As much as we like to use our slow-cooker for hearty, comfort-food meals when it’s cold out, we’re also making an effort to use it more often this spring and summer for lighter fare. Posole (pronounced “po-SO-lay”) is a brothy stew that seems more light than traditional beef stew, possibly due to the mild flavor of the hominy that serves as the base of the soup. But far from bland or boring, posole has layers of spicy and savory flavor from the hominy, chicken broth, browned pork, mirepoix (combo of onion, celery and carrot), green chiles, soy sauce, garlic and spices. This stew can be further dressed up with tons of garnish options: shredded lettuce or cabbage, sliced radishes, chopped green onions, diced avocado, pumpkin seeds, salsa, lime, cilantro, etc., etc. There are almost as many different recipe options for posole as garnishes — we adapted ours from a recipe in this book, one of our favorite sources for slow-cooker ideas. This was the first time we had ever made (or eaten) posole and we were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed it. Although posole is often served during Christmas or New Year’s holidays, we like it as a warm-weather dish, since it’s filling enough to be a full meal, but not so stick-to-your-ribs heavy that you feel like you need a nap after you eat it.
Category: Pork
Thai-Style Pork Patties
“Pork patties” may not sound very appetizing, and I’ll admit that I was skeptical about how these would turn out, but this is a Cook’s Illustrated recipe, so we know it was tested extensively by the folks at America’s Test Kitchen until they got it just right. We’re big fans of Cook’s Illustrated and subscribe to them online (great site to find tried & true recipes for dishes you may be cooking for the first time), receive their magazines at home (6 issues per year, packed with interesting cooking tips, info and recipes) and have many of their “best of” books (highly recommend this one for weeknight cooking.) I’m also always on the look-out for any of their special edition magazines, usually available in the grocery store. Their Fall 2011 issue of “30-Minute Suppers” has 64 recipes that are perfect for a weeknight meal, including this pork recipe and several others we have tried and enjoyed. But enough of this non-sponsored free commercial for Cook’s Illustrated — back to the pork patties! We were pleasantly surprised by how delicious they turned out, most likely due to the unique combination of flavors from several Thai-style ingredients: fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, shallot, serrano chile, lemongrass and cilantro — blended together with ground pork, an egg and fresh breadcrumbs that resulted in flavorful patties with the ideal crispy-outside-moist-inside texture. These patties have an unexpectedly sophisticated flavor (makes me want to name them something more refined than “patties”), especially considering how quick and easy they are to prepare in under half an hour.
Pork Souvlaki
The word “souvlaki” comes from a Greek word meaning “skewer” and refers to meat (usually lamb or pork) grilled on a skewer. Although we’ve never been to Greece (add it to the Life List!), we were inspired by a visit to a Greek food festival to try making this type of cuisine at home. Given our prior success with meat-on-a-stick recipes (pork, beef and more pork), we figured that the Greek version of the kebab would be a good place to start. We used this recipe for a simple, yet flavor-packed marinade made from olive oil, red wine, lemon juice, dried mint, dried oregano, garlic and a bay leaf. We made pork souvlaki because we happened to have pork shoulder in the freezer (most likely leftover from our Charcutepalooza efforts), but the marinade would likely be just as good with lamb or even chicken. Aside from the dried mint, these are all ingredients that we almost always have on hand, but wouldn’t necessarily have thought of combining. Surprisingly, the combination resulted in the unmistakable “Greek” flavors we remember sampling at the festival. Who knew it would be so easy to make Greek food at home? This is one of our favorite things about cooking — the satisfaction that comes from learning a new flavor profile or technique that opens up a whole new realm of recipe possibilities. Opa!
Pork Chops with Italian Relish
With its warm and rich flavors of tomato, basil, oregano and garlic, Italian “relish” has a way of transforming a protein into comfort food — sort of like Sunday Sauce without the pasta (and carbs.) We’ve had Italian relish on fish and steak, but never really thought about putting it on pork, until we found this recipe on the Epicurious website. Adding the relish is an easy way to liven up weeknight pork chops with just a few simple ingredients: tomatoes, onion, red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, basil and oregano. We also added olives to ours, since we’ve never met an olive we didn’t like. Buon Appetito!
Sesame and Honey Pork Tenderloin with Ramen
We appreciate the efficiency of a meal that incorporates the basics — protein, starch and vegetable — all in one pot. Kind of like a soup or stew, but more substantial. We adapted this recipe from one found in a Cook’s Illustrated publication: “30-Minute Suppers.” (We have the Fall 2011 issue, which does not appear to be available online just yet.) The pork has lots of flavor from cooking in the honey and sesame sauce and would be good enough on its own. But adding rich broth, ramen noodles and wilted spinach turns the pork into a full and delicious meal.
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Slow-Cooker Smothered Pork Chops
A little behind-the-scenes info about Foodie Lawyer — we process our photos in Picasa, creating a web album for each post. When uploading the photos for this recipe, Dan accidentally named the folder “Mothered Pork Chops.” Turns out to be a pretty good description of this dish, which tastes like your mom lovingly cooked it all day long. But it’s actually the slow-cooker that does all the work. All you (or your mom) have to do is cook a little bacon, brown some onions along with garlic, brown sugar and thyme, de-glaze with with chicken broth, then add those and the remaining ingredients (more brown sugar, bay leaves and pork chops) to the slow-cooker. The end result is succulent, fork-tender pork smothered (or mothered) with a rich and delicious carmelized onion/bacon gravy. The folks at America’s Test Kitchen come through for us yet again with this excellent recipe from their book “Slow Cooker Revolution.”
Pork & Mushroom Skewers
Skewering meat and grilling it lends a fun, caveman quality to preparing dinner. Or maybe that’s just us. Anyway, we enjoy kebabs (or kabobs, if you prefer) and especially appreciate the versatility of this grilling technique in terms of proteins (including beef and pork) and veggie combinations, as well as marinades and sauces. This recipe from one of our favorite grilling books, “Weber’s Real Grilling,” uses both a marinade and a sauce, but is still quick and easy enough for a weeknight. The bright, fresh flavor of the basil sauce goes well with the grilled pork and mushrooms tossed in an olive oil marinade seasoned with thyme and celery salt.
Horseradish-Maple Glazed Pork Chops
We often use leftover pork for a second meal during the week, including such dishes as stir-fried pork, banh mi sandwiches and moo shoo pork. Sometimes I prefer pork as a leftover because so many of these dishes have a sauce or other components to liven up the pork, which otherwise can be a little bland. These chops are anything but bland, yet not too flavor-specific that they can’t be turned into a totally different second meal (we used our leftover chops in fried rice.) I found the recipe in one of Bobby Flay’s cookbooks, “Boy Meets Grill.” Chef Flay writes, “think about these three flavors going together — grilled pork chops, pungent horseradish, and sweet maple syrup — it makes sense.” We initially thought that pairing horseradish with syrup actually does not make sense, but we are not accomplished chefs, nor Food Network stars. So we took Bobby’s word for it and were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the sweet, yet spicy flavor.
Banh Mi Sandwiches (with leftover pork)
Pork is a versatile protein when it comes to leftovers, especially in Asian dishes. We have used leftover pork for stir fry, moo-shoo pork, and pork fried rice (post coming soon!), just to name a few. This sandwich recipe is yet another good use of leftover pork, with an Asian flair. I was inspired to try making Banh Mi sandwiches at home after having one from a little soup & sandwich shop in Brooklyn while visiting Dan’s brother, his lovely wife and adorable son earlier this year. Although not authentically Vietnamese, the sandwich was delicious and didn’t seem like it would be all that difficult to make, especially using pork that had already been cooked. There are a lot of Banh Mi recipes out there, but it seems like a common thread among most of them is pickled carrot and daikon (a type of radish.) The remaining sandwich components vary and should depend on what you have on hand and your taste preferences. The pickled veggies sound a little strange, but their sweet/sour flavor balances really well with salty pork, fresh lettuce and spicy jalapeno. We’ll definitely make this sandwich again.
Breakfast Pizza
We love pizza of all kinds — whether it’s delivery, healthy(ish) homemade, or a pie with unusual toppings. Dan has recently been experimenting with baking bread, which means we often end up with dough remnants perfect for homemade pizza. One weekend we decided to put the leftover dough to good use by having it for breakfast. Turns out that thin pizza crust topped with cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon and cream gravy is a really nice way to start the day.