Pork chops with Poblano Creme Sauce

Eric was on the East end of town at Westridge picking up some pork chops. (Did you notice that I was not a vegetarian for very long?). I was on the West side near Farmer and the Cook.

Olivia has just put out the most beautiful selection of dried chilies and she is carrying anchovies.

She fed me the most Delicious tomato with some mozzarella and basil mixture in her kitchen. Tasting anything Olivia makes inspires one back into the kitchen. So, based on what I could get at FNC today, the menu tonight was this:

Pork chops with Poblano Creme Sauce
Steamed Green Beans with Lemon and Dillweed
Roasted Potatoes sliced Chip Style

I posted the green beans below.
You know how to roast potatoes.

Here is how I made the sauce for the Chops.

1. Boil some water and pour over 3 dried Poblano Chilies to hydrate. (Let sit 30 minutes)

2. Meanwhile, mince up a big shallot from Steve and Olivia's Farm.

3. Mince up a few anchovies.

4. Mince up some garlic.

5. When chilies are ready, remove seeds and veins and mince up. (Note: the poblanos were not as hot as I wanted them to be so I wish I had left the seeds in. Each chili is different, so experiment). Mix the garlic, anchovies, and chili into a paste.

6. Heat some olive oil in a pan and pan roast the peppered porkchops to brown on both sides. (I cover the pan to keep the splatter down and hurry up the cooking inside the meat). Remove chops to a plate.

7. Add shallots to the pan. Stir. Add chili paste to the pan and stir. I let it cook for about a minute. Add a little brandy or other choice cooking liqueur to deglaze the pan. Add some beef broth. Allow to simmer. I tasted it and it was not hot enough, so I added some red pepper flakes. Add some heavy whipping creme. Allow to reduce.

8. I put the chops back in for a little bit to steam in the creme sauce.

Then, to serve. I put the beans and the potatoes on a plate. Put the chop on top and spooned some of the sauce over.

Geordie Making Mom's Chili from Grandma Elsie

"I made some adjustments, " He said.

Geordie sent me to the store to get the ingredients.  This is what he whipped up.

1.5 pounds ground meat

1 Medium Yellow Onion Diced

1 Green Bell Pepper Diced

2 cloves minced garlic and or 2 tsp of garlic powder

1 16oz can of Red Kidney Beans

1 28oz can tomato puree

1/2 ketchup

2 tbl brown sugar

3 Tbl or to taste of Chili Powder

2 tsp. of dried mustard or to taste

2 tsp. of garlic salt

1 tsp. cayenne or to taste

1 finely chopped jalapeno with or without seeds (optional and to taste)

1 tbl. worshteshire

2 tsp. of white pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Tabasco to taste

1. In a heavy pot, like a Crueset Dutch oven, heat a few tbl of olive oil and brown the meat.  Add salt and pepper while cooking and a little cayenne while browning.

2. When down, remove meat and drain in colander.  Add an additional tbl or so of olive oil and saute onions and peppers and garlic.  (Onions and garlic first.  Peppers after).

3. When soft, add meat back in.  Drain kidney beans goo and add to pot.  Add can of tomato puree.  Add ketchup, brown sugar and everything else.  

4. Stir.  Keep on medium heat until starts to bubble, then turn to simmer and stir occasionally.   For about 30 minutes or longer if necessary.

Serve with crusty bread for dipping.  A fresh green salad is also good.

Grilled Corn Mexican Street Style

This was THE HIT of all the food.  So easy and fun to eat.  As Geordie said, "like an adult ice cream cone."

1. Prepare Corn by pulling back the husks and tying them to create a "handle".  Remove the stringy things.

2. Prep and prepare grill as you do.

3. Lightly Grill Corn.

4. Remove from grill and lightly spread a little mayonnaise on each.  Sprinkle with chili powder.  Grate feta cheese on top and squeeze a little lime.  

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Guajillo Sauce

I was inspired to make Guajillo Sauce from Rick Bayless. But once I had made it according to him, it was not quite right to our tastes. So below is my recall of his instructions and our additions

1. Slowly roast 6 unpeeled garlic cloves on a cast iron skillet until blackened. (About 15 minutes).
2. Stem, open, seed and devein two 2 oz. bags of Guajillo Chillies. (Skinny bright red ones).
3. Start kettle of water.
4. Once garlic is done, toast chillies briefly on both sides and remove to a bowl. (I like to press them down into pan to blister them a bit). Pour hot water over them and allow to soak about 30 minutes to rehydrate.

5. In food processor, puree chilles, garlic, 1/3 cup beef broth, a couple pinches freshly ground cumin seed, Mexican oregano, salt and fresh ground pepper until smooth.

6. Press mixture though a sieve to get smooth paste and discard of skins.

7. Heat enuf olive oil (about 1.5 tbl) in big heavy dutch oven-like pan. Add puree and allow to cook until it "rounds out", loosing the chili edge and turning a darker brick red. Slowly begin to add the beef broth. Rick's recipe called for 3 cups of beef broth. I only added 2 to get a thicker sauce. At the end of dinner, I had no sauce left over, so I might add more broth next time.

8. Cook for 30 minutes over a low simmer, partially covered.

9. When we tasted it, we wanted it to be sweeter. So, I added a canela cinnamon stick, some flame raisins and a little molasses. If I do this sauce again, I would add the cinnamon stick in the beginning.

These additions, plus lots of salt, allowed the sauce to find it's footing and reveal something really yummy.

Because we were uncertain of the heat of the sauce, we grilled the pork tenderloin with just olive oil, salt and pepper.

To serve, I spooned some of the beautiful red sauce on a plate along with lots of the raisins. I sliced up the tenderloin on the diagonal and arranged on the platter. I scattered with chopped cilantro and toasted slivered almonds.