Week 6: Roasted Pork with Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes

I had no clue what I was getting into with this one, but it turns out to be one of my favorites so far...ranks up there with the meatloaf! But you have to make all of this together. The flavors are wonderful! I even had company over to help eat this (had to...look at the size of the roast!) and got the same rating. Actually, the company's note on this is that it is good fall flavors, almost an alternative Thanksgiving meal. Served with a malbec wine, we were happy campers with this one!

Pork Preparation
1 gallon water
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup ground black pepper
1 (8-rib) pork loin rack, bones frenched
1/4 cup garlic cloves
1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

In a very large bowl or cooler, combine the water, sugar, salt, and pepper and stir to dissolve the sugar and salt. Completely submerge the pork in the brine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours or up to 36 hours.
I used a cooler I have that fit the pork loin perfectly. And since it is February, I just left in the garage. I prepped this Friday night, and cooked it Saturday night.

Preheat the over to 275 degrees F. Combine the garlic, rosemary, parsley, and olive oil in a food processor and blend to a paste. Remove the pork from the brine and gently pat dry with paper towels. Season with salt and rub the garlic-herb past all over the pork. Place the pork, bone side up, on a rack fitted over a roasting pan. Roast for 1 1/2 hours, until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 130 degrees F. Increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F and roast an additional 20 minutes, until the pork reaches 145 degrees F. Remove from teh oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving into individual chops.
I don't own a food processor, so the best I could do was use my blender to make the 'paste'. So mine was a chunky paste, but it still covered the pork and worked out okay. I also don't have a roasting pan big enough for this, so the butcher told me to take a cookie sheet/jelly roll pan and put the cooling rack in there, and put the pork loin on that, bone side down. It worked for me :)

Apple-Cranberry Chutney
1/2 red onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 cup apple cinder vinegar
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 cinnamon sticks
2 Braeburn applies, peeled and diced
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup thinly sliced dried apricots

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil then decrease the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occassionally for 30 minutes, until thick. Remove the cinnamon sticks. Serve the chutney warm or allow to cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
This was a little work, but was well worth it. The taste with this and a little of the pork in the same bite...nummy!

Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan of well-salted water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for about 20 minutes, until tender. Drain the sweet potatoes and return to the pan. Add the butter, syrup, salt, and pepper and mash ith a potatoe masher or heavy wire whisk until smooth. Taste adn adjust the seasoning as necessary. Serve immediately or allow to cool to room temperature, cover and refrigerate up to 2 days.
The easiest part of the meal and very, very tasty! I'll admit...I've never purchased sweet potatoes in my life, so I had no idea how to pick or what to pick. I finally asked the little old lady who seemed to know what she was picking. She directed me to use yams instead of the sweet potatoes. She said they have better color and better flavor. So I used 3 yams with this recipe. No leftovers of this part!

Place a pork chop on each plate and serve with the chutney and sweet potatoes.

Week 5: Individual Apple Strudels

Sorry for the delay...the rest of life took over for week or so there!

Anyone who knows me knows I have a sweet tooth, so I just couldn't stay away from the dessert recipes any longer. I learned a bit on this one...I'll say that! There are pieces to this, so I'll put the ingredients, then the directions for each of the pieces. Read through the whole thing before you do this and you'll see how it comes together.



Streusel Topping
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix together with a fork until crumbly.

Ironic...the part that goes on last is the first thing in the recipe!


The Fruity Part
3 1/2 cups peeled sliced Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Combine the apples, cranberries, sugar, butter, cinnamon stick, water, and nutmeg in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the apples are softened. Remove from the heat and stir in the walnuts. Allow to cool to room temperature or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.


I did it again...typed this out and just realized I missed putting in the walnuts. Really, I have them in the cupboard ready to go, JUST for this recipe! Oh well. I used Craisins for the cranberries and opted for the cooking followed by leaving it in the refrigerator overnight. That part was just fine.


Other Ingredients
2 sheets frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
1 egg
1 tablespoon water



Preparation
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut each of the puff pastry sheets into 4 equal squares (reserve 2 squares for other use). Using your hands, stretch the squares about 1/2 inch larger in each direction. Whisk together the egg and water in a small bowl. Using a pastry brush, brush the pastry squares with the egg wash. Place 1/2 cup of the apple filling in the middle of each square. Fold the corners over partway to make a hexagonal pastry, covering part of the filling but leaving most of it exposed. Press down lightly. Brush the folded0over corners with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Springle 1 tablespoon of the topping over the filling.


Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a wide spatula, carefully transfer the pastries to the prepared baking sheets, leaving space between them. Bake for 30 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden. Serve warm.


Look Kirsten! A picture! So this is how mine looked before I put them in the oven. I thought I was clever and started with the pastry sheets right on the parchment paper. Then, when I was done, I just slid the baking sheet under the parchment paper and was ready to go!


I folded the corners WAY over and found out they unfold on their own while baking, so fold away!

• There is plenty of topping to put more than 1 tablespoon on each strudel. You'll see.


• I should have cleaned any extras off the parchment paper. They burned and stole some of the better aroma from the room.


• Those 2 extra squares...do something separate with them. I thought I'd fill them with a little sugar and cinnamon, fold them over, all that good stuff...um...no. Don't do it. I'm lucky I didn't set off the smoke detector again with that experiment!

When all was said and done, this is what the better of mine looked like: The 30 minutes was a hair too long for my oven, but with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, it didn't matter much.

Week 4: Marinated Salmon

This was a really easy one, especially when you do it my way and leave a few things out :) This is meant to be an Indian dish when prepared according to the recipe. I went without the tandoor spice, but still feel like it was a good meal - a little different, but in a good way. This is better than the roasted garlic chicken, I'm sure of that!

Marinade Ingredients
2 cups yougurt
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons tandoori spice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
4 (6-ounce) salmon filets

Preparation
Combine the yogurt, honey, lemon juice, tandoori spice, and ginger in a bowl and mix well. Place the salmon in a shallow baking dish and pour the marinade over, turning to coat evenly. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

Preheat a gas grill to high or prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill Remove the salmon from the marinade and dry with paper towels. Spray the grill rack with nonstick spray. Place the salmon on the grill rack and cook, turning once, for about 4 minutes on each side, to desired doneness.

My Notes:
I learned just how much I really am in Central Minnesota on this one. Tandoori spice is an Indian spice, not to be found in any major grocery store in my town. So I skipped it! I was able to find Tandoori paste, but I couldn't figure out how much of that to use whent he recipe called for the spice. Oh well.

Instead of 4 filets (which we would never eat all at once) I made the marinade and only had one larger filet in it. Still worked!

Also, it's winter here and my grill is under about a foot of snow. I broiled this instead. The marinade made this incredibly moist, even after broiling. I'm sure it would have been absolutely awesome if I had grilled it!

The cookbook recommends serving this salmon with an eggplant mash and drizzled with a pomegranate vinaigrette. The eggplant mash I managed to make (see below), but not the vinaigrette. It calls for pomegranate molasses, another item I could NOT find in a store in this town. I skipped this part completely, and instead experimented. I had some raspberry vinaigrette dressing, so I drizzled that on the salmon and eggplant mash instead. I thought it was pretty darned good!

The eggplant mash is easy to make and has a nicely different taste to it. The girls each took one bite and said no thanks. But I liked it. To each his own! So here's that part:

Eggplant Mash
3 small Italian eggplants
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the eggplant in a baking dish and roast for 45 minutes, until soft on the inside. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Scoop out the pulp onto a cutting board and chop well. Place a saute pan over medium-high heat and add the oil. Whent eh oil is hot, add the onion and saute for 3 to 4 minutes, until soft. Add the eggplant and cook until the mixture is a chunky mash. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

My Notes:
Okay, I'll admit it...I had NO idea how to roast an eggplant, so I did a little research. Turns out the eggplant is actually a very large berry. Who knew! I cut the top off (like that of a strawberry), then cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. I put some foil on a cookie sheet and sprayed it with no-stick spray, then put the eggplant halves meat side down onto the foil. They could have been done at closer to 35 minutes instead of 45, but they weren't over done at that point.

Once I let it cool, it was easy to scoop out the meat and chop. I took my Pampered Chef chopper to it just a couple times then put it in the pan. I cooked the mash while the salmon was broiling. It worked out pretty well!