Ribs, French Style

Ok.  I lied.  This recipe came not from France, but from my open, semi-perverted, so-called mind.  But, I timidly admit, it is delicious and just the thing to slap in the oven at noon, or before you go to work and yank out to cheers and salutations when you get home.

I’m a big believer in simple is good, effortless is better.  Two caveats:  the food must be tasty and it must be nutritious.  Also healthy?  Well, that’s a moving target, depending on the expert and the latest fads science.

This recipe does have a bit of a French background, somewhat resembling cassoulet, which I wrote about earlier.  How do they differ?  This rib dish is meatier and spicier.

The Recipe

6-9 Country-style ribs  (ribs with half a pork chop attached)

Salt (lightly), pepper, white pepper, smoked paprika for the ribs

6-8 Strips lean bacon, chopped (see photo)

6-8 Inch piece of smoked sausage, sliced in rounds (see photo)

1 large onion, halved and sliced thinly (see photo)

3 Gloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

3 Small, or 1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped (see note on how to peel tomatoes)

3 Tablespoons minced parsley (2 for the dish and 1 for the breadcrumb topping)

3 Cans Cannellini Beans (or sub Great Northern Beans, or use a combo)

2 Cups (or more if needed) chicken broth, plus an extra spoonful of granulated or condensed broth.  I suggest LOW sodium as this dish can get too salty in a hurry.

1 Heaping cup of breadcrumbs

4 Tablespoons softened butter

Heat the oven to 225ºF.  (This is for the casserole. You will need a grill for the ribs.  I use a gas-fired grill, for simplicity)

First step is to put the seasoned ribs on the grill.  The idea is to brown them, not cook them through.  I like a little crust on mine. When they are crusty, take them off and set them aside.

Slice the onion, garlic and the smoked sausage.  Chop the bacon and mince the parsley. Peel, seed and chop the tomato.  Note on Peeling Tomatoes:  Put the tomatoes in the sink and slowly pour boiling water over them.  The peel will come off easily.

Sauté the onions and garlic until they are translucent.  In a separate pan, fry the bacon until the fat is rendered and the bacon is beginning to crisp.   With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and add it to the onion mixture.  Cook for 3-4 minutes longer.

Realize that nothing needs to be fully cooked.  It will stay in the oven for hours!

Add the smoked sausage and chopped tomato to the onion mixture and stir.  Now add two cans of beans, drained, and one can of beans un-drained.  Stir.  

Add the parsley and stir.

Add the chicken broth and taste.  You want a strong broth flavor and you want the broth to be slightly soupy, so the dish does not dry out.

Place the ribs in a large ovenproof pan.  Ladle the bean mixture over the ribs, then cover and place in the oven. On such a low heat you may leave the dish in the oven as long as you want.  I left mine for over six hours.

Half an hour before serving, mix a heaping cup of breadcrumbs with softened butter and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Stir well.

Take the casserole out of the oven, remove the lid, and sprinkle the buttered breadcrumbs over the casserole.

Return the uncovered casserole to the oven, and increase the oven temp to 350ºF.

Cook until the breadcrumbs have browned.

This will feed as many people as you have ribs.

Pesto Stuffed Pork Chops

Pesto Stuffed Pork Chops

Time for truth or consequences.   Do you like pork chops?  How about pesto?  How about you don’t care one way or another?

It’s my pleasure, in the spirit of the Christmas season, to bless all three groups equally.  For the third group, I implore you to refrain from drinking all the wine, beer, and brandy while the others of us are cooking a remarkable dish that will please every one of your guests and even your very iffy family.

As in all my dishes, as both my faithful readers know, this one is simple.  I don’t do difficult dishes.

But, before we put knife to the chopping board and heat to the oven, let’s take a look at pesto’s origins.  This won’t take long:  Pesto started in Genoa around the 16^th Century.  Simple and simply elegant.  Fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil.  But, really, any combination of greens, garlic, nuts , cheese and olive oil will do.  And, as in everything else we cook, tinker with the ingredients to get the taste that fits your palate. Start with only one clove of garlic if you must.

How about the pork chops?  Need to mention those.  I get my butcher to cut my chops about an inch to an inch and a half thick.  This time they were about an inch and a quarter.  I also use only pork that comes from animals whose bodies were not enhanced with growth hormones, unnecessary antibiotics, and other medicines and chemicals.

Let’s Get to It!

Prep time:  About 20 minutes

Cooking time:  50 minutes

First, heat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC)

Have 4 big (bone in) pork chops at room temperature.

Have a large baking dish handy. You’ll put all 4 chops in it.

Now make this version of pesto:

½ Cup fresh basil, chopped fine before measuring

1 Cup, spinach chopped fine before measuring (pack it down!) You may also use frozen spinach.

½ Cup Parmesan cheese

2 Cloves fresh garlic, chopped

¼ Teaspoon salt or to taste

1/3 Cup shelled pistachios

1/8 to ¼ Cup olive oil (Note:  You want this to be a thick paste, so be judicious and start small with the olive oil.)

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor to make a smooth paste.  Give it a taste and add more of anything you want.

Prepare the 4 Pork Chops

Make a pocket in each chop. Rub them with olive oil and dust with salt and pepper, then stuff pesto in the pockets, as much as you can.

Put the stuffed chops in the baking dish, cover and slide it in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.  Take the dish out, uncover and slide it back in the oven for another 25 minutes.

Caution:  If you’ve cheaped out and are using thin pork chops, you’re  on your own to decrease the cooking time and to explain to your hungry guests why you didn’t make more of the most delicious pork chops they’ve ever tasted.

I served the chops over a small bed of buttered pasta, accompanied by a side salad and a bottle of a nice Pinot Grigio.

Famous names from Genoa, Italy:  Christopher Columbus, the composer Paganini, John Cabot (English Italian) discovered Newfoundland.

Curried Cabbage Fit for a Maharaja

Deliver your first question, my beautiful, but skeptical friend.  “What is a Maha…watchamicallit?”  Easily answered. A Maharaja is the Sanskrit word for great ruler.  The female version is Maharani.

“So what is Sanskrit?”  Wow, this hole gets deeper and deeper.  It’s like I came to the well to fetch a pail of water and now I have to dig another well!

Sanskrit is the liturgical language of Hinduism.  “What does liturgical mean?”

Will this never end? Can’t you just concentrate on being beautiful and let it go at that?  Liturgical language is a holy language, usually ancient, used in religious services or ceremonies, like Latin in a Roman Catholic Mass, or old Hebrew and Aramaic in Jewish services.

You finished?  Can I get on with one of the most simple and delicious one-dish meals you’ll ever be fortunate enough to have on your plate? 

Curried Cabbage

2 Pounds of green cabbage (about ½ a normal sized cabbage), cored and thinly sliced

1 ½  Pounds of minced pork

1 Red onion, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons (be generous) of mild, red curry paste

1 Tablespoon wine vinegar

1 Heaping teaspoon each of onion and garlic powder

Butter, salt, pepper, vegetable oil

Mayonnaise, used to garnish

A handful of cilantro leaves, chopped and used in the pork and for garnish.

Putting it all together:

Add a little oil to a frying pan. Cook and season the minced pork and add a few pinches of chopped cilantro leaves.  When the pork has lost its color, put it aside.

In the same frying pan you used for the pork, add some butter and cook the diced red onion until it wilts.  Put it aside.

Put 3 pats of butter in a large skillet (medium heat).  When the butter melts, add a 1/3 cup of water and pile in the cabbage.  Toss the cabbage from time to time to keep the cooking even and to keep the wilted cabbage green.

When the cabbage has cooked down, add the onion and curry paste, along with the other seasonings, including the vinegar.  Stir well and make sure the curry paste is well distributed.

Add the cooked pork to the cabbage and stir well.

Remove the pan from the heat.  Put servings of cabbage in shallow bowls, and garnish with a dollop of mayo and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro.

Don’t like cabbage?  This meal will either force you to change your mind, or force you to admit you’re not too thrilled about sex either.

Warning:  Even though this recipe is low carb, you’ll find yourself scurrying to the refrig in the middle of the night, forgetting about a breakfast of bacon and eggs, and signing up for conversational Sanskrit.

This dish is an डेलिचिओउस्  (pronounced Ananda), meaning divine joy! Yeah, my cute little Maharani!

Stewed Champagne Pork With Root Vegetables

Winter is stew time, chili time, roast vegetable time, built a fire and sip some champagne time.  Outside it’s frosty, snowing.  Winds rip through you like an icy knife.  

Know a great…not just good…stew recipe?  Oh, hell yeah!

Bursting with melded vegetable favors, herbs, apple juice, champagne, and of course…..Pork!, this redolent  stew will make nostrils flare like beach umbrellas and your taste buds forget about whiskey and women.  Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration.  Who can forget about whiskey?  But, it’ll come damn close.

Listen carefully, cause I’m only going to say this twice:  The Key is Good Pork.

I used a well-marbled, pork shoulder, but the cut is not as important as the meat itself.  We’ve come to assume: “Pork, the other white meat!”

Here’s a secret.  Swine enhanced by growth hormones, anti-biotic flim-flam, and unnatural feeds produce white meat.  Pork raised correctly is not white.  Feed ‘em well, let ‘em wander the barnyard, and you’ve got happy pigs.  But, how can you tell?  Let your eyes do the work:  Pork should be as red as beef.  If you see pale pink or nearly white pork, treat it like you would gray beef.

Now that you’ve mastered today’s lesson, here’s a fabulous recipe that will make your guests swoon and your true love promise to love you forever…or at least through the weekend.

Stewed Champagne Pork with Root Vegetables

Feeds 4

1 ½ pounds well-marbled, pork shoulder! (cut into one inch cubes)

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil (I use Safflower Oil)

1 Large leek (white and light green parts only) thinly sliced into rounds

3 Cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

3 Sprigs of fresh thyme (I toss in the whole sprigs, stems and all)

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

¾ Cup natural apple juice (the cloudy kind, not clear)

¾ Cup dry Champagne or sparkling wine

2 ½ Cups low-sodium chicken broth (if you’re using packets, use 3 for 2 ½ Cups water)

1 Large parsnip, peeled and chunked

2-3 Stalks celery, rinsed and cut crosswise into bits

2 medium carrots, peeled and chunked

Season the pork with salt and pepper.  Put part of the oil in a deep pan (or Dutch oven) and heat to medium high.  Cook the pork in batches, for 5-7 minutes or until mildly browned.  As the pork is cooked, transfer it to a plate.

Add the rest of the oil and the leeks, garlic, and thyme.  Cook a few minutes until the leek is wilted.  Stir in the flour for a minute or so.

Add the apple juice and champagne and bring to a quick boil.  Use a long spoon, or spatula to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the broth and toss in the pork.  Add the vegetables.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a bare simmer.  Cover the pot and cook for an hour. (Careful not to boil away all the liquid!)

Season with salt and pepper.

I served this with English peas and mashed potatoes.

Drink the rest of the Champagne and use those last few crusty bits of baguette to good advantage!

Watch the women go wild and the husbands get nervous.