Pork – Page 4 – Rosemary and the Goat

Pork Marsala with Creamy Spinach Grits

Wonderful pork and the creamiest grits.

The hot days of summer will soon be here and you may not want to be cooking that much indoors. For us, we do most of our cooking outdoors once the weather is hot enough to jump in the pool with a glass of wine while the aroma of something on the grill or smoker drifting our way. You have to eat, right, whether you are cooking indoors or outdoors and you can’t eat COLD food all summer anyway.

So, I guess it doesn’t really make much difference if this dish sounds like “comfort food” or not, everyone needs a little comforting every once in a while anyway.

This is one of those recipes that I started with about 4 recipes, pilfered this and that from them all and came up with the one I made for the two of us one night. I had no mashed potatoes so I decided to serve with creamy grits.

One weekend my friend was beaching it with some friends and texted me and asked if I had heard of grits and greens. They were having them for dinner that night and the though intrigued me. I knew I loved grits and adding something green would be visually appearing to the dish. I think they were using kale or chard; spinach my my choice of greens since there just happened to be some in my refrigerator.

Don’t you just love buying those little packages of pork tenderloin. They are so easy to prepare just about any way. Open the package, remove a little of the silver skin, slice and you are ready for this recipe.
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May 15, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Chinese Fried Rice

Good to make with leftover chicken, bacon or pork.

This is another recipe that my sister and I have made for years (decades). I added a couple of extra ingredients and did the egg a little different but in the end it is just as delicious as the dish we have been making all out lives.

Since I was serving my Egg Foo Yung with this fried rice and I didn’t need the whole cane of bamboo shoots, water chestnuts or bean sprouts, I decided to add them to the recipe. If you want to make our original version then you can just leave out those three ingredients. BUT, I hope you will make the Egg Foo Yung along with the fried rice as a side dish.

Originally the egg was beaten and stirred into the finished dish. But I decided to beat the egg with a little soy and sesame oil and cook it like an omlette, really quick in a hot pan, flip it and then cut in strips. The egg has a better look like this rather than kind of mushing up with the rice the other way.

Just about any dish you have in a Chinese restaurant can probably be made better at home.There’s a Walnut Shrimp dish I had once in Austin and I will be posting that soon.
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March 31, 2014 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Bread/ ColdApp/ Entree/ HotApp/ Pork

Momofuku’s Steamed Buns and Quick Pickles

Soft and delicious buns and the pickles are bad either.

Here’s the second installment of the pork belly saga.

Thinking of Steamed Buns brings up thoughts of dim sum and being in Chinatown/San Francisco. Back in 2001 (just a week before 9/11 happened) we were in San Francisco/Napa with our friends Peggy and Gordon. While in San Francisco we were in Chinatown and went for dim sum at supposedly one of their best places. Well, Peggy and I both can now hear the word “dim sum” and it always gets a smile and chuckle from us.

We didn’t know what to order and it seemed like everything put on our plates was sweet and gooey. I remember the buns but not what was in ours, something sweet and gooey I’m sure. Anyway, it was a fun experience watching all the waitpeople come by with their carts of goodies. Too bad we weren’t up on what to order off the menu.

Since, that experience we have had dim sum with our son/daughter-in-law in Chicago and they’re experts on everything on the menu and we have enjoyed it very much and will be much better prepared the next time on what to order.

So for this recipe you will need the Braised Pork Belly recipe that I posted a few days ago and the cucumbers that are used in this little Pork Belly Steamed Bun Sandwich.

I do hope you will try these little buns, or you could make a pulled pork sandwich using these little white buns.

I think these Steamed Buns, the Quick Pickled Cucumbers, Pork Belly and the glaze make one terrific bite of a sandwich and you won’t regret the hours it takes making the pork belly or the buns. I’m giving you the pickle recipe along with the steamed buns just because the pickles are so quick and easy and the “pickle” post would be all of about two lines long. So, you can eat these pickles with whatever you chose; I made them to go with the Pork Belly and Steamed Bun sandwich.

March 1, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Braised Pork Belly

And she said oink, oink, oink all the way home or at least into my pot.

Food trends come and go. In 2013 we had our cupcakes (they’ve been around for quite a while), pretzel buns, sriracha, bacon, egg on top of everything.

From what I have read on some internet chats the top trending things now are citrus flavorings, (especially grapefruit), craft cocktails including “adult” milkshakes, Asian bowls, raw meats, bitter greens, anything fermented, bourbon, oysters, vegetable-based dishes; noodle bars, “Spam” dishes, tortas, biscuits, yeahhhh and pork belly (Lardo) is still on the list, smoked everything, designer brand-name meats, Korean inspiration in our kitchens, woooah and the rise of the pressure cooker.

I love my pressure cooker and I do use it from time to time; it is the quickest way I know how to make a good stew. Just throw in the meat and cook for about 20 minutes and you have fork tender stew meat; and I can cook a pot of beans in less than 30 minutes.

Over the last few years I have seen pork belly in a lot of things. Pork Belly taco is great from Big Star restaurant in Chicago, pork belly on steamed buns (recipe in a couple of days along with the steamed buns), pork belly cut into little lardons and fried until crispy as a garnish for a good bowl of creamy soup. I’ve seen pork belly served on top of french fries, and my favorite is a pork belly BLT sandwich with arugula and a tomato fennel jam (Longman and Eagle); and I may try that one with some of my left over braised pork belly.

So, what is pork belly anyway? It’s a boneless cut of fatty meat from the belly of a pig. Both bacon and the pork belly start as a cut from the fatty underbelly of “porky”. Curing the piece is what turns it into bacon (my son, Paul, smokes his pork belly and turns it into bacon), but braising that same piece of meat turns it into the most mouth watering bite you will ever taste. Some say pork belly is the new bacon. I love them both.

So I’ve decided instead of having one long post with a thousand pictures I would break this pork belly marathon into 3 or 4 different post and post them a few days apart.

February 25, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta/ Pork

Spinach Fettucini with Sweet/Hot Sausage

Good on a cold winter’s night.

Nothing taste better to me on a bone chilling night than pasta, a good salad and maybe some homemade bread or even a good loaf of some artisan bread you picked up at the store.

There are so many pasta and sauce recipes out there that you could probably make a different pasta each week and never have to repeat a recipe.

I found this recipe in a Creme de Colorado cookbook about 20 years ago and I have been making it ever since. I remember the first time I made this dish I was catering an event at a local art gallery. Two people came up to me after the dinner and said they would like me to cater the exact same dinner for them. So, I did make it again and actually a few more times before I ever TASTED the dish. Now, you may say, how could you do that. I don’t have an answer. Sometimes I read a recipe and I know I will like it. I guess I felt no need to sample the finished dish. After making the dish several times (I finally tasted it) it has become a favorite of mine. I love the sweet and hot taste of the Italian sausage together with the sauce. I heard the judges on a cooking show say “if you aren’t tasting, you aren’t cooking”, guess I should start tasting some as I go.

This recipe has a lot of olive oil and butter and of course you could always cut down on the oil and butter that make up the sauce and probably substitute some broth in place of it. If I were you I would follow the recipe the first time as written and then tweak the second time you make it. I cooked 1 lb. each of the hot and sweet sausage and you do want both the sweet and hot flavors or the different sausages. Sometimes if I find the sausage at the butcher counter then I will buy just 1/2 lb. of each. The day I made this I decided to go on and cook the whole package of each and add some extra meat to the dish. You can either freeze your extra sausage for another use or add it to the fettuccini.

I made this for our Bunco Christmas get together last week and it was a big hit. Thanks ladies for being my guinea pigs (tasters is a better term I guess).

Do you have a favorite pasta dish? If so, I’d like to hear about it; please leave in the comment section below.

December 10, 2013 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Country Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce

Oink, Oink, Oink, I love pork.

We love pork and when it comes to cooking anything on the grill it is either pork, chicken or fish more often than beef; and of course when it comes to bar-b-q pork always wins.

Don’t you just love making comfort foods in the colder months. Most of you still have several months before the hot summer months are here and then you’re not wanting to heat your house with your ovens. I love the warmth that my oven puts off in the winter when I’m either baking bread or just have something yummy in the oven for dinner. We are in the low 70’s here today but this was still a comforting meal for a cool day. (Just wait until tomorrow and we will be down in the 40’s.)

Growing up, my mother would make the best fried pork chops, just the right amount of breading, browned to perfection and the coating did not separate from the meat. There would always be creamy mashed potatoes and of course peppered milk gravy made from the pan drippings. And, the best part of having these pork chops was getting to gnaw the meat off the bones when we finished the pork chop. Honestly, I could have eaten just a plate full of bones they were so good. One problem with ordering pork chops in a restaurant is that you wouldn’t dare pick up a bone and give it a good chew; maybe order a doggie bag and take them home for a snack the next day. You could always say you have a dog eagerly waiting at home.

(To make this a carb friendly meal: — dust your pork chops with almond flour instead of all purpose flour. For thickening the sauce use whatever you usually use instead of flour; like arrowroot. The potatoes can be substituted with either more mushrooms or some yellow squash.)

If you have a favorite pork recipe, please leave a comment below (under the three small pictures at the bottom). I’m always looking for new ways to do pork even though I have so many recipes I haven’t even tried yet.

Chops get a dredge in seasoned flour.

I mixed about a tablespoon butter with the olive oil and browned the chops 2-3 minutes on each side.

After removing the chops from the skillet add in the onions and saute for 2-3 minutes then toss in the crushed garlic clove for 1 minute more.

Put the chops on bottom top with the onions and I added potatoes. Cover with foil and bake.

While the chops are baking I make my carrot flowers. The bigger round the carrots the better. You will need a channel tool to make these.

Make 4-5 channels with the tool down the length of the carrot cutting as deep as you can.

Cut into about 1/4″ slices and there you have it — carrot flowers. I knew you would want to know how I made these once you saw them in the picture with the chops.

Making the sauce. The original recipe said to put the flour and water in a jar and shaking it. Everyone knows you should never do that because you will end up with a raw taste to your sauce/gravy.

Sour cream and mushrooms get added to the finished sauce.

Finished chops. You can add your sauce to cover or do what I did and Added the sauce after I had plated each chop.

Doesn’t the broccoli and carrot flowers make a great side dish. I steamed the carrots first, then the broccoli, then add a little butter and mixed them together with a little salt and pepper.

Country Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce

(adapted from recipe at food.com) (I halved the recipe using 3 chops)

Ingredients

8 pork chop (1 1/2-inch thick), center cut
1/2 c. flour
3 Tbsp. oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups onion (2 medium) sliced ⅛-inch
10 ½ ounces canned chicken broth
¼ teaspoon ground thyme
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
2 Tbsp. shortening or oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
2 cups mushroom (8 ounces) sliced ¼-inch fresh
potatoes optional
1-8 oz. container sour cream or use light.

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350°.
Put the flour in a pie plate and dredge each pork chop until all sides are covered.
Heat the oil in a 10" heavy skillet and brown pork chops over medium high heat (1-2 minutes per side.) Remove chops from pan and add in the sliced onions and 1 clove minced garlic and stir for 2-3 minutes.
Season chops with salt and pepper to taste; place chops in a 13 x 9" baking dish and cover with sautéed onions.
To the pan drippings add chicken broth, thyme and garlic powder; stir, deglazing the bits from the bottom of the skillet. Pour this mixture over the pork chops and onions. If you are using new potatoes or cubed potatoes, add them now. If you are mashing potatoes start them the last 30 minutes of baking time on the pork chops.
Cover with foil; bake for 60-70 minutes or until tender. Place on serving platter; keep warm.
In a 10" skillet heat 2 tablespoons of oil and add your flour and stir for a few minutes to brown a little. You want to get the raw flour taste out. Pour liquid from baking pan into 10" skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture just comes to a boil (1 to 2 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Reduce heat to low.
Stir in the sour cream and continue to cook, stirring constantly until heated through (1 to 2 minutes). Serve gravy over pork chop.
Serve with some good mashed potatoes (or mashed cauliflower) and carrot flowers.

February 18, 2013 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp/ Morning Foods/ Pork

Rosemary Brown Sugar Bacon Twist

Need something special for your brunch? Only three ingredients!

This is by far the easiest recipe I have ever made (Rosemary and The Goat comes in second.) with the fewest ingredients.Go figure, I use to say I like recipes with lots of ingredients which yield lots of taste and flavors; but this recipe just goes to show you that great things come from small beginnings.

Do you know there are entire blogs that are devoted to bacon. Is there anything better than the smell of bacon and the sizzling sound of it cooking to make you want to jump out of bed in the morning. Did you know there are bacon flavored beers, vodkas, candy bars with bacon bits, chocolate covered bacon (now that sounds good), bacon toothpaste (that sounds like a little too much bacon even for me), bacon mayonnaise, and the list goes on and on and on.

When it comes to bacon I will try just about anything that has the cured meat as one of the ingredients. Turkey bacon is not a favorite of mine. If you can find uncured bacon, then you have pork belly and I think this is even better than bacon. Fry it up, salt it because it hasn’t been cured and it is the Cinderella of bacon. Canada has Canadian Bacon, Pancetta is Italy’s version of bacon, all the dieters have turkey bacon (they can keep it), and the Irish have back bacon.

Bacon has such an addictive taste; it is hard to just eat one piece, kind of like potato chips. Have you tried caramel popcorn with bacon added at the last stirring; it’s great.

I’ve seen lots of bacon twist recipes and they all have the brown sugar; but most of the recipes have cinnamon and other sweet type spices. I decided to use the rosemary because I think it pairs nicely with the brown sugar and the bacon. Now these would really be good with a glass of wine or beer or just for your weekend brunch.

One more thing before I get on to the recipe; my son, Paul, made a compound bacon butter at Christmas to put on top of our steaks. I’ve been thinking of doing a blog on different compound butters that can be made and kept in the freezer; so stay tuned because that may be coming in the near future.

February 2, 2013 By Sherry

Entree/ Game/ Pork

A Very Good Cassoulet

This was fantastic and so good on a cold winter night.

I was hoping to try this in France last Spring but there were so many other things to try and I had already made this a couple of times so it didn’t bother me that it wasn’t on my list of “tried things” while there.

Did you grow up (or still do) eating white beans in a bowl with a big chunk of corn bread on the side (please don’t say sweet cornbread) with maybe some chow chow to add to your beans. We did and they were the best beans you could possibly hope for at the time. A few years ago, my dad showed my husband how he had started making beans. He would soak the beans over night and then he would put the beans in a pot (he used a pressure cooker) with a couple of country style ribs (or backbone depending on where you live) and a ham hock.

Then along came Cassoulet (new to me). A word I had heard but never paid much attention to. I had never had the dish before our French Country Feast a few years ago. It was fantastic. A cassoulet is a stew made with white beans, sausage, duck confit, sometimes lamb, ham hocks and ham bone. Now, how could that not be an out of this world dish.

This recipe may take hours in the making but it will well be worth it in the end. I would either serve my mother’s cornbread recipe or a crusty French bread with this. There are so many recipes on the Internet for cassoulet and methods of making it. I would suggest reading a few before trying this recipe. In the end though, how can you mess up beans and a bunch of different kinds of meat. The end results will be great, no matter what you put in it.

BLAST FROM THE PAST — Fried Eggplant Chips with Honey Drizzle was an appetizer we had in Seville, Spain. Very delicious. I was excited to see that 2,600 people have looked at this recipe. Back in March I had 1,600 views — WOW. I really get excited when I think how many people just happen to find a recipe of mine through a google search.

November 13, 2012 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Wok’n Noodles

Wok’n around Paris on a rainy day.

For some reason, I love taking pictures of signs and windows/doors. When we were in Spain a couple of years ago I took a lot of pictures of these beautiful white formal dresses I kept seeing in windows. Some looked like wedding dresses and some like formals. They just really spoke to me and said, “take a picture of me”. Not six months after that my daughter got engaged — maybe that was a “sign”. In Paris I took pictures of stores named “Terry” (my sister) and “Paul” (my son).

This is a picture I took from the top of a bus on our first day in Paris back in March. I just knew I was going to have to come up with a good noodle recipe after seeing the name of this restaurant. I’m always getting inspiration from all sorts of places.

Our only rainy day in Paris was the first day we arrived, and it was a steady drizzle. We were not going to let that stop us from getting out, and we decided to do one of the open double decker buses. We stayed on the top through all the drizzle and enjoyed the view and sites. Then at one of the stops right there on the corner was this little place called “Wok’n Noodles”. A blog post was in the making. I immediately thought of “Wok Around the Clock” (Bill Haley and his Comets), then “I’m Wok’n” (by Fats Domino), “Wok Like A Man” (Four Seasons), and finally “Wok Like An Egyptian” (Bangles). Weren’t those great woking songs.

So, I thought, why can’t I come up with a Wok’n Noodle dish that is absolutely “rocking” and one that I think you will enjoy.

June 5, 2012 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Smokin Succulent Grilled Pork Chops

“Call 911, something’s on fire”!

These were just as juicy as they look in the picture.

This is sooooo funny I just have to write about it. My husband got his new Kamodo Joe grill this summer and we have grilled just about everything you can imagine on it. Well, a couple of weeks ago he was getting the grill ready to first cook some sausage stuffed jalapeños for an appetizer and then to make these Smokin Succulent Grilled Pork Chops.

So, here’s what happened. He had dumped the bottom part of a bag of charcoal in the smoker and I think it was wet. The grill started putting off this huge plume of smoke and it kept going, and going, and going just like the Energizer Bunny. All of a sudden our neighbor from across the street rushes to our back yard with phone and fire extinguisher in hand and was ready to call the fire department. She thought our garage was on fire and she was over, as any good neighbor, would to fight the fire. We have been having a lot of fires the last few weeks here in Texas and I wasn’t looking to have one right in my back yard. We all had a good laugh and we sent her home with some of our smoking sausage stuffed jalapeños.

Turns out these pork chops were really good. Smoke and all and were delicious with our Sweet Corn Risotto with Blue Cheese and the Baby Carrots with Dried Apricots.

I don’t know about you but I am guilty of tearing recipes out of a magazine while waiting for either a doctor, dentist or even car repair. I try to be pretty sneaky about it; quietly tearing out the recipe so it doesn’t make a sound. Then I quickly fold it up and put it in my purse. Well, I would not have this recipe if I not seen the ad in a magazine.

This recipe is so easy, not many ingredients, and very deliciously tender.

October 5, 2011 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Pork Chops with Cabbage and Thyme

Baked in oven or crock pot, this is a favorite!

I’m one of those people who is happiest in the kitchen preparing food for someone to enjoy. I tend to like complicated recipes with lots of ingredients and a challenge to make and most of the time the recipes are successful. I’ve done so many sweet things lately you may think that I don’t have a recipe that doesn’t have “sugar” in it.

I love meat, I could never give up meat, could never come close to being a vegetarian even though I love vegetables. I love the thought of cooking something on a bone and then being able to pick up that bone and gnaw it clean — I do this when no one else is around. So what’s with all the boneless meat these days, boneless chops (this recipe), boneless chicken breast and thighs, no bones in the 7-bone pot roast any more and I could never figure out where those 7 bones were anyway. I’ve even seen boneless wings and I don’t even think those are wings.

There are so many working mothers/dads out there now, who has time to cook? Maybe on the weekends but then who wants to spend all weekend cooking. Years ago my sister and I use to make what we called Chops Casserole. It wasn’t really a casserole in the sense that it didn’t have some kind of canned creamed soup in it or loaded with cheese. I have revised that recipe and changed a few ingredients and gone is the word “casserole”. This dish could even be made in a slow cooker or crock pot and be ready to put on the table when you get to the end of your long day and you can sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy a nice home cooked meal.

April 1, 2011 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ HotApp/ Pork

Pork in Whiskey Sauce Tapas

Who ever thought little plates of food could be soooo good!

We returned from our cruise and time in Spain a few weeks ago. A couple of days in Amsterdam, cruising for 8 days and 9 days in Spain and I only gained 2 pounds. Didn’t think I would ever be glad to say I gained weight, but after the way we ate and drank for 19 days, I’m surprised my husband could fit me through the door.

My last entry had pictures of many of the tapas we had while in Spain. We had a Pork in Whiskey Sauce at this one tapas bar in Seville and I have tried to recreate that recipe and I must say, it was almost exactly like the one we had there.

A little more about our trip. We had some great Indonesian food in Amsterdam and were able to visit Van Gogh and Reich museum. Ann Frank’s house was a very interesting tour and we toured Heinken Brewery — who doesn’t like beer (me). In Brugge we tried steamed mussels and frites, Belgium chocolates (DELICIOUS), Belgium waffles with chocolate and a cup of coffee that was half chocolate, 2 shots of espresso and topped with a creamy hot chocolate.

Our food on the ship was wonderful and I got a lot of great ideas for tapas and things I might want to try for dinner parties. Our port calls were Brugge, Cherborg (did Normandy tour there), Lisbon, Gibratar, Vigo and the cruise ended in Barcelona. Then it was time to hit all those tapas bars I had been reading about. We spent two days in Barcelona making the Mori and Picasso museums and Gaudi cathedral and lots of shopping and walking, walking, walking (guess that is why I only gained 2 pounds). We flew from Barcelona to Sevilla (my favorite of all our Spain cities). Very cool city with streets just wide enough for a taxi to race down causing people to jump up on the curb (no sidewalk to escape to, so watch out).

October 9, 2010 By Sherry

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