WordHurdle

Recipe for Smoky Spanish Glazed Pork Chops

Tonight I put together a meal that turned out shockingly well, and this is my attempt to write down the recipe so we don't forget it.  I started with one recipe and decided it would end up a little flat and boring, so I ended up expanding it and making a great dish, but I did it what I call "Bobby Flay style", meaning I added a few things as I went along to enhance the flavors based on samples, so I'm going to try to write this down.

I started out with 6 boneless pork chops (about 2 lbs.), about 1/2 inch thick.  I pulled my first ideas from the Men's Health "Spanish Style Pork Chops" that's part of their Guy Meals Made Easy lineup.  For that beginning part, here's what I did:

6 boneless pork chops
3 TBsp. McCormick's Grill Mates Sweet & Smoky Rub
(NOTE: we couldn't find smoked paprika or its next best substitute, chipotle chili powder, at our local grocery store, but this McCormick's rub has both in it, so we decided to use it instead)
The juice of 2 oranges
4 TBsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. Spice World oregano in a jar
(I had some of the jarred oregano that I found at the grocery store a while back for a moment like this)
2 tsp. Spice World garlic in a jar
(lately I've been using the jarred garlic because it's very handy and easy to keep)
2 tsp. Spice World roasted garlic in a jar
(again, something I saw at the store a while back and figured it would come in handy for adding a little flavor to a random recipe)

I combined all of the ingredients but the pork chops in a bowl and mixed them all together. Then I put this mixture in a large Ziploc with the pork chops and marinated for about 2 hours.

I am not a big fan of pork chops that don't have some sort of glaze or sauce on them.  In the 2 hour wait, I started envisioning a sauce/glaze that could be put together with the pork chops, based roughly on the sauce I noticed in the Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2010 book for Pork with Pomegranate Pan Sauce (I'm realizing that the recipe on the website via this link is not the same as the version in the book, and I recommend the book version of the recipe). To test out flavors for a sauce/glaze, I made a dip out of the McCormick spice rub above, some roasted garlic olive oil, a container of plain yogurt, and a few dashs of balsamic vinegar.  I kept adding spice rub, olive oild and balsamic vinegar until the flavors were balanced, and then I served it up with some honey whole wheat snack crackers to Amy.  As we tried it, I discovered the flavors were a little flat.  I ultimately decided that it needed some raspberry jam, but we didn't have any.  Instead, I grabbed some strawberry jelly out of the refrigerator and started adding it.  The first dose helped, but it wasn't perfect.  I added more, much more than I would have expected, and it turned out perfectly smoky, spicy and sweet all at the same time.  The sharpness of raspberry jam would have been the exact flavor I was shooting for, but strawberry jelly did a good job.  When Amy said it was good, I knew I had the right combination.

We have a new Calphalon 12-Inch Round Grill Pan that Amy's parents gave us for Christmas. It works wonders, although you have to turn on the vent fan because it creates some serious smoke. After the pork chops had marinated nicely and I had settled on a good flavor combination for the dip, I put about a tablespoon of olive oil in the grill pan, heated it up to medium high, and put the pork chops on the grill pan, making sure to reserve the remaining marinade for the sauce.  I covered the grill pan (to limit the smoke) and grilled the pork chops on each side for 3 minutes to get a good sear.  I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and put a cookie sheet in the oven, and after the pork chops were seared on both sides, I put them in the oven on the cookie sheet to keep them warm and cook a little more while I was working on the sauce.

For the sauce, I used the following:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1-2 tsp. Spice World roasted garlic in a jar
The remainder of the pork chop marinade
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of heavy cream
1/2 to 3/4 cup of strawberry jam (or raspberry jam)

As soon as the pork chops were out of the grill pan, I added a little more olive oil to the pan and a tablespoon or so of the roasted garlic from the jar.  I sauteed the garlic a little bit and then poured the marinade into the grill pan.  If I'd had some shallots on hand, I would have sauteed some chopped shallots as well, but sadly, I didn't.  Due to the heat of the pan things were cooking quickly, so I poured in the marinade, loosening up the pan juices from the pork chops.  I then I poured this mixture of pan juices and marinade into a separate large skillet to cook.  To this mixture I added 2 Tbsp. of balsamic vinegar to give it a little bite and some heavy cream to soften and blend the flavors and thicken it up (although I'm not sure I needed the heavy cream, but my intent was to replicate the effects of the yogurt in the dip).  I rounded out the sauce with strawberry jam (again, I'd recommend raspberry, but I didn't have any).

I cooked all the ingredients, boiling them together in the saucepan on medium to medium-high heat for about 7 minutes until it became slightly thick.  Next, I took the pork chops out of the oven, and put them in the skillet with the sauce as it cooked.  I cooked the pork chops in the sauce for 2 minutes, turning them quite a bit to make sure they were well-covered with the sauce.  This turned the sauce into a glaze on the pork chops that really sealed in the pork chop flavors with a smoky and sweet coating.

We served the pork chops with some Spanish rice out of a package and some orange sections.  The flavors blended together perfectly.  I was shocked at how well it all worked out and how well-blended the spicy, sweet, smoky and tangy flavors were together.

I tried to turn what was left of the sauce into a glaze, but it was very thick.  I think the heavy cream may have congealed the jam too much.  I put this compote-like mixture on top of my pork chops, but the pork chop tasted better without this addition.  I might leave out the heavy cream next time to see how the remaining sauce thickens.

Kanakuk coffee cake recipe

I've had several requests to post the Kanakuk coffee cake recipe I have.  The recipe as I have it was published in a winter Bible study devotional guide that Kanakuk mailed out to campers back in maybe 1989 or so.  The original printed version made two 9x13 pans of coffee cake, which I would never need, so back then, I did some conversions, changing references to lbs. to cups and such and reducing to one 9x13 pan, and wrote them in on the original recipe.  I found that original version a few weeks ago, so I converted it to a recipe card so we can actively use it.  I made it last night for the first time since college, and the kids loved it.  In fact, my oldest asked if we can make it Sunday again for Mother's Day.  We served it (for dinner) with scrambled eggs in true kamp fashion.  So, here's the recipe, reduced to make only one 9x13 pan:

MAIN INGREDIENTS:
2 cups sugar
4-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon & 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt (I think you could reduce this & it still work out fine)
3 eggs
1/2 can Milnot evaporated milk (which works out to 6 oz.)
1-1/4 cups water
3/4 cup melted butter
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

TOPPING INGREDIENTS:
1-1/8 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup softened butter

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.  Mix wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine wet and dry and pour batter into 9x13 pan.  Mix topping ingredients together in a bowl with a pastry blender or fork to combine.  Sprinkle topping over batter before baking.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  Makes one 9x13 pan.

The story of cashew chicken

"Springfield Cashew Chicken" as it's known in places other than Springfield, Missouri, was recently featured in the New York Times.  David Leong, the man credited with creating cashew chicken, now age 88, was interviewed, and the article does a great job of running through the history of cashew chicken and showing how significant cashew chicken is to the culture of the Missouri Ozarks.

Check out 417sushi.com

If you spend much time around me, you've heard me talk about the sushi club we host every Thursday at Izumi Hatake in downtown Springfield.

We've been hearing from people who didn't get to attend week to week, wondering what had happened while they were gone -- who attended, what we discussed, what the sushi was like.  We've discussed a podcast of the conversation but I think it would be a little complex to set it up - effectively everyone there would need their own lapel microphone recorded independently of the others and then we would have to mix the audio feeds into conversations.  It would be a huge job.

Well, we now have a photoblog!  Yesterday, we finally got around to it, purchased the domain 417sushi.com, and set up a Typepad blog so we can update what's going on at sushi club.  And at yesterday's sushi club, we took lots of photos and uploaded them to the site.  All in all, it's a job well done.  It's a work in progress, so bear with us.

If you've been curious about sushi club, visit the site.  Or just come to sushi club!  An explanation of the sushi club is on the site.

Square watermelons?

A square watermelon has been created for convenience in cutting and storage.  Apparently, it cuts like a loaf of bread, which would be really nice.  No genetic tricks here -- the melons are grown in a square box that shapes them as they grow.  Why didn't someone figure this out centuries ago?  The melons are grown in Brazil and take about 60 days to grow to maturity.  They are currently available in Japan, but some consumers are grumpy at the premium price being asked for them.

Ritter Sport is heaven

I have recently discovered Ritter Sport chocolate. Oh, my! I tripped upon them in the foreign aisle in Price Cutter (which, oddly enough, includes Missouri in its list of exotic locales). These things come from Germany, and they are to die for. I get the Milk Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts version, but I need to try the Dark Chocolate version. I highly recommend them. Looks like you can buy them online here, although several online retailers came up when I did a Google for "Ritter Sport".