PORK CHOPS AND APPLESAUCE my way...

 This morning I could not decide if I wanted to make a pork roast or gumbo.  My darling husband was the tie breaker.  He wanted pork.

I started off thinking about marinating my rib roast in red wine, then I started thinking about the sweetness level and soon was thinking about what fruits I could use instead.  Eventually I ended up go to the classic that everyone loves...

PORK CHOPS AND APPLE SAUCE

Well, not quite.  I think it was a 6 lb rib roast.  I  rubbed it down with a mix of: garlic, dijon mustard, rosemary and pepper.  Then I grated onion and mixed it with applesauce and poured it over the top.  I cooked it at 225 for about 4 hours.

There was so much amazing juice from it that I mixed flour into the sauce to make a gravy.

To accompany this, I wilted some thin sliced leeks with butter and used liquid from yogurt I was draining for the potatoes.   

This will be done again.

Ingredients:

RUB

2 T garlic

2 T dijon mustard

2 T rosemary fresh chopped, or 1 T dry

1 T pepper

TOPPIING

2 c applesauce

1 c sweet onion, grated

POTATOES

2 leeks

1/4 c butter

3 2/3 c yogurt liquid ( you could also use half yogurt or buttermilk and half water or make them normally, substituting 1 c sourcream for 1/2 milk. 

1 pkg Honest Earth mashed potatoes

COOKING DIRIECTION-for those needing more guidance  tee-hee

1) mix the rub and smother your roast with it

2) put it baking dish

3) mix applesauce and onion and pour over pork

4) cover and bake at 225 for 3 hours covered

5) uncover and bake for an additional hour to form a crust.  

     for more crust, uncover sooner, or don't cover at all

***Once you pull it from the oven, drain the juice into a sauce pan and whisk in 2 T flour for every cup (for a thick gravy, or 1 T flour per cup of juice for a thin gravy), bring to a boil, wisking until it becomes glossy and translucent.

Below is a link to the potatoes I use.  Freeze dried without any preservatives:

1) put leeks and butter in  covered sauce pan on medium, stirring occasionally until wilted

2) add half of liquid and bring to boil

3) stir in potatoes

4) add remaining liquid and stir until well combined

5) turn off heat and let sit until ready to serve.

***  Though I made this with a rack roast, in the future I would use a standard pork roast, as I lost the beautiful crust in the cutting.  We still put the sauce back on for eating.***

https://www.amazon.com/Honest-Earth-Creamy-Mash-Potatoes/dp/B09XSTKHQL/ref=sxin_17_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?cv_ct_cx=mashed+potatoes&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=1-3-6024b2a3-78e4-4fed-8fed-e1613be3bcce-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&psc=1

Flavorful Flourless Chocolate Cake

Tonight I wanted CHOCOLATE!!!  I looked for the Pierless Cholcolate Mousse recipe from Alton Brown to no avail.  I decided to look for a flourless chocolate cake instead.  I found this one by King Arthurs Flour.

So, I did what I do and here it is.

FLAVORFUL FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
170 g (1 c) 70% chocolate chips
1/2 c butter
3/4 c raw sugar
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla
3 large eggs
zest 1 mandarin orange, or 1/4 regular orange
1/2 t cinnamon
1/8 t clove
1/8 t nutmeg
1/2 c cocoa powder

DIRECTIONS:

1) . Preheat oven to 375

2) . Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler, mix until smooth

3).  Mix in; raw sugar, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg & orange zest

4). Beat in eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated

5) . Beat in cocoa powder until smooth

6) . Place in 12 cupcake cups or an 8" round pan lined with parchent paper
and bake until a broken skin apears on top.  For a cake this should take about 25 minutes, for cupcakes 15-18. 

NOTES:
Both my husband and I agreed this needs no frosting, the orange and spices punch right through.

Celery Root Slaw

I will start out by saying that, yes I know it has been quite and while and I am going to try to fix that.

The second thing is that "Celery Root" is a misnomer.  The actual thing used is called celeriac.  But, as usual, I digress.

Now for the food.

My darling husband can not have cruciferous vegetable that are either fermented, cooked or fresh.  But he can have them pickled, go fig...

With this knowledge he has not had coleslaw in the entire time I have known him.  We recently went to a restaurant that served celery slaw.  It was refreshing and delicious.  Both the Mr. and Mr.'s Mom were raving about it and we went about deconstructing it so we could make it.  

After searching the web extensively I found one to modify, to make it closer to what we had.  Here it is.

CELERY SLAW

INGREDIENTS

1/4 c mayo
2 T greek yogurt or sour cream
1 T dijon mustard
1 T lemon juice
1 T cider vinegar
1/4 t kosher salt
1 3/4 lb celery root/celeriac
1/4 c carrots
1/4 t celery seed
1/2 t honey

DIRECTIONS
1)    globe cut and coursly grate celery root
2).   grate carrot
3).   mix all ingredients and let sit for 30+ minutes then serve.

NOTES:
Keeps great!!!!

“The only thing that will make a souffle fall is if it knows you're afraid of it.” James Beard

Souffle's are notoriously temperamental, or so I am told, as it is common knowlege.  Having an overload of egg whites I decided to make one.  It was not as difficult as everyone says.  Let me start with what I could have improved on.  I think that using ramekins or a souffle pan instead of a spring form pan would give better temperature evenness.  I also think I over compensated for the temperature discrepancy in my oven and had it too hot which created a kind of tough exterior.  Barring those two issues I look forward to making souffles in the future.  Those of you who know me know that I consider recipes mere guidelines and have a hard time following them.  After consulting the WorldWideWeb, the Joy of Cooking and a number of other resources I determined my course of action.  Trying to write it down sounds like a lot of steps, but the hardest part is not peeking as my oven door does not have a window.  I will try to give the best approximation of what I did though I would probably suggest following a proven recipe your first time.

BACON STILTON SOUFFLE

INGREDIENTS

1/2 rasher bacon

1/4 c flour

2 c milk

4 oz stilton

1/2 t pepper

8 egg whites

1 T butter

1/4 c bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1)  preheat oven to 375

2)  chop up and cook bacon

3)  mix flour to cover bacon

4)  mix in milk and bring to boil stirring frequently

5)  turn off heat and stir in cheese and pepper to melt it and cool sauce

6)  use butter to completely coat inside of souffle pan then coat with bread crumbs to cover and shake out excess

7)  beat egg whites to stiff peaks

8)  gently fold egg whites into bechamel in 3 additions

9)  pour mixture into souffle pan

10)  place souffle pan in a pan to make a water bath

11)  place in oven and put 1-2" of water in pan

12)  bake for approximately 1 hour- do not peek before 30 minutes

13) souffle is done when the top is dry and firm

14) remove from oven and serve imediately as the souffle starts falling the moment it is removed from the oven

Alfredo trials part I

Tonight I had some beautiful artichoke ravioli in the refrigerator that was looking at me longingly.  I decided that it needed a good Alfredo sauce and asparagus to go with it.  Strangely enough all of my cookbooks failed me.  I looked through 2 Italian cookbooks, one of my old culinary school textbooks and even brides guide, which is usually a fabulous go to.  I ended up going online and finding several different versions which I considered blasphemous for differing reasons.  I ultimately found one that I could work with at food network.  Giada has an interesting version which will require more work before I am fully happy with the results.  Considering that all of my go to's failed me...

For starters I had to cut the recipe to 1/4 of its original quantity
2/3 c heavy whipping cream
2 T lemon juice
3T butter
1/2 c parmesan
1/2 T lemon zest
pinch each, salt, pepper, nutmeg

Then I played

2/3 c heavy whipping cream

2 T lemon juice

3T butter

3/4 c pecorino romano

1/2 T lemon zest

2 oz proscuitto

pinch each, salt, pepper, nutmeg

I followed Giadia's directions

pour 1/2 of cream into pan, mix with lemon juice, add butter and stir over medium heat until butter is melted.

I make cheese using lemon juice and milk.  Everything in my knowledge said the cream should curdle. To my amazement, it did not.  I removed it from the heat and cooked the pasta.  I pulled the cooked raviolis from the pan and stirred them in adding the rest of the ingredients.  It got a bit weird for a couple of reasons.

Part of Gadias directions requires the heat from the pasta to help cook the sauce.  The second issue is that ravioli does not hold up to that abuse.

Needless to say I will revisit this.  The things I will try differently are as follows:

1)  half the lemon juice and do not use the zest

2)  finish cooking the sauce in the pan and pour on top of the pasta

3)  I may add more of whatever hard Italian cheese I desire.  I am currently undecided on this

4) get rid of the salt and add more pepper and nutmeg

Other than that I would call this a fairly successful trial.  It is just going to take a little more play.

I hope this inspires you to try something new and just have fun playing.  The worst that can happen is you have to order Pizza.

Anthoinette