Jack is Cooking Pork Chops

Posted on December 8, 2009 by jackiscooking under bread, butter, cheese, eggs, flour, garlic, green beans, milk, paprika, pork chops

Well Hello Internet!

So last night i somehow had the motivation to get up and make some dinner. nothing fancy, but boy was it good! i made breaded pork chops

heres what i used

2 pork chops ( from Herondale Farm of course!)

bread crumbs

paprika

parsley

one egg

also

some french cut beans

cheddar cheese

milk

a little bit of flour

garlic

So First i took the bread crumbs and mixed them with a little paprika and some parsley.

then i took the pork chops and dipped them in the egg, and then in the bread crumbs, and then because i like them extra breaded, i put them back in the egg, and then back in the bread crumbs. that’s easy right?

heres what they looked like

Then i took the chops, and i heated some olive oil in a pan. i cooked them for like 1-2 minutes on each side. then i put them in the oven at 350 for another 20 minutes.

In the meantime, i put a little butter in that pan (some of the oil had been soaked up by the chops)

i sauteed some garlic. then i added the french cut beans. i let those cook for a couple minutes over low/medium heat. once they were cooked i put a little bit of flour in the pan to start a roux. i added maybe half a cup of milk, and some grated cheddar cheese.

This made a nice side dish to the pork chops and added a little bit of green.

heres both together! sorry for a lack of pictures this time.

mmm mmm delicious

Jack is (not) Cooking Tuna Toro

Posted on December 2, 2009 by jackiscooking under Sushi, Toro, tuna

Well Hello Internet!

Heres another post that’s been sitting for far too long inside of my computer! A couple of weeks ago, on a sunday morning we were awoken with claims that we were going to New Jersey to eat a bunch of tuna!

The claims turned out to be true! We were very kindly escorted out to New Jersey by Stephen, who also treated us to all this delicious Tuna. It was an unforgettable event!

Heres the deal:

Apparently at this crazy Japanese mall/supermarket place in Edgewater New Jersey, once a year they have a tuna cutting performance!

what this means, is they take a whole tuna, and dudes with samurai swords (ok not samurai swords, but enormous knives!!!!) cut up a whole Tuna in a matter of minutes.

This Tuna was 680 lbs, dressed!!!

Dressed means without the head!

well anyways, after a very impressive performance by these skilled tuna cutters, Stephen the man with the plan – had the inside hookup to Mike – who led the performance, and managed to procure the best bits of the tuna for us! and i mean the BEST bits. We got the sushi tuna, we got the TORO tuna, (MAD amounts of TORO), the meat that was between the ribs, i don’t even know what its called!

So we took all this fresh tuna and we found a table in the food court and we set up a sushi kitchen. Were we allowed to do this? probably not! but who cares! we looked like we knew what we were doing!!

So we had a feast, we ate more tuna than is probably recommended by the state of california (since they seem to be the authorities on everything), probably all got mercury poisoning, and just plain old had a great time.

Now Somehow, i know how to roll sushi… i think i just happen to be a master at rolling… just about anything… wink wink… its all the same right?

ok so here i am spreading some sushi rice onto some nori

here i am cutting the fresh tuna into strips (with a very very sharp knife!)

here i am making some fresh Wasabi. this stuff is way better than the wasabi you normally get in the restaurant!

and here are my spicy tuna rolls! the spicy mayonnaise (is that really how you spell that? spell check says it is so….) was provided by Mike, who provided the Tuna!

so i probably ate about 15 of these rolls, plus at least 6 or 7 pieces of Toro Sashimi, and also some delicious Fluke that Mike raised himself.

we were deliriously full!

mmm mmmm delicious

p.s.! thanks to the lovely Julie, who took me out to this tuna heaven, and who also took all these pictures while i was busy rolling!

Jack is Cooking Thanksgiving Leftover Empanadillas

Posted on November 28, 2009 by jackiscooking under chipotle, empanada, empanadillas, garlic, green onions, green pepper, ham, paprika, red pepper, saffron, Thanksgiving, turkey

Well Hello Internet!

As always, there is leftovers from thanksgiving, and normally i take all these different things and i make a big turkey pot pie out of them. However this year we had LOTS of leftovers, and after picking for 2 days, and countless sandwiches, i decided that the pie i was going to make needed to not taste like thanksgiving anymore, because everybody was pretty bored of it by now!

So i decided to make Empanadillas (which are a kind of Tapas) out of the leftovers, and the greatest part is, that pretty much all the ingredients are from the leftovers, with only 2 added ingredients!

Heres what i used:

Leftover Roasted Peppers, and Asparagus

Leftover Turkey, and Ham (we had a ham also for thanksgiving this year)

This isn’t a leftover: one small chopped onion

You will also need:

some garlic

2 tomatoes (or canned diced tomatoes- i used some leftover homemade tomato sauce)

paprika

saffron

chipotle powder

lemon

salt and pepper

puff pastry

1 egg plus some water

olive oil

So i sauteed the onion in the olive oil until the onion was soft

Then i added the paprika (about 1-2 teaspoons), and a couple of strands of saffron.

Then i added the tomatoes. i covered the pan and cooked over low heat for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, i mixed in the turkey, ham, and roasted peppers into the mix. this i left uncovered and cooked for another 10 minutes or so, to let all the tomato-ey goodness soak into the turkey.

i decided it needed a little kick so i put in a tiny bit of chipotle powder, and squeezed some lemon juice in.

Then i cut circles out of the puff pastry dough (i used the frozen stuff. puff pastry takes forever to make!) i put 1 or 2 tablespoons of filling on the circles.

Folded them over and crimped them with a fork. Then i brushed them with my egg wash. The egg wash is just one egg, with a little water mixed in. This makes the pastry nice and golden when it cooks.

baked them for 20 minutes at 350°

heres how they turned out!

These things are ridiculously delicious, easy to make, and much more interesting than the classic leftover pot pie!

mmmm mmmm delicious!

Jack is Cooking Pecan Pie

Posted on November 26, 2009 by jackiscooking under agave, eggs, how to make pecan pie, pecan pie, pecans, salt, sugar, thanksging, vanilla

Well Hello Internet!

Since tomorrow is thanksgiving, tonight i am making pecan pie! A whole lot of pecan pies!

these ingredients are enough for 3 pies

9 eggs

2 1/4 cup of sugar

2 cups of agave nectar

3 teaspoons of vanilla

3 pinches of salt

4 cups of chopped pecans

1 cup of whole pecans

3 pie crusts (i used gluten free pie crusts)

ok so i mixed everything except the pecans together in a big bowl:

this is what it looked like when everything was mixed. make sure all the sugar and eggs are mixed in!

then i added the chopped pecans, and really mixed those in too.

you gotta keep mixing! it will separate!

anyways,

while i was mixing i put the pie crusts in the oven for 5 minutes to precook them.

when i took them out i poured the filling in and then made some patterns with the whole pecans:

i baked it for 45 minutes at 350°

it may take a little longer, or a little less based on your oven, but if you poke it with a fork, it should be pillowy, but firm. imagine an omelette filled with sugar and pecans! 😀

But wait! Didn’t I say that I was making three pies?

I decided to get a little creative and I made two more pies with the remaining pie mixture, combining it with pumpkin pie!

I used just a canned pumpkin pie mix and folledthe directions on the can. Luckily both pies cook the same amount of time!

The first pie, I made a ying yang. I used parchment paper to create the division while pouring.

I baked this one first for 15 minutes at 425. Then I remove the parchment paper. The pie was now firm enough p remove it but not too firm: then I turned the oven to 350 and baked for another 25 minutes