Lime Vinaigrette

Last night, I was craving Penne alla Vodka so I kept it simple and served that along with a green salad. That's just a salad with all green and some white ingredients -- romaine lettuce, onion, avocado, cucumber, and hearts of palm. I made a lime vinaigrette because I used up all the balsamic vinegar on my meal the night before. It was actually delicious though. I think I'll make it more often.

This is how I made it:

Lime Vinaigrette
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice from a half of a lime
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dry basil
salt and pepper to taste

Put all of the ingredients in a small plastic container with a lid. Shake vigorously until all of the ingredients emulsify.

Pork Chops Milanese and Potatoes Au Gratin

Damien was supposed to be away last night reporting a story, but he ended up coming home instead of spending the night. So, I sort of had to scramble for dinner because I had planned on having left over Shrimp Creole.

So Baz and I took a walk to Publix to see if we could get inspired. There really wasn't much jumping out at me, but I remembered seeing a recipe for Potatoes Gratin in the Balthazar Cookbook and that sounded really good. What could be the main dish? Not wanting to spend a fortune, I decided on pork chops.

Then I was strolling past the produce section and I saw a bag of key limes sitting there. I thought, "Wow, maybe I should try and make key lime pie!"

This is very ambitious considering how tired I was feeling. But, I feel like I haven't really been cooking anything too interesting lately. With work, it's hard to make it a priority. So, I pushed through and it actually worked out well. Now, the potatoes take a bit of time so keep that in mind and start those early. Here's what I did:

Potatoes Gratin (inspired by the Balthazar Cookbook with some major changes)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
4 cloves or garlic - crushed with a knife
10 - 12 sage leaves, whole (Balthazar uses thyme)
4 stems parsley, whole (Balthazar uses rosemary)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
3 -4 medium Idaho potatoes
salt and white pepper
1 tablespoon butter

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream milk, garlic, sage, parsley, salt and pepper over medium heat. When it begins to simmer, lower the heat and continue simmering for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, peel and slice the potatoes into 1/8 thick slices. Use the butter to coat the bottom of a shallow cooking dish or ovenproof skillet.

After 30 minutes, strain the cream, removing the herbs and garlic. Layer the bottom of the buttered cooking dish with the most abnormally sized pieces of potato (so the top layer that you will see will look more uniform.) Overlap the potatoes by nearly half. Sprinkle so salt and pepper on the potato layer. Then pour 1/2 cup of the garlic infused cream over the potatoes. Arrange a second layer of potatoes and repeat the process. Continue repeating until all the potatoes have been used.

I also sprinkled a bit of cheddar cheese on the top layer, which Balthazar does not do. I liked it, but I think that just the cream would be delicious as well. I just like cheese.

Cover the dish or skillet with aluminum foil and place in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and continue to cook for 15 minutes until the top is golden. Cool for a few minutes before serving.

Worth the time and effort.

Then I made the pork chops:

Pork Chops Milanese (also inspired by the Balthazar Cookbook with some major changes)
4 - 1/4 inch slices or red onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
1 cup, romaine lettuce, finely chopped
1 medium vine ripe tomato, finely diced
2 pork chops
salt and pepper
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup bread crumbs (Balthazar suggested panko, but I used Italian because it is what I had)
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Balsamic vinaigrette
2 lemon wedges

Brush the onion slices with a little bit of olive oil. Use the broiler or a grill (if you are lucky enough to have one) to char the onion slices a bit. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Create a little chopped salad using the romaine and tomatoes. When the onion has cooled enough, dice and add as well. Set the salad aside.

Pat dry the pork chops and use a mallet (or in my case, a potato masher) to pound the chops down until they are about a 1/2 inch thick, making sure not to miss the section nearest to the bone. Sprinkle both sides with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Prepare three bowls in an assembly line -- one with the flour, one with the egg whisked with the milk, and the other with the bread crumbs. Dredge the pork chops in the flour first, then coat in the egg mixture and then coat with bread crumbs.

Heat up a large skillet over medium heat. Add a tablespoon of butter and melt until just starts to brown. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and heat. Place both pork chops in the butter/oil and cook on each side for 4 minutes. The bread crumbs should be nice and golden brown.

Remove from the pan and arrange on the plate.

Add balsamic vinaigrette to the salad and mix well. Put a dollop of salad on top of each pork chop. Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Then there's dessert. It is best to make key lime pie much earlier in the day so it has plenty of time to cool. But, since I thought of it too late in the game, we settled for a slightly still warm pie after dinner.

Key Lime Pie (adapted from the Miami Spice cookbook)

Graham Cracker Crust
1 1/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs (I used half a box of graham crackers in my food processor)
1/2 cup butter

Preheat the oven to 350.

Get your crumbs to a fine consistency in a food processor. Melt the butter and add to the crumbs. Mix well until it is like a paste. Press the mixture into a pie pan. Put in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove from the pie pan from the oven, but leave the oven on.

Filling
1/2 cup key lime juice
2 teaspoons key lime zest
1 - 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks

The toughest part is juicing the small little key limes and grating the zest so leave yourself plenty of time to do this. (It took me about 15 or 20 minutes.) You don't want to skimp.

Combine the condensed milk and the egg yolks in a bowl. Use an electric hand mixer at high speed to mix until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the key lime juice. Then add in the zest.

Pour the mixture into the prepared graham cracker crust. Then put the pie in the oven and cook for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Then place the pie in the refrigerator and cool for as long as you can resist.

So there you have it. We really enjoyed it, I hope you all do too.

Leftover - Hearts of Palm

As I mentioned earlier, we had the fabulous Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass last night. I would have let it sit another day, but Damien is going on a reporting trip to St. Louis today, so I wanted to make sure he got to enjoy one of our favorite meals.

Since he's gone today, Baz and I are suffering from withdrawal and uninspired to cook. So I think I am going to make use of some of our leftovers. We have some chicken left and I think I'll remove the fried skin part, shred the chicken and make a chicken salad out of it by adding some mayonnaise, onion, mustard and maybe some cut up grapes or raisins. Then I'll cut up some lettuce and other salad fixings like avocado and top it with the chicken salad.

One salad ingredient that I love and is not as common up north as it is here in Florida is Hearts of Palm. Yummy. They come in a can packed in water. (Baz is holding a can in the picture above.) I prefer to buy them uncut and slice them before adding to my salads. They really make a salad special.

Mom's Lasagna - Frozen

Man, today is a bit of a doozy. I was 10 minutes late for the babysitter because I thought I had enough time to go to my "parenting" class at Mercy Hospital. If anyone reads this who lives in Miami and is looking for a way to meet other new moms, Mercy's Lactation Center might be the place for you. Faith Ploude, the baby guru or baby whisper - as some people like to call her, runs these classes in which she gives a short seminar about a particular parenting topic like "Starting Solids" or "Teething and Weaning" or something else to help us newbies along. But, the real reason everyone goes is to ask their particular question (we all get one or so) and to listen to other mother's questions and Faith's answers.

I started going because I had a hell of time breastfeeding and I needed all the support I could get. I'm not sure if anything anyone told me help me physically, but just hearing other people's issues and finding out that I was not alone was really helpful. So, I kept going back and now Baz and I have graduated to the older baby group which is where I was this morning. I've met a bunch of great moms this way.

Anyway, then I needed to rush home for the babysitter so I can work this afternoon. I've already done a conference call, and when I finish with this post, I am going to do some more video editing and then I have to go out and shoot this tent-camp community of sex offenders who live under a Miami bridge because the law currently won't let them live within 2500 feet of a place where children gather and there is no other place in Miami except for under that bridge where that is possible.

Therefore, I don't have a ton of time to cook tonight. So, I am going to go into my freezer and find something to serve my husband.

What I have chosen to take out is some lasagna that my mother has made for just such nights. She graciously makes me about 10 two person servings of a couple of Italian dishes that she freezes and brings to me about once every two months. I am so lucky and I know it. This batch was one of the best chicken parmesan and one of tastiest lasagnas I've ever had. Since we've been eating a lot of meat this week, I thought I would go with the lasagna which I believe is vegetarian.

I'll probably pick up some fixin's for a salad and maybe a baguette that I can use to make some garlic bread. That's pretty simple. Just slice the bread lengthwise and then slather some butter on it and use that awesome garlic press to press some garlic right onto it. I then use a knife to spread it out as evenly as I can. I sprinkle some salt and pepper and some parsley for color and then I fold the bread back together, wrap it in aluminum foil and put it the oven with my heating lasagna for the last five to ten minutes. Delicious.

We're getting towards a weekend so hopefully I'll be able to jazz things up a bit in the coming days....