I took out what I thought was chicken for our supper the other night, but it ended up being boneless pork loin chops.
I remembered having spied this recipe for a Pork Chop Sandwich on Just a Pinch one day. It had sounded really delicious with grilled chops and a fabulous sounding sticky balsamic onion relish.
I had filed it in my brain as something I wanted to cook one day and could see no time like the present. The stars were perfectly aligned, plus I had thawed chops to use up.
Kaiser Buns don't exist over here in the UK, not that I can find at any rate, so I made do with Sesame Seed Brioche Burger Buns. We like them a lot actually so it was not a hardship.
All the bread and buns here in the UK are fabulous.
I created a pork chop seasoning to dust the chops with prior to grilling them. It was very easy to make. I like making my own seasoning mixes as you know. You know exactly what's in them and there are no preservatives involved.
It sounds a bit unsual but it really works well together. I ground them up in my spice grinder to a powder, but you could leave them whole if you want a bit of texture.
The real star is the balsamic onion relish! Oh boy, but I could eat those onions on their own just with a spoon!
I adore anything with Balsamic Vinegar. (Make sure you use a good one.) There is also some soy sauce and brown sugar and more pepper involved. Sticky and sweet, these are quite simply fabulous!
Normally I would have grilled the chops out on the BBQ, but with all the rain we have been having I had to make do with my indoor electric grill.
I buttered the buns and toasted then under my oven grill before applying the onion relish and the grilled chops.
I have to say these were absolutely fabulous. I can't think of a single thing that would make them any better . . .
Not a single thing. Perfection.
Pork Chop Sandwich
Yield: 6
Something deliciously different to do with your chops! Perfectly seasoned and grilled chops served on toasted buns with a fabulous balsamic onion garnish.
Ingredients:
For the chops:
- 2 boneless chops, 1/2 inch thick
- pork chop seasoning as below
For the onion relish:
- 1 TBS olive oil
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 large spanish onion, peeled, halved and sliced into half moons
- 2 TBS good balsamic vinegar
- 2 TBS soy sauce
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
You will also need:
- six kaiser rolls split and toasted
Instructions:
- First make the relish. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet until it begins to foam. Add the onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion begins to soften and brown. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Cook for another 7 to 8 minutes over low heat until deep brown and very soft. Scrape into a bowl and set aside.
- For the chops. Pound them a bit to tenderise. Season with some of your pork chop seasoning. Prepare your grill to a high temperature. Add the chops. Grill for three minutes on each side. Remove to your toasted buns, topping the chops with some of the balsamic onions to serve.
notes:
Perfect Pork Chop Seasoning: Mix together in a spice grinder, 3 TBS of salt, 1 TBS pepper, 1/2 TBS granulated garlic, 1/2 TBS granulated onion, 1/2 TBS sweet paprika, 1/2 TBS lemon pepper, 1/2 tsp each dried tarragon and thyme leaves, 1 tsp sugar. Grind together until of an equal consistency Store in an airtight container in a dark place for up to 6 months.
We enjoyed these simply with some potato salad and sliced cucumber and tomatoes. These made the perfect weeknight supper!
Grandmother's Roast Chicken & Gravy. Is there anything on earth that tastes better than the memory of such a dish? I think not.
Family dinners and meals prepared for us lovingly by our grandmothers are truly sacred things, that nothing else can ever come up to!
Sadly, my maternal Grandmother passed away when I was only five years old, although I did have the privilege of having lived with my maternal grandparents for several years off and on before that happened.
My Paternal Grandmother passed when I was an adult with children of my own, so I do have great memories of meals enjoyed in her home, but not many as we lived quite a distance from her. I do remember her French pancakes and meat pies with a particular fondness however, but we will talk about that another time.
The recipe I am sharing today comes from one of my favourite cookbooks, published by Parragon, entitled Grandma's Best Recipes. I have shared it on here before. The left shows you my copy of the book and the right what the recipe photo looks like in the book.
Quite often the photos describing recipes in cookbooks are not actually of the recipes. If you look close enough, you will see discrepancies between them and the recipe. For instance, in this one rosemary and roasted courgettes and red onions.
Where is the lemon thyme butter coating? Nevermind. The recipe itself sounded delicious enough for me to want to cook it.
This is the reality, which does look quite different, but was incredibly delicious so I forgive them!
Roast Chicken was not something we had very often in our home when I was growing up. Chicken was a lot more expensive in those days. It still isn't really cheap if you want a quality bird, and I do.
Since the beginning of lockdown I have been purchasing my meat and poultry from Geoff Hughes Family Butchers at the Indoor Chester City Market.
They have been incredibly brilliant. From the start they offered "free" home delivery to any one who was isolating and I have to say their products and service have been exemplary to say the least. I have been incredibly pleased and impressed with everything.
If you are in the area, why not stop by and check them out and if you do
make sure you tell them I sent you!
Even now they are delivering to my
home as my husband and I are not venturing out to buy food in grocery shops, and I have to say with surety, I will never buy or be happy with supermarket meat or poultry again. Not ever. There is just no comparison.
Every roast chicken I have gotten from them has been succulent and beautifully flavoured, and moderately priced.
Yes, a bit more than a supermarket bird, but again . . NO comparison when it comes to quality, succulence and flavour!
This roast chicken recipe is really a good one. It differs only slightly from my usual one. I do normally use lemon and thyme for my roast chickens, and plenty of butter, but I have also used garlic in the past.
This recipe uses chopped lemon thyme. If you can't get that, then add a bit of finely grated lemon zest to the chopped thyme. A whole lemon is quartered and put into the cavity which helps to create even more flavour and moistness.
The lemon thyme gets mashed into softened butter and rubbed all over the outside and inside of the chicken. Can you say flavour boost!!! Of course there is plenty of salt and pepper as well. Also some white wine is poured over the chicken before baking.
I used a Pinot Grigio. (that's what Ramona drinks on HWNYC.) I don't really know anything about wine, so that's what I bought. I figured if it was good enough for Ramona it was good enough for my chicken.
It did make for an excellent gravy. I make my own gravy from scratch. Always have done. I eschew gravy packets as much as possible as they are loaded with salt and artificial flavours.
Just don't really like them. I use the pan juices from my roasting dish. There was quite a bit of fat from the chicken and the butter, but that's okay. You will need two tablespoons of it for the gravy, you can get rid of the rest. KEEP THE JUICES!
Making gravy is really easy. You can just shake some flour in a jar with some water and add to the pan juices if you want, but on this particular day I used some chicken fat and flour to create a roux, to which I added a mix of the pan juices and chicken stock to create a really beautifully flavoured gravy.
With that tender succulent chicken and the flavours of lemon and thyme, it turned out to be fabulously tasty! I served the roast chicken with some oven roasted unpeeled potatoes, and my favourite Sage and Onion Stuffing recipe.
Everything was pretty wonderful, just like a warm hug from your Grandma!
Grandmother's Roast Chicken & Gravy
Yield: 6
Nobody knows how to roast a chicken better than your Grandmother!
Ingredients:
For the chicken:
- 2.25kg free range roasting chicken (5 pound)
- 55g butter (2 ounces)
- 2 TBS chopped fresh lemon thyme
- 1 unwaxed lemon quartered
- 125ml good white wine (1/2 cup)
- salt and black pepper to taste
For the gravy:
- 2 TBS chicken fat
- 2 TBS plain flour
- juices from the chicken plus stock to equal 480ml (2 cups)
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Wipe your chicken inside and out with paper towels and then place into a roasting tin.
- Soften the butter with a fork, mix in the chopped thyme leaves and season generously with salt and black pepper.
- Butter the chicken all over, inside and out, with the thyme butter. Place the lemon quarters inside the chicken cavity. Pour the wine over the chicken.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5 and continue to roast for a further 1 1/4 hours, basting it every 15 minutes or so with the pan juices. If you think the skin is browning too quickly, shield the chicken with a bit of foil. If the bottom of the roaster is drying out add a bit more wine or water.
- To test if the chicken is done, pierce the thickest part of the leg with a skewer. The juices should run clear. Remove from the oven if done and place onto a serving plate, tented lightly with foil while you make the gravy so that the chicken can rest. Resting time is important so that the juices from the chicken can be re-absorbed.
- To make the gravy, decant the juices from the baking dish to a glass measuring jug. Skim off 2 TBS of the fat and discard the rest.
- Add broth or water to the juices in the jug to the equivalent of 480ml (2 cups).
- Heat the chicken fat in a saucepan. Add the flour and cook for several minutes to cook out the floury taste. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth/pan juices. Cook whisking constantly until the mixure thickens and boils. Cook for a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
- Carve the roast chicken and serve with some of your favourite vegetables, potatoes, stuffing, etc. and of course with some of the dellicious gravy spooned over top.
We had the pleasure of a generously portioned Roast Chicken Dinner on the day and sandwiches the day after, plus I have frozen the bones to make us a delicious Chicken Soup a bit later on in the month or summer.
The recipe I am sharing with you today is not only a small batch recipe, but it is incredibly nostalgic. These are the kind of cupcakes our Grandmothers might have baked, and some of them probably did! Moist, delicious and spiced with warm baking spices!
The original recipe was published in The Farmer's Wife magazine in 1930. It turned out to be very popular, and I am not surprised!
It won tons of blue ribbons at county fairs through the United States. It had to be a blue ribbon winner to get published in the magazine. I got the recipe from a cookery book entitled The Farmer's Wife Baking Cookbook, over 300 blue ribbon recipes.
These are the kinds of recipes I love most of all! Simple, comforting . . . family friendly . . . historic. With no bells and whistles.
To be honest when something is so tasty, it doesn't need bells and whistles. I did choose to ice them with a homemade lemon buttercream and who can blame me for dressing them up a tiny bit with some cupcake sprinkles.
Cupcakes were made for sprinkles, don't you think?
I loved having a cupcake when I was a child. A cupcake is like having a "party" for one. A tiny moist cake . . . all of it just for you!
These are fabulously flavoured with warm baking spices . . . cinnamon and nutmeg . . . actually the original recipe called for mace, but I didn't have any. If you do have some, feel free to substitute mace for the nutmeg.
Sweetened with molasses and brown sugar . . . which lend a depth of moistness to the cake and a wholesome sweetness . . . both go very well with warm baking spices.
I was tempted to add sultanas, but decided not to mess with the integrity of the cupcake the first time I baked them. It was enough that I was cutting the recipe in half.
The lemon frosting was one I concocted in my head. I've always done that. Made frosting up as I go along . . .
Its simply a couple tablespoons of room temperature butter, beaten together with 1 heaped cup of sifted icing sugar, a few drops of lemon extract and a TBS or so of cream or milk.
Just enough to give you a nice fluffy consistency.
If you like your cakes with an old fashioned flavour and flair, then this is the recipe for you!
Plantation Cupcakes
Yield: 6
prep time: cook time: total time:
An old, old recipe which was first published in the Farmer's Wife Magazine in 1930. The original recipe made a dozen. I downsized to six.
Ingredients:
- 55g white vegetable shortening (1/4 cup)
- 2 TBS soft light brown sugar
- 1 large free range egg
- 87g molasses (1/4 cup)
- 85g plain flour (3/4 cup)
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 60ml milk (1/4 cup)
- lemon buttercream frosting and sprinkles to finish (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*f/ gas mark 4. Line a 6 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- Cream the shortening and sugar together until light. Gradually beat in the egg until well mixed, then add the molasses.
- Sift together the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk, making two dry and one wet addition until well blended. Divide between the paper lined muffin cups.
- Bake for 20 minutes until well risen and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
- Cool completely before frosting.
If you would like to bake a full dozen cupcakes, just message me and I will be happy to send you the original full sized recipe! In the meantime, enjoy!
What is it about Amish food and cooking that intrigues us so much. I have been interested in and collected Amish recipes for most of my adult life. I love old fashioned Amish recipes.
Amish Country Casserole. Just the name makes you want to cook it. Horse and buggy food. Delicious.
When you look at it, you think to yourself . . . I'll have me some of that please!
And yet . . . there is absolutely nothing elaborate about this dish. Its just simple.
Just like the Amish, it is simple . . . country-fied . . . plain-jane cooking.
And yet . . .it is much, much more than that.
The flavours are amazing! There is nothing out of the ordinary here. No bells and whistles.
Its just pasta, ground beef, seasoning and tinned soups . . . condensed tomato and mushroom. A kitchen staple for those of us who are not cooking snobs. These things have their place.
I'm 65 years old (next month) and eating them hasn't hurt me yet. Just sayin' Not trying to be cheeky or anything.
If things like tinned soup were the end of a person, I would have been ended a long time ago. I've eaten plenty of it in my life time!
I used whole wheat fusilli . . . my homage to healthier . . . and extra lean ground steak.
It just tastes better to me. I like it. This I can tolerate mixed into things. Regular ground beef is a no-go for me.
Go to your butcher and ask for ground steak, and he will grind it right there in front of you. You know it came from only one animal . . . not a bazillion.
Provenance is everything, and chances are its even organic. At least it is at my butchers. We never eat supermarket meat anymore if we can help it.
I did tweak it a bit, using seasoned pepper rather than plain pepper. I make my own, from scratch. It lasts a long time if you store it in a jar and keep it in a dark place.
You can find that recipe here. Its really good. Its like seasoning salt, but it's not salt, its pepper.
I did take liberties and threw a handful of cheese on top before baking this. I thought the cheese might soften the blow from my husband having to eat pasta.
He did not grumble, and actually said to me . . .
For pasta, this tastes really good! Consider that a HUGE compliment. He even went back for more.
High praise indeed.
I served it simply with some sweet chili pickled beetroot and a salad . . .
The extra soup that I did not need for the recipe, (No smaller cans here in the UK) I scooped it into a small plastic container and froze it for use another time.
It will not go to waste. Oh, and I added some garlic to the beef when I was browning it. I like garlic, and find that it goes well in most savoury dishes . . . and especially with beef and pasta . . .
So the Amish . . . horse and buggy people. All respect to them and to the Mennonites. They work really hard and live simple lives.
Simple food is what they do best. I havve never eaten an Amish meal that I did not love.
Including this one. I guarantee you will love it too . . . seriously.
I downsized the recipe for just us, but you can easily double it to feed more. Its very popular a pot-lucks and covered-dish suppers!
Amish Country Casserole (smaller batch)
Yield: Serves 4
prep time: 10 Mcook time: 35 Mtotal time: 45 M
Cheap and cheerful for the smaller family. Those Amish sure know how to cook. Simple ingredients done incredibly well with no bells and whistles.
Ingredients:
- 250g pasta twists (8 ounces) (I used whole wheat fusilli)
- 1/2 TBS oil
- 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 375g extra lean ground steak (3/4 pound)
- 1/2 can of condensed tomato soup
- 1/2 can condensed mushroom soup (Pop the soup you don't use into a plastic container and freeze for another time. Nothing will be wasted.)
- 120ml whole milk (1/2 cup)
- 1/2 tsp seasoned pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp paprika and 1/4 tsp parsley to sprinkle on top
- a handful of your favourite cheese, grated to sprinkle on top (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 7 by 11 casserole dish. Set aside.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Cook the pasta in the water, according to package directions. Drain well, rinse and drain again.
- Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the onion and cook, without colouring, until softened. Crumble in the ground beef, and scramble fry until golden. Add the garlic and cook a further couple minutes. Season with the seasoned pepper and salt. Stir in both soups and the milk. Add the cooked pasta, combine all well together. Spoon into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle with the paprika and parsley. Scatter some cheese over top, if using.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until heated through. Serve hot.
What is your favourite Amish/Mennonite meal/recipe? I really want to know! This is excellent, but I do have a certain fondness for the Oven Fried Chicken in Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams . . . loaded with calories, but for a once in a bluemoon treat, it can't be beat!
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