Chinese-Style Preserved Lemons

Have you ever had preserved lemons? They’re mouth-puckerers for sure. Salty and sour, but strangely yummy.

I grew up eating these. You could buy the really dried versions in Crack Seed shops, or from a huge jar in a small neighborhood store. But the best ones came from a neighbor’s roof.

Why the roof? Because that’s where they are placed to age in large mayonnaise jars.

Here’s the recipe, such as it is:

You’ll need a large glass jar; a gallon-sized jar works best. Buy a big bag of lemons and some Hawaiian salt. If you can’t find Hawaiian salt, kosher salt will do. You want the big grained salt, not the Morton’s kind. That’s all you need.

Line the bottom of the jar with salt, about a half-inch will do. Then remove the stems, wash and pack the lemons in the jar; the more, the merrier. Then, pour in lots of salt, at least a cup, maybe more. Screw the jar cover back on. Shake the jar to allow the salt to distribute.

Remove the cover, lay a couple of layers of waxed paper over the top, and replace the cover tightly. Personally, I’ve used cereal-bag plastic as a seal and that works great.

Put the jar on your roof where it can get some sun, and forget about it. Although, you should shake the jar every month or so to bathe the desiccating lemons with the lemon juice that’s exuding, and to distribute the salty liquid. You’ll see the lemons shrinking, a sign that you’re doing good.

Eventually, when they look like the picture above (I forgot mine for about eight months), open the jar and start munching. Be aware, this is major saliva-drool-producing time so have napkins or tissue handy for a quick wipe-wipe of your mouth.

BLT Steak's Popover Recipe

On a recent trip to Las Vegas, I ate at BLT Steakhouse in the Red River Resort. They are supposedly noted for their popovers, and even include their recipe with the bread.

It's rather tasty, and they serve it with some herbed butter on the side. So here you go, I'm sharing the recipe with you.

Slow Cooker Pepper Pork Chops

I’ve been meaning to do two things for a long time now: Brine some meat, and use my slow cooker. So I did both at the same time, after seeing Alton Brown and Anne Burrell tout the brining process on the Food Network.

Now … take it from me, you can’t just up and decide you want to make Slow Cooker Pepper Pork Chops for dinner one night. Nope. It requires planning and scheduling. For one thing, when you brine the chops, you have to let it sit in the fridge for at least eight hours, preferably overnight. Then, you have to slow cook it for a total of six hours.

My schedule: Make the brine and brine the meat either in the late afternoon or right after supper before someone starts washing the dishes and hogging the kitchen. Then, at 10:30 a.m. the next day, do the prep and put the meat in the cooker (it should be about 11 a.m. or so, depending on how fast you work).

It only needs tending once. After 1½ hours, turn the cooker down to low, and then forget it for 4½ hours. Total cooking time is 6 hours, so it should be ready around 5 p.m.

Ingredients

• VEGETABLE BROTH, 2 cups
• SALT, ½ cup (Alton recommends Kosher, but whatever you have is fine)
• LIGHT-BROWN SUGAR, ½ cup
• BLACK PEPPERCORNS, 2 tablespoons, slightly crushed
• ICE, 1 pound
• PORK CHOPS, 3 to 4, thick, bone-in
• SALT (yes, again), 2 teaspoons
• DRIED APPLE SLICES, 3 ounces*
• OLIVE OIL, 2 tablespoons
• ONION, 1 large, frenched (julienned)
• CHICKEN BROTH, 1½ cups
• BLACK PEPPER, 1 tablespoon coarsely ground
• THYME, dried, 1 teaspoon

Directions

1. Pour the vegetable broth, ½ cup kosher salt, brown sugar and peppercorns in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until the salt and sugar dissolve.
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add in the ice.
3. Put the pork chops into a zip-top bag along with the iced brine, seal and leave in the refrigerator overnight.
4. The next day, take the chops out of the brine, rinse off and pat dry, and season on both sides with salt. Put the meat aside.
5. Place the apples in the slow cooker.
6. Sauté the chops in some olive oil over medium-high heat, about 5 to 6 minutes per side until they are browned. Place the chops on top of the apples in the slow cooker.
7. Use the remaining ½ teaspoon or so of the olive oil to sauté the onions until they’re almost brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the chicken broth, then add the black pepper and dried thyme. Pour this on top of the pork chops.
8. Cover the slow cooker, turn it onto “High,” and cook for 1½ hours. Set a kitchen timer or use the one on your oven. When the timer dings, turn the cooker heat to “Low” and cook for 4½ more hours.

* I couldn’t find dried apples, so I peeled, cored and sliced up a large apple and then laid the slices over the pork chops during the last half-hour of cooking.

Cream of Asparagus Soup

I got this basic recipe from a Williams-Sonoma Soup & Stew recipe book that was given to me by one of my sisters on the occasion of my retirement in 2006. The authors said it can be used to make a variety of “Cream of …” soups (i.e., carrots, broccoli).

When I watched Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Anne Burrelle pureed all the vegetables in her food blender. So that’s what I did instead of cooking the veggies in the pot. Result? It cooked faster.

Then, I watched Sunny Anderson in her show, Cooking for Real. Instead of crème fraiche, she just added a cup of sour cream to the finished soup.

I compromised between the Williams-Sonoma recipe below, Anne Burrelle’s technique, and Sunny Anderson’s alteration – did all my fine dicing and chopping in the food processor, and added in my own version of sour cream whisked well into whipping cream.

Ingredients

• BUTTER, 1 tablespoon
• OLIVE OIL, 2 tablespoons
• LEEKS, 2, white and light-green parts cleaned and finely chopped*
• ASPARAGUS, 1 pound, trimmed, peeled, cut into 2-inch strips; reserve the tips*
• RUSSET POTATO, 1, peeled, cut into 2-inch chunks*
• CHICKEN STOCK, 4 cups
• SALT
• WHITE PEPPER, freshly ground
• LEMON, juice of ½ lemon
• CRÈME FRAÎCHE*, 3 tablespoons

Directions

1. Melt the butter in the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat.
2. Saute the leeks until softened (about 5 minutes).
3. Add the asparagus and potato, sauté until nicely coated and beginning to soften (about 3 minutes longer).
4. Add the stock and flavor with salt and white pepper to taste.
5. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, reduce to simmer, covered partially, until veggies are very tender (about 15 minutes).
6. In a separate saucepan, boil some water, then add in the lemon juice and the asparagus tips. Boil until crisp-tender and still bright green (about 3 minutes). Drain, set aside.
7. When the leek/asparagus/potatoes are tender, take the soup off the heat and puree with an immersion or regular blender, or with a food processor.
8. Adjust the seasoning.
9. Garnish in the soup bowl with a dollop of crème fraiche* and the asparagus tips.

* My Changes:

Instead of sautéing the leeks, asparagus and potato chunks until tender, I finely minced them in my food processor: First the leeks, which I then sautéed in the butter and olive oil; then the asparagus and potatoes together, which I added to the leeks and cooked for a few minutes before adding the chicken broth.

And, of course, I live in Hawaii, where I can never find any crème fraiche, so I made a substitute, adding 2 tablespoons of sour cream to ½ cup whipping cream and blending until smooth. Just wait a little bit and the cream will clot nicely.

Annette Funicello’s Peanut Butter Pork Chops

I once posted a request for pork chop recipes on the Food TV Network community discussion boards to try and improve my technique(s) for making pork chops. I had the usual problem – my pork chops were coming out too dry and/or too tough.

Among the dozens of recipes, suggestions and people posted in reply was this one. Annette Funicello, the darling Mouseketeer of the ‘50s (my favorite one), and star of the Beach Blanket teen beach movies.

So simple, so good.

Ingredients

• PORK CHOPS, 6
• ONION, 1 medium, finely chopped
• CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP, 1 can
• PEANUT BUTTER, ½ cup
• WATER, 2 cups 

Directions

1. Brown pork chops in oil; remove from pan.
2. Put peanut butter and soup in pan and heat, adding water gradually; stir until smooth.
3. Add pork chops back to pan and add onion; bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer 50 minutes.
5. Serve with rice.

Chinese Winter Melon Soup

For the chilly late-Fall and Winter nights coming up, may I recommend brewing up a big ol’ pot of Chinese winter melon soup. It’s as good a chicken soup and much, much tastier.

Plus, it’s easy to make.

Ingredients

• CHINESE WINTER MELON, 1, peeled, seeded, cut into 2-inch chunks
• WATER, 3 cups
• CHICKEN BROTH, 3 cups (or two cans)
• CHICKEN, 1 cup fresh or leftover, cut into small pieces
• FRESH GINGER, 1 3-inch piece, sliced into rounds or smashed
• COOKED HAM, ¼ cup chopped
• MUSHROOMS, 8 ounces sliced and sautéed, or 2 small cans
• GARLIC SALT, to taste
• GREEN ONIONS, chopped for garnish

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring the water and chicken broth to boiling.
2. Add in the chicken, fresh ginger, cooked ham, and mushrooms.
3. Bring back to a boil, then add in the Chinese winter melon and reduce to a simmer.
4. Cook until the melon is tender.
5. Add garlic salt to taste, and garnish with chopped green onions.
6. Serve hot in a bowl with steamed rice on the side.

Chicken Cacciatore 2

Here’s another version of chicken cacciatore, which is kind of based on Giada De Laurentis’ recipe, but altered somewhat because I didn’t have all the ingredients required in her and/or my original recipe.

I also didn’t have the fresh herbs Giada used, so I substituted dried. Plus, I added in some sliced calamata olives to give a deeper flavor dimension, and used white wine instead of red.

Ingredients

• CHICKEN PIECES, 6 to 10, skin-on, with bone
• FLOUR, ¼ cup
• GARLIC-FLAVORED OLIVE OIL, ¼ cup
• BUTTER, 2 tablespoons
• MUSHROOMS, 8 ounces, sliced
• ONION, 1 large, frenched
• GARLIC, 2 cloves, minced
• CALAMATA OLIVES, 12, pitted, sliced into 4 pieces each
• TOMATOES, diced, 1 14.5-oz. can, with juices
• THYME, dried, 1 teaspoons
• BAY LEAF, 1 or 2
• WHITE WINE, ½ cup (I used Chablis)
• GARLIC SALT and FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER 

Directions

1. Melt the butter in the olive oil in a large flat pan over medium heat.
2. Slowly sauté the mushrooms. Set aside.
3. Add in the garlic and cook gently until the onions are translucent. Set aside.
4. Dust the chicken in flour, shake off excess flour.
5. Brown the chicken pieces in the olive oil, remove and set aside.
6. Slowly sauté the onions, adding in the garlic after a few minutes, season with salt and pepper, cook until tender but not browned.
7. Add in the mushrooms, the onions and garlic, and the remaining ingredients into the pan.
8. Return the chicken to the pan.
9. Check the seasoning, cover and simmer for 40 minutes.
10. Remove the cover, and cook for another 5 minutes uncovered, until the sauce is thick.
11. Skim the excess fat, remove the bay leaves, and serve with pasta or rice.