Recipe of the Week

Sorry, its been a while!  To make it up to you, I have 2 recipes:

Spanish Style Tortilla with Red Peppers (a la Rachael Ray - http://bit.ly/yX5LEn for original)
1pkg hot sausage (Chorizo, or hot pork sausage)- casing off
1 Red Bell pepper sliced thin
4 Tomatoes, de-seeded (reserved) and sliced thin
2 cloves Garlic
1 Pkg of sliced Crimini Mushrooms
1 C Cilantro
12 eggs, beaten
4 C lightly crushed tortilla chips
Cheddar Cheese


Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.  In skillet on med heat, brown the sausage and reserved tomato seed/gel (the Test Kitchen says the most Tomato flavor can be found in the gel and seeds, but they contribute a ton of moisture, so I saute them up with the sausage.)

Add the Tomatoes Onion, Peppers, Mushrooms and Garlic and stir.  Let cook until only a little tender.  (Make sure the mushrooms are cooked completely, or else they will continue to add moisture to the dish and it will not set.  Top with Tortilla Chips, lightly crushed, and stir to incorporate.  Fill in with beaten Eggs, wait until partially set and put whole skillet into the oven at 450 deg.

Bake for 15 min until cooked through.  Top with the cheddar cheese and broil for 3 min.





Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy
While you may think you know this recipe, it is has been re-incarnated from what I grew up with (milk and cream of mushroom soup) for the lactose intolerant in our house.

1pks of pork chop - regular cut
2 Carrots
3 Stalk Celery
2 sprigs of Rosemary
2 pkgs of sliced crimini mushrooms (or button if you prefer)
1 yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Tbs flour
4 C stock or broth of your choice

Pre-heat oven to 350 deg. In large dutch oven on stove heat on med heat. Use 1Tbs Olive Oil and batch brown the outside of your Pork Chops. Stack any pieces that do not fit (smaller ones only) on top of pile.  Top with sprigs of rosemary, carrots and celery.  Seal with foil and place lid on top of foil.  Place in oven until Chops register 135 or 140 degrees on instant read thermometer.  Take out of the oven and place on cutting board, re-use foil to tent the meat.  The residual heat will finish cooking it.

Re-use the dutch oven and drippings from the meat. (big fan of not having to use multiple pans, but if you want your recipe to go faster, then start the gravy while the meat is cooking and add the drippings at the end).  Place drippings in a fat separator or other dish.  Heat the dutch oven with 1Tbs of olive oil and 2Tbs of meat drippings. Saute Onion  and mushrooms until soft, then add garlic (it cooks faster) until fragrant.  Add 2Tbs of flour, and cook until light brown. Use a blender or food processor to blend the roasted rosemary, carrots and celery. Add remaining drippings and stock and the vegetable mixture.  Simmer until thicken and glossy.

Add the pork chops back to the dutch oven to keep warm until serving.  ENJOY!

I like to serve with green beans and roasted potatoes...

This weeks culinary delight was Pork Chops with Apple Stuffing (1/5/2012)
1 package of pork chops
Olive oil
4 sprigs Rosemary
1 large Onion + 1 Tbl Garlic
6 stalks of celery
4 Med. Granny Smith Apples
2 boxes of stuffing mix

Using heavy bottomed pan, brown the sides of the pork chops.  Be careful of heat.  I usually buy my pork chops from Costco, so they are pretty thick.  If you have thinner pork chops, the baking time might change a bit.  Do the browning in batches until all porkchops are browned.

While browning the pork chops, chop apples in 1 inch pieces and rough cut the onion and celery.  In a hot pan carmelize the onion, celery then add garlic, cook until fragrant. Add Apples and cook for approximately 5 min to start the cooking process.  Place bread crumbs from stuffing mix in bowl.  Add onion mix to the bread crumbs from the stuffing mix.  Prepare the stuffing mix according to directions, except leave out approximately 1Cup of liquid.  The steam and moisture from the cooking apples will replace this.

When pork chops are finished browing, cover with the apple stuffing.  Seal the pan with foil to keep in the steam for the stuffing during baking.  Bake in a 350deg oven for approximately 30min until the temperature of the pork chop reaches 135 or 140 deg on a thermometer.  Take out of oven and let set for 10 min to finish the cooking process.  This ensures a moist juicy pork chop.

Enjoy!

December 31st - Navy Bean/ Ham Soup




With leftover ham from the holiday dinner, I was at a loss what to do.  So, I went to my local WinCo (LOVE that place) to the bulk foods section and bought some navy beans.

As a disclaimer, I don't like Navy beans, or really any type of bean/lentil or pea.  Its a weird holdover from childhood.

Of course, I didn't really plan ahead.  So I pulled out my trusty Test Kitchen cookbook and wondered (hoped) there was a solution, and there was.  I brought the beans to a boil, then capped it with a lid and took it off the heat.  1 hour later, the beans were ready to go. Then, I started throwing things in a pot, and it actually turned out pretty well. The kids ate it without any complaint.

Ingredients
1lb of Navy Beans
1 Ham bone
3cups Cubed ham
6stalks celery
1 large Yellow Onion
2 1/2 Qts Chicken Stock
1/2 Qt Beef Stock
1Qt Water
1Tbs white pepper
2tsp salt
5sprigs Rosemary (fresh)
1sprig Basil (fresh)

Directions
Heat the stock pot and add the 3 cups of cubed ham.  Cook the ham down to get a good rendering a fat.  Add the onion and celery.  Sweat the onion and celery till onion is clear.  Add the liquid (chicken, beef and water) and the ham bone.  Add seasonings (salt, rosemary, basil) and bring to boil.  Let simmer gently for 1 hour.  Enjoy!

Even though I don't typically like beans, peas or lentils (see disclaimer above) I really liked this soup and can't wait to make it again.