Lemon Rosemary Grilled Pork

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Our Growing Paynes

While I don’t like the heat and humidity we get this time of year, I do love that we are starting to be able to benefit from our veg garden. Miraculously, thanks to my lovely husband, we still have a rosemary plant going strong. It’s an annual where we live and he’s managed to get it to grow to a decent size. I would have killed it by now.

To keep it a manageable size, I’ve been using it a lot in various dishes, including my Lemon Rosemary Pork. For a side dish I sautéed some swiss chard we’re growing. The swiss chard is going gang busters this year, it’s rivaling the rhubarb!

Technique for Lemon Rosemary Pork

Get the dry ingredients of the marinade together before adding the olive oil and lemon juice.

Add the pork and marinate for at least a couple of hours in the fridge. When it’s time, start prepping the sauce ingredients while the grill warms up. Heat up the butter in a skillet and add the mushrooms.

Cook for a couple of minutes before adding more garlic and rosemary. Once you add the pork to the grill, add the remaining marinade to the skillet. Bring up to a simmer.

Add the chicken stock and lemon juice. Simmer for a few minutes. Remove about a 1/4 cup of the sauce and set aside.

Once the pork is cooked and resting, sautè the swiss chard in the remaining sauce. Cook the stalk pieces first then add the leafy bits. I like them slightly wilted but not mushy.

Spoon the chard onto the plate, top with the pork and drizzle the reserve sauce over the dish.

I need to come up with more swiss chard dishes as well because they aren’t showing any sign of letting up.

Lemon Rosemary Pork

A flavourful dish for grilling season

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Lemon Rosemary Pork

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

Marinade

2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 pork chops

Sauce

3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
remaining marinade
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
2 cups swiss chard

Instructions

Marinade

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade. Add the pork and chill for at least a couple of hours.

Grilling the Pork

Heat the grill to medium high. Grill the pork until the internal temperature is 145F/63C. Allow to rest about 10 minutes.

Sauce

Heat up the butter in a skillet. Sautè the mushrooms for a few minutes. Add the rosemary and garlic. After cooking for a few minutes, add the chicken stock and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer.
Reserve a 1/4 cup of the sauce for the pork.
In the remaining sauce, cook the swiss chard stalk pieces for a minute or two, then add the leafy part of the chard to slightly wilt.

Assembling the Dish

Spoon the swiss chard onto the centre of the dish. Place the pork onto the swiss chard and spoon the reserve sauce over the pork.

Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Our Growing Paynes

I start grilling as soon as the grill can hold its own in the cold weather, usually when the temperatures are hovering round freezing. When the heat and humidity kicks in, the grill goes into overtime. Since it will be a few months before I get tired of salads I made a Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken for dinner and my food bowls.

To be honest, when I do get tired of salads, this would be great with rice noodles and the like. Plus you can make this with pork or fish.

For the dressing, there are many different Asian inspired ones you can choose from but I confess my guilty pleasure is salad cream. We tried to explain it to our stateside friends and they were like is it mayo? No! There were many guesses so I think we’re going to have to share our stash. Luckily, it isn’t hugely price prohibitive to get it delivered. Not like Marmite, where you have to mortgage your house to get it here. Fortunately, my in-laws are coming next week and they are bringing that with them.

Technique for the Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken

I’m not sponsored by any of these but choose the brands you prefer.

The chicken should be marinated for at least a couple of hours. Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Before adding the chicken check the flavour of the marinade to make sure the balance of the flavours are as you like them. With the honey, you want to make sure the sweetness comes through but doesn’t overpower the rest of the ingredients. As the marinade sits, the volume of the sweetness increases. So at the start have the honey just making the marinade a bit sweet.

Slice the chicken breasts lengthwise. Aside from lessening the cooking time for the chicken it makes it easier when cooking with honey. When using honey, you need to keep the temperature at medium on the grill. I always find that food photography that shows dishes with honey glazes still honey colored deceptive. Honey will brown when cooked. You do have to be careful as it will catch and burn very easily.

After marinating for at least a couple hours, grill the chicken making sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t catch and burn.

I have new cooking grids coming this weekend, can’t wait!

Prep the salad and top with the chicken.

Who says healthy eating has to be boring?

Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken

A honey ginger marinade for a healthy meal.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Keyword Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

1 lb chicken breast, sliced lengthwise
1/3 cup honey
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp lime juice

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients together. Add the chicken. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Grill the chicken on medium heat. Cube and top on salad. Serve.

Korean BBQ Steak Salad

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

I am on a serious Asian flavour kick lately. With the sticky hot weather it is great to be able to lean on all the flavours but not be heavy. It also helps me from getting thoroughly sick of salads! But even with air conditioning, the suffocating heat and humidity the idea of pasta and such doesn’t appeal.

I had made this dish a few weeks ago when we had friends over for dinner and I knew our kids would love it so now that camp is over it was time to make it again. Their summer adventures are over and school starts next week so we’re getting back into routine again. Our daughter is applying to universities and our son has four more years left before he flies the coop. It goes by so fast.

I have a Williams – Sonoma cookery book simply called Asian. A lot of thought went into that, obviously. I adapted it based on the ingredients I had on hand.

I made the dipping sauce/dressing and the marinade at the same time. I did this several hours prior to grilling. We’re still working on our bedroom so I knew I also wanted a quick dinner where I do most of the work before we exhausted ourselves painting and installing flooring.

Now I’ve tried the technique that the book mentions twice but without success but I’ll go over it and then just say not to stress or worry about it because you will still get the flavours needed. They say to make a paste of sugar and garlic with the back of your knife. I’ve seen it be successful on shows but for the life of me I couldn’t get it to do as it was supposed to.

Chop up 4-5 cloves of garlic and add a tablespoon of brown sugar. Attempt to make it into a paste. Swear a bit then say to the hell with it and add 2/3 of it to one bowl and the rest to a smaller bowl.

Add 6 tablespoons of soy sauce in the larger bowl and 3 tablespoons of soy sauce in the smaller bowl. A tablespoon of sesame oil in the large and a couple of teaspoons of the oil in the smaller. A tablespoon of rice vinegar in each bowl. A small handful of sliced scallions in each along with a tablespoon of water. In the larger bowl grate an inch/2.5cm cube of fresh ginger. Add a dollop or two of the Gochujang paste to the dipping sauce.

Mix both well. Set aside the dipping sauce for later. I had a pound of steak tips so I cubed them to be about 2in/5cm in size. Toss the meat in the marinade, make sure the meat is well coated and covered.

Cover and chill until it’s time to grill.

Fire up the grill and put the meat onto skewers.

Grill it until the desired doneness. We prefer medium rare for our beef.

Once it’s done, add it to the salad and use the dipping sauce as a dressing.

It is also great as part of an Asian tapas night or over rice. But for now we’re keeping it light until the cooler weather finally arrives. Hopefully that comes soon!

Pineapple Asian Chicken

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

I have a little vent before I get to my recipe. Thursdays are my grocery shop day and I headed to our co-op. They leave water out for the dogs which is great on hot days like this but the whole front is covered by concrete which gets quite hot. When I pulled in I could hear a dog whinging. There was a small dog tied up outside on the hot concrete. It kept lifting its paws. I took out one of my cloth bags and laid it down and the pup immediately sat down on it. I sat on the bench to wait for the owner so the dog could keep it’s paws off the concrete.

I only waited a couple of minutes before the owner came out. She was not happy with me at all! I said the dog’s paws were too hot because of the concrete and she very dismissively said the dog was fine. I didn’t leave right away and said if a dog keeps trying to lift all their paws, they aren’t all right. She was a bit shirty with me but I didn’t care and then she noticed the cloth bag and asked if it was mine and tossed it to me. Honestly, while I would never tie my dog outside somewhere, if I did and someone said the pup was distressed I wouldn’t be bitchy about it! I really don’t understand people.

I hope I got my point across!

Last week while we were running errands I got peckish and grabbed some turkey jerky. A very strange texture but the flavour was really good so I made note of the ingredients as I thought it would make a great marinade for some chicken wings I needed to use up.

Now I don’t get anything for “promoting” the ingredients in the picture, they just happen to be what we like to buy and use. In a bowl or container add 2 tablespoons of peanut oil, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice, a splash of lime juice and 1 1/2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Finely chop 2-4 cloves of garlic, depending on their size, and grate 1in/2.5cm cube of fresh ginger.

Whisk until the ingredients are well blended. Taste and adjust the flavours as you like. Toss the chicken wings to coat well.

Marinate for at least an hour, I marinated for most of the day. When it was time for dinner I fired up the grill and prepped the ingredients. Out I go to grill the wings and find we ran out of gas. Thank goodness for the stove top griddle so I got that heated up and began to grill the wings.

I also grilled some mushrooms and jalapeño as sides to the salad. It’s much easier on the grill as the wings are surrounded by the heat. When it is stovetop you have to keep turning and making sure nothing catches while you are trying to get it cooked through.

Serve on top of a salad and enjoy. A very easy meal to throw together if you have a crazy busy day. 🙂

Peach and Jalapeño Grilled Steak

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

While I’m not a fan of the heat of summer I do love the flavours of summer. The shops are starting to have peaches and other stone fruits which means light delicious meals and desserts.

It’s been a busy week but I wanted to make a nice meal for my husband and myself last night. Peaches sparked an idea and jalapeño is one of my husband’s favourite hot peppers. A match is made!

I prepped the corn by soaking the ears before grilling and dusted the steak with chili powder and cumin.

Slice up a quarter red onion. Begin to sweat them in a hot skillet with olive oil. Slice the jalapeño. I removed the seeds because sometimes the pepper can be very hot and I didn’t want to overwhelm the peach. I also started with half a pepper.

Sauté the pepper and onion for a few minutes. I sliced up three small peaches. You can tell it’s the beginning of the season as the peaches were quite small. Add the peaches. Cook for a few minutes. Fire up the grill to start grilling the corn. I grill the corn, unshucked, 5 minutes a side. Season the peach with chili pepper and cumin. Add a splash of lime juice. After tasting I added the rest of the pepper as there wasn’t much heat.

Grill the steak to the desired doneness. We like ours on the rare side. Once cooked, rest the steak for a few minutes then slice. Shuck the corn. Place the steak on salad greens and spoon the peach over the steak.

Bring on summer flavours, just not the heat. Unless it’s in the food. 🙂

Creamy Lemon Bacon Chicken Pasta

Posted on May 24, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

It was a rite of passage this past weekend for our daughter with the high school prom. She’s been to friends proms in the past but this was the first for her high school. I have to say, proms have come a long way since I last had to worry about prom. It’s much more inclusive and more often than not, groups of students go as friends rather than missing out because a date couldn’t be found. Way better!

My daughter had a few friends over to get ready before her date showed up. I did my first ever updo. It came out ok, phew! It was lovely to see that all the girls dressed in elegant dresses, no hoochie mamas. Some of the dresses I’ve seen in the past few years leave little to the imagination. Thankfully that trend wasn’t to prevalent this time round.

Unfortunately the weather was very rainy so we just did photos round the house. The weather did bring in some cooler weather which called for comfort food! I saw a recipe calling for bacon and mushroom in a cream sauce. That sparked an idea. Lemon and grilled chicken would be a great addition.

I kept the marinade for the chicken very simple. With a ratio of about 2:1 olive oil to lemon juice, whisk those together with sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Add the chicken and marinate for a couple of hours.

When it’s time to cook up the dinner, grill the chicken and cook up the pasta. Cut into small squares, 3-4 rashers of streaky bacon. Start cooking the bacon in a large skillet. Slice a few mushrooms and finely chop 3-5 cloves of garlic. Sauté the ingredients with the bacon. Add a handful of fresh thyme.

When the bacon is nearly cooked add 1/2 cup/4oz of chicken stock and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice. You want this to be really lemony at this point so the brightness isn’t lost in the cream and pasta. Bring this to a simmer then add a 1/3 cup/3oz of heavy cream. Cook on low until the chicken and pasta are done cooking.

Slice the chicken and add that and the pasta to the skillet and stir well. Right before serving add a bunch of arugula or spinach and let wilt.

Serve and grate fresh parmesan cheese over the dish.

Comfort food with the lightness of lemon, great for a cool spring night.

Orange Thyme Grilled Chicken

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

On Sunday, the day I made this meal, we were faced with how surreal life is. It was a gorgeous day and we were tackling the hops (seriously never plant those!). We were struck by how busy the fire and police departments were. While we were planting some veg in the back we realised the current set of sirens didn’t go past our house.

Out of curiosity we wandered out front to see 5 cop cars, 2 ambulances, and various other vehicles. Something was definitely up. A few minutes later an ambulance went tearing up the road. The initial report was someone shot himself by accident and he was belligerent which caused the cops to be called to hospital. Unfortunately the real story was worse. The man died and the guy who shot him is in jail for felony manslaughter.

It’s a bit shocking in our small town. What made it all surreal for me was as they were putting up the crime tape I noticed how life continues on. The next door neighbour to the crime scene was mowing the lawn, people were walking their dog and we’re were putting about in the garden. I know it’s how life works but I found it jarring.

After all the work in the garden we wanted a light dinner. I had seen a few recipes involving orange juice and mustard, orange juice and thyme or orange juice and garlic. I thought I could come up with a recipe involving all of it. Lots of flavour and still keeping it light.

In a bowl add equal parts orange juice and olive oil. Finely chop a few cloves of garlic and add it to the bowl with a handful of fresh thyme. Add a dash of lemon juice and a good heaping spoonful of stoneground mustard.

Season with sea salt and pepper. Add the chicken breast to marinate for a couple of hours.

When it’s time for dinner fire up the grill.

I did up a fresh salad with avocado, tomato, cucumber and carrot. I do love salad season!

Here’s hoping the upcoming weekend is a lot quieter for all.

Spicy Summer Grilling

Posted on July 26, 2017 by Our Growing Paynes

Unlike last year, we aren’t dealing with dusty drought conditions so our garden has taken off and going like gangbusters. Except the parsnips. We planted that twice and not a sausage. Not one seed sprouted. But given that this is the only failure we are in great shape for the most local shopping of all, just outside our door.

By the time autumn comes, I’ll be tired of salads but I do enjoy the quick summer meals with fresh veg. For this meal I sautéed swiss chard from our garden in lemon juice and olive oil. I also roasted potatoes as they needed to be used up.

I think one of my favourite ingredients is garlic. And it works really well with spicy dishes.

In a bowl big enough to hold the chicken thighs add about 1/3 cup of olive oil or peanut oil and a 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Finely chop 3-4 cloves of garlic and add to the bowl. Here is where you get a bit free style. Because everyone’s taste is different when it comes to spice you want to add sriracha sauce until you find the balance you want. We like it spicy so I added a lot. Make sure you do adjust the lemon juice as needed so you don’t drown out that flavour.

Season the chicken with sea salt and pepper then add it to the marinade.

The longer you marinade the stronger the flavour will be when cooked. You can do this quickly but the flavour will be much more subtle.

Grill on medium heat until the chicken is cooked through. If it is a bone in chicken keep in mind that the meat will take longer to cook.

This would work with any sautéed veg or a salad. Thank goodness for the grill, I’d be lost without it!

Tomatillo Steak Salad

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Autumn may be flowing in, thank goodness, but I’m not above having a nice salad. Even though it wasn’t intended. How would a salad happen accidentally? It’s easy when you are having a flighty moment.

I definitely knew I wanted to do grilled skirt steak with a tomatillo sauce. I was thinking a rustic type of sauce to act as the veg portion of the dinner. That didn’t work out as you will see.

We didn’t have much luck with growing tomatillos the past few years so we didn’t attempt it this year but luckily the farmer’s market had some. Our garden has produced a bumper crop of hot peppers. I just wish tomatillos weren’t so sticky once you peel the papery covering off. Cut the tomatillos in half and keep the pepper whole. Fire up the grill and roast the tomatillos and pepper until they start to char. You don’t want charcoal veg as a result so keep an eye on this as it will cook quickly.

As I said my plan was to have a rustic meal but I realised a grilled potato and a bit of steak wouldn’t cut it. When I did up the sauce it became more of a dressing rather than a veg side. So salad it was! Using a food processor add the tomatillos and pepper. I kept the seeds to give it a kick. Throw in a couple of cloves of garlic, a teaspoon or so of cilantro, and a few splashes of lime juice and olive oil. Blend.

I kept the steak simple seasoned with sea salt, pepper, and worcestershire sauce. Because it is grass fed be careful on how hot you cook it. Sear then lower the heat. Keeps it tender. Slice the steak and top with the tomatillo sauce. Any leftover sauce can be frozen for later.

Orzo with Lemon Chicken and New Tools

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Some learning curves can be exciting. Some not so much, like my learning curve with statistics in college. Loved the subject but come test time it was always like I’d never been to class. Never got far on that curve, bell or no bell. But now I’m liking my learning curve. Because there are a few projects I want to do, such as start a YouTube channel, and I was in the weeds with Unix, much to my chagrin, I needed tools that I could make headway on my own. I.e not bugging my husband/IT guy all the time. He has always been good about helping me but I hate not knowing how to do something!

So I am now a proud new owner of an iMac. And I’m loving my new setup. One, I can find and set up software I need, that is a big step in getting things done. Though if it heads into Unix territory like GIMP then I have to ask for help there but for the most part it’s been good. And it’s pretty easy to get an apple person on the phone if need be. I’m quickly collecting senior tech phone numbers.

I do like the iMovie on the desktop, much easier than the iPad. So watch this space as they say, I hope to have something soon. The big thing I need to figure out is the uncopyrighted music so I don’t get slapped by YouTube.

Going through our cupboards I realised we had orzo still so I thought it would be nice with lemon, yoghurt, and oregano.

I also wanted to grill up some chicken thighs. Prep these ahead of time with a marinade. With a ratio of 2:1 mix olive oil and lemon juice together. Season with sea salt and pepper. Finely chop a couple of garlic cloves and a small handful of fresh oregano. Mix well and coat two chicken thighs.

Set aside for about an hour. In a skillet heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and start softening about half a cup of chopped red onion. Once the onion starts to become translucent add 3-5 cloves (depending on size) of garlic, chopped.

At this point start grilling the chicken on medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 cups of chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a medium simmer. It’s important to stir frequently as orzo has a tendency to stick to the bottom of the skillet. Add more liquid as necessary because you want to make sure there is enough for the sauce.

When the orzo is half cooked add a few sliced mushrooms and another small handful of oregano, chopped. Stir well. Near the end of cooking add a third of a cup of plain yoghurt and about a cup of chopped red bell pepper. This gives the dish a nice pop of colour.

Serve once the chicken is cooked.

The flavours of this dish are very bright with the yoghurt and lemon. It’s a great dish if you are getting tired of salads!

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

Tag Archives: grilling

Lemon Rosemary Grilled Pork

Technique for Lemon Rosemary Pork

Lemon Rosemary Pork

Ingredients

Marinade

Sauce

Instructions

Marinade

Grilling the Pork

Sauce

Assembling the Dish

Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken

Technique for the Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken

Honey Ginger Grilled Chicken

Ingredients

Instructions

Korean BBQ Steak Salad

Pineapple Asian Chicken

Peach and Jalapeño Grilled Steak

Creamy Lemon Bacon Chicken Pasta

Orange Thyme Grilled Chicken

Spicy Summer Grilling

Tomatillo Steak Salad

Orzo with Lemon Chicken and New Tools