Archive | Pork RSS feed for this section

Spicy Ginger Cauliflower “Fried Rice” w/Pork

3 Dec

And it’s December!

Hard to believe that 2012 is in its final month.  It’s been a long while since last I’ve posted, so I have some major catching up to do.  My early next year/New Year resolution shall be to post more regularly!

In the meantime, here’s a comfort dish for the winter months — spicy ginger cauliflower “fried rice.”

I have seen various cauliflower “fried rice” in various paleo food blogs and recipe sites, but had never tried making it.  Cauliflowers in our kitchen tend to end up being roasted.  But when David and I went to a Japanese super market a few months ago and came across beautiful, thinly sliced Berkshire pork belly — and I had to buy it.  What to make with this paper thin pork belly slices?  (Cauliflower) “fried rice” seemed like a good idea.

Oh, and some gorgeous shimeji mushrooms were on sale, too.  Perfect.


Continue reading →

Advertisement

Tags: ,

Rock the Party Spicy Pork Ribs – v. 2

13 Oct

When we lived in Stockholm last winter, I made some spicy pork ribs for a birthday party we threw for our colleague.  The ribs were a hit, and made for an excellent — and hands-on — party meal among friends.  Now back in my own kitchen in Brooklyn, I have more spices in my pantry to play with — and recently, I came up with a rub that I think works even better.  I like to put the rub on the ribs overnight before cooking.  Although these ribs aren’t of the smoke-house variety, we still think they are delicious, tender, and do come off the bone quite easily.  We tend to prefer the St. Louis style pork ribs over baby-back — there’s more meat to them (always a plus for David), and I like how the fat renders off while roasting, giving the ribs  a nice, juicy quality without being too fatty.

Continue reading →

Tags: ,

Veal/Pork Cilantro Meatballs

24 Aug

I went through a meatball-making phase about a month ago, venturing out beyond my regular beef meatballs and turkey meatballs I’ve made in the past.  One of the new versions of the meatball I made was a veal/pork one.  The basic method of making the meatball is the same — but the change-up in the ingredients makes for a new meatball tasting experience.  The veal/pork combination tastes a little sweeter and perhaps more tender in some ways than straightforward beef — we particularly enjoyed the cilantro/habañero pairing with the meats in this variation of the meatball .  (If you are not a fan of cilantro, you can use parsley.)

Continue reading →

Tags: , ,

Pasture-raised Pork=DELICIOUS Pork

11 Apr

We’re convinced happy pigs (pasture-raised) = DELICIOUS pork.  We recently came across local, pasture-raised boneless pork loin at Whole Foods, and boy, was it delicious!

I bought a big chunk of this gorgeous pork loin, and cut it up in about 1 inch pieces.  For dinner, I left 2 pieces out to bring them back to room temperature (about 30 minutes), and then seasoned both sides with salt and pepper.  In a non-stick pan, I drizzled some olive oil and cooked the chop on medium-high heat, 6 minutes on each side.  Rest for at least 5 minutes.  I served the chop with garlic spinach.  AH-MAZING!

David didn’t eat pork for a long time, in large part because he never found it particularly tasty.  Nowadays, he is a big believer in good, high-quality pork, cooked well.  Local, pasture-raised pork has been a good meat option for us, as, at about $8.99 a pound, it’s a good deal for high quality meat.  Chops are our favorite, since the flavor is fabulous — and when the pork is this excellent quality, you really taste the difference in the fat.  Pasture-raised pork fat just melts in your mouth in the most elegant way.  Frankly, we prefer these amazing pork chops to, say, veal chops. Continue reading →

Tags: ,

Rock the Party Spicy Ribs

29 Jan

We threw a birthday party for our musical director, Conrad, in our Stockholm apartment.  Conrad has known David since he was 16, and we’ve all worked together on Dirty Dancing since 2004 — he’s family to us, and it was wonderful to celebrate his birthday with him, his wife Penny, Eleanor, Michael, and our set designer Paul.

I wanted to make the dinner a casual affair, and also wanted to cook something that you don’t often find at Stockholm restaurants.  I decided to make spiced ribs, which were a resounding success.  These ribs are easy to make and delicious — although eating can get messy, with good, friendly company, it’s a lot of fun to eat with your hands!  (Just have plenty of paper towels on hand.)  These ribs would be great for Super Bowl parties, too.  (I will be staying up late to watch next weekend!)

“ROCK THE PARTY” SPICY RIBS

**NOTE: The measurements below are for 1 full set of ribs (2 large ribs).  For the party, I made 4 sets of ribs, and so multiplied the ingredients by 4.

DRY-RUB

  • 3 tbsp paprika
  • 2 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp good quality salt (I used Himalayan pink salt)
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp cumin

Mix the ingredients together.

Because our oven in Stockholm is tiny, I cut each rib in half, to make the refrigerating/baking process easier.  Coat the dry-rub onto the ribs, both sides.

Stack the ribs on top of each other, and cover tightly with cling wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 175C (or 350F).  Lay out the ribs in a baking pan or tray covered with foil.  Cover the ribs with foil, and roast in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Take off the cover, and cook for another 15 minutes.  Let the ribs rest for at least 5 minutes, then cut into pieces.

I served the ribs with some coleslaw and an arugula salad with fig and toasted pine nuts — I will post the recipes for them soon!

Happy party people

Tags: , ,

Julskinka (Christmas ham)

9 Dec

With the Christmas season upon us, the meat section in our local Daglivs is stocked full of Julskinka (Christmas ham).  I have never made a Christmas ham from scratch; actually, David and I have never made roast ham for any of our Christmases together.  But as the Julskinka seems like such the typical Swedish meat for the season, we were both curious to try it… now.  And so we bough a lovely organic, fresh, salt-cured harm looked lovely to cook for a Sunday “roast.”

The Julskinka packaging explains the traditional method of roasting the ham.  Sadly, I could only decipher bits and pieces, not enough fill me with confidence to know what I was doing.  So we took a photo of the instructions on the package and sent it to our Swedish colleague, who kindly translated them for us.  The actual cooking of the ham is quite easy, although it takes a couple of hours.  A cooking thermometer is definitely needed, and I picked up an electronic one at a local hardware store.

Preheat the oven to 175C (or 350F).

Rinse the pork under water — the pork is salted-cured, so it’s important to rinse thoroughly.

Pat dry, and cover in foil.

Place in the lower part of the oven with a cooking thermometer in the meat.  Roast until the internal temperature reads 73-75C (or about 165/167 F).

Take the ham out of the oven.  (*Do not turn off the oven, as the ham will go back into it.)  Cut away the netting, and remove the fat.

Make the mustard coating: mix one egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of wholegrain mustard.

Cover the ham with the mustard mixture.  Typically, breadcrumbs are added all over the mustard coating — I sprinkled fresh thyme instead.

Raise the oven temperature to 200C (or about 390F).  Put the ham back in the oven and roast until it browns, about 15 minutes.

Rest for 5-10 minutes.  Slice thinly and serve!

For dinner, we had slices of ham alongside some broccoli and mushrooms.  The ham has a salty quality, so it’s good to pair with non-salty vegetables.  Although we bought a “small-ish” Julskinska, it’s still A LOT of ham for 2 people.   But the ham is great cold — in fact our Swedish colleague explains that it is best the day after on some bread with some mustard.  The bread we don’t do, of course, but the ham has served us well, providing us all week as a quick, ready source of protein at home.  Whether for snacks (on its own or with slices of cucumber or avocado) or with scrambled eggs for breakfast, the Julskinka is a nice, holiday meat to try at home.

P.S. The next time I make this, I think I may add some sweetness to the mustard coating by adding honey…

Tags: , ,

Simple Dishes: Roast Pork Tenderloin w/Garlic-Ginger Rub

3 Dec

Grocery shopping can lead to impulse purchases.  If something looks fresh and beautiful, I find it hard not to want to take it home to cook it, even if I don’t exactly know what to do with it at the time of purchase.  Pork tenderloin was one such purchase.  I’d never cooked pork tenderloin before, but the butcher in Saluhall had fantastic-looking pork tenderloin and I couldn’t resist.  After work, at home, I Googled various pork tenderloin cooking methods.  Many recipes call for 3 hours or overnight marination — I didn’t have the time, since the pork was meant for dinner that night.  So I decided to just rub some spices I had at home and roast it.  Although I’m sure marinating the tenderloin overnight will infuse it with flavor and tenderize the meat, I think this simple spice rub worked quite nicely.

SPICY ROAST PORK TENDERLOIN WITH GARLIC-GINGER RUB

  • 3 tsp garlic powder
  • 3 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • Salt
  • 1 1/4 pounds pork tenderloin
  • Olive oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced

Preheat the oven to 450F.

In a small bowl, mixed garlic powder, ground ginger, cayenne pepper, and salt.  Stir well with a fork to combine — this will be the rub.  With dry hands, sprinkle the tenderloin with the rub, making sure to cover the entire tenderloin.  Gently pat the rub to ensure that that the seasoning adheres to the tenderloin.

In a large skillet or pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil (about 1 tablespoon).  Add the minced garlic and saute, stirring, for about 1 minute.  Put tenderloin in the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, searing each side and turning the meat.

Transfer meat to a roasting pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Rest for 5 minutes.  Slice and serve!

Tags: ,