Groom’s Knock Your Socks Off Ground Pork, Linguica, Bell Pepper, Onion Enchiladas Topped with Grilled Salsa, Cheddar Cheese and Cilantro

A dot and a line.

Chuck Jones...brilliance in cartoons.

Doesn’t this describe cooking and its creativity?

The straight line is following a recipe word for word.

You’re playing it straight.

In cooking.

So , take a recipe and make it your own.

That’s how you cook. That’s how you live.

Straight lines are great. But versatility and expression of how you want something to taste or be is better.

Go on.

Try it.

Seek the dot.

Groom’s Knock Your Socks Off Ground Pork, Linguica, Bell Peppers Onions Enchiladas Topped with Grilled Salsa, Cheddar Cheese and Cilantro

…HELLO DOT!!!

Here’s how the Dot happens…..

So the other night…Monday….wanted something easy…Groom likes to grill sausages and onions and peppers, maybe we had about a cup of this left in the fridge.

Last week I made a roasted salsa…tomatillos, poblanos, red bells, sweet red onions, green onions, garlic….in the oven til roasted nice and squishy and then throw into the blender with fresh cilantro and Italian parsley…because it’s lying around….maybe a cup and a half of it….

So those two things are in the fridge.

Come home…act pitiful…don’t want to cook…sweet Groom says, not to worry….and what does he do….

He seeks the dot.

Iron skillet gets heated up with a couple of good swirls of extra virgin olive oil. Sweet yellow onions are chopped and sautéed til golden…..he takes them out for a bit, adds maybe a pound ground pork, drains the fat out.……adds the onions back …adds a can of black beans, drained and rinsed well because he hates that goopy stuff that‘s in the cans…tbsp ancho chile pepper freshly ground black pepper and coarse salt to taste…….add ¼ cup water…cook down. Take out of skillet and sets aside. Preheat oven to 350.
.
Adds the grilled salsa to hot iron skillet, over medium low heat…with a bit of olive oil…. then dip flour tortillas in hot salsa, fill with the ground pork. Roll and put back in iron skillet….fill enough to go into the skillet shred cheddar cheese on top, smush salsa on top, if you have extra… cook 30 minutes…top with sour cream and fresh cilantro…sit around and talk about how amazing this is..

Serves 5 generously,…really generously….

Click here for printable recipe!

One Year Ago on Feeding Groom

Groom’s Knock Your Socks Off Ground Pork, Linguica, Bell Pepper, Onion Enchiladas Topped with Grilled Salsa, Cheddar Cheese and Cilantro

Ground Pork with Fresh Fennel, Broccoli Rabe and Two Tomatoes: A Sauce for Pasta

Wow.

What a meal.

Frost in the forecast.

A warm fire.

A bunch of broccoli rabe.

A desire for a different pasta sauce.

And a package of ground pork that wanted a home.

It got a great one.

Ground Pork with Fresh Fennel, Broccoli Rabe and Two Tomatoes: A Sauce for Pasta
Inspired by Last Night's Dinner

A couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil
1 pound ground pork
¼ cup dry vermouth
¼ cup chicken stock
½ large Vidalia onion, chopped
1 large fresh fennel, chopped
1 large spoonful garlic confit
1-½ tsp crushed red peppers
1 tbsp fennel seed
1-½ tsp dried French thyme
1-½ tsp dried Turkish oregano
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-15 ounce can San Marzano tomatoes and their juice
¼ cup sundried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped
1 bunch broccoli rabe, trim the stems, wash and chop
Medium pasta shells, cooked (enough for four)


Heat a cast iron pan over medium high heat and add a couple of good swirls extra virgin olive oil. When the oil is wavy, add the ground pork and season well with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. When pork has cooked through, remove from pan and add a bit more olive oil.

Add fennel and Vidalia onions and let cook for about 10 minutes til soft. Add crushed red peppers, thyme, oregano and season with freshly ground black pepper. Add the garlic confit and let cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add the vermouth to the pan and stir well. Add the pork back to the pan and any drippings and stir well. Add canned tomatoes, the sundrieds and chicken stock. Let cook for about 30 minutes.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the broccoli rabe and bring back to a boil and let cook about three minutes. Remove the rabe from the water, add it to the pork mixture and let simmer while you cook the pasta. When pasta is done, drain it and add to the sauce. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper.

Serves 4 generously.

Ground Pork with Fresh Fennel, Broccoli Rabe and Two Tomatoes: A Sauce for Pasta

Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Orange Vinaigrette

I don’t cook pork tenderloin very often.
I love a bone in pork chop.
Something to hold onto.
Know what I mean?
Pork tenderloin always seemed to me to be a bit…I don’t know…light.
Boring, maybe?
It just wasn’t my “go to” pork for dinner thing.

However, I’ll go to it for this fabulous meal any time.
Bobby Flay’s way too cool rub . …lime juice and ancho chili powder and spicy hot Spanish paprika…makes you think it would be too spicy, right?

Wrong…it’s perfect.

And then the spicy orange vinaigrette to drizzle over the top when you serve it. Orange juice reduced to a sweet syrup and blended with sherry vinegar and more ancho.

And leftovers make a killer chef’s salad for lunch.

Nothing boring about that!!

Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Orange Vinaigrette
Adapted from Bobby Flay's From My Kitchen to Your Table

¼ cup ancho chili powder
¼ cup hot Spanish paprika
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup fresh lime juice
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Mix in blender and pour over two pork tenderloins. Let sit for at least an hour. Remove from marinade and season to taste with salt and pepper. Grill until medium rare to medium, 10-12 minutes turning and basting with marinade. *

2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp ancho chile powder
¼ cup aged sherry vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Heat the orange juice over medium high stirring often. It will thicken and reduce down to about a ¼ cup.
Put ancho chili powder, sherry vinegar and salt and pepper in blender and slowly add the olive oil and let blend.

Serve over the sliced pork tenderloin. Lots of fresh cilantro for garnish.
Serves 3 generously

* I have preheated the oven to 450, heated a cast iron skillet and filmed it with olive oil and seared the tenderloins on all sides. Then popped in the oven and let cook until done, takes about 20 minutes. Works great when you forget to buy gas for the grill!

Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Orange Vinaigrette

Pork Ragout with Cannelini and Orange

There’s still a chill in the air.

Freezing in the mornings and warming up to the 50’s in the afternoon. People are pushing warm weather. At work, I look out over a main drag in Middle Tennessee, home of the Bradford Pear, which is in full bloom. Giant puffballs of white moving in the wind..in the totally unpredicted snow flurries Monday. Bending and swaying yesterday in the sunshine while ladies of a certain age drive their convertibles with the top down and all the windows up and the heat on. Kids from the neighborhood high school doing their p/e run in shorts and cut off tee shirts. Legs and faces red with the cold, but they wouldn’t put on a sweater to save their lives.

Thinking about dinner, hoping to find something that will fit the bill: warming, spicy maybe a bit of something to make you think spring is just around the corner.

Then I remembered this recipe that I had saved from sometime last fall, Cloves, oranges and red wine. That’s a bit wintry. Pork and cannelini, red bell pepper, onion. Then comes the smoky paprika and garlic and lots of Italian parsley.

There’s the hint of spring.

Whatever it is, it works.. Warming, spunky, makes your nose tickle type spicy with lots of character and flavor and cooled with a splat of sour cream and a squeeze of orange at the end.

Perfect.

Spicy Pork Ragout with Cannelini and Orange
Adapted from a recipe I found in the New York Times with absolutely no credit given to the cook.

2 14 ounce cans cannelini beans, or 1 cup dried, cooked cannelini
2 good swirls extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, in 2-inch chunks
1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
3 branches fresh rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Small pinch red chili flakes
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley.


Heat a couple of swirls of extra virgin olive oil in a Dutch oven and lightly brown pork without crowding over medium-high heat. Remove. Add onion, garlic and bell pepper. Sauté over low heat until soft. Stir in paprika, cloves and zest. Stir in orange juice and wine, scraping bottom of pan. Return pork to pan. Drain and rinse cannelini and add. Add rosemary, black pepper and chili.


Bring to boil and then reduce heat to simmer and let bubble along for about an hour. Season with salt. Serve with a blap of sour cream, grated orange zest and more Italian parsley.

Serves 5.

Pork Ragout with Cannelini and Orange

Chile Seasoned Pot Roasted Pork

When Groom wants Mexican food, I can usually fix a Haystack or a quesadilla and he’s happy. This morning he started thinking out loud about having Mexican food for dinner. The old Haystack wasn’t in the cards tonight. No vegetarian Mexican food for him this time.

What’s a girl to do?

Find a great recipe and delegate. I found the recipe and I delegated. I had about 3 lbs of Boston Butt in the freezer and I decided to do Rick Bayless’ recipe for Pot Roasted Pork from his fabulous Mexican Kitchen.

Having been put in charge of the pork, Groom rose to the occasion and I’ve got to tell you, he rocked this recipe.

This is so good and so easy. You can cook this in a slow cooker or in the oven for several hours. You make a spice paste with dried ancho and guajillo peppers, spices and herbs and cook it in a bit of olive oil. Then you add the pork, making sure that all the good spice gets all over the pork, add a bit of water and several hours later, you have the makings of an incredible dinner.

A great way to kick off the week!!!

Chile Seasoned Pot Roasted Pork
Adapted from Rick Bayless’ Mexican Kitchen

2 medium dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
4 medium dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
2 bay leaves, smashed into thousands of little pieces. .mortar and pestle works best for this
2 tbsp cider vinegar
½ large yellow onion, chopped
4 fat garlic cloves, peeled
2 tsp mixed dried herbs (we use marjoram, thyme, epazote and Mexican oregano)
½ tsp allspice
Good pinch of ground cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
3 pounds lean boneless pork shoulder or Boston Butt
Romaine lettuce
Radishes
Chopped tomatoes
Sliced Avocado
Corn tortillas

Put the chiles in small bowl and cover with hot water. Let sit for 30 minutes.
Drain and reserve 2/3 cup of the liquid.
Put the chiles and reserved liquid in food processor. Add all the herbs and spices and bay leaves, vinegar, onion and garlic cloves. Process to smooth puree, adding a little water if it gets too dry.

Put large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add oil and heat til shimmers. Add the herb paste all at once.
Stir for about five minutes until it turns dark and becomes a paste. Remove from heat and season with salt.

Preheat oven to 325.

Cut the pork into slabs about three inches thick. Put in pot with the chile paste and then flip it over to cover with the chile, rubbing it with spoon to get it even.
Add ½ cup water around it, cover and put in the oven. Baste often. Cook about 2.5 hours.

If you need to add more water, do it a little at a time. You want just enough liquid to be able to baste the meat.

This works great in the crock pot on low for 4 hours. So good.

Serve with refried black beans, chopped romaine lettuce, thinly sliced radishes, chopped avocadoes, fresh cilantro, Mexican crumbling cheese and salsa with corn tortillas. It works wonderfully with taco shells, too, in a pinch.
Serves 4.

Refried Black Beans

2-14 ounce cans black beans
Good swirl extra virgin olive oil
1-½ tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chile powder

Heat oil in 10 inch skillet. Sprinkle chile powder and cumin in oil and stir well. Open both cans of black beans and put them and their liquid in the skillet. Mash with spatula and stir until the beans are mashing together and the majority of the liquid is gone. You want these to still have a bit of liquid in them.
Serves 4.

Chile Seasoned Pot Roasted Pork

Ragout of Pork with Drunken Prunes and Onions

Every now and then you come across a recipe that makes you hold your fork over the plate, while you’re eating a bite, and you use the fork to point at the food while making those nummy noises…mmmmh…oh my…mmph mmph ahhh. Those noises. This Ragout of Pork with Drunken Prunes and Onions straight from the Spur of the Moment Cookbook is one of those recipes. Don’t get all worked up over prunes. What a delight they are when they are paired with pork. That’s a classic combination.

In this recipe from one of my faves, Perla Meyers, prunes have been marinating overnight in dry vermouth. Then pork is seasoned with fresh ginger, nutmeg and braised in a flavorful beef stock, creating a sauce that is sweet and spicy and peppery all at once. The prunes go in for about fifteen minutes, then the secret ingredients are added at the last minute to blow your mind when you take the first bite. And you take your fork and you point at your food and you start with the noises. Enjoy !

Ragout of Pork with Drunken Prunes and Onions
Adapted from Spur of the Moment Cookbook by Perla Meyers

The day before:
1-½ cup large prunes, pitted
¾ cup dry white wine, (I used vermouth)
Put prunes in bowl and pour wine over. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight. It does not have to be refrigerated.

A couple of hours before you want to serve:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 good swirl peanut oil
3-½- 4 lbs boneless pork shoulder (Boston Butt), cut into 1-½ inch pieces (trim as much fat off as you can
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ pound pearl onions, peeled
Large grating of fresh nutmeg
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp all purpose flour
2 cups beef stock
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 375. Melt the butter together with the oil in large heavy skillet over medium heat. Sauté the pork in batches until nicely browned on all sides. Remove from the skillet, season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.

Add the onions to the skillet and sauté until nicely browned. Return the pork to the skillet and add the nutmeg, ginger, and flour, and cook for a couple of minutes or until the onions are nicely glazed. Transfer to Dutch oven.

Drain the prunes, save the wine and add the wine to the skillet. Bring to boil, scraping the bottom of the pan until reduced to about 3 tablespoons and add the beef stock. Bring to boil and pour over pork. Cover and braise in the oven for about and hour and 30 minutes.

Add the prunes and cook again for 20 minutes. Remove the pork mixture and degrease the sauce as you wish. Put the pork mixture back in the pot and set over medium heat.
Combine the vinegar and sugar in small bowl. Add the vinegar mix and bring to boil.
Let thicken and serve with egg noodles.

The trick to this recipe is to use a larger than you need dutch oven. It cooks faster and thickens the sauce beautifully.

Serves 4-6

Ragout of Pork with Drunken Prunes and Onions

The Ultimate Pork Chop

We’ve been eating a lot of pork recently. It’s my new favorite meat. I might be late to this dance, but I am making up for lost time! After the success of the pork loin braised in milk, I decided to investigate the chop. Several weeks ago, Terry B at Blue Kitchen offered his version of the bone in pork chop that I have to say is unbelievable. These bone in chops have so much flavor and his stovetop method of cooking them absolute guarantees the perfectly cooked pork chop.

So, of course I have to mess with perfection. Enter Anthony Bourdain and that faboo Les Halles Cookbook. He’s got this killer mustard sauce for pork chops that just dances in your mouth. Combine this with the great herb flavor of the chops. Oh, mama! Two great cooks meet in one recipe.

The Ultimate Pork Chop

adapted from Blue Kitchen and Les Halles Cookbook

Several swirls of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

4 bone-in pork chops, about 8 ounces each
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp butter
1 small shallot, chopped
1 tsp flour
½ cup dry white wine
1-2 tbsp Dijon mustard
5-10 cornichons, chopped (less is more with these, use sparingly)
1 cup chicken stock

Heat a large skillet to medium. Add olive oil. Terry says the oil will start to shimmer (and it does!), stir in sage, rosemary and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pat chops dry and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Increase heat to medium-high and add the pork chops ,directly on top of herb/garlic mixture. Cover pan and cook chops undisturbed for 5 minutes. Turn chops, cover pan, reduce heat to medium and cook until just cooked through, about 5 minutes for chops 3/4-inch thick. Adjust time according to thickness of chops. Transfer chops to a plate and tent loosely with foil.

Return skillet to heat and remove the herb mix. Add 1 tbsp butter. When butter foams, add one small shallot, chopped. Cook for a few minutes until it’s golden, raise the heat and sprinkle with 1 tsp flour. Mix well and add 1/2 cup dry white wine and deglaze the pan. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan. This will reduce fast take liquid down to about a half. Then add 1 cup chicken stock. Stir and reduce down again by half quickly. Take off the heat, add 1 tbsp coarse Dijon mustard and 5 cornichons, sliced and a bit of chopped Italian parsley. Return pan to heat, add any juices from the pork chops. Plate the chops with the sauce and enjoy. An amazing meal from two guys that know how to cook!!!

The Ultimate Pork Chop

Pork Loin Braised in Milk with Porcini Mushrooms

It is so interesting how your tastes in food change over the years. When I was growing up, I didn’t care for pork. I don’t mean sausage or bacon, I loved that…I just didn’t like the other parts of pork.. pork roasts or pork chops. My brother LOVED pork chops. His favorite was rib chops smothered in Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup and baked until they fell off the bone. I am, and always have been, diametrically opposed to Cream of Mushroom Soup. I apologize to all the people who can’t live without it in their kitchens, it’s just not something I keep around or even consider eating. Pork chops in Cream of Mushroom Soup? Ewww. Pork chops cooked in a whitish sauce for about an hour or so. Not for me.

I have become fascinated by pork. Boneless. I think it’s because I have been reading a lot of French and Italian cookbooks and I keep going back to one particular way of cooking it. Pork Loin Roast Braised in Milk. It’s interesting for two reasons. Numero uno is the fact that we don’t drink milk. We don’t keep it in the house. The other reason, those pork chops from days gone by that my brother loved. No mushrooms were involved in the recipes I had been reading, but the sauce brings back memories of our mom’s kitchen and those pork chops cooking away.

After studying this recipe for a week or so, I decided to try Anthony Bourdain’s recipe from his Les Halles Cookbook with a bit of an addition. I don’t think I’ll be disappointed. And if it works..I might call baby bro to see if he‘s hungry.

Roti de porc au lait adapted from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook
which became
Boneless Pork Loin Roast Braised in Milk with Porcini Mushrooms

3 pound boneless pork loin roast
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 leek, white part only, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed and chopped
1 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
Bouquet Garni…1 bay leaf, several sprigs fresh thyme, several sprigs fresh Italian parsley or 1-½ tsp Penzey’s bouquet garni and 1 bay leaf
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes, strained and patted dry, then chopped

In a Dutch oven, heat olive oil. Season the pork with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper on all sides. Put in hot oil and brown on all sides.

This should take about 5-7 minutes total. Take pork out of pan and put on platter. Add a bit more olive oil and when hot, add carrot, onion, leek and garlic

and stir over medium high heat until soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. While you are stirring, sprinkle the flour over and cook about 3 minutes and then add the milk and the bouquet garni.

Bring to boil and cook over high heat about five minutes. Put the pork back in the pan and juices from the platter. Reduce the heat to simmer and cover.

Cook over low heat for about an hour. I checked this about every 15 minutes or so, turned the pork and scraped the bottom of the pan. The sauce will start to turn a fabulous nutty color. I took my little roast’s temperature and when it reached about 125-130 I took it out and set it aside for 15 minutes.
Take out the bouquet garni and put a small strainer over a small saucepan and put the sauce into the strainer with. Squish with the back of a ladle to get the liquid into the saucepan. Add the tablespoon of butter and the mushrooms to the sauce and any juices that are lurking around the pork as it sits. Bring to a boil, turn heat down and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Slice that bad boy and either arrange on a platter or a plate with a bit of the sauce. All we wanted was a spicy green salad with a bit of a tarragon/champagne vinaigrette. This was an exceptional meal.
Serves 4 generously.

Pork Loin Braised in Milk with Porcini Mushrooms