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.

Big Green Beans with Lemon and Dill

1. Bring some water to a boil with a "steamer" thing above it.

2. Place 2 handfuls of fresh green beans from Steve and Olivia's farm in the steamer and close the lid.

3. In a bowl, Zest and Squeeze one lemon from your tree or someone elses. Add some olive oil. Add some green peppercorn dijon or other favorite mustard. Add some minced basil and some of Olivia's Dillweed from Farmer and the Cook. Salt and Pepper too.

4. When beans are done to your liking (we like them still a little crunchy), add to the lemon mustard herb dressing and toss to coat.

Late Summer Guacamole

1. Finely mince up 2 of Olivia's fresh local organic serrano chillies that she picked at 10pm on Saturday night by iphone light.

2. Mash up one clove of fresh garlic from Steve's farm

3. Mince up 1/2 red onion from same farm

4. Chop and mix the above together with some good salt. Squeeze in one or two limes. Add a little olive oil and stir.

5. Core and chop up several almost too ripe red heriloom tomotoes from the Sunday farmer's market. Mix in with the above.

6. Finely chop some cilantro from the Steve's Farm and mix in.

7. Open, Core and Cube several local avocados picked up at FnC. Gently mix in, not mashing.

8. Serve with favorite chips. Ours our 'Have a Corn Chip' made in Laguna Beach.



5.

Raw Corn Salad with Cherry Tomotoes and Avocado

Now that I am sober I am aware of how much of what I ate depended on how it went with red wine. Now what I make for dinner is pretty much only about what is available locally, as in local to my fridge.

After tonight's meeting I was right down the street from Farmer and the Cook, so I picked up some:

- golden cherry tomatoes
- 2 ripe avocados
- a bag of pre husked corn
- cilantro
- 2 jalepenos
- 3 limes
- some spelt tortillas
- some cheese
- some chips

All the produce was grown by Steve.

Obviously I was thinking quesadillas or just guacamole but when I got home eric said cheese sounded heavy.

So I made up a corn salad with the raw corn, halved cherry tomatoes, serranos olivia had given me the other day, red onion, cilantro, lime and salt.

Fried the tortillas up in olive oil.

Spooned the salad on top.
Sliced an avocado on top of each.
And put the last of the smoked salmon on top of that.

YUM.

Grilled Sea Bass "Ceviche"

Olivia and Steve came over last night. We had already eaten too much food and Steve's Potato Salad is so incredibly good, it's hard not to eat A LOT. But we still decided to grill the big beautiful piece of Sea Bass anyway.

So we had a lot left over this evening.

This is what I did with it.

1. Mince up 1/4 of one of Steve's amazing red onions.
2. "Chop" already grilled Sea Bass into the right size pieces for eating with a chip
3. Thinly slice up some of Steve's fresh basil
4. Zest and squeeze a lime into the mixture
5. Add just enough organic mayo to bind.
6. Salt and Pepper.

We ate it with "Have a Chip" Chips.
Perfect meal after a HOT day.


Note: I tried being a Vegetarian again for a while. I have gone back to eating meat.

Chard Pasta

Again, dinner depends on what is in the fridge and what got brought to the studio.

1. In a non-stick pan, heat a little olive oil and pan toast some pine nuts. Remove and reuse same pan.

2. Thinly slice up some shallots or onions or such
3. Mince up that last carrot or two from Steve's Farm
4. Thinly slice the stalks of home grown Rainbow Chard brought to you by Dennis in yesterday's yoga class.
5. Continue to thinly slice the chard leaves, separating them from the chard stalks.

6. Heat too much olive oil and some butter if you like in that non-stick pan.
7. Add 2 cloves of smooshed garlic and some red pepper flakes. Stir and quickly add the onions, carrots and chard stalks. Stir and eventually add the pasta. Stir and allow pasta to get chewy.

8. Eventually add the chard. Stir in and allow to wilt. Squeeze in some lemon juice. Add some lemon rind, some Parmesan, salt and pepper, stirring.

Fried Pasta with Fat and Salt

Olivia, my dear friend is teasing me about not cooking anymore. Steve, her husband even said the other day, "You used to be such a good cook."

But what about Eric? Does he feel tricked? What if he announced that he did want to take care of the cars anymore? We so easily find ourselves in roles and assume we will do them forever.

Fried Rice has been replaced with Fried Pasta.

Tonight I came home at around 11 famished. My Ayurvedic pal, Jackie would be appalled.

1. Find leftover plain already cooked strangled priest pasta in the fridge
2. Heat too much olive oil in a pan
3. Mash up some garlic.
4. When oil is hot, put in garlic, stir and add pasta. Stir well to coat and mix garlic with pasta.
5. I needed more fat, so I added some butter too.
6. Then I added some chopped up dill, salt and pepper and lots of Parmesan, all as it was still in the pan.
7. I poured it into a bowl and came over to the computer to write about it.

It's already gone.