Pork Chops

I gotta admit, i used to hate pork chops. They were my dad's favorite meal when i was a kid, but i just couldn't get into the way my mom cooked them. With raisins. I just wasn't into it. (sorry mom)

So, when i stopped into a local meat market, i was surprised to find myself leaving with a package of pork chops. I only recently started including a decent amount of meat in our diet, and am still not super familiar with how to purchase meat or how to cook it. Rack of lamb? Ribs? Roast? Eh?  Pork chops were familiar, so i grabbed them. I'm glad i did.

I still didn't really know what to do with the chops, though. I sure as heck didn't want to use raisins, but you need to eat something with pectin in it when eating pork to help our human bods digest the stuff. Remember that applesauce i put up earlier this Summer? I finally cracked a jar open, and it wasn't as bad as i worried it would be (i burned it when i cooked it down). I added some chopped jalapeno to the sauce and warmed it up for a perfect slightly spicy/slightly sweet side to our meal. And then i left it in the microwave until we were 90% done with dinner. Sigh.

I think i did pretty well: from confused in the meat market to cooking a well balanced meal of pork chops, mushroom gravy, little baked potatoes and a side of broccoli (and applesauce). I winged the chops, and they turned out great. First i sauteed the chops with some onions and nitrate free bacon, then i added some mushrooms and herbs and topped it all with some homemade chicken stock. No worries about dried out chops OR undercooked pork. I can't wait until we're growing our own hogs and i can spend even more time humming, hawing and experimenting with the meat we package up.

Have you ever found yourself feeling like a fish out of water at the grocery store or market? Did you try something new, or stick with the one thing you recognized?

Wild Salmon/ Wild Mushrooms: Wild Feast!

Back in Action! I found a spare power cord in the barn and i'm hankering to post this delicious salmon recipe.

I know, i know: butter on salmon? Is that really necessary? NO! But it's DELICIOUS!
My fish cooking skills generally rely on a grill. As we are without a grill in our apartment, i had to be creative. Luckily, my husband's friend who took him shrooming and fishing is also a chef and had some great advice: Really Hot. Really Fast. I can do that! Unlike some fish, salmon is great rare or medium rare. I cooked this batch a little longer than i needed to, but honestly: i like salmon either seared and rare, or grilled and cooked through. So, i went for the cooked through. Not OVER cooked, mind you. I think i cooked this sucker on 475 for about 10 minutes. That's pretty quick. I didn't overly season it either: just some basil, cayenne, rosemary and garlic, plus that touch of butter for extra wow-factor. The edges got crispy, the middle was flakey and soft and the whole thing was moist as all get out. This was definitely the absolutely, most delicious salmon I have ever eaten in my entire life. I am not exaggerating. At all.

I served our fillets with a half of steamed Romanesco cauliflower and of course some more delicious mushroom gravy.

Wild Mushroom & Onion Gravy:

• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 1 cup or so chopped mushrooms, preferably fresh picked wild shrooms!
• Pinch flour
• Salt, Pepper, herbs to taste
• White wine, or chicken/fish/veggie stock/milk
• Olive oil

Saute the onions in the olive oil with fresh or dried herbs until onions begin to turn clear. Add the pinch of flour and stir well, covering with about 1 cup of liquid. I used white wine and a splash of water and lemon juice: be creative with what you have on hand! Bring gravy to a simmer while stirring until it begins to thicken a bit. Add mushrooms and cook until they're soft. This gravy would be great over any meat or veggie dish.

Sigh, i wish i was eating this again right now. The hubs got the leftovers, lucky sot.

What's your favorite method for cooking salmon? Have you ever had super fresh salmon, and could you tell the flavor difference?

Baked Chicken with Mushrooms

I adapted this meal from those "minute steaks" i cooked back in September. Instead of battering and frying tenderized beef steaks, i skinned and de-fatted a whole chicken, cut apart its thighs and breasts and prepared them for some delicious pan and oven action.

As an aside: i very, very rarely buy chicken already split up into breasts or thighs, etc unless they're majorly 'reduced for quick sale' and the chicken is 'all natural.' I'd really prefer to get all my chicken from local farmers, but our budget isn't quite that robust i'm very sad to say. SO i get foster farms natural chicken from California at a local market that sells it for $1 a pound, in a whole chicken. I feel that buying a whole chicken is at least one step i can take: less packaging, less processing, more nutrition included and you can make stock from the bones when you're done. 

My husband had called ahead with news of his mushroom find, but he didn't arrive home until almost 8 pm! That's pretty darned late to just be getting something in the oven. But i relaxed, rolled with the punches, and we both enjoyed a super delicious meal.

De-fatted and boned chicken breasts and thighs, slathered in Celtic salt, rosemary, basil, dried cayenne and pepper.

Washed and split leeks ready to be the bed of a delicious chicken bake. I've decided all roasted and baked chickens need to lay on a bed of leeks.

First i slathered the chicken in herbs and spices and pan fried them in a tiny bit of coconut oil until browned on each side and cooked through about halfway. I moved the chicken over to the leek bed and started sauteing onions and garlic. Once soft, i sifted in a bit of flour, stirred and covered in some turkey stock, bringing to a simmer. Normally, i would have put the shrooms in right away until they were soft, poured them over the chicken and popped it all into a 400 degree oven stat. BUT the mushrooms didn't arrive for quite some time, so i paced around the house wondering how the heck i'd get to sleep after eating dinner around 8:30 or so. Major Grrrrr fest.

The mushrooms finally came! I added them to the gravy and cooked until soft, topped the chicken and in the oven it went. After about 15-30 minutes (i cut it short due to starvation and bed time) the chicken was done to my liking and we ate a scrumpteoous meal, with a side of sauteed collards (with smoked paprika and a smidge of bacon).

At some point i'll have a well lit kitchen so that i can take actually QUALITY photographs. Sigh.

I served only the breasts and returned the thighs to the turned off oven to keep cooking a bit before i put them away as leftovers, just to be sure they got cooked through.

Super delicious, even if it was a little later than i'd like to eat. This mushroomy gravey would be awesome on ANY kind of meat, even just more veggies. I highly recommend this technique and encourage you to try it with different meats to see how it tastes.