Hawaiian Pork Tacos

Hello!  

I'm so excited to be back…that hiatus was a little longer than anticipated.  

First, was my brother's wedding last weekend, 

which was a perfect celebration of their love and family. 

Then, all of my pictures were trapped on my iPad, thanks to the iOS 8 bug…

that didn't make this blogger very happy!  

Anyway, I haven't stopped cooking, so I have a back log of recipes to share.

So, I will start with these amazing Hawaiian Pork Tacos.  

So simple, so refreshing!  

My family was surprisingly impressed by how the flavors and textures meshed so perfectly.  

Jerry has already been asking for more!  

For starters, brown up about 1# of ground pork and add taco seasoning. 

I have yet to come up with my own recipe, so I'm still just using the packet.  

While the meat is cooking, whip up the relish…

1/2 cup chopped zucchini, 1 avocado chopped and 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple.

Top with 1 tbsp of lime juice and 1/2 tsp of salt.  

Stir it up and serve in the taco shell of your choice. 

Recipe

Ingredients:

1# of ground pork

1 packet taco seasoning

1/2 cup chopped zucchini

1 avocado chopped

1/2 cup of crushed pineapple

1 tbsp of lime juice

1/2 tsp of salt

Taco shells

Directions:

Brown pork and season with contents of taco packet. 

Chop up zucchini and avocado, add to bowl along with pineapple. 

Top with lime juice and salt. 

Serve in taco shells.  

Potsticker Burger and Asian Slaw

Being the huge fans of potstickers that my family is, I wanted to try to come up with a recipe so that we could enjoy all, well, at least most, of the flavors and textures of these Chinese delights, without the gluten...

After a little brainstorming and research, came up with all of the ingredients to put together a burger reminiscent of the delicious filling of a potsticker, which turned out to be a nice little Asian meal.

I'm thankful for the way that kitchen staples can be assembled with different combinations to come up with so many varieties of flavor profiles. 

The possibilities are endless!

The burger started with 1# of ground pork, added to it was 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1/2 inch of fresh grated ginger, 2 tbsp sesame oil, 1 sliced green onion, which was about 3 tbsp, 1 egg, 1 cup of shredded cabbage and topped with salt, to taste. 

All those goodies were combined by hand and roughly quartered for the patty-making process. 

Four burgers of approximately the same size were placed in a pre-heated grill pan 

for cooking over medium heat. 

When grilling or cooking most meats, 
I always error on the side of turning less often rather than more often. 

That helps to get those nice, caramelized, grill marks which are great texture.
And, helps trap the juices inside!

These were grilled for at least 5 minutes on each side before flipping.

  

Flip as often as necessary to cook fully, just not too soon.  

While the burgers were cooking, a nice little Asian slaw was whipped up. 

This started with 3 cup of shredded cabbage, 2 tsp of minced garlic were added as well as another 1/2 in of freshly grated ginger, another green onion and seasoned with salt to taste.

The dressing consisted of 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 2 tbsp sesame oil finished with 1/4 cup sliced almonds for added texture.

**Just can't get enough texture!**

Top these potsticker burgers with some of this Asian slaw, serve with your favorite potsticker sauce

and you won't even miss the wontons!

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

Burger:

1# of ground pork

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 inch of fresh grated ginger

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 sliced green onion (which was about 3 tbsp)

1 egg

1 cup of shredded cabbage 

Salt, to taste

Asian Slaw:

3 cup of shredded cabbage

2 tsp of minced garlic

1/2 in of freshly grated ginger

Green Onion - sliced

Salt -  to taste

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp on sesame oil

1/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

Combine burger ingredients well and divide into 4 even patties. 

Grill over medium heat for at least 5 minutes/side before flipping. 

While burgers are cooking, combine the slaw ingredients. 

Serve burgers with slaw and your favorite potsticker sauce. 

Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chops

Hey everyone, we made it through Monday.  Whew...that was a close one!

Nah, just kidding, I spent it at a dinosaur museum with Landon and his 2nd grade class.  So fun to see how your kid really is in school.  I sent Jerry numerous texts to let him know that Landon is really good in school.  I was pleasantly surprised.  He even saved a seat for me at lunch and wanted to sit with me on the bus. Melted my heart!

Was still home in time to fulfill the requested pork chops for dinner, although I had not yet decided on the preparation.

I was feeling particularly homey and traditional and not very adventurous at all, so I decided to go back to my roots, the days in the R&D lab schlepping batters and breadings with some home-style Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chops.

This takes a little longer than the easy shrimp teriyaki, but I promise you it will be worth it.

Let's get started!

The first layer on the meat (or any other substrate) is considered the pre-dust.  Primary purpose is to add some flavor that won't burn/cook off and also to facilitate the adhesion of the next two layers.

In bowl 1, used a half cup of all purpose flour, some seasoned salt and pepper. Probably nearly a tbsp of seasoning salt and more like a half of tsp of the fresh ground pepper.

The 2nd bowl is the batter, in this case, was 3 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork.  Two probably would have been sufficient...I hate throwing excess away.

Finally the breader, in a loaf pan, was a cup of Italian bread crumbs mixed with a cup of grated Parmesan with some lemon zest grated in for good measure.

Once the breadings are ready and waiting, let the coating begin! Use a fork to dredge the chop through the seasoned flour, just a brief coat on each side.  Shake off any lose flour before dipping the floured pork into the egg bowl, covered both sides.

Finally, the chops are ready to be breaded.  The combination of fine bread crumbs and cheese makes it very easy for the breading to stick.

After placing the chop in the breading, I used my hand to scoop some breading on the top of the pork and then pressing down gently with the palm of my hand to make sure there is good coverage before removing it from the breading and shaking off the excess…that will only burn in the oil.

Now that they are breaded, we can move on to the cooking stages.

The first step of the cooking process is to pan fry the chops for a few minutes on each side to set the breading and establish nice texture and color for the finished dish.

 After 3-4 minutes on each side in the melted butter and hot oil, they are placed into a baking pan and finished in the oven at 425 F for about 15 more minutes.

While the chops were finishing, there was some time for sautéing green beans in melted butter and topped with chopped almonds and Kosher sea salt.  Just don't add the almonds too soon or they will scorch.

The sautéed green beans was a nice change for us, so often I (over) cook them in the microwave, this way they actually had some texture left.


This meal was met with rave reviews, all 8 of the chops were devoured by the family in one sitting...so much for leftovers!