Ramen Bowl with Braised Pork Belly - March 26, 2013

This colorful bowl is only semi-homemade.  On my last visit to Trader Joe's, I found 'spicy seaweed ramen' packets, complete with the "fresh" noodles, a sauce packet and a seaweed seasoning package.  I picked them up thinking they'd be great for a quick, weeknight dinner.

As chance would have it, Nick and I were grocery shopping about a week later and came across some pork belly at the co-op meat counter.  I immediately thought of the ramen packets at home and knew this would be the fun addition needed to make the dinner a little special.

I did a little research online and quickly found out that people who make their own ramen at home tend to be religiously devoted to their craft.  Homemade ramen bowls were a two to three day project, minimum.  That's even with store bought noodles. I could see my plan of a quick weeknight dinner evaporating.

In the end, I did spread this out over two days, but still took every possible short cut, and this still turned out to be quite edible, very good, even.  I followed these directions to make my braised pork belly the day before (Sunday, so a weekend when I had a little extra time).  It worked out fine, although made the house smell of greasy pork smoke for several days (not as great as it might sound).  The pork wasn't transcendently tender, so described as the result of this method, but it was acceptably toothsome.  Since my pork belly was already cut into small slabs, I couldn't make the fancy roll of pork needed for the second method to work, though to me it seems preferable.  Perhaps next time.



Once the pork belly was cooked, this became a quick and easy dinner.  Since I wasn't making homemade stock, but rather just using the enclosed sauce packet, I saved myself quite a bit of time.  Especially compared to this broth recipe.  All I really needed to to was "soft boil" some eggs. I did this by putting two eggs in a pot with cold water, heating the pot to boiling, turning off the heat, and letting the eggs sit for five minutes before running them under cold water and peeling off the shells.  They sat in the pork braising liquid to marinate while I cooked the noodles.  We topped the bowls with the pork belly, eggs, sliced scallions, and the seaweed and kimchi from the seasoning packet included with the packaged ramen.

It was good, and Nick and I enjoyed it.  I'm sure ramen snobs would turn up their noses, but it worked for us.  By the way, this marks the thousandth post here on the old Dinner Club blog.  THOUSANDTH.  Not bad for a little hobby blog with a minuscule following.  Things have changed a lot since those early posts, texts really, back and forth to each other.  I'm happy that we're still cooking, still enjoying good food, and still good friends.  I hope we see a thousand more dinners posted here.

Pork Chops with Apples and Shallots

I have been a terrible blog contributer lately and I have no excuse! We have been eating, of course, but am lacking inspiration and creativity these days. I need new ideas for every day meals! This is a dish I have made before and enjoy this time of year. The apples are among the last of those we picked earlier this fall in Maryland. I also made some wilted spinach and heated up the "cheesy potatoes" leftover from our Thanksgiving dinner contribution.

Apricot-Glazed Ribs - Oct 7, 2012

One of Nick's and my favorite Sunday suppers, especially during football season, are these amazing ribs.  The recipe is an old one, that has shown up here before.  We've even made them for Jaime and Richie once when they stopped by during one of their tours of the Midwest.



So there's nothing really new here.  This is not a recipe that I tweak.  Mostly because it's so perfect, and simple as it is.  That being said, I did mistakenly purchase St. Louis style ribs, which have a lot more fat on them than the called for baby backs, which changed things up a bit.  Specifically, there was quite a bit more fat to cook through, and so the meat wasn't as tender as it normally is.  Also, these things were so rich...pretty overpoweringly so.  We have some leftovers.



Nick and I served these with a side of delicata squash from our CSA box.  I think delicata might be my current favorite squash variety.  And, here's something else that I'm excited about...I cooked this squash in my pressure cooker.  Yep, my shiny Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker that's been sitting neglected in the back of a cupboard for the past 6 years or so.  Ellen reminded me that I should pull it out and play with it when she asked to borrow it for a baked bean recipe of her grandmother's.  Now I'm rediscovering how wonderful it is to be able to cook squash in 10 minutes, and rice in five.  And beans in 20 minutes!  This thing is revolutionizing our weeknight dinner options, especially since I've been so much busier lately.  Stay tuned for more pressure cooking fun. 

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Herb Salsa - September 11, 2012

After our brief vacation to Puerto Rico last weekend, we returned home to find that the mid-Atlantic area's months long summer heat wave had finally broken and a hint of fall was in the air. That has inspired me to do more meal planning and less flying-by-the-seat-of-my-plants scrambling. It has also made heavier, meat centric dishes much more appealing. This dish was a nice transition to the fall season because while it fit that bill, it also utilized the grill which was extremely pleasant on an evening when then temperatures hovered in the low 70s - especially after what felt like an endless stretch of upper 90s and high humidity on top of that.

This recipe for grilled pork tenderloin with herb salsa came from this month's issue of Food & Wine magazine, which we have been getting for a few months now as a free bonus after I bought a new KitchenAid mixer. I made a couple modifications, starting with the reality that the flat leaf parsley plant has given up for the summer and the curly leaf plant is still going strong, so I used that. Also, I couldn't find any dried currants that didn't have suspicious "vegetable oil" in the ingredient list, so I substituted my tried and true Thompson raisins from Trader Joe's.

The pork came from one of the local farmers that sells at our closest little farmer's market. It was so much darker in color than the supermarket pork we are used to that when I unwrapped it I actually did a double check of the wrapper to make sure I hadn't accidentally bought beef.

The dish was tasty, but not particularly exciting. Come to think of it, that is how I would describe every recipe from Food & Wine we've tried. Don't think they are going to convert us to paid subscribers once the free year is up...

Homemade Pizza with Sausage - July 27, 2012

This pizza turned out so pretty, I just had to take a picture of it. I'm still experimenting with crust and sauce recipes and baking techniques, but am getting consistent enough results now that pretty much all of our pizza nights are more delicious than not! This crust recipe was from the no-knead book Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day. I used their standard recipe, using regular all purpose flour. I recently ordered some Italian style flour from King Arthur and intend to try that variation next.

For the sauce, I used tomatoes from our little garden and loosely followed the recipe in Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food (peeled, seeded, chopped then cooked with a little olive oil, garlic, salt, and oregano for about 15 minutes). The sausage is also homemade - mixed from ground pork from Polyface Farms. And we grew the basil as well! The only thing not home grown or home made is the cheese (maybe next time!).

Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin - May 20, 2012

This year we are getting most of our eggs and meat through the Polyface Farms urban buying club. This eco-friendly "beyond organic" farm in Virginia was made famous by being featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. The recent reading I have been doing in light of my newly developed food allergy has opened my eyes to the danger of our conventional food supply, both for our personal health and for the planet. I've decided to swear off conventional factory farmed food (as much as is possible) and eat only organic and/or naturally produced local foods.

The good news is that since going this route, not only do we feel better, but our food tastes better than ever! This dish is one such example. I've never been much of a fan of pork tenderloin in the past as it always seemed rather flavorless too lean. In fact, this was only included in our first order as a substitution for the cheaper cut of whole pork loin that I originally requested in order to cure and smoke for homemade Canadian bacon. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that Polyface's natural "pigerator pork" is far superior to the spongy supermarket stuff I'd experienced in the past. It came with a nice layer of fat on the topside that made the whole thing juicy and had a fantastic "porky" taste. I pan-roasted it with coriander seeds from last year's herb garden, fresh thyme from this year's garden, and garlic. Served with roasted organic yellow potatoes from the farmer's market and a salad of greens from our own garden, it was a perfect local meal.

Pineapple Pork Fried Rice - March 15, 2012

Since you all know what Nick and I had for dessert last night, I thought I'd share our dinner as well.  I planned this out the night before, cooking up a batch of brown basmati rice so it could sit in the fridge for 24 hours.  This is the minimum amount of time you need to let the rice sit, although it works even better if you have an extra day or two.  If you try to make fried rice with freshly cooked rice, you get a mushy, clumpy mess.  Ask me how I know.

With the rice made ahead, I began last night's dinner by scrambling some eggs in oil in a hot pan.  Once the eggs were cooked, I removed them from the pan, added more oil, tossed in my rice and fried it for a couple minutes.  After adding the cooked eggs back to the pan, I tossed in some chopped celery, pineapple cubes, and some shredded pork (also pre-cooked).  This fried for another few minutes or so until everything was warmed through.

We seasoned with toasted sesame oil and tamari.  It was pretty good.  I mean, it was no Chinese take-out or anything (probably due to the missing MSG), but it had a mild, fresh flavor.  The pineapple was great and I'm glad I thought to throw in some celery at the last minute, as it brought a welcome color and crunch.  In the future, I may try to remember to have scallions on hand and add a bit of minced, fresh ginger for some added kick.

Hoisin-Glazed Meatloaf - March 2, 2012

This recipe is from the March 2012 issue of Bon Appetit that Nick and I have been perusing for dinner inspiration.  I don't remember the last time I made meatloaf, but this recipe, with it's mildly Asian flavors, seemed like a great reintroduction to the classic comfort food.  Actually, the recipe was supposed to be put together as a sandwich, cleverly billed as a 'bahn meatloaf' by the magazine.  We skipped the sandwich part, but did make the accompanying salad to serve alongside.


Things got a little messy in the oven, but I remembered to put this on a cookie sheet, which contained things nicely.  In another clever move, I made my own hoisin sauce for this, because I didn't have any on hand.  It worked out perfectly and I will make my own from now on rather than buy those big bottles that I can never seem to get through before the expiration date.

This was delicious and made quite a bit, so we've been working on finishing up the leftovers.

Pulled Pork with Coleslaw and Cornbread - Feb 21, 2012

Nick and I hadn't done a pork roast in awhile, so I picked up a six pound pork shoulder from, where else, Clancey's. I've posted this recipe many times before, but it's a good one. Simple and delicious, this meal requires more time than work. The pork and slaw are actually supposed to be used in sandwiches, but I didn't have any appropriate rolls, so I baked some skillet cornbread instead.  We ate it 'meat and three' style, except that it was 'meat and two,' meaning a plate of meat, plus two sides.



Needless to say, we have a significant bit of pork remaining, as we barely made a dent in the six pounds. We've used some here and there in quick weeknight meals, like pork and sweet potato wraps. The rest I've portioned in half pound servings and popped in the freezer to be used at some later date when inspiration hits.

Pork Sausages with Rutabaga Mash and Sauteed Kale - Feb 10, 2012

I seem to have started a new routine of dropping by Clancey's Meats and Fish on my way home from work at least once a week. It's always inspiring, and makes meal planning quite easy on said evening. This particular night, Nick and I feasted on some of their house made apple-walnut-rosemary pork sausages. I made a couple sides for our meal, including kale and onions sauteed in the pork fat left in the pan after cooking the sausages. The mash I made by boiling a potato and a rutabaga until soft, combining them together in a bowl with a potato ricer, and adding sour cream, salt, and pepper to season. I used the same formula for the potato-celeriac mash we had the previous night and I'm pretty excited about it. Every year we get a varied assortment of root vegetables from our CSA Farm and I struggle finding ways to serve them. I've found that combining an "alternative" root vegetable such as a rutabaga or turnip with the more traditional potato in a mash softens (ha!) the flavor and is a good way to introduce said vegetables to our diets instead of letting them languish in the crisper drawer. The sour cream helps too.  This was really delicious.

Buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy - January 29, 2012

I apologize for being mostly MIA this month. As seems to happen every year, January has been extremely busy at work with travel and learning a new territory and new programs.

So far, the new territory is great. I used to work most of the east coast, from South Carolina through New England and west to include Michigan and Ohio. That meant lots of trips to New York and Philadelphia. Great food cities, but major PITA for travel. Proof: while the airports in that region handle just 12% of the domestic flights, they account for 50% of the delays!

As of January 1, I go only as far north as Maryland and Delaware and continue to work in the Carolinas as well as picking up Tennessee and Kentucky. Also, we had our company meeting in Atlanta this year (this is the same meeting we usually have in Phoenix, where last year I managed to run into fellow Dinner Clubber and old friend Nick!). All that southern travel has given me hankering for good old biscuits and gravy, which I unfortunately have to pass up in restaurants since they are likely leavened with baking powder than contains corn starch. Boo.

But I think I have now mastered an at home, from scratch version of the classic southern breakfast dish that beats most roadside diners and rivals that of true southern cooks!

It actually starts the day before when I make sausage as a topping for pizza (which I'm still trying to master... I'll write about that soon). I have experimented with several different flavors, but my favorite for both pizza and the day-after-breakfast is a slightly spicy fennel sausage.

Sausage
1 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons toasted and lightly pounded fennel seeds
1 large (or two small) garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Mix gently with your hands. Cook a small portion to see if the seasoning is to your liking and adjust.

Then I use about half the sausage for the pizza and save the other half for breakfast the next day (this also keeps nicely for a week or so in the fridge so you don't necessarily have to do the pork overload of back-to-back meals!).

I've tried a few different recipes for buttermilk biscuits and have combined a few to create what I think is a winner. Tasty, flaky, and easy. What more could you ask for?

The key to making this recipe really easy is the pastry blender.

I finally bought one a couple months ago and I it has changed my life. That is a bit hyperbolic, but not really! I use it for biscuits, pies crust, and flour tortillas. I no longer need to drag out and then clean the bulky food processor, nor do I struggle to use knives or a forks to "cut in" butter.

Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (I use Hain's Featherweight)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Whisk dry ingredients together, then add the butter use a pastry blender to mix. Leave a few large clumps of butter. Stir in the buttermilk with a wooden spoon until the mixture is a soft, slightly sticky ball. Transfer dough to floured surface and form into a rough ball (don't overmix!). Use dough cutter to divide dough into 8-12 equal size pieces. Shape and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until biscuit tops are light brown.

I'm still working on a system for dividing and shaping so that they come out prettier, but the taste and texture is perfect.

While the biscuits are baking, you can start the gravy.

Sausage Gravy
1/2 pound sausage
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk (whole is best, but reduced fat tastes fine too)
Optional: Tabasco for additional heat, salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the sausage over medium heat until not pink. Sprinkle flour over sausage and cook until everything starts to get a nutty brown (about 3-5 minutes). Slowly add milk in three or four additions, stirring between each addition. Reduce heat and cover, allow to cook until thick.

Place two biscuits on a plate and smother with gravy (you may have extra biscuits - they freeze nicely). Enjoy!

Cuban Sweet Potato Wraps - Jan 3, 2012

These probably look pretty similar to the sweet potato wraps I posted about a week or so ago, and they are, but for the addition some ham and black beans.  I had some black beans in the freezer and some Christmas ham from my mom, and so decided to combine them along with some cumin and coriander.  I roasted some sweet potato cubes tossed in coconut oil (one of my favorite combinations).  Once the sweet potatoes and rice were ready, I simply reheated the black bean and ham mix.  Nick and I wrapped everything up with the addition of some shredded cheese and coconut flakes.  These were delicious, and more flavorful than our previous attempt.

Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Bacon - Dec, 2011

The December housekeeping continues with this really fun meal that Nick and I enjoyed a few weeks back. It was fun for a number of reasons, the first being that the Brussels sprouts came in one of our last CSA deliveries of the year. And, they came on their stalks! I was so excited when I first learned how Brussels sprouts grow.  It is certainly not clear if you find them as individual bulbs, which is, more often than not, how one finds them. I don't know how I thought Brussels sprouts grew...perhaps like tiny rows of cabbages in the field? Perhaps I didn't much think of Brussels sprouts at all, but regardless, now every time I see them on their stalks it brings a big smile to my face.  This is neither here nor there,  but it's also fun to know how pineapples grow.

The second reason this meal was fun was because it contained very special bacon. My friend Walter made it. That's right, he cured his own bacon, and then gave me some of it. I have to say, it was the best bacon I've ever had. It came my way in a little unsliced chunk, which meant that I got to cut it up however I wanted. I decided on squat little cubes. They fried up into golden, crispy morsels that melted into puddles of bacon goodness on our tongues.  We have good friends.

The recipe came from here, but I traded the tofu for the bacon.  I always feel a little guilty doing that to Heidi's lovely vegetarian recipes, but, come on, it was homemade bacon!  Incidentally, if you click the recipe link, you'll see a beautiful picture of Brussels sprouts on the stalk.  Heidi is a fan too.

Red Lentils with Bacon and Blue Cheese - Dec, 2011

I'm trying hard to remember the details of this meal. It was something that Nick and I made up on the fly one night last month. It turned out quite differently than I had planned, mostly because the lentils turned to mush in their cooking liquid, rather than holding their shape. Undaunted, I decided that we could work with that, and treated it like a polenta, mixing in some of the blue cheese and fresh rosemary for flavor. We put this in bowls and topped with some delicious, crispy bacon, blue cheese crumbles and fresh rosemary. It was quite flavorful, and a dinner that works well for a good, quick, comfort meal.

Black Beans and Rice with Pork and Apple Salsa - Dec, 2011

This was another meal prepared on one of the few nights Nick and I stayed in for dinner last month. I found the recipe in the January 2012 issue of Bon Appetit and thought it sounded fun. Of course, I made a few small changes, including swapping the chicken out for pork. My Mom had made a huge batch of slow cooked pork shoulder over the Christmas holiday and was lovely enough to send some home with us. The substitution worked extremely well. I didn't have a Granny Smith apple on hand, so I just used one of the Fireside apples that we bought at our last local farmers' market this fall. And, out of neccessity, I had to omit the cilantro and green pepper. I did, however, add in a bit of avocado, which is always welcome at our house. It was really, really good.

Jaime's Pizza, second attempt - November 4, 2011

This time I decided to forget about creating a cracker like crust reminiscent of the frozen pizzas of my childhood and instead focus on just creating a really good crust, period. This meant planning ahead, making the dough the day before and allowing it to rise slowly in the refrigerator overnight. I used the recipe from Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food, except that I didn't have the 1/4 cup of rye flour she called for and instead just did all regular all-purpose white flour.

I made the sauce from Pomi strained tomatoes (the only brand I've been able to find that doesn't have citric acid added) and added in some of the basil and oregano I grew on our patio and dried as an experiment. It tasted very good! The cheese is organic mozzarella from Organic Valley (again, one of the only truly corn-free brands available) and I made the sausage myself. It is ground pork from our local Springfield Butcher, seasoned with salt, pepper, dried sage from our herb garden, a bit of nutmeg, and a pinch of cayenne. The next day I turned the rest of the sausage into some amazing tasting southern style sausage gravy and ate it over biscuits as an indulgent breakfast treat!

Overall, the pizza was pretty good and came pretty close to satisfying my craving for good pizza. The crust could have been a bit crisper, but I needed to get it out of the oven before the cheese burned. Next time I'll try one of the methods that has you either start or end the pizza on the stove top to help address this issue. I also picked up some rye flour at the store and will give that a shot to see if it adds anything.

Brats with Sheboygan-style Buns - October 5, 2011

My latest homemade project came about because I found some all-natural corn-free brats at our local Whole Foods last week and also some naturally fermented vinegar-less and preservative-free sauerkraut. Actually, it started with the sauerkraut. When I purged the house of items containing corn derivatives last month, I was so sad to toss the nearly full jar of imported from Germany sauerkraut I'd recently purchased at the Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe in Arlington. I figured the only way I'd be able to eat sauerkraut again was to make my own, so I was thrilled to discover Cortland Valley organic sauerkraut in the grocery store! Extra bonus: It is from the Wisconsin-based GLK Foods, Inc.

The next hurdle between me and a taste of the homeland was the brat bun. I just don't trust any commercial bakeries right now and no one here really makes a proper brat bun anyway. Feeling emboldened by my recent successes at making homemade Tater Tots, I thought I could tackle the brat bun next.

There were no recipes in any of my cookbooks, so I did a little Googling and quickly found The Bratwurst Pages: Wisconsin's Soul Food where they explain the many nuances of brat culture and lore, including the German translation of "bratwurst" as "fry-sausage." That means that a "brat fry" is not only an entirely inaccurate term (although brats can be pan fried, a "brat fry" in Wisconsin is typically an event where brats are cooked outdoors on a charcoal or gas grill), but a redundant phrase meaning "fry fry"! They also helpfully provide a recipe for classic Wisconsin brat sides, including potato salad and semmel rolls.

The rolls were actually quite easy to make and only took a couple hours from start to finish. I didn't have any rye flour for dusting so used some semolina instead. I ended up baking them only for about 20 minutes and thought that might have even been a touch too long, or the 450 degrees was a little too hot in my oven. I'd advise watching them carefully and perhaps err on the side of removing them earlier and then returning to the oven for a finally heating and crisping right before serving.

The end result was quite good! A good bun with a serious bite that could hold up to my liberal dosing of sauerkraut and mustard. Will definitely be making these again (after I've consumed the remaining half dozen currently hanging out in the freezer, that is.)

I need to keep searching for brats though... these were pre-cooked and just didn't have the bite or juiciness of good Wisconsin brats.

Pork Chops and Bok Choy with Chili-Garlic Marinade - May 28, 2011

My task for this week is to use up as much of our CSA delivery before the second one comes on Thursday! The turnips, which I was most concerned about, turned out to be delicious and I wish I had more. The eggs are long gone, as are the strawberries. About half of the spinach remains and most of the onions - in part because we are also growing spinach and onions on the deck. And the pac choi/bok choy, which has been taunting me from the crisper drawer all week!

I'm not a huge fan of cabbage of any sort, unless it is transformed into sauerkraut and piled on a Wisconsin brat, that is! So, I wasn't sure how to deal with this. So I turned to the From Asparagus to Zucchini cookbook and saw this recipe for grilled pork chops and bok choy. My impressions are mixed. It was OK. Unfortunately, the marinade didn't really add much. If I were to do it again, I'd ramp up the spices and the garlic by adding some fresh chopped garlic and possibly some red pepper flakes. And I'm not sold on the bok choy. It isn't bad, just not yummy. I still have a few stalks left and need some other ideas.

Braised Pork with Turnips and Greens - May 27, 2011

I forgot to take a picture, but this dish was just too good to not share! As I mentioned earlier, I was a bit intimidated by the turnips in our first CSA box. I've never cooked them before and really had no idea what to do with them, or even what they taste like. I wasn't brave enough to just cook them up and decided a good entry to turnip eating would be to prepare them with something I knew we would love... So pork to the rescue!

I followed this recipe for Braised Pork with Turnips from Mark Bittman, but added a few twists. First, Richie requested noodles as a side dish, which turned out to be a brilliant idea. I cooked some egg noodles, tossed them with butter and caraway seeds, which added a natural complimentary taste to the pork. Second, inspired by Jess's comment on my original CSA post, I added the chopped greens during the last three or four minutes of cooking. Delicious! I'm a turnip convert and hoping to see more in future shares!

A few thoughts on the recipe... I used a shoulder roast and didn't trim all the fat off, so it ended up being fairly greasy (though in a very tasty way!) at the end. I think the dish would be very different with a leaner loin roast. Also, I used chicken stock because I had a partial carton in the refrigerator that needed to be used, but I'd like to try the recipe with white wine next time.