Honey Cream Pork

This is a recipe that Jan adapted from a dish served at Pissenlits Par la Racine, a cozy French restaurant on the Rue de Bourgogne. Pissenlits Par la Racine means "the dandelion by the root," a reference to the old expression "eating the dandelion by the root," a euphemism similar to the English "pushing daisies." A somewhat alarming name for a restaurant, but a wonderful dish. Very warming, very comforting. I'm not listing amounts for the ingredients because it's a very approximative and adaptable recipe.

 

Ingredients

• Cubed pork, such as pork chops or pork steak
• Butter, ghee, coconut oil, or whatever your favourite cooking fat or oil is
• Flour
• Salt and pepper
• Honey
• Cream
• Cinnamon
• Chicken bouillon or fond de volaille (optional)

• Potatoes, regular and/or sweet, cubed
• Cooking fat/oil
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic powder

Directions:

 

Toss the potatoes with the salt and pepper, garlic powder, and oil. Roast in the oven or fry until browned and tender.

 

Heat the fat/oil in a skillet over medium heat. Dredge the pork in the flour seasoned with salt and pepper and sautée (in batches if necessary) until browned and cooked through.

Add a good drizzle of cream (about 1-2 tbsp per person) and about as much honey. Sprinkle over a pinch of cinnamon and the bouillon, if using.

 

Serve the pork over the potatoes and serve nice and hot.

Posted with Blogsy

Veal Piccata

I have wanted to make this since I ate it at a restaurant two years ago. WHY did I wait so long? It's super-lemony and so easy to make. You could use chicken or pork cutlets, or probably tofu.

Veal Piccata

4 veal cutlets,pounded thin
Salt
Lemon pepper
Flour
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder or equivalent fresh garlic
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (or a tablespoon of dried)

Season the veal with salt and lemon pepper, then dredge in flour. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute cutlets for 3 minutes per side, or until golden. Set aside and keep them warm in a very low oven. Add garlic powder (if using fresh garlic, add to pan first, saute 1 minute), wine, lemon juice, and capers. Bring to a boil and continue to boil until liquid is reduced by half. I use the end of a wooden spoon to as a "dipstick" to measure the level of liquid. Then, just reduce to a simmer and stir in butter and parsley. Simmer for a minute or two. Return veal cutlets to pan and coat with sauce. Serve immediately over linguini (or rice?) with lots of crusty bread to sop up the lemony goodness. If you want to be fancy, you can garnish the platter with lemon slices and parsley.

Sweet Spiced Pork Roast

The other day we bought a pork roast for dinner and didn't know what to do with it, so we threw it in the crock pot with two ingredients, cooked it for about five hours, and were rather surprised when it was amazingly delicious. It's no Slow Cooked, Seasoned Pulled Pork, but it involves some similar flavors and takes five hours instead of two days.

All I did was pat some Crash Hot Sweet Potato Spice over the roast, brown in it a skillet, drop it in the crock pot, and pour over a can of Coke. (If you don't feel like clicking through to the recipe: combine brown sugar with cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, and every kind of chili powder you have in the house, plus a bit of salt and pepper, in whatever proportions seem appropriate).

That's it! It turned out tender and flavorful. We used a $6 pork roast and a generic soda and fed six people off of it, so it works well on your shoestring budget meals.

Slow Cooked, Seasoned Pulled Pork

This is the best way to prepare pork, ever. I dream about this dish. I have to make up special occasions to have an excuse to fix this for dinner. The original recipe is here, which includes instructions on cooking it in the oven. Since I'm a crock pot girl, I'm just going to do it my way.

You need to start this recipe the day before you want to serve it. You'll brine it one day, and cook it the next.

First of all, you'll need a big hunk of pork. If you can swing it, buy a large Boston butt. I usually buy a seven pound butt for 5-6 people, and that works out to just over $2.00 per person, which is really not bad. Make sure it has a nice layer of fat on one side and a bone running part of the way through. We need this for flavor.

Now, let's make the dry rub:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (leave it out - you'll use it again later)
• 1 tbsp salt (ditto)
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp chili powder (get creative here with your leftover spices from the Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes)
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp paprika (or half regular and half smoked sweet paprika)
• 1 tbsp ground black pepper

Yes, it's rather like the sweet potato spice we just did. In fact, if you're like me and you're now keeping a container of prepared sweet potato spice on hand at all times, you could probably go ahead and just use that.

Now set that aside and work on the brine:

• 2 quarts cold water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 3 tbsp dry rub mix
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (you can put it away now)

Stir the salt into the water until completely dissolved, then add the brown sugar and dry rub mix and keep stirring. Finally, add the bay leaf. Find something large enough to hold the pork but small enough to fit in your fridge. You can use a large pitcher, a bowl, or a giant Ziploc bag. Make sure the pork is completely covered in brine solution. Leave it in the fridge for at least eight hours. I usually do more like 20 hours. I put it in the solution in the morning, then turn it before I go to bed.

If you're serving this for dinner, then you want to start cooking it first thing that morning. Take it out of the brine solution, and pat it dry with paper towels (this will help the dry rub stick). Then roll up your sleeves and press that dry rub onto every inch of the roast. Get it in all the little crevices. Don't skimp. Odds are there will still be some left when you're done. Keep it. You can mix it in with the finished product for some extra kick when you're done.

Now that your butt is sufficiently rubbed and covered in spice (that's a sentence I don't write every day), go ahead and drop it in the crock pot. I like to add about 1/4 cup water, but I don't think it's necessary. Now turn it on low and let it cook for ten hours or so. If you don't have ten hours, start it on high and switch to low after a couple hours.

When this thing is done, you won't need to pull it apart. You just look at it, and it separates. Your only job is to try and remove all of the bone and most of the fat. And to taste lots of samples and lick grease off your fingers.

Serve this however you want. I'd eat it plain, but we usually do sandwiches. This is supposed to be enough for lots of leftovers, but don't count on it.

It serves exactly as many people as there are.

Apple Pork Chops

I cut this from a newspaper years ago. The apple makes the pork chops moist and tender!


8 pork chops, cut 1/2 inch thick
salt and pepper
1/2 cup Heinz 57 Sauce, original flavor
1 can (6 oz.) frozen apple juice concentrate, undiluted
3 cooking apples, cored, sliced 1/2 inch thick

Trim excess fat from chops; brown in skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Place in a 13" x 9" baking pan; arrange apple slices over chops. Combine 57 Sauce and apple juice; pour over chops. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until chops are tender, basting occasionally.