Batter-Splattered

Grilled Monster Pork Chops with Tomatillo and Green Apple Salsa

I saw these tomatillos, piles and piles of them, at the market and that got me to thinking, what was that recipe?

The one I made a long time ago?

And for some misguided reason I never made again?

That recipe with the tomatillo salsa?

With the green apples?

And the pork chops?

And when I took the salsa to work with me the next day and I opened the tupperware container, a few minutes later a co-worker called me up to ask what was that divine smell? I have this vent-from-hell in my office ceiling that pumps everything from my office into everyone else's office.

Tomatillo salsa = good. Nail polish remover = not so good.

The salsa is so good. It's like summer in a bowl. Cilantro, granny smith apples, tomatilloes, cumin, honey, garlic... Spread on top of pork chops marinated overnight in a simple rub made of coriander, cumin, s&p, and olive oil. With each bite, you get some salsa and the rub and the pork.

Mmm.

And even though the thermometer was a boiling at 67 (aha), I cranked up the oven and roasted some potatoes sprinkled with rosemary and salt and pepper. You could just as easily grill these in a foil packet with the chops.

Grilled Monster Pork Chops with Tomatillo and Green Apple Salsa

For pork chops
3 tablespoons ground coriander
3 tablespoons ground cumin
2 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 (2-inch-thick) loin pork chops (each about 1 lb)

For tomatillo and green apple sauce
1/2 lb fresh tomatillos (about 5), husks discarded and tomatillos rinsed
2 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro sprigs
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup apple juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon mild honey
1 teaspoon minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo

 Marinate chops:
Stir together coriander, cumin, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then add oil and stir until combined well. Rub spice mixture all over chops. Let chops marinate while making sauce and preparing grill.

Make sauce:
Simmer tomatillos and 3 cups water in a 2 1/2- to 3-quart saucepan, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until tomatillos are just soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and cool 15 minutes.

While tomatillos are cooling, core apples and cut into 1/4-inch dice. Purée tomatillos with remaining sauce ingredients except apples in a food processor. Transfer to a bowl and stir in apples.

To cook pork using a charcoal grill:
Open vents on bottom of grill. Light charcoal (80 to 100 briquettes) in chimney starter. Leaving about one quarter of grill free of charcoal, bank lit charcoal across rest of grill so that coals are about three times higher on opposite side.

Charcoal fire is medium-hot when you can hold your hand 5 inches above rack over area where coals are piled highest for 3 to 4 seconds. Sear pork on lightly oiled grill rack directly over hottest part of coals, uncovered, turning over once and, if necessary, moving around grill to avoid flare-ups, until well browned, 10 to 12 minutes total. Move pork to coolest part of grill, then cover with inverted roasting pan and grill, turning pork over once, until thermometer inserted diagonally into center of each chop (avoid bone) registers 150°F, 10 to 12 minutes total. Transfer pork to a cutting board and let stand, loosely covered with foil, 15 minutes (temperature will rise to 155°F).

To cook pork using a gas grill:
Preheat all burners on high, covered, 10 minutes. Sear pork on lightly oiled grill rack, covered with lid, turning over once, until well browned, 10 to 12 minutes total. Turn off 1 burner (middle burner if there are 3) and put pork above shut off burner. Reduce heat on remaining burner(s) to moderate and grill pork, covered with lid, until thermometer inserted diagonally into center (avoid bone) registers 150°F, 12 to 16 minutes. Transfer pork to a cutting board and let stand, loosely covered with foil, 15 minutes (temperature will rise to 155°F).    

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Here's the dessert I mentioned in yesterday's post, a peach and blueberry cobbler, as pretty as it is toothsome:

I wish I would have thought of the word toothsome when I was trying to think up a name for this blog. What a great name for a food blog. Take it, if you want -- just be sure to send me a check for a million dollars. You don't hear it very often which is such a shame. I like the sound of it. It accurately reflects that sort of tastiness that makes you want to sink your teeth into something.

I got this recipe from that same old cookbook I've been sampling from lately. I'm SO GLAD I tried this because the biscuit topping is phenomenal. Better than anything else I've tasted in its class. You toss together the dry ingredients and make a well in the center, then whip up whipping cream until soft peaks form. Stir it into the dry ingredients with a fork just until a dough forms. The dough is so light and puffy and sweet. I saved alot of scraps for eating raw!

I would have eaten those peaches and berries just like that, spooned over some vanilla ice cream. Or maybe just with a big spoon.

Costco just started selling these big bags of frozen fruit that I'm really excited about. Only $8 and the bag is full of good-looking wedges of peaches, white peaches, plump blueberries, and rounds of honeydew melon... so good! You can pick your way through it and make yourself a helluva pie. I take a big bowl of it to work with me and spear fruit with a fork throughout the day at my desk.

I used peaches -- white and regular -- for this cobbler recipe along with a couple of handfuls of tart little blueberries I picked myself last summer. My supply in the freezer is rapidly dwindling so summer better hurry her ass up so I can pick some more.

This was good and oh so easy.

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Serves six

4 1/2 c peaches sliced into wedges (you can also use nectarines or apricots)

1 pint blueberries (you can also use blackberries or raspberries)

1/2 c sugar

1 T plus 1 t cornstarch

1/2 c water

1 T lemon juice

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

3 T sugar

1 T baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 c heavy cream

Milk, for brushing

Sugar, for sprinkling

Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large saucepan, combine the fruit and berries, sugar, cornstarch, water, and lemon juice. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, or until fruit has softened. Transfer to a shallow baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Spoon cream into the well and mix with a fork just until a dough forms.

On a lightly floured surface, gently knead the dough several times. Roll or pat the dough to 3/4 inches thick. Cut with a biscuit or cookie cutter of your choice and arrange biscuits on top of the fruit, brush with milk, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake cobbler for 15 minutes or so, until biscuits are golden and fruit is bubbling. Let cool slightly. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I found this vintage metal cake carrier at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago and ever since I've been positively itching to take a cake somewhere. Anywhere.

ITCHING to take a cake, I tell you. I was even wishing I had church to go to on Sunday just so I could take a cake for my fellow church-goers to enjoy (that urge passed).

Have cake, will travel.

Luckily, one of my co-workers up and quit and we threw her a going-away potluck yesterday! YAY, she's leaving, I can bring a cake! ... or something a little more sensitive and sorrowful.

The cake carrier was quite the conversation piece at the potluck. I'd hear people saying things like, "Reminds me of something my grandma would have!" It's not the first time someone's accused me of having the taste of a granny. I embrace it -- grannies lived in times of very good design.

I'd also hear: "Groovy!"

And: "Classy!"

People were even taking bets on when it was made. The 1940's? '50's? 60's? It has West Bend, Made in the USA etched on the bottom, but no date. There's also quite a few dents in it. I hope there wasn't a cake inside when they dropped it! I didn't mind the dents though -- I have a few dents and scratches in me too.

I suspected it was made in the 1970's (just like me), what with the harvest gold color and all. Sure enough, I found some more on ebay in avocado green. Mrs. Brady would have carried one just like this, with a cake baked by Alice inside.

You can get your own cake carrier right here on ebay. If that link has expired, as ebay links are bound to do, run a search on "west bend cake" and some should pop right up. I have my eye on a set of matching canisters for holding flour, sugar, tea, and coffee. The black knob on top is bakelite -- pretty cool.

And with all this talk about cake, why don't we talk about the real deal? I just baked a pineapple upside-down cake! But not for the potluck -- the potluck cake was chocolate-chocolate with strawberries on top.

This afternoon, it was all about the pineapples:

I've only ever made pineapple upside-down cakes in a Lodge cast iron skillet.  This one was made in a regular old 9-inch cake pan. I think I like it -- the non-stick coating released the cake easily and without a hitch when I turned it out onto a plate.

Come to think of it, I've only ever made this cake once or twice. Canned fruit isn't exactly my favorite thing and I wouldn't even go near a pineapple when I was little. It's the sugary sweetness. It's not my thing.

But I do enjoy an upside-down cake from time to time at this particular juncture of my life. I got the recipe from the same cookbook I got my zucchini bread recipe from, Mary Englebreit's Queen of the Kitchen Cookbook. Ever since I pulled it off the shelf and dusted it off, I've been flipping through it and marking one recipe after another to try out. 

My husband loves himself a pineapple upside-down cake. LOVES. So his eyes lit up when he learned I was making one. Once I'd fished seven perfect little pineapple rings out of the can, he polished off what was left, juice and all. Knocked it back in a few seconds flat.

I messed up right away when I was making this and I blame the person who wrote the recipe. In the ingredients list, it says a stick of butter. And what I didn't notice was that the butter is divided in the recipe instructions -- a half a stick at the beginning, a half a stick at the end. So I ended up putting an entire stick into the gooey syrup that you pour into the cake pan first. And so it didn't turn out too syrupy. It was good. Just not thick and sticky and syrupy.

For the love of god, recipe writers, if an ingredient is divided in the recipe, say so right there in the ingredients list. One stick of butter, divided. Gimme me a heads-up. 

I fixed it for you, dear reader, in the recipe as written below.

You're welcome.

I also didn't use the dark brown sugar called for in the recipe because I didn't feel like buying more brown sugar even though it was only $1.50 at the store because I already had plenty of light brown sugar at home. I'm like that.

We had this right out of the oven with a little whipped cream. So good. Oh, and a little something I liked about the ingredients is that they call for a pinch of pepper along with spices such as cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg -- I thought that was a nice touch.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Makes one nine inch cake

1/2 c (one stick) butter, divided

1/2 c packed dark brown sugar

8 slices canned pineapple (20 oz. can)

1 1/4 c all purpose flour

3/4 c sugar

2 t baking powder

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

1/4 t ginger

1/4 t salt

Pinch of finely ground pepper

1/2 c milk

1 egg

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small saucepan, melt 1/4 cup (half a stick! not the whole stick -- save the rest for later) of butter over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar until well mixed. Spread the butter-sugar mixture evenly in the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan. Place a pineapple ring in the center of the pan on top of the butter-sugar mixture, then arrange more pineapple rings in a circle around the center one.

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients.

In a small saucepan, melt the remaining half a stick of butter. Pour the milk into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the melted butter, egg, and vanilla and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Scrape batter gently over pineapple rings and gently smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Invert the cake onto a serving plate and let stand for 1 minute before lifting the cake pan (mine popped right out). Serve warm or at room temperature.

there's nothing prettier than pie / orchard patch pie

I call this my Orchard Patch Pie. It's a little something I came up with this afternoon, on the fly.

The pie fly.

'Orchard' because it has peaches (both white and regular) and 'patch' because it has berries (raspberries, blueberries, maybe a blackberry or two).

The husband and his friends were more than happy to help me out with the near-polishing-off of this pie (luckily, there were two slices left). One of them kept asking me to repeat the name for two reasons: one, he thought it was funny, and two, he wanted to be sure to be able to ask for it by name in the future.

I think you'll agree with me when I say there's nothing prettier than pie.

Here's my very simple recipe I created today. I think I need to make another one real soon.

Orchard Patch Pie

Makes one 9-inch pie

2 apples, peeled, pitted and diced

2 peaches, frozen or fresh, diced or sliced -- no need to thaw, if frozen

Handful of assorted berries, fresh or frozen -- no need to thaw, if frozen

3/4 c sugar plus more for sprinkling on top

1 T cornstarch

two piecrusts (I like this recipe)

egg white

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and position rack in center of oven. Combine all the fruit and berries in a big bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the 3/4 cup sugar and the cornstarch. Toss it thoroughly with the fruit. Roll out one pie crust and roll it into the bottom of the pie plate. Add the fruit and berries. Roll out the second pie crust and roll it on top of the fruit. Crimp the edges prettily. Poke the top all over with a fork, then use the fork to beat the egg white a little bit. Brush the top of the pie with the egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 and continue baking until it looks done -- lightly browned on top with a little juice bubbling out here and there.

Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes / Pork Chops with Mango-Basil Sauce

I had this one lonely mango leftover from my first box of CSA organic fruits and vegetables. Should I eat it as a snack? Or should I do something special with it?

I hopped on the internet and found this recipe for pork chops with mango-basil sauce and knew it was meant to be. I had all the ingredients handy -- even pork chops in the freezer -- except for the basil. Had to go to three different stores looking for it! Am I the only one cursed with bad herb luck? It's almost laughable sometimes when I scour the produce sections for something like fresh marjoram and there's none to be found. The next weekend I'm right back at it looking for basil, but there's nothing but marjoram on the shelf.

It always seems to work that way for me.

Mango puree:

It gets all cooked up with garlic and jalopeno and thinly-sliced basil leaves (which I finally found). Then stir in some soy sauce, chicken broth, and brown sugar. I had high hopes for it -- it smelled divine. But when I sampled it, there was something lacking. Like one note missing from an otherwise flawless tune. I had another sample spoon. Hm. There was something missing. Maybe the culprit was my chickening out and not adding the entire diced jalapeno -- it was an extra large jalapeno and it just seemed like too much to add to a single pureed mango!

Not knowing what else to do, I threw in a couple more tablespoons of brown sugar and soy sauce and...

Perfection!

   

Next time, I'll have to make it as written and see what I think. But for now I was very pleased with the results.

I teamed the chops up with some thyme-roasted sweet potatoes. They were heavenly, tossed with olive oil, garlic, fresh thyme leaves, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, then roasted in the oven. They were even better when dipped into some of the aforementioned mango sauce. The pork chops and sweet potatoes were a great combination, sweet and flavorful, one soft, one chewy... the leftovers I had for lunch the next day were even better.

I think the only member of the household not happy with these recipes was the pooch...

I thought for sure the pork chops I pulled out of the freezer had bones but I grabbed the boneless ones by mistake. I must have bought those during my pre-pooch days. Now, my trips to the meat department involve me poking hunks of meat to see if there are bones inside for the dog to gnaw on after dinner. She's given me an all new perspective on the meat department.

Here's the pork chop recipe exactly as written. If you make it this way, with the whole jalopeno, you'll have to leave a comment and tell me how it turned out.

Pork Chops with Mango Basil Sauce

Serves four

1 small mango, peeled, pitted

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 jalapeño chili, seeded, minced
1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 tablespoons golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce

4 6- to 8-ounce center-cut pork chops (about 1 inch thick)

Puree mango in processor. Set aside 1/2 cup puree (reserve any remaining puree for another use).

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and jalapeño, then basil; sauté just until basil wilts, about 1 minute. Add broth, brown sugar and soy sauce. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer 3 minutes. Gradually whisk in cup mango puree. Simmer until sauce thickens and coats spoon, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Prepare barbecue or preheat broiler. Brush pork with 2 teaspoons oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill or broil pork until just cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to plates.

Rewarm sauce over low heat, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over pork.   

Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Serves 3 to 4

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch-thick rounds
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves, plus 6 thyme sprigs for garnish
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 450°F. In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and toss. Arrange potato slices in single layer on heavyweight rimmed baking sheet or in 13x9-inch baking dish. Place on top rack of oven and roast until tender and slightly browned, about 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with thyme sprigs. 

Apple Pandowdy

Apple pandowdy -- a name that delighted the crowd I had over for dinner last night. I must have answered the following question two dozen times:

"Wait. What's it called again? An apple huh?...a pandowdy? ahahaha..."

For some reason, my husband's guy friends thought that was just hilarious. The only thing that could muffle their mirth was a big spoonful of said pandowdy and a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

I really should have googled it for a description to share with everyone. I've heard of it before but I couldn't quite put my finger on the details. My search this morning tells me that a pandowdy is a member of the same family as cobblers, duffs, grunts, and slumps. There are subtle variations but basically, it's fruit baked with a sweet biscuit or cake dough top. Just like I thought.

Further muddying the water was the fact that this particular recipe has more of a pie crust topping. Oh, and some people call it pandowdy, one word, and other people call it pan dowdy, two words. One source said it's called a dowdy because of it's rather plain appearance, no pretty fluted crust encircling it. You just roll the dough into a big circle and unroll it over the apples, free-style, and bake it as is.

It may look plain but the flavor is something special.

It was really, really good. I was a little doubtful because it calls for cooking the apples a litte bit before building the dowdy. I'm not a huge fan of apple pies where you cook the apples first. I think they're too soft and squishy that way. I prefer to just throw them in the crust in their naturally crisp state so they still have some life in them when they come out of the oven.

But did I mention this was really, really good? You cook the sliced apples on the stovetop in a pan and then stir in some apple cider whisked with lemon juice and maple syrup. I hauled out the big cast iron Lodge dutch oven for this recipe and it worked like a charm.

Mm. Mm. Mm.