Good eats of late... on Saturday night we went out for dinner with Chris' folks. We ate at Stefano's on Long Beach Island, which is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere, hands down. I had a seafood risotto packed with shrimp, lobster and crab. Top notch and I'm sad they'll be closed by the next time we go up in October.
Sunday was Chris' birthday so it was her choice... naturally, that meant grilled boneless pork chops and my cheesy cheddar grits (basically quick grits with garlic powder, ancho chile powder and handfuls of shredded cheese). I wasn't crazy about how the chops turned out but they were probably a little thin for as long as I had them on the grill.
On the plus side I made a double batch of grits so that yesterday I could warm and transfer them to a square baking dish coated with cooking spray. I smoothed them out so they were about 3/4" thick, covered them with plastic and returned them to the fridge.
This time I made the chops (this gal loves pork) in a skillet after dredging them in a mix of flour, marjoram, salt, sage and thyme. After browning them (2 mins per side) I turned the heat down and cooked them about ten minutes, flipping once. While they were cooking I transferred the grit batter, now a nice square, to a cutting board and trimmed the edges and cut it into squares which I pan fried so they had a nice crust on the outside while the insides stayed hot and cheesy. (The grit cakes were something we had a couple years ago down at Austin Creek Grill on OBX and I've been making leftover grits that way ever since.)
Once the chops were done I kept them warm in the oven while I mixed up the remaining flour mix, a cup of fat free milk and about 1/4 cup (maybe a little more) of low fat sour cream. I poured that into the pan the chops had been in, scraped up the bits, brought it to a boil and let it simmer a couple minutes till it was thickened, then served it atop the chops. The recipe is a slight modification of a Pork Chop and Country Gravy recipe from Cooking Light.
Tonight I'm making a Peruvian chicken recipe that was in a recent issue of Gourmet. The pieces are currently marinating in a mix of soy sauce, garlic, vegetable oil, cumin, black pepper, lime juice and paprika. Once they get marinated for about eight hours I'll put them on the grill over indirect heat and cook for about 35-40 minutes.
3 comments:
now I'm hungry-nice post.
Thanks... the Peruvian Chicken turned out very well, though I ended up finishing it in the oven. It was very breezy here last night and it just wasn't getting done enough, fast enough on the grill for my liking. I served it with a spanish rice as well as lime wedges and a dijon mustard/mayonnaise dripping sauce.
I love that Peruvian chicken. But I've only bothered to buy it in one of the many Peruvian rotisseries opening up around town. I will have to try making it.
And of course y'all can never go wrong with pork.
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