Salisbury Steak

Fern said we can have ground beef from Mitchell's occasionally and I felt like it today.  I went to Mitchell's and bought fresh ground beef and pork, about four times more beef than pork. I forgot to buy potatoes so I made rice instead.  The meat was seasoned with salt and pepper. The vegetables were a fresh carrot and frozen peas cooked in the microwave.  

That leaves the sauce. I sweated a diced onion till it started to turn golden, then added a few drops of fish sauce and let the dirty sock smell cook off. Next I added a couple cloves of fresh garlic, smashed and diced. About a teaspoon of dried dill went in with salt and pepper. I added a half teaspoon of flour over all and cooked off the flour taste for a minute. Then I added a packet of Bovril Beef Stock and half a cup of water. I stirred it all in and reduced the water a bit. I had to add water before serving because it got a bit too think. I also added a few drops of Worcestershire Sauce before plating.

We both enjoyed the meal. It has been a long time since we had beef in something other than spaghetti sauce, so it was a treat for me. The photo doesn't do it justice. The meat was really good as was the sauce.

Mustard Caramelized Pork Chop

I went to Save On to buy the broccoli and lettuce but I bought the pork, potatoes and tomatoes at Mitchell's.  They are a fully independent grocer and their butcher brings in the best meat. His beef is outstanding, pork is better than most and his chicken has flavour I didn't know chicken could have! I'll get his name next time I see him, he deserves credit for the excellent job he does. Anyway, any good butcher should be able to sell you better quality meat than supermarkets and at competitive prices. It's worth the extra effort to shop every day to get fresh top quality product. You will discover flavours you didn't know ordinary meats could have. 

That is a pork chop properly trimmed. No huge lumps of fat, mostly lean meat. That's not what you get at Save On or Safeway. Not only is the trim better but the meat has flavour because the animals are allowed to move around. Muscles working is what gives meat flavour so the supermarket meats that are raised in total confinement have no flavour at all.

I mixed 1/4 tsp mustard powder (use 1/2 tsp), 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp salt and fresh ground mixed pepper with olive oil to coat all three chops. Then I rolled the chops in it and let them sit till I cook them.  The broccoli was steamed, cooled under running water and reheated in olive oil and salt. The potatoes were boiled in salted water and finished with butter and milk. 

Vinaigrette

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp canola oil

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1\2 tsp salt

black pepper

1/8 tsp dijon mustard - just a dot

Whisk, toss and serve.

The mustard powder caramelizes and gives the meat a flavour you just won't believe. If the broccoli isn't over cooked it will also be amazing. It's hard to screw up mashed potatoes but you can do it by using an immersion blender on them. It turns them into a thick unpalatable paste. An excellent thing to serve relatives you don't want to see too often!

A simple fresh made vinaigrette tastes better than any bottled salad dressing and it costs far less. I keep a bin of iceberg lettuce, celery and cucumber in the fridge so I only have to do is whisk a vinaigrette, chop a tomato and add a couple of handfuls of salad mix. 

Cajun Chicken under Chardonnay Mushroom Sauce with Pepper Medley

I was building another cabinet today so I didn't want a demanding meal.  I had a bag of peppers in the fridge that needed to be used up and I wanted chicken today. I breezed by the fish and considered Sole for half a  minute but quickly firmed up the choice of chicken. I picked up some salad fixings and I had mushrooms in the fridge.

First I turned the oven to 325F then prepped and chopped all the vegetables. Next I salted and seasoned both sides of the breasts with Cajun spice mix. I put the breasts tops down in a frying pan of hot olive oil and gave them a nice sear then turned them over and put the pan in the oven for 30 minutes total cooking time.

The vegetable medley was half an onion chopped large and sweated with a stick of celery.  A few drops of fish sauce in the pan and I got that dirty sock smell  which turns into an amazing flavour on the food.  An orange and yellow pepper diced up went in the pan and I kept it on high so it didn't get watery.  A few drops of sesame oil but I kept the soy sauce out of it.

The other half of the onion I caramelized in a sauce pan and then seared the mushrooms in it. I sprinkled a teaspoon of flour over all and stirred it in and cooked off some of the flour taste. I took the pan off the heat and stirred in 1/4 cup of milk and 1/4 cup white wine. Pan back on the heat and bring to a bubble then turn down and add more wine to thin the sauce. It should lose moisture while everything else finishes. The wine should be mixed in slowly so it doesn't curdle the milk.

All that was cooking away and I was standing with nothing to do. So I pulled the head of lettuce out and tore it up into a big bin. I had no cucumber so I diced two sticks of celery. I had one tomato that I also chopped up. Two teaspoons olive oil, one teaspoon canola oil, two teaspoons white wine vinegar, half a teaspoon of salt, black pepper and whisk it all together. Drop in the salad mix and tomatoes, toss and plate.

I served the chicken on basmati rice cooked with 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp olive oil and a few drops lemon juice. That little bit of acid really brings out the flavour. Don't use enough to taste the lemon.

Fern said it was all good. The Cajun chicken with white wine mushroom sauce was delicious and the pepper medley was also quite wonderful. Unfortunately they didn't make sense together. The plate actually looks like the two components don't belong together and the taste bears that out. The salad was good but really it's just to keep our middle age digestion moving along, if it tastes good too, that's a bonus.

If I had used broccoli it would have been a terrific meal but remember I had to use up the peppers. So I should have looked for a way to temper the sweetness of the peppers. Don't know what that might be at this point.

Pork Cutlet in disguise

Fern suggested cutlets the other day then we ended up ordering a pizza anyway. Too busy rebuilding the kitchen to cook in it! I also had bunched beets so we would have Borscht and beet greens for the vegetable.

Borscht - This batch wasn't particularly good - beef stock was in the fridge a day too long.

1 carrot diced

1 onion diced

3 beets diced

2 cups beef stock

1/2 tsp salt

mixed pepper

I sweated the onion till some were turning golden. Then added the carrots and finally the beets. I added the beef stock and let it simmer for 45 minutes. Served with a dollop of sour cream. It was forgettable.

Breaded pork cutlet from Save On Foods fried in olive/canola oil. Mashed potatoes with salt, butter and milk. Beet greens. This time I left the stems on because they aren't bitter. They aren't particularly nice to eat either so next time I'll remove them.

Tomato mushroom sauce was simple. I fried the mushrooms in olive oil. Then added garlic and sweated that.  Then tomato sauce and dried basil were added. Dried basil is never great but I think it really didn't like the mushrooms. The sauce was just not there.

The grated parmesan on top was too much too late. I just tallied it up. Only the potatoes and pork cutlet were properly prepped and cooked and I didn't bread the cutlet. Fortunately even great chef's occasionally fail so I won't beat myself up too much.

Pork and Cashew Stir Fry

The best leftover's ever! The pork I roasted a couple of days ago but forgot to write up.  It was a loin roast, brined for 4 hours and cooked with bay leaves on top.  The brine had a tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoon molasses, 1 teaspoon sugar. Then roasted in the oven for an hour and a half till the thermometer was happy with the internal temperature.

I started by prepping everything. Nothing ruins a stir fry faster than trying to dice peppers while the mushrooms turn to carbon. First, I fried the mushrooms, followed by the onions and a few moments later, celery. I microwaved the carrots first to soften them and added them next.  Then the peppers and finally the bok choy. I should have used only half the bok choy, it kind of overwhelmed everything else. 

Thinly sliced pork went in next and I cleared a space in the centre of the pan. I added sesame oil and several drops of fish sauce.  I thought  I over did the fish sauce because it was very fragrant when I put in the pan.  I let it all cook for a few minutes and added some soy sauce. Not too much because Fern likes only a little, but I can almost drink the stuff.

I served it over basmati rice cooked with a pinch of salt, teaspoon oil and two drops rice vinegar. I didn't taste it before serving so I was a little worried it would taste of dirty socks from the fish sauce. I shouldn't have worried. The sauce cooked into a wonderful flavour I'd never produced before. I had to take several bites to confirm what I was experiencing, amazingly good food! That fish sauce is a secret weapon of flavour! I'm using Thai Kitchen in case it matters.

Salisbury Steak with Onion Mushroom Sauce

Fern indicated that ground beef from Mitchell's would be an acceptable meal. He won't eat much beef since his bypass so it's been mostly in spaghetti sauce. I had onions and mushrooms in the fridge so I decided to try Salisbury Steak. I got 3/4 lb of lean ground beef from Mitchell's. I added half a teaspoon of salt, black pepper, finely diced garlic, diced onion, chopped fresh basil and several tablespoons of tomato sauce. I worked that into the meat evenly then fried them in olive oil. 

The potatoes were mashed with butter, salt and milk. The broccoli was steamed, cooled under cold water then finished in olive oil and salt. The sauce was caramelized onions and mushrooms in beef stock. I added Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Before adding the stock I sprinkled flour over onions and mushrooms and cooked that in a minute, then added the stock and cooked the flour taste off.

I cooked the meat till it was well done, a bit over done probably, but it was tasty. The sauce was a nice treat too. Considering I was building the kitchen immediately prior to cooking dinner, it's a pretty good meal. Now I have to go finish installing the range hood.

Chicken Tomato Curry

This is the first time I've made chicken curry with meat bought at Mitchell's. I was hoping it would be fantastic but it was only really good. To start I put some rice in the microwave to cook. I ad only a teaspoon or two of olive oil, some salt and a few drops of lemon juice to the rice. I finely diced an onion, two cloves garlic, celery stick and green pepper. I diced up the chicken, salted it and shook it in a bag of flour to coat it. I got my pan good and hot and sweated the onion, then the celery and lastly the green pepper and garlic.  Once that had all softened I added the meat. Flour on the meat soaks up lots of oil so it may need more. I got a sear all around the chicken then added the curry powder. I stirred it around and let it cook for a minute then added one to two cups tomato sauce.

That was all there was to it. I kept the tomato sauce bubbling till the chicken was cooked through and plated it. It was delicious, even the dog liked it!