Pork chop with port and fig sauce and butternut squash with sage,walnut and sage

The inspiration for this dish came from the ravioli dish in enoteca, an Austin Italian bistro. It's homemade ravioli with butternut squash in a sage butter sauce garnished with candid walnuts and browned pancetta bits. I have made this same dish at home with my Italian pasta maker, but since we are not eating pasta now, I though why not change the form but still keep to flavor profile since they go so well together. It worked out great!

Butternut squash mash

1) I had to feed 6 people at dinner so I used 2 packets of the precut organic butternut squash from Costco. I really like this product because cutting butternut squash or any winter squash is not an easy task. If you must do it make sure you wear gloves because it can make your hands really sticky. I roasted two trays of butternut @ 400 degree convection for 30 - 45 minutes. Brush them with some olive oil and salt and pepper? I  think 1 pack is plenty for 4 people

2) the butternut squash is very watery so even after roasting if you mash all of it, it will be soggy. I recommend only mashing 1/2 of the butternut and let the other half be in its cube format. It will give the dish more texture.

3)in a dry pan at medium heat toast 1/2 cup of walnuts for 5 min. Shaking the pan occasionally and make sure it doesn't burm the walnuts. Take out the walnut and let it cool the, chop it.

3)  wash the sage leaves, and dry the, well between paper towels. Heat up about 3 tablespoons of butter at low heat in the same pan you toasted the walnuts. When the butter start bubbling carefully put in the sage. Flip them carefully so they are toasted but not burnt. Take out the sage and turned off the heat immediately. Make sure butter is not burned. Add the butter to the butternut and fold it in gentle and evenly.

4) to serve, add a cup of the butternut and garnish with 2 sage leaves, 1-2 tablespoons of walnut, a teaspoon or 1/2 teaspoon of maple syrup. This is a dynamite combination of flavor.

Pork chop with port and fig reduction

This recipe will yield about 2 and 1/4 cup of sauce. Obviously you don't need that much, you can freeze each 1/2 a cup or 3/4 cup  in plastic sandwich ziplock and defrost it next time you cook any kind of pork. I think it should go well with turkey as well.

1) put in a sauce pan 2&1/2 cup of port wine(a sweet desser wine) and 1&1/4 cup of low sodium organic chicken broth. Add to it, 8 dry figs roughly chopped, 2 springs of rosemary, 2 stick of cinnamon 1 tablespoon of honey. Bring to boil and keep in medium high heat for 30 minutes until it reduces by half. Take out the rosemary and cinnamon and blend it in the blender adding 2 tablespoon of butter to it.

Taiwanese train lunchbox classic: Taiwanese pork chop simplified

When I was a child, our family rarely eats out and because my mom and dad and both my grandparents came to Taiwan after 1949 the Chinese civil war, at home we didn't eat much Taiwanese food but rather Chinese food. For me Taiwanese food (perhaps because I don't eat if often) has a mysterious and unexplainable attraction.
I remember in summer time sometimes we would take the train to Kaohsiung to visit my aunts and uncles from my day's side of family and one of the most exciting part of the experience is the train bento or lunch box. It usually has a pork chop, egg, some different veggies and rice. The pork chop is the star of the show, very flavorful and juicy. I tweak the recipe a bit to make it a quick meal. You can literary make this dish while you cook the rice. So in 20 min you can have a home made meal ready for your family

1) in the blender put a piece of ginger, salt, 2 cloves of garlic, some oil, some corn starch, soy sauce, rice wine, 1 green onion, white pepper, 5 spice powder, sugar. Blend until smooth

2) dry the pork chops and cut the white part so when you cook it, it will stay flat and not curl up

3) use a meat mallet pound the meat until thin like scaloppine

4) put meat in an deep dish or plastic bag and add in the marinade. Because the meat is thin it will take only a few minutes to marinade

5) while its marinating put some oil in pan or cast iron grill if you don't like frying food. If you fry then coat the meat in sweet potato starch or yam starch available in Asian grocery store. I experiment with flour and/or rice flour and its not as good as 地瓜粉. If you want to grill don't coat it with anything just put on hot grill. It only take about 3 min total because the meat is pounded thin

Remove any excess oil with paper tower and add some broccoli to the pan and 1/2 cup of water then cover. Let steam cook the broccoli in 2 min. Serve with lurofan and enjoy this classic Taiwanese lunchbox delight

The impossible: lean yet tasty taiwanese Lurofan 台灣魯肉飯

One of the street foods that brings a lot of fond memories for people who have lived in Taiwan is the flavor of Lu ro fan. If you have never had it, I don't even know how to describe the flavor profile. You just have to try it. It does require some prep and cooking time similar to the ragu but like the ragu once it's on the stove simmering you can pretty much forget about it for the next 3 hours. The traditional taiwanese recipe calls for fat cuts of pork like pork belley, however this adds a ton of calories and saturated fat. my lean version results in incredible yummy and low calorie guilt free pork that your can add to your noodle or rice any time

There are only a few simple steps
1) dice about a pound of shallots and slice about 10 cloves of garlic. I have sometimes sliced the whole head of garlic. What can I say, just really love garlic. Put 1 cup of shiitake mushrooms in warm water to hydrate

2) add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy pot and add shallots and garlic. Sauté for may be 5 min or more in medium heat until they shallot is translucent. Remember to add a pinch of salt

3) add 1 lb of ground pork of the highest quality ( I like Berkshire pork from local farmer market) but today I gave a try of whole food cage free organic ground pork a try because I didn't have time to go to farmers market. Cook until meat change color to white

4) add 1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice powder, 1 teaspoon of white pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 3 tablespoons of Taiwanese rice wine, 2 tablespoon of soy sauce, chopped hydrated shiitake mushroom and mushroom water and stir well

5) when it boils reduce the heat and simmer for 3 hours. You can add a few pealed hard boil eggs into this mix at some point of the cooking process.

Once it's done and cooled you can put containers and refrigerated. Add a scoop or two over rice or noodle and it is a quick way to make comfort food.

2/13/2013 dinner Puerto Rican style pork tenderloin and rice/beans

Tonight's dinner is the same we had yesterday which is Puerto Rican style pork tenderloin with rice and bean. Puerto Ricans like Cubans really eat quiet a bit of pork. Rice and beans are on everyone's table every day. My mother in law myrna tells me that her mother used to cook rice and beans every day when she was growing up. Myrna made the beans so I will have to ask her for the recipe but I can share with you the pork tenderloin I made.

Pork tenderloin is surprisingly low in fat and delicious so you can eat it without guilt

1) wash the tenderloin and pat it dry with paper towel (we prepared 2 large tenderloins)

2) use small food processor and mix about 10 cloves of garlic, olive oil,salt, paper,fennel seed, oregano and juice of a lemon. Chop all in the food processor

3) massage this mixture on the tenderloin with your hands (using latex gloves). Make sure you cover everywhere. Massage for may be 3 - 5 minutes and leave it marinating if you can for a while (if you are in a rush go straight to next step

4) put the meat in a deep conning ware or baking dish and cover it with aluminum foil and put it into 350 degree pre heated oven like 45 min

5) keep it covered for about 10 minutes after u remove it from oven then slice and serve

4.3 oz of the tenderloin is only 188 calories pair this with 1/2 cup of rice and 1/4 cup of homemade pinto beans will be 352 calories. I'm eating it tonight with some dessert (yogurt with berry and honey)  Bon appetite !