Chocolate Cherry sauce

Yes, I'm serious.

Who thinks "I need to eat more chocolate?"  I do.  Chocolate (not milk chocolate, and not Hershey's) is good for you.

I sliced pork tenderloin into thin coins so it cooks quickly on a low-med heat in a well seasoned cast iron pan (I sprinkle them with salt and maybe if I'm feeling real crazy some paprika) and then set aside.  I'll pour off any liquid from the meat for my dog pal.

For the sauce:
3 heaping TBSP Cherry preserves (or 1/4 Cup sweet cherries pitted and halved)  Tart pie cherries are fine too you just need to adjust them with some vegan sugar.
2 TBSP vegan sugar (more if using straight sour pie cherries)
2 TBSP cocoa powder (straight real stuff not with anything added)
1/4 Cup water to dissolve sugar and cocoa powder in.

I put my sugar and water into a sauce pan and simmer it just until sugar is dissolved, you'll need to be constantly stirring.  After the sugar is dissolved I add cocoa and whisk it in to make it as smooth as possible.  Now the little teeny balls of cocoa is NOT a bad thing.

  * Tangent*Most cocoa powder is "Dutched" or Dutch process and that means they've removed the cocoa butter which then gets turned into chocolates and white chocolate and non-food things.  So those tiny annoying balls of cocoa form from the residual cocoa butter and oils in the cocoa - and try as you may to smash them, they are stubborn.  * Tangent over*

So once it is as smooth as I can get it I pour it over a tiny screen to filter out the lumps and let the sauce pour through into another little pan.  I'll use a steeping ball made of mesh to do this since the wire is a very fine mesh.  Then on very low I'll scoop in the cherries, or cherry preserves.  Blending everything until it become a warm smooth syrupy bliss.

This will be a thin sauce, like a glaze.

You can now drizzle this over pork tenderloin, chicken, duck, a roast.  I get all sloppy and just toss the meat in it so it coats it like a really fancytown bbq.  This sauce likes a darker meat, a gamey meat best... but unless you're rich or a hunter you may be limited.

If you're vegetarian this is CRAZY delicious over garlic mashed potatoes!  No kidding at all.
It is also an intensely wonderful thing to sop up with bread and biscuits!

There are a million variations you can do on this.  Like using a liquer, sherry, lavender blossoms etc.
Enjoy!

Oven roasted herbed potatoes and carrots with pan fried Zucchini spears

When it comes to dinner, I like things savory, spicy and hearty.  So, when I am imagining a menu, I try and find things that satisfy these cravings but are also simple and relatively quick to make.   This entry is going to detail one of my very favorite easy-to-cook meals.  I sometimes refer to these as "man meals" because they can be made just as easily on a camp stove as a regular oven, and bachelors with virtually no cooking skills can throw together a meal that is sure to impress a dinner guest.

There are four components to this menu:  roasted root veggies, pan fried zucchini, mixed greens and a ketchup-like tomato sauce for dipping.

First, the root veggies:

• Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees
• Cut your veggies (I used garlic, potato and carrot) into evenly-sized sections that will cook at approximately the same pace -- so if it's potatoes, they should be slices less than a half inch thick, same goes for carrot rounds, and any others.  Veggies that go great in this dish are rutabagas (peel them first), parsnip, carrots, potatoes, onion, hot peppers, and garlic cloves.
• Put your mix of cut veggies in a large mixing bowl and add 1-3 Tbsp of sunflower or safflower oil (enough to coat your veggies)
• Add finely chopped fresh herbs (rosemary, marjoram, thyme) in equal amounts to the the mix -- you want enough to see a speckle of each kind of herb on every piece of veggie
• Add a tsp of coarse sea salt
• Mix the herbs, oil, and veggies together until they are evenly coated.  Make sure that no veggies are dry or without herbs (you can grate some fresh black pepper over it here, or sprinkle hot pepper seeds to make it extra spicy)
• Lightly oil your cookie sheet with sunflower or safflower oil.  Pour the mix onto a cookie sheet in a single layer, meaning that there are not veggies stacked on top of one another, and place in oven for 35 minutes, turning once 15 minutes in

Once this is in the oven for 15 minutes, it's time to make the pan-fried zucchini!  Don't do it too early, or it will get soggy.

• Start a pan warming up to medium high heat
• Add 1 Tbsp of sunflower or safflower oil to the pan -- make sure it doesn't smoke as this means the pan is way too hot.
• In a small, flat mixing bowl, pour in whole wheat (not enriched!) flour about an 1/8th of an inch deep
• Add 1/2 tsp of cracked black pepper, and any savory dried herbs like oregano, basil, rosemary and thyme -- you can use an Italian or herbs de provence mix.  The herbs should be about 1 tsp worth.  Mix it until the flour and herbs are a uniform consistency.
• Cut a single zucchini into long, flat sections.  If the skin is at all tough, peel it first.
• Run each piece of zucchini under water for a moment so it is moist, no need for egg-- then dip it in the flour/herb mix so it has a thin coating of the flour/herb mix
• Place the zucchini in the hot oiled frying pan and let them cook until the bottom is browned.  You want the flour to be completely cooked.
• Once done, place the pieces on a paper towel, resting on a plate to absorb excess oil.  If the timing is right, the root veggies in the oven should be ready to come out shortly.

Lastly, time to make some ketchup-like tomato dip.  This is optional because the other stuff is already super tasty.  I like it because it gives the meal more color and flexibility.

• In a small bowl, add 1/2 Cup of crushed canned tomatoes -- make sure it's 100% tomato and nothing else
• Add a pinch of allspice, clove, coriander, plus an even smaller pinch of something spicy like cayenne or dried hot peppers -- if you have a garlic powder you trust, add a pinch of that as well.
• Add 1/2 tsp of coarse sea salt
• Add 1 tsp of sugar, or honey  (you may want more depending on your taste, but mix first and let it sit before adding more -- too much sweet is no good)
• Mix thoroughly and either serve cold, or heat the mixture and serve hot

The last element is putting a nice bed of fresh raw greens on the side.  I recommend arugula, mustard, butter lettuce, cress, and turnip greens.   I'll make a note in a later potlicker on how to make your own "greens bed" in the back yard.

So, once it's all done, plate it up and serve to whomever you want to be impressed with your mad cooking skills.

Dill Mashed Potato Soup with Roasted Baby Broccoli

First... What the hell is Baby Broccoli if it isn't actually young broccoli?  Or Broccolini for that matter?   Let us not worry too much and just look for organic and sexy food.

This soup is a great one to herald in spring while enjoying the remnants of winter.  For those concerned with cholesterol make up your potatoes with a bit of olive oil instead of butter.  It is decadent tasting and compliments most foods.  I was having a bad mashed potato craving when this struck me.  For cream soups I often use a little bit of mashed potato and roasted garlic to give soups the creamy without cream. ( Boiling any milk usually makes even the most cast iron of stomachs a bit upset - it is the break down of protein that does this to any belly.  Boiling and frying being the most severe ways to do this.)  So it was not really any great stretch for me to just make up a soup that was mostly mashed potato.  It really was just over due!

Broth: For the soupy part I made a vegetable stock out of my veggie scraps (sometimes this includes apple peels, cores and pear peels and cores - its amazing with this. Cores are best without the seeds) I used a lot of water and made sure it covered the vegetables as I wanted a light colored broth and a fair amount of it.  I boiled the vegetables just until they were tender.  More than that and you're over doing it really.  No need for it. The whole it will taste better thing is chemical.  It will taste better with more and more days of boiling.  It would be like finding carrion vegetable carcass you are built to like it when it is not necessarily good for you but great for survival. So be aware why that happens. Besides over boiling makes a broth you have to strain or RE-strain.  I try to avoiding picking out debris.

Mashed potatoes: I used russet potatoes as they were handy and cheap.  Yukon golds are also AMAZING for this.  I kept a little of their boiling water with the potatoes after they are cooked to help blend and mash them with either butter or olive oil (I do a little of each as I have very low cholesterol and a strong heart - weak ankles but I'm hoping that isn't related to butter). After salt, pepper, butter and/or olive oil is blended into the potatoes and fluffed I added a giant handful of dill I washed and pulled all the frilly fronds from the stalks and piled them on top of the potatoes and let them wilt and folded them in.  Fresh dill is quite light in flavor and I have a hard time overdoing fresh herbs. I like a lot of them in there.

Baby Broccoli: For the baby broccoli I drizzle (really you don't need much) it with olive oil then lightly salt it, and for my tastes I sprinkle it with jalapeno seeds.  The oven is heated to 450 and once hot, the broccoli wont take long to get bright green with a couple of darkened patches.  I use the higher heat to keep the broccoli firm and crisp with a few roasty parts.  You can manipulate it if your OCD makes you.  Mine did... So I jossled it and put it back in.  Total cooking time plus OCD was not more than 20-25 minutes.  Just keep a close eye on it.

To serve pour a small amount of broth in a bowl make a nice little mountain of potato in the center and lay a mountain of broccoli over the peak.  Munch well!   I think an Asparagus version of this is in order.