Fun with Asian style fried foods

One Sunday Shells and I were bored and wanted something fun so we decided to cook up some Asian style food.  I decided to go with an "egg roll" and some spicy shrimp, so I headed to the store to figure out what I was going to go with.

Shopping List:

5 oz boneless pork tenderloin

10 21/25 count shrimp

6 large shiitake mushrooms

1 carrot

2 large jalapeños

1 pkg wonton wrappers

Slice the pork, carrots and shiitake mushrooms into thin slices and sauté until cooked, set aside.

To make the egg rolls, set out a small bowl of clean water and heat a sauté pan with 1/4" of oil (grape seed or canola).  Put a mixture of the filling into the wrapper diagonally and fold the top and bottom in and then the sides.  Directions are usually on the won ton wrapper packaging.  Brush lightly with some water to ensure a seal.

Fry the egg rolls, flipping once, until golden brown on both sides and then serve with the dipping sauce of your choice.

For the shrimp, de-shell the shrimp except for the last section (with tail) and de-vein.  Thinly slice the de-seed the jalapeño and then thinly slice lengthwise.  Cut the wonton wrapper in half across the diagonal, and lay them point up.  Put the shrimp in the middle, tail down and about 1/2" from the point, with two strips of jalapeño.  Fold the point down and then fold the sides in, using a brush and clean water to ensure they seal closed.  Fry until golden brown and then serve with a dipping sauce of your choice.  Enjoy!

Cuban Pork, Rebooted

Sometimes it's the simple preparations that make something so tasty and this dinner proved that point yet again.

Cuban style roasted pork is all about having the right cut of meat, balance of fat and meat is critical, and the time to do it right.  For this dinner I used a small (~2 lb) "Boston butt" (a cut of pork that is actually from the front shoulder).  I seasoned the pork with salt, white pepper and garlic pepper, put it into an oven proof dish, drizzled it with about 1 tbsp of olive oil and then covered with aluminum foil.  After prepping, the pork went into a pre-heated 350F oven for three hours.

With about a half hour left to go for the pork, I made a pot of white jasmine rice and a pot of black beans.  For the beans I used a 14.5oz can of Goya black beans (beans and juice), 4 cloves of lightly crushed garlic and salt & pepper.  I mixed all the ingredients and cooked over low heat until the liquid evaporated.

Once the pork was done I used tongs to transfer the pork to a clean mixing bowl, discarding the excess juice.  I used the tongs and a meat fork to pull the pork apart and then added a good amount of mojo sauce (I cheated and used Goya sauce, but this is a good recipe if you have the time: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/mojo-sauce-107099).

Finally I plated the pork over the rice and served alongside the beans, finally I garnished with fresh avocado and chopped green onion.

Greek Style Pork

My infatuation with the Greek theme continues with this dinner I will highlight today.  This dinner was highlighted by the fresh veggies that Shells has brought home from the farmer's market.  Asparagus, purple eggplant, yellow squash and zucchini made up the base for this plate which was topped off with a pork chop.

For the pork I used a dry rub of greek seasoning on the chop and then sliced each one open towards the bone.  I stuffed the chops with some slices of Halloumi and then grilled them over medium-high heat until they were cooked through.  I topped them with a bit of Tzatziki sauce, try it and enjoy!

David Chang is an incredibly innovative chef and his line of Momo Fuku restaurants are not to be missed.  

Recently Shells found that Chang had started to bottle and sell his Ssam Sauce online.  Ssam sauce, at its core, is a mix of fermented bean paste and spicy chile paste.  For this dinner I found a nice meaty rack of ribs at Whole Foods and had them cut longwise into three strips.  I slow roasted the ribs at 325F for 3 hours covered and then added sauce and cooked them, uncovered for another hour.

I served the ribs with roasted wedges and salad.  The savory and spicy Korean flavor of the sauce adding a unique spice (no pun intended) to an otherwise very American dinner.  I highly recommend either making your own (recipe here) or buying some (much easier option) and trying this out.  Give it a try and enjoy!

The wonderful flavors of Pork!

I suspect that each week you go to the grocery store and buy basically the same things, I know I do.  And don't get me wrong, I love doing grilled pork chops during the week ... but I don't want to do the same boring thing each week.  I'll bet that you don't either.  With that in mind, I thought I'd share a couple of dinners we've done recently that use basically the same ingredients but feel very different.

For this first dinner, I used a base of kale as the veg component and then made baked wedges as the potato.

For the pork in this meal I did a pickle juice brining (soak the chops in pickle juice over night, flipping once) and then grilled them.  I used Stubb's spicy Bar-b-que sauce to give a sweet and spicy glaze to offset the savoriness imparted by the pickle juice.

For this next pork chop I coated it with an Italian seasoning and then grilled it.  I topped the chop with a mix of roasted red peppers and thin slices of fresh mozzarella cheese.  I used the SearzAll to melt the cheese on the top; however you could always use a broiler in a pinch.

For this dinner I served the chop once again with baked wedges and sautéed kale.

I changed the base up a little bit for this dinner, using sautéed collard greens and mashed potatoes.

For the pork I went with a grilled chop that I hadn't pre-treated in any way.  This is the toughest way to grill a pork chop because it can dry out quickly.

The "sauce" I made for this dinner was made with the bulbs of two spring onions that were lightly sautéed and then simmered for an hour with about 2 cups of beef stock.  At this point it was well reduced and was the perfect finish to this dinner.

For this final dinner I went with a Chimmichuri rub made combining a chimichurri mix and olive oil.  I grilled the steaks and then topped them with thin slices of parmesan cheese.  I melted the cheese down with the SearzAll, but as above you could use a broiler if you needed to.

I served this dish over mashed potatoes with roasted brussels sprouts.




So there you have it four fun ways to try and spice up your pork dinners, try one and enjoy!

Presentation School: Serving a bone in cut of meat, to share!

When serving a bone in cut of meat for 2 or more people to share, it's important to make it easy, but still look good.  Presentation is all about the little things that come together to give the impression of something much bigger.

One of my favorite ways to get people excited about the presentation is to serve a bone in cut of meat that has been cut away from the bone and then put back in place.

In the example you can see to the right, I took a bone in pork chop and sliced both sides along the bone to remove the loin and tenderloin cuts.  I then slice the pieces of meat and then line them back up with the bone so that they can be easily picked up by folks at the table with a fork or tongs.


The best part about this trick is that you can serve the cut of meat right on the cutting board, avoiding the need to dirty another serving dish (unless you want to of course).

For this dinner I served it much more homestyle with a storage container full of taco shop guac set alongside the pork on the cutting board.  No need to dirty up a host of serving dishes when it's just Shells and I eating!

Try this tip and watch you guests be impressed, enjoy!

Super Easy Tzatziki!

I was really stumped on something fun and different to do with pork chops this past week so I looked for inspiration outside of my comfort zone.  I randomly was driving by a greek place and thought, "yeah, that sounds good!"

I used a Greek seasoning blend with some olive oil as a "marinade" for the chops and then tossed them onto the grill.  While they were grilling, I mixed up a batch of tzatziki sauce and wrapped two lightly oiled pitas in foil and set them off to the side of the grill that didn't have direct heat.

I plated with the pita first, followed by tzatziki and then topped with the grilled pork chop.

Super Easy Tzatziki
1 14.5oz plain Greek yoghurt
1/2 peeled cucumber, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1 Tbsp freshly chopped dill
Juice from 1/2 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, enjoy!

Bone in pork chops ... this time no brine!

I know that for frequent readers of this blog, it will amaze you that I cooked a pork chop that I didn't brine first, but that's my commitment to you dear readers that I'll change it up so you don't get bored!

For this meal I started with two bone-in, thick cut, pork chops and cut into them from the middle towards the bone.  This allowed me to open them up and have a nice large area for stuffing!  For this dish I decided to go simple and so I went with a blend of peppers for the stuffing and then grilled the chops.

I diced up a couple large pieces of roasted red pepper and one serrano pepper (I kept the seeds to increase the heat but you could go either way with it).  I pressed the red peppers pretty well to get the liquid that they were packed in out, otherwise it will cause them to ooze water when cooking.  If you have a nice cheese that will melt but not ooze too much (a parmesan or something like that) it would make for an interesting addition to the mix.

After stuffing the pork chops I grilled them (remember that the butterflying of them will cause them to cook more quickly), hitting them with a little bit of bbq sauce right at the end to give a little glaze, and then served them with braised greens and oven roasted sweet potato waffle fries.  They came out awesome so I will definitely be trying other combinations like this in the future ... try it yourself and enjoy!

Spicy Black Bean Cakes, they go great with BBQ pork

With the winter wrapping up (I hope) it was time to dust off the big grill and put the grill pan back into the cupboard for a few months.  I had a couple of thick cut, bone-in, pork chops to grill, but for this dinner I wanted to do something a little bit different to go along with the bar-b-que pork.

While mashed potatoes are a standard accompaniment for this sort of dish, I decided to try make spicy black bean cakes for this one.

Black Bean Cakes
1 14.5 oz can Black Beans (I prefer Goya)
1 4.5 oz can Diced Green Chilies
1 cup masa (or all purpose flour)
Salt and Pepper to taste

I started a can of black beans in a 3qt pan and added 2 Tbsp of drained diced green chilies (canned) and salt and pepper.  In hindsight I should have drained the black beans first, so if you're going to make this at home please do that.  I cooked the mix down until it had gotten soft and then mashed it.  While the mix was cooling some, I put the flour on a clean plate and started a pan over medium high heat.  Once cool enough to handle I then shaped the bean mixture into patties and then dragged them through the flour to give a light outside coating.  I put a thin layer of oil into the pan, enough so that the patties would fry a bit, and then cooked the patties, flipping after about 5 minutes to allow both sides to get crispy.

Try it and enjoy!

Make your own Mojo!

Continuing along the recent trend of using my Vitamix for everything, I used it yet again for this dinner to make a mojo style marinade.  I must pause here for a disclaimer, I do not actually know all of the ingredients that go into a real mojo, this was really just my take on it.

I used this marinade on a combination of pork cuts and then served it with mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts w/ pancetta.  As a side note, this marinade is really tasty with the pork but I wouldn't recommend serving more than a little bit of it as a sauce (e.g. what I did on the plate here).

Pork with Mojo Marinade (note that you need to do this the day ahead)

1 lb pork tenderloin

1 lb pork belly

2 large oranges

1 lime

1 head garlic

1/3 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp dried oregano

1 jalapeno (seeded)

1 Tbsp cilantro

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsp ground black pepper

In your Vitamix (or blender/food processor if you haven't yet been convinced to buy a Vitamix) combine the cloves from the head of garlic (remove the papery outer skin), jalapeno, cilantro, salt, pepper, oil and the juice from the oranges and lime.  Blend until smooth.

Put the pork into an airtight container and pour in the marinade.  Seal and shake to coat the pork.  Marinate the pork overnight, shaking again in the morning to ensure that the pork stays evenly coated.

Allow the pork to come to room temperature and preheat the oven to 350F. Wrap the pork loosely in foil and slow roast in the oven for 2 hours.  Remove the pork from the oven and raise the temperature to 425F.  Remove the pork pieces from the foil and transfer to a cutting board.  Cut the pork into chunks and transfer to an oven proof dish.  Into the oven with it for 15-20 minutes or until the edges get nice and crispy.

Remove the pork from the oven, plate with whatever you're serving it with and enjoy!

Garlic stuffed pork anyone?

Do you like pork?  Do you like Garlic?  Do you wonder why you haven't put them together yet? If you answered no to all of the questions above, you probably don't need to read on ... otherwise, please do.

For this dinner I had a pork tenderloin and was looking for something fun to do with it.  This was a leadup meal to vacation, so I was serving it simply with rice and roasted veggies, so I really needed the pork to have a kick and make the dish.

I decided that garlic would be the way to go to make this dinner healthy but still have a kick.

Garlic Stuffed Pork
1 pork tenderloin
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
7 cloves of garlic (or the equivalent of garlic paste or pre-minced garlic)
2 tbsp parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)
kitchen twine
salt and pepper mix

Preheat oven to 375F.  Remove the skin from the garlic and slice thinly (skip this step if using paste or pre-minced).  Use a sharp knife to cut a slit, lengthwise, starting and ending about 1/2" from either end.  The slit should be about halfway deep into the pork.  Spread the mustard evenly into the slit that you have cut.  Layer the garlic slices (or mince/paste) into the slit that you cut, filling it evenly.  Top the garlic with the parmesan cheese, again filling evenly.  Use the kitchen twine to tie the pork back together (between 4 and 5 pieces most likely), keeping the slit to the top.  Put the pork into a roasting pan with a rack, sprinkle the top with salt and pepper mix and then into the oven it goes.  The pork should cook for between 30 and 45 minutes (or until a meat thermometer registers 160F) depending on the size of your tenderloin.  I prefer to cook mine covered, but if you like the outside a little crispy you can cook it uncovered, however you risk drying the pork out a bit.  Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes, slice & Enjoy!