More Roasting, Please!

Tonight's dinner - more for myself than for Irene:

Pork Chop roasted with Herb de Provence and Paprika,

Kale sauted with Onion and Bacon,

Cous Cous.

I have to say this came out exceptionally well - I got the timing right, and the kale held up really well from being prepared a couple of days earlier.

The Food Beet

I tried something new: beets. I picked them up at random at the Farmer's Market and then read up on how to prepare them.

So beets - labor-intensive, but not difficult. You boil them a long time, skin them, then do what you like with them. In this case, I picked a recipe from the Joy of Cooking wherein I roasted them with a granny smith apple, some onion, and nutmeg, all chopped up.

I didn't have time to eat them that day, so I'm happy to say they heat up well.

The beets were what's new, so in a sense the pork chop was in a supporting role - a variation of earlier work: slather in olive oil, rubbed with Andalusian paprika, basil, and a little salt, roll the fat side in black pepper. Cooked in an oven, alternating sides. Not too dry, very tasting, and pairing well with the beets. Served with brown rice.

Mung Beans with Vindaloo Sauce

I took a shortcut today. I heated p the uncut mung beans from the other night in water for about twenty minutes, then pured in a helping of the Vindaloo sauce I had left over from chicken the other night. Ten or fifteen minutes later, I poured this into a blender and blended for about two minutes. The result was great - lots of flavor, both the earthy tones of the mung beans and the spicy flavor of the Vindaloo sauce. The only thing I might do differently in the future would be to cook the beans, process them, and then cook in the sauce a bit.

Served with rice, and my new pork chop staple: Thick pork chops, stuffed with goat cheese. In a small bowl, blend the goat cheese with basil and Andalusian paprika, along with pepper to taste. After stuffing the chop, smear the remaining cheese mixture on the sides, along with a pinch of salt and pepper on each side; also, roll the edges of each shop in black pepper, or at least the fatty side. Broil 5 -8 minutes per side. Served with a cold, perky Chardonnay.

Cooking

I forgot how much I love to cook. The past couple of years, as I've devoted more energy to B-School, cooking kinda fell by the wayside. Oh I still cooked, but my time for picking new dishes, shopping for fresh ingredients, and taking the time to do it all right, well - I was reduced to heat 'n' eat.

So, now that I've been away from classes three weeks, and graduated, and had a friend in town, here are some pictures of my latest work.

D brought down lamb chops from some animals she had to slaughter. They weren't really raised as farm animals, and weren't strictly organic because they'd been given hormones as part of an experiment. OK, that sounds scary, but in retirement, these critters only at grass.

What I did: salt, pepper, braised in olive oil. Also, I rolled the wide in in black pepper. It's my new thing - so easy, so good, I've done that with tuna steaks and pork chops.

Served with cous cous and, at D's suggestion, wilted spinach. That is my new easy fresh vegetable treat.

I made a pan sauce using the drippings, butter, rosemary, orange juice, and orange rind. The recipe said zest but read like that meant rind. Sure it looks disgusting, but except for lightly overcooking, it was superb.

A couple of nights later, I returned to an old favorite: pork chops stuffed with goat cheese.

The original recipe I followed also had me stuffing slices of granny smith apple in there, which is great. I was out of granny smith, so I cut up part of a red apple (Rome, I think). The main different is that I blended basil and andalusian paprika into the goat cheese before stuffing the chop. Also, I broiled this, instead of braising in a pan, and I was really happy with the results - so much so that I forgot to take a picture until after I'd had a couple of bites.

And - here's the food porn shot - the best I could do with my little pocket camera: