Showing posts with label Cindy's Homemade Food-Spaghetti and Noodles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cindy's Homemade Food-Spaghetti and Noodles. Show all posts

Grilled Pork Chop with Homemade Pesto and Poached Egg Yolk

Posted by kenny Friday, December 3, 2010 0 comments
Announcement:
I'm officially a proud owner of food processor!

It was one of the awesome deals I got during Black Friday,
$69.99 for a 7-cup white processor,
As I search through the internet now - just to make sure my $$ was saved,
The cheapest offer comes in $99.95, hooray Black Friday!

Eager to see how good this baby works,
The very next day, I made pesto again,
This time not with a blender, but with this new addition in the kitchen,
Ecstatically, no more excessive shaking of my blender.


Ingredients (for 2 large portion)?

Pesto:
1 small package/18 g/66 oz of basil
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup of Parmesan
1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts
2/3+ cup of olive oil
Some sea salts
Some freshly ground black pepper

Pork chops:
2 thick-cup pork chops
Some sea salts
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some smoked paprika
Some olive oil

Pasta:
Enough pasta of your choice for two people
1 medium/small carrot
1/3 onion
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Some sea salts
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some olive oil
(Pot of hot water plus some regular salts)

Poached Eggs:
2 Eggs
Some rice vinegar
(and a pot of hot water)

How?

Let's make the pesto first (I just can't wait to try out my food processor!),
Simply, yes, nice and easy,
Roughly chop the basil, cube or grate the Parmesan,
Peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves, toast the pine nuts,
Toss all these ingredients into the food processor.

Give it a few pulses,
Add some salts and pepper,
Now slowly pour in olive oil while mixing at the same time,
I used at least 2/3 cup of olive oil,
You'll have to be the judge for the exact amount,
Just keep pouring if the mixture appears too dry.


For the pork chops,
Season both sides with some salts, pepper, smoked paprika, and brush with oil -


In the meantime,
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit,
Boil a big pot of water for the pasta,
Once boiled, add a spoonful of salts and cook the pasta according to package instruction,
Later on, drain well and set aside.

Brush additional olive on a grill pan, turn to high heat,
When the grill gets sizzling hot,
Sear both sides of the pork chops for about 3 minutes each,
Once that's done, transfer the whole thing into the oven for 10 minutes,
So that the center part can be cooked through.
After 10 minutes, remove from oven and let the meat rest for at least 5 minutes.

For the pasta,
Finely chopped the onion and carrot first.
Have a pan or skillet ready, drizzle some olive oil, turn to medium high heat,
Toss in chopped onion and sprinkle some salts and red pepper flakes,
Cook till the onion turns translucent, then add the carrot,
Sprinkle more salts and wait till the carrot softens.

Add the drained pasta into the pan, give it a quick stir,
Turn the heat off and mix in 1 tablespoon of butter,
The pasta can be on the light side, which is totally fine,
Why? Remember the pesto sauce we made earlier?
Just pour that all over the pasta and it'll be very delicious!

As for the poached egg yolk,
Ok...I admit, it was meant to be poached egg, I mean the whole thing,
Somehow it got messed up, the egg white was like all over the place,
At least I still ended up with wonderful poached egg yolks?

Not sure if I'm the best instruction giver on how to poach eggs,
But here's how I, or how you suppose to cook it:

Add some vinegar into a pot of water, bring to a boil then turn to medium low heat,
Crack the egg into a container first,
Now swirl the water and make a whirlpool in the middle,
Slowly drop the egg to the center, let it slowly cook the egg for few minutes,
Afterwards, remove the egg from water, preferably with a slotted spoon.


Time for plating,
Lay some pasta first, then top with thick and juicy pork chop,
Spoon some fresh pesto sauce over the meat,
Here's the important part,
Drop your perfectly poached egg (cough* cough* I mean egg yolk) on the pork chop,
Break it while the yolk is still warm,
Seeing the yolk gradually running down the meat onto the pasta,
What a wonderful scene.

This dish is definitely not hard to make,
I guess the only difficult step is poaching the eggs...hmm....
Plus many dishes piling up in the sink...don't we all hate the aftermath in the kitchen?

Cindy's Rating: 8

The Starving Can Wait - Beef Ragu with Rigatoni

Posted by kenny Tuesday, November 30, 2010 0 comments
This is how much I devoted to this dish.

I set my alarm clock at 8:45 a.m. this morning,
Just so that my beef ragu will be ready before lunch hour ends,
Did the alarm clock work? Well...the snooze button was pressed a couple of times..


Throwing the annoying alarm clock outside the window,
I still managed to munch on this dish by 2 p.m., 
End result? The wait was definitely worth it!

Ingredients (for 5 to 6 people)?

2 lbs of rump roast (beef round)
3 ribs of celery
2 medium carrots
3 plum tomatoes
1 onion
4 garlic cloves

1 sprig of oregano
2 sprigs of rosemary
4 sprigs of thyme

2/3 cup of red wine (use the one you enjoy drinking)
2/3 cup of beef stock

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Some sea salt
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some olive oil

1 box/1 lb/454 grams of rigatoni
1 1/2 cup of Parmigiano Reggiano (plus extra for serving)

How?

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cut the beef into large bite pieces, season with salt and pepper,
Roughly chop the vegetables, including peeled garlic cloves and tomatoes.


Drizzle some olive oil to the Dutch oven till slightly cover the entire surface,
If you don't have one, no worries,
You can simply switch the ingredients into an oven-safe container for roasting.

Turn to medium high heat,
Toss in the beef chunks and sear all sides till slightly browned,
Once that's done, transfer the meat to a big bowl,
We'll put them back to the pot in a little bit.

Still using the same pot,
Toss in chopped onions and season with some salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes,
The amount of red pepper flakes is totally up to you (I used a lot!),
You can also drizzle some more oil if the mixture appears too dry.
Cook till the onion turned slightly translucent,
Add the garlic and keep cooking for about 30 seconds.

Add chopped celeries and carrots into the mixture,
Season with more salt and pepper, cook till the vegetables turn soft, about 5 minutes.


It's time to add the wine, beef stock, and tomatoes (including the juice),
Gently stir the mixture so that all the ingredients are covered with the liquid,
Put the herbs on top,
Cover the pot with a lid, into the oven for 3.5 hours.
(Almost fainted while waiting for my meal, especially when the aroma of wine and rosemary kept attacking my nose!).

*No peeking during roasting!

Finally, after long hours of roasting,
Take out the pot and just let it rest for about 10 minutes,
In the meantime, let's start preparing our pasta of the day - rigatoni.


Bring a big pot of water to a boil, add some salt to the water then toss in the pasta,
Cook according to package instruction,
Once done, drain the water and transfer to a big serving dish.

Back to my lovely beef ragu, right after I  remove the lid -


The beef still remains chunky,
However, the meat can easily fall apart with the help of two forks,
Again, it's totally up to you whether or not you want it chunky or flaky.

Taste the ragu and see if more salts are needed,
But don't add too much since we gonna mix in some Parmigiano Reggiano.

Carefully scoop or pour the ragu onto the pasta,
Grate at least 1 1/2 cups of Parmigiano Reggiano and pour the cheese all over the pasta,
Mix well,
Now you can taste it again and see if additional salts are necessary.

I even sprinkled more cheese on my individual serving,
The more the merrier! And look at that cheese oozing on top of my ragu!


One hearty meal,
I bet beef ragu is also good with regular white rice or brown rice,
Maybe that's what I'll have tomorrow,
At least this time I don't have to wait another 4 hours!

Cindy's Rating: 7