I’ve spent a lot of time in the past year grappling with the future of this blog. As do all bloggers, writers, or people who show up to do anything consistently day after day. I’ve gone from certain I want to make this blog my full time business to certain I want to quit entirely (the range of the uncertainty effectively negating either option as the best one). Hearing about other people’s “should I or shouldn’t I” blog crises always bores me, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. Here’s how I feel today: I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished here. I still feel the urge to write and create. I tried the blogging-as-a-business thing (the podcasts, the SEO otpimization, etc., etc.) and it mostly left me frustrated. My job challenges and fulfills me and right now that, not blogging, is my career. So I will keep coming here, keep cooking, keep writing, but I’m not going to worry so much about stats and schedules. I want this to be a place that inspires and fulfills me, not a chore to stress over.

Now that that’s out of the way – hi! I’ve been gone because Trevor and I got married! Then we went on an incredible honeymoon and spent three weeks in Croatia, Slovenia, and Prague. It was awesome. I took a lot of pictures, I drank a lot of wine and beer and mead, I walked a bajillion steps every day, and I spent so much time with Trevor everyday that I think I’m going to go through withdrawal. I’m happy to be home though, not least because it’s fall. An exceptionally warm, lovely fall at that.

With wedding planning off my plate I’m just starting to find room in my mind for cooking and creativity. The day we got back from our honeymoon we did a deep clean of the fridge, freezer, and pantry which was also strangely inspiring. I feel like I have a clean slate in the kitchen now. That, combined with the beautiful fall produce, inspired these Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Roasted Apples and Pears. It was the first real home-cooked dinner we’ve had in months.

This recipe is pretty easy, doable on a weeknight, and hearty without being heavy.  The pork chops are simply dredged in seasoned flour and pan-fried. The fruit – chopped and tossed with rosemary, olive oil, a hint of brown sugar, and cider vinegar. While the fruit is roasting and the chops are resting, you make a quick pan sauce using calvados to tie everything together. The roasted fruit was my favorite part of this, with it’s balance of sweet and savory flavors. It would also go well with other mains, particularly sausages or grilled chicken, so it seems likely I’ll make it again while fall fruits are still at their peak.

P.S. Don’t worry! When we get our wedding pictures back I’ll share some here. I’ll most likely do a few honeymoon posts as well, because, you know, Slovenian venison goulash seems like a thing you might like.

Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Roasted Apples, Pears, and Brandy Cream Sauce

An easy fall dinner of pan-fried pork chops, roasted apples, pears, and red onions, and a quick  brandy pan sauce. 

Inspired by Diana Henry’s Roast Figs Sugar Snow and Hilary Davis’ French Comfort Food.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4

Ingredients

• 2 red onions, peeled and cut into wedges
• 2 Bartlett pears, cut into quarters and cored
• 2 McIntosh apples, cored and cut into thick slices
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 sprigs rosemary leaves, finely chopped
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 2 TBS brown sugar
• 1 TBS apple cider vinegar
• Four 8-oz pork chops
• 1/4 cup plus 2 TBS flour
• 2 TBS butter
• 4 leaves sage
• 1/2 cup dry hard cider
• 1/4 cup calvados / apple brandy
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Instructions

1. For the fruit: Preheat the oven to 375F. Arrange the onion wedges, pear slices, and apples slices on a rimmed baking sheet. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, chopped rosemary leaves, sea salt (to taste), black pepper, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar until combined. Drizzle the olive oil mixture on top of the fruit and onions. Use a spatula to flip everything over once to coat with the oil. Place in the oven and roast until the fruit is soft, about 20 minutes.
2. For the pork chops: Place 1/4 cup of the flour on a large plate and spread into a thin layer. Season with sea salt and black pepper to taste. Pat the pork chops dry with a paper towel and then dredge in the seasoned flour so that they are lightly coated with flour on both sides. Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium-high heat. When the butter starts to foam and sizzle, add the sage leaves and fry for 60 seconds. Add the floured pork chops to the pan, spacing them out evenly so they aren’t touching one another (you may need to do this in batches if your pan is small). Fry the pork chops until golden brown on one side, then flip and fry on the other side. This should take about 5 minutes per side. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of your pork chops – they should be 145F at the thickest portion. If they have not yet reached this temperature, cook 1 minute longer then check again. As soon as they reach 145F remove them to a paper-towel lined plate and let rest for 5 minutes.
3. For the pan sauce: Return the pan you used to cook the pork chops to the heat. Add 2 TBS of flour to the juices left in the pan and quickly stir until thickened, about 60 seconds. Add the hard cider to the pan and let simmer, then use a wooden spatula or spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan until it is clean, stirring the sauce as you scrape. Add the apple brandy to the pan, stir to incorporate into the sauce, and cook for 2-3 minutes, then remove from the heat. Stir in the heavy cream and season the sauce to taste.
4. To serve: Place a pork chop on each plate along with several pieces of roasted fruit. Spoon some of the pan sauce over the pork and serve immediately.

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March is a hard month for cooking. It feels like it should be spring – we’re so ready for the sunshine and for green to return to the trees! And, perhaps more pressing, we are ready for winter to be over. Even though I escaped Boston for 5 weeks in January and early February, I’m still ready for it to be over. We’ve had a handful of sunny days this month, but here in Massachusetts, it’s still very much winter. As evidenced by the windchill of -6°F this weekend and the Nor’easter bearing down on us today.

By extension, March is a hard month for food blogging. There’s no local produce to inspire, no major food holidays. Just a craving for summer mixed with the reality of winter. In past years, I’ve posted everything from Butternut Squash Carbonara to Apple Cider Doughnuts to Strawberry Balsamic Salad – no seasonal cohesion to speak of.

It’s a transitional eating period, but instead of the abundance of September and October, we’re left with the dregs of the root cellar. We’re still at least a month away from the first tender greens and peas. We’re no longer excited about brussels sprouts and squash. All we want is the first cocktail-on-the-porch Saturday afternoon.

So this year, I’m making a concerted effort to come up with and share recipes that are appropriate for March. Recipes that are warm and nourishing without being heavy and rich. Recipes that shift towards spring without leaving you unsatisfied. They all have an element of brightness. I hope they will help inspire you in the kitchen this month while we wait patiently for spring.

This Salmon en Papillote with Potatoes and Dill Butter is an easy weeknight meal that perfectly fits the bill. Salmon is a richer fish, still fatty and satisfying, but not heavy like a roast or stew. The dill butter adds a bright, herbal note and makes it feel a little fancy. As a bonus, it’s one of the simplest recipes on this blog and its pretty healthy. The trifecta for dinner recipes: tasty, healthy, easy.

Tell me, is there anything that’s a staple in your kitchen while you wait for spring?

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Salmon en Papillote with Dill Butter

Recipe adapted from Simple by Diana Henry. Serves 2.

• 4 TBS salted butter
• 3 TBS finely chopped fresh dill
• pinch sea salt
• 6 small red or white potatoes
• Two 6 oz. salmon fillets
• 2 TBS dry white vermouth

1. Mix the softened butter and chopped dill together in a small bowl until thoroughly combined. Sprinkle with sea salt. Cover and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Thinly slice the potatoes and add to a medium pot. Cover with cold water. Season lightly with salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil just until the potatoes are tender, about 8 minutes. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut out four squares of parchment paper that are about 1 foot long/wide. Double up the squares so there are two in a stack. Place a knob of dill butter in the middle of each stack, then layer potato slices over the butter. Place a piece of salmon on top of the potatoes, then top with a few dots of dill butter and a little sea salt. Pour 1 TBS of vermouth over each piece of fish. Bring two edges of the packets together over the fish and fold down a few times, then twist the open ends to seal the packets. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the salmon is just cooked through. Unwrap carefully at the table and serve.

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Some cookbooks are meant to be impersonal. They are written to be useful, educational, reference guides to the kitchen. But this is not true of all cookbooks. There is another group of cookbooks out there, in which the flood of images, stories, and commentaries begin to carry the cookbook into a different realm – the realm of travelogues  of memoirs, of novels. Both types of books are important – which you prefer is a matter of taste, or of your current mood, or of your particular kitchen dilemma. Do you need to be inspired, transported to another place and time? Or do you simply need to know the best technique for baking a fluffy muffin, and why it works?

Jose Garces’ The Latin Road Home is definitely of the personal variety. The Iron Chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and all-around food personality uses this book to take readers on a journey through the five countries that have influenced his cooking style – Ecuador, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and Peru. Unlike Gran Cocina Latina, this is not an exhaustive look at the cuisines of these countries. Rather, each country has four regional menus that range in difficulty and simplicity, with the fourth menu in each country encompassing a massive spread – cocktails, snacks, appetizers – in short, party food. The recipes range from the traditional, like Moros y Cristianos and Tostones, to the innovative, like Citrus-Marinated Halibut and Calamari in Coconut Broth and Griddled Potato Cakes topped with Mushrooms with Saffron and Ginger. And if you like seafood, you’re in luck – it’s the most heavily represented food group in the book, with 8 different recipes for ceviche alone. Another bonus – most of the recipes are accompanied by beautiful full-page photographs that are bright and full of life.

I would also like to point out how well the recipes are laid out. Each recipe is very clearly broken down into its multiple parts, with a separate table of ingredients and set of instructions for each component of the recipe. For recipes with 4 or more different components, this is highly valuable – and it’s executed without causing the design of the book to suffer at all. Beauty and usability!

Lake Isle Press invited me to participate in a blogger cook-around of this book today. A group of bloggers are all cooking recipes from the fourth Mexico menu – a taco-bar party menu – with recipes including Mango Margartitas, Carnitas, Beer-Braised Beans, Shrimp Skewers, and Tres Leches Cake. I chose to make the Chipotle Chicken Nachos, mainly because I couldn’t get over how delicious they looked. I can now confirm that they also taste delicious – sweet and a little smoky, with falling-apart tender chicken and just the right amount of sauce. While I went the whole nine-yards and fried my own corn tortilla chips, I actually liked the filling (called pollo ropa vieja) the best without any garnish, rolled up in a soft, warm corn tortilla. Making the filling is simple – a matter of throwing the sauce ingredients in the blender, sauteeing peppers and onions, and briefly poaching chicken thighs in boiling water. Definitely a good addition to any weeknight meal rotation.

The bottom line: Jose Garces’ The Latin Road Home gives readers a brief and personal take on the cuisines of five different Latin countries. While not an exhaustive look at any one cuisine, the recipes featured are traditional with an innovative twist, and well worth taking a crack at. Combined with the heartfelt narrative and bright and inviting photos, the recipes in this book make it a worthwhile addition to the shelves of any cook looking for inspiration in Latin flavors.

Disclaimer: Lake Isle Press sent me a review copy of this book, but all opinions are my own.

Chipotle Chicken Nachos

Recipe from The Latin Road Home. Serves 8 as an appetizer.

Notes: If you’re trying to get dinner on the table fast, roasting the garlic (step 1) might be best done the morning or even the night before dinner is served. Two alternative ways to serve this dish that I really enjoyed are to 1) prepare the chicken ropa vieja and serve in warm corn tortillas as tacos and 2) prepare the chicken ropa vieja and mix with cooked rice or couscous and serve in a bowl.

For the Chicken Ropa Vieja:

• 20 cloves garlic, divided, peeled
• 2 TBS olive oil
• sea salt, used throughout recipe
• 3 Spanish onions, divided, peeled
• 1 fresh bay leaf
• 2 lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 2-3 red bell peppers, seeded, deveined, and finely chopped
• 4 canned chipotles in adobo
• 1 c. ketchup
• 1 c. chicken stock
• 2 TBS Spanish smoked sweet paprika

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place 6 of the peeled garlic cloves in a piece of tinfoil, drizzle with the olive oil and sea salt, and fold the edges of the tinfoil up to make a closed packet. Roast the garlic in this packet (seam side facing up in the oven to avoid leaks!) for 45 minutes – garlic should be tender when done.
2. While garlic is roasting, bring a large saucepan of heavily salted water to a boil. Take one of the onions and roughly chop it. Add this onion, the bay leaf, and the chicken to the boiling water, lower the heat to a simmer, and simmer the chicken for 10-14 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the water with a slotted spoon to a bowl, let cool, then shred into bite-size pieces by hand. Set aside. Discard the cooking water and onion.
3. Finely chop the remaining 14 cloves of garlic and 2 onions. Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat, then add the chopped onions, garlic, and bell peppers. Let cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until beginning to soften.
4. While vegetables are sauteing, combine the roasted garlic, chipotles in adobo, ketchup, chicken stock, and paprika in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add the sauce to the vegetables and cook at a gentle simmer until mixture is reduced by one quarter, about 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken and heat through. Continue with nacho recipe or serve as mentioned in head note above.

For the Nachos:

• 12 small (6-inch) corn tortillas OR 1 bag corn tortilla chips
• vegetable oil, for frying
• 2 c. grated cheese
• 2 avocados, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
• 4 radishes, washed and cut into thin matchsticks
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4 c. Mexican crema OR sour cream

1. If making your own chips, stack the tortillas in groups of 4 and cut each stack into 6 triangles. Separate the triangles. Heat about 1 inch of vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Fry the tortillas in batches until golden brown and crispy, then remove with a slotted spoon and let drain on a paper towel lined baking tray.
2. Top chips with the chicken ropa vieja mixture and sprinkle with grated cheese. If serving to a crowd, do this in a casserole dish and broil on high for 2-3 minutes to melt the cheese. If making for yourself, do this on a plate and just pop in the microwave for 30 seconds.
3. Top nachos with avocados, radishes, and cilantro. Serve with crema/sour cream on the side.

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