Tag Archives: easy dinner

Smoked Gouda Pork Chop

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I’ve been making serious effort to make every single one of my meals at home. Not only is it healthier and cheaper – but the few minutes it takes me to prepare my own meal is a good way to unwind at the end of the day. But, there are those days that you get home late and you have to walk the dog and by the time you get to the kitchen the clock is reading closer to bedtime than dinner time. So a simple and quick recipe is in order… and when you are trying to reduce your wheat intake – toasting a slice of bread is not an option. This recipe is easy. In the time it takes your chops to sizzle, you can get a salad together and silverware on the table and pour a glass of wine.

Smoked Gouda Pork Chop (Kaprise Kitchen original)

  • 2 boneless pork chops
  • 1/4 cup of mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup of shredded smoked gouda
  • 1/2 teaspoon of mustard
  • 1/4 teaspoon of cracked black pepper
  1. Set your broiler to high
  2. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, cheese, and mustard until smooth
  3. Rinse and pat your pork chops dry. Sprinkle both sides of pepper.
  4. Place the pork chops on the baking sheet
  5. Smooth the cheese mixture evenly over the two pork chops.
  6. Place the baking sheet on the lower shelf of your oven for about 30 minutes, or until the pork has reached an internal temperature of 145 degrees F (see notes).
  7. Once the minimum internal temperature has been reached, place the sheet on the higher shelf and allow the chops to brown just a bit more.
  8. Serve over salad with a good white wine. I had mine with spinach salad and a glass of dry pinot gris.

 

 

Notes:

  • Connie at OuiChefCook has an excellent post about mayonnaise and instructions on how to make your own here.
  • You can substitute the cheese for other variations – I’ve only tried this with aged white cheddar and parmesan. Both work well, but if you try other cheese variations – let me know how it turns out!!
  • Suggested internal temperature for meats can be be found here on the USDA website. They say “Cook all raw beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops, and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 °F as measured with a food thermometer before removing meat from the heat source. For safety and quality, allow meat to rest for at least three minutes before carving or consuming. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook meat to higher temperatures.”

Jon’s Chicken Salad

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One more for you guys! I actually wrote this post June 14… but like I said, I’ve been distracted with life!

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A couple years back, I celebrated my friend Jon’s birthday with him. I made chicken salad sandwiches and then drove to a nearby beach. Since, I haven’t seen Jon, he has one of those high stress jobs where he’s constantly on the road now, but he came and visited this past weekend. When I was on the phone with him coordinating his arrival, I asked if there was anything in particular he wanted to do and he said, “Make the chicken salad from that time we went to the beach.” And while I do remember our lazy beach trips, the chicken salad isn’t something that really sticks out in my mind. I make chicken salad the same way I have since I can remember – a bunch of vegetables thrown together with some grilled chicken. Honestly, I think the first time I made chicken salad was because we had run out of tuna and no one was home to drive me to the grocery (you know, like a decade ago when I was still driver license-less).

There aren’t any secret ingredients, or any surprises. Instead, I mince the vegetables and taste a long the way to make sure the flavors compliment each other. The measurements aren’t precise, so you’ll need to adjust accordingly. I like mine with less onion, but others like the bite. I like a bit of sweetness – so I slice in teensy cubes of fuji apples. But feel free to tweak and adjust accordingly. The vegetables and chicken are phenomenal wrapped in crisp lettuce leaves or on toasted rolls, and whatever it is about this combination Jon loves it. So. Jon, here is your chicken salad so you don’t have to fly 5 hours to have your favorite sandwich!!

Jon’s Chicken Salad (Kaprise Kitchen, before I was even Kaprise!)

  • 6 chicken tenderloins
  • 3 stalks of celery, minced
  • 3 carrots, peeled and minced
  • 1 small shallot, minced (or half an onion, minced finely) If the shallot/onion is particularly eye watering that day, I rinse it with a little vinegar and let it drain well. It helps cut the strong flavor.
  • 1 small fuji apple, minced (I’ve used pear before too!)
  • 1 red bell pepper, minced and set on top of a towel (I find that the peppers are a bit juicy, so I let them rest on a towel to drain a little)
  • About 1  cup of mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons of mustard, I like the grainy kind
  • a squeeze of lemon (just over the apples, and it adds a nice brightness)
  • salt/pepper to taste
  1. If you have the foresight to plan your lunch, marinate the chicken overnight before grilling. It normally doesn’t occur to me until 30 minutes before I want to eat, so I use a fork to poke holes in my chicken and brush it with salad dressing (Onion Vidalia or Italian are my two favorites) before grilling. So. In a pan, grill your chicken until cooked through. About 4 minutes per side.
  2. Chop the chicken into 1/2 inch cubes and set it on a plate to cool while you prepare the other ingredients. No need to be too precise, the chicken will break up when you combine everything, but I do like cutting the tenderloins to remove any tendons or tough pieces that you get sometimes.
  3. Mince all of the vegetables. I normally start with the sweetest ones (remembering to spray my apple with some lemon to prevent browning) and do the onion last. I keep the vegetables to the size of a pencil eraser – big enough to be tasted, but small.
  4. In a large bowl, combine the chicken and vegetables.
  5. This is where we get a bit imprecise. First start by adding 1/4 cup of  mayonnaise and 1 tablespoon of mustard. Stir the mixture together, adding a little more mayonnaise as you go to make the mixture cohesive. Taste and add more mayonnaise and mustard as necessary.
  6. Serve on toasted bread or with crisp lettuce as wraps.

 

Soft Shell Crabs, and questions

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So, as I mentioned yesterday, I bought soft shell crabs. The gentleman that sold them to me was very sweet and explained how to clean them properly. Once I got home, and re-stocked my refrigerator with all my new little purchases, I decided to just double check his instructions. I consulted Connie’s guide on how to clean soft shell crabs at ouichefcook before diving into my endeavor. She also has some great tips of cooking, so I followed her instructions on that also.

I never thought of myself as squeamish, until yesterday. Those little buggers didn’t move a single floppy appendage when the man at the stand explained how to clean them, but the minute I put them on my demi-sheet they were wiggling around everywhere.  I couldn’t bear the feel of them wiggling under my fingers, so I copped out and used tongs and a pair of kitchen shears to make the appropriate cuts. Even after I cut major sections of their bodies away, they continued to wiggle. I felt like a villain leaving them wiggling around in a dish until I got around to cooking them for dinner at 7, so I fried them almost immediately. Even though it was 10:00am, I just had to finish cooking the soft shell crabs before I lost my nerve. Plus, I knew I’d be obsessing about it all day if I didn’t cook them immediately.

I lightly coated both soft shell crabs in a dusting of flour, salt, and pepper. Then in a shallow pan with about a cup of Canola oil, I fried them for 3 1/2 minutes per side until they were red and golden brown.

These were, hands down, the best soft shell crabs I have ever eaten. Maybe because I had to go through all of the effort of cleaning them to eat it, but they were so good! If I knew better, I’d be embarrassed to admit that I ate both of them in a single sitting. I ate them with just a bit of salad and strawberries.

However, (BIG however) after cleaning these crabs, I was still not feeling great about it. There is something about personally being responsible for these little live creatures while you rip off their face and rip out their gills so you can devour them with a bit of lemon. I felt a bit villainous cutting into their bodies while they were clearly alive. I don’t know how much better I would feel if I were to kill them first… but I just didn’t like the feeling that I was torturing something, even if it is just shellfish. Regardless, it was a good culinary experience. It made me really consider what I do consume and the way we consume live things for sustenance.