Polish Hunter's Stew.

From Elise. Calls for lots of different cuts of pork and mushrooms. I don't know if I did something weird or what but I'm not a huge fan of this taste. I soaked the sauerkraut. I used turkey Polish sausage, pork loin, smoked pork rib tips, and baby bella mushrooms. I think I used OC Pale Ale. It came out sour, salty, bitter. The whole taste is not entirely offensive, but it's not entirely enjoyable either. I am loath to throw it out thought since it has so much meat in it. Apparently, I didn't take a picture of it because it was so terrible. It gave me a lot of gas.

Grits and Ribs.

B-in-law had this when we went to the Goose Island brewpub. It was pretty great so I decided to give it a shot. I used plain pork ribs but boneless country ribs would have been best. I used Hank's BBQ sauce from Elise which is simple enough to commit to memory. Halves of tomato sauce, lemon juice and cider vinegar, thirds of dark molasses and Worcestershire, quarters of butter and oil with grated onion and a pepper. some brown sugar and salt. And a whole cup of bourbon or Tennessee whiskey. I used Knob Creek (and it was sad to see so much go into the unknown) since I didn't have enough George Dickel that I cared to spare. It is a pretty tangy sauce with the right amount of sweetness.

I had to do the ribs in the oven, also via Elise. 250F for 90 minutes, then saucing every 30 minutes or so. Mine took about 3 hours total and I think that was a touch too long. The ribs I had were not as fatty as a stack of boneless country ribs.

The grits were just Quaker quick grits that are way past their expiry, but everything turned out pretty tasty.

Pulled Pork.

Used a dry rub from here, and let it sit in my refrigerator for two days. Shit was AWESOME. 1:1:1:1:2:2:2:2:4 (in TBS, black pepper, oregano, sugar, white pepper, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, paprika) plus a teaspoon or two of cayenne.

The sauce was from Elise. I used a can of Barq's root beer instead of Dr. Pepper. Somehow, I think the Dr. Pepper would have been better. The sauce was good but had something off about it. Maybe too tomato-y.

Pork Ricotta Meatballs.

From Elise. Forgot picture. But still good.

The ones I defrosted came out a bit dry and gave me gas.

Pork Ribs and Sauerkraut.

Sourced from Elise. I used boneless country ribs instead of spareribs. The canned sauerkraut didn't carry the same punch I was hoping for even though I included the entire contents. Maybe I used too much water. Instead of white wine, I used half a bottle of Ephemere which was a good move.

Need to get some caraway seeds and try this.

Kimchi Chigae.

Kinda surprised I haven't gotten around the making this before. Or maybe I did? I don't remember. But it was delicious. Could have used a bit of gochujang and green onions would have been good but I didn't have any. I also used pork shoulder instead of pork belly since I don't know where to get pork belly, but the shoulder had some good marbling that worked out well. I need to make Korean food more often.

Stuffed Cabbage.

Sourced from Elise. Awesome and turned out pretty well. Could have used a bit more paprika and garlic and a stronger tomato base. I'd like to try it with some crushed red pepper.

Pulled Pork.

Sourced from Elise. I ran it through the crockpot rather than the stovetop and skipped a simmering, which definitely made a difference for the worse. The sauce turned out pretty good.

Pork Burgers.

Sourced from Elise. Basically flattened Swedish meatballs. AWESOME. The bread I was intending to use went moldy so I had to treat them more like schnitzel. They would probably be awesome with some sort of creme sauce.

Sweet and Sour Pork.

Sourced from Jaden via Elise (hot). I subbed pork instead of chicken. I nixed the ketchup so it didn't have that characteristic red tint, and I ended up needing more salt than I thought. The critical components that I wasn't aware of beforehand (all of them) was that the pork gets tossed in a egg+cornstarch mix. I guess the cornstarch helps thicken up the sauce later. The sauce was equal parts pineapple juice and vinegar though I used a lot more than was prescribed and ended up needing to add cornstarch later. Using green peppers instead of orange and red looked bad.

Potato Pancakes and Zucchini.

I used a leftover boiled potato to make these potato pancakes which turned out better than the latkes I had tried before. For the batter, I just used milk, flour, an egg, and some salt and pepper. Turned out awesome.

The sausage is from Butcher Wagon, which I bought because it was cheaper than the Jimmy Dean one. What's nice about it is that it only uses pork, corn syrup, water, "flavorings", and dextrose. It said specifically "flavorings" and not spices, but I hope that just means spices. I don't recall what Jimmy Dean has in it, but I'm willing to bet it's more than those five ingredients. (Looked it up. Basically the same stuff with the addition of MSG. Which I don't think you can roll into the heading of "flavorings".) In any case, Butcher Wagon tastes better.

The giant zucchini slices are from this guy, an 8-ball zucchini:

Spicy Pork Stirfry.

I still have issues with stirfrying and cooking both meat and vegetables with a reduced sauce. But most of the potato slices cooked through just fine. I forgot to add salt and it could have used more gochujang and a little sugar. I'll give it another go sometime soon probably.

Schnitzel and Onion Potato Gratin.

Both sourced from Elise. The schnitzel is pretty straightforward with a sauce made from deglazing and stirring in sour creme. The gratin, also straightforward, though I skimped a bit on the heavy creme. And gruyere. And parmesan. Those were bad ideas.

Doenjang Chigae.

Woo, Korean food! I don't normally like silken tofu, but it's the only kind that goes well in soups. Potatoes, onion, zucchini boiled in just enough water, then bean paste, sliced pork with garlic, tofu, green onions. Red pepper is good if you have which I didn't.

Pork empanadas.

I couldn't decide which picture sucked less. They both have their minute pros. This dough, courtesy of Elise, is crazy. 1:1:3 of creme cheese, butter, and flour. The pork was some leftover from some braising and marinated in some of leftover salsa I was trying to get rid of.

The egg wash just before baking helped give it that glossy, buttery finish, as if it needed to look more buttery. The pastry ended up varied, depending on the thickness of how I rolled the dough. But 18 minutes at 375 does it about right.

I also fiddled with the pork a bit. I rarely add salt to things, so I ended up adding a bit of salt and pepper to the marinated pork to end a bit more punch. That went into the second batch, blended with some cheese.

I was out of sour cream, so I used Greek yogurt and jalapeños instead; it worked quite well.

Addendum: These freeze well.

Pork Quesadillas. Mini.

I had some braised pork defrosting in the fridge for enchiladas this week, and I got a little hungry. Yet another win for corn tortillas over flour tortillas. These are the taco sized ones that you would get at a restaurant (basically normal-sized ones). I bought a big bag (96 count, I think) awhile ago because I like to buy in large sizes and bulk and I thought it would help in portion control better than the giant burrito sized flour tortillas (I used to use two of those compared to usually just three of the corn variety.). They also taste better and are sturdier.

As you can see, I also finally got around to cleaning and re-seasoning my cast iron since I had some carnitas when I first braised this pork. Interestingly, I think the last time I used the skillet was for carnitas as well. Those few months of burnt, greasy food must have helped the seasoning along since it's better than I remember.

A little bit of shredded cheese and shredded pork, done.

The quesadillas are out of focus in this, but it makes the jalapeños look delicious.

Stuffed porkchops.

Simple stuff from break at home. Thick center cut chops. Scallions and crumbled bacon make a big part of it. The original recipe called for bleu cheese though I used creme cheese in this instance due to people's tastes. I think it's better with bleu cheese. Stuffed and pan fried (in the bacon fat for best results) for a few minutes on each side and then baked until done.

My sister made the hashbrown casserole and steamed broccoli. Mom made the oranges and apple rabbits this time.

Enchiladas, round 2.

If it looks disgusting, it probably tastes delicious. I have yet to try a Garbage Plate, a local specialty.

Minor alterations from last time but way better. I laid down a layer of enchilada sauce (El Pato) before putting anything in the pan. Same procedure as last time, but used taco beef for half, carnitas for the other half. Threw in a spot for refried beans.

It turned out marvelously. So one way of preparing enchiladas is to pan-heat and dip each tortilla in the sauce beforehand. This gives a pretty close effect, I think. I also sprinkled just the right amount of cheese inside of each enchilada. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.

They also make fanastic leftovers.

Naked Porkchop and Black Beans.

Just a pan fried pork chop with some onions. I wanted to use up some leftover black beans so I did that with some sour cream and salsa for the chop. This cut was massive, by the way, and gave me a headache.

Carnitas. And a messed up layout.

I have Michelle to thank for introducing me to carnitas at Casa Montez. Still the best I've had and one of the best Mexican dishes I've had. The nice thing about this is that pork shoulder is bought in large quantities so lots of cooked and uncooked leftovers which is nice. I bought the smallest one at the store: 5lbs. I ended up using about 2 for this. Oh, and I got the motivation for this from the Simply Recipes version.Braise the pork in water and beef broth. Instead of salsa (which was in short supply at the time), I ended up using a packet of taco seasoning which explains the greasy orange color. Braise for about a million years (about 3 hours). The meat should pull apart easily.

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I grilled some onions and green peppers, fajita style, before throwing in some pork to caramelize. I added a bit of the broth from the braising process to keep the pork from sticking to the pan too much and to give the vegetables some seasoning.

You'll need a massive tortilla for this. (By the way, eating two of these will hurt you.) Add whatever you want, basically. I used shredded cheese, avocado, sour cream, and fresh salsa. The pork keeps fairly well in tupperware and a bit of the broth. I ended up using the leftovers for nachos and pitas.