GRILLED SMOKY PORK CHOPS

Grilled Smoky Pork Chops, Maitake Mushrooms & Anaheim Peppers.
El Yucateco Black Label Reserve Horseradish Cream.

I’m obsessed with pork chops but that’s beside the point. It’s El Yucateco’s 50th anniversary!

So I’ve teamed up with El Yucateco to kick off the grilling season with my favorite hot sauce by them, the Black Label Reserve Chile Habanero Sauce and paired it with one of my favorite things to eat, pork chops.

This will be the easiest and juiciest pork chop recipe you will ever make!! You will not be disappointed.

2 Center Cut Pork Chops

1/2 C Sugar

1/2 t Salt

2 T Liquid Smoke

3 T Paprika

1 t Black Pepper

2 t Sea Salt

3 T Oil

4 oz Maitake Mushrooms

1 Anaheim pepper

1/4 C Sour Cream

2 T Horseradish

2 t El Yucateco Black Label

Marinate the pork chops with the sugar, salt and liquid smoke mixture for at least an hour. This will tenderize and flavor the pork. Rinse off the pork with cool water.

Heat up your grill or cast iron grill pan. Sprinkle lightly to cover the pork chops with paprika, black pepper and salt. Drizzle oil on the chops and throw on the grill for at least 4-6 minutes on each side with medium flame depending on the thickness of pork chops, cover if necessary. Cut big chunks of the maitake and pepper to grill.

Meanwhile make your sauce by combining sour cream, horseradish, and El Yucateco Black Label.

If you make this recipe feedback or photos of your results are always appreciated!

ON A PERCH.

Smoked Paprika Perch + Cilantro Soy Butter.

Seared with salt, white pepper and smoked paprika. Other ways of cooking filets of fish would be to sous vide it! Controlled temperature cooking will give you an extraordinary outcome.

To make the cilantro soy butter, take a sauce pot and melt half pound of butter with half bunch of cilantro while stirring continuously. Once all the butter is melted down add a pinch of sugar and about 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Taste to see if it’s to your liking. Add more soy if you want it any darker or saltier. To make it darker but not saltier, add about a 1/4 teaspoon of dark soy sauce. A little goes a long way, this soy is used mainly for color and flavor without adding anymore sodium.

Recommended:
+Anova Culinary Bluetooth Sous Vide Precision Cooker, 800 Watts, Black
+Pearl River Bridge Superior Dark Soy Sauce

WONTONS & THAI CURRY

Pork Wontons. Green Thai Curry. Soy. Cilantro Oil. Chile Oil.

Obsessions with wontons and Thai curry are a thing. Both of those combined is a whole different story. Wontons are a staple in my house where it’s mainly made by my mom chopping her own ground pork. With a clever to be exact. Wrapped beautifully, bagged, locked and loaded in the freezer where they are waiting for me to eat them. Needless to say my mom is amazing.

LAMB SAUSAGE GNOCCHI.

The family photo of crisp lamb and gnocchi. Tomato Basil. Parmesan. Herbed Breadcrumbs. Thyme.. Enough said. What more could you ask for. A must make.

Lamb Sausage Gnocchi
Herb Breadcrumbs. Crisp Lamb Sausage. Parmesan. Tomato Basil. Thyme.

2 1/2 lbs russet potatoes (about 4 large)
1¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 egg, beaten to blend
1 (14 ounce) tomato basil
1 half loaf Italian bread
1 tablespoon garlic
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon oregano
½ stick butter
¼ cup olive oil
½ cup Parmesan
2 sprig fresh thyme
1 cup lamb sausage

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling water over medium high until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, 30-40 minutes; drain. (Be sure to not overcook as they will absorb more water as they cook.) As soon as potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and pass through a potato ricer into a large bowl (if they cool before ricing, potatoes will become gummy). Let cool.

Season with garlic, oregano, basil, olive oil, butter, salt, pepper and place chunks of the Italian bread in the oven to slowly crisp up; about 15 minutes. Once bread is cool enough to handle, crumble the bread and set aside. While those are cooking take your Italian sausage and crumble into hot saute pan with oil on medium heat until crispy.

Once the potatoes are cooled, sprinkle 1¼ cups flour and 2 teaspoon salt over potatoes. Using your hands, make a well in the center. Pour the egg into the well and stir in with a wooden spoon. Mix in goat cheese. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently knead, dusting with more flour as needed, until smooth but not elastic (be careful not to overwork), about 2 minutes. Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a 24″-long rope about ½” thick. Cut into ½” pieces, dust with flour, and arrange in a single layer on a lightly floured rimmed baking sheet.

Cook the gnocchi in a large pot of boiling salted water until they float to the surface (about a minute or two; cook to just a minute before they are fully cooked. You can also make the gnocchi ahead of time and place them in the freezer. Then take them out when it comes time to sear them off).

Meanwhile, using a slotted spoon, gently spoon out the gnocchi and place in a hot pan with butter or oil to give them a hard sear doing different batches being careful not to crowd the pan. Heat up the Ragu sauce in another saucepan, once heated, spoon onto each plate and put the gnocchi on top. Top off gnocchi with more sauce and garnish with crispy sausage, parmesan, bread crumbs and fresh thyme.

Lamb Sausage
Serving: Half Pound
1/2 pound ground lamb
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon shallots, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup panko

Melt the butter in a pan and lightly saute garlic, shallots and cumin. Pour this mixture into the lamb plus the olive oil, egg, black pepper and salt. Mix well. Take small little little pieces of the mixed lamb, roll it around in the panko then crisp them up in a saute pan with oil.

Tomato Basil Sauce

5 tomatoes, large
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fine black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoon butter

Dice up tomatoes and combine together with the sugar, salt, black pepper, basil, oregano, cayenne & half the butter in a sauce pot. Bring to a boil and simmer till the tomatoes break down, about 15-20 minutes. Finish with lemon juice and butter. Let it cool off for a few minutes then carefully pour the sauce into a blender and blend till smooth. 

GREEN THAI CURRY CHICKEN GYOZA

Traditional gyoza’s are mainly filled with pork and seared on the bottom then steamed to finish cooking. Deep frying or boiling with soup are also ways to make them.

I wanted to make some sort of dumpling and incorporate one of my favorite dishes, Thai curry. Had some leftover chicken and that was the spicy lunch for the day which turned out nicely.

Growing up my mom and I would wrap Chinese dumplings or wontons on Saturday mornings. Sometimes we’d make soup with them or just pan sear them and eat with other soup. Those which are almost the same as gyoza considering it’s where gyoza originated from. Chinese dumplings are usually seared on all sides to give it a crispy texture all around rather then just the bottom.

You can make your own gyoza wrappers from scratch with just water, flour & salt but no one has time for that.

Filling:
Gyoza Skins
Chicken Breast
Thai Green Curry
Beech Mushrooms
Red Onion
Orange Pepper
Chili & Garlic Paste
Fresh Garlic
Sesame Oil
Cilantro

Measurements aren’t really necessary for these type of things. Eye balling everything based off of how much protein you have will balance everything else out. The shorter shortcut..

Let’s think for a minute…

http://instagram.com/p/owPSSjECJt/

Can anyone imagine what it’d be like if everyone ate this? I mean how bad could it be? We already eat the animals flesh right off their bones. The brain should be a delicacy because it contains so much and its a pretty powerful organ.

Not sure how many stores in the city have beef brains. But if you happen to stumble across Arthur, Illinois where a small Amish town sits obnoxiously quiet, they have it all. It is quite hard to take in their lifestyles and wonder why. They’re missing out on the advancement of the world or even how others portray food, like beef brains. They are stuck in the 1900’s with all the 1980’s technology. But if that is how they feel about life then more power to them.

Nothing goes to waste. Lamb fries were also available. That and brains have so much potential as to what it could be cooked and paired with. Deep fried would not be so bad, seared or thrown into a stir fry. Items like these being sold just shows you the raw reality.