Rhubarb Crumble Pie

I love rhubarb. I love it is all its pucker inducing tartness. It is frequently this slighted marginalized ingredient, only included as a tart note without embracing all that it has to offer on its own. This recipe  from thekitchn.com highlights the beautiful tartness of Rhubarb and enhances it with lemon.

My only real change to to the recipe was forced by me running out of sugar. Thankfully I caught it early enough so I cut down on the amount of corn starch the recipe called for and supplemented with confectioners sugar. I also added about 1/4 cup of maple syrup. The flavor was likely more tart than most people would enjoy but it was perfect for me.

I used almond meal in my topping, if you don't have it I'm sure finely chopped almonds would be just fine.

For the crust I used my new favorite crust which is a butter/lard hybrid from Alton Brown.

I can't rave about this crust enough. I have used it now for both a savory chicken pot pie and this dessert pie and it is magic in both applications. It is very flaky and tender with a great flavor.

Angel Hair with Shrimp, Scallops and a Lemon Mustard Butter sauce.

I picked this recipe up out of  the Bon Appetit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild. My Mother

 I made some minor modifications to the ingredients and the process but I can confidently recommend using the original. I doubled the recipe since I was serving 4 adults and we had a good amount of leftovers. This recipe is simple and delicious.

Ingredients:
2 cups dry white wine
1 tsp lemon zest
1 lb scallops ( you can use bay scallops, I used larger ones)
1 lb tail on shrimp
4 tsp Dijon mustard
1 stick chilled butter cut into pieces

12 oz angel hair pasta
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives

Start heating a big pot of salted water for your pasta.

Bring the wine and lemon to a boil in a large pan, making sure there is enough room to fit all the seafood, and space to toss the pasta.Once the wine is boiling add your seafood and reduce to a simmer. Cook the seafood for 3 minutes or so until the shrimp has just turned pink and the scallops are just opaque. The seafood goes back in the pan at the end so do not overcook it now. Rubbery scallops suck

Remove the scallops and shrimp to a large bowl and set aside. Bring the temperature back up to a boil and reduce the wine by about 1/2. Once the wine has reduced whisk in the mustard then, piece by piece whisk in the butter.

Once all the butter has been added, drop your pasta in the water and cook it for 2-3 minutes if using fresh pasta.

Meanwhile add your seafood and any liquid back into the sauce and toss to coat. Once your pasta is done add it to the pan with your sauce to add everything to one big pasta bowl toss. Sprinkle on your fresh chives and serve immediately.

I served it with oven roasted asparagus and fresh sourdough bread.

Stuffed Pork Loin Roast

There are two drawbacks to cooking on the fly:
1. You don't tend to measure so writing things down after is an effort in guess work
2. You always 2nd guess a decision and come up with better ways after the fact

With those things in mind I'm going to write the recipe as I think it should be done rather than the slapdash, albeit delicious, first attempt.

Ingredients:
3-4 lb pork loin roast (not pork tenderloins please)
1 lb bacon
1 cup caramelized onions
1/2 cup shitake mushrooms (dried is fine about 8-10 dried)
1 cup cooked spinach
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt
pepper
olive oil
4 feet butchers twine

Preheat your oven to 350

Slice the pork loin horizontally, as close to the center as you can get, do not slice it all the way through. Open it up so it lays flat. Let it rest while you prep the rest of your ingredients.

Re-hydrate your mushrooms if you are using dried. I like to use a mix of boiling water and wine to re-hydrate  Just plain water will work but I find the wine gives them a better flavor. Let them steep until soft then chop finely. If using fresh just chop them up. I don't like shitake stems as I find them too woody in texture so remove them.

If you are using fresh spinach, saute it with a bit of chicken stock and mix in your chopped mushrooms. Salt and pepper to taste. For frozen spinach thaw in the microwave and saute with the mushrooms to heat the through.

Once your spinach and mushroom mix is cooked, spread it in an even layer inside of your butterflied pork, then layer on the cheese and onions.

Close the pork and truss it with your butchers twine.

Once you have your pork all tied up and lovely, flip it over so most of your knot work is on the bottom then drape it with bacon. You can skip the bacon and brown it before baking but why would you skip the bacon?

Stick it in the oven and cook until it reaches an internal temp of 145-150. Yes I mean it, don't over cook your pork. The USDA says its ok. Let it rest for at least 5-10 minutes after it reaches temp.

Once it is done you should be able to roll it onto its side and cut the twine from the bottom. By doing so you can pull it off without disturbing your nice crispy bacon.

Slice into pork chop thickness pieces and serve.

So Good: I Try It So You Don't Have To: SweetBreads

This week I combined my So Good article with some recipe testing for a cookbook (more on that at another time)
Good times with sweetbreads.

Sage and Maple Brined Pork Chops with a Maple Sage Brown Butter Sauce.

Are you brining your meat? (why does that sound dirty?) If you aren't you should be. If I am cooking pork or poultry I always try to brine if I can.
Brine doesn't need to be anything other that water and salt but it's always best to get some other flavors in there. Bringing typically takes 6-8 hours for small cuts and up to 12 for larger items like whole turkeys or pork loins

For 4,  1/2 inch thick pork chops you will need

3 cups water
8 ice cubes
4 Tablespoons kosher salt
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons dried sage

I like bone in pork chops, if you use boneless chops you may need to add some more butter as I find they have less fat. You need the fat.

Heat two cups of water, the salt, maple syrup and sage to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring to be sure salt gets completely dissolved.

Add in the other cup of water and the ice cubes to cool the brine. Once the brine is cooled pour over the pork chops and stash them in the fridge.

When it's time to cook discard the brine, rinse and dry the pork chops. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 375

For cooking and the sauce you will need

4 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons dried sage
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Add the butter and sage to an oven safe pan an cook over medium, stirring frequently until it has just started to turn brown. For more on brown butter check here. Once the butter has started to brown add the pork chops, cook on one side for 1-2 minutes, then flip to the other side for 1-2 minutes to coat. transfer the pan to the oven and cook for another 6-8 minutes. If you want you can finish under the broiler for 2 minutes per side for a darker color. I would reduce the cooking time to 6 minutes at most if you are going to do so.

After cooking/broiling remove the chops from the pan, and return the pan to a burner over medium high heat.  there should be a good layer of liquid in the pan from the pork, if you don't think there will be enough sauce you can add some chicken stock to the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil then reduce heat to low, add the maple and balsamic stir for a minute or two to incorporate everything, ladle it over your pork chops and serve. The maple should almost caramelize in the pan..