Spicy Ponzu Pork Chops in Blood Orange Sauce with Sunchoke Gratin

Looking like a brutal month at work so taking the opportunity to cook is a luxury mostly for the weekends right now. Anyway, decided to play with some flavors tonight. So I ran across some ponzu while grocery shopping, and some blood oranges, and the thought of something pungent, crisp and sweet began to take shape. I marinated some very thick pork chops for about 8 hours in the ponzu along with a couple crushed cloves of garlic, some powdered chinese ginger, and a half dozen sliced serrano chiles.

While shopping I also ran across some beautiful sunchokes. What a coup for shopping in land-locked Denver, which is semi-arid and has a short growing season so you really appreciate good produce ... wow, sunchokes and blood oranges on the same day! Granted I had to hit 3 different stores, but all in a days work.

I boiled the sunchokes for about 10 minutes and then let them cool. Meanwhile I squeezed and strained the juice from the blood oranges and added this to a simple syrup along with a little salt (3:2 juice to syrup). Then I buttered a small glass casserole, sliced the sunchokes about 1/8-1/4 inch thick, added a couple tablespoons butter and covered generously with parmigiano reggiano. The casserole then went into a 450F oven for 20 minutes (until the cheese is partially browned and crunchily encasing the mounds of sunchokes). The pork chops then went into a hot cast iron skillet with a generous amount of grapeseed oil to quickly sear them to a medium brown, then reducing the heat to medium low (cooking to a medium doneness). Finally, I broiled some whole organic scallions with a little olive oil, salt and fresh ground pepper for about 10 minutes (until starting to crisp). Plating the pork chops, I made an arc around these with a couple scallions to keep the blood orange glaze from going wayward on the plate.

All the flavors worked very well together for something I dreamed up while pushing a shopping cart around. The tart ponzu married well with the sweetness of the blood orange sauce, with a hint of heat from the serranos. The gratin was incredible, subtle, unique, very much enhancing while not altering the flavor of the sunchoke. And the crisp and moist scallions added some texture and herbaciousness to the meal, besides helping me keep the gratin dry on the plate. But the star of the meal was the sunchoke, were it not for the the other things drawing us in to eat a proper meal, I think my wife and I would have been gluttonously eating a bowl full of the succulent little buggers.

Porcini Braised Short Ribs

Having tons of scraps from the Christmas dinner, I made some beef broth with the chain of the tenderloins and froze it for a night when I wanted to take something cheap and make it great. Short ribs fit the bill just fine. Slow and low is the way to go if you want this inexpensive piece of meat to just fall off the bone (no knife necessary).

After defrosting the broth and skimming the top, I quickly browned each side of the ribs in an enameled cast iron pot (2-3 minutes total). Then added the braising liquid, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, and a bag of dried porcini mushrooms, some salt & pepper. Bring to a simmer and then cover and into the oven at 250 for an hour. Reduce the heat to 200 and cook for another 2-3 hours. Served with roasted rosemary potatoes and baby arugula in a fresh lemon vinaigrette. The ribs will be fork tender and luscious, complemented well with a nice acidic Loire Valley red wine.

Roast Molasses Turkey Drumsticks with Mujaddara

Tried something really outside of my wheelhouse with the mujaddara as I'm starting to experiment a little with lentils. Since beans and lentils are two staples of the winter cooking season, and I cook with beans year round, I thought getting a little more acquainted with the lentil might be fun. The mujaddara was pretty good, simple, semi-sweet and starchy. Even with the addition of some mace and allspice I'd have a tough time categorizing this as something I'd crave. The texture is a little mushy and so many caramelized onions provide a good contrast. My daughters liked it, sort of a middle eastern equivalent of rice & beans or dirty rice, but much more muted flavors.

All in all, it was a good companion to the robust blackstrap molasses flavor of the roast turkey legs. This was a very budget friendly meal that can be had for around $13.

What blew the budget on this meal was the appetizer, which really had nothing to do with the rest of the meal. Somewhat conspicuously out of season I found some beautiful chanterelles and gently sauteed them with olive oil, herbes de provence, and a little butter. Lovely, but the mushrooms cost as much as the rest of the dinner. Apparently the chanterelles were from oregon, so I thought maybe the season is getting a little longer, I had thought spring and fall were the blooming times. However, this site states that the growing season is late fall to almost spring. It also has what looks to be a good recipe for chanterelles with sesame & ginger.