Published on
July 24, 2008 in
recipes.
Here’s a recipe I got from a friend. We were having dinner over at his place a while back (and to my surprise, he can cook!). For dinner we had these pork chops with special creamy sauce. This was a really tasty dish. The pork chops came out quite juicy, not dry, and the sauce worked out really well. We ate it with a side of creamy peas along with a heaping pile of jasmine rice. After clearing the plate, I fell into a deep and satisfying food coma. Since I enjoyed it so much, I decided to grab the recipe from him and post it for everyone!
Creamy Pork Chop with Dijon/Leek Sauce
Ingredients:
- 6 pork chops
- fat free Milk
- salt and pepper to taste
- garlic powder to taste
- 1 or 2 leeks
- chives
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups boiling water
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup low fat sour cream
Directions:
- Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and then dredge in flour. Brown pork chops in a hot skillet sprayed with cooking spray or some olive oil. Remove from heat. Keep warm.
- In the same skillet, add sliced leeks, slightly browning and wilting.
- Add 1 cup chicken broth, scrapping up browned bits. Reduce this some to concentrate flavors. Lower heat.
- Add in Dijon mustard and sour cream. Add some more broth or milk if needed to thin this out. Don’t boil, but let thicken. Throw in fresh chopped chives and stir to combine.
- After stirring in the sour cream/chives, nestle the chops back in the pan, and cover until heated/cooked through. Pork chops may start to dry up. Add 1/2 cup broth with the sour cream to keep the chops moist.
Peas with Parmesan
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- shallots, diced
- 1 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup milk or half and half
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 2 cups peas
- chives, chopped
Directions:
- Melt butter in a deep sided skillet over medium heat, adding diced shallot. Cook until softened.
- Sprinkle with flour. Stirring as to not burn it and just blend the flour in. Stir in milk, cooking until thickened slightly.
- Stir in Parmesan cheese, and add peas
- Heat through, thinning sauce with milk if need be. Salt to taste.
- Stir in chives to finish, or sprinkle over top.
Let me introduce this little mini fruit originating from Asia, the Kumquat!
So, what are they?
Kumquats basically look like miniature oranges. They are classified as Fortunella and are related to citrus fruits. The skin is edible and tastes pretty much like a sweet delicate orange rind. The flesh is juicy but very very tangy and tart!!
What to do with these kumquats?
- Can be eaten raw or cooked
- Turn them into candied kumquats
- Preserve in sugar syrup or salt
- Use as toppings on desserts
- Make into marmalades or jams
- Slice and put into salads
- Make into chutneys
- Add to cold water in place of lemon
- Add to hot or cold tea
As a starter, here’s a suggestion: Kumquat tea!
Drink can be served hot or cold. It’s very refreshing and thirst quenching when served iced cold. It also works well as a home remedy for colds or sore throats when served hot.
Kumquat tea
Ingredients:
- 10 kumquats
- Honey or rock sugar (optional)
Directions:
- Rinse the kumquats in cold water. Slice them into halves.
- Squeeze the juice from the kumquats into a pot.
- Add the remaining pulp into the pot as well.
- You can either pour boiling water into the pot and let it steep for a few minutes or add water and bring it to a boil.
- Add honey or rock sugar if you want it to be sweet.
- Drink warm or cold.
Published on
July 6, 2008 in
recipes.
I’m a big fan of pineapples. I recently bought a whole fresh pineapple. It was a relatively small pineapple, but still quite intimidating. I wanted big plans for this pineapple and after some pondering, I came to a conclusion… To attempt to make Thai Pineapple Fried Rice.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups cooked rice (I cooked the rice in chicken broth to give it some extra flavor. You can use vegetable broth instead, if preferred.)
- 2 eggs
- 1 whole pineapple (or a can of chopped pineapples)
- 16 ounces package of tofu (I cut the tofu into about 3/4 inch cubes and marinated it in soy sauce.)
- 1/2 cup peas
- 1/2 cup baby corn, chopped
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 1/2 cup cashews
Sauce mixture:
- minced garlic
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
Preparations:
One very exciting part of this recipe adventure was figuring out how to make a pineapple boat. Most Thai restaurants serve the fried rice inside a very well cut pineapple boat, along some decorative pieces such as a carved carrot and/or a cute paper umbrella.
I came across this Instructional video from About.com that provides a pretty good instructions for constructing this pineapple boat. From watching the video, I successfully separated the pineapple flesh from the pineapple shell. The pineapple boat can be found later in this post.
After making the pineapple boat, it was time to start cooking the rice…
Directions:
- In a cup, mix the fish sauce, soy sauce, and curry powder.
- Heat some garlic and oil in a wok or large skillet.
- Crack eggs into the wok and cook it like scrambled eggs.
- Add pineapples, tofu, cashews, and the vegetables.
- Stir fry.
- Add the sauce mixture.
- Add the rice.
- Stir fry over medium high heat.
- Remove from heat and adjust to taste by adding salt if necessary.
- Scoop the fried rice into the pineapple boat.
I was pretty impressed by how this dish came out. Unfortunately, my pineapple boat was not very strong and shortly collapsed after it was filled with the rice. The collapse might have possibly been caused by the heat from the rice. Any how, I was still very satisfied. The pineapple boat definitely looked tasty. The rice did not come out as crispy as I anticipated. I think it would have made a big difference if I used an intense hot wok to make the fried rice. I found the fried rice to be quite tasty and I think the pineapple flavors really stuck out. I definitely plan on making this pineapple fried rice again, but next time with a few more extra ingredients. Maybe add some shrimp or raisins or chili peppers.
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