Maple-Dijon Mustard Pork Chops

It's the bone that makes it good.

[js]
Another quick and easy meal.

I find pork chops the ultimate fast food. I like my pork chops thinly sliced (approximately a third to a half of an inch), because there's nothing better than putting some butter in a skillet and plopping the pork chops in. Three to five minutes later, with rice and a squeeze of lemon, it's a meal.

These pork chops were thicker (an inch thick), so they take longer than three minutes. Still, the whole meal came together pretty easily.

I didn't want to stand by the stove and pan-fry so I decided to cook the chops in the oven.

I mixed together some maple syrup and dijon mustard, with salt and pepper, in a bowl, tasted the mix until it was to my liking. (You can adjust the sweetness-tartness ratio to your preference.) I slathered this onto the pork chops and coated the top with some breadcrumbs.

Into the oven at 425F -- and if I remember correctly there were done in about 20 minutes.

I had also sliced some sweet potatoes thinly and had put them in the oven while I was prepping the pork chops. I wanted to time them so I can take both the pork chops and the sweet potatoes out simultaneously.

We served these with some romaine lettuce and a lemon-thyme vinaigrette.

This was one of our first meals moving into a new house -- and a new kitchen, so that quick-and-easy factor was more than appreciated.

Macha (Japanese Green Tea) Shortbread

[ts]
As some of you may already know, JS and I aren't really bakers. When we were invited to a Holiday Cookie Exchange, we accepted without really knowing what that entailed. Of course, we were a little horrified to discover that we would have to make 6 dozen cookies each!

But, horror finally subsided and I sat about choosing my cookie. I knew I wanted something with macha (Japanese green tea), but what?

I opened our Joy of Cooking and chanced about a chocolate shortbread recipe that was even easier than its "regular" shortbread. I based this cookie on that recipe with some changes:

1) I omitted the chocolate, of course, and added macha.

2) I also substituted some of the all-purpose flour with cornstarch.

3) Finally, I sprinkled sugar on top of the dough before baking.

I had to bake 3 batches of this on three separate nights. I must say, the three batches all had different textures! Teehee. But, the recipe was quite forgiving because even with the slightly different results, each batch was still delicious. At least, they were all delicious to me.

Our cookies:
Macha (Japanese Green Tea) Shortbread
Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with Earl Grey-White Chocolate Ganache

Recipe

Macha (Japanese Green Tea) Shortbread

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
½ cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 Tbsp macha (Japanese green tea powder)
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cornstarch

Preheat oven to 300 F.

In a bowl, whip together butter and sugar with electric mixer until soft and fluffy. Add macha and mix until incorporated.

Add flour and cornstarch and mix well together. This should form a soft “dough.”

Place dough in 13x9-inch baking pan and spread out in an even layer. Sprinkle sugar on the surface as desired. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Let cool in pan and cut.


Wikipedia: macha
I don't subscribe to spelling macha with a "t".


We're submitting this to Food Blogga's Eat Christmas Cookies event.

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Check out the round-up of all the cookies!


We're submitting this to Culinarty's Original Recipes.

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The Round-ups here.

Gailan (Chinese Broccoli) with Oyster Sauce, Two Ways

[ts]
For some reason, we never used to cook gailan (Chinese broccoli) at home. I used to find them a tad bitter. But, I started thinking of them more favorably when I discovered that the "crunchy" discs that I like so much in some versions of fried rice were actually thinly-sliced gailan!

Recently, after years of never seeing gailan at home, we had some in the house. The task fell to me to cook it. Having no ideas on what to do with them, I looked to the classic way they're served in Cantonese restaurants: simply boiled with oyster sauce.

Gailan with Oyster Sauce, Way #1
I did quick research via a Martin Yan cookbook and discovered that the sauce is actually a blend of oyster sauce and sesame oil.

So, I prepped the gailan by peeling off the tough "skin" near the bottom of the stalks, much like prepping asparagus, then boiled it. It was finished with a drizzle of the oyster sauce-sesame oil mixture.


[ts]
I tasted it and guess what? They weren't bitter at all! And that sauce! I know I shouldn't be surprised seeing as I'm not a stranger to oyster sauce. I guess you can say I re-discovered it. That sauce was so good.

Not bad for a 3-ingredient dish, eh.

Gailan with Oyster Sauce, Way #2


[ts]
After that successful dish, I kept seeing gailan more and more often in the refrigerator. The next time I made it, I remembered the sasagaki cutting technique I saw in Jude's Kinpira Gobo dish.

Well, I started cutting the gailan stalks like I was sharpening a pencil, then realized halfway through that it was easier just to cut them in diagonals.

This stir-fry called for just two more additional ingredients. (Three if you count the water in the cornstarch slurry.)

I heated some oil in a pan, then added some garlic. The gailan went in next, followed by oyster sauce and some sesame oil. When the gailan was done, I simply added a little cornstarch slurry (cornstarch dissolved in cold water) to thicken the liquid in the pan.



[ts]
Stir-fry done!

Everytime gailan appears in the fridge, I am called to cook it. JS jokes that I've become a gailan stir-fry "expert."



For your holiday get-togethers, why not make Way #1? It's as simple as simple can be. You can blanch the gailan in advance until it's cooked but still "crunchy". When you finally need them, a stint in the microwave is all they need. Or, you can serve them at room temperature. They look very elegant arranged on a platter with the oyster sauce-sesame oil mixture spooned over them. You can't beat the simplicity of three ingredients!

Wikipedia: Gailan

eatingclub Hong Kong/Cantonese
Chicken Chow Mein
Cantonese Braised Beef Brisket, Two Ways
Lobster Congee from a Lobster Feast
Chinese Roast Pork Belly
Gailan (Chinese Broccoli) with Oyster Sauce, Two Ways
Chinese Pork Bone Soup with Carrots and Water Chestnuts
Hong Kong-style Curry Cuttlefish
Dimsum Seafood Trio: Black Pearl Prawn Toast, Scallop in Nest, Jewelled Rice Cup
Hong Kong-style Singapore Noodles (星洲炒米)
Hong Kong-style Stir-fried Water Spinach with Shrimp Paste (蝦醬通菜)
Hong Kong-style Stir-fried Rice Noodle with Beef (乾炒牛河)
Sweet and Sour Pork
Hong Kong-style Curry Beef Brisket (咖喱牛腩), 1st Attempt


We're submitting this post to Weekend Herb Blogging, a world-wide food blogging event (created by Kalyn's Kitchen, now maintained by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once) with the goal of helping each other learn about cooking with herbs and plant ingredients.

If you'd like to participate, see who's hosting next week. WHB is hosted this week by Haalo herself!