Mango Barbecue Sauce

I sure wish we had a grill. Our place in Colorado had one and I think I used it 90% of our time up there, weather permitting. I really enjoy grilling in the summer, especially barbecue. I really like to make my own sauce, even though C likes to make fun of it, he much prefers barbecue sauce from a bottle. If you have a grill, this sauce would be amazing on grilled chicken. Maybe one day we will get a grill here in Houston, but the idea of running food up two flights of stairs is quite daunting. This sauce has a nice sweetness from the mango and I really love the addition of fresh lemon, not something you normally see in barbecue sauce. Thanks to the NY Times for the recipe.

Mango Barbecue Sauce

1 mango, flesh removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped onions
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco, or to taste
4 slices lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the mango in the bowl of a food processor, and puree to a coarse texture. In a saucepan combine the olive oil, onions and garlic. Saute briefly over medium-high heat, or until wilted. Add remaining ingredients, stir and bring to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove and let cool. Surplus sauce can be refrigerated I n an airtight jar and used with any barbecued meat or poultry.

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Greek Salad

I love Greek salad. I have been so lucky to receive a ton of lettuce from my mom's garden. Neither of us are sure what kind of lettuce it is, but it is delicious and perfect for Greek salad. No one else at dinner would touch the salad. I can usually count on C to have salad and Miss F to at least eat the lettuce. But this night, they were both too into naan and chicken souvlaki to have any.  I will be making this salad often this summer, hopefully with tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden, though I doubt the lettuce will make it much longer once it starts getting Houston hot.  The dressing is adapted from Ina Garten.

Greek Salad

1 clove garlic
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup good olive oil
4 cups chopped lettuce
½ red bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
½ cucumber, chopped
¼ cup feta, crumbled
Handful of black olives

Add the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper to the bowl of a mini food processor. Stream in the olive oil with the processor running. In a large bowl, toss together the lettuce, bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, feta and olives. Toss the salad with the dressing and serve.

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Panko Pork with Apricot Dipping Sauce

This meal was originally supposed to be an apricot pork stir fry.  The birthday dinner for my dad had been postponed and I had a jar of apricot jam I had bought to make his favorite baked brie.  C and I ended up meeting for lunch and we had Thai food, so I wasn't in the mood for a stir fry that evening, neither was he.  So Panko Pork with Apricot Dipping Sauce was born.  We'll call it the sweeter relative of Pork Things.  Miss F devoured hers, but she preferred to dip hers in mustard.  Crazy kid!

Panko Pork with Apricot Dipping Sauce

½ cup apricot jam
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Sriracha

1 egg
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 boneless center-cut pork chops, pounded to 1/8" thickness
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

In a small saucepan, stir together the jam, mustard, soy sauce, vinegar and Sriracha. Heat over medium to bring to a simmer, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Whisk the egg in a medium bowl. Combine Panko, salt, and pepper on a large plate. Dip in egg mixture, then in Panko, pressing to adhere. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook pork until golden brown and cooked through, about 2 minutes per side, adding 1 tablespoon vegetable oil after turning. Drain on paper towels. Serve the pork with the prepared apricot sauce.

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Chipotle Barbecue Chicken

I am still trying to get used to cooking at 8000 feet.  Water is taking much longer to boil, which throws off my timing all around.  Especially when I am boiling corn and steaming broccoli.  But the more I practice, the more I will learn, right?  I had planned in making Cherry Barbecue Sauce, but cherries aren't available up here yet (we have already gone through a couple bags worth in Houston) so I changed up the plan.  Chicken leg quarters were on special and I knew I could use the chipotles in plenty of other recipes up here, so Chipotle Barbecue Chicken was born.  This would also be amazing on the grill.  I am trying to convince C that we need one up here.

Chipotle Barbecue Chicken

2/3 cup ketchup
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup water
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced onion
4 chicken leg quarters
2 tablespoons butter, softened

In a small sauce pan combine ketchup, vinegar, water, chipotles, sugar, mustard, soy sauce, and onion. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9x13 glass cooking dish with butter. Arrange the chicken quarters so that they aren’t touching. Spread the butter over the chicken and spoon the half of barbecue sauce overtop of each quarter. Bake for 45 minutes or until the juices run clear. Serve with the reserved barbecue sauce on the side.

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Stone Crab

C and I took an amazing trip to Miami for a long weekend to celebrate our anniversary and to catch a Miami Heat playoff game. Ten years ago Miami would have been about clubbing and drinking...now I am all about the beach and eating. We were lucky enough to dine at Barton G and Ola for dinner, but our lunch at Joe's Take-a-way before the Heat game was equally memorable. I got the recipe for their famous stone crab sauce from Saveur and I was ready to recreate the experience at home.  My mom and I headed to the Kemah fish markets, where I knew I had seen stone crab on prior visits, but this time we visited five shops before we finally found some, I was about to give up.  Whenever I had gotten stone crab from the grocer, it has always been precooked.  And everything I ready on the internet seemed to suggest that is the only way it was sold, unless it was fresh off the boat.  Well...we got gfresh off the boat claws and I didn't realize it.   After a bit of a panic, we figured it out and dined on amazing crab claws, without the Miami prices.

Stone Crab

3 to 4 pounds stone crab claws, fresh or cooked

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons half-and-half
4 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon A.1. Steak Sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground 

black pepper, to taste

Is using fresh crab claws, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the stone crab claws to the boiling water and boil for 10 minutes. While the crab is boiling, prepare a large bowl of ice water, large enough to hold all the crab. After the crab has cooked, submerge each claw in the ice water bath and let sit for 5 to 8 minutes. Remove the crab claws from the ice water and refrigerate until ready to serve.

If using pre-cooked claws, serve chilled with the sauce.

Whisk mayonnaise, half-and-half, mustard, Worcestershire, and A.1. sauce in a bowl until smooth; season with salt and pepper and chill. Serve as a dipping sauce for the chilled stone crab.

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Apricot Dijon Glazed Chicken

I have had this recipe from Martha Stewart pinned for the longest time.  It is very similar to the apricot dijon pork chops that I love to make, so I knew my family would enjoy it.  I was right!  Miss F was all about "more chicken!"  This recipe is really easy and I usually have all the ingredients on hand, so it makes for an easy weeknight meal.  We ate it with mashed potatoes and green beans, bribing Miss F with "more chicken" to eat her mashed potatoes.  To her credit, I hated mashed potatoes as a kid as well.

Apricot-Dijon Glazed Chicken

4 chicken thighs
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup apricot jam
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rinse chicken thighs; pat dry, and transfer to a baking dish. Season well with salt and pepper; set aside. Bring jam, honey, and mustard to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until thickened and reduced by half, about 15 minutes. Spoon apricot mixture over chicken thighs, spreading with back of spoon to coat evenly. Bake chicken, basting with sauce from bottom of dish every 10 minutes, until juices run clear when chicken is pricked with a fork, about 30 minutes.

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Dijon Panko Pork Chops

This meal was totally not what I had planned to make. I had brined the pork chops with the intention of making Martha Stewart's Crispy Apricot Pork Chops. When I pulled out the ingredients from the refrigerator, I looked and looked, but I couldn't find the jar of apricot preserves. I swore I had some. I went to the store twice that week and both times didn't get the preserves because I was so sure we had some. I guess I used them all up making Apricot Brie and Arugula pizzas. I had to improvise and Dijon Panko Pork Chops were created. Miss F gobbled up her pieces, even though she was turning up her nose at the Dijon when I was making the pork. After dinner I realized I had mango pepper sauce in our pantry, which I will try next in this recipe.

Dijon Panko Pork Chops

4 ½” to ¾” thick pork chops, brined (recipe follow)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup Panko bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Brush the pork chops with the Dijon mustard on both sides, sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Coat the pork chops in the Panko. Grease a glass baking dish with cooking spray. Place the pork chops in the prepared baking dish and spray with more cooking spray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees.

Brine
4 cups cold water
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper corns
1 teaspoon dried thyme
4 ½” to ¾” thick pork chops

Add salt to water in a large re-sealable container. Add thyme, peppercorns and pork chops. Cover tightly and refrigerate up to 24 hours. Remove from the brine and pat the pork chops dry before preparing.

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Molasses and Mustard Pork Tenderloin

It had been awhile since we have had pork tenderloin, so I had garlic mustard pork tenderloin on the weekly menu.   I was serving lemon rosemary garlic potatoes with the tenderloin, so I wanted to nix the garlic from the pork tenderloin.  I adapted the recipe from Bon Appetit and I was thrilled with the result.  The added bonus, Miss F and C ate every single bite.  The pork was moist and the crust was sweet with a mustard-y bite.

Molasses and Mustard Pork Tenderloin

¼ cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, divided
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons coarse-grained mustard
1 ¾ -pound pork tenderloin

Whisk molasses, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and both mustards in small bowl to blend. Place pork in heavy-duty re-sealable plastic bag. Pour marinade over. Seal tightly and refrigerate 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Roast the pork until the internal temperature reaches 130 degrees, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the pork from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise on slight diagonal into ½ inch-thick slices and serve.

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Apricot Dijon Pork Chops

I recently discovered a really neat blog, Budget Bytes. It's no secret that I love saving money, who doesn't? I spent a good hour pinning items on my Pinterest from the blog, there were so many good recipes to choose from. This is the first one I have cooked from the blog and it happens to be the original recipe that I had the link to. Years ago, I made a fantastic apricot chicken recipe, but I have since lost the recipe on some hard drive somewhere and I have tried recreating a few times, with little success. C started off saying that the kitchen smelled "pungent." Uh oh. Turns out, he really liked the sauce, surprise suprise. He also liked the Hassleback potatoes, even though he didn't want to.

Apricot Dijon Pork Chops

½ cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 thin cut pork chops

Whisk together the preserves, mustard, vinegar, garlic powder and water. Set aside. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Salt and pepper the pork chops. Sauté the pork chops in the skillet until cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Remove the pork chops to a plate and tent with foil. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the apricot sauce to the pan. Stir the sauce for 2 minutes, scraping the pan drippings from the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Return the pork chops to the skillet and coat with sauce. Serve.

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