Pork Chops Teodoro

I named this dish for my Uncle Ted, whom you read about in an earlier blog post. It wasn't easy to create a dish to reflect him because he had so many gastronomical interests. So I gave up on that and just tried to picture him when he visited me or talked to me. Every year he would stop in and bring a large braided garlic chain when the season was over. Then he would always tell me that garlic could be used in unusual combinations but, he annually admonished me, never use too much!! So in that spirit, here is a simple dish (he would have liked that) using garlic and apple (he would have liked that) and named Pork Chops Teodoro. I guarantee he would not have liked that name, but I overrule him here because I like the sound of it :)

Regaleali

To add a little style to simple pork chops, I'll highlight two wines. The first will be our dinner wine, but about 1/4 cup of it will also be used to create a braising sauce. This wine is from Sicily and from the estate of the Tasca D'Almiritas, named Regaleali. Ironically, this is just a little way from the tiny town that both my grandparents on my Father's side emigrated from around the turn of the 20th century. This is an unusual white wine for Italy (I know, I know: Sicily is not Italy...just for now). Generally you expect Italian whites to be crisp and brittle (think Pinot Grigio: think it, don't drink it). But this Regaleali White is full and complex. A really enjoyable wine!

Jerez-Xéres-Sherry D.O.

The second wine will only be poured over just as you plate the dish. Use a little or a lot, whatever you can afford. This is Lustau's Pedro Ximénez sherry. If you've never had this sherry, you're in for quite a surprise. It's made from the Pedro Ximénez grapes and is a dark, very sweet and rich wine with hints of chocolate and figs. Its D.O. is in the Cadiz province of Andalusia. Pour some over ice cream and you can really sparkle up a dessert - seriously! It works perfectly as a sauce in this dish because it contrasts well with the spiciness of the Creole rub applied to the chops.

I chose to accompany the chops with a simple side of brown rice, but with some chili sauce added at the end of the cooking period. I happened to have some excellent home-canned chili sauce given to me by a dear friend (thanks Irene!).

Finally, I was treated to a visit from my granddaughter just as the meal was nearing completion, so she stayed to try it out. She loved every part of it! This was a little shocking to me because there was stuff here she doesn't generally like, such as "cooked fruit." So either this dish is a real winner, or that little girl is growing up and branching out. See what college will do!

the cook's martini is not required, but recommended

Ingredients:

2 boneless Pork Chops

1 firm-type Apple, peeled, cored and sliced into thick slices

1 Onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, split

1 Tablespoon Ketchup

Any spicy Rub for chops

fine Flour for chops

1/4 cup White Wine

Pedro Ximénez Sherry

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Butter

Brown Rice, for two

1 Tablespoon Butter

1/4 cup Chili Sauce

Equipment:

1 large heavy-bottomed fry pan (not teflon)

1 Oven-safe casserole pan

1 small saucepan for the rice

"coring" garlic

Method:

1      Dry the chops and rub with a spicy seasoning. I used a commercial Creole product that's pretty good. Then dredge them in a fine pan-searing flour. Chop the onions into big chunks. Split the garlic cloves. If there is a green fold in the middle of the clove, carefully remove it. It will be bitter. Peel and core the apple and slice into rather large slices (you don't want them to turn into applesauce!), reserve.

ingredients prepped

2      Preheat oven to 325 F.

3      Heat a frypan and add 1 Tbs Oil and 1 Tbs Butter. When it is hot, sear the chops until a nice crust forms on each side. I find a cast iron pan works best for this. Remove the chops and reserve.

Searing chops

4      Add another tablespoon of butter and then sauté the onions until they soften a bit. Scrape up the bottom of the pan. 

Add the garlic and sauté for another minute or so. Then add the white wine. After a few minutes, stir in the ketchup. 

After another minute transfer this sauce to an oven-safe crock (like Corningware™). Then layer the apples over the top of this, 

and finally the pork chops.

5      Cover, and place in the center of the oven. Set the timer for 30 minutes.

6      Prepare the rice by placing rice and water and 1 Tbs butter in a sauce pan.

7      At the 30 minute mark, bring the rice to a boil, fluff with a fork, cover and let cook, untouched, over moderate heat so it is just boiling. Set the timer for 25 minutes.

8      At the 25 minute mark, add the chili sauce to the rice, mix with a fork, and judging from the consistency, allow to cook a little longer (probably 5 more minutes). When most of the liquid is gone, turn off heat and let sit, covered, for about 5 more minutes.

9      While the rice is resting, remove chops from oven and uncover. Place a chop on each plate. Carefully remove apples, one at a time, and place next to chops. Drizzle a little PX sherry over both pork chops and apples. Place the rice on each plate and serve with that beautiful Regaleali Bianco. Enjoy!

- love Dave

Poached Shrimp-Crusted Cod with Sauce ‘Franc’

  I just returned from a few weeks in the South. As I was driving North from Louisiana, my brother called my car to inform me of the death of my Aunt Rose at 94. Aunt Rose was married to my Uncle Frank (see earlier post) and outlived him by decades. Remembering that I had promised to name a recipe for Uncle Frank (who was from Louisiana), and with those flavors still on my palate, I began to assemble a dish in my mind loosely based on a wonderful meal I had eaten just the night before.

            We are going to make a Creole-like sauce to cover a poached fillet of Cod, and serve it with Saffron Rice. Now cod is not a fish you would expect in Louisiana, but, as with all recipes, I believe that it is better to use ingredients you can obtain best locally. Not that North Atlantic cod is local to us in the Niagara Frontier, but fresh-caught cod is about as good as we can do at this time of year. I wouldn’t hesitate to change the fish if something better came along! The sauce is the star of this dish, and it takes a while to prepare, but could be done ahead of time.

Most of the Ingredients

Ingredients:

  One Cod fillet for each plate (fish can have skin or be skinned, it’s up to you)

  6 medium raw Shell-on Shrimp for each plate (25-30/lb size)

  One small Shallot, diced

  ½ cup White Wine

For the sauce:

  A medium-dark roux of 3 Tbs. each butter and flour.

  3 Tbs. Olive Oil

  1 medium Onion, chopped

  2 small (or one large) stalk Celery, chopped

  1 small (or ½ large) Green Bell Pepper

  1 small Hot Pepper (your choice!), cut in half, lengthwise

  1 # can of diced or crushed Tomatoes (fresh, if it’s summer where you are)

  1 Tbs. of minced Garlic (a garlic press is perfect)

  ½ quart Chicken Stock (Veggie stock or homemade Fish stock would work)

  1 Bay Leaf

  ¼ teaspoon each: Thyme, Savory, Cayenne, White Pepper

Finishing Ingredients

  ½ teaspoon each: Sugar and Salt

To finish sauce:

  1 Tbs. Butter

  Big dash Worcestershire Sauce

  Dash of Hot Sauce (to your taste)

  2 or 3 Tbs. chopped Parsley

  2 Green Onions (white part) sliced thin

For the rice:

  Uncle Ben’s™ regular converted Rice (use quantity you need)

  Water (quantity as indicated on box)

  1 Tbs. Butter

  Pinch Saffron (if threads) dissolve in small amount of hot water. (1/8 tsp if powdered)

  ¼ cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Method:

1 Begin the Sauce: Gently sauté onion, celery and bell pepper in 3 Tbs. Olive Oil. When the onion is transparent, add the garlic, hot pepper and then the tomatoes. Cook for a couple of minutes. Mix all dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Add just a pinch to the cooking tomatoes and stir in. Then stir in enough stock to cover tomatoes and add the Bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. At this point make the Roux.

Saute the "trinity"

Cook. I used Anaheim Peppers

Add tomatoes

2 Make the Roux: In a small shallow pan, melt 3 Tbs. butter. When it has melted and is foamy, add 3 Tbs. flour and mix in thoroughly. With heat on medium-low, continue to cook the roux, stirring almost all the time: it will burn easily….if that happens, throw out, clean up and start again. It pays to watch the roux carefully! As you cook the roux you will see it start to color after about 15 minutes. Continue to cook until it is the color of dark walnut. If you were making Gumbo, you’d go all the way to mahogany!

After 10 min

After 20 min

3 Continue the Sauce: Move the sauce off-heat. Add the roux, stirring carefully. Return the sauce to heat, stir in the dry ingredients and let simmer for about half an hour more.

4 Prepare the Shrimp:  Bring to a boil enough water to just cover shrimp (do not add shrimp yet!) Add shallots and let this cook for a few minutes. Prepare a bowl of ice-water. Now add the shrimp to the boiling water. Only let them cook until they color, probably only a minute or two! (They will be cooking later in the sauce, so don’t overdo them here.) Remove the shrimp immediately to the ice bath. This will stop the cooking and make them easy to shuck. Reserve liquid. When they have cooled, shuck them and de-vein (if necessary). Dry them on paper towel and reserve.

Preparing Shrimp

5 Complete the Sauce: Take the sauce off the heat. Pour in just a little shrimp cooking liquid. Remove the bay leaf and the hot pepper. Using a hand (immersion) blender, and on the lowest speed, begin to blend the sauce. As you progress, slowly keep increasing the speed until the sauce is reasonable smooth (you don’t want any tomato lumps left). Return the sauce to the lowest of heat, stir in Worcestershire and hot sauce and begin the rice.

Adding shrimp liquid

"Zizzing" Sauce

6 Cook the Rice: Rice takes about 25 minutes and will wait for a few more. This should give you plenty of time to cook the fish and finish the sauce. Mix water, rice and butter in a small sauce pan, cover and quickly bring to a boil. Then stir with a fork to make sure rice is separated, re-cover and lower heat to medium low, where rice will be bubbling gently. Mix Saffron (if using threads), and let dissolve. Grate cheese, reserve. Begin the fish.

7 Cook the Fish: Sauté non-skin-side of fish for a minute or two in a little butter (even if fish is skinned), then carefully turn fillet and let sauté on skin-side for a few more minutes. Add wine and cover, lower heat and let poach until just done (about 5 or 6 more minutes). While fish is poaching, finish sauce.

Poaching Cod

8 Finish the Sauce: Taste sauce. If it is not hot enough, add more hot sauce. Then add reserved shrimp and also parsley and green onions, let simmer until ready for use. Just before plating, swirl 1 Tbs. butter into sauce.

9 Finish the Rice and Plate: Just before rice enters resting phase (last 5 minutes) stir in the saffron and fluff with fork. Just before plating, add cheese and fluff with fork. Place a little sauce on plate. Carefully move fish to plate putting it on top of the sauce. Place shrimps on top of fish and then spoon a little more sauce over shrimp. Add rice to plate and any vegetables or garnish. Enjoy!!

Poached Cod with Sauce "Franc"

My side was an Avocado and Tomato sprinkled with salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice and a few drops of superb Tuscan Olive Oil. I paired this dish with one of my favorite white wines, Sancerre from the Loire Valley.

 - Love, Dave

Pork Tenderloin Judi

Tenderloin with Pears and Port

To me, cooking always seems to be a tussle between architect Mies van der Rohe's, "Less is more" and chef Pasquale Carpino's, "The more you put in, the more you find!" 

This was brought into focus at a recent luncheon with several friends. A beautiful Pear Salad was brought out for Judi. It featured a lovely pear standing upright in the center of greens. Later in the meal, Judi offered me a taste of the pear. (Now here I should confess that this pear was probably very good in the salad setting.) Unfortunately, when my brain processed the impressively tinted centerpiece pear, it expected a softly subtle flavor, perhaps hinting of a fine Port. Instead, the pear seemed to have been marinated in a harsh salad dressing with a myriad of confusing and overwhelming spices! I smiled and said something like, "Hmmm, very interesting, I can't seem to identify the flavoring." (Sorry, Judi. I always try to be polite.) My impolite interior voice was screaming, "WTF, how could anyone do this to a pear!" Because pears are among my very favorite fruits, I probably am just a touch overprotective! At that very moment, I decided to place a properly braised pear into an affable meal and name it for Judi, who deserved a better pear!

We are going to put a slightly pungent rub on a pork tenderloin and roast it with sautéed vegetables and a very little liquid in the pan, almost braising it. Meanwhile we are going to braise a pear in Port and very little else. Then, while the meat rests, we are going to combine the liquids and cook them down into a thin syrup and spoon over the pork, vegetables and pears. I have some homemade beef stock on hand, so I will use that as my liquid.

Douro Valley, Portugal

When I was younger, Port always conjured up visions of a Wino sitting in a gutter and drinking from a bottle in a paper bag. That was well before I really learned of Port. If you are unfamiliar with the pleasures of a fine Port, you are in for a grand discovery.  Port, or Porto, is a fortified, slightly sweetish wine, only from the Douro Valley in Portugal. Other wines, most sickeningly sweet and cloying, from all over the world, are sometimes called Port. Stay away from these. 

Vintage Porto is only made in certain years (when the stars and grapes align). For this meal I'm using a rather recent Vintage Porto. You could cellar this wine for a lot longer than I have left to live, so I'm drinking it now! It is very good and not overly expensive. A good Porto can be very expensive. Sip on this in the evening while watching 8½ and experience The Good Life.

Equipment:

You will need a large sauté pan for the vegetables, a medium, shallow roasting pan for the meat, and a small sauce pan, just wide enough to hold a pear.

Ingredients:

Raw Ingredients

For the Pork

1 Pork Tenderloin

2 large Mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 small Onion, diced

1 clove Garlic, minced

4 to 6 oz. Cauliflower broken into small florets

¼ cup Old Bay^™ *

splash of Port

½ cup of stock or water

2 Tbs. Butter

1 Tbs. Olive Oil

salt and pepper to taste

For the Pear

1 Bosc Pear, not too ripe

Everything Prepped

¼ cup stock or water

1 tsp Brown Sugar

½ cup quality Porto

¼ tsp Lemon Zest

1 small Cinnamon stick

pinch salt

* you can rub the tenderloin with anything you prefer. I am choosing not to use certain spices that I would normally, such as cinnamon, because in this meal, it is already in the Pear Sauce and so there would be an over-abundance of this flavor if it were on the Pork too. We want a contrast here.

Method:

1 Rub meat with Old Bay^™ seasoning. Preheat oven to 375^o.

2 Sauté Mushrooms in the Butter and Oil until they start to color, then add Cauliflower, Onions, Garlic, salt & pepper and sauté for a couple minutes more. 

Saute Vegetables

Add a splash of Porto and ½ cup Stock. Bring to a simmer and pour into shallow roasting pan. Place tenderloin on top. 

Ready for the Oven

Roast for about 20 minutes, then turn the Pork, also turn cauliflower and add a little more liquid if needed. Check again after 10 more minutes: you want a small amount of liquid to be always in the pan, but not too much. Total roasting time is about 40 minutes. Pork should be 160^o . Try not to overcook this cut.

3 Meanwhile, peel Pear and slice into quarters lengthwise, remove stem and core area. Bring stock to boil in small sauce pan dissolving Brown Sugar, then add Port, Cinnamon stick, Lemon Zest and pinch of salt and bring to the edge of a boil, add pear slices and reduce heat. 

Braising Pears

Simmer until Pear just yields to a fork. A Bosc Pear, depending on its ripeness,  will hold up to probably 15 minutes of braising. A Bartlett will tend to cook fast, so watch these carefully. You don't want pear mush. Turn Pears a few times to color all sides. When Pear is ready, remove and reserve. Discard Cinnamon Stick but keep cooking liquid simmering.

4 When Pork is finished, remove it and the Mushrooms and Cauliflower to a plate with the Pear, cover with foil and keep warm for about 5 minutes.

5 Strain remaining juices from roasting pan into the simmering Pear braising liquid and reduce this sauce over high heat until it is the consistency of a thin syrup, correct seasoning.

6 Slice the tenderloin into medallions, surround with Pears and Vegetables and spoon sauce over meat and Pears. Serve with a soft wine. I've chosen the 2007 Masi Ripasso Veronese, a good food-friendly wine: smooth and simple on the palate!

Served here with home-pureed Butternut Squash

Charlie Campanelle Update

Sam, Charlie (the meal) and Sean

No, that's not Charlie (the kid) but it is Charlie (the meal). To see if he still liked it, I thought I would try the meal out on Sean and his friend Sam (that's Sam on the left). I feed them every so often. It was still appealing to them, but I think 13-year-olds prefer their sauce smoother. Next time I'd use the hand blender before I added the beef!

Gemelli con Funghi e Lenticchie

One of the fondest memories of my wife, Sandy, was when she used to tell me that I was only allowed one pontificating complaint each day. So far, I think, I have avoided any in this blog. But not today! A person who says "I only drink merlot (insert any type of wine)", no matter what meal I have prepared, is one who does not understand that wine is a food. To that person, wine is a drink. I have no ill feelings toward the poor soul, just pity. For example: to order your wine at a restaurant before deciding on your food is as mysterious to me as putting ketchup on everything you eat. Something a child might do, but an adult?? Unless, of course, you choose your meal to accompany that fine wine you ordered from the list.

1999 Brunello di Montalcino

OK, I'm done whining Sandy, I promise. To highlight the "wine is food" thought, this month's recipe has been created to accompany a wine. While rummaging around in my wine cellar, I came across a 1999 Brunello. As it is now 2011, this wine should be ready for drinking. Brunello is made from 100% Sangiovese grape grown in the arid region around the ancient town of Montalcino, and is thereby known as Brunello di Montalcino. It has a DOCG designation. When everything aligns, a magnificent wine is produced. Outstanding recent vintages for this wine are 1999, 2001, 2005 (not outstanding but very good), and the year that may be best of all: 2006. The 2006 is just emerging, and hard to find at this writing, but well worth your interest. As it will have to age for a decade or more, my chances of actually tasting this fabulous vintage are slim, but please enjoy it for me!

Gemelli

Such a wine deserves a rich and savory meal for it to fully blossom on your palate. So I determined to put together something with earthy flavors. My two earthy favorites are lentils and mushrooms. Hence this dish began to assemble in my mind. Now, how to combine this sauce with pasta? We'll need a solid shape to mix with the mushrooms. At first I thought of gnocchi, but I wasn't sure the texture would complement the mushrooms. Then I remembered Gemelli: Perfect! It is solid enough to stand up to the sauce, thin enough to compliment the mushrooms. Gemelli (twins) seems to be two strands of pasta twisted together, double helix-like. In reality, it is extruded in one piece today. Gemelli also satisfies me on the secondary level by "twinning" with the wine! Alright, I realize that it is actually complementing the wine, but I don't know of any Yin-Yang pasta, so grant me a little poetic license.

To enhance the mushroom flavor, we should work with a variety of fresh mushrooms and also some dried porcini mushrooms. I was uncertain about adding meat. I chose to add a little Italian sausage, but I'm sure this can be omitted if you add some "heat" spices to the dish, without making it too hot, for then it would best accompany a cold beer!

Some Ingredients

Ingredients:

1/2 medium Onion, diced

1 small Orange Pepper (or 1/4 cup of a big one), diced

1 clove Garlic, minced

1/4 cup dried Porcini mushrooms

4 oz. mixed, flavorful Mushrooms (I used Oyster, Shiitake and Portabella), roughly chopped

2 links hot Italian Sausage

1/4 lb Lentils

2 Tbs. Tomato Paste

28 oz. can of crushed Tomatoes

1 tsp dried Parsley

1 tsp dried Basil

splash of Brandy

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste (I didn't need to add any)

1/4 lb Gemelli Pasta

1 bottle superb vintage Brunello di Montelcino

Equipment:

2 cup Bowl to soak Mushrooms

funnel fitted with a coffee filter

3 Quart Pan for cooking Lentils, then for cooking Pasta

Deep Pan (Fricassee is perfect) for browning Sausage, then for Sauce

Wine Decanter

Method:

Prep 1: Carefully decant the wine about four hours before you intend to eat. This wine will have lees in the bottom of the bottle, so be gentle. (If you taste a little now, you will see how it opens up as it airs.) Place decanter in a cool place. (I placed it back in my wine cellar, which is 50 degrees F at this time of year. Return the decanter to the dining room about 1/2 hour before you eat, and the wine will be at the perfect temperature.

Sausages and Lentils

Prep 2: Soak dried mushrooms in about 1 cup of warm water for one hour. Strain mushrooms, but retain liquid. Wash mushrooms to remove any grit. Then mince them. Pass the liquid through a coffee filter, and retain. (I keep a box of #2 filters around because they fit nicely into a funnel and have a million uses. It's better than cheese cloth for 90% of recipes.)

Prep 3: Brown Sausages in a little Olive Oil, then simmer for about 20 minutes. Don't overcook them: they're going to cook for another hour in the sauce. Remove them and slice about 1/4 inches thick. Pour fat out of pan, but leave the darkened bits on the bottom.

1: Wash Lentils and add them to a pot of 3 or 4 cups boiling water. When the water returns to a boil, lower to simmer and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Then strain almost all the water out and place Lentils in a bowl.

Porcini drained & minced

2: While the Lentils are cooking, sauté Onions and Orange Peppers in a little Olive Oil in the Sausage pan until they are translucent, then add the garlic and sauté for another minute or two, then add a splash of Brandy and, while the alcohol evaporates, scrape all that sausage goodness off the bottom of the pan. Then add the chopped, fresh Mushrooms and gently sauté for another 5 minutes.

Sauté Onions

Adding Mushrooms

3: Push vegetables to one side of pan, add a little olive oil, and then the Tomato Paste and mix with the oil, stir constantly for about 5 minutes until paste has caramelized. If possible, position pan so that flame is under Paste and not mushrooms.

Caramelize Paste: important step!

4:  Then mix the Paste with vegetables and add Tomatoes. Raise heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer the sauce. Stir in the dried spices, minced reconstituted Porcinis, Sausage slices and Lentils. Let this simmer for at least one hour. Watch it carefully. Stir in a little retained mushroom liquid from time to time to keep the sauce at perfect consistency. Near the end of the cooking time, adjust seasoning.

Final Sauce simmering

5: Boil water and add Gemelli. This pasta takes longer to cook, usually 15 minutes. About a minute before Gemelli is finished, strain it and add to sauce. Mix completely and let cook for 3 to 5 minutes in the sauce. This pasta will retain its shape and firmness.

6: Serve with Pecorino Romano Cheese generously grated over each plate and enjoy with your Brunello di Montelcino!  -Love, Dave

Loin Lamb Chops (Marinated)

Lamb, poor lamb. It is one of the most tender of meats but lots of people just don't like its flavor. In the summer, when I'm cooking for a crowd, Lamb Souvlaki is always a big hit. Some folks say, "I usually don't like lamb, but this is delicious!" Now why is that? Well, it's the marinade! The Greeks have been cooking lamb for millennia and they have perfected a beautiful marinade for lamb. In fact, I believe it is very lamb-centric. Beef Souvlaki is what you usually find at a restaurant, but I'm not sure the marinade works with beef. Chicken Souvlaki just makes me shudder. Sorry to those of you who replace everything with chicken ;)

Summertime Grilling Legs of Lamb for Souvlaki

Now let's consider the Lamb Loin Chops. They are those little T-bones, usually cut about an inch, or more, thick. They are succulent and tender and really can be grilled just as they are. Two chops makes a nice serving. Here I have combined the heavenly flavor of souvlaki marinade with these chops! You get a meal that can be thrown together very quickly, if you remember to marinate them overnight!

Ingredients:

This inexpensive Olive Oil works fine for marinade

4 thick loin lamb chops

Marinade:

1          lemon

1/4       cup      chopped green pepper

1/2       medium onion, chopped

1          clove    garlic, chopped

2          tsp        oregano

2          tsp        salt

1          tsp        pepper

1          cup      olive oil

Mix marinate ingredients together and pour over lamb chops in a container just large enough to hold them. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. 

Take out at least an hour before you're ready to cook them. Clean off marinade pieces.

They could be grilled, but this is not grilling season on the Niagara Frontier, so I will oven broil them. You should prepare your broil pan with some non-stick spray, although you probably won't need much, since the marinade oil coats the lamb so well.

Everybody's broiler is at a different height from the food, so my timing is for my broiler. Unless you put your rack real low, about 6 minutes per side should give you a perfectly even pink interior. You can check with an instant-read thermometer if you're worried.

My broiler height, the flash hid the flame! 

Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil, and let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Here I have served each chop on a slab of feta. The flavors work very well. In the picture I have cooked some brown rice with small carrot dice and then stirred in some fresh parsley and freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Also shown are a couple spears of pineapple soaked in Grand Marnier. (Wintertime fruit!)

Serve with a crisp white Greek wine!