I know, I can hear you already. . . that’s not a pork chop. You’re right, it isn’t. But in the cooking class I attended the other night, all about pork, the butcher and chef decided that it would be too difficult to cut and serve stuffed pork chops to a class of about 50 people. So they used the whole boneless pork loin (roast), cut a slender slit in the center and pushed the stuffing mixture in there, then browned it and roasted it just like you would with chops. So the taste would be about the same.

The two men teaching the class, Stan Glenn, a master meat cutter, and Chris Brill, executive chef, are part of Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel’s (pronounced like cecil’s) meat markets, both live and work in San Diego. They’re fervent advocates of Berkshire pigs. As am I. Do you remember the story about Berkshires (aka Kurobuta)? Berkshire pigs come from England. A long time ago the Earl of Berkshire gave two of his prized black-skinned pigs to some visiting Japanese dignitaries after he’d served them a meal using his pigs. Hence, the Japanese went on to nurture and breed the Berkshire, and called them Kurobuta (means black skin). Here in the U.S. we started an association of Berkshire breeders, and they have been purebred (registered, like lots of purebred livestock) since 1875. But it’s just in the last 4-6 years, I’d guess, the meat has made it past the counties (mostly Midwest) where the Berkshires are raised. Now there are hundreds of small farm operations (all family owned) who raise Berkshires. And what treasures they are.

A year ago we purchased a 4-H pig that was a Berkshire. This was before Berkshires became recognized nationwide as a far superior meat. I knew. And I wanted that pig! Now people know about it – more people. So when we tried to buy more Berkshire pig from the same 4-H kid a few months ago, we were outbid by nearly double the price. So somebody else knew about it and was willing to pay.

It was about 2+ years ago I purchased a Kurobuta ham direct from a farmer. It was absolutely sensational. If you want to read the story about it, there’s a link there for how to buy it. It’s expensive. As is any Berkshire pork meat. But it’s so much more flavorful and tender. Worth it to me. I’ll have half the amount if I can have Berkshire.

This pork loin meat was so juicy and tender. And I really, really liked the stuffing. A lot. So, you can make stuffed chops (pictured right on the monitor in the classroom), or you can also make this to serve a larger number of people by using a boneless loin of pork, cutting a tunnel in it and stuffing it. In either case, you want to bake it until it reaches 155 internal temp. And for this you really ought to have a good meat thermometer. No overcooking allowed!
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A year ago: Pickled carrots

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Here on this blog I’ve talked about Cindy Pawlcyn before. She’s the famous chef from Mustard’s Grill in Yountville. And Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena. I wrote up a restaurant review of the latter, back in 2007 after my friend Cherrie and I ate there. My friend Linda gave me the ‘>Mustard’s Grill cookbook a couple of years ago. I’ve not made very many dishes from it (don’t know if I’ve even written up a single one), but Linda has been telling me that I needed to try the Mongolian Pork Chops. Finally, I did. They’re really good. Not too spicy hot – just seasoned highly with Asian condiments. According to the recipe in the cookbook, this is one of the menu favorites at the restaurant.

We used the last of our precious 4-H pig pork chops (the Berkshire pig we bought last summer) for this. They were oh-so tender. I had bone-in chops, not boneless, as you can see from the photo above. You can use either one, although the original recommends bone-in, exactly 1-inch thick.

You prepare a marinade that contains a lot of hoisin sauce (more of that than anything else), plus a tad of sugar, soy sauce, sherry vinegar, rice wine vinegar, a scallion, some hot sauce, black bean chile sauce, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, and some cilantro (including some chopped stems). The pork is marinated in that mixture for at least 3 hours, or overnight (overnight is better), then grilled briefly to get grill marks, then slowly cooked to 139 degrees (still slightly pink in the middle).

To accompany this I sautéed some sugar snap peas and mushrooms in a little butter, then during the last minute of cooking I added some rice wine vinegar (about a tablespoon) and a very small splash of dark sesame oil.  The mixture gave the sugar snaps a little Asian twist.
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A year ago: Chocolate Spice Cupcakes
Two years ago: Spicy Garlic Cashew Chicken (oh yes, EVER so good)

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Pork tenderloin is such a versatile meat. But it can also be very tricky – cook it even a degree or two past perfection and it’s dry and leathery. Even with my meat thermometer I let this one slip by – I forgot to set the alarm on the thermometer so the interior meat temp got to 149 (instead of 145) before I removed it from the oven. But it was still on the juicy side, though no longer pink in the middle, so it ended up tasting fine. Especially if you serve it with this delicious black bean salsa under and over it.

No printed recipe was involved here – I just decided I wanted to pan fry/brown the meat after marinating in lemon juice and oil, plus some oregano. Then I made the salsa with the rinsed and drained black beans, fresh tomato, red bells, onions, a bit of fresh corn off the cob, some pasilla chiles minced up (or use jalapeno) with some lemon juice (no oil in this at all) with some cilantro, dill, chipotle chile, cumin and some bottled chile powder, plus salt and pepper and a tiny sprinkling of sugar. I probably could have made my meal with just this salad/salsa and not missed the meat. But with the meat, it was a complete meal. I did serve some steamed broccoli on the side, but it was almost superfluous.

This was easy – marinate the meat overnight if you have time, whip together the salsa, then brown the meat and stick the whole pan in the oven to bake for just a VERY FEW minutes until it reaches perfect temp. Tent it with foil briefly, then slice on the diagonal and serve on a bed of the salsa. Done.

If you would like to stretch out the amount of meat here, just make more of the black bean salsa and serve fewer pieces of meat. I got 4 servings from one pork tenderloin with this recipe. Do try this, though – it’s worth making.
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A year ago: Tomatoes (everything you need to know about them)
Two years ago: Chipotle Meatballs

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The recipe comes from a friend of ours, from a genuine Southerner. Someone who luvs all things rice and Creole cooking. Mike makes his family version of Jambalaya on a fairly regular basis. If he has andouille sausage, he uses that, but usually in combination with Italian sausage, plus the chicken and rice, of course.

Mike is retired now, and in the last few years he’s become a creative craftsman of all things wood – has his own woodworking website with photos and tutorials about how he constructs some of his projects.

Recently he decided to write up his jambalaya recipe for others to try and he tacked it on to his woodworking webpages. His wife, Norma, is the one for whom I’m baking chocolate chip cookies lately. That’s an ongoing quest. We still haven’t found the perfect recipe. Mike also has a gumbo recipe on his website, in case you’re interested. Here’s Mike’s photo of his jambalaya:

The making of jambalaya is not hard. Just takes a bit of time, some chopping and mincing, some stovetop cooking and a 30-minute bake in the oven. Oh, and you do have to remove all the chicken from the bones – that does take a bit of time too. But the bones are a necessity to make this – they give a lot of oomph to the flavor in the broth. There are probably about 2 hours or more of work involved before you can get this into the oven.

If you’d like a bit of a longer read about the recipe, head over to Mike’s website to see photos of all stages of this dish. Just remember that Jambalaya is “all about the rice.” Not the chicken or sausage. Those things are there just to provide more flavor to the rice. If you prefer a higher ratio of rice to protein, you’re welcome to increase it (or decrease the amount of rice, as I did). Mike cautions, though, that you need to measure the amount of liquid as you add it because it needs to balance with the amount needed to cook the rice.

Creole cooking is not about heat and spice (that kind is Cajun). So this dish is fairly low on the hot and spicy scale. That’s why the rice is so important, you see. Mike says you can add some hot sauce to it if you want, but don’t overdo it or you’ll distract the taste buds from the focus of the dish.

Cook’s Notes: When my friend Cherrie and I prepared this the other night, we made a few alterations, and we decided we’d make a couple more if/when we make it again. The leftovers are almost better than the first time ’round because the flavors have melded. And I’d caution – as Mike does – that you don’t want to overcook the rice – it becomes mushy. That you don’t want, so be careful to serve when it’s just cooked. Here are the changes:

1. We used just 2 cups of rice, not 2 1/2.
2. We used more chicken stock/water so we had to add more water to cover the chicken.
3. We added more meat altogether (chicken, Italian sausage AND andouille) as we wanted more meat in ratio to rice (not as authentic, however).
4. We ended up using more fluid than Mike’s recipe called for (about 1/2 cup).
5. Next time we would double the thyme and saffron called for.
6. All the guests at the table added some hot sauce, so we needed more, obviously.
7. If you prefer firmer rice, use Uncle Ben’s converted rice – it doesn’t clump, but stays as separate kernels when cooked.

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A year ago: Roasted Carrots & Parsnips with Shallot and Herb Butter

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At the Phillis Carey cooking class a couple of weeks ago, she prepared a pork tenderloin with pears. It was paired with the pear martini, although we didn’t end up drinking the martini with the pork. I don’t think I’d want to have a martini with my dinner anyway. Maybe good in theory, but not in reality.

The pork was perfectly cooked (to 155 degrees internally), and the pears on the side went well with it. Phillis also made oven roasted asparagus to serve with this (oiled, 450F, 7-9 minutes, salt & pepper). Phillis shared a GREAT tip – I always learn something new at these classes . . . did you know that if you drop fresh pear slices into Sprite (the carbonated beverage), they’ll keep for a long while without browning? I haven’t tried it yet. It won’t work with 7-up, nor will it work with diet Sprite. Okay. Got it. Will try.

One thing my friend Cherrie and I agreed about this recipe was that the sauce wasn’t thick enough. It was too liquidy altogether and we couldn’t get any of it with the bites of pork and pears – it just traveled to the low spot on the plate. So we decided the sauce should be thickened slightly with cornstarch. Phillis never does this, but prefers the thinner sauces. So, it’s up to you. I’ll add in the cornstarch in the recipe below, but it’s noted as optional. One more thing – do not use a nonstick skillet to make this – you won’t get the wonderful fond (the brown stuff that sticks to the skillet – great flavor).
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Since we were invited to our son’s home for Easter, I didn’t have to cook much. We went to an 8 am worship service, then helped setup, serve and cleanup for a brunch to our church’s 120-voice choir. We had a few minutes of respite before going to our son’s home for dinner. I provided a 10-pound bone-in ham, from the 4-H pig we bought last summer. It was fabulous. Everyone there who ate ham ( a few people didn’t like ham) raved about it. I also made the delicious Mustard Sauce I prepared last year when we bought a Kurobuta ham from David Rosengarten from Idaho. The sauce was outstanding (a David Rosengarten recipe; actually from his wife’s grandmother, I believe it was) and very easy to make. I will mention that I took the photo with the chilled sauce (just making it look pretty for all of you), so it was thicker than it is once warmed. So don’t be dismayed if the warmed sauce doesn’t look like the above.

Karen (our daughter-in-law) also made a huge stuffed leg of lamb. She’d made it before, she said, and had marked it as a keeper. Indeed it was. It’s stuffed with Italian sausage, fresh spinach, Pecorino cheese and pine nuts. The recipe came from a Today show episode with the Scotto family.  I forgot to take along my camera, otherwise I’d have a good photo of it. Karen’s mother took some photos, though, so eventually I’ll upload a picture of the actual roast or the slices. The lamb was scrumptious. I’ll make it myself – next time we want lamb.

We also enjoyed some great appetizers, dips, veggies, including several pounds of asparagus, and chocolate cupcakes with a coconut, almond & brown sugar broiled topping, and a sensational white sponge layer cake with glazed fresh fruit on top, provided by Karen’s sister Janice.
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A year ago: Cauliflower Puree (it’s really good)

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Oh, was this dish ever delicious. It was served at the cooking class I went to last week. The class was all about martinis, but Phillis Carey served food along with each of the three martinis. This was my favorite food item of the evening. It’s a sausage (andouille here, although she said you could also use hot Kielbasa instead) and shrimp stir-fry kind of mixture with onions and bell peppers, served over a bed of rice with spinach, garlic and pecans (that recipe tomorrow). What held the andouille shrimp mixture together was a sauce made up of Creole mustard, chicken broth and red wine vinegar.

Cajun seasoning is available most places now, but just in case, Phillis gave us a recipe to make our own without the salt (preferred): combine 5 T paprika, 2 tsp or up to 1 T cayenne pepper (if you like heat you can add more, to a max of 2 T), 1/4 c garlic powder, 2 T onion powder, 2 T black pepper, 3 T dried oregano and 2 T of dried thyme. It will keep for one month (enough for several dishes). Do not add salt to this (most prepared ones contain salt, which would make this dish way too salty).

The shrimp is tossed with the seasoning mixture (above). The sausage is cut diagonally and briefly sauteed. The shrimp is also briefly sauteed. Then you saute the onions and red bell pepper strips, make the sauce in with them, then you add in the sausage and shrimp just to heat through before serving over the rice. If you enjoy spicy stuff, here’s your ticket.
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A year ago: Herbed Biscuit Ring

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So maybe instead of wasting a paragraph of text telling you how I came about making this into a soup, perhaps I should just say – instead – I wanted to try this recipe for pork shanks and made it with more chicken stock and planned on making a soup. But I’d be lying. I wanted to make the Spanish Pork Braise which is kind of like osso buco, except it’s pork instead of veal. But after defrosting what I thought were pork shanks from our 4-H pig, I discovered the two packages were ham hocks. The packages said “pork shanks.” And the other package I thought was going to be nice smaller pieces of pork chunks, ended up being ground pork sausage. Sigh. So what to do? Improvise, of course.

The recipe calls for all kinds of interesting herb and chile flavors, and they all sounded wonderful. I didn’t have prosciutto, so knew from the get-go I wasn’t going to add that. I cut way down on the beans since it was going to be a soup. I used pinto (pink) beans instead of garbanzo, and the gremolata I had was leftover from the night before made to go on grilled chicken.

All the chiles and herbs added a lovely depth to the broth. The celery, onions and carrots gave it texture. The meats (both) gave it good flavor. The chili powder gave it just a little bit of bite, but not much. Perfect, actually. And the gremolata sprinkled on the top (you can barely see it in the photo) gave it a little zing. It went together easily enough, simmered on the stove for an hour or two (I made the beans from scratch in a separate pot), and provided a tasty repast with a nice slice of ciabatta to go with it. And I have enough for at least two more meals. Yes, I’d make it again and I’d double the amount of vegetables. If you would like to make the original recipe, head over to epicurious. There are a variety of other things added to their recipe.
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A year ago:  Ham & Asparagus Frittata

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Last summer we purchased a quarter of a 4-H pig. We have a friend whose children, when they were young, used to raise pigs every year, and since the children have sprouted wings and left the nest, she still allows other 4-H kids to board pigs on her ranch. Over the years, we’ve purchased a quarter of a pig several times – mostly ones raised on her ranch. They’re raised with natural products, no hormones, and with lots and lots of TLC. Only once were we disappointed in the flavor of the meat. This last summer’s pig is the best ever. We ended up buying a quarter of the prized blue-ribbon 4-H pig of the season at auction at the Orange County Fair. She was bigger than most and sold for more than many of them, but we got a bit more meat than usual. We have to pay extra for the slaughtering and butchering, and one of us (the group of 3-4 who have purchased the whole pig) has to drive about 40 miles to pick it up, all packaged and frozen. We order what we want – more or less chops, roasts, ground pork, sausage, one ham roast, per family, etc. and they package it up per our instructions. Now I really need to get busy because the next Fair is in July.

When you buy a 4-H pig, you pay for all the poundage, even though a good percentage of it is discarded, or the butcher uses it for other products. I decline the hooves, skin, fat, organ meat, neck bones, bones in general. In some cultures, I know, those odd pieces are prized. Once I visited an Hispanic market and there were whole pig/hog heads for sale. Eek. Not my cup of pig broth. You may want to  read my original story about Petunia, our first 4-H pig.

So I’d been trying to use up other meat things in the freezer, and we hadn’t eaten any of ’08’s pig. We heard that the loin chops from this pig were sensational. Oh, indeed, they were. They’re huge. Bigger than any pork chops I’ve ever seen at a butcher store. After defrosting them I used some of Michael Chiarello’s Citrus Rosemary Sea Salt on them and they went onto the barbecue. My DH has this lesson down pat – he grilled them about 4 minutes per side, then put them on a rack, on a small cookie sheet (I’d covered the whole thing with foil) and roasted them off the direct heat at about 350 inside the grill, until the internal meat temp reached 150. We tented the meat with foil for about 5 minutes, while I finished the rest of the meal (snow peas sauteed with garlic, and a salad of field greens and radishes). I also made my favorite mango salsa with cilantro to go with the pork. I used frozen mango chunks (from Trader Joe’s), some red bell pepper, some diced green chiles and a splash of rice wine vinegar.

Oh, my goodness. Were those chops ever good. So juicy. Unbelievably tender meat. Now, I know, you can’t go to the corner market and buy 4-H pig loin chops. Neither can I. But, you can contact somebody in 4-H in your area and see if you could buy a part of one. I recommend it.

What I posted a year ago today: Vermont Cheddar Cheese Bread

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Leafing through some recipes for pork tenderloin, nothing struck my fancy. Either I didn’t have the ingredients, or it sounded like too much work. Then provenance provided. A friend from my art class brought in some citrus to share. Handing us a bag, we picked through and took what appealed. Paz told us that these little guys (pictured) are sour limes. (No, they’re not kumquats, although they’re similar in size, but not in shape.) But, these were the orangest-looking limes I’ve ever seen, but they were tart. Very tart. What to do with them? Paz said she doesn’t use them for anything, that’s why she was giving them away. She suggested a lemonade-type drink, using lots of sugar.

Why not a marinade, then? I concocted my own mixture of a little bit of olive oil, the sour citrus juice and a clove of garlic, mashed. It marinated with the pork tenderloin for a few hours, and I rolled it around a bit now and then to make sure all the sufaces were in contact with the meat.

Pork is so lean these days, that I never serve a tenderloin, anyway, without something to go with it. It needs a sauce or a salsa, or something to accompany it. Even though the meat is tender and moist (if it’s cooked right), tenderloin in and of itself lacks any robust flavor. So serving it with a strong-flavored sauce is generally a good thing. Paz also gave us oranges, so I created a VERY easy pan sauce to accompany the pork. While the meat was roasting in a 400 oven, I sauteed some yellow onion (slices, halved), then added some fresh orange juice and vermouth and just before serving I added some orange zest.

I removed the roast when it reached 140 on my handy-dandy meat thermometer (I have the probe-type that inserts into the meat and dangles out the oven door to its base, where I set the finished temp). Once I took it out of the oven, I tented it lightly with foil, which keeps the meat warm. It actually rose in temp another 4-5 degrees while it sat. Meanwhile I finished up the rest of the dinner and salad, then the meat was sliced a bit on the diagonal and I spooned some of this pan sauce on top. The onion had taken on the sweetness of the orange juice, tempered by the vermouth, and was altogether lovely. Each bite of pork was consumed with a bit of the orangy-onion. If you wanted even more flavor, add some dried cranberries, or even raisins. Another option would be to add the sections (supremes) of another orange to the sauce just before serving (cook them just long enough to heat them through in the pan sauce).
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A year ago: Cilantro Chicken

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