Pork & Sprouts

Above and below are pictures of a recent meal Ken made for a good college friend of mine. The entire meal was just fantastic. The top image is of a squash blossom salad with baby greens and roasted eggplant, zucchini, and pine nuts. It was a refreshing and flavorful start to our meal. I certainly wasn't the only one to consider how improper licking the plate might be.

Above is an image of the walnut encrusted pork with a brussel sprout and corn compote. The pork was moist, nutty, rich, and yet somehow still light. The gravy was mouthwatering. As always Ken's brussel sprouts were fantastic. This was the first time he had included the corn and made more of a medley. It was a great variation of the dish and very tasty.

For dessert, we went to a local custard shop in Champaign called Jarling's a Custard Cup. The custard is rich, creamy, and made fresh on site. We only live a few blocks from the place and are often tempted on summer nights to take late night jaunts over to enjoy some custard with the flocks of ever-present customers. Jarling's frequently wins awards and excellent reviews from all kinds of folks-- I highly recommend stopping by if you're ever in Champaign, IL.

Elk Steaks

I only have a second, but wanted to put up some pictures of a dinner we had with a few friends a month or two ago. The main course featured elk steaks from a local Illinois farm. This elk meat was extremely tender and had a subtle nutty flavor. We've been making an effort to buy local produce and meat so this elk is an excellent option. Elk also requires substantially fewer resources to raise than something like beef-- so that's good too!

Mixed greens with homemade caesar dressing & croutons (infinitely better than store bought)













Elk Steaks with leeks, roasted vegetables, and a savory puff














Chocolate covered cream puffs and after dinner games











As always, please feel to email or comment with recipe requests etc.

Roasted Beef, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, and Roasted Asparagus

To economize and have more organized meals, Ken and I have been working on planning our shopping and cooking schedules ahead of time. I have no idea if we'll actually be able to do this for more than a few days but so far its been working alright. At this point we have managed to use a chuck roast to make roasted beef and a delicious beef stew and we're planning to turn a roasted chicken into enchiladas and chicken pot pie.

Below are a series of photos of the meal prep. I am not going to write out a recipe because I think its fairly intuitive. (If anyone would like the recipe, please feel free to write a comment and I will put it up.) The only slightly unusual thing that Ken did while making the sauce was to reduce beef stock for a long time to make it more flavorful.

Look for a recipe and photos of the beef stew very soon.
cheerio!

p.s. Ken just came over to look at the pictures I was putting up and started muttering angrily at himself. Apparently, he wrapped the roast the wrong way. He said if the striations in the meat were going lengthwise, the meat would have been more tender after it was sliced. Not a cooking disaster per se, but I'm sure he'll be more careful next time.

Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Apples and Shallots

A while back in Chicago, I was spending a lazy afternoon watching cooking shows on PBS. When Ken got home from work later in the day, I described my hazy recollections of a few interesting dishes that I'd seen. There was a recipe for fish baked in a huge pile of salt, grilled artichoke hearts, and a recipe for pork served with roasted apples and shallots. Recently, we were planning a shopping list and thinking about some meals we wanted to try when we recalled the pork dish. Ken purchased ingredients and made up a recipe based on my descriptions of what I'd seen. The final product was fantastic and Ken commented that it might be the best pork tenderloin he'd ever eaten- let alone made. I thought the roasted apples and shallots were just a spectacular combination. Yum.

As I was preparing to write this post, I did some searching and managed to locate the show that I had seen and the original recipe that I was remembering. Ken's variation is a bit more complex, but I imagine their recipe would be quite tasty as well. I remember the show itself as being cute and inviting. I would certainly recommend watching it if you happen to run across it on television. After reading about the two chefs a little more, they seem like an interesting and knowledgeable pair.


Preparing the Apples
and Shallots:
2-3 nice apples
8 shallots
4 T melted butter
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375.
Clean shallots and cut big bulbs so that the shallots are roughly the same size. Cut the apples into chunks that are a similar size as the apples. While cutting the apples make sure to toss them in the butter immediately to avoid browning. After the apples are coated in butter, place them on a baking sheet. Then coat the shallots with the remaining butter and pour all of the shallots and butter onto the baking sheet with the apples. Season lightly with salt. Toss the apples and shallots a little on the baking sheet to insure that the entire sheet is lightly coated with butter. Roast the shallots and apples until they are soft and starting to turn brown (1 1/2-2 hours).

Preparing and cooking
the Pork:
1 medium-sized pork tenderloin
1 T salt
1-2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary

Take pork out of fridge about 2 hours before you want to cook it to allow the meat to come up to room temperature. (Ken says the meat cooks more evenly, doesn't dry out, and allows for more control if its at room temp.) Season the meat about 15 minutes before cooking with an even coating of salt and cracked black pepper. While you wait for the meat, mix the olive oil with thyme and rosemary. When the meat is ready, take the herb soaked olive oil and rub it over the raw meat. Heat a regular saute pan over high heat with a tsp of olive oil. Coat the pan well and then sear the meat on all sides. Once the meat is browned put the meat on a rack in the oven next to the shallots and apples. Cook the meat until done (30-45 minutes).

To baste the meat:
3 T honey
3 T melted butter
2 T nice spicy mustard
1/2 tsp molasses

Whisk together honey, butter, mustard, and molasses. Use a brush to coat the pork every 10 minutes while it cooks in the oven.

Preparing the Sauce:
1 cup chicken sauce
4 T butter

While the meat is cooking, take the saute pan that has the left over browned pork bits. Use white wine (or water or chicken stock) to deglaze the pan over heat. Once the meat and shallots/apples are finished cooking, remove them from the oven. Add the remaining honey glaze and all of the juice and browned bits from the baking sheet with the pork drippings and apple shallot remnants. Add some chicken stock. Cook the sauce down until a little thicker and adjust to taste by adding salt, additional ingredients, etc. Remove the sauce from heat, add the butter and swirl it around until it melts.

To serve:

Plate everything and eat.
Bon Apetite!

Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast

After writing this post, I decided that I should start enhancing my own family meal planning skills by creating some quick simple recipes. I'm not planning on having children anytime soon or anything so maybe developing my family meal planning skills is a little premature. However, I will be starting graduate school in a month and having some standby recipes ready in case of hunger emergencies seems wise.

I made this recipe up a few days ago while in the grocery store. I tried to keep the ingredient list simple with common components and the prep relatively quick. It turned out quite well and Ken said it was excellent (which is not a rating he gives lightly).













Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 package frozen spinach
(thaw and press out water)
1 small container ricotta cheese
1 onion
1 small can of tomato paste
1/4 C sherry
3 T butter
1 T olive oil
cooking twine

First, I finely diced the onion. (You want to make sure the onion is really finely diced so that you don't end up with raw onion chunks in the filling.) Then, I mixed about 1/3 of the diced onion, the thawed spinach, and some of the ricotta cheese in a bowl. Use your own judgment as to the amount of cheese. I would say you don't want the filling to be too soupy or too dry. Next, I used a meat mallet to pound the chicken breasts. This doesn't take much time and makes a difference in how easy the breasts are to stuff and how tender they are. Then, I put probably a 1/4 C (or less) of the filling on the rough side of the breast, wrapped the edges of the chicken around it, tied the bundle with twine, and lightly salted the chicken. (See picture for how I tied the twine).

Once all the breasts were prepped, I turned the oven to 350 and began browning the chicken (2 at a time) in a hot non-stick pan (with about 1 T of oil). I then put the chicken in a small casserole dish, dotted each breast with a little butter, and put it in the oven to cook.

While the chicken cooked, I started the sauce. I left the browned bits in the pan and added the sherry to deglaze. I let the sherry cook off and then added about 1 T of butter. Once the butter melted, I tossed the rest of the onion into the pan. I let the onions cook until they were soft and then added a few spoonfuls of tomato paste. I browned the paste a little and then turned the heat off to wait for the chicken to cook.
Once the juice from the chicken in the oven ran clear (about 30 minutes), I removed the chicken and put it on a plate to cool. I poured all of the chicken juice from the casserole pan into the frying pan with the onions and turned the heat back on. I let the sauce cook down for a few minutes while I removed the twine from the breasts and got everything set up for dinner. All that's left is to serve and eat. I would recommend serving the chicken with a vegetable of some kind and possibly a side of buttered herbed pasta.

A few suggestions from Ken:
He really liked the sauce but thought there should be more of it. Perhaps adding tomatoes and chicken stock would be helpful.
Also, he mentioned that there is another (prettier) way to stuff chicken breasts. It sounded like it involved injecting the filling into the breast. It sounded complicated but maybe we'll try that someday.

Pecan Encrusted Pork Chops, Green Beans, and Sweet Potatoes

Ken's love of cooking and good food has been inspired and encouraged by his parents, who are both wonderful cooks. Ken's father is originally from the South, and this pork recipe is directly related to one of his father's recipes for lightly fried, pecan-encrusted pork.

This partially impromptu meal turned out extremely well (so well that we replicated it several days later for a dinner with some good friends of ours). The sweet potatoes and beans each complimented slightly different characteristics of the pork, which made for a rich and dynamic eating experience. The pecan crust added a sweet, warm, oaky flavor to the pork that contrasted well with the slightly creamy and flavorful pan sauce. The entire meal paired nicely and easily with wine. I remember it being a very satisfying meal overall. It wasn't too heavy but had the warm comforting feel that beloved childhood recipes seem to inspire.

The green beans were made by first blanching the beans, and then Frenching them (e.g. breaking them in half along the seam and removing the bean peas). Usually in this kind of recipe the bean peas are discarded, but I insisted that Ken not waste one of the more nutritional part of the vegetable and he set them aside for later use. Ken then sautéed garlic, shallot, and tomatoes. He cooked off the liquid from the tomatoes, and then added the green beans and the bean peas into the pan. He lightly sautéed the beans and then put them in the oven to warm until the pork was finished. (By the way, adding the bean peas to the dish creates a pleasing texture and flavor contrast and we've now made saving the peas a habit when making beans)
The sweet potatoes were pealed, cut into one inch slices, lightly tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasted in the oven for around 50 minutes at 350 (until they are soft but not mushy).

Here is the recipe for the pork:
6 Boneless Pork chops, pounded to 1/4-1/2"
almonds
eggs
buttermilk
bread-
crumbs
salt
pepper
flour
parsley
butter
olive oil
chicken- stock

For the crust, mix equal parts bread crumbs and chopped toasted almonds, add about half a tablespoon of salt and 2-4 tablespoons of parsley (or to taste).

3 step bread the pork, first coat with flour, then dip in an egg/buttermilk mixture, and finally the crust mixture. Pan-fry the pork in olive oil and butter over medium heat for about 2 min. per side, or until the coating has turned a golden brown.

To make the sauce, take the pan with the oil and browned bits. Add flour and stir, until you have a light paste in the pan. Return the pan to heat, and cook until the paste turns very light brown, and becomes more liquid. At this point slowly whisk in your chicken stock, reduce the sauce (or not) to whatever consistency you desire. Season with salt if necessary (it shouldn't be necessary) and serve!

A Feast for the Fourth

On the fourth of July, Ken and his father (pictured left) made a six course birthday feast to celebrate both Ken's mother's birthday and my birthday on the 5th. They spent a lot of time planning the meal and each had their own ideas reflected in the final menu. It was a magnificent meal and a tasty treat for all of us. We spent over 4 hours savoring the food, wine, and lovely company. At the end of the meal, Ken's mother announced she had never had a better birthday and I think I might have to agree.

Below I have listed the menu and paired wines next to photographs. I will try to post about the specific dishes and how they were prepared very soon.

Moules Meuniere
served with a 2004 Quincy
(Sauvignoun Blanc)












Salad of field greens, red pepper, radish, and crispy fried pumpkinblossoms with a walnut oil, balsamic reduction vinaigrette












Seared sea scallops with sauteed green beans and shiitake mushrooms with a port shallot sauce
Served with a 2003 Auxey-Duresses (Chardonnay)












Black pepper and mustard rubbed Filet Mignon served with broccoli and roasted potatoes and a mushroom shallot sauce.
Served with a 2003 Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon











Three layer red white and blue cheesecake with almond sponge cake, mascarpone cheese mousse, morello cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and chantilly cream icing

Camping: Carne Asada

On our first night camping, Ken made carne asada and a baby green salad with strawberries and some left over raspberry vinaigrette. Both dishes were surprisingly simple to make and tasted fantastic. I don't know why I had never thought to make a salad while camping before, but it was refreshing and the children loved the strawberries. Ken made the carne asada by marinating the beef in lime while he cut vegetables for the salsa and prepared the peppers. Once the salsa was made, he grilled the meat and peppers. Everyone assembled their own tortillas with the meat, peppers, salsa, and cilantro. We ate standing around the picnic table in a silence that was disrupted only by chewing and compliments for the chef. The food disappeared with remarkable speed.

Camping Disaster: rancid lamb may look pretty but tastes baaad

So I like cooking and am generally not too bad at it, but I've had a few disasters of my own over the years. There was the time when I was 11 and thought the angel food cake looked and smelled done after 15 minutes of baking and ended up with sticky goo all over the new floor, and the time I made pasta at 3 in the morning, fell asleep, and almost started my apartment on fire. I guess now I have one more cooking disaster story.

So, Ken had to go back to Chicago after a few days and I stayed behind to continue camping with my family. As we didn't use all of the lamb from the hunter's stew, the rest was left in an electric cooler for use later in the week. When my dad and I pulled the lamb out of the cooler several days later, we noticed the lamb now had a sweet and sour smell. It was clear that the meat was starting to go bad, but my dad thought that if we cooked the meat well done, the bacteria would be dead and the meat would probably be fine. So I took a deep breath of fresh air, began cleaning the lamb, and made lamb kabobs. I seasoned them very well and grilled them over a fire. They looked lovely and smelled great while they were grilling. Before serving them, Dad and I each tried a bite. At first all was good, but as you continued chewing the taste of rancid meat slowly overwhelmed the other flavors. We spit the meat out and had a lovely dinner of potatoes, broccoli, and fresh fruit instead. Oh well.

Cooking while Camping: Hunter's Stew

This past week, I brought Ken along on a family camping trip. It was the first time he met several members of my rather large family and I think he was intent on impressing them with his cooking prowess. The trip went very well and my relatives became fond of both Ken and his cooking. Phew.

I plan to post pictures of a few of our different meals and thought I would begin with his Hunter's Stew. This is a dish that he first learned to make as a boy scout and has been making while camping ever since. It is simple and an easy dish for any camper to make. Ken was also able to tantalize the taste buds of my sometimes picky nieces by having them watch as he assembled the food, and then allowing them to pick what went into their own foil packets.

This Hunter's Stew was made with lamb purchased from Nea-Agora Packing Co in Chicago. Ironically, when I went to search for a link to their web page (they don't have one), this review came up. It was written by a friend of ours about a previous outing to Wisconsin when we pit-roasted a lamb. Small world.

In any case, Ken seasoned the meat with a bit of salt and pepper and then browned it on a stove (which is not a necessary step if you're really roughing it).


We then cut up some potatoes, carrots, and onions and put them in a tin foil packet with some rosemary and thyme. Ken added a little flour (corn starch would also work), sealed the packets up, and threw them on the fire.


Over a wood fire, the packets should cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We cooked our food over a charcoal fire and it took about 50 minutes.



After we pulled the packets from the fire we let them cool for a minute, poured them out on plates, and ate them. It was a very satisfying meal and the kids loved it.