Month: March 2020

The Perfect Easter Dinner: Roasted Pork Loin, Hasselback Potatoes, Ginger Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Baby Carrots
Make it Monday

The Perfect Easter Dinner: Roasted Pork Loin, Hasselback Potatoes, Ginger Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Baby Carrots

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So. Easter dinner. It’ll be here soon, what are you going to serve? If you’re fresh out of ideas, here’s a meal that is Easter dinner-worthy without the heavy lift. Roasted pork loin, hasselback potatoes and ginger glazed brussels sprouts with carrots. Sounds simple, huh? It is. It’s an easy meal for two or 22.  And leftovers? Uh, no. If you’re ambitious enough you can also bake a pan of Homemade cloverleaf rolls and whip up some panna cotta with a mixed berry sauce or a peach cobbler for dessert. Smiles all around!

Fresh pork loin, fat cap removed

Pork loin can be a perfect choice for Easter dinner or any dinner, quite frankly.  It can also be a pretty bland hunk of meat and if it’s overcooked well, it can be pretty gag inducing, too. YIKES!  No one has to cook a sucky pork loin and it doesn’t take a ton of  time or advanced culinary chops to cook a juicy pork loin loaded with flavor that everyone loves.

Marinades, while delicious, won’t really fix a pork loin that cuts like wood. I’m certainly not saying that a marinade is useless, it can definitely add flavor to your meat. It will amp up the flavor on the surface and if it includes salt it will penetrate the meat some. A marinade also includes acid and can run the risk of leaving meat a little mushy. Brining however, will flavor the meat throughout and depending on the size of the cut, doesn’t have to take hours on end. It’s what I swear by.  The trick? Salt.

How To Brine Meat

There are tons of brine recipes on the internet but creating a brine is incredibly simple. Because pork loin is a very lean cut it tends to dry out quickly if it’s overcooked. Salt are the magic crystals that makes the meat more tender. It relies on osmosis to exchange the fluid in the brine with the water inside the meat. Brining alters the chemical structure of proteins by breaking some of the bonds that give proteins their shape. The salt denatures the meat proteins, causing them to unwind and trap water. 

 The salt in the brine helps to break down the muscle and collagen in the meat rendering it moist and not tight and chewy. A problem some people run into is brining the meat too long. If the meat soaks in the brine for too long, the protein bonds can tighten back up and push the liquid out, turning that hunk of meat awfully tough. You don’t have to do a days-long marathon brine because you don’t want to hit a saturation point and get to the point of diminishing returns. Here’s a pretty in depth explanation on brining from Cookshack that has way more insight on the finer points of brining meats. 

Roasted Pork Loin Dinner
The Sides:
Hasselback Potatoes

I like to think of hasselback potatoes as a baked potato upgrade. With the super thin slices, it makes a pretty presentation. It doesn’t matter how large, small or type of potato, it still looks great on a plate. I can’t seem to make the super thin slices some folks are able to.

My slices are about 1/8th of an inch apart at my best and if you’re like me and don’t have the ginsu knife skills of a Japanese chef, it’s much easier if you have a slicing assist for hasselback potatoes. If you have chopsticks handy, you can place the potato between them (I tape them down on the counter so they don’t shift around).

You can also use a couple of wooden spoons. You want to slice straight down but do not slice all the way through the potato. If you leave about 1/4″ uncut at the bottom you should be in safe territory and the chopsticks will stop you from slicing clean through the potato.

Potatoes through first half of cooking

Brush a little melted butter and season with salt, pepper and other seasonings you prefer on your potato. Around halfway through baking, about 30 minutes, the slices will begin to fan out. I brush more butter on the potatoes to make sure I get as much buttery goodness all the way through the potato that I can. Once they’re done, garnish with fresh minced chives. You can also dress up the potatoes with my bacon jam or add bacon bits, cheddar, and sour cream. All of these would be fantastic on these potatoes too, but this recipe does not call for any of that . We’re going for simplicity here.

Brussels Sprouts

I grew up HATING brussels sprouts! I’m still not the biggest fan of those midget cabbages. I was trained to dislike them early because they were prepared so badly. There was a time a lot folks overcooked vegetables like brussels sprouts to oblivion to ensure they were done. This rendered them bitter, flavorless, waterlogged, and just plain awful and it made children all over the world cry. I’ve had them a few times since I was a kid and they were less bad but I wasn’t impressed.  That’s not the highest compliment you could pay for any food but, I have tried on rare occasions to try to like them because I know they are very healthy and good for me.

In giving this vegetable another shot after all these years, the brussels sprout has found redemption. These ginger glazed brussels sprouts are good and paired with roasted pork loin. Who knew? These sprouts along with baby carrots are sautéed in olive oil and butter, five spice powder, gingerale, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Sautee the brussels sprouts and carrots until they begin to caramelize, adjust the heat to medium, and add about a quarter cup of gingerale. Let the liquid simmer and reduce a little. Toss the brussels sprouts and carrots in the pan to ensure they are coated with the gingerale mixture. The sugar in the gingerale will help blunt some of the bitterness, and the fat of the oil and butter also offsets the bitterness of the brussels sprouts.

You Can Now Eat With Others, No Really!

The most awesome thing I’ve heard so far this year is it seems we are near the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and can now begin to have small gatherings with friends and family if we and they have been fully vaccinated. YAY!  This means that we can sit down to a meal with humans other than the ones in our household (no offense to those humans). It’s just sometimes it’s refreshing to see different faces around the dinner table and now we can. YAY, again. 

Roasted Pork Loin

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 12 hours 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 13 hours 10 minutes
Course Main Course

Equipment

  • large pot, large container to brine pork loin,

Ingredients
  

Brine:

  • ½ cup Kosher salt per gallon of water
  • ½ cup Sugar, per gallon of water
  • 1 tsp Rosemary
  • 1 tsp Thyme
  • 1 tsp Cracked peppercorns

Pork loin

  • 1 Pork loin
  • 1 tsp Pepper
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tsp Rosemary
  • 1 tsp Thyme
  • 1 tsp Garlic powder
  • 1/2 tp Oregano
  • 1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
  • ⅓ cup Grainy mustard
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tbsp Honey

Red Wine Reduction Sauce

  • 1 cup Red wine
  • 1 cup Vegetable broth
  • ½ tbsp Shallots, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp Minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp Butter

Instructions
 

Brine

    Add salt, sugar, rosemary, thyme and peppercorns to water. Once water come to a rolling boil, take off heat and let it cool completely. Add pork loin, cover and refrigerate for 12 hours.

      Pork loin

      • Preheat oven to 400°
      • Mix seasonings with mustard and honey.
      • Rinse, dry and truss pork loin to keep it's shape while cooking. Do not cut off the fat cap. Cover surface of meat with mustard preparation. Put in a roasting pan with a rack and cook for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 350° and cook pork loin 20 minutes for evry pound.
      • Pork loin is done once the interior of the meat reads 145° with an instant read thermometer. Remove from oven, tent loosely with foil and let it rest for at about 15 minutes before slicing.

      Red Wine Reduction Sauce

      • Sautee' diced shallots an garlic in butter until transparent
      • Add wine and simmer until it has reduced about ¼.
      • Add beef broth and simmer until reduced by about half, about 5 minutes.
      Keyword loin, pork, pork loin, roasted


      What am I Drinking Tonight? Berry Vodka Smash!
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      What am I Drinking Tonight? Berry Vodka Smash!

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      Boy, was this a week for a drink!  With the COVID-19/coronavirus stressing out and scaring the bejeezus out of everyone, I say it’s high time for us to gather our bearings, gain some perspective, count our blessings and take a moment to exhale.

      Most of us are on coronalock-down and some of us are beginning to go a little stir-crazy. By now many of us know someone that has been touched by this horrible pandemic in some way. And for those that have lost a friend or loved one, I am deeply sorry. My prayers are with you.

      Although an adult beverage won’t solve the ills COVID-19 is wrecking on the entire world, it may momentarily help put a bit of mental distance between us and the insanity that has been upon visited us.  Let’s just call it a temporary respite to kind of even out recent unsettling times.

      Raise a Glass in Thanks

      Also while we are reflecting, let’s raise a glass and express our sincere gratitude for those essential workers that, day in and day out, continue to serve and protect us. Workers that provide critical healthcare services, food to the needy and hungry, and deliver our mail deserve our thanks. Along with every one of the workers who, unlike many of us, are employed in jobs where they cannot just walk inside and safely close the door against the virus until it goes away. We appreciate you. Thank you and sip slow (just not on the job).

      If you like a fruity, slightly sweet drink, this one is for you.  It pairs well with a savory dish like crab cake beignets. It is so deliciously refreshing, if you’re not careful, it can sneak up on you!

      Ingredients:

      3 large strawberries
      4 large mint leaves
      1 TBSP simple syrup
      2-½ jiggers of vodka
      ⅛ lemon
      4 ice cubes

      Slice and place strawberries, lemon, and lemon in a cocktail shaker.  Using a muddler, muddle fruit and mint being careful not to mash the mint to a pulp. If you don’t have a muddler, you can use the handle of a wooden spoon. 

      Add vodka, simple syrup and ice cubes. Shake until cocktail shaker is cold.  Strain into a glass pouring over a couple of ice cubes or crushed ice, if desired. Garnish with a lemon wheel, strawberry and or mint sprig.

      How to: Making Cruffins!
      Recipes

      How to: Making Cruffins!

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      The cruffin. Half croissant, half muffin, all good. I discovered cruffins when my husband and I traveled to North Carolina to visit his twin brother who was undergoing a major surgery.  We spent a lot of time at the hospital, and hospitals are boring. Lucky for me I had my laptop with me to pass the time.  As I was surfing one afternoon looking for a fun recipe to try, I ran across the C-R-U-F-F-I-N!!!

      I found the cruffin on YouTube. This was new, at least to me and they were so pretty I couldn’t wait to get home to try them. But man, did it look like a lot of work and I was a little intimidated, but turns out, it was well worth it.  

      The cruffin is so pretty you wouldn’t want to eat it, at least for a minute. They are layer upon layer of soft, melt in your mouth buttery goodness. This particular recipe is adapted from Bold Bread with a few tweaks. I cut out a bit of the sugar because it just seemed too sweet for my taste and I also made a couple cruffins with a thin filling of cinnamon and sugar more like a schmear, actually. I amped up the vanilla and switched out ⅓ of the all-purpose flour with bread flour, because it just makes a finer crumb.

      Next Time I’ll Try Tangzhong!

      What resulted was a slightly sweet, delicate muffin/croissant hybrid. The outside is a little crusty and the inside has layers and layers that are soft and chewy. Although it is a bit of work, if you have a little free time it’s a wonderful addition to a special menu for Easter dinner or Christmas breakfast. 

      The next time I make cruffins, I will try it with the tangzhong method of bread making. What the heck is that you ask? It’s an easy Japanese bread making method that I’ll go more into when I post my piece on milk bread. This will make the cruffin even more light and airy.

      With my next batch, I’ll also include a blueberry filling for some and a cinnamon/sugar filling again. I’ll add a little more of the filling and a cream cheese icing drizzle. I hope you try this recipe and if you do, please post pictures in the comments section below!

      Cruffins

      Print Recipe
      Prep Time 2 hours
      Course Side Dish
      Servings 2 dozen

      Ingredients
        

      • ⅓ cup Granulated sugar
      • 1-½ tsp Active, dry yeast
      • 1 cup Warm milk
      • 3 cup All-purpose flour
      • ½ tsp Salt
      • ¼ cup Melted unsoftened butter
      • ½ tsp Vanilla extract
      • ½ cup Softened butter for filling
      • powdered sugar for dusting

      Instructions
       

      • Preheat oven to 350°
      • Grease muffin pan with butter and set aside.
      • In a large bowl, stir together warm milk, granulated sugar and yeast. Set aside for about 15 minutes to rise to a foam. Once the foamy yeast mixture has risen, sift the flour into the yeast mixture. Add melted butter, salt and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
      • Turn mixture onto a lightly floured pan. Knead dough for 8 – 10 minutes. Form into a ball. Press finger down into dough ball. If it springs back, set dough in well oiled bowl.
      • Cover bowl with cling wrap and set in a warm place to double in size (about 1 to 1-1/2 hours) minutes.
      • Once the dough has risen, turn out onto floured surface, knead for a few turns and then form a ball. Cut the ball into 4 equal pieces. and shape into smaller balls. (If you want smaller cruffins cut into 8 equal pieces. )
      • With a rolling pin, roll out each piece of dough. Roll dough as thinly and evenly as possible. The longer the dough is rolled, the more layers the cruffin will have.
      • Once each ball of dough is rolled out, generously brush on butter. Carefully hand roll each piece of dough into a "log". Roll away from you and roll as tightly as possible without distorting the roll.
      • After each piece of dough have been rolled into a log shape, cut each log length-wise. Roll sliced piece into a tight circle being careful to tuck the ends under the bottom of the roll and put in muffin tin.
      • Let rolls rise for about 1/2 hour. Brush each roll with an egg wash.
      • Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Take out of oven and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Let cool for about 5 minutes in pan then transfer to a cooling rack.
      Keyword bread, cruffins, rolls

      I will upload an instructional video soon.

      Auntie Josephine’s All Butter Pound Cake
      Desserts

      Auntie Josephine’s All Butter Pound Cake

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      Pound cakes done well, are one of the most unpretentiously delicious cakes you can find anywhere. A good pound cake is dense and firm, it will have an almost crunchy crust and the crumb should be tender and not dry. It shouldn’t have the moist crumb of a regular layer cake, but the density of the cake does not equate to Sahara-dry cake.

      I’ve certainly had my share of pound cake over the years. This pound cake is by far though, the most delicious I’ve had.  Because it is my Auntie Joe’s recipe doesn’t mean I’m biased, it’s just a great cake!

      My mom, Ms. Humphrey, and my aunt were the ones everyone we knew called on for sweets. Sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, fruit cake (yes, fruit cake), besides regular meals was my mother’s sweet spot, even home-made ice cream.  Ms Humphrey had a small catering business on the side and Auntie Joe was Ms. Humphrey’s right hand when she cooked for clients. 

      My Auntie Joe was the go-to for a lot of our family’s baked goods; Parker House rolls, coconut cakes and of course, her specialty…the All Butter Pound Cake.  This is the cake along with her Lemon Pound Cake that we grew up with. She moved on to 7-Up pound cakes and other flavors, but the All Butter Pound Cake was the staple. 

      My Aunt Joe was my favorite aunt. Not only because she was a great cook and I always loved to eat.  She was kind, generous, funny and just an all around wonderful person who loved people and it translated into everything she did, especially cooking. I hope you try this recipe. It is delicious.

      Ingredients:

      1 cup softened butter
      2-½ cup granulated sugar
      6 large eggs, room temperature
      3 cups all-purpose flour
      1 cup sour cream
      ¼ tsp baking soda
      ¼ tsp salt
      2 tsp vanilla extract
      ½ tsp butter flavor

      Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-in. bundt pan. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed butter and sugar alternating with sour cream, vanilla and butter flavoring. Beat on low just until blended. Pour into prepared pan and smooth out the top.

      Bake for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust top of cake with confectioners’ sugar and add fruit (optional).

      Ms. Humphrey’s Peach Cobbler
      Desserts

      Ms. Humphrey’s Peach Cobbler

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      Peach cobbler is a decidedly southern dish. It grew out of an amalgamation of techniques from England, improvisation from enslaved people, early settlers and possibly even travelers. A lot of folks that ever had a relative that was born anywhere in the south, close or distant, has staked a claim about an aunt, great uncle or great-great grandma that was the first person who made a peach cobbler. You know that ain’t true though, right?

      Here’s a recipe from 1839:

      A peach pot-pie, or cobler, as it is often termed, should be made of clingstone peaches, that are very ripe, and then pared and sliced from the stones. Rub the bottom and sides of a porridge-pot, or small oven with butter, and then with dry flour. Roll out some pieces of plain or standing paste about half an inch thick, line the sides of the pot or oven with the pieces of paste, letting them nearly touch in the bottom.

      Put in the prepared peaches, sprinkle on a large handful of brown sugar, pour in plenty of water to cook the peaches without burning them, though there should be but very little liquor or syrup when the pie is done. Put a paste over the top, and bake it with moderate heat, raising the lid occasionally, to see how it is baking.

      When the crust is brown, and the peaches very soft, invert the crust on a large dish, put the peaches evenly on, and grate loaf sugar thickly over it. Eat it warm or cold. Although it is not a fashionable pie for company, it is very excellent for family use, with cold sweet milk.

      The Kentucky Housewife by Lettice Bryan, 1839 (http://researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.com/2009/08/peach-cobler.html

      Many people avoid making peach cobbler because they think it’s difficult. That couldn’t be further from the truth. And, thank goodness we aren’t using the recipe from The Kentucky Housewife cookbook. 

      I cook a lot and as much as I love desserts, it seems reasonable that I’d have a trove of dessert recipe posts and I will post them up soon. 
      We ain’t using no paste (pie crust, I think), we ain’t using no loaf sugar (I don’t even know what that is). I was a little bummed that I had to use canned peaches but oh well, it ain’t peach season, it’s March. But, I still made do and cooked a scrumptious cobbler. 

      I learned how to make peach cobbler from my mother, Ms. Humphrey, a southern cook and it is delicious!  I decided that when I cooked a peach cobbler for the blog, I should honor my mom, and at least cook it the way she would and try to do her proud. Enjoy!

      Ingredients:

      Large pot of boiling water (to skin peaches)
      Large bowl of ice water (to shock peaches)
      1-½ stick of butter (½  stick melted)
      1TBSP cornstarch
      ¼ cup cold water
      ¾   cup sugar
      ¼  cup brown sugar 
      1 tsp salt (divided in half)
      10  fresh peaches or 3 – 32 oz cans of cling peaches, drained
      1 tsp fresh lemon juice
      2 TBSP Grand Mariner (optional)
      1 TBSP vanilla extract
      1-½   tsp – ground cinnamon
      ¼  tsp – ground nutmeg

      Crust:
      1 cup all purpose flour
      1 cup sugar
      2 tsp baking powder
      ½ tsp salt
      ¾ cup milk
      1 tsp sugar

      To skin peaches:

      Bring water up to a fast boil. Score peach skins and blanch in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Shock peaches in ice water. Peel, stone, and slice peaches. Set aside.  

      Use ¾ stick of butter to grease baking dish. Set aside.

      Combine 1 cup of the white sugar, brown sugar, ½ tsp salt, remaining butter, spices, in a heavy bottom pot with peach slices. Mix cornstarch and cold water and add to peach mixture. Simmer on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. Once peaches are soft, take mixture off the heat. Stir in vanilla, lemon juice and Grand Mariner. Pour into baking dish.

      For poured crust:

      Combine flour, ¾ sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over peaches (do not stir). Sprinkle sugar on top of batter.

      Bake at 375° for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown. Serve cobbler warm or cool with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (optional).

      What I’m Drinking Tonight – Rye Barrel Cyser Mead
      Make it Monday

      What I’m Drinking Tonight – Rye Barrel Cyser Mead

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      Oh deliciousness!

      I visited Detroit Vineyards to rent space for the Retta Cooked It Juneteenth Celebration and tried the Rye Barrel Cyser while I waited for the hospitality manager. Rye Barrel Cyser is a mead that is aged for 6 months in rye barrels. It’s made from apples and honey and it’s the best cyser I ever had! Ok. It’s the only cyser I ever had! I highly recommend it.

      If you haven’t visited the Detroit Vineyards yet, you definitely should. It is one of the coolest places I’ve been to in a very long time. It is in the historic Stroh Ice Cream Factory at 1000 Gratiot at the Eastern Market in Detroit and has been open for about a year. Do they have a Happy Hour, you ask? Of course they do, Tuesday – Friday from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm.

      What I’m Drinking Tonight – New York Sour
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      What I’m Drinking Tonight – New York Sour

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      I thought I was setting myself up for disappointment with this drink but then, I thought it’s got bourbon in it how bad can it be?  So, I adventured on and pulled out the cocktail shaker.

      A little bit about the New York Sour (which I highly recommend, by the way).  According to Whiskey Tango Globetrot, www.whiskeytangoglobtrot.com. The New York Sour dates back to at least the mid-1800s.

      The original recipe called for:

      1 table-spoon (1 tsp) of sugar
      ¼ of  lemon (juice of)
      ½ a wine glass (1 tbsp) of water
      1 wine glass (2 oz.) of spirits

      The standard spirit then was brandy, rum, gin or whiskey, though whiskey was added on much later.  Somehow the sour cocktail became America’s cocktail. The sour cocktail was actually originated in Chicago and was called a Continental Sour or Southern Whiskey Sour with a claret snap.The snap was red wine that floated on top of the drink.

      No one really knows how a drink originating and popularized in Chicago inherited the name New York Sour or how it stuck.  It’s got a cool, sophisticated look and it is refreshing although I got a little carried away with the rocks. And you can try it, but the egg white was a hard pass for me. The cool part was floating the wine on top.  I thought I was going to ruin it and create a disaster. Turns out I’m a pro!

      There are a number of variations of course, but this is the one I thought I would like best and it comes from liquor.com

      Here is the modern day recipe:

      2 oz. Rye whiskey or bourbon
      1 oz. lemon juice
      ¾ oz. simple syrup
      1 egg white (optional)
      ½ oz. dry red wine

      Add all ingredients except the wine into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until the shaker is cold.  Strain into a rocks glass over a few cubes of fresh ice.

      Slowly pour the wine over the back of a bar spoon so that it floats on top of the drink.

      Sip slow and enjoy!