Pork goes well with sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes go well with kidney beans. Kidney beans go well with peppers. Peppers goes well with salsa. Beans go well with pork. Salsa goes well with pork...
Someone asked me how is my thought process as I am cooking or planning a meal. Well, it is like a puzzle where I start to pair ingredients with each other and see how the beautiful picture forms and different tastes are playing harmony with each other. This post is not what I had scheduled for today, but I am breaking the lineup, and taking a little sideroad this week. This meal so delicious, and one of those meals that the leftovers are just about better than the first time serving because the flavors had time to infuse and intensify. It is a simple dish, ready in 30 minutes, and had some seriously layered flavors there.
First I hit the slices of spiced up pork file in a very hot pan, searing them on both sides. I had dusted the pork slices with chilli powder, salt, and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.
I sautéed some sweet mini peppers with spring onion in the pan with the pork and added a cup of hot salsa I had ready-made previously and was left over. To that, I added some thinly sliced carrots, sliced sweet potatoes, and two cups of rinsed, hydrated kidney beans. When everything was in the pan, I poured vegetable stock so that it just about covered the goods in the pan, and then let it slowly low simmer on the stovetop until the veggies were done and tender. At the end, I added some thinly sliced apples to the pan, and let them get a bit soft while setting the table and getting ready to enjoy the meal. That's it. You can serve this as a soup, and cut all the sweet potato into small cubes, and use small cut pieces of pork, or you can serve it as the cooking broth is the sauce and drizzle it on top of the food. It is tasty either way, with a nice heat coming from the salsa and the chilli powdered pork. I hope you all have a great weekend, I will be back to the regular-scheduled program next week. Till next time ~ Cheers!
AUTUMN PORK WITH BEANS AND VEGGIES
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 "Baby, It's cold outside..." Yes, the polar nights are just about here. The daylight hours are getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping, even when it is a sunny day, the air is cold and biting. We haven't had snow yet, as I type this post, but it seems like any day now we are going to have that, nearly magical, first snow. For many of us living up north, comfort food is the thing we go for at this time of the year. As long as the comfort food is part of a well-balanced diet, that is just fine. "Everything is allowed in moderation" is a great goal to keep in mind. I am all about soups this time of the year, and the more veggies the soup has, the better. Chicken noodle soup has as many recipes as there are cooks in the kitchen. I add some cabbage to it, to make it more filling. I also added some sweet peas, broccoli, and spring onions, with the traditional carrots and celery, for the flavor and color. The chicken breasts I used was from a day-before roasted chicken dinner, where I on purpose roasted a whole chicken just to use the legs and save the breasts for the soup. I cooked the soup in a vegetable broth, with whole black peppers that I removed afterward. A couple drops of hot sauce would have given it a nice kick! Do you have a favorite chicken noodle soup recipe, or do you attack a soup duty as a chance to clean the fridge?! I hope you are staying warm, healthy, and happy! Until next time ~ Cheers!
CHICKEN & VEGETABLE NOODLE SOUP
The more the flavor in the cheese, the more flavor in the casserole. You can have a little blue cheese drizzled into the mix as well if you are a fan of it.
Lots of options out there, it is just trying and tasting, and baking and sampling to find the perfection that suits your style.
What is your favorite savory pie or breakfast casserole dish? How have you resolved any allergy issues? Do you always make them without meat to respect the possible vegetarians in the group? Please let me know in the comment section, I am curious to hear your thoughts.
It is 72 days till Christmas, I am sure I will find one recipe that will be 'the perfect breakfast casserole' for my needs. Till next time ~ Cheers!
BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
Once again I wish I could share the scent of the dish with you. While this meal was slow cooking in the oven, my home was filled with the most enticing aromas that you might be able to imagine by just from the ingredients - pecans, bourbon, pork, rosemary, maple syrup... Ah!
The great thing about the recipe is that you most likely have most of the ingredients in your pantry. Truly, a recipe that utilizes what we often have as stable ingredients at home. I choose to slow cook the pork chops in the oven with the marinade for a couple of hours. I used pork chops with the bone attached to get that greatly enhanced flavor the bones bring to the slow-cooked dishes. Of course, if you have a slow-cooker, you can set the meat and marinade in it and let it slowly simmer all day if you have the opportunity for it.
My choice of side dishes with the pork was sweet potato purée and a mixed baby green salad. I like to use the sweet potato purée instead of mashed potatoes because I purée them with just a tiny amount of salted cooking liquid and add freshly ground black pepper. I love the taste of the sweet potato and the nutrients of it. Also, compared to mashed potatoes, fewer calories, if that's something you want to be aware of.
It was so delicious all together, giving me a spark to look forward to the season to come, and the lovely autumn flavors, colors, and aromas! I hope you enjoy it, until next time ~ Cheers!
PECAN BOURBON PORK CHOPS
If you don't like to have a large bottle of bourbon or whiskey at your house, or don't want to invest in a whole bottle for a couple of tablespoons you need for cooking, most liquor stores sell tiny, shot size, bottles of a variety of alcohol, that is very handy for baking and cooking. These tiny bottles are often located close to the cashier. All the alcohol will be cooked away from the marinade, and the dish is safe to serve for the whole family.
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