adventures in cooking
Jun. 22nd, 2006 20:53![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
piranhaso, i am not a cook. i mean, i can cook foods that i find tasty, but while i am an enthusiast when it comes to eating, i am not one when it comes to cooking. so i mostly stay away from foodie newsgroups and communities because food porn just makes me hungry. :) when somebody on my flist posts a recipe, i might memorify it if it's for baked goods, and i'll ooh and aah over any pretty pictures, but that's pretty much it.
last week somebody (i think pat? or kathy -- had to be one of the two, since they're the most into non-veggie food.) posted a recipe for brining pork. i had vaguely heard of brining, enough to know what distinguishes it from marinating, but i didn't really know much about it; it wasn't taught in my home ec class nor did my family know of it, and that's pretty much whence my knowledge of cooking hails; very provincial. usually i skip right past food posts, but since i had some cheap pork chops in the fridge which are kinda tough when simply pan-fried, this post caught my attention and i went a-hunting for more information on brining.
am i ever glad i did. we just had the best pork chops ever.
of course i didn't follow any recipe i found -- it's not because i feel myself above it (as i said, i am no cook), but because my forays into experimental cooking usually happen outside of normal shopping hours, and i have to make do with what i have in the house.
this is what i cobbled together:
4 cups water
1/8 cup table salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
5 fat cloves garlic, crushed [*]
2 T peppercorns, freshly cracked
3 T fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tsp onion powder (approx -- i just emptied the old stuff left in the container)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (same as the onion powder -- must remember to buy new)
1 tsp ginger, ground
[*] edited to add that i like unusually large amounts of garlic. this did not turn out super-garlicky for me, but somebody who's not as much of a fan might want to use less.
i heated it all up to draw the good stuff out of the spices and herbs and into solution, then let it cool down while we went to get the door.
when i got back, i poured the mix into a bowl and layered the chops i had (6 big ones) into it. covered, and let sit in the fridge overnight. this morning i took them out of the brine, tossed the brine, and put the chops back in the fridge. tonight i pan-fried two of them, without any further spicing.
OMG. divine. savoury-sweet flavour through and through and ever so juicy.
we shall be doing this sort of thing a lot. and, being as the paramour isn't too fond of chicken breasts, complaining that it's their dryness that deters zir, i shall do it to them as well.
last week somebody (i think pat? or kathy -- had to be one of the two, since they're the most into non-veggie food.) posted a recipe for brining pork. i had vaguely heard of brining, enough to know what distinguishes it from marinating, but i didn't really know much about it; it wasn't taught in my home ec class nor did my family know of it, and that's pretty much whence my knowledge of cooking hails; very provincial. usually i skip right past food posts, but since i had some cheap pork chops in the fridge which are kinda tough when simply pan-fried, this post caught my attention and i went a-hunting for more information on brining.
am i ever glad i did. we just had the best pork chops ever.
of course i didn't follow any recipe i found -- it's not because i feel myself above it (as i said, i am no cook), but because my forays into experimental cooking usually happen outside of normal shopping hours, and i have to make do with what i have in the house.
this is what i cobbled together:
4 cups water
1/8 cup table salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
5 fat cloves garlic, crushed [*]
2 T peppercorns, freshly cracked
3 T fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tsp onion powder (approx -- i just emptied the old stuff left in the container)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (same as the onion powder -- must remember to buy new)
1 tsp ginger, ground
[*] edited to add that i like unusually large amounts of garlic. this did not turn out super-garlicky for me, but somebody who's not as much of a fan might want to use less.
i heated it all up to draw the good stuff out of the spices and herbs and into solution, then let it cool down while we went to get the door.
when i got back, i poured the mix into a bowl and layered the chops i had (6 big ones) into it. covered, and let sit in the fridge overnight. this morning i took them out of the brine, tossed the brine, and put the chops back in the fridge. tonight i pan-fried two of them, without any further spicing.
OMG. divine. savoury-sweet flavour through and through and ever so juicy.
we shall be doing this sort of thing a lot. and, being as the paramour isn't too fond of chicken breasts, complaining that it's their dryness that deters zir, i shall do it to them as well.
