Knife Skills: Brunoise (Fine Dice)

Brunoise (Pronunciation: BROON-wahz) is a culinary knife cut in which the food item is first julienned (cut into thin match sticks),and then turned a quarter turn and diced again, producing cubes of a side length of about 3 mm or less on each side. A brunoise should be consistent in size and shape, as this helps to create a pleasing presentation. A perfect brunoise is considered to be one of the overall most difficult knife techniques. That being said I took my shot at it on last night salad.

Cucumber-Pear Salad

~ Ingredients:

• 1 medium carrot brunoised
• 1 medium cucumber brunoised
• 1 medium pear brunoised
• 1 green onion finely sliced
• rice vinegar
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

~ Directions: 

Toss everything together in a serving bowl and lightly sprinkle with vinegar and oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

For a great tutorial on how to dice check out this video of Adia Mollenkamp I found on Chow .

 

~ Great with:  Chicken  ~ Prep Time: 10 minutes  ~ Servings: 4

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No after thought here.

Are your side dishes  more of an after thought? You’ve spent all your time and effort  on a beautiful masterpiece, only to pair it with a frozen or canned veggie. Maybe you step it up a bit with an opened bag salad.  MMMM… Really?  Honor your hard work with a side dish that offers the easy convenience of the canned or frozen quick veggie but worthy of a spot on your families table.

Creamed Corn w/ Green Onion

~ Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 chopped green onion (whites and greens separated)
• 1/2 cup milk (or Heavy Cream)
• 3 dried bay leaves
• 1 1/2 cups corn kernels
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)

 

~ Directions: 

In small sauce pan melt butter and sauté white parts of green onion. Add milk and bay leaves. Simmer 5 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves. In small food processor puree 1/2 cup corn and add to milk and onions. Add remaining corn and let simmer until heated thru. Garnish with remaining green onion. Salt and pepper to taste.

~ Great with:  Chicken ~ Prep Time:15 minutes  ~ Servings: 4

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Peas-n-Carrots, Mmm Mmm!

Summer is finally here in Oregon! The long awaited hot weather lends itself to outdoor grilling and low heat cooking methods. Who wants to heat up the kitchen when the hot weather is doing the job just fine. Lighter fare is always on the menu.  Save the heavy comfort food for a cold winter day.  Salads, soups and samies are what you crave. Here is a super easy, filling, yet refreshing pea soup that will provide the perfect end to a hot summer day.

Peas – n – Carrots Soup

~ Ingredients:

• 1 small sweet onion minced
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 10 oz frozen sweet peas & carrot blend
• salt & pepper (to taste)
• pinch of nutmeg
• sour cream (for serving)
• fresh cut chives or green onion (to taste and for serving)

~ Directions: 

In small sauce pan over medium heat melt butter. Careful not to burn or brown butter. Once melted sauté onions until soft. Add chicken stock and frozen veggies and bring up to a low boil. Let cook for 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.  Remove from heat and transfer mixture a cup at a time to  blender (or use an emulsion blender). Use great care as mixture is very hot. Pulse blender after each addition. Add half of chives or green onion and reserve the remaining for garnish. Blend until smooth. Serve garnished with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle with  reserved chives or green onion.

~ Great with:  Grilled Cheese ~ Prep Time: 15 minutes  ~ Servings: 6

A Little Pink in Your Pork Chop is Okay Today (Apple Cream Glazed Chops)

For the “other white meat”, pork if not cooked properly is not as nearly as forgiving as chicken. Who here hasn’t served a overcooked, dry, tough piece of pork that resemble a worn out piece of shoe leather?  The juicy piece of meat you originally intended to serve is now being hacked away at with forks and knives, gnawed at or smothered in a sauce to add some moisture. I am just guessing here, but I am sure this is how applesauce came to be paired with pork chops. The moist sweet applesauce would add moisture  and flavor back to the pork, rendering it eatable. In my opinion, this really isn’t honoring the animal that it came from.

Pork of today is very lean with very little fat. Cooking at too high of a temperature or for too long (which was usually my m.o.) can dry out the meat. The problem here is, we have all been trained that pork must be cooked until it is white thru out, just as chicken ,or we risk getting sick.  Except, cooking your pork until the center is white will surely guarantee you a dried out tasteless piece of meat.  So what’s with the bad advice? If it is known that cooking the pork this long will dry it out why was it ever advised?

Trichinella, that is why! 

As this is a food blog and I hardly want to gross you out and ruin your appitiete before you even read the recipe.. I will simply advise you, if you really want the details on that one, Google it.    I think that best rather than my explaining it here.  But keep in mind, before you swear off pork altogether or continue to cook the living daylights out of it,   pork is  getting an unfair bad rap for this one. According to the CDC’s Trickinellosis Surveillance --- United States, 1997 –2001;  Most reported cases of  Trichinella  came from eating wide game. Only 12 of the 72 cases in the 5 year study were associated with eating commercial pork. 9 cases with noncommercial pork.  If you think about how much pork is consumed each year here in the US and only 21 people came down with this desiese in  5 years;  I would say the odds are in our favor that we really have nothing to worry about. So go ahead and eat the pork. You have better odds of getting in to a car wreck on your way to work then getting sick eating pork.  Simply put, the pork you and I buy from the store has been grain fed under strict guidelines, therefore, Trichinosis has been virtually eliminated.
 
That being said,  there still are some strict guidelines that must be adhered to when cooking pork as with all meats. The culprit is bacteria that can be introduced into the meat thru the butchery process.  You can treat pork as you would whole cuts of beef, as long as the sides are seared adequately then there should not be any problems with bacteria.  You must also be careful not to cross contaminate your work space or utensils.  Ultimately, the best way to protect yourself against any food born yuckiness is to cook your meat to the correct temperature not color. The USDA recommends that pork be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees. Therefore, I little pink in your pork chops is okay today.

Apple Cream Glazed Chops

2-4 boneless pork chops

2 tbsp e-v olive oil
S/P to taste
1/8 tsp granulated garlic

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tbsp butter
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
2 medium granny smith apples
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
 
Pre-heat your grill or use a stovetop grill pan over medium heat. In medium sauce pan and over medium heat melt butter and brown sugar until is starts to caramelize. Add cored and sliced apples and stir frequently until the whole mixture is caramelized. Stir in  Cream and cinnamon, cover and remove glaze from heat.  Rub pork chops with olive oil and s/p to toast. Sprinkle with garlic and red pepper flakes.  Grill chops for about 7 minutes per side or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Remove chops and plate onto a nice serving platter. Let rest for at least 5 minutes. Pour glaze and apples over chops and enjoy!

Kick it up with Emeril (Sweet Corn Relish)

Kick it up with Emeril, Pg. 38 of the Sept. issue of Everyday Food, a Martha Stewart Magazine, has an amazing recipe for a Sweet Corn Relish. Since I gave poor Emeril such a hard time in my last blog I thought I would give him a little props for this recipe. It was incredibly easy and a refreshing side to my Shredded Beef Chimies and Ranch Beans. The flavors are so light with no fuss or muss, almost barefoot in its simplicity. It made a very nice light salad with what can sometimes be a heavy cuisine. Definitely a winner and I will make it again. Next time I may swap out the flat leaf parsley for cilantro to give it more of a Mexican feel.

Sweet Corn Relish

• 2 Cleaned ears of sweet corn

• 2 Vine-ripened tomatoes

• 2 Avocados

• 1/2 Small red onion

• 2 Tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley

• 3 Tbsp e-v olive oil

• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

• S/P to taste

Cook your corn in a large pot of lightly salted boiling water. Once corn is done remove from water and set aside to cool slighly so that you are able to handle cobs while you cut off the kernals with a sharp knife. In a small bowl,  add diced tomatoes, diced avocados, finely diced red onion (I swapped out with 2 green onions and it was great),   and chopped flat leaf parsley. Add corn kernals, lemon juice, and e-v olive oil. Lightly toss, careful not to smash the avocados. Salt and pepper to taste.