Friday Night, 24 hour pork

I was thinking fancy and French when I thought of another pork chop dish. I visualized a dish with a Frenched pork chop, which just means the bone is cleaned off of all the fat and it just looks fancy propped up in the plate. I was also wanting to brine to get a super tender piece of pork. I happened to be watching Bobby Flay's "Grill it", the few days leading up to Friday Night and it was a show on pork chops. The guy he had on the show brined his in beer, cider and spices for 24 hours and Bobby Flay loved it when he tasted it he couldn't believe how flavorful it was and everything. So I made it just how he said and I have to say I was very disappointed. Unless you want to make Ham, because that is what it tasted like, and even the texture was just like Ham. As far as the Frenched bone goes... I asked for 2 pork chops at the meat counter and all of them in my view were center cut pork chops and they all looked good. I guess the ones hidden from my view were different. I should have showed him the ones I wanted but I didn't and I got something that looked like a porterhouse cut with the fillet and the strip (if you will), and no bone to French!!

White Bean Hummus with Homemade Pita

Actually I used Chick Peas. I didn't have white beans in the pantry. But I did something different. Usually there are no nuts in hummus, there is usually sesame paste which I never use, but I added a handful of Pine Nuts to the mix. The nuts added a nice texture, I will do that again. I have a couple bread cookbooks, I love making bread, and there is a recipe for Pita bread in my Paul Hollywood book. Super easy to make and it's 5 minutes of kneading and 60 minutes of resting then it bakes for 5-10 minutes and done. Super delicious with the hummus.

24 Hour Brined Porterhouse Pork Chops

I described this pork above but it also had a cider glaze. I love cooking with apple cider. It gives a nice sweetness to dishes with out using sugar. This is just apple cider that is cooked down until it has a syrupy consistency and then brushed on the finished chop. I will do that again, it even makes the presentation nicer because of the shine it adds to the chop.

Celeriac Puree

Just how it sounds. I boiled it up as I would to make mashed potatoes and added salt, pepper and butter.

Provincial Tomatoes

I have been making things from Jacques and Julia's cookbook lately and this was one that Julia did. We liked it for something different, its a good side dish.

French Style Chocolate Souffle with homemade Caramel Ice Cream

I was watching "Follow That Food", and they were doing follow that egg. A restaurant in France made this souffle and it looked fabulous. I couldn't make it in advance so after we finished dinner I whipped this up in minutes (because I prepped everything and it was ready to be assembled). It was very good but I undercooked it a little. In the show the chef said it's very good when you scoop a bit of the chocolate souffle out and eat it and then fill the hole with caramel ice cream. I found a recipe elsewhere for caramel ice cream and that is absolutely our new favorite ice cream, you gotta try making it. He was right the two are perfect together.