Center Cut Pork Chops

Last night I made myself a delicious meaty treat of a dinner. I had seen this cut of pork in several cookbooks and cooking tv shows, however I have never cooked using it. Well, I did this last night and it turned out amazing!










Ingredients:
2 Center Cut Pork Chops
4 Shallots
5 Garlic Cloves
Oregano
Thyme
Rosemary
Sage
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Fennel Powder
Sweet Paprika
1/2 stick Butter

I began likes usual by gathering my ingredients.

I then diced up the Shallots and Garlic Cloves. I put the saucepan on the stovetop with the heat medium. In goes your 1/2 stick of Butter.

Once that begins to melt, in goes your Shallots and Garlic Cloves.

Now, shred all your spices and herbs. I did not list an amount because I only used about a spoonful or so of each. Probably less of the Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper.

Put the herbs in first.

Then add spices.

Mix together thoroughly.

Add in your 2 Center Cut Pork Chops.

Flip after a few minutes.

Do so again about 8 minutes later.

They should be done about 5 minutes after that. All that is left is to dish out and serve. I served mine with a garnish of Rosemary and a cold delicious beer. Enjoy.

Appetizer: Mushroom Mania

Today after a long week at work, I decided to try some fun cooking. That thought process ended with a decision upon the Mushrooms I had in the fridge. Well, if you have not noticed I cook them a lot. A whole lot. This time I varied it up a little bit by cooking them in 3 different ways for one plate. Boom.








Ingredients:
1 lb Button Mushrooms

Asian Spiced:
1/3 cup Port
1/3 cup Sherry
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Lime Juice
Sweet Paprika
Fennel Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Ancho Chili Powder
Garlic Salt

Local Herbed:
2 sprig Rosemary
1/4 cup Oregano
3 sprig Thyme
1/3 cup Olive Oil

Decadent Dessert
1/4 stick Butter
1/3 cup Lime Juice
1/4 cup Orange Liquor
1/2 cup Cilantro Leaves

PART 1:
Alright, so I will take you through this recipe one part at a time to avoid confusion. Note, the Mushrooms I sliced up into one big bowl and took out about 1/3 for each recipe.

I'll start with the Asian Spiced Mushrooms. I began by gathering the materials.

Turn the heat to medium. Then use a small sauce pot and poured in the Port, Sherry, Soy Sauce, and Lime Juice. I added in the spices mixed together. I used like a spoonful of each, maybe 2 of the Garlic Salt. Stir together.

Once the liquid starts to steam a little bit, add the Mushrooms and make sure they get coated by the mixture.

Now, they should take about 7 minutes to get properly cooked/spongey feeling.

I chose to take them out and place them in a ramekin but a small bowl should also suffice. I then put in the microwave so it stayed warm until all 3 were done.

PART 2:
The second one is the Local Herbed Mushrooms. I call it this because the herbs I used were from my personal garden. I began like usual, gathering my ingredients.

Now I stripped the leaved off the Rosemary and Oregano, while the Thyme I just cut up into smaller pieces. I then put a small saucepan on the stove, turned the heat to medium, and poured in the Olive Oil.

I then added the herbs.

Once that began to simmer, I added in the Mushrooms.

This recipe should take about 7 minutes as well, make sure to stir.

Do the same as Part 1 in keeping them warm once you take them off the stovetop.

Part 3:
This last part is the Decadent Dessert Mushroom portion. I call it this because when it was sampled, a comment about how it tastes like a dessert stuck with me. Sounds fitting.

I began by gathering the ingredients.

Now, using a small saucepan I added the Butter and turned the heat to medium.

Quickly after the Butter began to melt, I added the Lime Juice, Orange Liquor, and Cilantro Leaves. It looks amazing to me, maybe I should make a drink with all but the Butter?

This should take about 8 or 9 minutes since it took me a little longer than the other 2 parts. Make sure to mix it around.

Now, once this is done just turn the heat off and move to an unused burner.

The end part here is where you plate all 3 Mushroom Recipes. I went in the order listed above, however I overlapped their cooking times using different burners as well. Enjoy.

Frittata!

Tonight I decided instead of not cooking, that I would cook amazingness. Yes, this recipe is pure amazingness bundled together into an array of edible bliss. I cooked up Frittata. If you have never had this, you are missing out. It is great hot, warm, room temperature, slightly chilled, or cold while you eat inside a walk-in cooler. Go make some. Now. Do it.









Ingredients
10 Eggs
Cheese
Fava Beans
2 Red Potatoes
2 Gold Potatoes
1 Yellow Onion
2 Green Bell Peppers
10-15 Grape Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Butter (I used sun dried tomato butter!)
Italian Herb Mix
Fennel Powder
Ancho Chili Powder
Clove Powder
Ground Black Pepper
Paprika
Sea Salt
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Oregano

Materials
Large Sauce Pot/Deep Saucepan
Small Sauce Pot
Oven

Alright, I included the Materials list because you'll need to have those on hand quite readily. Starting off, grab your materials.

Ok, now we are going to focus on the Fava Beans first. The ones I bought came still inside their bean casings/shells. You can start at the base of the bean, where it was attached to the plant previously, and peel that along the inner(shorter) edge of the bean and it's just like a zipper. Then just pop out the beans. Grab your Small Sauce Pot and boil some salt water. I.e. add some salt to the water, turn the heat to high, and you are good to go.

Once the water boils, toss in the Fava Beans. Let them boil for about 1.5 to 2 minutes. Turn off heat and cool the beans down by putting them in an ice bath. I just threw them in a mixing bowl with ice in it, seemed to work pretty well.

Alright, once they cool down you peel the skin off the bean and throw the skin away. Keep the bean, you'll need that in this recipe. Feel free to try one at this point, they are quite tasty by themselves.

While the Fava Beans were boiling, I had my attention on the Potatoes. I used two different kinds for a simple reason; I only have 2 Gold Potatoes left and decided to mix them with the Red Potatoes I had bought the other day. I diced them up pretty small and I'm sure I could have used the food processor but I didn't think of that and since dicing them up by hand was simple, it did not take that long. Watch your fingers.

Important Note: Empty your oven out right now. Turn it on, Bake, 400 degrees F. Back to business.

At this point, dice up your Green Bell Peppers and Yellow Onion. I used some ramekins I had around to store them until they were needed. I also diced up the Fava Beans at this point.

I put my Deep Saucepan on the stovetop and turned the heat to medium. I poured in a good 1/2 cup of Olive Oil and the 1/4 stick of Butter I had into the pan. I then added the Fresh Oregano leaves and Thyme into the mix.

Once the Butter melted and the Olive Oil began to sizzle, I added in the Potatoes.

Let the Potatoes begin to soften up before adding anything else. My first step was the diced Yellow Onion. I did this because I like the Onion to be a more supporting flavor/material in the recipe, while my Bell Peppers stay decently crisp.

Next was the Bell Peppers. I waited until the Onion had started to soften and go translucent.

Followed quickly by the Fava Beans.

Once all of these were in, I made sure to mix them around again. Now I cut the Tomatoes I had in half and tossed them in.

Mix.

Now the spices were added. I literally did not use that much since the flavor of everything else was more than enough. I used about a 1/2 pinch for everything but the Italian Herb Mix. I used like 1.5 pinches. It's good stuff, make sure you have this for anything you cook.

Mix it together. Now get your Eggs and whisk them together with the Whisk I am sure you all have. Or use a fork. Whisk works faster, but everybody has forks. Who knew?

Also, I topped the mix off with some Parmesan/Romano Cheese and a nice topping to that of Shredded Cheddar Cheese. Boom, instant gooey greatness.

Now I would have taken a picture of the pan before going in the oven, but I felt rushed to get it in there and I only have two arms. Here's a picture of my Sous Chef reading up on recipes to try. His name is Sous Chef Pup. Yes, it's cheesy and awesome.

Alright, once you get it in the oven don't forget to take a picture. Like so:

Mmmm...melted Cheese. Let it cook in the oven for about 10 minutes. I used a timer, which I quickly turned off since I was checking it every minute or so anyways. You'll know it's done when the edges of the mixture pull away from the sides of the pan.

I took it out and let it cool for about 5 minutes. I then used a very sharp non-serrated knife to separate the sides of the dish and the sides of the saucepan down to the bottom.

Then I cut it into pieces to serve. Used a spatula to dish out. Enjoy.

Funghi con Pomodoro

The title translates to Sauteed Mushrooms with Garlic and Tomatoes and is a great recipe to throw together somewhat quickly. I brought a cookbook to work today to look up some new recipes to roughly try. The cookbook was: My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino w/ Janet Fletcher. This book is very good in my opinion as it relates a personal story to each recipe that generally makes me smile and want to grow more locally.

Ingredients
1 lb White Button Mushrooms (sliced)
1.5 cups worth of diced Tomatoes
5 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
4 Garlic cloves (diced)
1 tablespoon Sea Salt
1 tablespoon Cracked Red Pepper Flakes
2 pinches Fresh Thyme
2 pinches Fresh Oregano
2 tablespoons of Italian Herb Mix
1/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon Wine

You begin by gathering all of your ingredients at least somewhat ready. I did not cut my grape Tomatoes in half beforehand like I found out I should have. It hurried me up a lot during the actual cooking process, so lesson learned I suppose.

You start by placing a saucepan on the stovetop, turn the heat to medium. Pour in your Extra Virgin Olive Oil and diced up Garlic cloves. Stir them around a little bit in the EVOO to coat them in the oil.

Once they begin to turn color and the oil smokes a bit, pour in your mixing bowl of sliced up Mushrooms. Mix them around a bunch; I used a pair of tongs for this part, a wooden spoon for the rest.

Add in your Thyme, Oregano, Italian Herb Mix, and Cracked Red Pepper Flakes. Mix together to spread them around. Pour in your Cabernet Sauvignon and stir once again! (It is ok to pour yourself a glass now if you have not done so by now!)

During this time, I sliced my small Tomatoes in half, which could have been done beforehand but oh well. I put them in a mixing bowl. Here's a picture of them, they look awesome.

Then after a few minutes, when the Mushrooms turn color I poured in the Tomatoes. I added a half pinch or so of the Italian Herb mix and then the Sea Salt. Then stir them up a bunch so you get the Salt all over.

After a few more minutes, let's say 5 minutes, it should be close to being done. I turned off the stovetop at this point and let the heat cook them a little bit more while I got the plating ready.

I chose to use some of our ever present salad mix in the fridge as a base. To this I used a slotted spoon to scoop out the Mushroom/Tomato mix and place it on top. Garnished with a light coating of Parmesan/Romano grated cheese. Enjoy.