According to my husband I’ve been really “knocking them out of the ball park” in terms of delicious and inventive things I put on his plate nightly. Here’s how last night’s dinner happened:
First, someone at work gave me a gallon sized zip loc bag filled with pecans (in the shell) from her neighbor’s tree. These have been sitting around for a couple of days. I tried shelling some and found it tedious and difficult but I grew up in a “you never waste food, what about the starving children in china?” kind of house so I was determined to use them.
I went to the grocery store on my way home from work not really thinking about the pecans but rather focused on making greens. I love greens and we haven’t been eating enough vegetables.
I picked up a big bag of washed, chopped, ready to cook turnip greens and a couple of nice bone in pork chops. Then I decided that pork is always nice with something sweet so I threw a couple of pears into my basket. Add a bottle of red wine (a 2001 Zinfandel, can’t remember the name) and I’m ready for check out.
Once I got home there were those damned pecans staring me in the face. Fine, I decided maybe I’d make some kind of dessert like thing with the pears and pecans so I started shelling. It was still tedious and difficult and I wasn’t enjoying the process so I decided I’d shell pecans for exactly 30 minutes (the time it took to watch Alton Brown on the Food channel) then I was going to do something with whatever I had in my bowl.
After my 30 minutes of shelling I headed into the kitchen. At this point I don’t really have any idea what I’m making except greens, pork chops and something with pears and pecans, then I spotted the figs in the refrigerator. Dried mission figs. I ate a couple for inspiration and finally it all started to come together in my brain…
Pecan crusted pork chops - I crushed up the pecans I’d shelled (it was only about 1/2 cup maybe less) and added about a table spoon of flour and some salt and pepper and put the mixture in a plate. Rubbed both sides of the chops with olive oil, pressed the chops into the pecan mixture to coat both sides and seared them on both sides before sticking them in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes.
Turnip Greens - I boiled them for about 5 minutes, drained them, the sauted them with garlic, salt and pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar
Pears and figs - Cored and sliced the pears fairly thin and sliced up the dried figs and removed the tough stems. Melted some butter in a non-stick pan. Added the pears and figs and what crumbs were left from the pecan mixture that I coated the porkchops with. I let that cook while the pork chops were cooking and then added a splash of water so to thicken that little bit of flour. It got all nice and carmelized and syrupy.
It was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever made and I’m quite proud so I thought I’d share it with you.
What did you have for dinner last night?
