Lemon Thyme Mini Olive Oil Cakes

 

When I saw this recipe on The Pioneer Woman, I just knew I had to try it. It has lemons, thyme, and muffin in it, three of my favorite things. The glaze isn't too bad either.

  

They're really easy to make, and the results are moist, sweet and tart cakes. Normally this sounds like too much, but the fresh thyme adds that little touch of freshness to cut through all of those strong flavors. I couldn't resist them, I had to have eaten almost a dozen. They're that good.

  

Look at how wonderfully that glaze hardened, all drippy. I want to make them again... now.

You can find the recipe on the Pioneer Woman's website (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/02/olive-oil-cakes-with-lemon-and-thyme/). The only thing that I did to change the recipe to make it toaster oven friendly was to halve it and put the batter in a mini-muffin tin. Pop it in the toaster oven and it actually ends up working perfectly.

You also should halve the cooking time, and I recommend doing the mixing by hand instead of in a blender. That's probably because I'm blender-phobic. 

 

I have a confession to make though, I said that I halved the recipe, but I actually didn't. I made two batches instead. Totally worth it. Also, don't actually stack them like this, they all stuck together. It was a tasty mess.

Pork Chops in a Mustard Cream Sauce

Three weeks ago I went to the butcher and saw center cut pork chops on sale ($3.99/lb, so good), so naturally I snatched up two for a date night dinner with my girlfriend. Sadly, we both had the same not so fond memories of how our moms cooked the chops when we were kids. My mom always breaded them and baked the heck out of them in the oven, not delicious.

After doing some searching on the internet for a good recipe, looking for good mustard sauce or crust for the chops that wouldn't require an oven, we found this recipe on the Food and Wine website. It only required a little tweaking (they finish the chops in the oven), and we were able to make it just on the stove. The results were amazing! We've never had pork chops that tasted so much like... well... pork. I don't think you have either. The sauce is actually a classic French sauce, I'm just not sure which one it is. Any idea?

First, it all starts with our pork chops. They're really the star of this show.

 

Season them liberally with salf and pepper on both sides and make sure to rub it in a little bit.

 

Heat up a few tablespoons of oil in a skillet, until it's shimmering, but not smoking. You can tell if it's ready by spritzing water on it. If the water spatters and evaporates, then the oil is ready. When that happens, it's time to put the chops in.

 

Make sure that the oil is really THAT hot, we want to make nice sear on the pork. You should cook the chops for about six minutes on each side, or until nice and golden brown. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

While that is cooking on the first side, gather the ingredients for the sauce.

You'll need to dice half of a shallot. I didn't have any and the ones in the vegetable market looked bad, so I used a quarter of a small onion. (The sauce was a little too sharp, I really do recommend the shallots)

 

You'll also need to gather the following ingredients.

 

Chicken stock, red wine vinegar, heavy cream (YUM) and dijon mustard. I may have forgotten something, we'll see in a bit.

By now, your first six minutes is up, so you need to flip over the pork chops.

 

Look at that nice sear, it's going to taste delicious. Also, some of the fat on the outside of the chop has melted in to the oil, it will make for really good sauce!

After six minutes on the second side, take the chops out of the pan and let them rest. I tent some aluminum foil over a plate for this, just to keep them warm.

At this point, I turn off the heat in the pan, because it's REALLY hot still. Then, toss in your diced shallot (or in my case, onion).

 

Let it cook for about 3 minutes, until the onions get tender. I overcooked mine a little and they started the caramelize. It was still okay, until they started burning.

 

This is the point where I turn the flame back on to medium, and add in the red wine vinegar. Really stir it around vigorously in the pan with a wooden spoon. You want to scrape all of the brown bits up off the bottom.

 

See, onions starting to burn... bad time. It will take the vinegar less than a minute to evaporate, so have your next ingredient ready, chicken stock. Add it to the pan and let it reduce by half. It should take about three minutes.

Ouch, more burning onions and blurry picture. Double bad. So, when that's done, add the cream, making sure that the flame is low. You don't want it to boil, you just want to warm it through.

 

When the cream has reduced just a little bit, add in the dijon mustard and stir. That's really what the above picture is. That should be the consistency of your final sauce. It looks so good.

You can add some salt and pepper to taste, but if you seasoned the chops well enough, you won't need it.

Serve up the pork chops smothered in the delectable sauce. You probably want something starchy to sop it all up. Not a drop should be wasted, it's liquid crack.

 

 

Really, it's so good, there's almost a heavenly glow around it. I promise, it's not just my bad camera skills. HEAVENLY GLOW. It's that wonderful.

Here's a recipe so that you can experience it all on your own.

Pork Chops with Mustard Cream Sauce (adapted from Food and Wine Magazine)

2 center cut pork chops, about an inch thick

salt and pepper

1-1/2 tsbp olive oil

1/2 shallot, finely chopped (or 1/4 small onion, diced)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/4 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup heavy cream

~1 tbsp dijon mustard

1. Season pork chops liberally with salt and pepper while heating oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.

2. When oil is shimmering, but not smoking, add in pork chops, cook for six minutes on each side, then remove and let rest.

3. Turn off the heat and add the shallot, sauteing it using just the residual heat in the pan.

4. Turn flame back on to medium or medium low and deglaze the pan using the red wine vinegar. Allow to evaporate completely, which will take about 30 seconds.

5. Add in chicken stock, stirring with a wooden spoon to make sure that you are mixing in all of the bits from the bottom of the pan. Let reduce by half, which will take about 2 or 3 minutes.

6. Turn head to medium low and add the cream. Let reduce slightly, about 2 minutes, then add in dijon mustard an stir.

7. Return chops to the pan and just turn them over to coat in sauce. Add parsley for garnish if you want. Serve with some starch to absorb sauce, but don't think you're too good for licking your fingers.

Enjoy!

Chocolate "Chip" Meringues

Hey guys. Sorry I didn't post anything last week, I got pretty busy.

Anyway, in my search for ideas of things to make on this blog, I thought about a recipe I made a few years ago for Chocolate Meringues. Meringues are those awesome cookies that are made from egg whites beaten stiff with sugar added. While beating egg whites is tough work (not really) the reward is great. The cookies are sweet and have an awesome texture: they literally melt in your mouth.

To make them, we start with a rather small cast of ingredients:

 

Not pictured, but also used is vanilla. If you're smarter than I am, you will also choose superfine sugar instead of confectioners sugar, but that's a matter of taste, or something.

First thing, we need to separate our eggs! I set up two bowls (and my handy dandy egg separator). CAREFULLY crack the egg in to the separator and let the white run through.

 

 

If white is dripping down when you try to lift up the separator, just lightly jiggle the thing. Don't go too hard, breaking the yolk has DIRE consequences. (Egg whites can't be beaten stiff if there's ANY yolk in with them)

 

When all is said and done, you should have separated two eggs. If you don't have that fancy contraption, you can use the old school method of cracking the shell and shuffling the yolk back and forth between the two shell halves over a bowl. The contraption is pretty nice though, low stress.

Save the egg yolks for something else and walk over to your electric mixer (or metal or glass mixing bowl... NEVER plastic... egg whites can't be beaten stiff in a plastic bowl. Ask Alton Brown for answers on that one).

Dump the egg whites in the bowl of the mixture and add a little bit of cream of Tartar, found in the spice section of your grocery store. Cream of Tartar is derived from limestone and it helps stiffened egg whites hold their shape.

Turn your mixer on high for a few minutes. While you're waiting for the egg whites, take your powdered (or superfine) sugar and cocoa powder and mix them up in a bowl.

 

The result should look maybe a little lighter than that, depending on how much you love chocolate.

Also, take a handful of pecan and chop them in to little bits. The pecans replace chocolate chips in this recipe, since I don't want to risk adding additional moisture in to a meringue. The whole point is that they're perfectly dry.

 

 

By now your egg whites are holding stiff peaks and the surface of the whites is no longer shiny.

 

There's just one more test we can use to determine if the whites are ready... pull the bowl out of the mixer and flip it over.

 

Ta da! The egg whites stay plastered to the bottom of the bowl. NOTHING falls out. They are ready!

Put the bowl on the counter and grab a silicon spatula, or a wooden spoon.

Add in just a half teaspoon of vanilla and somewhere between a quarter and a third of the chocolate/sugar mixture.

 

Now, the structure of the egg whites is very fragile, so we must mix gently. We're going to fold the ingredients in.

First, put your spatula vertically in to the bowl.

 

Then, using a gentle sweeping motion, turn the glob you have over, switching the bottom and the top.

 

Now, repeat until the brown color is pretty evenly distributed. Add in a little more of the chocolate/sugar mixture and fold that in as well.

When you are satisfied that you've added enough, or when the mixture is all gone, sprinkle in the pecans.

 

Delicately fold those little guys in. They're heavy compared to everything else that's gone in, and that makes it a little more dangerous than the chocolate.

Now, preheat your toaster oven to its lowest setting, mine is 150 degrees. I took out one of my oven racks and double foiled it to make a small baking sheet.

Take a plastic bag and cut a hole in one of the bottom corners. Scoop in the meringue mixture and pipe meringues in what ever design strikes your fancy.

 

 

Not the prettiest meringues. They sure taste good though.

Now, place them in the warm oven for TWO HOURS! Think about it, the temperature is really low and the whole point of baking the cookies is to remove all of the moisture. So, it takes a while. This is a good time to point out that if it is raining, or really humid, the cookies will be almost impossible to make. Either bake them for longer, or abort the mission. Meringues MELT when exposed to moisture, that's why they feel so cool in your mouth. You also need to store them in an air tight container, and even then they may melt after a few days. Your best bet is to eat them fast. Not too hard of a task.

So, two hours (and my informative message) is up. Take them out of the oven, and remove them to a plate to cool.

 

  

  

Yum, these are good. Now I just have to find a use for those egg yolks.

Chocolate "Chip" Meringues

2 Extra Large eggs, separated

3 tbsp Confectioner's Sugar (or 1/3 cup superfine sugar)

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

1 1/2 tbsp Pecans, chopped

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or any mixing bowl that is not plastic) beat egg whites with cream of tartar until they hold stiff peaks and the surface of the whites is no longer glossy. To test for readiness, turn the bowl upside down. If the whites stay in, they're done.

2. Mix together the sugar and cocoa in a bowl and chop the pecans in to small cubes.

3. Fold in the vanilla and sugar and cocoa mixture, adding the sugar and cocoa gradually.

4. Gently fold in the Pecans.

5. Preheat your toaster oven to the lowest setting (preferably 150 degrees).

6. Using a plastic bag (or piping set) pipe the egg white mixture on to a baking sheet (or an improvised one) in any pattern.

7. Bake the cookies for about 2 hours, or until firm and dry.  Remove, cool, and enjoy.

Store in an air tight container at room temperature, they may keep for a few days in the winter. In the summer, eat them fast. Enjoy!