White bean & ham soup

Here is something Dan threw together last year, and it turned out so great, we made it again the other day. It's a good cold-weather dish. The first time we ate it, it had a ham bone in it, which was nice and salty. These ham shanks worked just as well -- the meat falls off the bones during cooking -- but you'll have to add a little salt while eating. (You can also just throw everything in a crock pot and let it cook on low all day.)

White bean & ham soup (serves about 8)

3 small cans of white beans

1 medium onion, chopped

3 medium carrots, chopped

2 small pork ham shanks, whole (about 1 pound)

4 celery stalks, chopped

2 bay leaves

dash of dried thyme

sprinkle of gumbo file

salt and white pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon canola oil

enough water to cover the ingredients during cooking

1.) Heat the oil in a soup pot, add the celery and onion, and let that cook on medium while you rinse and drain the white beans.

2.) Add the rest of the ingredients, except the gumbo file and salt. Add enough water to just barely cover the shanks, which stay whole. They will fall apart while cooking.

3.) Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 2 hours.

4.) Sprinkle with gumbo file, and continue to simmer, partially covered, for another half hour to an hour. The water should have cooked down some, and the soup should be slightly thickened when served.

This goes great with cornbread. We like to sprinkle the cornbread on top of our individual servings.

German potato salad

Here is a warm side dish for that Schnitzel you're thinking about making. It calls for lardons, which are tiny cubes of fatty pork often used in French cuisine, but bacon will also do fine.

German potato salad (6 servings)

6 medium potatoes (not the mealy kind), peeled

1/2 cup lardons or bacon

small amount of olive oil for frying the lardons

1 medium onion, chopped

6-7 cornichons (itty bitty dills), finely chopped

vegetable oil

white wine vinegar

salt and black pepper, to taste

1.) Boil the potatoes until done. Peel them when cool enough to handle, and cut them into little slices.

2.) Fry the lardons or bacon in a small amount of olive oil until crispy. Take out of oil, but use oil to saute the onion.

3.) Put onion and lardons in a small bowl, add the cornichons, and toss together with the vinegar, salt, and pepper.

4.) Add a little veggie oil. Add the potato slices, toss again, taste for seasoning.

5.) Serve warm. Reheat if necessary, but don't allow it to get so hot that it's sizzling.

Schnitzel

Scnitzel is a typically German dish. It originally was made with veal, but it's more commonly made with pork today. Pork is juicier.

It's kind of the German equivalent of the breaded tenderloins loved by Hoosiers. Leftovers make great sandwiches, too.

Here is my mom's recipe. I have to keep this post short because this German keyboard is making me cräzy!

Schnitzel (serves 4)

1 pound or a little more of pre-cut boneless pork loin

flour, to cover the meat

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup milk

fine breadcrumbs

veggie oil, for frying

a little butter

salt and pepper

2 lemons, sliced

1.) Toss the meat with the flour in a plastic bag, just so the meat is covered lightly. Shake off any excess flour.

2.) Beat the egg yolks with the milk. Dip the meat into that, and immediately dredge the Schnitzels in breadcrumbs.

3.) Heat the oil and butter in a large pan. When sizzling, put the meat in, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes.

4.) When golden on bottom, flip. Sprinkle that side with salt and pepper, and cook 5 more minutes. Serve with lemon slices.

5.) Schnitzel can be made ahead of time. Just put in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes to reheat.

Memphis pork supper

I've never made a meal in the crock pot that was almost too big to fit inside, but that was the case with this interesting dish I decide to make. "Too much pork for just one fork," Dan says.

I found this little cookbook in the mall -- at one of those vintage poster shops that pop up around the holidays -- and it's a Family Circle slow cooker cook book, called "Family Circle's Carefree Crockery Cookbook." It's very '70s, not just in how it looks, but in recipes, too, which makes sense because it was published in 1976.

Now, while this recipe is called "Memphis pork supper," there's no fried peanut butter-bacon-banana concoction, or whatever it was that Elvis devoured! It's really an apple-onion-sweet potato-pork mixture, and it's quite good. There was quite a bit of liquid in the crock pot, so I served the pork with a slotted spoon and bread on the side.

Memphis pork supper (serves 8)

3 pounds boneless pork loin, trimmed of fat, cubed

3 pounds of medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered

3 medium onions, sliced

4 medium-sized tart red apples, cored and sliced into rings

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 cups apple juice

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon leaf marjoram, crushed

1/4 teaspoon pepper

chopped fresh parsley (I used the Italian parsley left over from the Sicilian-style grouper)

1.) Trim the fat from the pork and brown it, in a little of that fat a few pieces at a time, in a skillet very quickly. Remove with a slotted spoon and put aside.

2.) Arrange the potatoes around the slow cooker; place the meat in the middle. Top with half of the onion slices and half the apple rings. Sprinkle with sugar. Repeat with a second layer.

3.) Combine apple juice, salt, marjoram, and pepper in a glass measuring cup or bowl. Pour over apple rings.

4.) Cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours. Sprinkle with parsley before serving.

Need an idea for leftovers? Try this pork casserole with cornbread crust & mole sauce.

Leftovers: Salad with pork and apples

Oh, boy... It's time to save money. I've been in denial, but with food prices the way they are, I can't be running to the store every time I get a hankering for something I want to cook.

So, with that in mind, I will attempt to use up what I have in the house, shopping only at our co-op on member day (when we get a 5% discount).

I have so much to use up this week, both in the fridge and in the pantry:

roasted, marinated pork loin

Farmers' Market tomatoes

celery (who doesn't have celery left over after using just a stalk or two?)

spaghetti squash

lettuce

cooked wild rice mixture

canned beans, black and garbanzo

spelt egg noodles that I got ages ago (they can't really get old, can they?)

frozen, ice cube-sized pesto chunks

I'm thinking of making spaghetti squash with marinara sauce and fresh fish with pesto -- maybe in the crock pot with garbanzo beans? -- as well as stuffed tomatoes, to use up some of that rice. I will have to go the store for the fish, and I still am planning to make my friend Kate's pumpkin soup, which I've decided will be a good dish to serve my in-laws on Saturday.

I used some of the pork and lettuce today: The pork loin I made a couple nights ago is delicious cold, so I put some small, thin slices on top of the greens. I didn't think it would be anything to blog about, but it turned out to be so much better than expected. I should have taken a photo.

I wanted to call this post "pork salad," but that just doesn't sound too good. Does "salad with pork and apples" sound any better? I hope so.

You can just arrange the following ingredients and top this with your favorite salad dressing. I drizzled on some extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and the flavors worked really well together.



Salad with pork and apples (for 1 large salad)

red-leaf lettuce, as much as you'd like

1/2 carrot, shredded

a few rings of thinly sliced red onion

about 2 ounces of pork loin, thinly sliced and cut into pieces about two inches long

1/4 sweet apple, whatever kind you like, cut into about 6 slices

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 cup garbanzo beans

optional: a sprinkle of toasted walnuts or pecans would go well in this, I think

The ultimate pork marinade

Don't you just hate it when people give things they love titles like "perfect," "ultimate," or "best ever"? Me, too. But I guess it's because I'm running out of words for delicious, tasty, scrumptious, amazing... I suppose I could use "fabulous" or "wonderful," but they're just not my style.

Well, because this is a blog about food and not semantics, I'll move on. Let's just say, this is a doggone good pork marinade.

I got the ingredient list from a former Herald-Times colleague of mine, the much loved and much hated Mike Leonard. (Does that pique your interest about him? His columns are often political.) I am saying "ingredient list" because, as is the fate of so many recipes, this one was transferred over a plate of food, drinks in hand, via a simple conversation. Just a list, no pens or paper in sight that night.

So here's the scoop, with the approximate amounts I used for 4.1 pounds of pork loin* in parenthesis. I had to cut the loin in two to marinate it in gallon-sized plastic bags.

Mike's ultimate pork marinade

red wine (I used one of those airplane-sized bottles, which I think is 5 ounces)

garlic (3 cloves, crushed)

soy sauce (1/4 cup)

dried onion (I used flakes, about 2 tablespoons)

cinnamon (1 teaspoon)

brown sugar (2 tablespoons -- I like things sweet, in case you hadn't noticed)

Whisk together all above ingredients.

1.) Trim roast of fat. Marinate for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Overnight is best, I think.

2.) Rinse and pat dry before starting cooking process.

3.) Brown the roast on all sides in a pan in hot oil, briefly, before putting in a 325-degree oven on a rack, fat side up.

Cooking time will vary according to how much meat there is. Let the roast rest for 10 minutes on a cutting board before carving.

*A 4.1-pound single boneless pork loin took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to roast.

A last note: I've had not-so-great luck cooking pork in slow cookers, in terms of how dry it gets, regardless of whether I add water or not. I think roasting is the way to go. Although browning the meat in hot oil in a skillet made me reconsider how much I need a splatter guard -- I vowed to get one, soon -- it really sealed in the juices meat during cooking time. This turned out moist and delicious.

It also would be excellent served cold and thinly sliced for sandwiches. It would actually be beyond excellent, but I can't think of a word for that.

A few side dishes I recommend:

scalloped potatoes

roasted asparagus with parmesan crisps

lemon broccoli

butternut squash-potato puree with fresh thyme

corny cornbread

Mom's tortellini salad

Need an idea for leftovers? Try this salad with pork and apples.

Kara's green chile pork

Well, I learned a good lesson from this one. I will no longer think I'm so smart about recipes that I neglect to ask for details, including measurements, when I write someone's recipe down! Here's the recipe I scribbled in my recipe book. I've been assuming it's a crock pot dish, but now I'm not sure:

3/4 pound pork

cumin

green chiles

stewed Mexican tomatoes

oregano

chopped onion

2-3 cloves garlic

1 cup chicken stock

Hmmm... Whatever what I thinking? What are stewed Mexican tomatoes? What kind of pork should I use? Is that fresh oregano or dried? A lot or a little? You get the picture.

At any rate, it turned out pretty yummy, but I was kicking myself for having to do guess work. Yes, I could have picked up the phone and called Kara, but I wasn't about to go back out to the store for any ingredients, and time was of the essence as I stood in my kitchen with my apron on, all ready to go.

My only complaint is that the pork was a little dry. I seem to have face that sad reality a lot. Any readers have any tips on how to keep the pork juicy? We solved the problem post-cooking by passing lots of the leftover broth from the crock pot on the side.

Here's the recipe I wound up using for the dish, and my family liked it a lot. They even had seconds. (The real star of the meal, however, was the butternut squash-potato mash, which I'll post tomorrow!)

Green chile pork -- maybe Kara's, maybe not (serves 6)

2 pork tenderloins, about 3 pounds

2 teaspoons cumin

9 Anaheim peppers, seeded and chopped

1 serrano pepper, seeded and chopped

1 chopped yellow onion

6 cloves garlic, minced

about 20 ounces canned, diced tomatoes

2 cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

salt and pepper, to taste

1.) Put all ingredients into the crock pot, and cook on low for 6-7 hours.

2.) Remove tenderloins, slice thickly on a cutting board, and place on a serving platter.

3.) Using a slotted spoon, remove as many green peppers and tomatoes as possible from the crock pot. Spoon them over the pork.

4.) Pass the remaining broth from the crock pot on the side, with a gravy spoon.