Pork with a Corn and Cabbage Salsa

 

Pork with a Corn and Cabbage Salsa

The salsa works well with chicken and fish too.

Salsa

• 3 ears small to medium fresh corn
• 3/4 cup finely chopped red cabbage
• 1/2 cup chopped tomato
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)

Pork Chop

• 2 center cut pork chops (bone in or boneless)
• Kosher salt
• fresh ground black pepper

Salsa

1. Shuck the corn and boil for 5 minutes

2. Remove the kernels with a chef's knife

3. Finely chop the red cabbage

4. Chop the tomato into small pieces

5. Add the honey, vinegar, salt, cayenne pepper and taste. Adjust the seasonings to your taste.

Pork

1. Season well with salt and pepper.

2. On a grill, or in a grill pan, or cast iron skillet, cook until the pork is firm to the touch. With a meat thermometer, the temperature should read about 160 degrees.

Plating

1. Give the salsa a stir and spoon over the pork.

Cook the pork in a hot pan, or grill - about 5 minutes per side depending on the thickness. Thin sliced pork fillets will cook faster.

If the pork has a slight amount of pinkness in the center, this is okay. It will be very tender. Also, there hasn't been a case

Chunky Salsa

Tomato, jalapeno, garlic, onion and cilantro make the base.

Place the veg into a container and season with salt, red wine vinegar and honey. It was pretty watery. I used some corn flour to thicken it up and tone down the heat from the jalapeno.

Sometimes the jalapeno is like a green pepper and has no heat (but good flavor). Then there are ones that are super hot. My jalapeno was somewhere in-between. I used a whole one, seeds and all. The back of my mouth is still burning. Oh, and when you are done handling the peppers, wash your hands. Even the slightest bit of pepper oil from the pepper skin will get on your fingers. The last thing you want to do is then rub your eye or some other sensitive spot.

When working with jalapenos, cut a small slice from the pepper and taste. This way you can judge the heat.

Stir everything together. You can enjoy immediately or wait until the next day after all the flavors have been combined well.



This is a dip but I'll spoon it on an omelette; put it on a hot dog; put it on a burrito; in a taco or as a topping for a bowl of chili.

Homemade Chips and Habanero Salsa

Salsa is a great treat to eat and make. Making it forces you to find that balance between sweetness, tartness, spicy, salty and bitter. It's a great lesson in combining flavors.



Two cups canned San Marzano tomatoes, pureed or fresh ripe tomatoes if in season
1/4 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, sliced
Cilantro, one handful, chopped
1/2 habanero pepper
Cumin
Salt
Olive oil
Honey
Lime juice

For the chips:

Flour tortilla
Ancho chili powder
Salt

Take two tortillas, stack them and cut into eighths with a pizza wheel or a knife. The yield will be 16 chips. Cut up more tortillas for more chips.

Place the tortilla chips on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 oven until blistering and brown - about 20-25 minutes. While they bake, make the salsa.

Check the habanero pepper for heat by cutting off a little sliver and tasting it. If your tongue is on fire, you got a hot one. If not, you might want to try 1/2 a habanero. You can use other spicy peppers. You can even use cayenne pepper or your favorite hot sauce for that spicy kick.

Blend the tomatoes. Add all the other ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Adjust the seasonings as desired. Why the olive oil? It adds a shine to finished product.

When the chips are done, season with salt and ancho chili powder.

Enjoy!

They All Can't Be Winners

Salsa is a great condiment or dip. For a cook, making salsa teaches flavors and combinations of flavors.

I had the saltiness. I had the sweet from a touch of honey. For heat I had a jalapeno. For the tang I had lime juice and the tomatoes. For the bitter accent I had fresh cilantro and some onion. For shine, a little olive oil.

I decided to get fancy and roast the vegetables. Mistake number one. Everything dried out.

The tomatoes were "tomatoes on the vine". They were the only tomatoes that looked decent. They were this weird yellowish orange on the inside. Mistake number two.

The salsa was so thick you could stand up a spoon. The color was totally off.



Appetizing, isn't it?

This time of year, grape or cherry tomatoes are probably the best bet for salsa. That or canned crushed tomatoes.

Once again, the best ingredients you can get generally make for the best finished product.

Other cookbooks will show only the wins and not the fails. Today I failed. Tomorrow I'll see if I can't get a win.