stuffed pork chops

I started making stuffed pork chops at the Market this week. We're currently offering three choices...

1. stuffed with fresh chorizo and chopped yellow and orange peppers, and seasoned with kosher salt, New Mexico Chile, and cilantro
2. stuffed with Mild Italian sausage and diced dried tart cherries, and seasoned with kosher salt and green Italian seasonings
3. stuffed with Country Sausage and diced dried apples, and seasoned with kosher salt and sage

Seeing that this is the first time we're offering them, I took some home to test. I cooked them in the oven on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees uncovered. I stuck a 155 degree meat thermometer in the middle of the sausage. The thermometer popped right around 45 minutes, and the chops were cooked perfectly, and they taste fantastic. I think my favorite is the Italian.

Brined Roast Chicken

Cooking trends come and go. Something will be featured on t.v. or in a magazine. Suddenly many of our customers are asking about this trend. A few years ago, brining turkeys was the hot idea at Thanksgiving. Out of nowhere, seemed like everybody wanted to brine their turkey. The next year, it was gone.

A customer of ours turned me on to the benefits of brining. He gave me this recipe to use.

1 gallon water

1 cup kosher salt

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbspn. peppercorns

1 orange or lemon, sliced (skin-on)

In a large pot on the stovetop, pour in the water and mix in the other ingredients. No need to cook this for a long time, you're just trying to get a good mix. When the salt and sugar have dissolved, put the mixture into your fridge and get it cold. Soak the bird in the mixture: overnight is ideal, but six hours minimum. When you're ready to roast, remove the bird from the brine, rinse, and pat dry. Season and roast the bird the way you would normally without the brine.

I've had a lot of success with this recipe. The salt causes the meat to absorb the liquid, which is then released while in the oven. The balance of sugar and salt is important so the meat doesn't end up too far in either direction (sweet or salty). The acidity of the citrus helps tenderize the meat.

Tonight we had a 5 pound roasting chicken. I made the brine as described, with the addition of a shot of molasses and one shot each of lemon juice and lime juice. I soaked the bird for most of the day and then rubbed it under the skin with poultry seasoning. I put a couple cloves of smashed garlic and some orange slices from the brine in the cavity. I tied the feet together and put the bird on an open roasting rack. At 325, I assumed the roasting time would be about 2 hours. The thermometer popped right around 1 hour and 50 minutes, and I let the bird rest while I finished the sides.

End result: delicious! I love how the brine affects the dark meat, which I normally pass over. The entire chicken is super moist, tender, and flavorful. All in all, I would say our five pound bird will end up producing 6-8 moderate servings (our kids are young).

I've also used this brine on pork loins with the same great result. Next time, I think I'll try this technique with a fresh ham.

fresh andouille

At work, we had a few andouille sausages left that needed to be cooked. This was a perfect opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone. I don't care much for neither spicy dishes nor seafood. So Cajun cooking doesn't happen too much at my house. However, I'm working hard to try new things, and I've been wanting to get the hang of cooking with beans.

After a little web searching, this is the recipe that appealed to me...

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/richard-and-suzannes-famous-red-beans-and-sausage/detail.aspx

Andouille is a sausage that is available both fresh and smoked. The smoked version is usually fully cooked. You have to be mindful of this fact, in case the recipe is assuming you'll be using smoked.

Since the andouille I was using was fresh, I browned them in oil first, and set them aside. I substituted a yellow pepper for green (I don't like green peppers), used 1/2 black beans and 1/2 red beans, creole seasoning instead of crushed red pepper, and a little extra bacon (hoping to add more smoky flavor).

Otherwise, I followed the directions very closely. From start to finish, I was working in the kitchen for a little more than an hour. The end result was very good! I served over white rice with fresh cornbread on the side. Now I've got a sink full of dirty dishes, but it was so worth it. There's enough here to feed us for at least a couple days.

Next time I make this dish, I will also add some smoked andouille to enhance the overall smokiness. The dish has got a little kick, but it's not too hot for a wimp like me to enjoy.

Laisser les bons temps rouler!!

"Good food is not cheap. Cheap food is not good." ~~ Joe DeCaro

http://www.cleveland.com/west-side-market/index.ssf/2011/12/post.html

New Year's Dinner, complete with awesome bone booties my three kids made.

New Year's Crown Roast

Pork crown roast is a common request for the holidays. It makes some cooks nervous due to its unusual shape, the cost, and the pressure of feeding holiday guests. I have cooked a crown roast at my house for the past few New Year's Days.

Every year I have used this same stuffing recipe from allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/special-occasion-stuffed-crown-pork-roast/detail.aspx

The stuffing is absolutely phenomenal. It's fun for my daughter and I to put this together, as there are a lot of ingredients, and we don't normally cook like this at home. I'm not generally a fan of cranberries, but this recipe has a nice balance of the berries and sugar to keep a sweet tooth like mine satisfied.

This year, I started with a 5 pound roast with 10 bones. This size is smaller than what most recipes will call for. At D.W. Whitaker, we sometimes joke about how we specialize in miniatures, because we sell quite a number of items that are smaller than what is available at other meat markets.

First I generously seasoned the roast with ingredients I get at our West Side Market neighbor Urban Herbs: salt, pork rub, garlic, sage. Then I wrapped the roast in film and left it in my 'fridge that way overnight.

Next day, I planned on roasting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours at 325. I've seen many different recommendations for time and temperature on these crown roasts. I try to roast everything at 325 as much as possible to keep things simple.

In a pan with a roasting rack, I set the roast upside down so that it's resting on the tips of the bones with foil over the top of the meat. At 325, I set the timer for 2 hours. After 1 1/2 hours I started working on the stuffing, which I had finished right about when the timer sounded. My internal thermometer read 135. I turned the roast so that the tips were pointing up, and covered with foil. A roast this small does not hold much stuffing, and I prefer to bake it separately in a pan anyways. I put just a little bit in the top of the roast while the rest of it went to a baking pan on another rack.

After checking my internal temp a couple times, I ended up keeping it in the oven for another hour, making total cooking time 3 hours. The thermometer read 155. I let it rest on the stovetop for 10 minutes before carving, as people say this allows the juices to settle.

The roast was fully cooked, juicy, and delicious. And the stuffing was the best batch I ever made. I was a little more patient this year and did everything right by the book. I wish I would have let the roast go another 1/2 hour in the oven, as I would have liked it a little more brown on the outside.

You can order a crown roast from us any time of the year and make a meal to remember.

M.D. (meat dealer)

I'm doing this for myself.

This month starts the 27th year I've been hanging around the West Side Market in Cleveland Ohio. That's enough time for me to realize that I'm probably gonna stick around for a while longer, maybe 27 more years, maybe not.

I believe in trying to be the best I can possibly be, and what I am is a meat dealer. Every workday, I keep the pork counter full at D.W. Whitaker Meats, and I've been doing that full-time for the past 11 3/4 years.

Not only do I work with fresh meats, I also deal out information. Today's customer is interested in knowing more about their food than ever before.

My goal is to use this space to do a better job of dealing out this information. I hope it works.