Braised Pork Ribs and Pasta

I made this a while back and posted the photo on Facebook.  It just came around again as a re-post so I decided that maybe this would be a good time to start contributing to this blog again.

I enjoy watching Lidia Bastianich on Create TV (PBS) and she had made Braised Short Ribs with Rigatoni.  here is my version...Photos not as nice as her's, of course.

• 1 rack pork spare ribs, cut into single rib pieces
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 T. Oil
• 2 good sized sweet onion, halved and sliced.
• 6 to 8 peeled cloves of garlic
• 56 oz, canned plumb tomatoes.  O like the oven roasted tomatoes if you can find them
• 6 pickled cherry peppers stemmed and seeded.
• 1 large bay leaf
• 1 t. dried thyme
• Fresh shopped parsley for garnish 
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Pasta of your choice.  larger pasta holds up better with the heavy ribs.

Salt and pepper the ribs and brown, in a hot pan with the oil.  do this is stages not to crowd the pan, setting the browned ribs aside in a bowl while finishing the rest of the ribs.  

Once all ribs have been browned and removed add the onion to the pan (if there is a lot of oil remove all but a few tablespoons of it before adding the onion.  cook onion until translucent ( to tell the truth I like it better if I take the time to caramelize the onion).

Just before the onions are ready, about 2 minutes, add the garlic.  Once the garlic has cooked for about 2 minutes add in the peppers (chop them a little first) and stir them in with the onion and garlic for a minute and then add the tomatoes, bay, thyme, and return the ribs to the pot.  thurn the pot to medium low and braise the ribs for a couple of hours, until ribs are tender.  add some water if it gets too dry.

Remove the ribs from the sauce 

Cook the pasta until just under done and add them to to the sauce to finish cooking.  add pasta water to the sauce if needed.  once done spoon the sauced pasta into a bowl and set the ribs around the edge.  

Top with parsley and cheese. 

I did find that the ribs were tender but got a little dry with this recipe and I am not sure how to avoid that so I will have to play around with this recipe some more.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

6 4 oz. pork loin chops
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
oil

In a small pan heat vinegar then add brown sugar, garlic, thyme and a little salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes until the sauce reduces slightly.  Set aside.
salt and pepper the pork, add 1 tablespoon of oil to hot saute pan.  Cook pork chops until browned on both sides and almost cooked through, add the sauce and cook pork in sauce for a few minutes until glazed and the pork is done to your liking.  we like ours medium well, not a follower of the cook pork until leather mind set.

Pork with Tarragon Mustard Sauce

2 pounds pork loin chops (about 6 1/2" thick chops)
Flour for dredging 
Salt & Pepper
1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon tarragon, tarragon can overpower the dish so be careful with it.
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon minces garlic
oil

1. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over them. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Dredge the pork chops in flour and tap off excess flour, add the pork chops to the pan and sear them, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Reduce the heat slightly if the chops brown too quickly.  Cook the chops in batches to be sure not to over fill the pan.  Remove browned chops and place them on a dish for later.

2.  pour off most of the fat. Add the onions and garlic and cook them on med high heat until softened, about 1 minute. Add  the wine and bring to a boil, deglazing the pan by scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the stock, mustard and tarragon and return chops to the pan. Bring sauce to a simmer, reduce heat, cover and cook until chops are cooked through (145°F internal temp), about 4 minutes.

Chops served here with bacon green beans and potatoes.

Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin

My Daughter LOVES pork and for her the idea of wrapping bacon around a pork roast was as exciting as a bucket of Halloween candy.  




1 pork loin roast
Thick cut bacon 
1/3 cup soy sauce 
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper flacks 
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar 

Wrap the pork loin in bacon. Place in an cast iron pan.  Combine rest of ingredients in a small bowl; stir well.   brush the sauce on the bacon wrapped loin and place in a preheated 375 degree oven.  Bake until the pork loin reaches 150 degrees inside, basting with the sauce every 20 minutes or so.  If the bacon starts to darken too quickly, tent the roast with tin foil.

once the pork has reached an internal temperature of 150 degrees remove from oven and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing.   

I served this with roasted cauliflower and mashed potatoes.  

Pork Sliders from Leftover Carnitas

One of the things that I really enjoyed while in Mexico was Carnitas. Now every once in a while I pick up some pork rump roast or ribs to make my own Carnitas and when I do this there is enough meat for 2 or may even 3 meals.  The last batch was not exception so I made sliders with that pork on day 2.

The sliders were on homemade ciabatta bread  with sliced cabbage, onion, leftover pork, and lots of yellow mustard.  they were a big hit.

To make the Carnitas meat I season to pork with salt and pepper and then brown all sides in a hot pot with a little oil.  Once the meat is brown I add cold water just to cover, a tablespoon of cumin (or more), 2 bay leaves, an onion cut into quarters, a few chilies, garlic, 1 teaspoonish garlic powder and a little more S&P.  Simmer on the stove for a couple of hours, until the meat is tender and falling apart.

Orange Marmalade Pork

I think at one time I saw a recipe with orange marmalade on pork and it stuck in my head. The other day I had some pork loin roast that I cut into 3 to 4 ounce chops. As I looked at them the orange marmalade idea popped into my head again so I got to looking in the cupboards and sure enough there was a jar of orange marmalade so I went to work on a marmalade.

8 3 to 4 ounce pork loin chops, trimmed of fat
8 oz orange marmalade
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)
zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flacks
1 tablespoon salt
pepper to taste

put all ingredients in a Ziploc back and marinade over night or for about 8 hours

Heat the grill. pull the pork out of the marinade and put marinade in a pan and reduce. cook pork on the grill basting with the reduced marinade until done (mine took about 4 minutes a side)

I also steamed some broccoli and cut a pineapple into rounds and grilled those also.

If you are watching your weight or food intake the pork was about 2 tablespoons of marinade as 5 zucchinis

Braised Pork in Guajillo Chile Sauce

Recently we did away with having cable. We got the HD converter box and found out that we get 13 channels for FREE and with that comes 3 PBS channels one of which is the Create channel. I love this channel, it has all the food network people that I enjoyed and respected that are no longer on Food Network and other show that I never knew about. One of these show is Cooking with Daisy with Daisy Martinez (please note that her website is corrupted and you should not visit it or it could kill your computer). On the show Daisy made a dish that she called Braised Pork in Guajillo Chile Sauce and she made the dish sound so fun and the way she describe the smells and flavors I could not help but want to make that dish and make it soon.

In the hunt for the recipe I found out that I needed to stay far far away from her website and my library did not have a copy of her book. However, I was in luck because I was not the only one that Daisy inspired with her show Daniel Koontz at Casual Kitchen was also inspired and you can read about it here.

I have to say I was a little relieved to find that others had posted the recipe for guidance; however, I would have tried it from memory. I was not able to find Guajillo Chilies so I used what I could find even though Daniel was very clear that you would miss the the rich almost chocolaty-ness so I added cocoa and instant coffee.

~Braised Pork in Guajillo Chile Sauce~

3-4 lbs pork boneless spare ribs, cut into 2 inch cubes

2 Tablespoons sea salt or kosher salt

3 bay leaves

10 guajillo chiles*

1 large onion, peeled and cut in half through the middle

4 fresh plum tomatoes

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon instant coffee

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tablespoons white flour

1) Put the pork in a large pot and cover in cold water by 2 inches. Add the salt and bay leaves. Bring liquid to a boil and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

2) Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. While the water is coming to a boil, remove the stems from the chiles and shake out the seeds. Heat a nonstick pan ( I do not have a nonstick pan so I used my cast iron frying pan) on medium heat. Toast the chiles in the pan, turning them frequently, until they start to change color and crisp up a bit, about 4 minutes. Lift the chilies out and place them in a bowl and pour enough of the boiling water over the chilies to cover them fully. Soak for 20 minutes until chiles are softened, then drain well.

3) While the chiles are soaking, place the onions and tomatoes, cut sides down, in the skillet. Turn heat up to medium high and cook, turning the vegetables until blackened on both sides.

4) After the pork has been simmering for 1 hour, remove 2 cups of the cooking liquid and pour it into a blender or food processor. Add the onions and tomatoes and puree until smooth. Then add the chiles, garlic, cocoa, coffee and puree until smooth. Remove another 2 cups of the pork cooking liquid and set aside. Drain the pork and wipe out the pot.

5) Set the pot over medium heat and add the olive oil . Stir in the flour and cook for 3-4 minutes. Pour the pureed chili sauce into the pot, add the pork and simmer, covered, for another 1 hour. If the sauce becomes too thick or isn't fully covering the pork cubes, you may add some of the remaining 2 cups of cooking liquid to the pot.

6) Serve with rice. Serves 5-6 people.

I was a little worried as this dish came together but when I took my first taste, when it was almost done, I was pleasantly surprised, it was great. The kids could not get past how it looked and hubby thought that it was great and he suggested that I write it down. I laughed and said "that is what my blog is for."

* I could not find Guajillo Chiles so I picked up these and added some cocoa and coffee to the dish to give it that richness.

Pork Medallions with Sage and Capers

4 to 6 pork medallions about 1/3 of an inch thick 20 – 30 Sage leaves Course Salt and pepper Olive Oil 3 or 4 Tablespoons of capers, rinsed 1 T. butter 3 cloves garlic, sliced ¼ cup white wine ¼ cup water

Rub olive oil on the pork and on the sage and stick the sage to the pork then season the pork with salt and pepper.

Heat frying pan (I use cast iron) to hot and add a little vegetable oil to the pan, when oil is hot and dancing in the pan add the pork. Be sure not to crowd the pan or the temperature will drop too much so you may have to cook pork in batches.

When the pork medallions are lightly browned on both sides remove from pan and set aside while making sauce in the same pan. Drain off any excess oil. Add to the hot pan the garlic, wine, and water. Stir to remove any bits there were stuck to the bottom of the pan and add the caper and any left over sage leaves. Let the liquid reduce to about half and then stir in 1 T. butter. Place the pork back in the sauce in the pan to be sure that they are hot and covered with sauce and the remove to serving platter.

Served with Creamed Spinach and stovetop roasted potato wedges.

Pork in Lavender Butter Wine Sauce

I was looking through some food Blogs and I found Daily Bread Journal, which is a wonderful site. On this site Toni lists a recipe , Pork Chop with Lavender Butter, that sounded intriguing to me. I have never cooked with lavender, to tell the trough I had never tasted lavender either, so I decided to go for it. Of course like most food bloggers I am unable to follow a recipe so this one has my own twist to it.

3 Tbs. butter
1/4 red onion, diced
1 1/2 tsp. diced garlic
1 Tbs lavender leaves, cut
1/4 cut white wine
salt and pepper to taste
10-16 oz of Pork scallopini, very thin cut pork loin.
flour for dredging
Vegetable oil for frying


Heat Pan (I used Cast Iron) to hot while you season the pork scallopini with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Add oil to hot pan to about 1/4 inch and let it get hot and ripples form. lay floured pork into hot oil and brown on both sides. remove browned pork and place on plate and set aside. once all the pork is browned pour off all the oil from the pan.

Melt 1 1/2 TBS butter in pan, add onions and lavender. Saute until onion is toasted. Add wine and garlic, saute for another minute or more, till garlic is cooked. Add in the pork and for a few more minutes to heat the pork until heated through.

Just as suggested on Toni's blog I served with Roasted asparagus

Pepradelle with braised pork, asparagus and bread crumbs

I had some left over braised pork in the freezer that I needed to use so I thought that it would be nice with some Pappardelle, outside of that I had no idea what I was going to make.
Tonight was the night to figure out what to do so I look in the refrigerator and see a whole lot of asparagus that I bought (my kids love the stuff) so I thought ok lets do it and when I was done this is what I had...


I first put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the Pappardelle. I then took some bread that I had and put it in my blender and ground it to crumbs, laid the crumbs out on a baking pan and broiled until lightly browned and a little crunchy, then pull the pork apart with a fork and added it to a frying pan with some olive oil over low the med low heat. I cleaned and cut my asparagus to size and blanched it in the water for the Pappardelle for 2 minutes and pulled it out and put it into an ice bath and set it aside. Next add the pasta to the water and cook according to package directions. Once the pasta is cooked pull it out of the water and put it in the pan with the pork, add in the asparagus and some pasta water to help make a sauce. Remove the pan from the heat, add in some olive oil, salt and pepper to teast, the toasted bread crumbs and serve with fresh parmesan cheese.

I will make this again; however, it was a little dry so I will make more of a sauce with more olive oil, garlic and some wine.