Must love onions...
Last night, on our quest to cook at least 2 new dishes a week, I undertook the task of Japanese Style Pork. Overall, very yummy but I would make a few changes and I ran into a few problems
The Preparation
Problem 1 : I never really the read the recipe before hand but more glance at what it requires. Onions, ginger, salt, pork, etc. Last night though, I needed pork cutlet (i.e. very thin) and all I had was thick sliced! Oops...guess it is time to break out the meat mallet! I beat that poor piece of pork for what seemed like forever and really didn't get it much thinner. Ok, we'll just test our culinary skills by alternating the cooking time and method. Instead of cooking only in the skillet, I browned them on the stove and finished them in the oven to keep the moisture in the meat.
Problem 2: The recipe way underestimates the amount of time needed to soften the onions. They say 10 minutes...it's more like 20 on a low simmer. Could easily speed up by increasing the heat but the 20 minutes actually worked into my timeline better.
The Finished Product:
The dish was yummy. It has a strong onion taste with a hint of ginger. Since there is only 2 of us, I halved the onion/sauce mixture and the amount was perfect. Definitely buy low sodium soy sauce though because this calls for 1/4 cup of it! The recipe calls for it to be served with white rice but I pretty much detest plain white rice so we did rice pilaf instead. Throw in some fresh asparagus and the meal was complete.
Hope you like your pork crispy! Yum, look at all those yummy onions!
Now, we don't eat a meal (except maybe breakfast) in our house without some form of dessert! Those of you that know me personally can attest because I have the rear end to prove I clean my dessert plate ;) Last night, we had One Bowl Mocha Cream Cake from Cooking Light. I LOVE this cake but would 1/2 the amount of topping on it because I'm not into the whip cream type frosting.
Chocolate Syrup is fat free!
Chocolate, Cream, and More Chocolate....all with a hint of coffee!
Andrew's Rating and Comments:
Dinner: 7.5 on scale of 1 to 10. Suggests taking out ginger slices before adding onion mixture to pork. Also, reduce onion amount (he hates onion though).
Dessert: 9 out of 10. Wants more chocolate syrup.
Japanese Style Pork
Ingredients:
1 Medium Onion, sliced
4 slices of fresh ginger
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
1 lb thin sliced pork chops
1/2 cup veggie oil (I actually do 1/2 seasame and 1/2 veggie)
2-3 cups panko crumbs
5 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 scallions, finely chopped
Directions:
1) In large saute pan, simmer on low onion, ginger, broth, soy sauce, and sugar until onions are tender, about 20 minutes.
2) Mix flour, salt and pepper in plate. Beat eggs in separate bowl. In a pie plate, pour panko crumbs.
3) In separate saute pan, heat oil over medium heat. One by one, roll pork chops in flour mixture. Then, dip in egg mixture followed by panko. Dip in egg followed by panko crumbs again to "double bread"
4) Please pork chops in the saute pan and cook until browned. About 3-4 minutes per side.
5) Top with onion/broth mixture and sprinkle with scallions.
One Bowl Mocha Cream Cake
Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup hot strong brewed coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
Cooking spray
Mocha Cream:
1/4 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme
1 (8-ounce) container frozen light whipped topping, thawed
1/3 cup light chocolate syrup (such as Hershey's Lite Syrup)
Preheat oven to 350°.
To prepare cake, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 6 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Add mayonnaise and oil; beat with a mixer at low speed until well blended. Slowly add brewed coffee and vanilla; beat with a mixer at low speed 1 minute or until well blended. Stir in chocolate; pour batter into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
To prepare mocha cream, combine water and coffee granules in a large bowl; stir until granules dissolve. Add marshmallow creme; beat with a mixer at low speed until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mocha cream over top of cake; drizzle with chocolate syrup. Chill until ready to serve.
Yield: 16 servings
NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 315(23% from fat); FAT 8.1g (sat 3.2g,mono 2.6g,poly 1.9g); PROTEIN 2.6g; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 46mg; SODIUM 390mg; FIBER 1.8g; IRON 1.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 60g