Recipe Review - Pork Chops with Sweet Onion Marmeletta

Today's recipe comes from Giada Di Laurentiis's cookbook Giada's Kitchen. The recipes are very well-written, easy to follow, and require a mid- to high- degree of kitchen competence, unlike the recipes in Everyday Italian, which are quite simple and won't crush a beginner's confidence.

That said, even a beginner who gives themselves a lot of time could certainly give these recipes a try. When I say Giada's recipes are "well-written," I mean it. I really enjoy cooking when I'm following Giada!

So, tonight we're going fancypants and serving up something that Giada describes as "the Italian version of pork chops and applesauce."

Yum.

Shopping List

Since I already had the pork chops and pantry staples, I only had to pick up a few things:

• fresh rosemary
• fresh thyme
• large onions (calls for 4; I got two very large Spanish onions)

Recipe Review

Ease of Preparation

Simple, though time-consuming - you need to caramelize onions, which takes a LONG time. (Though I have seen a method to do it in a slow cooker!)

It's also recommended to slice the onions Very Thin, so if your knife skills are still in the "beginner" stages, you might have trouble.

My sister might need help with this one.

Specialty Equipment Required

A grill pan or outdoor grill is nice for cooking the pork.

You'll need a larger pan than you think for cooking the onions.

And a plunger-style measuring cup is helpful for measuring the marmalade this recipe requires, but it's more of a "nice to have" than a "requirement."

Did my husband and daughter enjoy it?

While the kid wouldn't touch it (she knows where the peanut butter is, so she didn't starve) the husband enjoyed the pork, but not the marmeletta.

I enjoyed the marmeletta and would like to make a large batch of it ... and home-can it!

It's too much work to do the marmeletta on a weeknight, especially if I'm the only one eating it, but if I've got it pre-made (and canned!) grilling up some pork chops wouldn't be too hard.

MIXED VERDICT.

 

Recipe Review - Nemo's No-Fish Tofu Tacos

Yep, we've gone Disney again.

After months of asking, I finally broke down and agreed to make the Nemo's No-Fish Tofu Tacos recipe from Dishes Inspired by Disney.

I always have panko on hand (for AB mac-and-cheese, among other things) and, of course, I had olive oil and garlic in the pantry, so the only ingredients we needed to purchase were tofu, cilantro, Asian slaw, tortillas, and limes. All of these are fairly inexpensive where we live, so even if the kid didn't eat one, we wouldn't have blown the grocery budget on the meal.

Recipe Review

Ease of Preparation

Easy. 

Even pressing the tofu was easy (you need to press the water out of it for the slabs to take up your marinade) because I've had several years to consider the best way to press tofu.

If my sister ate tofu, she'd be able to make this dish with no difficulty.

Specialty Equipment Required?

Yes and no. 

The recipe notes that one may use small cookie cutters to cut fish shapes out of the pressed tofu slabs - so they're no-fish fish shapes. Because this is fun, and small tin cookie cutters are relatively inexpensive, we bought two small whale-shaped cutters for $2.

Aww, they're so cute!

If you cannot get cookie cutters, you'd be fine marinating the slabs of tofu as-is, and then cutting them into smaller pieces before pressing them into the panko.

Did my husband and daughter enjoy it?

I already know my husband has given tofu several tries and he simply can't get past the texture. That's OK; more for me.

The kid, on the other hand, found the side of Star Wars shaped macaroni more appealing. But, she did ask to eat no-fish tacos this morning, so maybe there's hope.

Regular Rotation-Worthy?

I don't think so. It's not a lot of work to put in for just me, but I prefer not to have to make multiple dishes for a single meal.

It's not a fail, but not a win either.

Tasty, though!

Dinnertime. Yum!

Ratatouille

When I was a kid, my mother made a version of ratatouille with chicken.

I hated it. 
My dad used to refer to it as "chicken rat's tail." 
That didn't help.

The flavors were muddy, the chicken was rubbery, and, inevitably, there would be an alcoholic residue in the stew (I'm going to assume her recipe called for white wine ... and Mom doesn't really drink) and I just plain could NOT get past the way everything stewed together.

So, when my 5-year-old saw "Remy's Ratatouille With Poached Eggs" on Disney Junior and insisted we were going to cook it "for Daddy," I have to admit I had a kind of Proustian moment thinking about that childhood experience and comparing it to the dish we saw on screen. 

Seeing as how it's Friday, and I'm on a no-meat-on-Friday kick, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try the recipe.

Please note, this isn't a version of the one from the animated film, Ratatouille, which uses mandoline-sliced vegetables in kind of a gratin method, but rather a variation on the actual peasant-stew.

In other words, it's closer to my mom's than Pixar's.

And ... 


... I like this one fine.

Recipe Review - Rosemary Flank Steak with Balsamic Grilled Onions

So this recipe was supposed to be part of a Valentine's Day feast, but it kept getting pushed off due to conflicts in schedule.

On Valentine's Day itself, I actually improvised heart-shaped pizzas with some store-bought dough, jarred sauce, and fresh mozzarella. I think they would have been perfect if I'd remembered to drizzle a little olive oil over the top ... and had picked up some fresh basil. Oh well. Next time, right? (For those of you whose Nonnas would rather die than use bought dough & jar sauce, please remember I'm Slovak, Irish, and German, not Italian, so I take the help where I can get it, though maybe I'll learn some sauce-making secrets this year. I do have a couple of Giada cookbooks, after all.)

Please keep in mind that I also served this with two aphrodisiac sides - garlic mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus spears. (Yes, garlic is an aphrodisiac - for its effects on the circulatory system.)

Review Checklist

Ease of preparation:

This one's not too bad - the marinade calls for a half cup of good olive oil (I use extra-virgin because I've found a very nice, very fruity oil that I like in marinades and for drizzling), bruised rosemary leaves (they suggest using a rolling pin to do the work; I had an empty wine bottle), chopped garlic (smash and chop!), cracked peppercorns (stick 'em in a zip-top freezer baggie & smash with your meat tenderizer!), and some good balsamic vinegar.

I'll admit that good balsamic is a little on the pricey side of things and a lot of people don't keep whole peppercorns in their pantry like I do, but, in general, these are not ingredients that require a lot of hunting.

After the steak marinated, I did miss the point where I was instructed to brush off the solids, so it went onto my grill pan with rosemary leaves, peppercorns, and garlic bits still sticking to it. Oops! 

Bottom line: my sister could totally follow the instructions even if I couldn't!

Specialty equipment required?

Yes and no. 

This is a grill (or grill-pan) recipe, so it means I could make it again during the summer when we're grilling things more frequently ... or I could pull out my double-burner, cast iron, grill/griddle pan because it's a wee bit nippy here on the East Coast.

As I mentioned above, a rolling pin is also called for, but I haven't kept one easily accessible for years, so ... I used a wine bottle.

Did my husband and daughter enjoy it?

Well, the kid didn't touch it, but the husband really enjoyed it, so I'll be making this again at some point.

Regular rotation-worthy?

Yes, I think so. The kid will come 'round eventually. 

RECIPE WIN.

Recipe of the Week

With it being Valentine's Day on Saturday, I've put off trying a new-to-me recipe 'til then.

Looking over my pantry ingredients, and checking out the ease-of-preparation, I've settled on Grilled Rosemary Flank Steak with Balsamic Glazed Onions from the Sur La Table "test kitchens."

I already have garlic and extra virgin olive oil in the pantry, so I'll have a fairly short shopping list tomorrow - flank steak, red onions, and fresh rosemary.

According to the cookbook, Intercourses, rosemary and garlic are aphrodisiacs, so they're perfect for use any time you want to show a little love!