January 5th

January 5th

I normally am good at improvising on meals but unfortunately, most of the things I’ve been craving require either a stove or an oven, so I’ve been feeling a little constrained and thwarted. I’m starting to realize that I may have to start repeating some of the easier meals I’ve been making and luckily I still had some things left over in the fridge to help out on this.

I had cooked a white bean puree on New Years and still had some left over so I opted to do more of the pork chops form the electric griddle, but wanted a sauce of some kind this time, which would be a little more difficult to pull off since most sauces require sautéing or deglazing and neither of those would be possible. I decided to try and emulate this by using the microwave and lower, longer cooking times. I chopped some shallots and tossed them in a small bowl with some olive oil and microwaved them on medium for about 3 minutes and then pulled them out to look at them. They didn’t quite looked sautéed but they were a reasonable facsimile and I figured it would have to do. I added some chopped garlic to it and then put it back in the microwave for about another minute or so. White wine was next with a longer time to burn off the alcohol. Finally I added some Dijon mustard and a drop of cream and then out it back in just long enough to heat it. Was it the best sauce I’d made? Not by a long shot, but it was adequate. The flavors blended well, the shallots weren’t crunchy, and it did vaguely resemble sauce.

I had brined the pork chops again and then cooked them on the electric griddle. They were nicely browned and juicy. I put them on a bed of white bean puree (which had been flavored with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice) and then pout a ribbon of sauce over it, but left enough of it uncovered so it wasn’t drowning in sauce. I had a glass of my Belgian golden ale with it that I’m really starting to like. It’s totally cleared at this point and is brilliant looking. It pours with a thick, billowy head (not as long lasting as Duvel but similar). It has incredible spiciness to it with a subdued undercurrent of orange. It’s a great beer with food and a brilliant match to pork. This meal may have been a repeat but it beat frozen cannelloni.