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Category Archives: Pork
Dinner Tonight: Oven-fried Pork Schnitzel
Wow. I am still recovering from this weekend! I had a fun weekend with some wonderful ladies at a beach house in Plymouth — but I didn’t get enough sleep and I just don’t function without enough sleep.
The weekend was a girls’ weekend to send-off our good family friend Joanne who is leaving for two years to work and live in Greece. It’s a super exciting opportunity for her, but we’ll miss her a lot! Lucky for us, Joanne’s sister owns a fantastic beach house that she very recently renovated–and she invited us down to stay. The place was amazing as was the company. We did a lot of chatting, drinking, eating, watching movies, and playing games.
I wish I had more of these for breakfast tomorrow!
Whenever I get invited anywhere, I feel like I need to make something to bring with me. It’s the easiest way for me to say thank you. In this case, I decided I wanted to bake some bagels for breakfast. I used to be very nervous about making yeast bread, but I’ve come to realize the hardest thing about making bread is waiting for the dough to rise. This recipe from King Arthur flour is relatively quick — it only took about 1 1/2 hours to rise. And the bagels take just over 20 minutes to bake. These were great, chewy bagels. I know they came out well because my sister ate two — and she’s pretty picky! I think I’ll be making them again soon.
This week will be light on new recipes. We have lots of leftovers in our freezer and decided to take it easy this week and use those up.
Tonight, however, I did make this great pork dish. As I’ve written before, I really like oven frying as a healthy option for making yummy, crispy food without all of the oil. We had some frozen, boneless pork chops in the freezer and decided to make oven-fried pork schnitzel. It came out crispy and juicy — I can’t wait to make this again!
Oven-fried Pork Schnitzel
Yum!
4, 4 oz. boneless pork loin chops
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. chili powder
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
One at a time, place each pork chop in between two layers of plastic wrap. Use a meat mallet to pound the pork chops so that they are about 1/4 inch thick.
Set up a breading station by combining the flour and spices in a shallow pan, the whisked eggs in another shallow pan, and the bread crumbs in a third shallow pan. I like to use my round cake pans.
Dip each piece of pork into the flour so it’s well coated on each side — shaking off the excess. Then dip into the egg mixture to cover each. Finally dip into the bread crumbs to cover each side. Place breaded pork onto a lightly oiled wire rack over a baking sheet.
1. Place pork chops between two layers of plastic wrap; 2. Use a meat mallet to pound out to 1/4 inch thick; 3. Bread; 4. Bake on a wire rack over a cookie sheet
Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees. Flip and bake for another 5 minutes.
Posted in Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Pork, Quick & Easy, Recipe
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Dinner Tonight: Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin
Hey there! It’s my second post tonight — and my second post in over a year. I’m resolving to keep this blog up-to-date with lots of updates small and large. I hope I can keep this resolution!
So, how was your weekend? Mine was a nice mix of friends and productivity. On Saturday we went to a birthday tea party at Upstairs on the Square in Harvard Square. It was a great afternoon tea with lots of delicious bites. I think I drank my weight in tea! I also helped my mother with her new business website. Busy day!
Sunday was the first day in WEEKS that we didn’t have any plans. It was fantastic. Sean, Barley, and I went for a long walk. Sean and I planned our weekly menu, went to Penzey’s for a major spice shopping spree, and did our grocery shopping. Then I spent the evening cooking for the week and watching a few episodes of Psyche. There might have been a few glasses of wine in there, too.
Tonight, I made this honey mustard pork tenderloin. This was super easy, very quick, and really tasty. The whole thing was done in 25 minutes.
Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin
Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin with Smashed Carrots & Parsnips and Mac & Cheese
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup honey mustard
1 pork tenderloin
Salt
Pepper
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together the panko bread crumbs with the butter so that all of the bread crumbs are coated with butter. Transfer the bread crumbs into a shallow baking dish.
Season the pork tenderloin by sprinkling with salt and pepper. Then rub with the honey mustard so that the pork is evenly coated.
Dredge the pork into the bread crumbs so that the entire tenderloin is coated with bread crumbs.
Place the pork tenderloin on a pan lined with parchment or coated with cooking spray. Cook for about 20 minutes until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees and the bread crumbs are browned; let the pork rest for 5 minutes and then carve into slices for serving.
Posted in Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Pork, Quick & Easy, Recipe
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Advice: Warding off the Christmas turkey blues.
Dear Kerry, With Whom I Cook,
Hey, where’s the advice column part of this site? I want a recommendation for a Christmas meal. We don’t want to do turkey again so soon, but want something nice, different, unique. Thought about prime rib, but that sounds too hard, and pricey. Any suggestions?
Flummoxed in Frisco
——————–
Dear Flummoxed,
Your question is a good one. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I definitely get bored with turkey over the holiday season.
And you’re right, prime rib is pricey, albeit delicious. But, I think you’re on the right track. There’s something about a big, hunk of roasted meat that makes a holiday dinner special. I suggest you try a pork roast.
Pork is, first and foremost, delicious. It’s also inexpensive. And done right, pork can look just as extraordinary on your Christmas table as a prime rib.
Here’s how I’d do it. I might serve this with some mashed sweet potatoes and green beans with almonds. And of course, finish off the meal with a sinful dessert.
Bacon Wrapped Pork Roast
1, 3-4 lb. pork loin roast
salt & pepper
10 slices applewood smoked bacon
1 large onion, peeled & roughly chopped
1 large carrot, peeled & roughly chopped
1 large celery stalk, roughly chopped
1/2 cup hard apple cider such as Magner’s
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth, divided
1/2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. fresh thyme
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Season the pork roast on all sides with salt and pepper. Wrap the bacon slices around the roast, overlapping the slices if necessary. Make sure that when you wrap the bacon around the pork roast that all of the ends are on the same side of the roast (i.e. you’ll have a seam of bacon on the bottom of the pork roast.)
Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat. Once the pan gets hot, add the roast, with the bacon seam down (this will cook the bacon together so it won’t fall off the roast during the rest of the searing process.) Sear the roast until the bacon browns on all sides.
In a roasting pan, place the carrot, celery, and onion in one layer and place the seared pork roast on top. Place in the pre-heated oven for 40-50 minutes or until the internal temperature of the pork roast is 145 degrees.
Move the cooked pork roast to a cutting board, cover loosely with tin foil, and let rest for 10-15 minutes while you make the gravy.
To make the gravy, tilt the roasting pan enough to spoon out most of the grease in the pan. Put the roasting pan on the stove over medium heat. Pour in the hard cider and deglaze the pan by using the cider to disolve any brown bits on the bottom of the roasting pan. Add 3/4 of the chicken broth and simmer.
Strain the liquid into a small pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir together the remaining 1/4 cup of chicken broth with the cornstarch until combined. Whisk into the cooking liquid and simmer until gravy gets thick and coats the back of a spoon. Season the gravy to taste with salt and pepper. Add fresh thyme.
Carve the pork roast into 1/4-1/2 inch slices and serve with gravy.
Posted in Advice, Meat, Pork
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Apple Cider Braised Pork Loin
I got the idea for this recipe last week when I made a pot roast. I thought, “Hmm, pork would be pretty tasty cooked in the crock pot all day. And, yum, wouldn’t apple cider make a great braising liquid!?”
This morning I woke up a half an hour early to get the recipe ready for the crock pot. I seared the pork roast, sweated the mirepoix, and made a tasty braising liquid. I put it all in the crock pot and plugged it in. I thought.
Seems that Sean plugged the crock pot in for me, so I actually unplugged the crock and plugged the blender back in which made for a sad surprise when I got home at 6:30 and realized my delicious broth was ice cold!
So, I made a quick decision to try and braise it for about an hour in the oven. I realize this spits in the face of food safety, however, I was sure I’d be heating the pork roast far over 165, thus killing any living thing left. If I get trichinosis and die, I suppose I died for food research and that’s good enough for me.
Normally, I’d not post this recipe and wait until I got it right, but Mike commented the other day saying I should share my disasters, and that’s what I’m going to do with this one because it was good and I think it could be delicious with a longer braise.
So here it is.
Apple Cider Braised Pork Loin
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 lb. boneless pork loin roast
salt and pepper
1/2 large onion, diced roughly
1 large carrot, diced roughly
1 tsp. dried rubbed sage
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. flour
1 1/2 cups apple cider
1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. flour
1/4 cup light cream
Heat 1 tbsp. of the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat.
Season pork loin roast on all sides with salt and pepper. Once the oil is hot, sear all sides of the roast so each side is golden brown. Set the seared pork roast in your crock pot insert.
Add the left over olive oil to the pan and heat over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and a pinch of salt. Sweat for 3-5 minutes until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the dried thyme, sage, and a tsp. of freshly ground black pepper. Sprinkle the vegetables with 2 tsp. of flour and cook for another minute.
Add the cider and chicken broth to the pan and bring to a boil. Then take off the heat and add the cooking liquid over the pork roast in the crock pot. Turn the crock pot on low (and, you know, make sure it’s plugged in.) and cook for 8-10 hours until the pork is tender.
Once the pork roast is done, remove the roast to a plate and cover loosely with tin foil. Strain the cooking liquid into a bowl. Discard the vegetables.
Heat 1 tbsp. of butter in a medium sauce pan. Add 1 tbsp. of flour and cook on medium low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add half of the remaining cooking liquid and bring to a boil until the sauce gets thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (you’re basically looking for gravy consistency.) If it starts to get too thick on you, use some of the leftover cooking liquid to help thin it out. Once it looks like a gravy, add the cream. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste.
To serve, slice pork roast into 4 servings. Top with the creamy apple cider sauce. We served this over some left over mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts with bacon (see below.)
I think I might also add a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of cinnamon to the sauce next time (barely an 1/8 of teaspoon each, probabaly.)
Red Bean and Rice Soup
I love red beans and rice. I love soup. So, I decided to combine the two and create this recipe. It’s fantastic on a chilly day. It’s also healthy. The beans are a great source of fiber and, with the rice, a whole protein. The bean puree helps to thicken the soup without adding any extra fat. Vegetarians can take out the sausage and substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth. Best of all, it reminds me of New Orleans cookin’ and that’s never a bad thing.
Red Bean and Rice Soup
Serves 6.
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1/2 large onion, diced small
1 red pepper, diced small
1 large carrot, diced small
6 oz. andouille or chorizo sausage, diced small
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1, 14 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp. Joe’s Stuff Cajun Seasoning (or your favorite brand)
1/2 Tsp. Chipotle Chili Powder
3, 14 oz. cans dark red kidney beans
3 cup brown rice, cooked
Drain and rinse kidney beans in a collander. Puree half of the beans in a food processor. You’re looking for a paste, but there can still be a few chunks of beans in the mixture.
Heat olive oil in a medium soup pot. Add onion and sweat for 2-3 minutes. Add red pepper and carrot. Sweat for another 2-3 minutes or until onion is soft and translucent. Add sausage and brown for 2 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook for another minute.
Pour in tomatoes (with juice), chicken broth, cajun seasoning, beans (whole and pureed), cajun spices, and chipotle chili powder. Stir together until the pureed beans are combined (i.e. there are no big globs of bean paste.) Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary (some cajun spice blends have plenty of salt, so you don’t want to go overboard!)
Bring to a boil and then simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until carrots are cooked through and soup is thickened.
To serve, add a 1/2 cup of rice to a bowl and ladle soup over the rice.
Stuffed Turkey Rouladinis
I went to the store last week to get some things for dinner and I noticed a package of turkey “chops” which looked like thin boneless pork chops. I like cooking with turkey because it’s so lean but it’s a reprieve from eating chicken constantly.
After some thinking, I decided that I would make some sort of individual stuffed turkey chops — or rouladini as I call them since they are mini roulades and hey, if Rachael Ray can make up cutesy names for her recipes, so can I!
I chose to toss some toasted almonds and cranberries into my stuffing, but the great thing about stuffing is that you can put just about anything in the pan with some chicken broth and toasted bread and make it your own recipe.
I think this would also work well with pounded boneless porkchops or even pounded out chicken breasts (if you must go the boring route.)
Stuffed Turkey Rouladinis
4, 4 oz. turkey “chops”, boneless pork chops, or chicken breast fillets
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
1/2 cup onion, roughly diced small
1/2 cup carrot, roughly diced small
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. dried oregeno
salt
pepper
2 slices bread, toasted (whatever you got on hand) and cut into 1/2 cubes
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 tbsp. goat cheese
1 tsp. butter
Preheat the oven to 400.
Pound your turkey, pork, or chicken breast into thin rounds (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick). Season each side with a pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper. Set aside.
Heat a medium frying pan and add the sliced almonds. Stir occassionaly until the almonds start to get lightly brown and toasted. Set aside.
Put the frying pan back on the heat and add 1 tsp. of olive oil. Add the onions and saute them over medium high heat until they get translucent and lightly browned about 2 minutes. Add the carrot and cook for another 2 minutes. Add a pinch of salt, several grinds of black pepper, sage, thyme and oregeno.
Add the toasted bread, almonds, and dried cranberries. Stir to combine. Add as much chicken broth as needed to so the bread soaks up the water, but does not make the mixture soupy. Stir the stuffing until all of the broth has been soaked up and the ingredients are well mixed together. Remove stuffing from the pan (and give it a quick cleaning — you’ll use it again in a minute!)
To stuff, spread one tablespoon of goat cheese in a line in the center of the round of turkey (pork or chicken). Take about 1/4 of the stuffing mixture and spread it over the goat cheese. Then roll into a tight cylander so there’s a seam at the bottom and none of the stuffing is leaking out of the bottom.
Heat your pan and add the butter and the last tsp. of olive oil. When the butter melts, put the rouladinis into the pan seam side down. This will help seal the seam and make it easier to flip.
Brown the bottom of the rouladini for about two minutes or until golden brown. Using tongs, flip over and cook for another 2 minutes.
Move the pan into the oven for another 8 – 10 minutes or until the meat is cooked through. This shouldn’t take too long since it’s pretty thin and your oven is at 400 (right?!)
Serve with veggies and mashed potatoes and this meal becomes a thanksgiving dinner you can have any night of the week!
Blue Ribbon Green Chili
Working at an internet company has its perks. Between Labor Day and Memorial Day, one of these perks is snack-time every other Friday. Last year, Friday snacks were planned by department. When my team got the task, we wanted to shake things up a bit. We hosted a chili cook-off.
It was a success given that many people in the office love to cook. There were 8-10 chili submissions all voted on by everyone in the office. Mine won!
I made chili verde. Several people asked me for the recipe, but I never wrote it down. I thought it would make a good first recipe post.
Chili Verde
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced small
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ lb. pork loin, diced into ¼ inch cubes
1 ½ lb. boneless chicken thighs, diced into ¼ inch cubes
1 quart low sodium chicken stock
3 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. chipotle chili powder
2 lb. tomatillos, diced into ½ inch cubes
3 large green peppers – roasted, peeled, and cut into thin slices*
4 large poblano peppers — roasted, peeled, and cut into thin slices*
1 jalapeno pepper (optional) — roasted, peeled, and diced small**
1, 15 oz. can cannelloni beans, drained
salt and pepper
Cilantro
Lime slices
Avocado
Sour cream
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 1 minute.
Add garlic and a large pinch of salt. Cook the onion and garlic on medium heat for 5-10 minutes until onion is soft and translucent. You’re sweating the onion and garlic, not sautéing so you shouldn’t have any brown bits.
Turn heat to medium-high and add the pork and chicken thighs to the garlic and onion mixture. Lightly brown the pork and chicken.
Add chicken stock, cumin, chipotle chili powder, and a large pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Add the tomatillos and peppers. Taste and add salt if needed. Simmer for as little as 20 minutes and as long as an hour.
In the last 5-10 minutes of cooking, add cannelloni beans. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Garnish with fresh cilantro, lime slices, avocado, and sour cream.
* To roast the peppers, coat each whole pepper with olive oil. Place on a cookie sheet in a rocket hot oven (450-500). Roast until skin is brown and bubbly. You’ll want to keep checking on them. Some might roast quicker than others. Once the peppers are brown and bubbly, put them in a plastic zip lock bag or in a large, covered container. This will allow steam to loosen the skin and make it easier to pull off once the peppers are cool enough to handle. Discard the seeds, membranes, and skin and slice into thin strips.
** For the cook-off, I added two roasted jalepenos. It’s a good thing that people in my office like spicy foods because the chili was *hot*. It was a bit too spicy for my taste. I’d add just one jalapeno or an extra poblano pepper if you want a medium-hot chili; add two jalapenos if you gotta have hot.