Food Wishes' Smothered Pork Chops & Romano Bean Salad

This smothered pork chops recipe from FoodWishes was immediately added to my "Must Make" list when it was published in 2010 - the year I was busy reviewing restaurants, testing recipes (through S) and writing for the food column in Critic. I don't know why, but it took us almost exactly two years (recipe published 27 Feb 2010, chops made 18 Feb 2012) to get around to cooking this! Tsk tsk.

We paired it with another of Chef John's recipes - the cold romano bean salad. The smothered chops were deliciously rich, with the blended flavours of mildy sweet caramelised onions, savoury seasoned meat and stock and tangy buttermilk. I remember being surprised at the sauce's sourish note, but that was because S did the cooking and I had forgotten the details of the recipe (i.e. the buttermilk). Against advice, we did not leave the beans to marinate overnight, so the flavours were quite subtle. Still its acidity, minty freshness and mild bite of garlic made it a very good accompaniment to the saucy, rich chops. Because it is so easy to throw together, I have made this delicious salad many times since, with green beans, lashings of grated garlic, salt, a good douse of olive oil and some white wine vinegar, intensifying the flavour to my liking. I love this salad freshly made, with the blanched beans still warm. Irresistibly good.

You may have noticed that I can rarely be bothered to make anything that is going to take longer than an hour to be ready (which is partly why these beans have never made it to the fridge for an overnighter). I am also very slowly (because I don't cook very often) training myself to moderate my use of ingredients - I'm too impatient to wait for the flavours to develop and have a tendency to throw in too much.... (especially seasoning). My writing betrays this tendency when I use phrases like, "lashings of..." or "there's no such thing as too much...". Onwards and upwards as they say! Happy holidays. 

BBQ Prawns and Mango Salsa

S made this (with me hovering in the background) in May 2010 and I have been holding out on writing about this, even though it is a real favourite of mine and just about everyone else who has tasted it, because I wanted to get a better photo. The first time S made this, there were no good mangoes available here so we caved and bought canned mangoes, which were revolting (as you can see from the colour in the photo). 

Chef John's Mango Salsa recipe, however, was sound enough to withstand our adulteration. Even with the horrible canned mangoes, the salsa was pretty good and we could easily imagine how great it would be with fresh mangoes. S has made this salsa many times since and it is always, always beautifully refreshing, tangy and absolutely delicious. It's that great accompaniment that lends that all-important zing to barbecued, smokey, rich proteins. Unfortunately, despite numerous attempts, this is still the best photo for this dish.

Instead of the salmon in the orignal recipe, that first time, we shrimp fiends opted for Chef John's slightly naughtier 'Barbecued' Shrimp, which incidentally was also finger-lickin', lip-smackingly tasty. Sadly, if I remember correctly, we've only had the shrimp twice (because I'm lazy and rely entirely on S's charity when it comes to cooking).

Drexels

On the morning we were to leave Christchurch (after the 'Robin Williams weekend'), S and I discovered Drexels. We were meandering around the Riccarton mall and were almost going to settle for dumplings when I suggested that we check the directory for other options. Nothing really jumped out at us and Drexels sounded like just another cafe/brunch place but we decided to stroll over to have a look anyway. The place was packed and there were at least 10 people waiting for a table. We took one look at the menu and the charming American-diner-like ambience and we were sold. Besides, a crowd is usually a pretty good indicator that the food is good (don't get me started on the times when this rule has failed me). We had to put our names down on the waiting list and were told to come back in about half an hour (maybe an hour), but hell, it was worth it.

When we came back, it was about 11am and the breakfast crowd had left - the place was still full, but there was a little more breathing room. We were seated in a large booth (for just the two of us, i.e. they didn't keep us waiting just because there were no small tables available) with little fresh pots of jam and butter and a little jug of milk already on the table. Everything was spotless, even the jug of maple syrup (which as anyone knows, is next to impossible to use without leaving some syrup on the spout) - I was very impressed. S pointed out that they clear everything off the table after each customer leaves and set it up again with fresh, clean jugs of maple syrup, sugar pots, butter, jam, etc. On top of all that, after you order, they bring you free toast that you can enjoy with the lovely fresh butter and jam. Being city folk, that thing on the table that looked like a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (pictured above) threw us for a while. I thought it was (whipped?) cream or something and thought it strange that I never heard of Americans spreading cream on their toast. You see? - Honest reporting, even at my expense. A few seconds later, S said that it was butter - of course! I was so busy enjoying the toast that I didn't even bother thinking about it. Stop guffawing for a while and try to understand - we'd never seen butter that looked like that. Hitherto, the only butter we've had experience with came in the form of bright yellow, hard, blocks, usually wrapped in gold foil. This butter was almost white and beautifully fluffy. Divine!

S had the Three Egg Omelette, Italian style (stuffed with ham, salami, mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese), which was perfectly cooked and delicious. It wasn't greasy (as omelettes can often be) and the tomatoes provided a burst of freshness and slight acidity to each mouthful. My fear of using fresh tomatoes in a dish like this is that they weep and turn the whole dish soggy - luckily this omelette was well executed and did not suffer that fate. S was also very impressed with the hashbrown, but I can't remember exactly why - something about "this is what hashbrowns are supposed to taste like". I was kind of focussed on my own plate.

My breakfast was the Full Waffle with banana and bacon (as advised on the menu) and it was sublime! Without a doubt, the best waffle dish that I have ever had. The servings were very generous - I got lashings of fresh bananas of the perfect ripeness (not too mushy or green) and perfectly grilled, lovely savoury bacon and the waffle was nice and thick, as proper waffles should be. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and had that exact waffly texture and flavour. Beautiful! Any waffle lover will tell you that there's nothing quite like the sight of a real, authentic, thick waffle with lovely, large deep pockets to collect all that deliciously sinful melted butter and maple syrup. MMMM! The combination of the sweet waffle, maple syrup and bananas and the savoury bacon and butter was just heavenly.

As soon as we left, we were contemplating our next trip back to Christchurch just to dine at Drexels again. Nothing like a good, incredibly satisfying Sunday brunch to kick off your week, I say.

Drexels - Breakfast Restaurant

Westfield Mall 

Rotherham St 

Riccarton

Christchurch

Tiramisu & Brownie

Critic Issue 25 – Food Column

These are a couple of my favourite, effortless, sure-to-impress recipes to satiate those sweet cravings. This blend of a Gordon Ramsay recipe and a random recipe, makes one of the best Tiramisus that I’ve ever had - sweet, luscious and creamy, with just the right chocolate and coffee overtones. Plus, it sounds fancy but is actually easily thrown together – which means that you will impress, without doing much at all. 

Tiramisu

Ingredients:

250g mascarpone

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp Marsala, brandy or Tia Maria

150ml strong coffee or espresso, cooled to room temperature

150ml single cream

4 tbsp icing sugar

Sponge fingers (savoiardi)

Chocolate shavings

Hot Chocolate powder

Method:

1. Whisk the mascarpone with the vanilla, Marsala and 50ml coffee, until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until smooth, then fold in the mascarpone mix. Pour remaining coffee into a wide, flattish bowl.

2. Take one sponge finger at a time and dip it in to the coffee for one second, remove and arrange at the bottom of a 2-3 inch deep, glass container. Repeat until you have a layer of coffee soaked sponge fingers.

3. Spoon a layer of the mascarpone mix onto the first layer of sponge fingers, then top with a layer of hot chocolate powder and chocolate shavings. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make another layer.

4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer to allow it to set and flavours to infuse. Cut into squares with a soft, plastic spatula, serve and bask in the adulations.

Also, everyone needs a good, fuss-free brownie recipe for chocolate emergencies. Of all the brownie recipes that my friends and I have experimented with, this one (that C found) is by far the simplest and yields brownies that are just as heavenly, moist, chocolatey, decadent and guilt-inducing as the complicated recipes. Commit it to memory.

Brownie (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped walnuts/peacans

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cups flour

3 whole eggs

1 cup melted butter (227 g)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175°C.

2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients and mix until combined completely.

3. Pour and spread the batter into a greased/floured or lined 9X13 baking pan.

4. Bake 25-40 minutes or until a skewer test comes out clean.

5. Scoff while it’s fresh out of the oven and still delightfully warm, with some vanilla ice cream. Also keeps well….apparently.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Critic Issue 18

NB: If you're wondering what happened to issues 16-17, I had to use some of the material already posted on this blog and didn't want to repeat myself. I have/will post the new bits that were tacked on in those articles.

I’m a big fan of FoodWishes.com. Every recipe of Chef John’s that we’ve tried has turned out perfectly, and that is not something I can say about any of the current celebrity chefs. I’ve always wanted to have a typical ‘Southern’ meal, which to me, having been influenced by pop TV, equals fried chicken, cornbread and sweet potato pie. I have never been to the southern American states and have no idea whether any of this is actually ‘southern’, but regardless, this week's theme is (loosely) Southern food. Naturally we turned to our favourite authority on American food, and found a great ‘Buttermilk Fried Chicken’ recipe. The chicken turned out beautifully with a nice crispy, crunchy coating and deliciously tender, juicy, tasty flesh. It pays to invest in a proper thermometer to get the temperature of the oil right, but not critical if you make sure the oil is very hot before frying. We also made some corn bread, which was pretty good and really easy to make, and blanched green beans, for the full southern experience. All in all, it was a really good, satisfying meal, which is the ethos of Southern food (according to my TV).

I know (or hope) you're thinking, "Where are the mashed potatoes?!!". We contemplated making stock standard mashed potatoes or trying our friend E's Parsnip and Cauliflower puree recipe, and ended up doing the latter (it's the bed that the green beans are on, in the picture). It didn't turn out as 'mashed-potato-like' as I would have liked (maybe we added too much water because the damn thing wouldn't blend properly) but it was a little too airy/watery for my liking. It had a nice garlicky flavour, but there was just no bite to it. I might be tempted to try this again (will adhere strictly to the recipe if I do try it again) if I get a flash blender sometime in the future.

If you're going to try making the corn bread, click on the link to the original recipe and read the comments from people who have tried this recipe. Most people prefer it a little sweeter (so add a bit more sugar) and some added a can of corn. We forgot to add more sugar this time around so it wasn't as good as the first time we made it. Also, if you leave it in the oven for too long, it will dry out, so don't.

Corn Bread
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar (will taste better if you use a bit more sugar, see comments on original site)
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup shortening

Method
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, eggs and shortening; beat for 1 minute. Pour into a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Bake at 220˚C for 20-25 minutes or until bread is golden brown and tests done.

On a separate occasion, I had an insane craving for Lemon Bars after watching an episode of Las Vegas, where the chef made lemon bars. I had never tasted them before but I knew I had to have them, so I found the easiest recipe online and….got D and S to make them. Even though they were not exactly like I imagined they would be (I thought they would be more custardy) they were still very good – soft, sweet, satisfying, lemony filling with a nice chewy crust. This recipe is a keeper.

Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

250 g sifted all-purpose flour

120 g confectioners' sugar

225 g butter, melted

4 eggs

400 g white sugar

3 g baking powder

30 g all-purpose flour

150 ml lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 175˚C. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a medium bowl, stir together 2 cups flour and confectioners' sugar. Blend in the melted butter. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Combine the sugar, baking powder and 1/4 cup of flour so there will be no flour lumps. Stir the sugar mixture into the eggs. Finally, stir in the lemon juice. Pour over the prepared crust and return to the oven. Bake for an additional 30 minutes or until bars are set. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars. Dust with icing sugar (optional).

Killinchy Gold's Maple Syrup & Walnut Ice Cream

Food discovery of the week: Killinchy Gold's Maple Syrup & Walnut Ice Cream is delicious, especially when topped with Hershey's chocolate Shell. Mmm. I have S to thank for recommending the ice cream. I must admit I did not expect it to have such a bold maple syrup flavour - for some reason, I didn't think they would be able to capture it. But they did and did it well. The walnuts complement the maple syrup flavour well and add a pleasant variation in texture, as does Hershey's chocolate shell. MMMmmm.....(dang, if only I could insert the 'drool-face' emoticon here).

Food That I Miss

This one is for all of you who also miss food from back home. Here are some of my favourite foods.

Sweet and Sour Pork: I know, I know, the most common and cliched of Chinese dishes. I can hear all the complaints in my head. Being Chinese, a foodie and a self proclaimed critic, I should be more discerning right? I don't care, it's still one of my favourite things to have.

Yam Basket with Chicken and Prawns: One of my absolute favourite things to order when we go to my favourite Chinese restaurant. I've posted a picture of this before, but this is a much better picture of it.

Kangkung Belacan: OMG, drool with me. I miss this so much!!! I Googled it and the English name for this vegetable is Water Spinach. Belacan is shrimp paste and the vegetable is stir fried with it and chilli. It's the BEST. I don't know how to cook it. All I know is that it's so mouth-wateringly good. Just looking at the picture and thinking about it is making me salivate.

Prawns in Sweet Dark Soy Sauce: Ask B how good this is! It's served with a bed of mango salad that accompanies the prawns very well. I think it's the speciality of the restaurant that I frequent, my favourite restaurant for Chinese food back home, Sin Kee, where this, all the previous pictures in this post were taken.

Chili's Triple Play: Wings over Buffalo, Chicken Crispers and some random fried spring roll thing that I don't really like. I love the wings and the Chicken Crispers though. The wings are really sour and zesty and go very well with the subtly flavoured white dipping sauce that comes with it (I don't know what it is). The sauce sort of reduces the bite or the sourness of the chicken. Yum!

Chili's Chicken Crispers: The sauce that accompanies the Chicken Crispers is deliciously sweet and tangy. It's supposed to be honey mustard sauce but it sure ain't like any honey mustard sauce I've had anywhere else. The battered chicken is never dry and the batter is tasty and thick but not sickeningly so. It actually comes with fries but I always ask them to substitute the fries for mashed potatoes because they have the best mashed potatoes and sauce (sinfully rich and creamy!) that I've ever had anywhere.

Damn! The keyboard just shortcircuited from all the drool...