Grilled Glazed Pork Chops

Pork is a great meat. Period. There are so many parts of the pig that I respect and enjoy thoroughly - belly, ribs, chops, shanks, NOM. Pork chops are always very reasonably priced at the grocery store compared to other meats, and they are delicious! They are easy to cook, quick on the grill, absorb flavor like a champ and are very versatile.

Tonight I am making my Restaurant Redo of The Jackson Salad and knowing my husband, he likes meat w/ dinner. So instead of doing just an entree salad, I chose to make these pork chops to accompany. This is a trusted recipe for quick weeknight dinners - it will never let you down. I make the marinade, let marinate overnight, and we grill them when we get home from work. These are sweet and a bit tangy - just the perfect balance!

And here's how...

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tsp dried ground oregano
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1.5 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp black pepper

DIRECTIONS: 

1. In a mason jar or a bowl with tight fitting lid, combine all ingredients.
2. Shake well.
3. Place pork chops into bowl or shallow pan just large enough to hold the meat. Pour over marinade, cover and let sit for at least 2 hours, no longer than 24. I let mine rest for about 20 hours.
4. Remove pork from marinade and place on plate - heat up the grill, but do not grill yet. 
5. Place remaining marinade into small saucepan and bring to boil for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. 
• This sauce will now be used for basting the chops while on the grill - but we must boil it first since it was in contact with raw meat. It was contaminated so we boiled out all the bad bacteria.
6. Turn off heat and let sauce rest.
7. Place porkchops on grill and if you want those awesome cross-hatch grill marks, check out this video by Weber. Very cool and helpful. 
8. As you cook each side of the meat, baste lightly with the sauce that has been boiled. There is sugar in the sauce so be sure not to use too much or it will caramelize and burn. 
9. Pork should be at 145 degrees for medium rare. We usually cook ours until it registers 150 and let rest for a few minutes. 
10. EAT! 

Ingredients

Step 1 - making marinade

Step 3 - marinate the pork chops

Step 4: Remove chops from marinade

Step 5: Boiling the marinade

FINAL PRODUCT

Pork with The Jackson Salad (Restaurant Redo post)

Restaurant Redo: Gram & Dun, The Jackson Salad

Gram & Dun - main dining room

In these 'Restaurant Redo' posts, I highlight the variety of plates I've eaten at the restaurant, give a quick opinion of the place, and choose a few dishes to attempt to recreate. Lets do this.

 Gram & Dun is a KC Gastropub that is always at the top of my list of 'go to' restaurants. Its never let me down and is the perfect atmosphere. Not too fancy and not too casual. Its great for all occasions. Dinner w/ friends, girls night out, dinner for two, lunch, work colleagues, cocktails & apps - you name it. It is reasonably priced, great location in the Country Club Plaza, beautifully decorated, modern, always bustling, and most importantly have a delicious menu filled with flavor-packed items, yummy cocktails and a solid wine list. In these 'Restaurant Redo' posts, I  choose a few dishes to attempt to recreate, and show some free food porn from my visit(s).

In addition to enjoying a night out eating fabulous food, I find inspiration for dishes to try at home. My process: I scour Google to find the plate components, then research techniques and/or recipes that seem close to what I tasted and then I get to work. I seldom get it 100% right on the first try, but after I while, I always figure it out.

My standard uniform & placement when researching foodstuffs online

The first Gram & Dun recreation I attempted was a salad. Not too intimidating, not too much 'cooking' which sound easy, but this mix of flavors won't be easy to replicate. But I shall triumph and I have faith - pretty much because with quality ingredients, it will be delicious either way. The Jackson Salad has grilled romaine, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, bacon, blue cheese and apple-cider mustard vinaigrette. Why grill romaine? WELL WHY NOT? Just kidding - because its different, it adds a smoky flavor and changes the flavors of the salad just enough to make it really interesting but subtle. If you aren't in the mood for that, just use 'raw' romaine.

Gram & Dun - Jackson Salad

The recipe isn't 100% as we had at the restaurant, but it was super close and was so delicious I didn't care. This recipe will feed 5 with a nice large side salad or 3 persons as a dinner salad. Trim back the recipe according to what works for you. If you want to save some for leftovers, only dress what you plan to use so the dressing doesn't make the lettuce soggy. Reserve dressing on the side and just make another salad the next day.

The salad could be a main meal, but I served it as a side salad with my grilled glazed pork chops. Here's my restaurant redo:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 heads of romain lettuce 
• 4 strips thick cut bacon
• 1 14oz can or jar quartered artichoke hearts 
• 1 14 oz can or jar of hearts of palm 
• 1 cup blue cheese crumbles
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
• 1 tbsp your choice of herbs (I used herbs de provence, but thyme and rosemary also work well)
• 1/4 cup deli style mustard
• 4 tbsp apple-cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp shallots
• 3 tbsp honey
• 3/4 cup EVOO 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Apple cider mustard salad dressing (make first or make ahead of time):

1. Place mustard, vinegar, shallots, honey, almost all of the EVOO (set 1 tbsp aside for grilling the lettuce), salt & pepper in a mason jar, or bowl with a tight fitting lid and shake shake shake until emulsified. 
• This basically means mixing two liquids that wouldn't normally mix easily together: like oil and water. Mayo and hollandaise are examples. 
• Will need to shake well right before drizzling onto salad

Creating the salad:

1. Trim the tops of the romain hearts
2. Mix 1 tbsp EVOO and your choice of herbs
3. Brush a light layer of EVOO/thyme mixture onto the outside leaves of both heads of lettuce
4. Slice bacon slices into small strips and cook until crispy
5. When bacon is cooked, remove from grease and set on paper towel to dry and crisp up a bit more
6. Remove the artichoke hearts from the jar or can. Strain off any liquid. Set aside.
7. Remove the hearts of palm from the jar or can. Strain off any liquid - chop smaller if needed. Should be sliced or chopped into 1/2 inch pieces or 1/2 thick rings. Your choice! Set aside. 
8. Heat grill to medium-high heat
9. Place romain lettuce onto grill and turn about every 1-2 minutes until slightly charred on the outside, SLIGHTLY charred. See pics below.
10. Continue to rotate the lettuce until all sides are charred, some wilting of the leaves will occur. The goal here is to impart grilled flavor into the lettuce. 
11. Once off the grill, chop off the bottom 2 inches of the romain lettuce (the head)
12. Pull off the more charred and wilted pieces of lettuce and discard. The super wilted soggy layers won't taste good so just let them go. 
13. Pull apart the leaves of lettuce. 
14. Combine the firm charred pieces of exterior lettuce AND firm interior pieces and lay them on a platter or large plate.
15. In rows, perpendicular to the length of the lettuce - lay down rows of bacon, then blue cheese, then hearts of palm, then artichoke hearts.
16. Top with chopped chives. 
17. Shake dressing one last time and drizzle on top. Remember some leaves already have oil so don't put too much on - overdressing is the worst!
18. Time to eat! Take a few long pieces of lettuce and with it will come the 4 main toppings so you get a bit of everything. :) 

Step 2: Mix EVOO and your choice of herbs

Step 3: Brushing light layer of olive oil/herbs onto outside of lettuce

Steps 6 & 7: Prepping main salad toppings

Steps 9 & 10: Romaine lettuce just pulled from the grill

Step 11: chopping off heads of romaine

Step 14: Mixing charred lettuce and interior/firm lettuce

Step 15: Top the salad

Step 15: Top the salad

Step 17: Drizzling salad dressing

FINAL PRODUCT

Jackson salad w/ Glazed Grilled pork chops - see recipe here

_________________________________________________________________________________

And as promised, here is that yummy Gram & Dun food porn that will definitely have you making reservations the next time you go out in KC. www.gramanddun.com 

Brunch

Deep fried bacon - yes, that is correct

Hangar Steak Eggs Benedict w/ Black Kale

Fried eggs over fries with chorizo, salsa verde, and cotija cheese

Joey Dogs: Sausage, pancake batter, maple mustard

Dinner

Short rib grilled cheese w/ fries and scratch-made ketchup

Short rib beef stroganoff

Scallops, collard greens & roasted blackened cauliflower

Ahi tuna salad, candied ginger, wonton & chili ginger vinaigrette

Chicken & waffles with syrup and hot sauce 

Shrimp, grits, and AVOCADO jalapeño gravy!  

Drinking Crossings Sauvignon Blanc - one of my faves!

 Dessert!

Gram & Dun Bar - AKA peanut butter nutty bar heaven! 

Cauliflower & Mushroom Cream Sauce (Cooking Class)

I posted about a gnocchi cooking class that I just attended with my husband and friends. It was hosted by Chef Alex Staab who is a local KC chef specializing in Italian cuisine. If you are interested in taking any classes from him go to Eventbrite and search for cooking classes under his name.

This is one of the sauces that was paired with the gnocchi that we hand-made that evening. This was my favorite of the two sauces first off because I love CREAM. Its not the prettiest addiction, but its real. Plus who doesn't love mushrooms?!? If you aren't a cauliflower fan, this will change your mind. Just trying roasted cauliflower on its own deleted all those horrible memories of steamed versions from my youth...and sad raw versions of cauliflower seen in the standard veggie tray brought to house parties (where we all know the cauliflower is the last sad remaining veggie on the plate). Roasted is the way to go.

The sauce is rich, creamy of course, and very earthy due to the mushrooms, and the cauliflower is a bit sweet and milky which makes every bite just heavenly.

And here's how its done...

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 oz mushrooms (we used Cremini)
• 4 oz cauliflower trimmed into small 1 inch pieces
• 3 sprigs of fresh tyme
• Parmesan cheese
• 3 tbsp of butter
• 1 cup of white wine
• Sea salt
• Olive oil
• Truffle oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Toss the cauliflower with 1 tbsp of olive oil and roast in 350 degree oven until charred in spots, not burnt. Pull from oven and set aside. 
2. In a large saute pan over medium heat melt the butter and add the thyme sprigs
3. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
4. Once butter starts to turn slightly brown, add the cauliflower and mushrooms and season w/ salt & pepper again. 
5. Remove thyme sprigs with tongs and throw away.
6. Cook over medium heat with mushrooms and cauliflower for about 3 minutes. Then deglaze the pan with white wine.
• Deglazing is a big fancy word that means "pouring cold liquid into a hot pan to get the bits of burnt food off the bottom of the pan".
7. Once the wine has reduced, and you can't smell the alcohol anymore (about 3-5 minutes) add the cream and cook until it boils. 
8. Drizzle with truffle oil and stir
9. Reduce heat to low and grate in the Parmesean cheese
10. Toss in the pasta and serve hot
11. Drizzle with a bit more truffle oil

Before we get started, taking a wine pic!

Step 1: Roasting cauliflower

Mushrooms & Truffle Oil

Step 2 - melting butter, before thyme was added

Step 7: adding cream to mushroom/cauliflower mix

Step 7: adding cream to mushroom/cauliflower mix

FINAL PRODUCT!

Sage Brown Butter Sauce w/ Walnuts (Cooking Class)

I learned this recipe by attending a gnocchi cooking class hosted by Chef Alex Staab, which is a separate entry on the blog. If you are interested in taking any classes in the KC area, visit Eventbrite and search under his name.

This brown butter sauce is unreal. Breaking down this complicated terminology (insert sarcasm here) a 'brown butter sauce' is where you allow the butter to brown to bring out its nutty rich flavor in a different way than it tastes raw. Sage, walnuts and Parmesan cheese are added to the family to complete this rich and savory sauce. Its so delicate, but delicious and goes perfectly with gnocchi and any other pasta you may want to toss in. I just wanted to keep dipping my spoon in it when we were allowed a taste.

Its a much easier task than it sounds, just be sure you pay close attention to the heat and the sauce so it doesn't burn. If so it will turn quickly to a bitter mess. No fun.

Here we go...

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 tbsp of butter
• 20 fresh sage leaves 
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• Parmesan cheese
• Pasta water (this is water reserved after pasta has been cooked in it)
• Sea salt
• Ground pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large saute pan heat the walnuts until you smell the nutty aroma.
2. Add butter to the pan and be sure to keep the butter moving around the pan or it will burn
3. While the butter is melting add 15 of the sage leaves along with a pinch of salt & pepper
4. Once the butter is brown, a light brown color, not dark brown add 4-6oz of pasta water to keep the butter from browning too much
5. Grate the Parmesan cheese into the sauce and taste to see if S or P is needed
6. Add the pasta or gnocchi to the pan and toss to combine
7. Plate the pasta and garnish with more cheese and remaining sage leaves

Step 1: Toasting walnuts in large pan

Separating sage leaves from the stems

Step 2 & 3- Adding butter to pan, then adding sage

Step 4: Butter beginning to brown - next add pasta water

Step 6- Adding gnocchi to pan

Rebecca likes cheese, so she took over the garnishing of the gnocchi

FINAL PRODUCT!