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Recipe: Pork Chops With Mustard and Cornichons

by Anne Maxfield on November 12, 2010

Accidental Locavore Pork ChopsThere’s a lot of great local pork these days. Here’s a delicious recipe for pork chops with Dijon mustard and French cornichons. Pair it with some mashed potatoes and a vegetable, and you’ve got an easy, impressive dinner.  People who know the Accidental Locavore know, I’m a sucker for anything French and this comes from Burgundy, where the grape pickers would eat it after a long day picking all those grapes, so enjoy your favorite Burgundy or Pinot Noir with it. The link is to one of our favorites.

This is for 2 people, but just add to it for more:

  • 1 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 1″ thick pork loin chops (you can use bone in or not, whatever looks good to you, the bone in just take a little longer to cook)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/4 cup water, wine, or chicken stock (just use whatever is around)
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1 garlic clove minced
  • 2 tablespoons minced cornichons (about 4)
  • 1-2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (must use Dijon, regular hot dog mustard won’t emulsify)
  • Optional: 1 tablespoon heavy cream or creme fraiche (it helps to enrich the sauce but isn’t necessary, use it if it’s kicking around your fridge)
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley (optional for garnish)

Melt the butter and olive oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper. Add to pan and saute until lightly browned. Turn chops, and cover pan. Cook until a thermometer reads 145 degrees, about 8 minutes (you can also poke the chops, if they seem hard, no bounce, they’re cooked). Transfer chops to a warm platter, tent with foil to keep warm while you make the sauce.

Add water, shallot and garlic to pan. Cook until shallot is soft, scraping up any browned bits, about 2 minutes. You can also use a bit of wine, or chicken stock to deglaze the pan instead of the water. Add any juices from the chops. Whisk in cornichons and mustard-you need to whisk quickly so the sauce will emulsify. If you need to add more mustard to help it come together, do it. If you have cream stir it in at the last minute.  Season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over chops, sprinkle with parsley.

Cornichons are tiny French pickles, and you can usually find them in most grocery stores these days. Sorry, not local, but there’s an idea for some of our local pickle makers…

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Recipe for Ratatouille Pot Pie

by Anne Maxfield on September 10, 2010

Accidental Locavore Ratatouille Pot PieSince I had all the ingredients for ratatouille from the farmbasket last week, it was time to put them to use. Luckily I remembered this great recipe for a sort of savory cobbler. It’s from the NY Times and it’s a favorite with some of my friends. First you make the biscuits, set them aside and make an easy ratatouille. Here’s how it goes:

Time: 1 hour 25 minutes (but it’s easy)

FOR THE CORNMEAL BISCUITS:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup fine cornmeal

2 teaspoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3/4 cup sour cream or plain whole milk yogurt ( I always use yogurt)

Milk

FOR THE RATATOUILLE:

1 large eggplant (1 1/2 pounds) cut into 1-inch chunks

3 small zucchini ( 3/4 pound), cut into 1-inch chunks

7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3/4 pound Italian sausage, casings removed (I use a mix of sweet and hot)

1 large onion, cut into 1-inch chunks (don’t ask why, but I was out of onions so I used one of the leeks, it was great!)

1 red pepper, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks

3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes (I used beefsteak)

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or basil.

1. For the biscuits: In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry cutter or fork, cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Fold in the sour cream. Gently knead mixture until it comes together in a ball, adding a drop or two of milk if necessary. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. For the ratatouille: In a bowl, toss eggplant and zucchini with 5 tablespoons oil; season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper. Spread vegetables in a single layer on one or two large baking sheets (do not crowd vegetables). Transfer to oven and roast, tossing occasionally, until golden, about 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a large, deep, preferably oven-proof sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Crumble sausage into pan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 7 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer sausage to a paper towel-lined plate.

4. Return pan to medium heat and add remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Stir in the onion, pepper, garlic and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and thyme sprigs; simmer gently until tomatoes are cooked and mixture is stew-like, about 10 minutes. Stir in the sausage, roasted vegetables and parsley. If you are not using an oven-safe pan, transfer mixture to a 2-quart gratin dish or baking pan.

5. Divide biscuit dough into six equal balls. Use your palm to flatten each ball into a 1/2 -inch-thick disk. Arrange on top of ratatouille mixture. Brush biscuits lightly with milk.

6. Transfer skillet or pan to oven and cook until biscuits are golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 6 servings.

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Recipe: Grilled Lamb Chops With Warm Spices

by Anne Maxfield on September 8, 2010

Accidental Locavore Warm SpicesEarlier this week the Accidental Locavore got some beautiful loin lamb chops. Since there was still a little of the yogurt I made last week in the fridge, I thought I’d marinate the chops in the yogurt. Yogurt tenderizes meat, something Indians have known for a long time. Here’s what I used, it will look like a lot of spices, but I had them on hand. Use what you’ve got, and what you like.
This made more than enough marinade for 5 loin lamb chops. You can also use it for a butterflied leg of lamb.

  • 1 cup full fat yogurt
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated into the yogurt
  • Zest and juice of 1 lime, and another cut in half to grill
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 TSP cumin
  • 1 TSP ground ginger (some fresh grated in would be good too)
  • 1 TSP smoked paprika
  • 1 TSP lemon curry powder
  • 1 TSP allspice
  • 1/2 TSP turmeric
  • 1/2 TSP ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 TSP garam masala

Mix everything together, taste and adjust the seasonings. Pour over lamb chops in either a covered dish or a zip-lock bag. Make sure lamb is well coated. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
About 1/2 hour before cooking, remove from the refrigerator, and let come to room temperature.
Heat a grill, grill pan, or broiler.
Remove the lamb from the marinade and shake off any excess marinade. Grill the lamb chops until medium rare, about 6 minutes a side. I like to halve a lime and grill it with the lamb, cut side down. It’s great squeezed over the meat.

You can tell if the meat is done by poking them with your finger. It should be a little firm to the touch. Take your second finger of your right hand and touch the thumb of the same hand. With your second finger of the left hand, poke the fleshy part below the thumb/second finger of the right hand. That’s how your meat should feel for medium rare.

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Recipe: Eggplant Parmesan

by Anne Maxfield on July 30, 2010

Accidental Locavore Eggplant Parmesan The Accidental Locavore never really understand why there are so many recipes for great summer produce that involve cooking them forever, or for that matter cooking them at all. That being said, since we did get a break in the heat this week, I took a few beautiful eggplants from my farmbasket and made them into Eggplant Parmesan. It’s an easy recipe mostly from Mark Bitman’s How to Cook Everything (the original edition) and really good because the eggplant is dredged in flour, not heavily breaded. With the exception of the Parmesan,and olive oil everything was local to Dutchess County. I used:

  • 3 medium eggplants, peeled and sliced into 1/2″ slices (if you want to salt them and let them sit for a few minutes, that’s up to you, I generally don’t)
  • flour for dredging
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil (cooking grade, not the good stuff)
  • 1/2 pound mozzarella grated (about 2/3 of a fresh ball)
  • a lot of grated Parmesan
  • about 30 basil leaves
  • tomato sauce (I used a jar of something local, sorry, but it’s too hot to be making sauce)

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. While the olive oil is heating, dredge the eggplant slices in the flour. Shake off the excess. Saute the slices in the olive oil until golden brown. While they’re sauteing, sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Do this in batches, and don’t crowd the pan! Let the cooked slices drain on paper towels while you saute the rest. You’ll need to keep adding olive oil to the pan, and it will seem like a lot, it is, but this is not a low fat dinner.

When you’ve finished sauteing the eggplant, take a gratin pan, or several small ones (this time I did individual ones, only because I had these cute pans). You’re going to put a thin layer of tomato sauce, a layer of eggplant slices, a sprinkling of mozzarella, a sprinkling of Parmesan, and a few basil leaves. Keep repeating until you reach the end  of the eggplant. On top of your last layer of eggplant, more tomato sauce, the rest of the mozzarella, a good sprinkle of Parmesan, and your best looking basil leaves (style points). Bake for about 20 minutes until it’s warm all the way through and the cheese is melted. Worth heating up the kitchen?

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