A Gooseberry and Apple Pork

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

Things have been very hectic this past week. My in-laws arrived this Wednesday so no more doddling! The list had to be done! Well as much of it we could do at any rate. Not only are my husband’s parents visiting from the UK but his brother is visiting from the west coast. Which means our nutty dog is on the max chill pill we can give him. Hasn’t stopped from doing the I love you, I hate you switch back and forth as they come into different rooms. I love him to bits but he is a handful.

Last night I cooked a special dinner to celebrate everyone being together. I did up leeks with mushrooms and garlic in butter and a cheesy chive mashed potato. For the main event I had a nice piece of pork shoulder to use. As I am trying to make space in our stuffed freezer I thought I would try a gooseberry and apple sauce to go with the pork.

I will tell you how I made it so you too can have loads of leftover sauce. I’m trying to figure out what to do with the leftover sauce but I may just freeze it for the next time we have pork.

About an hour before you begin cooking rub olive oil, cumin, sea salt, and pepper over the pork. Cover and let it sit.

I found some pink lady apples at the co-op. Peel and dice three of them. Chop about a cup of red onion. While you are doing this heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and begin browning the pork.

Remove the pork and add the apple and onion to the skillet. Cook on medium heat until the apple and onion begin to soften.

Add about a cup of gooseberries and cook for a few minutes then add a few teaspoons of fresh thyme. Pour in 4 cups of vegetable broth and bring to a simmer. Season with sea salt and pepper. I also added a few splashes of dry sherry. Simmer for several minutes and taste to make sure the flavour balance is right before adding the pork into the skillet. It’s easier to adjust at this point. Put the pork back into the skillet, cover and simmer until the pork is cooked.

Once the pork has rested, slice and serve. I really liked the tartness of the gooseberries with the sweetness of the apple. It is a very light sauce but holds its own if you know what I mean.

Chili Mushroom Bowls

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

And just like that summer is over, at least for the kids. Off to school they went yesterday. Summer seemed like a blur for all of us. I am ready for autumn to arrive. I am ready to say goodbye to the humidity and heat, which has been pretty bad this year. Bring on the crisp days!

When I was food shopping with my daughter we found large portobello caps that looked like bowls. Which gave me a fun idea. Instead of bread bowls, why not mushroom bowls?

To fill the bowls I made a quick chili. Normally you cook chili over a few hours but as this doesn’t have beans, this can be made in less than a half hour. In a skillet heat up a tablespoon or two of olive oil and begin to saute a half pound of ground beef.

Chop about half a cup of red onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Add that to the skillet.

After the onion starts to soften add a can of diced tomatoes (14oz) and bring to a simmer. Begin to season with chili powder, cumin, and sea salt and pepper. The beauty of this dish is you decide how much seasoning to put in. Some like it hot and some don’t. I would say the ratio of the chili powder to the cumin should be about 4:1. As we like it hot I added a dollop of hot sauce that I made along with chopped bell pepper.

Mix well and cook the peppers for a few minutes. Pre heat the oven to 400F/200C. Fill the mushrooms with the chili mixture.

Top with shredded cheese and bake until the mushrooms are cooked. You don’t want to cook the mushrooms so much that they collapse.

Top with sour cream and enjoy! This is a very easy meal to through together on a weeknight. And it’s a fun twist on the whole food for a bowl thing.

Bring on the Garlic, Thai Style

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

I love garlic! Any dish that calls for a lot of garlic is ok by me. Just make sure your date eats it too otherwise you are out of luck. 🙂

My lovely husband bought me “The Complete Asian Cookbook – Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & Burma” by Charmaine Solomon. There are some amazing recipes in this book but the tricky bit is finding ingredients for some of them. I have absolutely no idea where to find galangal, couldn’t find tamarind in any store, but I won’t be deterred! No sir. That’s what the internet is for. In the meantime I’ll either adjust where I can or use the recipes in the book that have easy to find ingredients.

And we can get garlic so that was our first choice to try. I’ve bookmarked several I can’t wait to try but this is our starting point. It is called Kai Yang or Garlic Chicken.

I adjusted the recipe to make two portions rather than the 4-5 it mentioned. I didn’t back off the amount of garlic though. 🙂

In a bowl large enough to hold the chicken add 6 cloves of garlic, finely minced, 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of coarsely ground black pepper, 3/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro, 1 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice, and a teaspoon of chilli powder. Mix well.

I chose to use chicken thighs, bone in, for this dish. Add the chicken to the bowl and make sure the chicken is coated with the garlic mixture.

Cover and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

When it is time to cook the meal preheat the oven to 400F/200C. The book said to serve with rice and fresh tomato sprinkled with chilli powder. I wasn’t in the mood for rice so I prepped sweet potato seasoned with the chilli powder and roasted it. I also thought bok choi would be a great base to the chicken.

When the oven is ready roast the chicken, turning it every 5-10 minutes until it is cooked. Take the rest of the garlic mixture that was left in the bowl and heat it up in a skillet with some olive oil. Saute the bok choi as you take out the chicken. You don’t want to cook the bok choi too much.

Slice a fresh tomato and season with chilli powder and a bit of sea salt. This was a new idea for me and I love it. I’ll be having fresh tomatoes out of the garden this summer with this. Fabulous!

I loved this dish. I was worried that it would be too strong with the pepper and garlic but it really worked. I already have a few recipes from the book lined up to try. 🙂

Parmesan Baked Potato

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Our Growing Paynes

We have family coming for a birthday lunch today so this will be a quick post as we have various dishes to prep for. Today is gorgeous and perfect for eating outside. We won’t have too many more of these days as our days are getting shorter and cooler.

This dish went with the smoked pork tenderloin and a salad. I found something similar on Pinterest but they had added butter and a bunch of other things. I decided to keep it really simple.

I first cooked the potatoes in the microwave for 9 minutes. Then baked them in the toaster oven for about 20 minutes at 325 F. I then sliced them in half and sprinkled pepper on the open sides. Then I liberally sprinkled freshly grated parmesan cheese over the pepper for a complete covering. I put them back in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted and browned a bit.

This is great as a stand alone small meal or a side dish.

Our Growing Paynes

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

Tag Archives: pepper

A Gooseberry and Apple Pork

Chili Mushroom Bowls

Bring on the Garlic, Thai Style

Parmesan Baked Potato