Spare ribs, roasted root veggies, gravy, and kale chips!

I haven't had the chance to detail many of my husband's cooking adventures on this blog. He does a lot of the cooking in our house, particularly in the winter. But I don't usually know much of what has happened during the creation process and so I hesitate to post about the food without much of a recipe to include. But tonight he suggested that we blog about the meal! So here goes...

Have I told you about our winter CSA share and the pork share? We have signed up for a 1/4 hog over the course of 12 weeks this winter. We've gotten pork chops, ribs, sausages, deli ham, bacon, and some amazing pates! This week we got spare ribs.

First, the fat was trimmed (and fried up it was a sinful treat!) and the ribs were rubbed: Penzey's jerk seasoning (~2T), coriander (2-3t), cumin (1t), oregano (1/2t), black pepper (2-3t), and salt (1t). The ribs sat in this rub for a few hours and then they cooked covered in about 1/2-3/4C of apple cider at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hours and then 270 degrees for 15 minutes. They need to be basted every 1/2 hour while cooking. They can be finished immediately or after everything else cooks at 425 for 5-7 minutes uncovered to brown them nicely.

Along with this my husband roasted root veggies. He chopped carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and onions and sprayed them with oil. They were sprinkled with hot curry powder, oregano, salt and pepper. They cooked at 425 for 20-30 minutes.

And then there was the mushroom gravy! Saute diced red onions in the grease rendered from the fat trimmed off the spare ribs. Then saute the sliced mushrooms for a few minutes. Add 1/4C red wine and reduce for 5 minutes. Add 2T flour and mix until well blended. Add 2C water, reduce until thickened while stirring constantly.

And kale chips to boot! Trim the thickest parts of the stem off the kale and cut it into fairly uniform pieces. Spray or toss with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook at 425 for 10-12 minutes until crispy but not burnt.

What a delicious dinner!

Kale Chips

Based on a recipe posted on our farm collective's website, I made kale chips. I washed the kale and cut most of the larger leaves in half. I should have cut the leaves into smaller pieces, maybe quarters. I also should have trimmed more of the tough stems from the spines of the leaves. I tossed the leaves in olive oil but it would have worked better to just lightly spray them with oil as they were too greasy. I spread them on a cookie sheet in one layer and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. Into the oven they went at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. Surprisingly tasty!

Borrowed Recipes!

Dinner tonight came from existing recipes, which all worked out pretty well! I made pork chops and a cherry dessert using recipes from the blog Simply Recipes. And I made kale with white beans using a recipe from Recipe Zaar.

Vermont Maple Syrup Pork Chops

I followed the recipe pretty closely but I only made 2 chops rather than 6. Instead of making only 1/3 the sauce I went ahead and made 1/2. I was glad to have the extra as the thickened gravy is delicious. Unfortunately the gravy was especially necessary because even taking 10 minutes off the cook time the chops were still overcooked. The recipe calls for 45 minutes and I set the timer for 35 minutes and wished I had taken them out 5 minutes sooner. I would suggest checking at 25 or 30 minutes with a meat thermometer. Pork should be cooked to 160 degrees but remember it keeps cooking after you take it out of the oven so anything above 150 should be fine.

Kale and White Beans

I followed this recipe to the tee except that I didn't have a tomato so I left that out. I would suggest using only 1T of brown sugar or maybe even none at all, except that if you include the tomato maybe it balances out the sweetness more. And I would add an extra 1T of balsamic. Additionally, there wasn't enough liquid to steam the kale, which also may be remedied by including the tomato. But I wished I had added a few tablespoons of water at the end when the recipe suggests covering the dish to melt the cheese with steam.

Cherry Clafouti!

This is a delicious dessert. It was great as is but next time I'll use slightly less almond extract and more actual almonds. I would suggest 1/2t extract rather than the 3/4t the recipe calls for and 4T almonds rather than 2T. We served this to guests with whipped cream but when we ate it ourselves later we decided it really didn't need it! Also, I used Balaton cherries, which are simply perfect cherries.