Bite into a tree-ripened peach and the pleasure begins even before that first taste when the sultry sweet aroma tantalizes your taste buds.  Peaches are a mysterious fruit unlike strawberries with their bright here-I-am burst of flavor. The skin slides off a peach like a silk dress, revealing soft yielding flesh.  Luckily peach season is fast approaching. What to do with all that luscious fragrant fruit? One of my favorite quick dinner recipes is succulent port medallions topped with fresh sauteed peaches and red onions in a white wine reduction sauce. Serve with red baby potatoes and fresh string beans.

Cut a pork loin into 1 1/2 to 2 inch thick medallions.  Heat two tablespoons of mild-flavored cooking oil in a saute pan on high until the oil hazes but hasn’t started smoking yet. Add the medallions and sear on each side for a minute or two.  You’re not cooking them through at this point just getting a nice crust on the outside to seal in the juices.

Lower the heat to medium.  Remove the medallions and set aside.  Add one cup of roughly chopped red onions. Saute until the onion softens — about five minutes.  Add the medallions back to the pan.  Cook on each side for five minutes.  Add 1 cup of white wine.  Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the medallions and put on the serving plates. Pork is safe to eat even if the meat is slightly pink.  Use an instant read meat thermometer if you’re concerned about safety.  It should read at least 145 F.

Remove the skin from the peaches by slipping a knife between the flesh and the skin and pulling down.  Ripe peaches will be easy to peel. Slice half the peaches and set aside.  Roughly chop the remaining peaches and put in the wine.  Increase the heat to medium high until the wine reduces by half.  Remove from the heat and whisk in two tablespoons of butter.  The butter thickens the sauce and adds richness, as well as flavor.

Place a few peach slices on each pork medallion. Nap with the reduced wine sauce.  Add the potatoes and string beans to the plate.  The red of the potatoes provides contrast to the green of the beans.  For an extra festive touch, use a combination of yellow, purple and green beans.

If there are leftovers, which is doubtful, slice the pork into 1/4 inch slices. Spread a crusty roll with Dijon mustard. Add the pork and top with thin slices of peaches for a gourmet treat at lunchtime.

Minnesota isn’t known as the culinary capital of the Midwest. Any cuisine that includes lutefisk – salted and dried cod fish cured with lye – has a lot to learn about good food. And for that matter football. However, as much as Packer fans may believe that the game this Monday is a no brainer for a win, keep in mind the Green Bay defense goes out to lunch quite often during game time. The defense needs to stuff the Vikings much like Wisconsinites stuff their beloved bratwurst. This football tailgating menu includes brats boiled in beer then grilled, served with a tangy coleslaw that’s a snap to make and baked potatoes with an assortment of toppings. So let’s get grilling.

Prick the brats with a fork. Place in saucepan. Cover with beer — a beer good enough to drink, not one of those trendy low carb or light beers. We’re talking a lusty lager here. Boil for 10 minutes. Let cool in the pan. Now on to the coleslaw.

Mix an 8 to 12 ounce package of shredded coleslaw with an equal amount of well-drained and rinsed sauerkraut. Sprinkle with a tablespoon each of caraway seeds, celery seeds and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Mix well. See, that was easy.

Bake the potatoes ahead of time at 400 F until they’re about 10 minutes away from being done. Poke them with a fork. There should be resistance to the fork. Let cool. When you grill the brats put on the potatoes wrapped in foil at the edges of the grill. By the time the brats are done the potatoes will be too. And hopefully by halftime arrives, the Packers have pounded Ponder perfectly pancake flat.

Start the grill for the brats. The fire or temperature if you’re using a gas grill should be medium. The brats are already cooked through. You’re just crisping the skin and turning that grey color into a beautiful dark golden brown.

Serve the brats with mustard, onions, pickles, chutney or whatever other toppings you prefer. Toast split French rolls or hot dog buns.

Set out toppings for the piping hot potatoes of cheese, sour cream, cheese, chili, cheese, scallions, cheese, bacon, cheese, parsley, cheese, tarragon, cheese, sautéed mushrooms, cheese, baby spinach leaves, cheese and salsa. Oh, did I mention cheese?

My prediction for the game? Cheese outplays lutefisk.

November 10, 2011

About the only thing more controversial than which team has the best quarterback — it’s Aaron Rogers of course — are ribs.  Should you choose pork ribs, baby back ribs, beef ribs or short ribs. Should you use a dry rub or no rub? Bake them in the oven, grill or slow smoke them?  Sauce or sans sauce?  The questions are seemingly endless.  One thing is for sure, the Green Bay Packers will mop up the Kansas City Chiefs this week.

And speaking of mops, this menu includes baby back ribs marinated in a sweet and sour vinegar mop, smoked over a slow fire until the meat falls off the bone. Finish off the ribs with fire engine red sauce. And what goes better with ribs than coleslaw and baked beans –  not much.

Combine 2 cups of apple cider vinegar with 2 cups of apple juice.  Add three crushed cloves of garlic, one chopped onion, and up to four chopped jalapenos, the more you add the spicier the mop.  Set aside one cup of the mop in a zip lock bag.  Put the rest of the  mop in a large zip lock bag with the ribs. Marinate overnight.

Fire engine red sauce sounds complicated but it’s actually quite easy to prepare.  Pour one large can of tomato juice into a sauce pan, add the juice of a lemon, 2 tablespoons butter, one chopped onion, one chopped red sweet pepper, three chopped jalapenos  and 1/4 cup brown sugar.  Let simmer until the sauce is reduced by half.  That should take about an hour.

Light the grill.  When the coals are covered with gray ash, much like the Packers defense is going to cover the Kansas City Chiefs offense, spread the coals apart to lower the heat.  Wrap wood chips in aluminum foil.  Poke about four or five holes in the foil to let the smoke escape.   Add the packet next to but not touching the charcoal.  You want it to smoke not burn.

Grill for two hours, basting, or mopping, the ribs every 20 minutes with the reserved mop.

Serve the fire engine red sauce on the side for those that don’t like sauce on their ribs.

Coleslaw takes no time to prepare.  Add 1/2 cup of mayonnaise to 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of celery seeds and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, honey or white sugar.  Add the dressing to one package of shredded cabbage and toss.

Beef up your beans. To each can of beans add two slices cooked crumbled bacon, 1 tablespoon each of brown sugar, ketchup and apple cider vinegar.  Heat through.

Take a bite of the ribs while the Packers take a bite out of the Chiefs.

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The Colts without Peyton Manning are pretty much the Cleveland Browns. The Green Bay Packers should have no problem crushing and stuffing them.  And that’s the theme for today’s football tailgating menu.  Don’t worry no horses will be harmed during the cooking process.  Pork will be substituted.  Speaking of which, yes Matt Flynn is a good substitute for Aaron Rogers if it comes to that.

Football Tailgating menu

Breaded pork tenderloin is one of the few regional dishes that belongs to Indiana. Here, instead of plain white bread crumbs, sourdough bread will be used kicked up a notch with parsley, sage and rosemary.  Accompany the crusty pork cutlets with a macaroni salad, cucumbers and onions in sour cream and nutty popcorn sundaes for dessert in honor of Orville Redenbacher, who started his company in Indiana.

Lay the thin-cut pork chops on a cutting board.  Remove any bone and excess fat.  Place on a sheet and waxed paper.  Cover with another sheet of wax paper and pound away.  Since the thin cutlets cook quickly this activity is great to do during the game if it gets close, which it won’t.

When the pork chops are twice as big as when you started put them aside for moment.

Mix 1/4 cup cream cheese, 1/4 cup goat cheese, 1/2 tsp. each chopped parsley, sage and rosemary.  Throw in 1 tbsp. of chopped walnuts for crunch.  Mix well.

Put about 2 tbsp. of the stuffing in the middle on each cutlet. Fold the cutlet around the stuffing as if you were making a burrito or egg roll.  Fasten with toothpicks.  None of the filling should be showing.

Dust the little stuffed colt cutlets with flour. Dip in beaten egg and then in breadcrumbs.  The easiest way to make bread crumbs is in the blender.  Cut the loaf in 1 inch cubes until you have 2 cups. Add 1 tsp. each parsley, sage and rosemary.  Hit the puree button, which is what the Green Bay Defense is going to do to the Colts offense.

Roll the cutlets in the bread crumbs until well-coated.  Add 2 tbsp. olive oil to a saute pan. Place over medium heat. Brown the cutlets on all sides lower to low and finish cooking, probably no more than 10 minutes. The cutlets are tender from all the pounding and crusty on the outside.  The stuffing is hot and creamy with a fresh herbal note and a bit of tang from the goat cheese.  If you don’t like goat cheese use another soft cheese. The entree for your football tailgating menu is finished

The macaroni salad is easy. Use store bought.  Thinly slice one onion and two large cucumbers.  Add 1 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup sour cream. Salads are done.

Finish off your football tailgating menus with the crunchy, salty and sweet sundaes. The sundaes are best made at the last minute.  Top a generous serving of vanilla ice cream with freshly popped corn.  If it’s hot from the popper so much the better. Drizzle caramel sauce over the popcorn and ice cream  Throw in a few salted peanuts if you like.

Now that tailgate menu wasn’t so hard was it?

Read more about the Green Bay Game

Spicy pork sausage, sweet shrimp and chunks of  succulent chicken all wrapped up in a zippy tomato-based sauce and served over rice.  Take the traditional jambalaya out of the pot and onto the grill. This recipe is fast, easy and pretty low fat.  There is some fat in the sausages but each person only gets half a sausage. Recipe makes four servings.

2 cooked Andouille sausages or any spicy sausage, cut into four pieces each.

16 shrimp – the 13 to 15 per lb. size

2 chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes.

1 cup tomato juice combined with 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 to 3 tsp. red pepper flakes, 1 tbsp. each dried thyme, black pepper, dried onions and three minced garlic cloves.  Divide into three zip lock bags. Add each meat to a separate bag.  Marinate for two hours.

Slice one red and one green pepper into eight equal sized chunks.  Slice two small onions into eight equal sized chunks.  Put in the bag with the Andouille sausage.  It’s cooked so you won’t be contaminating the raw vegetables.

Thread the vegetables, chicken, sausage and shrimp onto skewers.  Baste with the marinade from the sausage and veggie bag while they’re grilling.  Discard the marinade from the shrimp and chicken.  Chicken should be grilled until no traces of pink remain.  The shrimp is cooked when the shell turns bright pink and the flesh is no longer translucent.  If you use the 12 to 15 per lb. shrimp and 1 inch chunks of chicken they should both be cooked and ready at the same time.

If you don’t want to use skewers, grill the chicken breasts and sausages whole and the shrimp in a fish basket.  Keep the shells on the shrimp to keep them moist. The shrimp will cook faster than the chicken so put it on when the chicken is about 10 minutes away from being done. Cut each sausage and chicken breast in half.  Each person gets four shrimp, half a sausage and half a chicken breast.

Serve over seasoned white rice. Add chopped scallions, parsley, salt, pepper and butter to hot cooked rice.  Finish the meal with a crisp green salad to offset the heat from the Jambalaya.

Jambalaya on a stick makes great little appetizers. Remove from the skewers after they’ve been grilled. Cut the chicken and sausage chunks in half.  Serve a shrimp, chicken chunk and sausage threaded on a smaller skewer.

Pork steak is a less-tender cut of meat which usually demands moist slow cooking. Very thin pork steaks are sometimes tenderized by pounding them even thinner, coating with flour and then pan frying. Thicker pork steaks benefit from browning to seal in the juices and then simmering in liquid until tender. A marinade adds flavor and helps tenderize the meat if the marinade is acid based.

3 cloves garlic
Bunch scallions
1/2 inch section of fresh ginger
1 cup rice wine
1 cup orange juice
1 tbsp. grated orange peel
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
Measuring spoons and cups
Zip lock bag
2 medium onions
1 lb. fresh broccoli
Cutting board
Knife
Paper towels
Cooking pan
1 tbsp. cooking oil
1/2 cup water or chicken broth

Make the marinade. Mince the garlic, scallions and ginger. Combine with the rice wine vinegar, orange juice, orange peel, soy sauce and sesame oil. Reserve 1/2 cup and put it in the refrigerator. Place the pork steak into a zip lock bag and pour in the marinade. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour up to overnight. If the marinade doesn’t completely cover the pork steak, turn it over at least once while it’s marinating.

Prepare the vegetables. Slice the onions thinly, no more than 1/4 inch thick. Slice the broccoli no more than 1/2 inch thick. Keep separate and covered.

Remove the pork steak from the marinade. Pat dry. Throw out the leftover marinade.

Turn on the vent fan over the stove. Heat a skillet on high. Add 1 tbsp. of cooking oil. Wait until the oil starts to haze. Pick up the pork steak with tongs and add to the hot oil. It will smoke a bit. Brown on one side. It shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. Turn it over and brown the other side.

Lower the heat to medium. Add the onions to the pan. Saute until translucent, about three or four minutes. Stir the onions as they’re cooking.

Add the pork steak back to the pan. Pour in all of the reserved marinade less 2 tbsp. and 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil then lower the heat so the liquid is barely bubbling. Cover the pan and simmer for 45 minutes.

Add the broccoli slices to the pan. Bring back to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook an additional five minutes. The broccoli will be crisp tender rather than mushy.

Serve with rice and a salad made with radishes, scallions, snap peas and cucumber slices. Mix the reserved 2 tbsp. of marinade with 2 tbsp of cooking oil and use as the dressing.

Check the pork steak for doneness by using a meat thermometer, it should read 160 F or by cutting the steak. There should be no traces of pink in the meat.