Recipes by Ingredient + Prep – Page 63 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Pork Chops with Fresh Cherry Chutney

What to do with eight pounds of cherries? After our trip to Dutchess County, I wanted to use some of the cherries we picked from Barton Orchard in some kind of sauce. There’s no avoiding using cherry preserve in this recipe–it helped make the fresh cherries a little more sweet than tart. The allspice and the cumin gave the chutney a really nice flavor. I added some chili flakes just to give it that small spike in taste. I think I’ll make more chutney now with the summer fruits in the market.

Ingredients:
6 pieces boneless pork chops
2 cups fresh cherries
3/4 cup of black cherry preserve
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp of ground allspice
1 tsp of ground cumin
red pepper flakes
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Pit cherries. Using the flat side of a large knife, press on the cherry gently until it splits open while covering with your other hand so there isn’t juice spitting all over the place. Pull out the pits.
2. Make cherry chutney. In a small bowl, mix cherry preserve, vinegar and allspice. Set aside 1/4 cup of mixture to glaze pork. Then in a saucepot, sautÃ© onions until transparent. Add pitted cherries, red chili flakes and the rest of the cherry preserve mixture. Boil in medium-low heat until thick, stirring often. Season with salt.
3. While making the cherry chutney, sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper. On a hot grill, cook pork for about 8 minutes on each side. Brush the top part of the pork with some of the cherry glaze you set aside. Turn to cook the other side and glaze the other side as well.
4. Transfer to a plate and rest for about 10 minutes. Serve with the fresh cherry chutney.

Rhubarb Crumb Cake

When Melissa Clark of The New York Times published this recipe, I read it over and over until I completely understood the process. I needed to make sure that making a crumb cake won’t require a Kitchen Air mixer. I don’t have one because I rarely bake, but the Dr. absolutely loves any type of dessert that has tart in it. The first time I ever baked with rhubarb, he ate every crisp. It’s spring and rhubarb is out in the markets–I wanted that reaction from him again. What can I say? I aim to please.

I made a mistake and left out 6 tablespoons of butter to make the cake. My version came out perfectly dense with the right amount of moisture and fluff, so I’m keeping the extra butter out from the recipe below. I started preparing at 9pm and the Dr. was eating his share by 11pm. At least he brought the vanilla ice cream with him.

Ingredients:
For the rhubarb filling:
6 stalks of rhubarb, trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsps cornstarch

For the crumbs:
1 3/4 cups of flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 stick of butter, melted in microwave for 30 seconds
a pinch of salt

For the cake:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. Using some of the melted butter, grease an 8-inch square glass baking dish. Set aside.
2. Prepare the rhubarb filling. In a big glass bowl, toss the rhubarb with the sugar, ginger and cornstarch. Set aside.
3. Make crumbs. In another large glass bowl, whisk together brown and white sugars, spices, salt and melted butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. They should look like, well, crumbs. Set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 325Âº while preparing the cake. In another large glass bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg and egg yolk, with the vanilla. Mix in the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt using a spatula. Keep folding until it has the consistency of batter.
5. Scoop about half of the cake batter into the greased baking dish, covering the bottom. Spoon rhubarb filling over batter. Then cover with the rest of the batter over the rhubarb. This layering doesn’t have to be even. Using your fingers, scoop the crumbs and sprinkle on top of the rhubarb-filled cake batter.
6. Bake crumb cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean of batter, about 55 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on table counter before serving with vanilla ice cream.

Preserved Lemons

A month ago, my neighborhood supermarket had a lemon sale. I bought a wholeload but didn’t really know what to do with a lot of them except to preserve them for a future chicken tagine dish. I was already pickling like a maniac, so why not?

Ingredients:
4 whole lemons
juice of 4 other lemons
about 3 cups of salt

1. Make criss-cross slices on the two lemons without cutting through. Salt each lemon generously.
2. In a pickling jar, pack one lemon at the bottom. Then layer with salt. Pack the next lemon tightly and again, layer with salt. Do this for all four lemons and make sure all of them are surrounded with salt. Pour in lemon juice and cover tightly.
3. Store in the fridge for a month, flipping the jar over every week to ensure that all the lemons are submerged in the pickling juice.

Pearl Onion-Infused Martini

From the Dr., I learned how to order and drink martinis. When we were at Applewood in Brooklyn last year, he ordered their pearl onion martini. The onion flavor was strong, but it made for a perfect drink after a stressful day at work. Any new obsession costs money, so I infused my own vodka a few months ago to save $16 per drink. Last night, I took the bottle out of the freezer and we finally made our own martini at home.

There are several ways to make a martini. We like vodka-anything, so I recommend Kettle One vodka for this recipe. You can pick up dry Martini & Rossi vermouth from any liquor store. We also prefer our martini shaken instead of stirred. When you shake the vodka with ice cubes, some of the ice melts and adds a little water to your drink. This softens the bite of the alcohol. Of course, too much water will make the drink limp, so practice makes perfect. We also like our martinis dirty which only means including the olive brine in the drink. While James Bond may find errors in this recipe, we’re quite happy with it.

Ingredients:
1 bottle Kettle One vodka
1 small bag of pearl onions, peeled, some halved
dry vermouth
1 jar of olives with brining juice
ice cubes

1. Using a large pickling jar, combine the onions and the vodka. Let sit in room temperature. Save the original vodka bottle for later.
2. After a week and a half, strain the infused vodka back into the original bottle. Discard all the onions. Store in the freezer until ready to make your own martinis.

For the martini:
1. While preparing martini, put ice cubes in cocktail glass with a splash of vermouth. Set aside to chill.
2. Using a martini shaker, combine ice cubes, two shots of the infused vodka and a shot of the olive brine. Shake well.
3. Discard ice cubes and vermouth from cocktail glasses. Strain contents of the mixer into the glasses. Garnish with a couple of olives.

Achara, Filipino Pickles

I don’t really use a food processor because one of the things I love about cooking is the actual process of getting all the ingredients together and preparing them for the actual cooking. But for this Filipino pickles recipe, or achara, I was thankful that my mother owned one. I chopped the papaya and the carrots in smaller chunks and passed them through the machine to grate. Just make sure that you squeeze out excess water after grating them using a cheesecloth. The pickling juice should be the only liquid in your jar.

To make this even more Filipino, I bought a small flower cookie cutter for the carrots. (Filipinos love playing with their food!) The red bell pepper and the onions were chopped by hand. I don’t have exact measurements for the vinegar or the sugar. Start off with enough vinegar to cover the vegetables in the pot, but it’s all up to you to balance the sweet and sour taste in the end. Season with a little bit of salt to taste. Heidiologies, this is for you.

Ingredients:
1 green papaya, grated
2 medium carrots, some grated, some cut into flowers
1 red bell pepper, julienned
a handful of pearl onions, peeled, sliced thinly
half a head of garlic, minced
1 large knob of ginger, peeled, sliced thinly
vinegar
white sugar
salt

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and let simmer until carrots are soft, about 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool before transferring to a jar.