OMG a Recipe: Embracing Feast Mode and Eating One's Feelings

So I think I can finally talk about The Incident, that fateful Sunday in the Year of Our Lord, 2015, on the Sunday of Superb Owl, when the beloved Seattle Seahawks played so valiantly... and lost. It still hurts to think about that afternoon. Not like arm-caught-in-a-combine hurt, but a mild, wincing pain nonetheless. I had prepared all this special food for this special game -- Special Sandwiches, that became Sandwiches of Sadness. I couldn't let all that effort go to waste, so please indulge me as I Eat My Feelings...with an egg on top.

Eating my feelings... with a fried egg - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: It's Gettin' Real With the KEEN-wah

Quinoa. It's one of those words where you look at it for a long time and wonder how the hell its pronunciation ever came to be. If you currently live or have ever lived in Washington State, you'll be familiar with this stare-too-long-and-the-word-is-just-wrong phenomena, given our wealth of pronunciation-conundrums like Puyallup (pew-allup), Sequim (squim), and Issaquah (issa-quah, but say it fast, the emphasis is on the first syllable). I actually think the pronunciation of quinoa would make for a great rap name, because Keen-Wah, would sound pretty cool and about as superstar as the actual whole grain itself. Kanye, introducing Keen-Wah, throw your hands in the air and say YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Fried rice made with quinoa and brown rice - SUPAHSTAAAAAAAAH - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Far East Meets Eastern Europe

Did you know there's an Eastern European version of the magical Chinese soup dumpling, aka, xiao long bao? And did you know the this version is way less of a pain in the be-hind to make from scratch? Forget Lunar New Year, I'm defecting to the land of Eastern Promises, where the dumplings are hearty and plentiful -- priviet, comrades!

Soup dumplings, Russian-style -- meet khinkali - Photo by Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe: Salt n' Peppa Pork Chops

Not that it's news to anyone, but when I have delicious Chinese food, I'm always reminded that they can take something so basic and just make it better. Curse you Asians, and your overachieving ways!! *Pause, to look at oneself in mirror, then slap palm to face* It seems like strange thing to go to a Chinese restaurant and order pork chops, but it's not just pork chops, it's something far better and more magical than the rubber-bouncy-ball version of overcooked pork chops you grew up with -- behold, Salt and Pepper Pork Chops Made Better by Asians.

My at-home version of Salt and Pepper Pork Chops - Photo by Wasabi Prime

This is by no means a statement that I make amazing salt and pepper pork chops. I'm actually a total n00b at making it at home, I was just tired of waiting to go out to where I can get good salt and pepper pork chops and wanted a Good Enough for Government Work version for at-home dining. I worked off a recipe I modified from Chowhound for their Salt and Pepper Pork Chop. My recipe-mods were adding toasted, ground red Hawaiian salt (just because I had it, Kosher salt would be fine, too) and Szechuan peppercorns to the dry coating -- I've heard the toasting is good, even for the salt -- and I didn't do a full deep fry, more like a pan-fry, where each side sizzles away in a smaller amount of oil, but all in a heavy wok. I have no issue with deep fried foods, I do have issue with my house being coated in a thin, sticky layer of cooking grease, because that's what happens when you fry with a crappy stove hood.

But back to the original point -- why is this version of a pork chop superior to the typical Sunday night dinner Mom used to make? For one thing, it's cooked just perfectly, not overcooked by the fear of trichinosis. My own Wasabi Mom admits she erred on the side of caution and rubbery meats when preparing the swine, so Pork Chop Night was never one of my personal favorites. And food is so often under-seasoned, but a really good salt and pepper pork is savory and a little sweet from the marinade, peppery of course, and it has that extra warming heat of the Szechuan peppercorns, which linger on the palate. It's good all on its own with rice, and it's just a basic, simple meal, but the preparation of the meat is what really delivers it as something you truly crave. And a crispy outer coating certainly adds to its charm.

Toasted salt and Szechuan peppercorns are pure magic - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Corn starch is the bomb-diggety. Salt n' Peppa should cut out Spinderella and find a performer named Corn Starch, because that is what really gives salt and pepper pork chops, along with a lot of other fried Asian foods that nice, dry-crunch coating. It's super absorbent for liquid -- I remember doing the DIY Silly Putty science experiment, adding just a little water to plain corn starch and it would soak it up and form that crazy elastic goo without releasing any of the liquid you added. I'm sure there's an Alton Brown Science explanation for all that, but the bottom line is, if you're making a dry coating on meats that you want to get crisp in a pan-fry, corn starch is your wingman.

Pan-fried crispy goodness - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I can never leave well enough alone, plus I knew a plain, abeit crispy-good pork chop sitting on a plate would look boring in a photo, so I made a funky mix of wokked vegetables and peanuts, seasoned with the leftover salt and Szechuan peppercorn mixture. It's not a typical thing to add to the crispy pork, but it added a little more color to the photo, and as we all know, that's all that matters when it comes to a food blog.

Things I learned from this experience -- I need a spice-dedicated coffee grinder or spice mill, as doing the mortar-pestle thing with toasted whole spices just sucks. It never gets milled as finely or evenly as you want, and you inevitably wind up with a surprise bite of a too-large piece of whole spice. So, on my Note To Self, save that 20% Bed Bath and Beyond coupon that they keep sending every month and I keep throwing away -- I can probably find a basic grinder there. Another thing -- get the giant box of corn starch in the baking aisle, as it's proving its worth beyond a little sprinkle now and then to tighten up sauces.

Mmm... CHOMP! Can't wait for pork chop night again  - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Salt n' Peppa (No Spinderella) Pork Chops

Ingredients:
4 bone-in pork chops (boneless is fine, the ones I used still had the bones in 'em)
3-4 tablespoons  of peanut or vegetable oil, just enough to coat the bottom of a wok, and pan-fry

for the marinade:
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon black vinegar (can use balsamic as a substitute)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon white pepper 
1 teaspoon sesame oil
 
for the dry coating:
1 cup of cornstarch
¼ cup of flour
2 teaspoons of finely-ground toasted Szechuan peppercorns and salt

Toss the pork chops in the marinade and let it soak in the refrigerator for at least 4-6 hours. When ready to cook, remove the marinated pork chops from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to take the chill off. 

Combine the dry coating ingredients in a shallow tray to make it easier to coat each pork chop and transfer to wok or pan. Heat up a wok or heavy-bottomed pan to medium-high. Add oil to vessel and let it come to cooking temperature. Dredge each pork chop in the dry coating, making sure it's evenly covered, shaking off excess. Carefully place dredged pork chops into pan, being careful not to overcrowd -- two at a time is enough, depending on the size of your cooking vessel. 

Keep the heat at medium-high or medium, just enough to brown the meat evenly, but not burn. Keeping the bone in the pork will increase cook time, so it will need more time in the pan. When the meat is cooked through (use a thermometer if you're not sure), set each pork chop on a plate lined with paper towels to drain and rest. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper to finish  before serving.

UnRecipe: The Meals That Just Happen

If you've been sticking with my ramblings for this long, you'll know that this blog isn't so much about the intricacies of complex dishes or the following of recipes to the letter. Definitely not about recipes -- if I were on the Lewis and Clark expedition, we'd have found ourselves several miles down the Nile River after making a wrong turn in Albuquerque.  Don't ask how that would happen, but if I were writing the rules, I would make this happen. Food is something that just happens. The less you plan around it, the more you can just let the ingredients be your guide, and that's not a bad thing. Take this dinner in particular -- a roasted pork loin with a roasted root vegetable mash -- I really did just let the ingredients guide the way, and we wound up with one meal that stretched into several variations throughout the week.

The Dinner That Just Happens - Aimless Cooking at Wasabi's - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I know, it looks fancy and fussy, a mash of root veggies in the middle of a creamy soup and a little slice of pork tenderloin on top. Let's be honest, this shot was clearly for the blog -- a beauty shot, as it were. The meal itself was more like a random pile of all these ingredients on a plate, scarfed down with eager om-nom-nom-ness. Don't let the presentation throw you off -- I awoke on a Thursday morning, pulled our CSA box from the chilly front porch and found a mix of squash and carrots, and I always have some sweet potatoes on hand for cold weather months. I buy meat and freeze it for later use, pork loin being a favorite cut, since it's a good basic. Granted, it's on the lean side, so not a ton of flavor, but it's like a tabula rasa meat, so you can add whatever seasonings you want, cooking it in whatever manner you like. For meals like ours that go totally unplanned and seat-of-your-pants, it rolls with the punches nicely.

Pork loin doesn't always have a ton of fat, so, it also runs the risk of drying out and turning into a hockey puck. Not delicious. I seasoned the loin with an ample amount of salt and pepper and a light rub of vegetable oil before cooking. This particular cut was boneless, so no extra flavor from bone, but it did have a bit of a fat cap on one side. I lightly scored the layer of fat and in a hot cast iron Dutch oven it went. I did a good sear on the whole loin, starting with the fat cap. It gave it a nice crisp char, rendering it down, and I put a sear around the surface of the whole loin before removing the loin to a plate. I mostly wanted to get the lovely browned bits of flavor into the pot. I took the heat down a little and threw in a few pounds of rough-chopped carrots, sweet potato and an onion. I let the onion sweat a little and get the carrots and sweet potatoes starting to cook and soften. I added a bit of braising liquid -- if there's chicken stock available, I throw that in, but this time I just used a light beer. Keeping a few bottles of beer handy is nice if you want to deglaze a pan or get a braising liquid going. A dry white wine would also work fine.

One-Pot Cooking, My Favorite Way to Do a Meal! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

With the extra liquid in the pot and a layer of vegetables, the loin was added back in, the pot was lidded and into a 350 degree oven it went. Having the meat cook slower, in a lidded and moist environment helps keep it from getting tough, and you still get that nice browning from the initial sear. This is a good rule of thumb for cooking large cuts of meat and keeping it moist -- high heat first, then a slower, lower heat to finish off. When the loin was fully cooked, I let it rest and mashed the vegetables in the pot. On their own, this would be a meal, the slices of pork with a side of the mash. I had roasted the squash and made a simple soup -- basically chicken stock and the roasted squash; having a hand blender is helpful for finishing off creamy soups. But the main event was the pork and vegetable mash; the soup was just a nice side dish. We were able to stretch the pork into several different meals, having it with soup, the root veggie mash, and the large chunks of the loin could be reheated with other sauces and incorporated into other meals with other vegetables. Again, none of the meals really have much thought put into them beyond, "What do we have and what can we throw together relatively quickly on a weeknight?" While meals like these seem kind of disorganized and unplanned, they're relatively quick to make and are good for everyday meals. It's always easy to find special occasion meals, but for dishes that feed the household on a regular basis, it's nice to find one-pot meals or ingredients that are flexible to work with.

Multiple Meals from One Pork Loin at the Wasabi Household - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Dinner With the Divine Swine

Thanks to countless food-related television shows, pork has been the protein du jour for a good while. And really, why not? Hosts wax poetic over the various parts, the crunch of the crispy-fried skin, the richness of the belly, even the gnawing of its wee-wee curly tail. It's one of those animals where you can pretty much eat it from rooter to tooter, which is probably why it's such a popular meat for so many cultures. I love pork, but for much less exciting epicurean pursuits -- I often have the more vanilla cuts like the tenderloin or shoulder, easily found in grocery stores, and I appreciate it because they can be a quick thing to prepare on a busy weekday. Even if I'm not roasting a suckling pig in my backyard for forty people, I can still find ways to celebrate the fact that it can really be Some Pig!

Double pork rainbow, omigawwwwd -- Photo by Wasabi Prime

Pork tenderloin really is The Other White Meat. It's lean, which is good for health reasons, but that also means there's not much fat, aka, flavor. That just means you have to bring the noise, bring the funk to give it tastiness. Heavy seasoning isn't a bad thing; it can take strong herbs like rosemary very well. However, given it's lack of fat, if you overcook it, it'll go from zero to hockey puck, lickety-split. I usually like to brine the whole tenderloin, season, then pan-sear before roasting the whole thing. Lately, I've been slicing the tenderloin into medallions and pan-searing before letting it simmer in a light sauce or letting the oven finish it off. I decided to cross the streams and use bacon with the tenderloin, wrapping each medallion with a slice of bacon, securing it with a toothpick which definitely gets removed before eating or... OUCH -surprise! For a relatively easy weeknight meal that could work for an at-home date night, bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin medallions is a pretty lil' thing to top a roasted carrot puree. Carrots have such a nice color which is retained after it's been cooked, so roasting several pounds of 'em until fork-tender and buzzing with some milk or cream in a food processor until smooth is a sweet, rich side dish for the pork. The carrot puree would also work well with fish or chicken; the sugary sweetness from the carrot is a nice counterpart to milder-flavored meats.

Not fancy, but tasty and fast weeknight meal, with a stuffed pork roast - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The cutting of tenderloin into little medallions and serving over a root vegetable puree is a good "for company" or "make a pretty dinner" dish, but for just us at home, nothin' special, I'll make a pork roast where the oven or slow cooker does a lot of the work. While not picture-pretty, a stuffed pork roulade isn't a bad way to spend the night at home. Like the picture-pretty dish, this one was a bit of a farmers market/CSA special. I had kale, mushrooms, onions and beans. From whatever the Magical Mystery CSA box and impulse buy from the farmers market yields, that's how the meals get decided. I chopped up the mushrooms and kale, cooked them down and that became the filling for the pork roast. The roast is sliced in a way so that it "unravels" into a sort of flattened surface, the filling is spread evenly, and then it's rolled back up and tied. The roulade gets seared in a hot pot, the pork is removed briefly to deglaze the pot's surface with some marsala, lightly cook some thinly sliced onions, and then the pork is placed back into the marsala onion sauce. I sprinkled in some raisins and a dollop of mustard before putting a lid on the pot and letting the oven finish the whole thing. Having one of those meat thermometers where you can leave it in the meat without having to open and close the oven is helpful. In less than an hour, we had fork-tender slices of stuffed pork, with a sweet onion marsala sauce, dotted with raisins. I don't really like raisins, but with pork, they're perfect -- they also work well mixed with apples to stuff pork chops!

Letting the vegetables take the lead for flavor - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Even though a lot of the cuts of pork I use don't have the strongest flavors, I don't mind, as I find it's more interesting to pair them with different vegetables and sides. Especially with a CSA delivery, where you don't always know what's coming, it's nice to have the meat be the neutral part and be creative with how the vegetables and other ingredients push flavor.

OMG a Recipe: Tasty Lunar New Year Wishes

Last Thursday was the kickoff of the Lunar New Year, and I'm sure there were many feasts to be had. I didn't grow up celebrating Chinese New Year, beyond knowing what gung hay fat choi meant, and that the Chinatown in Los Angeles always threw a big, loud party. I'm also not Chinese, but that's beside the point, because in the end, isn't it nice to have another reason to celebrate a new year? Our edible ode to this Year of the Rabbit was less grand, more simply Asian-inspired, but I thought I'd share the little things that kicked off the new year, from January on through now.

Leftovers never looked so fancy - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One of the first things I made was more out of necessity than the Year of the Rabbit -- I used the ju bao or baked bun recipe from Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings cookbook.  This has become one of my new favorite recipes, for its simple ingredients and versatility with different fillings. I've used the dough to stuff cooked meats and vegetables before baking, and also just baked it un-filled as little buns, then split to make it into rolls for Asian-style barbecue sliders. This time, I used it in a more traditional way, stuffing it with defrosted barbecue-style pork that I'd had in the freezer since the holidays, originally used for an Asian barbecue-style twist on a bahn-mi sandwich. I've been snacking on these little pork-filled buns, dipping in spicy chili paste and soy sauce to my heart's content. Or possible discontent, as I just got a cholesterol test done last week, so we'll see if this kind of eating will be the end of me.

Before February even strolled in, back in January I celebrated the new year Japanese-style, with typical shogatsu accoutrements like having mochi on the first day of the year and having soup with noodles. I didn't have the traditional mochi soup, a savory and simple broth that has a single plain rice cake set in the bottom of the bowl, but I do like the idea of starting out the first breakfast of the year with something a little lighter than fried eggs and bacon. I had my mochi as dessert and admittedly, I cheated, buying it ahead of time and cracking open the hermetically-sealed package on January 1st. But happy new year, nonetheless. Maybe it means 2011 will be wrapped in shrink wrap. And made in Taiwan.

Celebrating the new year with tasty family favorites - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Last week, it was less Lunar New Year and more mom's cooking that got me craving sweet and sour pork. I'm fairly certain this dish is about as traditional as General Tso's Chicken, but I do remember my mom making sweet and sour pork as one of her weekly mainstays. It was quick, not a lot of ingredients, and tasted good with rice -- the last item being a must in our household when I was growing up. Rice makes it nice. And yes, along with my cholesterol test, I had them test my blood sugar levels as well. Oy.

I did a more complicated twist on my mom's sweet and sour pork UnRecipe. I say UnRecipe because this was one of her usual dinners and after so many years of making it, I don't think she ever bothered to measure or keep track of exactly what was going in her version of the dish. I used pork shoulder and slow-cooked it for a day to help break down the fat and sinewy bits, as it's not a tender cut on its own. This adds extra cook time and the prep time can be cut down considerably by substituting with using a better cut of pork that cooks quickly, but I do like how the shoulder shreds up once it's slowly braised for hours. I used all dry powder seasonings just because when it's cooking for such a long time in the slow cooker, I don't really notice the difference between the fresh ingredients since it's all simmering away for so many hours and the flavors sort of run together.

Wasabi's Riff on Mama Wasabi's Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients for braising the meat - yes, you'll need a slow cooker/crock pot, it's just easier that way
2-3 lbs pork shoulder meat, cubed into large chunks
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons coriander powder
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground white pepper

Ingredients for the final cooking of the dish
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped into large bite-sized chunks
1 large onion, sliced
3-2 cups of fresh pineapple, cut into large chunks
1/4 cup of fresh pineapple juice
1 tablespoon of canola oil

Take your slow cooker and add the cubed pork shoulder and all the seasonings into the crock, both wet and dry. Toss to coat evenly, cover with the lid and let it cook on the highest setting for 6 to 7 hours until meat is tender and can easily be cut with a fork. This is good to do first-thing in the morning or the night before.

When the pork is cooked, skim off excess fat, remove the pork and the sauce formed from the cooking and set aside. Get a large skillet or wok  heated to medium high on the stove. Add the canola oil (or some of the skimmed pork fat) to coat the pan and start to saute the onion and bell peppers. Just cook until onion is starting to become translucent. Add the pork and the cooking sauce, toss to combine. Cook just until bell peppers are softenend, but not overcooked.

When everything is heated through, add the fresh pineapple chunks and pineapple juice. Turn off the heat so the pineapple chunks stay firm. Taste the sauce and add more rice wine vinegar or honey to modify the sweet or sour-ness of the dish to your taste. If the sauce is too loose, thicken by adding a cornstarch slurry, or leave it loose and serve over rice.  

UnRecipe: Dinnertime Weeknight Boogie

We all have those weeks. The ones where we bury our heads in a computer or a stack of documents and after what feels like a nuclear half-life, we raise our eyes to the horizon, see that the evening dusk has fallen and realize: Holy Craptown, it's dinnertime; what am I going to cook? OK, so not everyone says that, nor do they always make most of their meals at home, but seeing as how my day is split up into half-professional/half-Suzy Homemaker, I forget to clock out from the business end of the day and segway properly into the process of preparing something to banish the day's hunger. This is not a unique problem and I'm willing to bet everyone runs into this on a daily basis, so here are some examples of fast MacGyver Meals I've had to throw together over the recent months.

The thrill of the grill - Photo by Wasabi Prime

During the intermittent heatwave days of summer, I definitely take advantage of the grill. I know some people grill in the dead of winter, when it's pouring outside, taking on the Post Office "Neither rain, sleet, nor snow" attitude for cooking outdoors. I should adopt this attitude, given the BA-Barracus-grill that Mr. Wasabi chose for our household, but most times, I'm lazy and don't feel like rousting the family of spiders who have inevitably taken residence around the grill, nor do I relish trying to wrestle the awkwardly large cover back onto the grill when it's time to put it away. It's not a lot of effort, I realize, but in a post-dinner food coma, even the slightest bit of chores makes me cringe. But laziness be damned, I'll fire up the grill now and then, however instead of cooking one meal at a time, I choose to load up every square inch of those cast-iron grill plates and make something that will last the week.

The easiest, minimal-prep item is, of course, the ubiquitous chicken breast. Light on taste, low on fat and somewhat boring, the grill brings out flavors from the lowly chicken breast unseen in most cooking methods. A bit of salt, pepper, a light toss in oil, and the char of the direct flame helps produce some much needed flavor out of the paltry poultry. Plus it's the only way I've been able to really keep the meat juicy, since the quick and intense heat locks in both flavor and moisture. The rest of the grill is taken up by vegetables like zucchini sliced lengthwise, seasoned similarly, and this simple supply of meat and vegetables carries us through several meals, from eating it as-is or sliced up and tossed in salads.

Pseudo saltimbocca, done casserole style - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Another last-minute prep meal is anything that doesn't require a lot of messy prep. Who loves doing dishes? I don't see many hands going up. A recent night of frantic meal prep found the Prime throwing open the refrigerator and having an Iron Chef moment. Except that it wasn't so much what Chairman Kaga presented, it was more like, this is what's sitting on the shelves. Without the flourish of a man dressed like Liberace or even a dramatic unveil, I had before me: several defrosted chicken breasts, leftover slices of prosciutto, sweet potatoes, the last bits of pesto, and plain yogurt. Sounds unappetizing at first, but I made a saltimbocca-inspired dinner, using seasoned, lightly seared chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto, layered with some fresh sage plucked from the garden, laid upon a bed of oven-baked diced sweet potatoes, with a sauce of pesto and yogurt, watered down with a little milk. Sounds a bit crazy, I know, but it turned out fine. The fatty cured pork kept the chicken moist as the oven did its work, cooking the chicken all the way through. Juices from the cooking meat mixed with the yogurt sauce and helped further flavor and cook the bed of sweet potatoes which had a head-start, roasting in the oven while I seared the chicken breasts in a pan.

Pork tenderloin and lots of colorful veggies - Photos by Wasabi Prime

My third MacGyver/Pan-to-Oven quick dinner is with the Other White Meat, using pork tenderloin. It's a good thing to make on a cool night, especially now that we're starting to see the evenings chill down a bit more. I toss some root vegetables in oil with some salt and pepper and let them roast in the oven for a bit. Then I'll season up a pork tenderloin with whatever favorite seasonings I have on hand and sear it on all sides in a pan. I'm not looking to get it fully cooked, just get a nice crust, and then move it into the oven, sitting atop the vegetables that have already started roasting. I deglaze the pan with a bit of beer and then toss in some thinly sliced red cabbage, which is one of my favorite inexpensive go-to side dish veggies. It holds up nicely to the cooking process, just wilting but not totally falling apart, plus the color remains incredibly vibrant. If I have shallots, a bit of onion or even apples, I throw those in as well. A bit of cider vinegar and either sugar or honey to balance the sweet to sour, and the remainder of the beer helps cook everything down. Pork tenderloin, roasted vegetables, and a side of bright purple-red braised cabbage -- again, not fancy, but it can be done as a weeknight meal with plenty of leftovers for the next day's lunch and dinner.

I always talk about the magic of leftovers, and maybe it's too gauche a thing for the art of fine cuisine, but most of our meals are basic out of necessity and the lack of time. I end up spending more time figuring out ways to take shortcuts, but also not rely on a lot of processed things for those shortcuts. And yes, it results in a lot of UnRecipes where exact amounts and increments don't exist, but I think like most home cooks, we get inspired by seeing what others do, and just make up the recipes on our own while we tinker in the kitchen on our own last-minute meal prep -- wouldn't you agree?

UnRecipe: Pesto, It's What's for Dinner!

Earlier posts have shown Le Jardin de Wasabi and you could see that the bulk of the harvest so far has been mostly herbs. Not wanting anything to go to waste, I've been snipping bouquet-size handfuls of lemon balm and mint, and making a non-traditional pesto. One of the best things it's been good for is slathering onto a just-grilled bit of pork for a pleasant summertime dinner!

Pork, Pesto and Potatoes - Easy P-sey Dinner - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Yeah, yeah, nuttin' fancy, but when you're in the middle of a heatwave, the last thing you want to do is be cooking over a hot stove and heating the house any more than you have to. Outdoor grilling has the benefit of keeping the heat outside as well as that fantastic grill mark sear with a fast cook time. Per usual, this meal had no real planning. I had defrosted some boneless pork chops and put them in a quick brine, had some leftover sweet potato gratin that I had made for a post on the Wisconsin Cheese Talk blog, and yes -- mystery herb pesto!

I don't think there's any Cardinal Rule that pesto has to be the combination of basil, parsley, Parmesan, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil. Pesto can really be any herby paste full of flavor, kind of like a tapenade, which I've also seen many variants on. The lemon and mint combine nicely for a light, almost Mediterranean flavor, and I added garlic, Parmesan and plain almonds for a bit of crunch. For the handfuls of herbs trimmed away, they buzzed down to about two jelly jars' worth of pesto. Granted, it looks more like the illegitimate child of pea soup and baby poo, but trust me, the flavor is there, and mixed into sauces or a topping over pork, poultry or fish, and it's delicious pea soup/baby poo.

Grillin' With Mr. Wasabi - Photos by Wasabi Prime

It was nice to use the grill -- we've not been using it as much as we should, considering it's summer, but seeing those lovely grill marks, it's a good reminder of why it's such a satisfying cooking process in both flavor as well as aesthetic. People love to see that cross-hatch of caramelized goodness, almost to the point where you want to take a Sharpie and start drawing them on everything!

As for the pesto, those two jars got quite a bit of meal-mileage; by the time this post went live, I'd used them to flavor roasted veggies, in a yogurt sauce to toss with a cold potato salad, breakfast frittatas, and another potato gratin as well as topping a few more pork/chicken dinners. By the time the last jar was scraped clean, I think our herb garden is due for another snipping, and this time I'll probably include more herbs including basil and parsley, making the mystery pesto that much more mysterious with flavor! Cheers to summer and frantic garden cooking!

UnRecipe: Holy Schnitzel, it's the Other White Meat

All this turkey talk with Thanksgiving coming up -- don't jive me, Turkey! What about the other white meat? Don't let H1 urban myths steer you away from the loving porcine arms of Wilburiffic deliciousness. In a belated theme of Oktoberfest and a continued theme of "we need to clear out our freezer," Wasabimus Prime put forth a Pork Schnitzel with an Apple and Beer Sauce, served with Gorgonzola and Pecan Green Beans.

That's some good schnitzel, man. - Photo by Wasabi Prime

The UnRecipe part of this meal was the fact that we had frozen pork chops and some random beers sitting in our mini fridge. The whole UnRecipe theme is slowly evolving from "throw everything together and see what happens," to "throw everything together, try and write stuff down, and see what happens." I'm not entirely sure if it makes much of a difference to readers, having the recipes listed below, as I don't think these dishes are exciting enough to inspire anyone to make them. But it is a peek into the life of a consummate pantry cook who just likes to MacGyver-it when it comes to meals.

Since this was one of those thrown together meals, I didn't take any photos of the making-of or separate ingredients, but given the basic nature behind it, I think the final, plated meal is pretty self-explanatory over what was used. I liked this meal because it's uncomplicated and appropriate for a weekday dinner, plus the ingredients are simple and budget-friendly. As everyone's in the midst of preparing for a big Thanksgiving feast, this is a simple enough thing to make prior to the Big Push next week, without having to give in to the siren song of the drive-thru window. Although damn it all if fries and a milkshake aren't tasty!

Holy Schnitzel, it's Oktoberfest! (with Gorgonzola Pecan Green Beans)
(serves 6)

schnitzel ingredients
3 large pork chops, trim excess fat, sliced lengthwise and pounded flat (stressbuster!)
1 large apple, cored and diced (whatever's in season, but I dig Fujis)
1 stalk of celery
1 cup flour for dredging
1 bottle of beer (Oktoberfest/seasonal brew, if possible)
1 shallot, minced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp thyme and/or rosemary, finely chopped
salt + pepper to taste

side dish ingredients
2 lbs green beans
6 oz pecans, rough chop
4 oz gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp olive oil
salt + pepper to taste

To prepare holy schnitzel: Put a large skillet on the stove and heat to medium-high. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of pork and dredge in flour, dust to remove excess. Put vegetable oil in heated pan, enough to cover surface, and add dredged pork, two at a time to avoid crowding the pan. Cook until browned on both sides, cooking all cutlets and then setting aside on a platter when done. Tent with tin foil to keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium, keep skillet on stove, add diced apple, shallot, and celery. Cook until wilted, slowly adding beer to help deglaze pan and create a sauce. Add fresh herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper, tasting as you go. When full bottle of beer is emptied into pan, reduce sauce to thicken slightly and add pork cutlets back into the pan to coat with the sauce. Let the cutlets and sauce play nice for a few minutes before turning heat off.

Green beans time! You can start this while the sauce is reducing -- get a pot of water boiling on another burner. When water gets to a boil, add the green beans and cook until beans get to a bright green -- should only take a few minutes for them to be partly cooked, but remain crisp (that's what I like), but if you like them softer, feel free to let them suffer further in the bubbly cauldron of hot water. Drain the beans once they get to the doneness you prefer. Turn the burner off, but leave the beans in the drained pot. Add the olive oil, chopped pecans, gorgonzola cheese crumbles, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Toss mixture; the heat from the beans will melt the cheese and combine with the oil to create a sauce, and keeping it in the pan saves you from dirtying another bowl. But if you like doing dishes, feel free to toss mixture in another container, as I'm not the boss of you. :)

Holy schnitzel, let's plate up a cutlet, smothered in an apple/beer sauce, and a big heaping pile of nutty, cheesy beans and om nom it up while you're watching something awesome on TV. Having another beer in hand while eating this meal is not a bad thing either, so cheers to weeknight meals!