Cooked for the family around Christmas time. I forgot to get pics of the first night’s dinner, but it was
Prosciutto-Crusted Chicken with Endive
You cut four 8-ish oz chicken breasts in half horizontally to make cutlets, sprinkle salt, pepper and grated parmesan on them, drape a slice of prosciutto over each, then cover them with plastic wrap and pound them with the bottom of a skillet a few times to flatten them and get the prosciutto to stick. (The package only had seven slices so I used bacon - covered in a variation - as the topping for the 8th cutlet.) Then you cook them in batches in a large skillet with some olive oil, flipping once to cook both sides (the wrapped side needs more time). Once each batch finishes, it goes into the oven (at 200F) to keep warm. Then you cook 4 heads of Belgian endive in the skillet with a bit more oil and salt and pepper. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve. (We couldn’t find Belgian endive so I used curly endive and a greens mix. It later turned out another local supermarket we went to did have it and it would probably have been very different. Oh well.)
Also threw in a side of Brussel Sprouts with Bacon. Basically just cooking some bacon, then adding the sprouts, steaming them a bit and then letting the water evaporate so they crisp up.
I was planning on making the pork roast I made with my parents back in September but it turned out my grandma doesn’t have a roasting pan (she has cooking stuff dating back to the 70s so I would have assumed, but apparently not) and had bought a boneless roast instead of a bone-in and the combination would have meant more improvising than I was comfortable with. So instead I cut parts of the boneless roast off for two separate dinners (I had planned a third but then we went out and ate instead, which I was okay with). Firstly, there was…
Broiled Pork Paprikash with Red Peppers
You add the juice of one lemon, chopped fresh parsley, garlic, 4 or so chopped red peppers and 1 1/2 pounds of boneless pork shoulder (in that order), stir it up with olive oil, red wine, sour cream, paprika, salt and pepper, and then add the lot to a rimmed baking sheet. It says to separate the veggie and the pork at this point and start the veggie first, but frankly that made no sense after having just stirred things together, so I dumped them all on and broiled for around 8 minutes, which turned out fairly well (a few bits of pork were a little pink in the middle, so I should maybe have gone another minute or two).
I accompanied it with Two Step Broccoli
Nuke the broccoli with a little water in a microwave safe container for like 4 minutes. Top with grated parmesan (or cheddar), salt and pepper. Broil in an oven for 2 minutes in an oven safe container (if your microwave safe container is oven safe also, as this was, bonus). Done.
Next night was Braised Pork with Cabbage and Beer
Slice up 1 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder. Put it in a skillet with some olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook it until lightly browned. Slice up an onion and add it, cooking until it’s softened. Trim, core and shred a head of cabbage (and yes, that’s just one head of cabbage), then add it to the skillet along with caraway seeds, mustard seeds, a cup of beer (Miller Lite, in this case, since that’s what they had), red wine or cider vinegar, and another sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook for another 8-12 minutes. (The cabbage was shredded by food processor and I have got to get me one of those.)
It was accompanied by Sauteed Sweet Potatoes
Peel and shred 4-5 sweet potatoes (food processor again). Sautee them in some olive oil for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook for another 2-3 minutes stirring more regularly. Done. You can mix in garlic cloves + sage leaves, chipotle chiles in adobo, or minced ginger to the oil as you’re starting (I did ginger), and then top with lime juice or soy sauce (for variation 2 or 3 respectively) at the table, and I would recommend doing so. Mmm.
I was going to do a variation of the Braised Pork and Cabbage recipe with celery and Riesling and Glazed Brussel Sprouts with Vietnamese Flavors the final night, but oh well.
All recipes from How to Cook Everything Fast, incidentally.
