2 oz. goat cheese
Preheat oven to 350.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add .1 tsp. olive oil. Cook onion until translucent. Stir in garlic until fragrant, and then add spinach to wilt. Take off heat.
Stir in goat cheese, salt and pepper and Italian seasoning to taste.
Pound chops slightly and slit a pocket in the side of each chop. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and stuff with equal parts of the spinach mixture.
Heat the remaining 2 tsp. olive oil in a skillet. When hot, brown the pork chops for about 2 minutes per side.
Move skillet to oven and finish cooking, until internal temperature is about 150, around 15 minutes.
1 tsp olive oil Heat olive oil and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms and saute until tender. Add garlic, stirring until fragrant. Pour in chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Add couscous and stir to combine. Cover, and turn off the heat. Let stand about five mintues. Fluff with a fork and serve.
Veggie Couscous Pilaf
1 tsp butter
1/4 cup onion, diced
2 oz. mushrooms, sliced or diced
1 small carrot, peeled and diced
1 rib celery, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup chicken stock (or amount required by your box of couscous)
1/2 cup couscous
While I've had (and loved) gnocchi in restaurants, I've never actually made a dish with gnocchi at home, so I bought some of the fresh refrigerated gnocchi while it was on sale the other day. I was food blog surfing when I came across this recipe for Gnocchi with sausage and spinach on Delish. I had all the ingredients (or actually, variations of the ingredients) on hand, so I decided to make it. I also had some leftover mushrooms so I threw those in. This was a really great, simple dish that came together in about 15 minutes. The only thing I would change next time is to use less spinach because an entire package was just too much for the amount of gnocchi I had. Otherwise, easy and delicious! This served both of us for dinner, and I have enough for lunch tomorrow.
Gnocchi with Sausage, Mushrooms and Spinach
Adapted from Real Simple/Delish
1 package (13.5 oz) refrigerated gnocchi
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 Italian sausage links, casings removed
1 package (I would use a little less next time) frozen spinach, thawed
4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Cook the gnocchi in salted water, according to the package directions, reserving about 3 Tbsp of the cooking liquid.
Meanwhite, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and onion. Crumble the sausage and continue cooking until the sausage is about halfway done. Then, add the mushrooms and cook until done. If necessary, drain.
Add the garlic and saute about 1 minute. Stir in the spinach. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the gnocchi, reserved cooking liquid and parmesan cheese. Toss until combined
