Pork | Fake Ginger

Spicy Basil Pork

May 6, 2013 in pork

I realized recently that 1 pound of meat just isn’t going to work as dinner any longer in this house. Three growing boys plus a husband means this girl has been skipping dinner more often than not just because there isn’t enough! It usually doesn’t bother me but when I make something delicious and barely get a bite before it’s all gone, I get sad. And this meal made me sad.

You guys, it’s so good. I know the ingredient list looks like nothing special but I’m pretty sure I could’ve eaten this 5 days in a row without complaint. Y’all know I love pork and this pork was just spicy enough and had all my favorite Asian flavors. I’ve been hoarding recipes that call for Thai basil forever now because I’ve never seen in it stores but with my new herb garden I finally have access to Thai basil! Honestly, I’m not sure I could tell a difference between it and regular basil but it was fun to use it.

This pork is also incredibly quick to cook so it makes a perfect weeknight dinner.

One year ago: Almond Flounder Meuniere
Two years ago: Toureau de Chevre
Three years ago: Buckwheat Pancakes

Spicy Basil Pork

4 servings

from Apple a Day

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons canola oil

1 shallot, minced

1 1/4 pound boneless pork chops, cut into 1-in. cubes

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoons chili paste, like Sambal Oelek

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoon water

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 cup sliced basil leaves (preferably Thai)

white or brown rice, for serving

additional soy sauce and/or chili sauce, for serving

Instructions

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and cook 1 minute. Add pork and garlic to pan. Cook 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until meat is cooked through.
Meanwhile, whisk the fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chili paste, sugar, water, and corn starch together in a small bowl. Add fish sauce mixture to meat and cook 1 minute more or until mixture thickens slightly. Stir to coat entire mixture. Remove from heat and stir in basil. Serve over rice with extra soy sauce and/or chili sauce on the side.

http://fakeginger.com/2013/05/06/spicy-basil-pork/

Tags: basil, pork
7 Comments »

Pork with Dijon Marsala Sauce

April 22, 2013 in pork

Part of the reason I haven’t been blogging is that I haven’t really been baking. And y’all know my blog has always been primarily fatty, sugary, sprinkled goodness. Most meals I make aren’t even blogworthy. A piece of meat and a couple different veggies is my go-to these days. I’m only “allowed” to make something carby and/or cheesy once a week (the night before my husband has to ruck) so yeah, food has been pretty boring lately.

I do occasionally sneak in meals like this. Ones that seem healthy at first – until you realize the sauce on top is mainly heavy cream. Whoops. To be fair though, you really only need a little bit of the sauce to get that fantastic Marsala flavor.

Marsala is definitely one of my favorite flavors ever and in this, it’s mixed with another of my favorites: dijon mustard. It’s so good! I seriously could have drank it. And pork is always good. It’s inexpensive and a nice change from the usual chicken.

One year ago: Butter Pecan Ice Cream
Two years ago: New York Style Coffee Cake
Three years ago: Stewed Chicken with Tomatoes, Cinnamon, and Preserved Lemons
Four years ago: Baked Brie

Pork with Dijon Marsala Cream Sauce

adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients

1 pork tenderloin

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 shallots, minced

1 cup Marsala wine

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a baking dish with oil.
Rub the pork tenderloin with 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Brown the pork tenderloin on all sides and then transfer to the prepared baking dish.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Turn and continue cooking for another 20 minutes or until done.
A few minutes before the pork is done, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook the shallots in the butter until soft. Stir in the Marsala, 1 tablespoon dijon mustard, and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced by about half.
Slice pork and serve with the sauce.

http://fakeginger.com/2013/04/22/pork-with-dijon-marsala-sauce/

Tags: marsala, mustard, pork
4 Comments »

Farfalle with Bacon and Endives

February 16, 2012 in pasta, pork

I have to be honest with y’all.

I haven’t been cooking or baking lately. Last night I cooked for the first time in a week. We have been going out every night because my husband won’t tell me what he wants to eat in his last little bit of time at home. So I thought about what I would want if the situation was reversed and I was going to be living off MREs for the next 9 months, and decided that I’d want to stuff myself with burritos the size of my head and drive-thru Chinese food before leaving. Home cooked meals? Psssh! I’d totally miss restaurants.

But the day before Valentine’s Day, this showed up on my doorstep:

It’s a bouquet of endives! How stinkin’ cute is it?!

Before those showed up, I’d never given endives much thought and I don’t think I’d ever tried one. But I couldn’t just let them go to waste.

So that’s how I ended up cooking after a week of not turning my stove on. (Except to boil coffee. Which my husband says doesn’t count as cooking, no matter how much I insist it does.)

The great thing about this pasta is that it’s really creamy without using any cream! You take a quart of chicken broth and boil it down – it gets really thick and makes your house smell amazing. Then at the end you stir in just a little Parmesan. Seriously good. If you have endives you don’t know what to do with, I definitely recommend this.

This was one of those recipes that could’ve gone either way with my husband but he LOVED it. As we speak, the leftovers are packed in his work bag so he can eat it for breakfast today.

Farfalle with Bacon and Endives

adapted from Food & Wine

Ingredients

1 quart chicken broth

1 pound farfalle

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ pound thickly sliced bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces

3 medium Belgian endives, cored and sliced 1 inch thick

3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

¼ cup parsley, coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon lemon zest

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, boil the chicken broth over high heat until reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the farfalle until al dente.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the bacon and cook over moderately low heat until slightly crisp. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add the endives to the skillet and cook over medium high heat, stirring, until the endives are just wilted but still crisp, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
Drain the farfalle and add it to the skillet. Add the reduced chicken broth, parsley, lemon zest and bacon and toss well. Remove from the heat. Stir in the Parmesan and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large bowl and hot with extra Parmesan sprinkled on top.

http://fakeginger.com/2012/02/16/farfalle-with-bacon-and-endives/

Tags: bacon, endives, pasta, pork
12 Comments »

Sausage-Stuffed Shells

January 19, 2012 in pasta, pork

Last month my dear husband started talking about stuffed shells. He wanted them to be nothing but pasta shells stuffed with ricotta (just ricotta) and with sauce poured over the top. Informal Twitter poll told me not to do it but I figured I could at least make him a version I could be proud of.

My version has ricotta and sausage and Parmesan and lots of basil! And more cheese on top because duh, pasta needs cheese on top! They were delicious and even the husband had to admit that my shells were better than the ones he had wanted so badly.

I tend to use spicy Italian sausage in my pasta dishes so the sweet sausage was a fun change. If you prefer the spicy stuff, go ahead and use it! Or add some crushed red pepper flakes for a little heat. I made my olive cheese bread with it but the cheesy breadsticks I just posted would be awesome too!

Sausage-Stuffed Shells

adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

1 12-ounce package jumbo pasta shells

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup onion, finely diced

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 large egg

16-ounces ricotta cheese

½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil

¼ cup unseasoned bread crumbs

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 28-ounce jar pasta sauce

1 cup mozzarella, shredded

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta shells according to the instructions on the package. Drain, rinse in cold water, and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the sausage to the pan, breaking up the sausage with a wooden spoon. Cook sausage until cooked through, and no pink remains, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute more. Remove pan from heat.
Beat the egg lightly in a large bowl. Mix in the ricotta, Parmesan cheese, basil, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and sausage mixture. Fill each cooked pasta shell with some of the ricotta mixture.
Spread ½ cup of pasta sauce over the bottom of 2 9×13-inch baking dishes. Arrange the stuffed pasta shells in the dishes. Spread the remaining sauce over the top of the pasta shells and top with mozzarella.
Cover the pans with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until hot and bubbling. Remove foil and bake until the cheese is starting to brown, about 10 minutes.

http://fakeginger.com/2012/01/19/sausage-stuffed-shells/

Tags: pasta, pork
11 Comments »

Beer & Brown Sugar Kielbasa

December 11, 2011 in pork, slow cooker

This, right here, is by far my favorite thing I’ve made in months, if not all year.

So good that at 9 pm on the night I made it, I started panicking that someone else would get to the leftovers before I did and had another one.

No surprise really since it’s made up of my some of my favorite foods: kielbasa, sauerkraut, and brown sugar. Beer, I can take or leave, but in this, I’ll take it. It’s sweet, it’s sour, and it’s seriously delicious. Guarantee I make it at least one more time before the year is up!

Bonus points because it’s made in the slow cooker. So if you want to, say, make it for the big rematch between LSU & Alabama, you can pop it in first thing in the morning and it’ll not only make your house smell like heaven but will be ready for the game with minimal effort. All you need is some buns and you’re good to go.

(I was right to have another as a late night snack – my husband killed the remaining leftovers the next morning!)

Two years ago: SheeShee’s Christmas Mix

Beer & Brown Sugar Kielbasa

from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients

12 ounces beer

1 cup brown sugar

3 pounds polish kielbasa

1 bag (or jar) sauerkraut (32 ounces), drained well

Instructions

Combine the beer and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, until the sugar melts and the mixture is slightly thickened; set aside.
Cut the kielbasa into links and place in a slow cooker. Cover with the drained sauerkraut. Pour the beer and brown sugar mixture over top. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours, or on low for 8 to 10 hours. (I have a small slow cooker and had to do a bit of stirring throughout the day to keep everything coated in the brown sugar mixture.)
Serve on its own or on your favorite sandwich roll.

http://fakeginger.com/2011/12/11/beer-brown-sugar-kielbasa/

Tags: pork, sandwich, slow cooker
8 Comments »

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Spicy Basil Pork

Pork with Dijon Marsala Sauce

Farfalle with Bacon and Endives

Sausage-Stuffed Shells

Beer & Brown Sugar Kielbasa

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