Grilled Stuffed Pork chops with cranberries, goat cheese and walnuts

This is a high end restaurant quality food made just within the time you would start the car and go to the nearest food joint :)

Ingredients:

4 Boneless pork chops
Salt and black pepper
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup fresh goat cheese
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp fennel seeds, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat grill over medium heat
2. Use a sharp parking knife to cut a pocket in the side of each chop. Cut it deeper. Stretch out the pocket.
3. Season the chop all over with salt and pepper.
4. Combine the stuffing of cranberries, goat cheese, walnut and fennel seeds.
5. Stuff the mixture in the pork until full and  secure them with toothpick.
6. Grill them for 15 min each side closed.

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8 ways to better your grilling

1. You need to cook your food perfectly every time:  Everything else is just frosting over the cake. If the steaks are not properly cooked, they are not worth eating.  Although everyone has their own liking but generally for burgers and steak it should be medium - rare, a little beyond medium for pork and fishes and chicken until the pink color disappears.  Flip Burgers Once and Only Once. Cook 2 minutes per side for rare, 3 for medium-rare, 4 for medium, and 5 for well-done. Keep grill at a steady heat.

2. Apply salt strategically: One way is to cure the meat by seasoning salt overnight. Sat will slowly extract water from meat thereby concentrating its flavors. The other way is to treat the meat, especially pork and poultry with brine water. This imparts moisture and flavor to the meat. Although it is used by cold cut manufacturers and high end restaurants, you must give it a try. I bet you will be highly satisfied. (Will give the basic brine recipe in the next post).

3.  Have hotter and cooler side of the grill:  Build your charcoal fire and once the charcoal is burned, its ready for grilling. Then move all the charcoal to one side of the grill and just very few on other side. This way we can grill big meat on slow side of the grill covered. Small meat can go on the higher heat side.

4. Smoke effect: You can give the smoke effect by adding small wood-chip tray to the grill setup. Charcoal grill can take wood chips directly but electric grill can have small wood-chip box or a packet.

5. Spices give life to grilling: Have your own blend of spices to add flavor to the meat. as much possible make spice blend from scratch and not use the store bought ones, which are no match to home made ones. It can be slat, pepper, cumin powder, cayenne pepper, crushed fennel, coriander seeds, etc are some examples.

6. Home made sauces are the best: Make sweet sauce with ketchup,honey, brown sugar. Salty by soy sauce, peanut butter. sour with vinegar, lemon, orange juice and spicy with chili sauce, Dijon mustard, etc. Thick sauce is good for small pieces of meat but thin sauce can be coated to big meat pieces that are slow cooking.

7. Mopping is essential: Basting over open flame with liquid constantly is important to tenderize the meat. It can be any liquid you can imagine like beer, booze, oil, juice, etc.  I generally use Worcestershire sauce for beef, vinegar for pork and orange juice for chicken.

8. Don't waste the heat: Instead of wasting the big heating surface with just a few pork chops or sirloin, try to add skewers of mixed vegetables, fruits (grilled) for desserts, etc. It will help us save money and time too.

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Pork Chops (chinese style)

4 pork chops
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon wine
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 egg
6 tablespoons cornstarch
oil (for frying)


Method:

1. Cut pork chops into pieces. Mix together all the ingredients except cornstarch and oil and pour over pork. Allow to marinate for 30 minutes (preferably for 1 day).

2.Before frying, pour cornstarch on top of pork and stir into marinade.

3. Heat enough oil in a large skillet to cover bottom. Place pork in pan when oil begins to shimmer. Cook pork chops over med-high heat until cooked through.

4. Serve hot.

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Pinto Beans Patties with Sauce

Ingredients:
One cup of pinto beans
 red pepper 1-2
4-5 garlic clove
1/2 cup chopped green cilantro/coriander
half-inch piece ginger
2 tomatoes
2-4 cloves
2 onions
salt to taste.

Serves: 4


Method:
1. Beans to soak overnight. Boil in least amount of water that is needed, salt and mix well.
2. Drain the water and if needed dry it over the stove or gas. Roast cloves. Grind beans with cloves.
3. Put the pan on low heat and add beans. To slow heat add chopped Red pepper, onion, garlic clove, ginger, into beans  add cilantro/coriander salt and mix well. Turn off the gas.
4. Cool the  mixture and make Patties/ cutlets. Placing in the oven to bake until light brown.

To make the sauce
1 cup coriander/cilantro leaves, 2 tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 red pepper, salt, ½ inch ginger, half the garlic knots, 1 tablespoon water and grind them all.
Place the cutlets in the plate. Pour the sauce over them and serve.

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Grilled Cottage Cheese Paneer Tikka

Ingredients

350 g paneer
3/4 tbsp yellow chilli powder, (or red chilli powder)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp gram flour
1 heaped tsp carom seeds, (ajwain)
2 tbsp Yoghurt or curd
1/2 tsp garam masala


Method

1. Soak 4-6 bamboo skewers in cold water for 20 minutes.

2. Cut the paneer into 4cm cubes. Sprinkle with the chilli powder and the salt. Toss everything together and ensure the paneer is evenly coated. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

3. Combine the gramflour with the carom seeds and Yoghurt or curd. Coat each paneer cube in the spiced cream and chill for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat the grill to its hottest setting. Thread the paneer onto the skewers and sear under the grill for 3-5 minutes on each side - until deliciously smoky and charred at the edges. Serve straight away, sprinkled with garam masala.

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Momos VEG

The mouth watering dish from Tibet, goes very well with soup........

For the covering( Sevres 4):
1 cup flour
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp. vegetable oil
100 mL cold water

Sift the flour and salt.
Add oil and mix properly with your fingers.
Add water gradually and keep mixing with your fingers till you get a firm dough.
Cover with a damp muslin cloth and keep aside for half an hour.

For the filling:
2 tsp. vegetable oil
pinch of cumin seeds
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1 tsp. grated ginger or ginger juice
1 green chili, chopped finely
1 onion, chopped finely
½ cup finely chopped cabbage
1 carrot, chopped finely into tiny cubes
3 fluid oz water
salt to taste
¼ tsp. garam masala

For the salad:
½ cup fine strips of cabbage
½ cup fine strips of carrots
¼ tsp. lemon juice
Salt to taste

Mix together all of the ingredients.



Procedure :

Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.
Add the garlic, ginger, green chili and onions and stir for a minute.
Add the cabbage, carrots and potatoes and stir again.
Add some water and cook covered for about 7-8 minutes until the vegetables become soft and the water is dried up.
Add the salt and garam masala and stir well.
Remove from heat and keep aside.

Making Momos:
Divide the dough into three portions.
Take one portion and make a ball of it and flatten it on your rolling board.
Roll evenly with a rolling pin trying to get a square of about 9-inches. (If the dough sticks to the rolling board then cover both the sides with some dry flour and roll again.)
Cut this square into 9 small squares of about 3-inches.
Put approximately 1½ tsp. filling in each square.
Lift one corner of the square and join it to the opposite corner to form a triangle.
Use water to glue the sides together.
Join the three corners of the triangle and gently twist to the tip.
If the side are not stuck together, reseal them with water.
Momos can be made into different shapes like little moneybags or envelopes.
Similarly prepare all the momos.
Steam the momos for about 15 minutes until they are swollen.
Place the salad in the center of the serving dish and arrange the hot momos on the sides.
Serve with tomato chutney as a dip.

If you do not have a steamer, here is an easy way to steam the momos:
Take a big pan with a tight lid. Arrange the momos in a steel plate. Put about 2 cups water in the pan. Place a steel bowl in the pan and put the plate of momos on it. Cover the lid and steam for about 12 minutes on medium flame.

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