Another Classic - Pork Chops with Apples

What's a chop? What's a steak?

A bone in beef rib-eye is a steak. A pork loin cut is a chop.  A beef T-bone is a steak, a lamb T-bone is a chop. Huh?

The pork in this recipe is a sirloin chop. Or steak. Who knows. It depends on what the butcher thinks he can get more money for.

Another great, fast, inexpensive meal

Here we have a great lunch, spicy pork chops with apple and yellow beet salad.

The pork is seasoned simply with olive oil, chipotle powder, garlic powder and salt and pepper then grilled in a cast iron pan.

The salad is dressed with walnut oil and this great French cider vinegar. Each of these is expensive but the amounts used  on this plate costs pennies.

The bread is a ciabatta toasted over a gas burner. It stays soft in the middle but the outside gets crusty and smokey.

The beets are raw yellow beets that I sliced so thin you can see through them.

The pork is easy to make if you have a heavy bottomed frying pan. You can use a non-stick pan too if the bottom is not too thin.

You want to take the pork chops out of the fridge at least ten minutes before you cook them. If you take them right from the fridge they won't be as tender.  Cook them over medium heat so they brown and take them out just as they firm up. Let them rest for a couple of minutes before you eat them.

A hunk of meat, crusty bread and a flavor salad in about 15 minutes. Total cost for the meal: about two bucks!

Easy, Fast, Tasty Pea Soup

Scarf!

This is a great soup, easy and CHEAP to make. It's half an onion, half a carrot, a bag of frozen peas and some garnishes. It takes about ten minutes to make. The color is bright, bright green. It's low in fat, high in fiber and vitamins and is filling enough for lunch. Get the recipe here.

Pea soup. Ten minutes to make. Tastes great!

Off to the theater to play a matinee. This is a perfect lunch before a concert. Not too heavy but a lot of slow release energy. It can be completely vegan, though I did put a dot of butter in it to finish.

The garnishes I used here are bits of home cured ham (yes, I do throw that on just about everything), walnuts and chunks of Meyer lemon.

Ravioli in the Garage

Teaching, practicing, playing Brahms and going to the dog park doesn't leave a lot of time to make lunch. I ate in the garage today taking bites in between doing other stuff.

Apples and walnuts with walnut oil, ravioli with home smoked pork and peas

I had a box of locally made ravioli so I poached them and in another pan I sauteed some onions and tomatoes in olive oil, threw in some peas, rosemary from the garden and some thin slices of home cured and smoked pork. The salad is just apple and walnuts with a little walnut oil and lemon juice and black pepper. Dash of salt on the salad but the ravioli didn't need it.

My wife loved it. I scarfed it. Cost per serving: about four bucks, mostly for the ravioli.  Time to make it: about 20 minutes.

Crazy, rainy day means Turkey

It's been one of those days - I played two concerts at a high school this morning and on my way back I got a call from my dentist. My 18 year old son fell ill as they started to work on him. Rats!

I dashed over there picked him up and ran home. The pediatrician's office was closed for another hour so I slapped lunch together, called them and they gave us an appointment for late in the afternoon. I canceled all my students. As I was getting lunch on plates they called back and said to bring him right it.

The good news is that he's fine and it was probably a one time event. The bad news is that I had to eat in the car.

Sorry about the lousy picture - had to rush to the doctor..

Today I make potato and onion soup and turkey tenderloins. The soup is really easy. I sauteed up a large onion, put 5 potatoes in cut into fourths, with the skin and added boiling water. Today just for kicks I added some dried porcini mushrooms. It simmered while I made the turkey. When the potatoes and mushrooms were soft I used a stick blender and pureed it. Add some salt and pepper and it's ready. I garnished it with a little of my home smoked pork belly.


I love the contrast of the rather bland soup and the strong flavored pork.

I had some turkey tenderloins, which is really part of the turkey breast and not a tenderloin at all, but tenderloins sounds expensive so that's what they call them. They have virtually no waste. I just rinsed and dried them, poured olive oil over them and some of my spice rub. I browned them in a cast iron pan and finished them in a hot oven. Let them rest a few minutes and away we go.

Total cost for today's treats: about 2 bucks.

I don't like to eat before concerts or rehearsals so I will have a snack around 6 then eat a light snack when I get back. Tonight's Symphony Silicon Valley concert is special by the way: Thursday concerts never sell well so they have opened the house to the public for free and will be asking for donations to help the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

A Thrown Together Lunch - 30 Minute Spaghetti and Meatballs

Charlie on his first day with us.

It's going to be one of those crazy busy weeks. I taught this morning until 1, played with Charlie, our lab, smoked a batch of bacon, and drove my daughter to ballet and back then went to rehearsal. I hadn't really planned on what to have for lunch and my time was limited.
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I had some ground chuck so I decided to make spaghetti and meat balls. I sauteed up some onions with some onions and peppers. I threw in some ground cumin and some celery seeds and a cup of cheap red wine.

Pretty darn tasty for something thrown together.

I toasted a couple of slices of sourdough and whirled them in the food processor. I mixed those crumbs with the chuck, more cumin, salt and pepper and some juice from the can of tomatoes I was using for the sauce.

I chopped a handful of parsley. I added the chopped stems to the sauce and the leaves to the meat balls.

There were three things cooking at once (pasta, sauce, meatballs) but they all take about the same amount of time.


Total cost for today's lunch: About 3 bucks.

Slabs of pork sides. It's like really meaty and smokey bacon

I also had the smoker going today and here is the result. I used to call this bacon but it's side pork which is like bacon but there is a lot more meat than bacon. Bacon comes from the bottom of the belly of the pig, side pork is from the side.

I lightly cure it then smoke it pretty heavily so the texture is not too dry and the smoke flavor is strong.

We like to use it as a garnish for soups and salads and sauteed vegetables. I made some onions and Brussel sprouts with bits of the smoked pork and even my kids liked it!

Now if you don't care about things like your aorta, you can cut the rind off the pork and cook it in a heavy bottomed frying pan with a light weight (like another pan) on it. You'll render out a lot of the fat and get crisp smoked pork rinds. So bad for you but sooooo tasty.