Mermaids Treasures - Musings of an Antique Lil Girl

Teriyaki Pork Chops with Chinese Sesame Peanut Butter Noodles

2012-01-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

I made spaghetti the other nite and ended up with some leftover pasta. I could have put the leftover sauce on it but when I do that nobody eats it. So I saved the sauce for another meal. I hated to toss out that pasta tho so I put it in a plastic bag with the intention of using it the next day or so. Then I remembered a Chinese noodle dish a friend made many yrs ago. I loved it.

And so I started looking online for something like it. I knew I could use this spaghetti in place of oriental noodles. And I knew it had some peanut butter in it, also veggies. I found one or two I liked but it had no meat in it. I wanted a whole meal. I searched in my freezer and found two pork chops. And so I decided to make Teriyaki sauce for those. But it was getting late and I had no time to marinate them.

I heated up the marinade to blend the flavors, then poured some over the chops. I decided to bake them in the marinade. I didn't have time to BBQ and I didn't want to watch the broiler or fry them on top of the stove. I figured baking them in the marinade would infuse them with the flavor and help evaporate it too, into a sauce. I still had to make the noodle dish and I wasn't sure yet how that would come about. Baking the chops left my hands free for the rest. It actually was a good idea. By the time the chops where half done, I had all the veggies chopped and figured out how I was going to make the sauce. And so this recipe will be for two but you could easily double it or more. I will say it was the bomb! And the heat from the pepper flakes was just right......you knew there was heat but it didn't overwhelm the other flavors.

Teriyaki Pork Chops with Chinese Sesame Peanut Butter Noodles   Serves 2.

First make the Teriyaki sauce:
    1/3 cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine) ( didn't have this but I did have my ginger preserved in a jar with dry sherry and used some of this liquid instead)
    1/2 cup soy sauce
    3tb. rice vinegar
    1 tb. sesame oil
    1 tb. honey
    3-4 cloves garlic, minced
    1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
    1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
    1/2c. orange juice

Put in a microwaveable container and heat for 2min. on high. You could also bring to a boil and simmer a few min. on the stove. This is to start to infuse the flavors into the liquids. Set aside.

I used two pork chops because its what I had on hand. You could just marinate pork or chicken strips in some of this marinade if you wish and stir fry quickly. Because I decided this late, I wanted a quick meal. So I put the chops into a baking pan, poured about 1/3 of the mixture over them and baked them in a 400 degree oven. By the time they are half done, you will be ready to make the noodle mixture.

While the pork is baking, chop up your veggies.

Noodle mixture:

About 2c. of precooked spaghetti (leftover is perfect for this)

As much of any veggie you would like to use. I used half of a broccoli crown, chopped, 4 mushrooms chopped, 1/2 of a small red onion , sliced thinly and one carrot shaved into strips with my veggie peeler. You could also add peas, snow peas, green onion, peppers, bean sprouts, or anything else you might have around. Its a good way to use up leftovers and bits of things. The ratio of noodles to veggies is about 1/3 veggies to 2/3 noodles. Its not meant to be a veggie dish but of course you could do that if you wish.

Also 1/4c. peanut butter. Recipes seem to call for smooth but I had organic crunchy here and I liked it. Little bits of nuts throughout the mix were delish. :)

First take remainder of marinade and add the peanut butter. Again put in microwave for two minutes to melt the peanut butter and make it easier to whisk into the sauce. Taste this. I found my peanut butter took away some of the sweetness so I added a tsp. of sugar to it to balance it. Since this was fresh organic butter that may have had something to do with it so taste and adjust to what you think you would like. However you don't want it really sweet, just a hint.

Then chopped veggies. Better to do this all at once so the stir fry goes quickly. Once these are chopped, check pork chops. They should be about half done by now and browning nicely. Take out of oven and turn them over and return to oven till the noodle mix is done.

Add a tb or so of vegetable oil in a pan. I have a stir fry wok pot but you could use a fry pan too. Get the oil really hot then add the broccoli. Stir and let cook a minute. Then add the carrot strips and cook 2 min. more.

Add the onions and mushrooms since these don't need as much time to cook. ( here's where you would add snow peas, peas, sprouts, peppers, etc. since they don't take long to cook). If it looks like it might need a bit more oil, add it. Mushrooms absorb it fast. Cook till mushrooms look like they are starting to shrink. Then add pasta and stir well to heat thru.

Put the rest of the marinade with the peanut butter on the noodle mix and stir in well and heat thru till sauce thickens. Check the chops, they should be done about now unless they were thick ones.

To serve, put some noodle mix on a plate and top with chopped cilantro (or green onion if you like). Top with pork chop and any juices in the pan.

Navy Bean Soup

2012-01-18T16:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to make some soup......thought about what I had in the house tho. I love chicken soup but my bf isn't crazy about chicken. I was going to make my sausage minestrone but we just had sausage the night before. And so I remembered I had several bags of beans in the pantry and a couple of ham bones I need to use up. And this is what I ended up making.

I'm not real crazy about beans. And Ive never had bean soup in my life. In fact if you had asked me if I wanted this , I would have said no. But my tastes are beginning to change and I'm finding if there's enough flavor added, I like beans. And so this is my first bean soup......and I do believe there will be others now. I added more herbs than this called for and more garlic too. I'm not sure about why the carrot is in there except perhaps for color. But as I tasted this when it was cooking I was thinking some chard, spinach or some sort of greens would be excellent in this with the ham. And next time I think I'll use smoked sausage since ham is the common go to thing for this type of soup.

Navy Bean Soup 8 servings

1 pound navy beans, picked over, rinsed and drained
10 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs each of fresh thyme and rosemary
1 bay leaf
2 large smoked ham hocks, about 1 1/2 pounds or a lg. ham bone with some meat on it
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
8 cups of cold water
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp. cayenne
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the beans in a large saucepan and cover with cold water by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes; remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for one hour. Drain and reserve. Tie the parsley, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf together with kitchen twine.

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven combine the beans, herb bundle, hocks or ham bone, onions, garlic, some salt and pepper, cayenne and carrot with the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and adjust the heat so the soup cooks at a gentle simmer. Cook until the beans and hock are completely tender, about 1-1/2 hours.

Turn off the heat and remove the hocks. Cool slightly. Remove the meat from the hocks, discarding the bones, fat, and skin. Cut the meat into small cubes. Remove the herb bundle and discard.

Puree about 3 cups of the beans with a some of the liquid in a blender. (For a smoother soup puree all the beans.) Stir the puree and diced meat into the soup. Heat the soup and adjust the seasoning as needed with salt and pepper.

Pour into heated bowls, place a small pat of butter on top of each soup, and serve.

*** I was going to add some Lil Smokies sausages to this but I guess I used them up and didn't remember. However some smoked sausage of any kind would be awesome added to this and next time I make it Ill do that. The ham bone I had didn't have much meat on it but did have lots of flavor. I had some ham meat frozen from that bone so I chopped a few slices up and added that to the pot.

I also used an immersion blender to make this soup. I didn't make it a fine puree but it was mostly pureed. I liked it like that, my bf wanted more beans. So next time Ill do that. I added extra herbs to this recipe because I wanted a lot of flavor and doing that didn't hurt it at all.

Unstuffed Cabbage.....

2012-01-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

My mom makes Stuffed Cabbage rolls and I love them. Ive made them over the yrs and they are close to moms but not quite. But it still tasted good. The part I hate tho is rolling each one. When I don't have a lot of time its tedious. I saw a recipe for a stuffed cabbage skillet dish that used most of the ingredients but was quick. I thought that was a great idea and maybe one day Ill adapt my own recipe a bit more to do that.

But since I grew up with this, I really feel the best cabbage rolls are the ones that take time to cook in the oven. One day awhile back I started to make this only to find that half of the head of cabbage I had, had these dark lines running on some of the cabbage veins. Well of course I don't know what it was, I thought perhaps it got too cold in the grocery store cuz it was weird..it really was only on half the head. So I didn't use the leaves that had that on it. But because of that I didn't have enough to make the whole recipe right.

It was then I remembered that skillet dish I saw and thought...hey I don't need all the cabbage. Ill just layer it and make it the same. It worked out great and honestly is faster to put together and easier to serve. I tweaked this recipe a bit more now and last nites dinner was the best Ive ever made. So sorry mom its not quite like yours, but its really good!

Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole 8 hearty servings

1. 1 lg. head of cabbage
     1c. white rice

Remove the core and put either on a plate to microwave or in a pot of water with some vinegar in it to boil. You have a choice here. Mom used to cook it on the stove and peel off the layers as they cooked. They do get cooked much more this way and are easier to roll. But to me they just take too much time. So I microwave the whole head for about 10min. Let it cool a bit so you can touch it and remove whatever leaves you can that are cooked.

Put back in the microwave and do another 5min. Keep doing this till the leaves are done thru. The center part doesn't matter too much where the leaves are small. You will use this chopped to top the casserole with anyway. While you are cooking the cabbage, cook the rice till done and set aside for the stuffing.

2. While this is cooking make the stuffing.
    2- 2 1/2lbs of ground beef
    1 onion, chopped fine
    3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
    1 tsp. salt or more
    1 tb. Hungarian Paprika
    2 tsp. dried parsley (feel free to use fresh if you have it)
    1 tsp. dried thyme
    1/2 tsp. cayenne
    2 eggs
    the cooked rice

Saute onion in a little butter, when soft add the garlic and saute a couple minutes more. Put meat in a lg. bowl, add all the rest of the list and mix a bit to distribute the spices a bit. Then add in the cooked onions and garlic and the rice from step 1. Mix well.

3. Layering
    Stuffing mix from step 2
    Cabbage from step 1
    8oz. sauerkraut
    1 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes with sauce ( or plain tomato sauce even a plain spaghetti sauce like Classico with basil)
    1/2 c. ketchup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour about 1/4 of the can of tomatoes on the bottom of a lg. casserole dish or 13 x 9 in. pan. Mix half the sauerkraut with that and make sure its spread pretty even across the bottom of the pan. This is to distribute the flavors top and bottom and to keep it from sticking.

Next make a nice layer of cabbage leaves. I cut out the thick main rib cuz it takes too long to cook. Then I just fit the lg. leaves across the bottom to cover. At this point assess how many leaves you have cuz you want a nice layer of cabbage for each. I had a very lg. head so this time I made 3 layers of cabbage to two layers of meat. But you can just put them on the bottom and the top if you don't have a lot and it will work too.

Then top with a layer of the meat. Remember if you are making two layers to just use half...otherwise put the whole thing in there. Top with more cabbage and repeat if your doing several layers, finishing with cabbage. Top with the chopped inner cabbage leaves you saved and the rest of the sauerkraut. Mix the ketchup in the remaining tomatoes and pour over the top of the casserole covering it all. If the sauce is thick you could add a bit of water to it before you bake it.

Cover with foil and bake for at least 2 1/2hrs. Check to see if it is drying out. It shouldn't with the meat juices and cabbage but if it does, add a bit of water and return to oven. You do not want this dry. I test the center to see if the cabbage there is tender. When it is, its done. Cut into lg. squares and serve. You could serve with a nice crusty rye bread and butter.

For those who want traditional tho here is moms recipe:

Moms Stuffed Cabbage Make about 26 rolls

1 head of cabbage (about 3lbs.)
(soften cabbage in lg. pot with water and 1 tb. vinegar)

1 medium onion , chopped
1/4lb. butter
(saute onions in butter)

In lg. mixing bowl:
2 lbs. chopped beef
1 1/2 c. rice (mom uses Minute rice, I hate that stuff)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. onion powder
2 (8oz.) cans tomato sauce (mix in well with above ingred.)

Fill softened cabbage leaf with meat mixture:

In lg. pot:
Cut up excess cabbage leaves and put on bottom of pot. Layer stuffed cabbages in pot.

Pour over cabbage:
2 (8oz. ) cans tomato sauce
1 can tomato soup
1 can water
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. water or more to cover cabbage

(I also remember mom topping it with sauerkraut altho it doesn't say so in her recipe)

Cover and bake in oven 2 1/2hrs. in 350 degree oven or till done. (We use a lg. covered enamelware pot for this)

Next take that can of tomatoes and add a half cup of ketchup. (mom always does this and I like that flavor, you could however just add water instead if you like). Stir it well and pour it over the top layer, spreading it out all over.