Coca-Cola Pork Chops with Cinnamon Apples

My friend's mother always baked her delicious ham in coca-cola, so I thought it would be nice to brine some thick cut pork chops using coca-cola instead of water. WOW!! That was a terrifically tasty idea! Our pork chops were tender and packed with flavor. We served them with a baked potato and cast iron skillet cinnamon apples, all cooked on the Big Green Egg, of course.

INGREDIENTS

2 bone in thick- cut pork chops

-1 bottle of coca-cola (We like either the Mexican coke or the HEB brand with real sugar).

Brine Mix:

- 1/4 cup salt

-  three whole allspice

-1 whole clove

-1 tbs granulated garlic

-1 tbs dried onion flakes

-1 TBS dried rosemary and sage, orange zest.

In a small sauce pan, add brine mix and a bottle of coke and heat until salt is dissolved. Remove from heat and add 2-3 cups of ice to cool the mixture. Pour over chops in a ziploc bag and brine for 8-12 hours. An alternative method is not using salt, but coke and the other brine herbs and soak overnight. Then we rinsed the brine off the chops, dusted it with our favorite rub recipe and got ready to grill.

The next day, we heated up our Big Green Egg for indirect cooking with the legs of the plate up, and a grill plate on top. We cooked the chops for about 30 minutes, flipping once. They were so tasty!

For the Baked potato, we wrapped it in foil with coarse salt and cooked it high and fast on the BGE at about 500 for 45 minutes, then turned it down to 350 for the chops and apples.

Cinnamon Apples

-3 braeburn or granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

- 1 tbs Cinnamon

- pinch of fresh nutmeg

- 1/4 cup pineapple juice

-3 tbs butter, cubed

salt to taste

I buttered a small cast iron skillet, added the apple mix, dotted with butter and cooked it on the BGE with the chops. They were terrific! You can also bake them in the oven at 375 for 40 minutes. They cook quicker on the BGE for some reason.

Greek Dinner- Grilled Lamb Meatball Kabobs and Lemon Chicken

When I purchased my new car it came along with satellite radio and now I've become slightly obsessed with the Martha Stewart station. Yesterday they had Greek chef and restauranteur Maria Loi as a guest waxing poetically about Greek food. Inspired, I stopped off at Whole Foods on the way home to pick up some ingredients for a Greek Mixed Grill. I think I now get why people joke about Whole Foods as "Whole Paycheck" because this place is seriously draining my account! I have put myself on a $25 per diem allowance and have found it's been pretty fun shopping for daily specials and creating a menu around them. Ground lamb and veal were on sale, so I decided to grill some meatballs, organic bone-in chicken was on sale, so I threw that in the basket as well, plus some stuff for my low carb breakfast the next day. Oh and they had amazing artichokes begging to be grilled, so I bought some of those too. Total bill $24.92!

Prep work took about 35 minutes and was way worth it!

Ingredients:
- 1 medium sweet onion
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 green/spring onion
- 2 tbs Cavendar's Salt free Greek Seasoning
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Small bunch of Italian parsley
- 1 tablespoon Dried Greek Oregano
- Sea salt to season
- 1 egg
- 2 bone in chicken breasts
- 1/4 pound each ground lamb and veal

 First in a food processor, I pulsed a medium sweet onion, 3 cloves of garlic, a green onion, about a tablespoon of dried Greek oregano, the zest of one lemon, plus a small bunch of Italian Parsley added at the end. I seasoned with sea salt and Cavendar's salt free Greek seasoning.

 I then quartered the artichoke, scooped out the prickly, furry middle and set it inside a cold water bath with lemon juice to stop the chokes from browning. I placed them in my steamer to steam about 20 minutes.

I've found that if I don't have time for a long marinade, injecting meat works wonders! So we melted about a quarter of a stick of butter, added a few pinches of sea salt and injected the two chicken breasts until they almost burst. I could see how it would be fun for plastic surgeons to inject people with fillers! They end up looking just as plump as my chicken breasts! I then poured my onion mixture onto the chicken and under the skin, being sure to save about 4 tablespoons of the mixture for my meatballs and added fresh cracked pepper, sealed the chicken in a ziploc and placed it in the fridge to marinate for two  hours.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the egg then add the reserved onion mixture and blend in with the ground veal and lamb. Form them into 6 meatballs and skewer them with onion on metal skewers. Wrap in foil and pop in the freezer for about 20 minutes to really help cure them, then move to the fridge.

Meanwhile after 20 minutes, remove the artichokes and dunk them in cold ice water to stop the cooking. Place them in a ziploc and squeeze the juice of the zested lemon in the bag and pour several tablespoons of olive oil into the bag, plus 2 chopped garlic cloves, sea salt and a dash of garlic powder.

Go pour some cocktails or jump in the pool for about an hour and a half.

 General Bubbles likes to keep a watchful eye on things.

Michael really could be a hand model...

Then we lit the Big Green Egg and set the plate for indirect cooking at about 450 degrees. We placed the chicken on first and cooked it skin side up about 25 minutes, then we put the artichokes on, choke side up, plus the kabobs and cooked another 20-25 minutes rotating the artichokes and kabobs and flipping the chicken to brown the skin.

 Dinner is ready! Opa!!

 We served it with my smoked tomato and burrata salad plus grilled flat bread, Tzatziki sauce and had plenty of leftovers for the next day.  Absolutely delicious and makes me happy to be married to a Greek family!

Dr. Pepper Baby Back Ribs on Big Green Egg

It's not even summer yet, but the heat has been brutal with triple digit temperatures. I'm praying we don't have a repeat of last summer, which was the hottest and driest on record. One of the drawbacks of living in Austin is either it's boiling hot, or during the cool season, we are fighting horrific cedar allergies. But we love our city nonetheless! It's beautiful, the people are the best in Texas and our food scene is exploding. This heat means I need to spend as much time in the pool as possible, and less time inside the hot kitchen. Last weekend we were perusing our new Whole Foods and found a beautiful rack of Baby backs. That means it's time to grill up some Dr. Pepper Baby backs poolside with the Big Green Egg!! I think these may even be better than the ribs at Houston's/Bartletts restaurant. They have just a subtle hint of Dr. Pepper, and a great kick from the dry rub and bbq sauce. Serve with baked beans (Bush's Grillin' Beans are delish), homemade corn bread and you've got yourself a mouthwatering southern Sunday BBQ.

Here's How it's done:
Get a rack of baby backs, remove the membrane from the bottom of the ribs with a knife, or ask the butcher to do it for you. This will ensure your ribs will be very tender as the membrane does not break down. (We prefer Berkshire pork as they have terrific flavor BTW).

In a baking dish or foil pan, pour two bottles of Dublin Dr. Pepper (Sadly, they are no longer in business, but we like that they used cane sugar and now use the HEB brand Dr. B with pure cane sugar. The plain old cane sugar kind will work too though. I'm just kind of a snob). Throw in a couple of whole garlic cloves, sprinkle the tops of the ribs with dry rub, cover with foil and refrigerate overnight or 48 hours for a good soak. I've also fallen in love with Dizzy Dust brand Pineapple dizzy dust as a rub. AMAZING!!!

Dry Rub:
- 4tbs salt
- 2/3 cup granulated brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
- 1 tablespoon granulated onion
- 2 tablespoons paprik
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon dried mustard powder
- 2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons cayenne
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
-2tbs yellow mustard 
You will likely have plenty of rub left over to store in the pantry for future use. Great on chicken too!!

On the day of grilling, fire up the Green Egg and raise the temp to about 500 degrees. Then close the bottom and leave it open just a tiny bit. To prepare the ribs, slather with mustard and dry rub until thickly coated.

Close the top vents until barely open and close the bottom vent until there is just a tiny peek open and lower the temperature to 225 degrees. We also add a big chunk of Pecan wood once the temperature is down that has been soaked for a few hours in water. We cook the ribs indirectly and have the plate placed over the coals, with the legs facing up. We place a pan of water over the plate, then cover with the grill grate. I don't use a rib rack, but simply place the ribs directly on the grill, meat side up, sprinkle liberally with more rub and smoke them for 2 hours, spritzing them each hour with DP.

Then it's time to make these ribs meltingly tender. We fill a foil pan with a fresh bottle of Dr. Pepper, place the ribs meat up and baste with DP. Sprinkle a bit more rub if you'd like, cover tightly with foil and cook 3 hours more.

 

Ribs just before covering & cooking for another 3 hours.

Then after three hours are up, we baste again with DP, then paint on our favorite BBQ Sauce, and cook uncovered for one more hour, being sure to baste every 20 minutes with BBQ sauce. We LOVE Rufus Teague's Honey Sweet. I'm from North Texas originally, so we like our BBQ sweet, FYI. The more south you head, the more they like a vinegary style BBQ. No thanks, not for me :-) This recipe also works really well with coca cola- as long as it's made with real sugar and not the corn syrup junk.

Best BBQ Sauce EVER!! Especially if you stir in a little bourbon reduction. I love how the bottle looks like a whiskey flask!

 These babies are ready to eat!! See how the bones are sticking out a bit? That's when you know they are perfect and fork tender.

Dining in Bee Cave: The Riviera Bistro

We took a friend with Celiacs for dinner one evening. I have to say, I've done the whole GF thing and frankly, I always felt that I was sacrificing something.

Riviera Bistro delivered, and then some. The space is small, but cute, and I like how they have created a more defined space for themselves apart from the yoga studio. As much as I love yoga, I don't want to think about it when I'm about to devour some of the crispiest, most flavorful calamari I've ever tasted. My husband is pretty picky when it comes to calamari, and the fact that it was breaded with potato flour and perfectly flash fried and presented with a nice trio of sauces, (Basil mayo was the winner in my group), prompted him to declare it a new fave.

We also tried the chickpea bread which tasted so lovely, salty, almost a bit like curry, and had a soft and light consistency unlike most GF breads.

For our main courses, our lovely friend had the crispy salmon with polenta and she raved about it. I had the perfectly seared Scallops with red pepper polenta  and a cheesy veggie stack that tasted like veggie lasagna- minus the noodles of course. The serving size looks small and delicate upon initial presentation, but that must have been an optical illusion as I couldn't finish my plate.

My husband ordered the pork tenderloin with their GF mac n' cheese and he was  truly amazed about the al dente texture of the macaroni. I tried it, and it could stand up to any wheat noodle mac n' cheese dish found at most higher end places. This kitchen and chef know what they are doing...

And so does the wait staff. Our server was a gregarious and passionate lady that helped us make excellent choices not only for dinner but for our wine. She embodies the spirit of great customer service and really created a fabulous experience for us.

Smoked Tomato and Burrata Caprese Salad

I managed to salvage some tomatoes from my plant that the silly squirrels didn't harvest for themselves and found a nice ball of burrata cheese at Whole Foods. Burrata is much like fresh mozzarella, but is filled with the creamiest most sinful curd that it may just be my favorite cheese in the world.

The other night a friend and I had a fabulous tapas style meal at 11 Plates & Wine in Westlake and the waiter brought over some chilled, smoked tomatoes for us to try. This inspired me to smoke my tomatoes for a caprese salad. So we fired up the Big Green Egg to make some kabobs, I lightly coated them with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, wrapped them in foil and let them smoke for about 30 minutes at 250 degrees until they were tender. I dunked them in ice water to let them cool, slipped of their skins, sliced and served with the cheese and a nice 25 year old balsamic vinegar and drizzle of truffle oil. Sprinkle on some cypress salt and basil chiffonade and I may have found me favorite summer treat!