Recipe
modified by Gretchen Wilson – January 27, 2011
For a
commentary-free and printer-friendly version of it, please click here.
Click
here for the commentary free & printer friendly version of Caramelized Onion & Horseradish Smashed Potatoes only.
Smoky
Pan-Grilled Pork Chops recipe originally published
in Cooking Light, January/February 2011.
Caramelized
Onion & Horseradish Smashed Potatoes recipe originally published
by allRecipes on Saturday, October 25, 2008.
Simple sauces and spice rubs are an easy way to dress up chicken, beef
or pork. Very similar to yesterday’s
post, chicken cutlets in a creamy Dijon sauce, the pork in today’s post is dressed
up with a spice rub and then grilled on the stovetop.
My Pork Chops:
|
Pork Chops by Cooking Light:
|
Not bad, right? So I’m sure you noticed that Cooking Light
had some side-suggestions for their pork chops.
I decided I needed to find something similar to make a complete
meal. But what dish to make?
When I read my magazines, I type all
the recipes I want to try into a spreadsheet.
Then I verify I can find them all on-line at a later date. That way, I don’t have piles of magazines lying
around my house – which I do anyway because I can never keep up, but that’s a
story for another blog.
Anyway…
If I see a recipe that is
something similar to what I already have (and not a slimmed down version or
something special) I’ll pass it up. I’m
not sure why I didn’t write down what this side was, but I’m going to guess it
was probably that reason. I have close
to a hundred potato recipes.
Now, I enjoy Cooking Light, but
one of my pet peeves is that when they pair dishes together, they don’t link
them on their website. You have to
search through recipes for that issue, which could be over a hundred, not
including the articles. So I decided to
go through my pile of potato recipes instead of trying to find which potatoes
they made. It was then I stumbled upon allRecipes
version of Caramelized Onion & Horseradish Smashed Potatoes.
My Potatoes:
|
Potatoes by allRecipes:
|
Little did I know, Cooking Light
had selected a similar recipe to pair with their pork chop as well. Of course, I only knew this because I was
going through the comments looking for tips on keeping my pork chops juicy. NOT because they made it easy to find that information. I guess great minds think alike.
And by the way, my picture has
been uploaded to allRecipes as well. Yay
me! When all the cooking was finished,
this is what I ended up with…
My finished product:
|
Picture published with recipe:
|
Pretty nice, right? I decided to make the purchase of a grill pan
since I wanted it to look pretty as well as taste good. Of course, the pan affects the cook time too,
but I’m getting ahead of myself. My
husband doesn’t like broccoli, so I decided to pass on this side dish, but we
did enjoy a salad with it.
Assessment:
for more details about what my
ratings mean, go to Gretchen’s Rating System
Mess: EH –
You use very little equipment and there isn’t much prep work to do. However, cooking potatoes always is a starchy
mess and mashing has the potential for mega-mess.
Start-to-Finish Time: OVER AN HOUR – The potatoes are going to take
the bulk of the cook time. While things
are simmering and caramelizing, you can prep the spice rub and get everything
ready to cook the pork chops.
Prep Work: SLIGHT
BLOOD LOSS – If you’ve read this blog before, you know my dislike of
peeling vegetables, but in reality there’s only 6 of them and then you have to
slice (not even chop) some onions.
Ease of Recipe: COOK IT IN MY SLEEP – Although cooking meat can
be a little difficult to do on the stovetop without drying it out, the grill
pan made it really easy. Caramelizing
the onions involves cooking them for a long period of time and mashed potatoes
are pretty straight forward.
Overall: YUMMY –
I know if I need to make a quick meal, one stop at the grocery store for
potatoes and pork chops is all I need to make a delicious meal that yields
great leftovers too!
Recipe Information:
Time estimates are from
the original publisher of the recipe, not the length of time it took me to
create it. Look for my comments
below. Nutritional Information is based
on original recipe. Any changes I make
to reduce the caloric, fat, cholesterol or sodium content are not reflected in
the Nutritional Information.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Servings: 4 (chops) / 8
(potatoes)
Nutritional
Information (pork chop)
Calories 224
Total Fat 11.5g
(Saturated Fat 4.1g)
Cholesterol
70mg
Calcium
47mg
Sodium 201mg
Total
Carbohydrate 4.3g
Fiber .3g
Protein 24.8g
Iron 1.9mg
|
Nutritional
Information (potatoes)
Calories 385
Total Fat 13.1g
Cholesterol
36mg
Sodium 242mg
Total
Carbohydrate 61.2g
Fiber 8.9g
Protein 7.8g
|
Cooking Light didn’t give any cooking
times, so I added the cook time of the chops to the potatoes to get the
number. I’d say it will probably take
you longer than that since it took 30 minutes alone to get the water to
boil. I think they “forget” to take
things like getting 8 quarts of water to boil into account.
Since you are cooking four pork
chops, you’ve got 4 servings. According
to the recipe, you’ll get about 8 servings out of the potatoes. I’d say that’s a pretty good estimate
too. We ate the pork chops AND some
chicken cutlets with the potatoes and we didn’t have to scrounge.
The pork chops are a healthy
meal. The potatoes… not so much. Don’t worry though. You can cut down the serving size of the
potatoes if you make a vegetable and a large salad to go with the meal.
Ingredients:
Changes denoted by red text
For Potatoes:
6 large baking potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
4 onions
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons prepared
horseradish, or to taste
Salt and cracked black pepper to
taste
¼ cup softened butter
¾ cup half-and-half
For Pork Chops:
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon hot smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper
4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut
pork chops
Cooking spray
Ingredient Notes:
Onion
- Select 4 onions that are in the small to medium range. If you only can find large onions, only buy 2. You don’t want to overwhelm the potatoes with too much onion
- Although you don’t need to slice the onions super-thin, don’t make them large chunks either.
White Wine Vinegar – this is going to be in the same area as
the regular vinegar. Wine vinegars are
milder than regular vinegar, so if you can’t find it, DO NOT substitute regular
vinegar. It will overpower the potatoes. You can substitute rice or cider vinegar if
you can’t find white wine.
Dijon Mustard – there are a lot of different kinds of Dijon
mustard. Make sure you select a regular
Dijon and not one with extra flavors. Flavored
Dijon can conflict with the vinegar and horseradish.
Horseradish – It is going to be in the same area as the mustard. Horseradish is ridiculously pungent. It looks light and creamy like mayonnaise,
but I guarantee you, it isn’t. You do
NOT want to lick it off your fingers.
Unless you have a stuffy nose.
Trust me. A little horseradish
will open you right up.
Half-and-Half – There are now fat free versions of
half-and-half which I may try the next time I have a recipe that calls for
it. Honestly, you could probably substitute milk for this as well.
Cumin – the original recipe called for cumin seeds, which you lightly
toast in a skillet and then grind. I
have a ton of cumin in my cabinet and I wasn’t going to spend $10 on the same
spice in a different form. I could still
take the spicy-deliciousness of the cumin without the extra work, but by all
means, if you have the cumin seeds on hand, use them!
Brown Sugar - The recipe doesn't call for the brown sugar to be packed, but
it is usually measured this way.
Therefore, I lightly packed it into my tablespoon when I measured it.
Paprika – I used regular paprika.
I got a ton of it on sale and didn’t feel like spending more money on a
spice I already stockpiled in my cabinet like I’m some kind of spice hoarder.
Center Cut Pork Chops – the center cut of pork is the leanest cut
you can get. It is also very tender. And the most expensive. Go figure.
I used a boneless loin cut that wasn’t specified as center cut and it
was delicious. Just be careful how long
you cook it.
Equipment Needed:
Cutting board
Sharp knife
Potato peeler
Large pot
Fork
Colander
Large skillet
Large spoon
Potato Masher
Small bowl
Small spoon
Grill pan
Spatula
Instant-read meat thermometer
Equipment Notes:
Grill Pan – At first I thought the grill pan was all about the pretty
markings on the meat. The more I read,
the more I realized that my using a regular pan could have been the reason I
dried out my pan-fried meat so often.
See, a regular pan is direct heat the entire time. Grill pans use small amounts of direct heat
(raised portion that give the grill pattern) and indirect heat. If a recipe specifies a grill pan and you don’t
want to buy one, you’ll need to reduce your cooking time, and you’ll definitely
want to get an instant-read meat thermometer.
Instant-Read Meat Thermometer – I had an old junky meat thermometer that I
had inherited from someone – God only knows who. I never used it and I usually had dry meat as
a result. One day I had bought an
expensive roast and decided I wasn’t going to waste my money YET AGAIN by
overcooking it. So I wandered on over to
my local discount store. They had this
great electric thermometer that allowed you to set an alarm to a specific
temperature. Best piece of equipment in
my entire kitchen and it was only $20.
If you don’t have one – GET one.
I suddenly feel like
Woody from Toy Story when he was instructing the other toys to find a moving
buddy.
Directions:
I combined two recipes, so I
blended the directions for you to get the most out of your time. Ordinarily, I tell you to prep all of your
ingredients prior to starting the cooking steps. Since we have some time issues here, we are
going to alter that game plan a little.
(1) Begin
Potatoes:
(a) Peel and cube your potatoes.
In last month’s Good
Housekeeping, one of the editors said that her life was changed when GH cooking
staff told her to get a “garbage bowl” for her counter while she peels, chops,
etc… I laughed but then ended up losing my grip one of the potatoes I was
peeling and rocketing it into the garbage.
It annoyed me enough that I decided I should absolutely give the garbage
bowl a try. I must admit, it did change
my life – well my cooking life at least.
(b) Place cubed potatoes in large pot
and cover with salted water.
(c) Bring to a boil, then
reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the potatoes can be pierced
easily with a fork, about 20 minutes.
It took approximately
30 minutes to get my potatoes to boil. Pay
attention so that you are aware when they begin and you can start your timer
for 20 minutes.
Next, get out the butter and prep the onions. Don't worry about the rest of ingredients just yet.
(2) Begin
Onions:
(a) Melt 3 tablespoons butter
in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
(b) Add the onions and cook
for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, and continue cooking, stirring
frequently, until the onions have softened, and achieved a deep brown color, 15
to 25 minutes.
If they finish before
the potatoes are done, go ahead and complete Step #4a and set them aside. If they cool off a little, that’s okay. The potatoes will heat them back up.
Prep the rest of the ingredients.
(3) Combine ground cumin, sugar, paprika,
salt, and pepper in
a small bowl; rub evenly over pork.
(4) Finish
Potatoes:
(a) Into onions, stir in
vinegar and thyme, and cook for 5 minutes more.
(b) Meanwhile, drain the
potatoes in a colander, and allow to steam for a minute.
(c) Return the potatoes to the large pot,
and use a potato masher to mix with Dijon mustard, horseradish, salt and
cracked black pepper until smooth.
(d) Mix in softened butter,
caramelized onions, and half-and-half until onions are distributed evenly.
So, the reason I
changed the recipe with returning them back to the large pot to mash was
because the serving bowl wasn’t deep enough and I squirted mashed potatoes
everywhere. You know what else it
squirted on the counter? A big clump of
horseradish.
And I thought was
potatoes.
So I shoved it in my
mouth and almost choked to death. That’s
why I gave a less-than-subtle warning in the ingredients section.
(5) Finish
Pork Chops:
(a) Heat a grill pan over
medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray.
Make sure you remove
the pan AWAY from the flame before spraying the cooking spray. The recipe doesn’t tell you that, but I will
since I’ve had a fire ball in my kitchen before from it.
(b) Add pork to pan; cook 5
minutes on first side and flip.
(c) Place the meat thermometer into one of the
thickest pork chops and cook on the other side until it reads 160°F.
It really wasn’t difficult to
make either recipe. I will admit that I
did set off the smoke detector in my kitchen, but the house is still standing,
so it’s all good. This was a great meal
with limited calories and the ability to scale it back even further. If I was going to make it again, I’d probably
try the fat-free half-and-half so scale down the caloric and fat content of the
mashed potatoes a little. Delicious and
a keeper!
No comments:
Post a Comment