Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Fillet Mignon in a Bourbon Cream Sauce - Look what I found in the Freezer!

My better half has decided that the Schwann's truck that  comes through our hood is a GREAT shopping experience and regularly fills our freezer with a host of products from fish to Fillet Mignon's.  I've been doing my level best to cook what he buys, and last night I found the last two Fillets from some previous shopping trip.  Since it was pretty chilly outside, I decided to use a cast iron pan and make my "ATKINS" friendly meal in the warmth of the kitchen.


Fillet:  Made a rub of salt pepper, paprika (hot) garlic and onion powder and some ground thyme.  Liberally seasoned the meat and set out to come closer to room temp.  Heat up a cast iron pan over med high heat till smoking.  added a little olive oil and butter and seeded one side till nicely browned.  Turn over and finished in the oven for about 12-15 minutes.  This produced a Med / Med Rare Fillet.  Let them rest for 5 minutes while I made the sauce.  Deglazed the pan with chicken stock..though beef would have been a better choice...just didn't have any open.

Added a couple shots of Bourbon and flamed that.  As it reduced and the flames went down, I added some cream, salt and pepper and reduced to the consistency I wanted.  Off heat I whisked in a tablespoon of butter.  Served this over mashed cheesy Cauliflower and steamed broccoli.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Baked Eggs in Ham Cups

Ok, so I've been on this Atkins diet, and have been looking around the net for some good low carb recipes.  I came across one that I had to try and believe me when I say its not only easy, but looks pretty cool when you are done.  Instead of re-writing my version, I'm going to link and give props to the web site where I found the recipe.

NOTES:  Due to the saltiness of the ham and any cheese you put in it, I recommend not salting the egg until after you have it on your plate.  Pepper yes, but salt....I'd watch it.  I'm anxious to maybe try this with turkey or pastrami as a different twist.

Here's what mine looked like after they were out of the oven:


and no, I didn't eat the toast
Website for Baked Eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line small, lightly greased ramekins with two thinly sliced (but not too thin) pieces of your favorite ham, making sure there are no large holes or gaps. One of my favorite ham cups is the Greek ham cup. Sauté some spinach in hot oil with a minced clove of garlic until soft. Put a spoonful into your ham cup. Add a few small cubes of feta and a bit of diced cherry tomato. Gently crack an egg on top and pop into the oven for 22-25 minutes until the egg is set how you wish. The ham edges will look crispy, but just snip them with scissors. Gently lift out of the ramekins and onto a plate. Serve with sliced avocado, salt and pepper for the perfect brunch or breakfast.
Other fillings I love:
Southwestern cup with sautéed diced red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes, with cracked egg on top.

Tomato, mozzarella and pesto cup. Put mozzarella pearls into ham cup, add a tiny scoop of pesto and a small scoop of diced tomato. Crack egg on top, and bake.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Are you tired of DRY pork?

You know, I remember growing up and hearing my mom tell me that pork needed to be cooked throughly so you won't get trichinosis.  Well, I think there were a couple of generations that prepared pork to the point it would chew like a hockey puck it was cooked so long.  Today, pork is raised differently and there hasn't been many cases of this illness for a quite a while.  If you go to the CDC's website, they will tell you to cook pork to 145 degrees and you're good!

Pork is a very lean meat, so I recommend brining as discussed in an earlier post.  This will really help keep your pork moist when cooking it, but if you take that meat to 250 degrees...not even brining can help!

USE A MEAT THERMOMETER!  I prefer the instant digital read versions for grilling and a probed version when cooking meat in the oven.  You can set your thermometer to alert you when your food gets to the right temp, and take it out before it's ruined.  I recommend these devices highly when cooking pork as the leanness of the product has little forgiveness if it's overdone.

I grilled these tenderloins the other evening after brining them for about three hours.  I took them to 145 degrees then brought them in and let them rest for 5-10 min.  Yes, you may see a bit of pink, but it's fine...I promise...and the juiciness of the product was perfect.


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Thin Tender Asparagus

When you are able to find thin tender asparagus at the market...I highly recommend buying it.  As you can see in the picture, a little red onion sautéed with these tender bites make a fantastic side dish.  Kosher Salt and fresh ground black pepper is all you need to really enjoy the freshness of this veggy.

Now I know some of you like to add a little kick at the end, so here are some suggestions.

1.  just at the end, add a little balsamic vinegar to the dish, toss and serve.  Don't drown it..you still want to taste the veggies!

2.  Lemon or Lime (I prefer Lime) juice.  Great enhancer to the dish and still allows the flavors of the asparagus to be tasted.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Green Tomatillo Braised Pork Butt

Well for those of you who were following this little blog, I'm please to share that I'm back in the Kitchen with a clearance from my Doctor on the ol' arm.  One of my favorite cuts of meat to cook slowly is Pork Butt.  Usually I get them bone in, but today when I went to the Grocery, all they had were boneless.  I think for this recipe, either will work fine.  Not only is this good the night you make it, but there are lots of fun things you can do with the left overs as well.  This is Atkins friendly (yes I'm doing that)



Now, I use a crock pot for this, most of the time, only because I think they do a great job at cooking low and slow.  You can certainly do this in the oven at 325 or so...either way will work great.


1 Pork Butt (Boneless or Bone In)
10 Tomatillo's (skin off and quartered
2 serrano peppers
2 garlic cloves
Tsp Salt
Tsp Pepper
Tsp cumin
1/2 cup water
2 red onion's quartered
Small Red Potatoes ( as many as you like)



First, liberally salt and pepper the entire pork butt and brown all sides in a big pan.  Make sure you get a nice brown sear on it...brown mean flavor!  Once done, put in your crock pot and put on high.  This will take about 6 hours to get super tender.  Next quarter those onions and place them around the pork.  I deglaze the pan I seared the meat with some water at this point and pour that over the roast...MORE FLAVOR!

Now take your tomatillos, serrano's garlic salt pepper cumin and water, put in a blender and blend well.  Pour this mixture over the pork, cover and let go for about six hours.  Once 2-3 hours in, add your potatoes and let it finish cooking.

SERVING - I like to take some of the green chili sauce, defat it and put it in a sauce pan.  Heat this up and reduce it a bit, then add some cream to make a green chili cream sauce.  This is amazing over the pork once it's done.

Enjoy!