Caribbean Inspired Pork (or chicken, or fish...)

Doesn't that look good? I almost worry about ruining this post with too many words. Lately, my man's inspiration is fruit. In this case, kiwi were on sale at Byerly's. Two for one. 

This dish is made with boneless pork chops. But the pork isn't the important thing, it's the slaw and the sauce that makes this amazing. That's not to say the pork wasn't perfect. It was moist, perfectly cooked, delicious. That said, this could be made with chicken or fish and I think it would be just as fabulous. Can you tell I don't want to alienate my pork-less readers? It's true. I just want to spread the love of this dish with as many as possible. It was that good.

This dish consists of three parts, pork, a sweet potato slaw and a chili kiwi sauce. They all combine to create the divine image above. I have listed the ingredients below in the three parts, some overlap. Cooking instructions are listed in each section. I hope it makes it easy to follow. Pure unrefined coconut oil is something we're starting to experiment with. It's the only non-meat oil that dries solid. We found it easily at a local Indian grocery store, you can also find it in food coops, Whole Foods probably has it too. The Thai chili we used was from our garden last year (they freeze remarkably well). If you can't find one, almost any hot chili would work, you could probably also just use a cayenne or Serrano chile if you don't want a lot of heat, just don't use a jalapeno. 

Since there are three distinct parts, timing could be a slight issue. AC re-uses frying pans (cook the onions in the pan you use for the park) and has the sauce cooking simultaneously. It would probably be best to prep everything, get the pans ready, put the potatoes in the steamer, the sauce ingredients in the sauce pan and then start it all at once. It sounds like a lot of steps, but it all happens very quickly.  

You need to begin with a piece of pork that was marinated for 2 hours in a dark, sweet, Chinese soy sauce. AC swears it would have been sufficient to marinate for 30 minutes, if quick weeknight cooking is your desire. The whole working-from-home thing works in our favor for this one.

Pork Ingredients
1 Ziploc bag
2 boneless pork chops
Sweet Chinese soy sauce
Kanchai powder
Black pepper
Dried basil
Coconut oil

To prepare the pork:
Place the pork in the Ziploc bag and cover with the soy sauce, let it sit in your refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes, maximum 2 hours. Turn the bags over every so often. Make sure the pork has come to room temperature or out of the refrigerator for one hour before cooking.


Sweet Potato Slaw Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato (not a yam) sliced thin
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thin
Salt to taste
Coconut oil


Slaw Instructions:
In a stove top steamer, steam the sweet potato for about 5 minutes, until cooked. While they potatoes are steaming saute the red onion in coconut oil, add a pinch of salt, saute until slightly translucent. Combine with the sweet potatoes. Place on top of the completed potatoes that are still in the steamer and leave the lid on.  This will keep them warm until the pork and sauce are complete.

Chili Kiwi Sauce Ingredients
1/8 c white balsamic vinegar
1/4 c dry vermouth
1-2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp coconut oil
1 small kiwi without skin, finely chopped
1 Thai chili pepper, minced (use gloves!)
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 pinches salt

Pork and Sauce Instructions:

You will need to do the final prep of the pork and cook the sauce at the same time.

First begin with the sauce - add the balsamic, dry vermouth, minced chili, rosemary and salt to a small sauce pan. Bring to a medium boil and start to reduce it until its thick.  You want to try to time the sauce to be thick when the pork is complete.

Remove the pork from the bag, cover liberally, on all sides with kanchai powder, black pepper and dried
basil. Heat a frying pan (one with a cover) on medium high heat. Add about 1 tbsp of coconut oil to the pan. Place the pork in the frying pan, cook for 2 minutes, flip the pork, cook on the other side for another 1 1/2 minutes. Add about 2 tbsp of water to the pan, cover and cook for another minute.

When the sauce is reduced and the pork is complete, remove from heat. [Put the pork on the bed of mixed potato and slaw.] Add the lemon juice, and kiwi to the reduced sauce. Sort of cook the finely chopped kiwi for a 1 minute in the sauce and then pour it all on top of the pork and slaw.

Done. Just for motivation, I'll give you another look...

Don't like the wine? Cook with it!

I started buying and drinking boxed wine when the AC was in India for four months and I was stuck at home in graduate school. The whole higher quality boxed wine concept had just started- Black Box- and my taste in red wines was still fairly basic. More importantly, I had developed a taste for wine with dinner, felt guilty about opening a bottle without finishing it and didn't want AC to come home to a drunk. So boxed wine fit the bill, I could have one glass and that's it (okay, okay, that was the goal). Now the wine in a box industry has grown and there are more options. You'd think this would be a good thing, but I have found that the quality varies tremendously and since one box is four bottles, it's become a bit of a crap-shoot and a commitment to a lot of wine you may not want to drink.

Case in point: I bought a box of Pinot Grigio, same brand as a Sauv Blanc I enjoy.  I poured a glass and it was just blah, nothing, watery, not good. I'm not a boxed wine snob AND I don't want to drink something that I really don't enjoy, kinda defeats the purpose. Anyway, I regreted the $18 I spent, but figured we could use it for cooking. AC comes home from a business trip and goes to Costco. I get home from work and he's all excited about a box of Pinot Grigio he got for $14 at Costco.

Yep. Same one. Even he can't stand it. Hello recipes that use white wine.

This became a pretty easy challenge, as white wine can replace any liquid. For this recipe we substituted wine for water when cooking Quinoa. We're new to this whole grain, but have really come to like it. As with any grain, adding flavor is important, and it's easy to over-salt, cooking it in wine instead of water was delicious. It added moisture and very subtle flavor that added to the overall dimension of the dish. We added dried cherries to the Quinoa after cooking and it's really all it needed. So here's your recipe.

Pork Chops and Quinoa

• Two small boneless pork chops, each cut in half. 
• 1 clove garlic, minced 
• 1 finely minced cayenne pepper (any hot pepper will do, if you use powder add it at the end)
• 1/2 sweet bell pepper, diced
• 5-6 crimini mushrooms
• 2/3 c artichoke hearts, chopped
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/4 c dry vermouth
• 1 tbsp butter
• olive oil, salt and black pepper

Saute garlic and cayenne pepper in oil olive over medium/high heat. Lightly sear both sides of the pork chops in the pan, add red bell peppers, mushrooms and vermouth, reduce the heat to medium. Let the sauce cook the pork and reduce. When reduced to about half the amount (about 2 min), add butter to thicken the sauce. Add the artichoke hearts and basil, salt and black pepper to taste.

We made the Quinoa in our rice cooker, following the directions on the package, using white wine instead of water. Add diced dried cherries and a little salt when done.     

We've been using this method of cooking meat a lot lately (sear first, then poach in broth, wine, vermouth, you name it) as it browns it nicely and ends up really moist and flavorful, picking up the flavors of the broth. It's also really hard to over cook your protein this way. It is particularly amazing with Salmon, cooks perfectly every time.

Prairie Pride Farm's Pulled Pork: Three Days, Three Meals

We love the St. Paul Farmer's Market. Yes, Minneapolis has many, but St. Paul's is special. For one, everything sold there is completely local. It has a warm, community feel, there's always free parking and making trips there helps me keep up with all the new restaurants and shops popping up in St. Paul. But there is one more reason- the presence of Prairie Pride farm  . They sell pork. And it is amazing pork. Check out their website and they'll give you the details. We have two favorites, the pulled pork and the (ready??) cinnamon bacon. You had to have guessed that bacon had something to do with it. Cinnamon bacon is just that, bacon infused with cinnamon. It is delicious with our weekend morning oatmeal. Yum. Even better, the leftover fat can be stored and used to enhance many recipes, we have found that it combines amazingly with Salmon. But this post is about pulled pork, specifically, how easy it can make your life. One may not think of versatility when they hear pulled pork, but oh how versatile it is. You can go traditional and pair it with BBQ sauce, in fact Prairie Pride farm makes a kick-ass blackberry and chile BBQ sauce that is really good with the pork. In my opinion, though, just dousing the meat in BBQ, although classically delicious, just doesn't use it to it's potential.

Prairie Pride sells the pulled pork frozen in 1.5 lb. packages. Generally we buy one, bring it home to thaw and eat it for at least three meals. The goal is to make dishes that are so different we don't think "pulled pork again?" (I guess I do that a lot).

Day One: Salad style
This dish consists of three main parts. Pulled Pork, black beans and a salad, which will all be mixed together.
Salad:
1 shallot, sliced thin.
1 tomato, cored and diced.
2 Serrano peppers
Black pepper and salt.
Basil flavored oil and white balsamic vinegar.
Flat leaf parsley.
Fresh ground parmesan.
Slice shallot and immerse in the white balsamic, let it soak for about 20 minutes. Do this before you start the black beans and then use the extra time to make a margarita or mojito. Chop your tomato and sprinkle it with basil oil and salt. Dice parsley (enough for just a bit more than a garnish), the serrano peppers and add black pepper to taste. Mix all the above ingredients together and set aside. 

Pork :You'll need 1/2 lb Pulled Pork and an Achiote Annato sauce (at any Mexican grocer, or select Cub foods) it's basically a red Mexican hot sauce- not vinegary. Mix the pork with the sauce, and heat in a frying pan until warm.

Beans: We used 1 can of Kuner's southwestern spiced black beans and modified. Open the can and pour into a sauce pan over medium heat. Mix with black pepper, 2 small cloves garlic, cinnamon and 1/2 tsp dried oregano.

Assemble: Mix it all together (with about half the black beans) and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Day Two: Add an egg. Yum. 
So this is more like a hash. Completely different feel from day one, but you'll use a lot of the same ingredients. As you'll notice above, I said to use half the black beans, that's because you're going to use them again, see the picture?

This dish consists of four parts, you'll notice a vegetable slaw, the pulled pork, leftover beans and a fried egg. You're going to use the pork almost exactly as it comes, without sauce, but you'll add a bit of cayenne pepper to it. Then, in a frying pan coated lightly with butter, saute some onions, bell pepper and garlic, when the onions become translucent, add a fistful of parsley and 1/2 tsp dried oregano. In a sauce pan, heat the leftover black beans. Plate the slaw and heat the pork in the same pan you cooked the slaw. When heated through, place heated pork next to the slaw on the plate. Cook an egg (could use the same frying pan, too, it'll cook fast). Top with the egg and then add the black beans. Top with some slices of sun-dried tomato. Doesn't that look good? It tasted great, and I usually don't like runny yolk. You can cook the egg more if you wish, but the yolk adds sweetness.




Day Three: Pulled Pork Sandwich with Peach compote
If you're buying pulled pork, you do have to make a sandwich. This is the
easiest of all the recipes and equally as delicious. Simply take the remainder of the pulled pork, mix with a conservative amount of your favorite BBQ sauce (you can always add more, too much will ruin it). Buy a nice bun, add a slice of cheese and you're there.

To make this meal more than just a sandwich, the AC created an amazing peach compote. Pretty much dessert-worthy. Not healthy by any stretch. That's your warning.

Sweet Peach Compote: Put 1/2 c brown sugar in a sauce pan with a 1/2 c of water, bring to a boil and cook until the sugar completely dissolves, you're making a simple syrup of sorts, actually more like a caramel. While the syrup is cooking, grind 4-5 cloves and 3 allspice seeds with a mortar and pestle. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the ground spices to the pan with 1/4 tsp powdered ginger, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 1/8 tsp coconut extract, 1/8 tsp cayenne and a pinch of salt. Let the sauce reduce to about half and add two thinly sliced peaches and 1/2 tbsp butter, turn heat to simmer and cook until the peaches are soft. Remove the peaches from the sauce and continue to let the sauce reduce until thick. Pour the sauce over the peaches and garnish with fresh mint.

There you are. Three completely different, ridiculously simple, fairly cheap meals to serve three days in a row without any boredom. Don't eat pork? Bummer.

Pork Lost in Mexico

My dream is for my man to be on Top Chef. He could do it, but he wouldn't because he hates reality TV. However, supporting my claim of being the ultimate beta, he has upped the ante on presentation and creativity since I started documenting his cooking. It's a win, win. I document, he continues to try to impress.  I should have thought of this a long time ago.

He is insisting on naming this dish "Pork Lost in Mexico" he created it, he has naming rights. Relationship tip: choose your battles. Check this out.

There are three components to this meal, pork loin, cilantro and tomato salad and black bean gratin. The pork is covered in an amazing sauce made with chipotle peppers. It is all much easier than it looks, or so he says.

For the pork: start with dry roasting (just drop in a pan without any oil) 3/4 tsp coriander seed, 1/2 tsp cumin seed and 1/8 tsp anise seed. Roast until fragrant, pull from heat and grind with a mortar and pestle. Put in a small food processor. Add to the processor the juice of a medium lemon, 2 cloves roughly chopped garlic, 1/2 handful fresh cilantro, 2 chipotle peppers. 1 1/2 tsp olive oil and 1 tbs of adobo sauce (I'll describe later). Blend all ingredients into a paste in the food processor. Smear the sauce onto both sides of the raw pork loin and set aside for about 20 minutes to marinate. Set aside 1/2 tsp of the sauce to use in the Black Bean Gratin.

To cook: heat a frying pan on medium to medium low heat, put the pork in the pan and scrape the remaining sauce into the pan, cover with lid and let cook for 3-4 minutes, flip the pork, cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Garnish with finely sliced red bell pepper marinated in balsamic vinegar and salt (let it marinate for the same amount of time as the pork, shake out excess balsamic before plating.

Salad: This is a fabulously simple, fresh tasting dish that provided a perfect counterbalance to the other dishes. Here's the formula- take 2 parts grape tomatoes sliced in thirds, 1 part cilantro, 1 part chopped green onion, add a little olive oil, salt and lemon juice to taste.

Burning the alcohol

Black Bean Gratin: Few would argue the merit of dried vs. canned beans, however, you can't argue the convenience. We like canned black beans, especially Kuner's brand, for quick, weekday cooking (I hope we don't lose too much cred with our foodie friends). Pour 1/2 shot (1 oz) of tequila and 1/4 shot cointreau into a sauce pan, heat pot until lightly boiling and then light on fire to burn off the excess alcohol.

Our favorite black beans and chipotle in adobo

Just before the flame extinguishes, pour in the can of black beans, add a 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp of the pork sauce, 1/2 tsp powdered garlic. Bring to a very low simmer, keep covered. Put into ramekins, add cheese (we used Cypress Grove Midnight Moon Goat Cheese) and place under broiler to melt.