Cuisine: Hot Pineapple Pork Loin

I was inspired to create this recipe after eating at Mission Chinese Food with my husband and dear friend, Victoria. The food brought me to another world: Chengdu. I was reminded of a meal I had there that was out-of-this-world spicy. It started with this pickled dish that numbed the tongue. Then, they brought out all of the spicy food.

Mission Chinese Food also had a pickled dish that numbed the tongue. I loved it. I devoured the cucumbers, peanuts, and cabbage. My forehead was sweating profusely. It was as if I was still outside in the rain, and that feeling of exhilaration that comes from spice rushed over me. I was in heaven. Or more precisely, I was right back in Chengdu at this restaurant of fine dark stained wood and deep red.

The unique flavor that numbs the tongue is the Sichuan peppercorn. I have a ton of it at home, and I have been neglecting it. It isn't for everyone, so I use it sparingly. After dinner at Mission Chinese Food, I knew I had to dust it off and create a new recipe. Thus, the beginnings of Hot Pineapple Pork Loin was born.

I'm not sure how I thought to pare all of the different flavors. It just kind of came to me. Or, the rub did at least. The addition of the pineapple came because I knew I needed to cook it with some liquid at the bottom of the pan. The liquid helps keep the pork loin nice and juicy. I didn't want to use just water, so I ran across the street to the liquor store. My choices were limited to apple juice, orange juice, a small bottle of cranberry juice, some limeade, and there it was...pineapple juice. Yup, the one in the can from Dole. I grabbed it and headed home.

The result is this amazingly tender pork loin that has a hint of heat from the crust of the rub and a nice tart sweetness from the pineapple. Sure it's not a dish you would find in Chengdu or Mission Chinese Food, but both are owed a debt of gratitude for first introducing me to the Sichuan peppercorn and reminding me how much I love it.

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What you need:
1 tsp caraway seed
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp black peppercorn
1 tsp pink peppercorn
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorn
seeds from 4 cardamon pods
1 tsp fried onion
2 tsp salt
2 tsp fried garlic
1 tsp paprika
3 lb boneless pork loin
1 can pineapple juice

What to do:
Make a rub for the pork by putting all the spices in a spice grinder and processing until fine. Rub all over the pork and let sit for at least one hour. Heat over to 500 degrees. Place pork on a rack in a roasting pan. Pour all of the pineapple juice into the pan. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Base the pork carefully with the pineapple juice. Bake for another 10 - 15 minutes, or until the pork starts to brown nicely.

Reduce heat to 300 degrees. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour more basting every 10 minutes or so. Turn the pork loin over after about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, place pork on a dish, cover, and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour the pineapple juice into a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and simmer to reduce liquid to about half.

Slice pork loin and pour a little of the juice on top.

Enjoy with roasted yams or sweet potatoes and your favorite greens.

Tip: Roasting the yams or sweet potatoes is simple. Start by slicing them lengthwise into quarters. Toss in oil to coat and sprinkle lightly with salt. Put them into a pan and place in the oven when you turn the pork loin. Bake for about 45 minutes. Carefully turn the yams or sweet potatoes over at least twice to ensure even cooking. The yams or sweet potatoes will be incredibly soft and tender.

Cuisine: Cowboys in India Crock Pot Roast

This recipe comes via The S. Kitchen fan, Tina M. She bought Cowboys in India in late November and was wondering what to use it for. She decided to make a pork pot roast in a crock pot. It's a simple recipe with a lot of punch. It's almost like those infomercials: "Set it and forget it."

I hope you enjoy the recipe. And please share your own recipes.

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You will need:
Cowboys in India
Pork roast
Green bell pepper
Onions
Barbecue sauce

What to do:
I used the delicious seasoning with a pork roast, cooked it for 8 hours in a crock pot, and when it fell of the bone I shredded it, sauteed it with green bell peppers and onions, added barbecue sauce, combining all ingredients and served it on a bun. YUMMY!! It made the best bbq pork sandwiches ever with a spicy twist!! Thanks again!!

Cuisine: Pork Fried (After a Long Weekend) Rice

I love all types of fried rice. Whether it is curried Vietnamese fried rice or Mongolian beef fried rice or fried rice and beans. All of them are wonderful, especially as a comfort food on cloudy, foggy days.

The key to perfectly cooked fried rice starts with day-old cooked rice. If you don't, it will turn out okay. But it will not be as crisp with the tiny charred bits that make fried rice so delectable.

This recipe seems involved, and it kind of is. But it is broken out into three phases to make it a little more understandable and sequential. Follow this recipe as is, and you will have perfectly spicy pork fried rice.

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Phase One
You Will Need:
4 cups Jasmine Rice, cooked and set aside
1/2 Yellow Onion, diced
1 White Onion, diced
3 Carrots, peeled and diced
2 Serrano Peppers, cored, seeded and diced
5 cloves of Garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 to 2 Tbsp. Grapeseed Oil
2 Tbsp. Water
Salt to taste

What To Do:
Melt 1 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. oil in a pan.
Add onions and carrots, and saute 10 minutes.
Add serrano and garlic.
Add butter, and if needed - more oil.
Saute mixture for 10 minutes.
Add water.
Saute 5 to 10 more minutes - or until water evaporates.
Set Aside.


Phase 2
You Will Need:
3 Pork Chops, diced
1/2 tsp. White Pepper
1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. Oil

What To Do:
Melt butter and heat oil over medium heat.
Combine ALL ingredients (from this phase - pork, pepper, salt, etc), and saute until the pork is slightly crispy.


Phase 3:
Add the onion mixture (Phase 1) to the Pork Mixture (Phase 2), and add the Jasmine Rice.

To this mixture, you will add:
1 tsp. Soy Sauce Paste
2 Tbsp. Chili Paste
2 Tbsp. Butter

What to do:
Mix ALL INGREDIENTS and cook, covered, over low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure the bottom browns, but doesn't blacken!

Cuisine: Simply Spiced Pork Roast

Pork is my favorite meat. I love all of its forms whether it is bacon, chops, ham, or roast. This recipe is really simple and easy to make. The brown sugar helps to candy and brown the outside of the pork, which means crispy, tasty bits of flavor in each bite. The cayenne and black pepper create a nice heated smoky flavor. The ginger adds a little extra umph to the brown sugar's sweetness. And the garlic rounds out everything.

***
You Will Need:
4 cloves Garlic
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Ground Ginger
1 tsp. Cayenne Powder
1 tsp. Black Pepper
2 lbs. Pork Shoulder

What To Do:
Poke holes all over the pork with a pairing knife, slice garlic cloves lengthwise, and place the sliced garlic inside the pork holes.

Mix brown sugar, ginger, salt, cayenne, and black pepper together. Rub this mixture all over the pork.

Let sit for no less than 30 minutes and no more than an hour.

Heat 1 Tbsp. of oil in a pan, and fry the pork on all sides until brown. This step will take about 20-30 minutes

Heat oven to 350. Place pork in a roasting pan and bake covered for about 1.5 hours. The internal temperature should read 170 degrees.

Remove from oven and keep covered. Let sit for 15 minutes so juices can settle in the pork.

Serve sliced with your favorite S Kitchen sides!

Cuisine: Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

This is a recipe I crafted for Sing for Your Supper.

The potluck guidelines for this The S. Kitchen event were to bring a dish inspired by your favorite music. I thought and thought and thought about what my favorite music actually is. I like so many different types of music that picking just one is really, really difficult. Then, I thought about what I really wanted to make and to see if there was a musical genre that spoke to it.

Having been to Berlin to visit my dear friends Dan and Tomas last April, German food and German music were still swirling in my head. I started looking up different types of classic German food. But the problem with classic German food is that I hate classic German music. I do, however, love German electro.

So my husband scoured our cd racks to find German electro music to help inspire the cuisine. As I listened to the music and let Germany seep back into my blood, I found a recipe for pork chops. I knew it would be good because it included being cooked in milk with lots of cheese. In order to make it my own, I decided to kick up the seasonings because German food is not all that seasoned.

This is what was created. It was the hit of the ball and everyone loved the Parmesan crust.

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You Will Need:
14 1/3 inch cut pork chops, trimmed of fat
1 pint buttermilk
1 jalapeno, cored and seeded and finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
6 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 tsps sweet paprika
2 tsps hot paprika
2 tsps fine German pepper
2 tsps black pepper
2 tsps garlic powder
2 TBSPs salt
2 containers grated Parmesan cheese

What To Do:
Mix the buttermilk, jalapeno, garlic and 1/4 tsp salt together and let sit for about one hour.

Pound each pork chop with a flat meat tenderizer of a small sauce pot until about 1/4 inch thick. Set aside.

Beat 1/4 tsp salt into the 6 eggs until frothy. Sift remaining dry ingredients together.

Grab four containers that are large enough to lay a pork chop in without it being crowded. They could be baking dishes, flat bottomed bowls, etc. In the first container, pour in about half the buttermilk mixture. In the second one, pour in about 1/4 of the flour. In the third one, pour in the beaten eggs. In the last one, pour in about 1/4 of the Parmesan.

To assemble the pork chops: dip the chop in the buttermilk ensuring it gets fully coated. Then, dip both sides in the flour. Make sure that the flour adheres all over the pork. You may need to pat it down into the flour. Then, dip both sides in the egg. Finally, dip it in the Parmesan. The last coating will be really messy. Make sure it is covered fully otherwise it doesn't get the right flavor at the end. Finally, place it in a prepared pan. You will need to continually refill the flour and the Parmesan containers. The buttermilk and egg should be fine.

Make sure to not crowd the pork chops in the baking dish. This recipe will fit into two large aluminum trays (seven in each).

Cover the trays with aluminum foil and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Take the trays out of the refrigerator and uncover. Pour the remaining butter milk in both trays and recover. Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Then, remove the cover and bake for another 15 minutes ensuring that the breading browns.

Serve and enjoy!

Cuisine: Spicy Chipotle Pork Stew

Yesterday, I was in a funk. So I decided to cook. This is what I created. It was the perfect remedy. It is very spicy and comforts the soul.

To make it less spicy, add less chipotle peppers and jalapenos.

***
For the marinate:
1 small onion, diced
1/2 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1/2 bunch Italian parsley, roughly chopped
2 tsp. salt

Mix all of the above inredients together. Set aside for about 30 minutes. Drain and reserve any liquid.

For the rub:
1 tsp. smoked chiplotle powder
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp. spicy smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. ground red pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. ground corriander
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
3 lbs. tamale pork, cubed in large chunks

Mix dry ingredients and rub on pork. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Then mix with marinate. Set aside for another 15 minutes. Drain and reserve any liquid.

Cooking the pork:
2 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP safflower or other vegetable oil

Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Once oil is hot, add pork. Fry pork on all sides. Pork should brown, and there should be bits of seasoning stuck to the bottom of the pan. Remove pork from dutch oven (it will not be cooked fully) and set aside in a covered bowl.

The vegetable base:
1 red bell pepper, cut in large chunks
1 1/2 small onions, cubed
3 carrots, cut in large strips
2 1/2 jalapenos, cored, seeded, and diced
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix vegetables together with salt and set aside for about 10 minutes. Drain and keep any liquid.












Place vegetables in dutch oven after pork is removed. Cook vegetables making sure to scrape off burnt seasoning off the bottom for about 10 minutes on medium high heat. Not all seasoning will come off. Remove vegetables and set aside.

The stew base:
4 chipotle peppers (from canned chipotle peppers), cored and seeded, plus all adobo sauce
2 cans whole tomatoes, roughly chopped
7 cloves dry roasted garlic, sliced (This can be done over the stove in a dry pan with garlic cloves still in their skins. It takes about 15 minutes.)
1/4 cup water

Cook chipotle peppers and adobo sauce in dutch oven, scrapping the bottom to remove as much of the burnt seasonings as possible for about 5 minutes on medium high heat. Add tomatoes and all their juices. Continue scraping bottom of dutch oven and cook for another 5 minutes. Add all reserved liquids and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and water. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add vegetables and pork and cook for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

Beans and potatoes:
3 small potatoes, cubed
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp. salt

Mix potatoes and salt and set aside for 15 minutes. Drain all liquid. Add pinto beans and potatoes to stew once it has been removed from heat. Taste stew to see if additional salt needs to be added.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Cover dutch oven and cook for 1 hour. Mix twice as it is cooking. Uncover and cook for another 15 minutes. Sauce will thicken. Remove and cool for 10 minutes.

Serve with Cabbage and Tangerine Slaw, Mexican sour cream, and fresh tortillas.

Click here for a grocery list for the above dinner.