Long Pepper Pork Chops with Madeira

We've blogged about quick-grilling chops on the Guardian Service Griddle/Broiler, but for thicker cuts (like these lovely pork chops) we tried a slower approach in the large Guardian Service Chicken Fryer, with its "self-sealing, self-basting cover."

The Tested Recipes cookbook provides several solid mid-century chop recipes ("Baked Pork Chops with Pineapple," "Swiss Steak") but the basic concept—sear, then roast—creates juicy, flavor-infused chops.

Using a vegetable (in this recipe, onions) to support the meat as a "roasting rack" is a key technique with waterless cooking and further flavors the meat while allowing the vapors of Madeira to envelop the chops as they simmer.

Andrew's brother recently brought us an ancient spice that's quickly become an obsession: long pepper. Its spike-shaped fruit is slightly hotter than its cousin black pepper and has a pungent aroma and tang that compliments pork perfectly. If you don't have a foodie-in-law with underground connections, long pepper can be found at Indian groceries and specialty spice suppliers online.

Long Pepper Pork Chops with Madeira

4 thick-cut pork chops

1 tsp sea salt

3 spikes long pepper, ground in mortar and pestle

3 Tbsp. safflower oil (for neutral taste and high heat)

2 Tbsp. Madeira wine (or sherry, fruit juice, etc)

Simple Garlic Prune Gravy (see below)

1. Prep the chops (rinse, pat dry and trim of excess fat). Optional: render fat for use in gravy.
2. Rub chops well with oil, salt and pepper.
3. Place the fryer over medium heat until it reaches the water test "ball stage." 
4. Sear the chops on all sides until browned, 90 seconds per side.
5. Remove chops from pan. Place four slices of onion in the pan, spacing equally to support each chop. Place chops on onions. 
6. Sprinkle Madeira over the chops, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 mins.

Served with a sauce and vegetables (we served Guardian Service potatoes and golden beets cooked in the Economy Trio Cookers and a Garlic Prune Sauce) this makes an elegant meal for four for $20-25 (depending on the cut of meat) in under 2 hours.

Simple Garlic Prune Gravy

4 pitted prunes
2 Tbsp rendered pork fat and/or cooking oil
2 cloves garlic
juice of 1 orange
1 cup wine (red or white)
1/2 tsp. each cinnamon, allspice, dry mustard (like Colman's), dried parsley
corn starch or barley malt (optional, for thickening)
salt and pepper to taste

In a small cooker (like the Guardian Service Tom Thumb), sauté garlic for two minutes in rendered pork fat and/or cooking oil, then add prunes, parsley and orange juice and cook for 10-12 min until reduced to a sauce. Add spices and corn starch or barley malt for thickening and keep warm in the Guardian Service Gravy Boat to serve with baked pork chops.

Omelets: the Guardian Service Duplex Pan

When I first posted about making an omelet in the Guardian Service "Duplex Utility" Pan, I detailed every micro–step, following as best I could the cryptic instructions in the original recipe pamphlet I'd finally tracked down through an dealer online.

I've cracked a few dozen eggs since then and simplified my method.

The heat is what's crucial: too hot and the butter will scorch, not hot enough and the eggs will stick, then burn. If in doubt, try the "water test" which I've written about in previous blogs here and here (when the aluminum reaches the perfect "non-stick" temperature, a bit of cold water poured on the cooking surface will dance like little glass marbles). Cooked at the proper heat, the omelet will sear quickly, pulling away from the edges and sliding easily out of this handy pan. Who needs Teflon?

I often see this unit described as an omelet pan or fish poacher, but it's designed to be a quick preparation pan with multiple functions:

"A handy unit with a score or more wonderful uses... that's the DUPLEX UTILITY PAN. It fries omelets, liver and bacon and chopped steak. It bakes man-pleasin' meat loaf, loaf cake, quick breads and hot biscuits top-stove without an oven. it's your first aid for "dolling up" left–overs... for preparing "quickie" meals in a jiffy with canned foods. It prepares two foods at the same time over a single burner so it's a fuel saver. And, there's only one unit to wash!"

Guardian Service Omelet

4 eggs

4 Tbsp cold water or milk (optional, for a fuller, lighter omelet)

1 Tbsp butter

salt, pepper, herbs, cheeses, fillings to taste

1. Heat the closed Duplex Pan over medium for about 5 minutes, alternating sides.
2. Open, center one half over the burner, add butter and coat the pan quickly and evenly.
3. Add the egg mixture and cook until egg peels away from the edges of the pan.
4. Add fillings (optional).
5. Shift pan so the empty half is over the burner. Coat with butter.
6. Close pan quickly, hold handles together tightly and flip the pan to finish browning flip side.

A proper omelet: fluffy and ready to slide out of the pan.

Guardian Griddle Cakes

A few posts ago I wrote about stovetop broiling steaks with the "Guardian Service Griddle Broiler," so this time we'll put its "griddle" function to task with pancakes. As Betty Gay waxes nostalgically in the Tested Recipes cookbook, "hot cakes or 'flapjacks,' as we called 'em back on the farm, with plenty of butter and maple syrup will make you feel that this old world's not so bad after all."

I had two distinctly different grandmothers. My father's mother Pauline, who lived "back on the farm" in North Dakota and cooked three large meals for the family and farmhands every day, had a more practical approach to cooking. My maternal grandmother, Muriel, was a professional musician and an excellent cook with a few "signature dishes"—and blueberry pancakes was one of them.
Muriel and Grandpa Ken rented a summer cottage in Rhode Island each year and when blueberries were at the peak of season she'd whip up memorable batches of those pancakes: light and fluffy but crisp and riddled with fresh berries running with juice that stained the cakes purple. Of course, she fried them stovetop in a quarter inch of oil in a cookie sheet... but as a once or twice in late summer treat, they were magical.

Andrew and I do our best to buy locally, seasonally and organically grown foods (or whichever of the combination we can find or afford) and while it's far from blueberry season, I have to admit a moment of weakness recently when Chilean blueberries showed up at our local grocer. A few days of unseasonably hot weather this week made it feel like summer and seeing those berries on sale made me long for Muriel's pancakes and ... I snapped. Fretting about the carbon footprint of this "inexpensive" pint of blueberries, I bought them anyway. In retrospect: I'd have been better off with a handful of chopped apple... fruit that's been shipped or stored or ripened out of season is always a disappointment and never ends up being "worth it." But sometimes these lessons have to be relearned...

SLAPPING THE CAKES

There's nothing unique about the GS pancake recipe (just make sure the baking powder is still active; test by pouring some hot tap water over a half teaspoon of baking powder—if it bubbles, it's still fresh enough; if not, the pancakes won't rise). What's crucial here is technique: the timing and the griddle heat.

Who needs Teflon? The trick to non–stick cooking on the Guardian Service Griddle is the heat. To prevent pancakes from sticking and burning, first warm the griddle for 5-7 minutes on a medium heat (1/2 flame on a gas stove) then test with a bit of cold water. I wrote about this "water test" in the steaks post, but I've taken a few more pictures to show you another example of the "dashing around like mad" effect mentioned in the cookbook: when the griddle is at optimum heat a bit of cold water poured on the griddle will retain it's shape, like globules of mercury rolling across the surface. If the water spreads out and sizzles, it's not quite hot enough and if it evaporates instantly it's too hot. Just set it off the heat for a few minutes.

"No need to worry about overtaxing the family's digestive system because Guardian hot cakes are baked—not fried in grease," notes Gay in the intro to "Hot Cakes... without grease or smoke." In effect, you are "baking" the pancakes on a greaseless griddle and, as with all GS cookware, the aluminum evenly distributes heat so you can cook 5 or 6 average-sized (not IHOP big-as-your-head sized) flapjacks at a time.

Timing: when bubbles appear on top, break and hold their shape, the under side has browned. Using a spatula, flip and brown other side. Place cakes in a pre-heated GS unit until ready to serve (keep the cover ajar so the steam escapes and they don't get soggy).

GUARDIAN GRIDDLE CAKES

Makes 2 dozen (approx 4" in diameter)

NOTE: If you're not feeding an army, use 1 egg and halve the remaining ingredients for a dozen.

2 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 to 1 /3/4 cup milk (according to desired consistency)

2 Tbsp. melted butter

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. Combine beaten egg and milk.
3. Stir into dry ingredients, adding more milk if thinner cake is desired.
4. Blend in melted butter. (Optional: fold in 1 cup of chopped fruit (apples, bananas, blueberries in season...)
5. Preheat griddle over medium heat, test for temperature and bake cakes as directed above.

Stove-Top Steaks

The Griddle/Broiler is another "combination" cooker in the Guardian Service line: it handles everything from grilled cheese sandwiches to greaseless pancakes (the subject of an upcoming post) and broils meats, vegetables or fruits efficiently; simple to serve and clean up.

BROILED STEAKS

on the Guardian Service Griddle/Broiler

1. Brush lean cuts with melted butter, fat or oil (or marinate).
2. Place Griddle/Broiler over a 2/3 flame and preheat 5 to 7 min. Test for temperature by sprinkling cold water over the surface. "If drops retain shape and dash about like mad, you're ready to start," notes Betty Gay in Guardian Service Tested Recipes; and "dash" they do—like little glass marbles (see below). "If water spreads out, Griddle is not hot enough; if water evaporates immediately, Griddle is too hot—just set off the flame for a while."
3. Put steaks on Griddle and broil over 1/3 flame (or 2/3 for medium to well done steaks) for about 5-7 minutes, turn and brown on other side.

NOTE: "Surplus fats drain into the groove around the edge so that foods are broiled instead of fried in grease and juices and flavors remain in meats rather than evaporating through contact with a direct flame." For added "New Recession" thrift cooking: retain the excess fat as basis for a gravy; and if you're broiling a bone-in steak, save the leftover scraps and bones for stock (pictured below: the 1/2 qt cooker with left over sirloin scraps and vegetable scraps).