Tag Archives: frying

Pan Fried Pork Chops with Apples

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I’ve mentioned before Rich can cook.  He cooks amazing things.  And true to form, this dish was delicious.  His inspiration was from an old cookbook we have.  It was the pan fried pork recipe out of the “The Good Housekeeping Cookbook – A step by step cookbook”.  Of course, ahem, we’ve changed the recipe. 🙂

First you want to slice up some onions and saute them in olive oil.  Once they’ve softened a bit put them aside.  Salt and pepper the pork and place it in the pan you used for the onions.

Cook 5 minutes on each side.

Meanwhile put a baking pan in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil at 350 F.  We use the toaster oven.  We heat the pan so we aren’t placing food in a cold dish with cold oil.  We want to keep that nice sear that was achieved.

Put the pork in the baking dish and sprinkle with lemon thyme. Bake until nearly cooked.

Onto the sauce!  Saute sliced apples and the sauteed onions together and add a tablespoon of brown sugar.  Take 1/2 cup of hard cider with a teaspoon of corn starch dissolved in it and add to the pan.  Add splashes of the cider as you need to deglaze the pan as well.  Simmer until you have the apples at the softness you want.  Add the pork back into the sauce.

Simmer for a few minutes so pork is cooked then serve.  This dish takes between 30-45 minutes to make.  And this was enough for our family of four with a side potato dish.

Chicken Eggrolls

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So the other day I was standing in the middle of the kitchen suffering from the equivalent of writer’s cramp.  Cooking cramp if you will.  I could not think of what to make for dinner!  I had defrosted a small chicken breast so I needed to use that but that’s as far I could get.  Have no idea how long I stood there.  Finally inspiration hit!  We still had some oil out to use for frying and I was in the mood for fries.  So I decided to whip up some eggrolls.  It would let me use some leftover veg we had cut up earlier in the week.  All I had to do was grab some scallions from the garden.

I sliced up the chicken breast into small pieces.

Then I sliced the carrots, peppers, and scallions from the garden plus some mushrooms.  I added olive oil to the pan and sauteed the chicken for a minute or so then added the veg.

Next I splashed in some soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, and some ground ginger and sauteed until cooked.

Now the eggroll wrappers have been thawed and frozen a few times so they weren’t easy to handle at this point.  Time to get new ones!  But I spooned some of the mixture onto the wrap in the center.

I roll it up and use water to seal the edges.  I find it works really well and you don’t have to waste a whole egg.

Fry until golden brown and serve with your favourite sweet chilli sauce.

Onion Rings in Beer Batter

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I recently found out that one of my mum’s favourite foods are onion rings!  As we love them too we are more than happy to accommodate a request for this dish.  The recipe I use is from Fanny Farmers for the batter for fritters.

Use onions that you like, it doesn’t really matter what kind.  But you want to slice them ahead of time and make sure they are not damp.  I usually slice the day before and put them in a covered bowl with paper towels.

Beat one egg in the bowl you’ll use for the batter.  While you are doing that melt 1T of butter.  Add one cup flour to the egg and a bit of salt.  It calls for 1/2 a cup of beer.  We  use our homemade hefeweizen beer.  It has a just enough lightness in flavour for the onions.  I put in the beer and the butter at the same time.  I have found I need more than 1/2 a cup to get the right consistency.

Here I add a bit more beer to thin it out.

It’s a bit like Goldilocks.  You don’t want it too thick or too thin, you want it just right.  You may have to fry one to see how it comes out if you are sure.  You can always adjust with more flour or beer.

You want to average about 375 F for the frying of the onions.  We found we get the best results that way.  Turn the rings halfway to get an even golden colour.

We add a bit of seasoned salt to the rings while they are still hot.  Ketchup is a favourite but I did try blue cheese dressing on these and it was very tasty!