WW- Ying Yang Beans

Wow, I can't believe that it's almost been a month since my last post.

I joined the group Wok Wednesdays, cooking  out of Grace Youngs' cookbook, Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, twice a month  and have been terrible about keeping up with the group. There were
issues, not with the group, but with me that kept me from posting and cooking with them.

When I saw that we were to make Ying Yang Beans I was excited. This has been a favorite of my
family for quite some time.

HMarket recently opened in my neighborhood so I am blessed to have a place to shop where I can find
all the ingredients I need for any Asian inspired recipe.

We love Sesame Seeds so I added some and I also added some pickled vegetables.

There's never any left overs!  Grace's recipe was easy to make and delicious.

This weekend I am scheduled to tape a segment for Neighborhood Chefs. I am so excited! Check back
with me. I'll post some photo's of my big day. I'm still tossing around ideas as to what I'm making. If I
can pick enough zucchini blossoms I will definitely makes those along with another dish.

I know I've been terrible about posting with regularity and it's not about to get any better in the
immediate future. I've got a few busy months coming up!

I will be posting pictures to my Pinterest account, so if you aren't following me on that and want to see previews of what I'll eventually be blogging about, check me out on there.

Until the next time!

Buon Appetito
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Schweinshaxe, deutschen Stil (Pork Shanks, oh yeah!)

I believe the title of this post translates to something like Pork Shank, German Style. I know nothing about German food, except for the food that we eat at an Octoberfest once a year.  So if any of you are reading this and say, "What is she thinking, this is not German"! I have to say, I'm sorry. If you have a recipe that you would like me to try please forward it.    :)
It's just sometimes you get a hankering for something and you have to have it. That urge stays with you until you have it, and no amount of anything else you eat, will take away that craving until you satisfy the craving with the food that you are craving!
So here I am with a craving for something that I know absolutely nothing about,  Pork Shanks at Octoberfest. Do I really remember the flavors enough to try to make it for my family? While I may be a little perplexed for just a moment, it will all come together and, I have to tell you that I love when this happens.
 It means that I am about to embark on a culinary adventure. The first few stops are usually shopping for ingredients, perhaps a visit to a farm stand for some local and fresh produce, followed by a visit to the butcher for a different cut of meat.
Today's cut of meat is a pork shank.
I'm thinking apples, apple cider, beer and red cabbage are going to make this dish delicious!

I have to start with a trinity of something. I am using leeks, carrots and celery. I picked up some beautiful leeks at the farm stand and used them in place of an onion.

P.S. Do you like my new knives? My kids bought them for me for Christmas!
Here's my dish and how I made it.
Season the pork shanks with salt, pepper and rosemary and sage.
I started by browning the pork shanks in a little olive oil and butter. I probably used a tablespoon of each.
When the shanks get a nice color on them I removed them from the pan and added the trinity of leeks, carrots and celery and let them cook until they wilted a little.
Measure out 2 cups of apple cider and deglaze the pan with a little splash of apple cider.
Add the rest of the apple cider, along with 1 cup of cider vinegar, and 1 cup of ale.

Taste it and see if you need to add any more seasoning. I added a little more salt and vinegar.
Add the shanks back to the braising liquid.

Cover the pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for at least 2 hours.
When done the meat should be tender and come off with a fork.
While the pork was finishing in the oven I made sauteed red cabbage with apples. It was very easy to make and we all loved the taste.

I sliced one head of red cabbage and cooked it in a saute pan with a little olive oil and when it started to wilt I added 1 cup of cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of mustard and 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds. I sliced one crisp apple and mixed  it in with the wilted red cabbage.
I served the pork shanks right on top!
Enjoy!

Buon Appetito
Guten Appetit
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Wokking It!

Last night we had a great meal! It was very tasty and delicious and very easy to make. I love Asian style food, and was in the mood for something a little different, so out came the wok. I made everything in it!

This dish is medallions of pork with peppers and onions, broccoli rabe and fried rice. Sometimes I even surprise myself when something comes out this good! LOL!
It really was so simple. Technically, I don't know if anything I did was correct, all I can say is the end result was delicious and everyone went back for seconds!

For the pork you will need...
pork medallions
1 yellow pepper, cut into pieces (see picture above)
1 red pepper, cut into pieces
1 large onion, cut into pieces
corn starch - 2 Tablespoons
Soy Sauce, 2 Tablespoons
2 Tablespoons of water (or Sherry! very yummm)
salt and pepper to taste
Chinese 5 Spices - to taste, at least a teaspoon!
Sesame oil  - 1 tsp
chopped cilantro, 2 Tablespoons

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and make sure that each piece of meat gets a nice even coat of corn starch mixture.
Heat the wok and then add oil. Peanut oil is great to use because it can withstand very high heats without scorching. If you don't have peanut oil, vegetable oil will work just fine.
Add each piece of pork to the heated oil and cook until it get nice color on each side. I would say about 3 minutes on each side. The meat will release itself when it is ready to turn!
Don't over crowd the wok!
After cooking all the pork, add the onions and peppers and a little more oil. If your wok is not big enough to accomodate everything remove the pork and cook the onions and peppers without the pork in the wok. Cook the onions and peppers for about 5 minutes, add the water, deglazing the wok of any yummy stuff left over from cooking the meat, onions and peppers.  If you took out the pork, add the pork back to the wok with the onions and peppers and add the soy sauce, sesame oil, and cook for another minute or two. Top with the chopped cilantro and serve!

Buon Appetito
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Ravioli

This past weekend my sister and I made homemade ravioli. The recipe has been in the family forever. I can remember being a young girl watching my Nona, mother and Zia make these delicious meat filled ravioli. My sister and I had a very important job, we were sent to count the ravioli sheets as the were made.   How many?  they would ask us, and we'd run and count. Dozen or sheets? and we'd run back again and count all over. My sister Marlene still counts by the dozen, while I still count the sheets. It's funny how some things just don't change.
At the time when they made them they would proudly make 200 dozen.  That was a huge amount. Everything was done by hand. They didn't have a Kitchen Aid mixer with pasta attachments to help them make the dough! As Marlene and I got older we were honored to help turn the crank to get the sheets of pasta to the smooth consistency needed so they could be stuffed. Marlene decided that she likes the stuffing part, and I have become the master of cranking out the pasta.
With the help of machinery we are able to make a few hundred dozen in a day rather than a weekend. It's still a tremendous amount of work, exhausting actually, but we love working together. It brings us together, we miss those who are not able to be with us, especially our sister, Michele who lives in California.  We know that while we are working we have the company of two angels, our Nona and our mother. If we get stumped or stuck on something and the answer or solution comes to us, it comes from them. We know how proud they are of us, and it makes us happy to know that they are happy!
They never worked with exact quantities. I don't think they even had a recipe written out until we asked. I remember sitting with a bowl under my mother's hand trying to catch the amounts she was using, and then measuring,  just for a rough idea of how much she was using. We now know that the water needed to make the pasta is approximately 3 - 3 1/2 cups!
When we make the meat ravioli I always try to have equal parts of the meat. If I am cooking 5 pounds of beef, I'll also cook 5 pounds of pork and veal.  However, I will only use about 3 pounds of the sausage meat.  The onions are another story. The more onions, the more sauce. We use about 20 pounds of onions which I hand chop.
I remember them using porcini mushrooms while cooking the meat and there is no mention of the mushrooms on the recipe card.  I make sure that they are added. They give a very delicious flavor to the meat mixture and the sauce.
It's taken us years to interpret the recipe.
Here's what my mother had written down.
For meat stuffing...
Rosolare pork, beef and veal in olive oil and butter until brown, add onions, rosemary and bay leaves.
Saute sausage meat with garlic and spinach.
Seperate meat from the onions.
Chop everything, add parmigiano cheese, salt, pepper and one whole ground nutmeg. Add egg to moisten to hold together. If needed add breadcrumbs.
At least we have one measurement here! LOL! One whole nutmeg!
Pasta
5 lbs flour
2 eggs all
6 egg yolks
little oil, salt, and luke warm water
mix all together

I started making the meat mixture on Thursday. I cut all my meats into chunks and cooked them with the onions and seasoning for about 4 - 5 hours.
On Friday, I seperate the meat from the onions. The meat chunks went into the food grinder and the onions and the sauce were reserved and put into containers. This is the sauce that is used on top of the ravioli.
On Saturday we mixed all of the gound meats together with the spinach, cheese and eggs and seasoning.
The pasta was made and let to rest for 1/2 hour before working it.

After the pasta has been worked through the machine and is the right size and thickness it goes to the table where the stuffers are waiting to work! We will try to recruit any and all!

The trays get stuffed, then trimmed up and put on a tray.

They are then put on a sheet so they dry out a little, and then flipped hours later.

We work until all the meat mixture is gone. Usually there is pasta left over.
This year we made a few with spinach and cheese.

And when the spinach and cheese was gone we made the left over pasta "dough" into tagliatelle.

We've started a little tradition of our own when making these.
 In the past we would order out for food to eat for diner. Who wanted to cook after working hard all day. One year while making these at my mother's house my husband was in shock that we were going to order out for food. He insisted that we put a pot of water on and eat some of the ravioli that we had been making all day.  We were like, what? eat them now? lol  I'm so glad we did!
So now, every time we make them, after we count them and there is an odd number of sheets that can't be divided and packaged up (we like to put 10 dozen into one package)  they go into the pot of waiting hot water. I can't even begin to tell you just how delicious they are!

We love carrying on the traditions that were shown to us. My hope is that my children learn from us and one day show their own children the special "magic" that can be created through love of family and honoring traditions. Through this love and magic the family traditions will never be forgotten, nor will the people who started them or the people who kept them alive. ❤❤ 

 Buon Appetito
 xoxoxo
 Lorraine ❤❤ 

Pork Chops and No Applesauce

Hello friends, it has been awhile since I last posted. Since leaving for Vegas life has been full. Some days I feel as if there aren't enough hours in the day.  I have been cooking, making meals for the family, and then while eating realize that I didn't take any pictures to show you what's been cooking.
Last night I did remember to take a few pictures.
The butcher had some lovely center cut pork chops and I asked him to cut them 1 1/2 " thick for me. I was debating on whether to stuff them or make them with some peppers and onions. I know my husband loves pork with peppers and onions. For that matter so do I. Throw in some artichoke hearts and make a reduction sauce with balsamic vinegar and you're all set to go.

Start by heating up your pan and then adding olive oil and a little butter just to coat the bottom. After seasoning the pork chops on each side with salt and pepper I browned the chops on each side.
After the chops had a nice sear I removed them from the pan and added the onions, peppers and some chopped garlic. I sautéed these until they had some nice color. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, getting all the good stuff on the bottom.  I added Balsamic Vinegar and tossed in a can of artichoke hearts and put everything into a baking pan and then into the oven to finish it off. I also added some hot cherry peppers. I love the heat!

This is very easy to make and it's also a real crowd pleaser.

I have some lovely pictures to share with you from my trip to Vegas. I'll try to get them up and on the blog within a few days.

Buon Appetito
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Stuffed Pork Chops

I am stuffing everything at the moment and having such a great time doing it. I don't know what it is about eating something that has been stuffed, it's so fulfilling!  Pardon the pun! Anytime I see something stuffed offered on a menu I know I'm usually in for a hearty meal.
There are so many different stuffings you can make depending on what you like to eat.  If you've been following me for a while you know that my family loves sausage. Let's get stuffing!
I started off with a rack of pork. Looks great, doesn't it? I cut the rack into individual chops.

In a pan I cooked the sausage, taken out of the casing with some garlic. After the sausage was cooked thoroughly it was pulsed in the food processor about 5 times.
I let the sausage cool and then added a pound of fresh chopped baby spinach leaves, and a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese. If you would like more cheese, go ahead and add it. I have big hands! LOL!

I added the stuffing to each of the chops and then seasoned the pork chops with salt and pepper.

I made an egg wash by beating a whole egg in a dish. I dipped the pork chops into the egg and then lightly dragged them through the flour, giving them a light dusting on each side. These went into a large frying pan that had a few tablespoons of olive oil and butter in it.  On high heat I seared each side of the pork chop to give it a lovely color.

After searing on both sides they went onto a parchment lined cookie sheet to finish in the oven.

They were baked in a preheated 375 degree oven for 15- 20 minutes on each side, for a total of 30 - 40 minutes. Don't over cook.
They were finished with a demi glaze porcini and mushroom sauce, and served! You can find my recipe for the sauce here.  Enjoy!  We did!

Buon Appetito
xoxoxo
Lorraine

Stuffed Pork Roast

This recipe for a stuffed pork roast will rock your world. It's actually pretty simple, but it is so scrumptious!
This roast was cut in half down the center. If it hadn't been sliced that way I would have made a pocket to stuff the roast. I almost prefer it with a pocket because it holds in more of the stuffing.
For this recipe you will need

one boneless pork roast
fresh rosemary
prosciutto
olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh spinach
bacon
sliced provolone cheese

Start preparing the roast by season all pieces of the meat with salt and pepper. I like to rub the inside of the meat with some olive oil.
On the bottom piece of the roast layer the sliced prosciutto. We like the smokey flavor, so I used about a 1/4 pound.
Next layer some fresh spinach leaves, pile on as much as you can because during the cooking process the spinach will shrink to nothing, and then top that with some sliced provolone. Use as much as you need!  Season with some fresh rosemary.

Now it's time to tie the roast together. We used thread, lots and lots of thread...I forgot to ask the butcher for some string, and besides, my mother always used thread and it always worked for her, so if  there's no string use sewing thread!  Just don't pull a Bridget Jones and use some funky color that will bleed all over everything! lol

Once you have your roast secured, it's time for the bacon. Just lay your strips of bacon across the top of the roast, so that they cover the top and fall on each side.  Bake the roast at 450 degrees for 15 minutes and then lower the heat to 350 degrees, and cook your roast for approximately 20 minutes per pound. 

For the gravy we simply made an au jus with the drippings from the pan. Yummy!

I regret not taking a picture of the roast before we cut it up and put it on the table. It was so scrumptious! If you look at the next picture you can spot the sliced roast on a serving platter on the table. It was enjoyed by all!

Thanks for stopping in. Have a great day and most of all, have fun in the kitchen!

xoxoxo

Lorraine