Reader Submitted Recipes

I hope you enjoy these Deep-Nutrition oriented, reader-submitted recipes!

…And if you have a favorite recipe you’d like to share, please email Dr. Cate. We love to learn new ways to make real food taste great! Thank you in advance for contributing!

The first one is actually celebrating a reader-submitted ingredient. The reader is Karl Holovach from www.FrogEyeMeats.com. They raise a very special kind of pork they call low-PUFA pork. And they were kind enough to send me a few samples to try. One was a pork chop, and it inspired Luke to create a new recipe. The chop was perfectly butchered with a lovely band of absolutely divine tasting fat and the meat was indescribably delicious. 

Here’s what it looked like before we cooked it.

Unfortunately, the after photo will have to wait until we make it again. Here’s Lukes’s recipe:

Luke’s: “Simple Pork Chop Recipe”

Brine recipe: two days in the refrigerator

BRINE:

20 peppercorns, smacked with the back of a chef’s knife
1/2 container of Penzey’s pickling spice
Juice of 1/2 medium-sized lime
Lime zest from a couple of medium limes
1 small squirt (half t-spoon) of honey
2 rounded t-spoons sea salt
2 Tbs. Kikkoman soy sauce
A few drops of liquid smoke

Additional for cooking:
1 medium onion
1 or two green bell peppers
2 cloves garlic
2 cups real fermented sauerkraut

Let the pork chops brine for a couple of days.

A few hours before cooking, remove chops from the brine and pat dry. Pat as dry as you can with paper towels. Put on a cooling rack (covered with a big metal mixing bowl to protect from pets and etc.) propped up on the side with a small plate or whatever to allow for airflow. Let them temper to room temp.

An hour before cooking the pork chops, lightly oil a green pepper or two and char for a few minutes in a toaster oven set on the highest setting (10-20 minutes depending on your oven). When there is just a light char on some of it that’s good. Turn it a few times to blacken spots on a few sides. Maybe 20% totally black is a goal.

Next, heat a frying pan to medium-high then had a teaspoon or two of olive oil—very little, because you want to get some char on the onion you’re about to add to the pan.

Add a medium onion, sliced through (not diced). Get a little bit of dark-brown char and then add a little more olive oil. Then turn down the heat to medium-low.

Add the chopped/rough cut green bell pepper/s and saute with the sauerkraut all together with the onion. Don’t worry about too much liquid from the sauerkraut; it’ll evaporate away in a couple of minutes. Stir periodically so there’s no sticking to the bottom.

Preheat a separate pan (stainless or carbon steel) on the stovetop, medium-high heat. When hot, add either olive oil or peanut oil or bacon fat or some combination of each, considering flavor.

When searing the pork chops, use tongs to sear the heck out of the fatty side until almost crispy. This renders the fat which releases into the pan for the searing.

Keep stirring the onion/sauerkraut mixture to caramelize rather than burn. At this point, if you have some chicken stock and/or white wine lying around, you can add that to the mixture and reduce. Do both, if you have them.

Once all sides of the pork chops have gotten a nice sear (a little browned), it’s time to get it in a 350 f. oven for about five minutes. It’s so easy to overcook a brined pork chop (or brined anything) because the water drawn into the meat accelerates the cooking and the “carryover” cooking. It’s astonishing how quickly this can happen with anything brined, so err on the side of undercooking. You can always pop it back in for two more minutes.

For serving, consider fine-diced cilantro and a couple of wedges of lime.

Don’t forget you’ve got several sources of salt/seasoning: The brine. The sauerkraut. The Tbs. of soy. So it’s easy to over-season. Taste as you go, but err to the side of caution when it comes to salt, and err to the side of undercooking when dealing with a brined piece of meat.

If you can, please purchase from conscientious purveyors of meat.

This Carne Asada comes from Adriana, who emailed me to ask about cooking meat in a pressure cooker (see comment under this post) and generously shared her favorite “fast” slow-cooked meal:

I cook everything in the pressure cooker. I love cooking black beans and chickpeas in just 4 minutes!!! One of my favorite recipes is my mom’s Carne Assada. Here is the recipe for you to share with your readers. 2 lbs Shank or Chuck 3 bay leaves juice from a lime 4 large onions 2 cloves of garlic 1 teaspoon of salt 1 teaspoon of pepper Warm water or broth Wash meat with cold water than perforate meat with a fork or knife so that the seasoning gets into the meat. Add garlic, lime juice, salt, pepper and bay leaves to meat and let it sit in the fridge overnight (optional) Brown meat on each side in skillet or on the grill on high. Do not cook meat, just brown the sides. Once the meat is brown on each side add onions and water or broth just to cover half of the meat and cook in the pressure cooker for 25 minutes. Open pressure cooker and continue cooking meat until liquid is almost gone or thickened and onions are golden brown Serve with potatoes, carrots, broccoli and salad 🙂 This next recipe for pickles comes courtesy of Kerry of Manchester, NH who reports that she’s been working hard at her nutrition and enjoying cooking so much that she no longer has hypertension, diabetes, or arthritis! Thank you, Kerry, I hope we’ve saved you lots on your medical bill for the year!

Half-Sour Lacto-Fermented Pickles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You lika tha sauce! Luke’s simple brown-stock based gravy

To a small saucepan and add 1 Tbsp butter and about half that amount of flour–any type will do (At Sean’s we used spelt flour and it came out delish). Cook flour and butter together at medium low, stirring constantly, until the flour starts to change color. This takes a few minutes and you need to watch closely. Make an “amber” rue by letting it turn to a little deeper brown that “blond”–that would be a “blond” rue–and then put a cup or more into the pan and keep stirring until dissolved. Let sit on low heat for 2-5 mins and just before serving you can finish it it by “mounting” with a little dab of butter into the hot sauce. Optional Flourishes: You can add a Tbsp or two of wine and/or tomato product to bring the acid up. Season with sea salt and, if you like pepper. Stir in some fresh parsley if you have some. Pour sauce onto and around the steak!

Revolution Rolls: When you gotta have a bun…or a sandwich…or a pizza