If you are like me, you love coming up with new recipes using ingredients you have on hand. Nothing is more satisfying to me than growing and raising my own food.
The banana leaves came from a dwarf banana I am growing in a pot. If you don’t grow bananas, ask someone who does if you can have a couple of leaves. An alternative is to check with ethnic markets in your area. Ask for banana leaves that have been grown organically. Sometimes if they don’t have banana leaves on hand, they can order them. Put the extra leaves in the freezer so you have them when you need them.
Sage, rosemary, chili peppers and garlic are spices that most gardeners grow. If you do not grow these, ask around. Organic is best. Feel free to dry some for winter use, but do keep the leaves of the sage and rosemary whole. The flavor lasts better if you wait until you use them to grind them. I also dry my garlic as whole cloves, powdering it as I need to. The same goes for any peppers from the garden. If they are small, I dry them whole. If they are larger, I cut them in half or quarters so they do not appear dry on the outside and mold on the inside.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! A delicate banana like flavor does come through as does the warmth of the spices from the wine. The chili pepper gives a hot, spicy taste to the meat. Feel free to substitute the ingredients to suit your families taste.
Enchanted Tropical Pork Chops
- 2 fresh banana leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf sage
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced or powdered
- 1 dried chili pepper – you may omit this ingredient if your family does not like hot, spicy food.
- 1 teaspoon ‘Alaea Hawaiian’ red sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon mixed peppercorns
- 2 1″ thick pork chops
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup Witches’ Brew – this is a red wine spiced with cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Feel free to substitute your favorite wine if you cannot find this one.
Rinse off the banana leaves with water. Place them in the pan you will be using to bake the pork chops. Set this aside.
Put sage leaves, rosemary, both garlic cloves, whole chili pepper, red sea salt and peppercorns in a spice grinder.
Grind until all of the herbs and spices are finely ground.
Spread finely ground spice mixture onto a plate. Make sure it is evenly distributed.
Melt butter and olive oil over medium heat in a skillet.
Place the first pork chop on the plate pressing lightly.
Turn the pork chop over and repeat the process.
Place the first pork chop in the pan that contains the melted butter and olive oil. Cut diagonal slits in the top of the pork chop.
Pick up the second pork chop and repeat the process making sure both sides are covered in spices.
Put the second pork chop in the skillet next to the first pork chop, making sure to cut slits in the top of it. If any spices remain on the place, brush them off into the skillet.
Cook chops over medium heat for about ten minutes.
Turn the pork chops over and cut diagonal slits on this side as well. Cook for ten more minutes. Both sides of the pork chops should be lightly brown at this point.
When the pork chops are brown, remove them one at a time from the skillet and place in the center of the banana leaves. There should be one pork chop on each banana leaf. Pour the liquid remains of the skillet over the pork chops.
Roll one side of the banana leaf towards the pork chop. Then roll the second side towards the pork chop. Your pork chop should now be rolled up in the banana leaf.
Turn the banana leaf over so the two ends are on the bottom of the pan. The weight of the pork chop will keep the banana leaf from unrolling and exposing the pork chop.
Repeat this process with the second banana leaf and pork chop.
Pour ¼ cup Witches’ Brew or your favorite wine over the banana leaves making sure to get some in the ends of the banana leaves where the pork chops are.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Be warned, the intensely nutty fragrant smell of the banana leaves cooking will transport you to a tropical island.
When the time is up, your pork chops will be done. Remove the pan from the oven. Move the banana leaved pork chops to a plate using a spatula. Allow to cool briefly, then carefully remove banana leaves from the pork chops. They will both be hot, so use caution. Serve the pork chops with your favorite side dishes. We chose baked honey Brussels sprouts with shells and cheese for our side dishes.
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals, Meat Recipes by on Oct 26th, 2009. 4 Comments. 
Many people think gourmet cooking requires lot of expensive special ingredients. This is a myth that simply must be busted! Gourmet cooking, in my opinion, is all about the presentation of the meal. Add in one or two richly exotic spices, such as nutmeg, cinnamon or cardamom, which you may already have in your cabinets, and you have a meal fit for a king on a homesteader’s budget!
Chances are if you grow your own herbs, you already know how to make a variety of spice mixes. You also know using your own herbs gives you a much better flavor than anything you can buy. Here’s a tip – when drying your herbs, keep them whole. Do not grind them until you are ready to use them. If there are spices you must buy, such as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, buy them whole too! Most small spices can be ground in a cheap electric coffee grinder, or better yet, a mortar and pestle. For larger seeds such as nutmeg, it is best to invest in a special grinder just for that spice. Once you smell the difference between pre-ground and freshly ground spices, you simply will not go back to re-ground spices. The fragrance of fresh ground herbs and spices permeate the air while adding an unmistakable burst of flavor to the foods you add them to.
Now let me give you an example of gourmet cooking on a budget. The picture at the top was made right here in our kitchen using ingredients I had on hand. It is a Pear Cardamom Sorbet in a delectable dark chocolate dessert dish.
I had the mold for the dessert dish. These clear plastic molds can be found at cooking shops, craft sections of discount merchants and sometimes even at thrift stores or garage sales! Make sure the molds are straight and clean with no holes in them if you choose to purchase used molds.
I found a bag of dark chocolate molding candy at a local discount grocer for $1. I prefer dark chocolate because the taste is smooth, rich and quite chocolaty unlike milk chocolate. I bought it, brought it home and melted it in my double boiler. If you do not have one, a small sauce pan sit inside a larger sauce pan filled with water will work. Bring the water to a boil while constantly stirring the chocolate. Once the chocolate has melted, carefully spoon it into the mold. Dessert molds have two parts, a top and bottom. Fill the bottom mold about 1/3 of the way up, then sit the top mold in place. This will help you determine if you have added enough chocolate. If so, snap the top mold on and sit in the refrigerator. If not, remove it and add more. If you make your chocolate before starting dinner, by the time you are ready for dessert, the chocolate will be molded. It should stay in the mold in the refrigerator until the mold begins to look frosty. As this time, put the mold into the freezer for two minutes. When the two minutes are up, remove the top of the mold and the chocolate dessert cup will slip right out.
The pear cardamom sorbet takes a little longer to make. If you do not have an ice cream maker, you can still make this, however using an electric ice cream maker helps the process speed up just a bit.
Pear Cardamom Sorbet Recipe
4 ripe pears – fresh picked are best
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground cardamom
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons brandy
2 ounces Maraschino cherry juice
Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about five minutes or until the mixture begins to reduce and thicken. Remove the pan from the heat source and chill for thirty minutes.
Peel and core the ripe pears. Put them in a blender with the lemon juice, fresh ground cardamom, brandy and maraschino cherry juice.
Whip until you have a mixture that is smooth. Add the cooled water and sugar mixture. Whip again until well mixed.
If you have an ice cream maker, pour the mixture into it and follow the manufacturer’s directions. If not, simply put into a bowl with a lid and freeze.
Serve by dipping out scoops and putting them in the chocolate dessert cups. The maraschino cherry juice will make the sorbet a luscious pink color that will blend perfectly with the smooth dark chocolate dessert shell. Top with a piece of molded chocolate candy, whipped cream or your favorite topping.
You can substitute the ingredients here. For example, try mint or cinnamon instead of cardamom. Gourmet cooking really is simple. Once you learn how to use what is in your cabinets, plus how to add a few extra special touches to make your meals stand out, you will be cooking up gourmet feats that you simply will not be able to buy in any restaurant!
Filed under Easy Homemade Desserts, Frozen Desserts, Sorbets by on Oct 26th, 2009. Comment.
Fall is here. The time to pick the end of the season garden produce is upon us. You may be wondering what to do with all the cabbage and carrots you have.
There are two easy ways to take care of excess cabbage if you don’t have a root cellar. The first is to make sauerkraut. The second, the one you will learn about today, is to turn it into coleslaw.
As for the excess carrots, you will use some in coleslaw, but feel free to can or dehydrate the others for winter use, that is if you do not have a root cellar.
Homemade coleslaw tastes so much better to me than anything I can buy. Not only do I have the joy of growing my own vegetables to use in it, but I know they were organically grown. If your garden was a flop, ask a neighbor or you can even go to the store and buy a head of cabbage and a bag of carrots.
I prefer to use store bought dressing. I have a favorite brand, Marzetti. I have not found a homemade recipe that duplicates the creamy taste of this brand. Plus it makes it extra easy to make, one less step to complete.
To begin, gather your ingredients, a fresh head of cabbage, a bunch of carrots and your dressing. As you can see I used a bag of peeled baby carrots this time around. This was a one pound bag. I chose to use it all, but you can use however much you like.
The next step is to remove the outer leaves of the cabbage.
Cut the cabbage into quarters, making sure to remove the heart. This is best done by cutting at an angle. The heart is the hard piece of cabbage at the bottom near the spot where it was attached to the plant. The heart goes a little way up into the cabbage itself. This part is edible but many people simply do not enjoy eating it as it is hard.
The next step is to use a knife to cut the cabbage up into small pieces. If you take each quarter and slice it longways two to three times then cut the cabbage shortways across you will get small pieces. You can use a food processer but I like using a knife much better because the cabbage does not end up as small or bruised.
This is what your cabbage will look like when it is all cut up. Simply put it into a bowl. You may need two bowls, one for mixing and one for holding the extra cabbage.
The next step is to dice or shred the carrots. I use a food processor for this because I like small diced carrots.
This gives you an idea what the carrots look like when they come out of the food processor. I simply dump them on top of the cabbage and continue to dice more until I have diced up all of the carrots I wish to put into the coleslaw. Then I mix the cabbage and carrots up.
Once the cabbage and carrots are throughly mixed, I add the dressing. Simply pour it on top, then stir it in. For this recipe I used 1 head of cabbage, 1 poud of carrots and 1 jar of dressing.
Refrigerate until it is cold, then serve. Nothing could be easier! Your family will love the taste of homemade coleslaw!
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals, Vegetable Recipes by on Oct 27th, 2009. Comment.
Everyone loves good fried chicken, but not everyone loves the grease. Normally I brown my chicken on both sides, then put it in a pan in the oven at 350 degrees F. If you use a broiler pan, the grease will drop below just like it does when you broil food. This time, however, I decided to go ahead and fry it in my cast iron skillet. The trick to reducing the greasiness of fried food is to turn it just once during the cooking time.
Before you begin, gather the following ingredients.
1 large bowl
wooden spoon
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon dried mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon ginger
Put the 2 cups of flour in the bowl. I prefer organic, but whatever you like is fine.
Pour the 1/2 cup of cornmeal on top of the flour in the bowl. You will mix this up later on.
Add the salt and any other ground spices to the flour and oatmeal.
This is what mine looked like at this point. I left the whole spices such as herb leaves, garlic cloves and paprika peppers out. I will add these shortly once they are powdered.
Put any whole herbs or spices into a grinder and process until they are finely ground.
Add the fresh ground herbs and spices to the mixture and stir well. This is what the flour mixture should look like when everything is well mixed.
Add the oil of your choice to your skillet. I used a cast iron skillet. I add paste ginger to the oil instead of using powdered ginger. Remember that the 1 teapoon of ginger is enough for three chickens, so if you use the paste ginger or whole ginger, reduce the amount you use by 1/3.
The next step is to make sure the raw chicken is well coated on both sides with the flour mixture. I used a wooden spoon to scoop the flour out of the bowl, then used my hands to pat the flour into the chicken. When one side is well floured, turn it over and repeat. Do not let your spoon touch the chicken. I also wash my hands once I turn the chicken over. This way I can save the flour mixture and not worry about accidental contamination.
When both sides of the chicken are coated with the flour mixture, put it in the pan. Remember the oil in the pan is warm so it may want to sizzle. Use a utensil, such as tongs, to lay the chicken pieces in the pan.
Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 30 minutes on medium heat.
After cooking for 30 minutes over medium heat, use the tongs to turn the chicken over. This is what the side that has been face down should look like. Put the lid back on and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
We use a meat thermomter to check the internal temperature of any meat we cook just to be on the safe side. Chicken breast should register at 170 degrees F when it is done. Properly cooked food that reaches the correct temperture and is maintained at that temperature is an important step in preventing illness from improperly prepared meals. It is also important to maintain sanitary conditions in your kitchen or on any areas where food will be.
Filed under Elegant Cooking Main Meals, Meat Recipes by on Oct 27th, 2009. 4 Comments.
