Pork chops revisited

This time with roasted garlic polenta! Now it's a complete meal.

Butterfly chicken

The only recipes I like to follow precisely are by Alton Brown. He's someone who actually tweaks his recipes scientifically. This is Alton's butterflied chicken.



Kosher chickens are pre-brined so they are flavorful and juicy. Plus, if you live in a Jew-less place like I do, kosher meat goes on sale often because they can't sell this stuff! $0.99/lb for kosher meat is a steal.



I guess the only different thing about roasting a chicken in this fashion is the butterflying. You basically yank out the keel bone by dividing the breast meat and dislocating the clavicles. Alton calls for broiling, but I wanted my veggies to soften up properly and I didn't want to babysit it. This took about an hour at 400 degrees.



Those dark spots under the skin are peppercorns. Alton wanted me to make a garlic lemon pepper paste, but I didn't have a mortar and pestle, so it's super rough. Next time I would just use ground pepper.

Big and open (faced)

I like making lunch at home. Usually I'm at the hospital for lunch, but it's nice to think about what I'm going to eat rather than just open up my lunch bag or settle on whatever is at the cafeteria.

I wanted to eat these amazing little Trader Joes smoked herring that I've fallen in love with. I put it on some toast, cream cheese, beefsteak tomatoes, greens and topped it with capers. Turns out this makes for a gigantic mountain of a sandwich that required some clean up with a knife and fork.

Pork chops and caramelized onions

I love pork chops, but they are REALLY easy to overcook, and then only applesauce can save them. This is an easy dinner, though you need the right tools to pull this off.

Caramelized onions:
Really easy if you know what you're doing. Use more onions than you think, because they cook down to nothing. Cut onion into rounds, place into non-stick pan with olive oil over low heat. The key to this is low and slow. 20-30 minutes, just keep it moist with wine when it looks dry. Salt and pepper at the end. Don't add sugar, it just gets gummy.

Pork chop (bone in, thick cut, organic preferred):
1) Brine the chop (I like a sweet/vinegary brine for pork. Try a fist full of salt, a gallon of cold water, a tablespoon of brown sugar, a splash of rice vinegar, and bunch of pepper corns - 2 hours tops)
2) Heat pan (ovenproof, cast iron if possible) over medium flame. Preheat oven to 350
3) Drain the chop. Pat dry with paper towels.
4) Oil the chop, NOT the pan (something with a high smoke point, like canola or peanut). Salt and pepper lightly
5) Sear about 3 minutes on each side, until you get a good crust. I like to add butter or oil to the pan right when the pork starts to keep it from sticking and smoking.
6) When you get a good sear, put the whole pan in the oven for about 5 minutes or until you get internal temp of around 155 near the bone.
7) Remove from oven and pan, let rest on cutting board with foil tent.

Pair with a bright red wine and some pasta or fennel salad. You have now made a dish that costs $25 at a nice restaurant for about $5!

Carrot cake

Alton Brown's carrot cake needed no extra vibration. It was good, but make sure you bake it long enough. Mine was a little too squishy in the middle. And for the love of all things sweet, please use cream cheese frosting.

Dancing Sausages

Down in Sarasota, Rich tries to make us breakfast, with an interesting revelation.

First time I've tried this, but here is a video:

Last meal in philly apartment

I left my apartment in philly for 6 weeks to study for the boards at my parents house. I had the following items in my fridge:

Hot dogs
Hamburger buns
Red bliss and mini yukon golds (with so many shoots that it looked like they were trying to escape the crisper)
1 green onion
2 normal onions
Garlic
Plain yogurt

Without further adeiu, DINNER: