We Have Pork Leg Steaks - What Now?

A few months ago, we went "halfsies" with a friend on a half of a pig.  For the most part, a lot of the pig has been sitting in the freezer without many ideas on what to do with it.  Sure, we know what to do with pork chops, ribs, ground pork, pork belly, etc.  Some of the cuts are a bit unfamiliar to us, so we have to get creative with them!

Fast forward to tonight, and we had a pork leg steak that we needed to use.  Chance pulled it out of the freezer the other day, and I was left with the responsibility of cooking dinner tonight.  He told me it was pork chops (and essentially, it is), so I looked up a recipe for pork chops.

Plus I needed to cook those fiddlehead ferns that were sitting in my fridge before they went bad.  It would be tragic if I let them go to waste!  Of course the real tragedy is their short availability season - late March through mid to late May.  They're my favorite side dish!  Sometimes I will just saute them with bacon, butter, garlic, salt and pepper.  I know, I know - it's cheating.  Of COURSE any vegetable would taste great that way!

I saw the label on this cut of meat and began to doubt myself.  He explained that I should just cook it like a pork chop and we will cut it in half after it is done.  So off I went!

I found a pork recipe that sounded good - mostly because I knew I had all of the ingredients in the kitchen and I wouldn't have to run to the store - and tweaked it.  So here is my entire dinner recipe, folks!

Balsamic Pork Chops/Leg Steaks

3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon of chopped rosemary (dried is fine)
1 pork leg steak
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 2/3 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup fig balsamic vinegar (or whatever other balsamic vinegar you have in your pantry)
Salt & pepper, to taste

1. Stir the flour, rosemary, and some salt and pepper together on a large plate to make a nice dredging flour.  
2. Place the leg steak in the flour, and use a spoon to get some of the flour mixture in all of the little crevices.  Flour both sides of the leg steak.
3. In a large skillet on medium-high heat, melt the butter together with the olive oil.  Put the crushed garlic cloves in the oil and let it simmer in the oil for about 1 minute.
4. Place the flour-coated leg steak into the skillet and cook each side for about 4 minutes per side, or until golden.
5. Remove the leg steak after cooking for 4 minutes on each side and set it on a plate.
6. Pour the chicken broth and vinegar into the same skillet and use a whisk to scrape up any stuck on bits.  Reduce the mixture until about half of the liquid is gone - about 5 minutes.
7. After the liquid has reduced, put the leg steak back into the skillet with the balsamic reduction and cook it for about another 6 minutes total.  You can flip the steak about halfway through so the liquid nicely coats both sides of the meat.
8. Remove the leg steak from the skillet and cut it in half.  One leg steak should be two servings.
9. Serve with a tablespoon or so of the balsamic sauce on top.

Fiddlehead Ferns and Yellow Squash

1 yellow squash, cut on a bias in 1/3 inch thick slices
1 lb fiddlehead ferns, washed to get the darker leaves off and end pieces trimmed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp "Dirt" brand Creole blend seasoning
Salt & pepper, to taste

1. Put the butter and olive oil in a medium size skillet on medium heat.
2. Stir the squash and fiddlehead ferns together in a bowl with the Dirt seasoning.
3. Place the garlic, squash, and fiddlehead ferns in the skillet and stir.  
4. About 10 minutes into the cooking process, add the chicken broth and stir.  If you prefer, you can add more dirt seasoning, salt and pepper, at this time.
5. Cook for another 5 minutes, or until ferns are softened yet still a little crisp and the chicken broth has mostly boiled down.  I put the vegetables in the pan at the same time I put the leg steak in, and the vegetables took almost the same amount of time as the leg steak.  I just turned the heat down when the chicken broth had mostly boiled down.

Steamed rice

2 cups steamed rice, cooked per your rice cooker's instructions

Seriously, go buy a Zojirushi rice maker.  It will CHANGE you.  It keeps cooked rice perfect for almost 2 entire days!  Nope, I am not going to list instructions on how to cook rice!  Just pour some of that balsamic sauce on the rice, and serve with the rest of the above dinner items.

Enjoy!

Foodie 100 list - Gnocchi alla Romana - The Pink Door

I had such high expectations with the Pink Door restaurant.  Nestled in the middle of Pike Place Market, this little Italian restaurant has built up quite a good reputation over the years.  People on Yelp rave about the patio and the food.  The views might be nice, but it seems they have based their success on their location in the famous market and the effects of flowing wine.

The item on the foodie 100 list is the Gnocchi alla Romana.  Translation: Roman Gnocchi.  Roman gnocchi ... using gorgonzola cheese ... that originates from a town named Gorgonzola in Northern Italy.  *in my best Dr. Evil voice* Riiiiight.

They were the biggest gnocchi I've ever seen in my life!  They weren't struck on a gnocchi board, and they had a char on the top and bottom of them.  I have never seen gnocchi charred before.  As you can see from the picture, they were quite large.  All of these traits were the "alla Romana" part, and I can't say I was a fan.  I couldn't even finish the dish.  As you can see from the picture, there is a lot of gorgonzola sauce.  It was too much for me to clean my plate.  

There were only 3 gnocchi to the plate.  Three was more way more than I could handle!  The gorgonzola and walnuts completely over-powered the dish.  The older I get, the more I lose a taste for marbled cheeses.

For the best gnocchi in town, skip the Pink Door and head over to Salumi's on Tuesdays during the lunch hour.  Wait through the line.  It's totally worth it, I promise.  Some Tuesdays aren't gnocchi days since it depends on when their aunt can fly out to make the gnocchi fresh that day.  They will sell out!  They won't serve it to go either, so you should get there as early as you can.  You can try calling ahead to see when they will be serving gnocchi next.

All around, I don't get it.  I was thoroughly unimpressed.  They do have a Yelp check-in deal for a free glass of house wine, so that was a plus.  The rigatoni pasta was under-cooked.  Their "Mama's meatballs" were also pretty good.  Though if I don't say so myself, mine are better!  Maybe one of these days I'll get around to posting my meatball recipe.

The only time I'd go back would be to show any out of town guests a nice view of the Puget sound .. if they wanted Italian food .. and free wine.  If you can read between the lines, you can probably figure out I won't be going back.

Like I said before, the foodie 100 list seems to have a 2/3 success rate.

Sunset Supper - my favorite item on the Foodie 100 list!

Once a year, Pike Place Market holds their annual Sunset Supper fundraising event.  All proceeds support the work of the Pike Market Medical Clinic, Senior Center, Child Care & Preschool and Food Bank – vital services utilized by thousands of Seattle’s low-income and elderly residents.  The Pike Place Market zoning regulates that the vendors all have to sell a certain percentage of their items at very affordable rates to accomodate the local residents within the zone, so their prices are not all "incredibly overpriced" like one might think.  The Pike Place Market is definitely one of Seattle's greatest treasures, and they absolutely deserve your support!

This year, the Sunset Supper falls on Friday, August 17th, 2012.  It's usually held on a Friday.  Trust me when I say this, folks: this is not an event to be missed!  It is absolutely my favorite item on the Seattle Foodie 100 list!

At this event, they have about 60+ food/wine/beer vendors with samples galore. 

If you leave this event feeling hungry: you didn't do it right. 
If you leave this thing feeling sober: you didn't do it right, though that's probably okay...
If you leave this thing without a food baby in your stomach: you didn't do it right, though maybe that's a good thing too...

You really need to bring a designated driver and your fat pants to this event.  I wore an a-line dress, and I left this event with a noticeable food baby!  Even my dude said "Wow, I am not gonna lie, babe... it *is* noticeable."  I wasn't even sorry!  As one of my good friends from Texas would say: you will leave this place feeling as happy as a stuffed tick at a nudist camp!

Some of the best of the best restaurants in all of Seattle participate in this event.  If you don't have the budget or time to get out and try all of these different places, this is your big opportunity to have little samples from everybody.  This way you get to discover the establishments you want to visit again!

Be sure to bring about $10 cash in order to "upgrade" your plate to one of the plastic plates with a wine notch cut out in it.  They didn't charge $10 last year, but it's always good to have a little bit of extra cash in case they have similar additional offerings .  It will make your evening so much easier to avoid having your hands so full!  Also, if you really like some of the wines, write them down.  You won't remember them the next day ;)  Though you don't want to completely blow away your palate by trying too many wines.  Consuming that many tannins will work a number on your tastebuds.

Also, be sure to bring your CC to this event for 2 reasons:

1) They offer little spin the wheel raffles, and you are guaranteed to get at least your money back - usually doubled - in certificates and prizes.  It goes to a good cause, so why not?  If you get a certificate you don't want, ask someone in line behind you if they would like to trade.

2) Last year they also offered Seattle Celebrated Chefs cookbooks if you register one of your credit cards to the Dine Around Seattle program.  The program is for participating restaurants to donate a small portion (somewhere between 1-2% if I recall correctly) of their proceeds to a great cause.  They had some of the published chefs onsite to autograph the book.  I'm not sure if they're going to do the same thing again this year, though I'd imagine they will.

For more information about this event and for ticketing information, check out the Pike Place Sunset Supper webpage here.

I do recommend going at the Patron level if you can.  I heard a rumor that they were going to offer a gift bag of some sort, though I haven't been able to substantiate that rumor.  If you ask me, it's worth the money for the extra 1 hour of non-cattle-call selecting of food items.  It gets super crowded when they let everyone into the event.  Sure, people might give you the "stank" eye for being there ahead of everybody, but you earned it with your financial support.  Enjoy it!  Personally, I wouldn't recommend going the "reserved" route over the "general admission" since you will be able to find a place to enjoy your food in solitude.  Or really, you just might eat the sample as they are given to you. 

Make sure you get your tickets before 7/16!  The prices will go up significantly if you wait too long!  Also, don't count on getting last minute tickets.  This event usually sells out, so now you have two reasons to get tickets in advance.