Pork Recipes
Are you familiar with Cook's Illustrated? It's a magazine and a website from the same people who create the PBS show America's Test Kitchen. It's the only cooking show we watch with any regularity, and we read each issue of...
An easy way to dress up a simple pork roast is to wrap it in bacon. The bacon fat brings extra juiciness and flavor to the roast.
Recently I spent an afternoon helping my friend Becca cook up a large batch of jambalaya. Becca is from Biloxi, Mississippi and has been making jambalaya for years.
Enter any Mexican taqueria in California and you'll find carnitas on the menu, usually pork butt (the shoulder roast) braised first, pulled apart, and then roasted on high heat to caramelize. This is my father's favorite recipe for pork carnitas...
Walk into almost any taqueria in this country and you will find chile verde on the menu. The chile will likely be made with chunks of pork shoulder, slow cooked in a green chile sauce of jalapeno chiles, garlic, and...
Guaymas Restaurant in Tiburon is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Northern California and their Chile Poblano is the best item on the menu. It is a green poblano chili stuffed with a picadillo and covered in a walnut creme sauce...
We picked this recipe up years ago in the Sacramento Bee, from an article about Bill Niman (formerly of Niman Ranch). They got the recipe from Gary Fuller of Laurier Cafe and Wine in Houston, Texas. The recipe cooks up...
Several years ago a Rick Bayless recipe for chipotle meatballs appeared in the Wednesday section of the New York Times. Fortunately we didn't notice the recipe until a correction for it appeared in a subsequent paper, correcting the 2 cans...
Under the headings of quick, easy, and a good way to stretch a half pound of pork, I present my friend Heidi's Citrus Pork with Egg Noodles. I'll admit that I was skeptical at first, but it's surprisingly good and...
Why do I love meatloaf? It reminds me of being a kid. Where does one get meatloaf other than at home or at a school cafeteria? When I lived in San Francisco I bought meatloaf already mixed and seasoned from...
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Simple Recipes contributor Hank Shaw's Cochinita Pibil, or pulled pork braised in citrus and achiote. ~Elise Cochinita pibil (ko-chin-ee-ta pee-beel) is an easy braised pork dish that originally comes from the Yucatan in Mexico. It...
Let's be frank. If you are of a certain age in this country, and you don't live on a ranch where there are, say, actual cowboys, if I mention the words "cowboy beans" to you, what comes to mind? Uh...
September has arrived and with it, hints of fall, ripening apples, and kids everywhere going back to school. We found this recipe in a local grocery circular and just happened to have a pork roast in the freezer longing to...
Crown roasts to me have always seemed rather intimidating. So when my father decided that he wanted to make a crown pork roast for the benefit of any of our readers who actually might want to tackle it one day...
Planning a holiday party? Consider putting these empanadas on your to-do list for appetizers. If you are not familiar with empanadas, they are basically turnovers, usually stuffed with a savory minced meat filling, and popular throughout the Spanish and Portuguese...
I met Iowa hog farmer Paul Willis at the Fancy Food Show in January and naturally our conversation turned to food and recipes. "Have you ever had a pork burger?," Paul asked, eyes bright. Upon hearing my response in the...
Hank introduced me to this Brazilian black bean stew a couple months ago and I couldn't stop eating it. It is outstanding. And perfect for the chilly weather we're having these days. ~Elise This is another of those big, hearty...
A favorite from the archives. A new post and recipe will be up soon, I promise! ~Elise All I had to do was read the ingredient list of this recipe and my father was half-way out the door to the...
My father turned to me the other day and remarked, "I like anything made with pork." No duh dad. With a name like Bauer, what do you expect? The man practically has sauerkraut juice running through his veins. Here is...
A big baked ham is one of the easiest things to prepare for a holiday celebration. It's economical, even a half-ham can feed a dozen people with leftovers, and a full ham typically goes on sale the week before Easter...
I remarked to my father than we had been doing a lot of salads and veggies lately and without missing a beat dad said, "I want to make stuffed hot dogs," adding, "on the grill," pointing to a particularly appetizing...
The secret to grilling pork tenderloin, as I learned from my friend Vaughn, is to watch it carefully, with a meat thermometer in hand, because "once it goes, it goes quickly." A pork tenderloin is a long, narrow cut of...
As any Southerner will tell you, the proper way to cook ribs is to barbecue them "low and slow" in a smoker built for that purpose. But not everyone has a smoker, and not all of us have the time...
For the Easter holiday, I thought I would adapt my mushroom quiche recipe into a Spring brunch dish, with asparagus and ham. It turned out great, my one note is to not add any salt as the ham brings enough...
Summer peaches, pork, grill, herbs, yum. There's something wonderful about this combination. As you know, pork plays well with fruit. Here we're pairing pork tenderloin with fresh peaches, and grilling them both for smokey goodness. Tender as it is, pork...
Here are two basic ways of making gravy from roast drippings, one using corn starch, the other using flour. In each case, you start with the roast drippings. You may have much more drippings than you need for the amount...
Please welcome guest author Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook as he walks us through the steps of homemade sausage-making. (more photos) ~Elise Making sausage at home is one of those lost arts that really is not so difficult...
My parents have been making spaghetti this way for several years, ever since first learning about this method from watching a Martha Stewart program. Martha apparently got it from some famous chef in New York City. The beauty of this...
My father loves ratatouille and Italian sausage, so when he saw a recipe in a magazine that combined the two, he was inspired to create his own version. This is a great way to use up last-of-the-season garden vegetables.
I love baked liver pâté, or "pâté maison" as it is sometimes called. It is especially good with French bread and sweet pickles.
We must be on a meatball kick around here; when we saw this recipe in the weekend Wall St. Journal, we made it the same day. The Wall St. Journal, by the way, recently started publishing a "Weekend Edition" which...
Do you like Italian meatballs? I've been fishing around for a while for a good meatball recipe and have found it in this one. The basic idea is to take a base of ground pork, mix in other meat such...
Got your grill going? Join Hank for some Memphis ribs! ~Elise There are wet ribs, sticky with a succulent, spicy barbecue sauce, and there are dry ribs, where the flavor is all in the dried mixture of herbs and spices...
Sometimes the best food is really the simplest. We experiment frequently with different ways of preparing pork chops, but the way we have pork chops most regularly is with a simple dry rub and pan frying. My mother's been making...
Where to begin with these? Hank and I got an inkling to do a more "retro" recipe, and somehow we ended up with ham balls. Pineapple glazed ham balls. Let's just say the jokes were flying today, Hank being the...
A stew with sauerkraut, a whole head of cabbage, and 3 types of pork? You should have seen my dad's eyes when I told him Hank was making this recipe for us. Enjoy. ~Elise Also known as bigos, this hearty...
This is one of the first recipes I learned to cook from the Silver Palate Cookbook decades ago. I've made some adjustments to the recipe over the years. The original recipe calls for black currant jelly. I find red currant...
We eat a lot of pork in this family, even given my father's Germanic background. Pork chops are the most convenient, which is probably why I remember my mother serving them so often growing up. The chops were thinner, and...
Picadillo is a spicy Latin American meat dish often served as a stuffing in chilies, taco filling, or served with rice. I nabbed this recipe from my friend Heidi H's recipe collection one day because it looked intriguing. What a...
Dad clipped this recipe from Bon Appetit several years ago and finally got around to making it this evening. It was excellent, and very easy to prepare. The mustard, capers, shallots, broth, and cream make a wonderful sauce for the...
There are two, no make that three, secrets to making an excellent pork roast. The first is to brine the roast; brining helps the roast retain moisture when it cooks. The second is to not overcook the pork. Take the...
The first time I traveled to the land of my Austrian ancestors I was taken to a restaurant where I saw "schnitzel" on the menu. Of course I ordered it, thinking I could use a good German sausage in a...
My old neighborhood in San Francisco used to have a fabulous Hungarian restaurant where I loved to go for pork stuffed cabbage rolls. The restaurant has since gone out of business, but my love for the dish remains.
Updated, from the recipe archive. Originally posted in 2004. Pork tenderloin is one of my favorite things to cook, especially for a midweek meal. It's no fuss, partners well with fruit (especially apples), onions, or mustard, loves spice rubs, and...
Figs! When they're in season, well the box filleth over. If you have ever had a fig tree, you know what I mean. Fig trees rain figs. (Oddly they rain leaves too. When it comes time, one day you have...
Watch out. This mushroom bourbon cream sauce is so addictive, you'll want to eat it by the cupfuls. Mushrooms and onions browned, then cooked in wine reduction, then a reduction of stock and Bourbon, then cream. Basil is added at...
Years ago when I spent a summer studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, my Mexican teacher told me that it was much easier to pronounce the language properly if you smiled as you spoke it. She was right! Good thing Mexican...
We are constantly trying out new recipes here at Casa Elise, and even jokingly refer to our kitchen as the "test kitchen". However, many recipes never make it to this site because often they just aren't good enough. In fact...
Pulled pork sandwiches can hardly be called sandwiches. The sauce soaks into the buns and if you tried to pick one up with your hands it would completely fall apart. Well, perhaps if you used a sturdier bun, and wrapped...
Easy to make liver pate recipe, made with chicken livers and pork sausage, wrapped in bacon, well seasoned with herbs and spices. Also known as "pâté (pate) campagne".
Another Italian classic from Hank Shaw. Enjoy! ~Elise This is a classic dish from Venice, and it has many variations. Risi e bisi simply means rice and peas, and the dish is traditionally made with the fresh new peas of...
Carnitas are the Mexican version of pulled pork. Braised first in a spicy sauce, pork shoulder is slow cooked until so tender the meat just shreds easily with a fork, then it's roasted at high heat to make crispy browned...
Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Sausage, peppers, and onions. This is one of those classic Italian American street-food, lunch cart dishes. I used to order them at a hole-in-the-wall lunch counter in Burbank, you know the type of place where the big...
My father loves to watch cooking shows and is often inspired to try out a new dish he sees prepared on a show. Today he drew inspiration from Weir Cooking in the City a program of public television KQED in...
When it comes to the grill or barbecue, I defer to my colleague Hank, especially when it concerns meat. Here he shows us how to cook pork country ribs, slow and low. ~Elise Country ribs. Big slabs of porky goodness...
We pulled this recipe recently from the Wall St. Journal and finally made it the other night. It was absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I've never tasted pork so tender. The "Melted Apples" part is the gravy, which is prepared in part...
Leave it to my Germanic father to find yet another twist on pork and sauerkraut. Yes, we already have a perfectly good recipe for spare ribs and sauerkraut which we've been making for years. No, that's not enough to deter...
Spareribs with sauerkraut is something I've never had outside of my own home. My father claims that there are restaurants in Minnesota (where he grew up) that serve them. But I certainly have never seen them as a menu item...
Is it stew weather? I think it's finally stew weather here at least. This morning a thick, chilly fog bank settled on the northern central valley and didn't lift until after 10. We actually made this stew in early summer...
My father is of German Austrian descent, so naturally we eat a lot of pork chops and sauerkraut. Recipes containing the same have almost a genetic pull over him. Add some kielbasa and the urge to try the recipe becomes...
We had a hankering for a pork roast recently and found this relatively easy stuffed pork shoulder recipe in an old The Good Cook cookbook on pork from Time Life (1979). These Time Life Good Cook books are by the...
IKEA may have helped popularize Swedish meatballs in this country, but my first experience of them came in the form of room service at a hotel in Stockholm. I was traveling alone for business, holed up in my room in...
Recipe updated August 2011. A great, simple dish of pork chops, seared and then finished in the oven with a maple syrup-vinegar-Worcestershire sauce gravy, which gives the pork a bit of a sweet and sour flavor. We've adapted this recipe...
We've had some wonderfully cold, rainy, winter storms here lately in Northern California. This soup is the perfect hardy accompaniment to a cold winter day. Note, this soup is the kind that is much better the next day, as the...
Okay, so why didn't we think of this earlier? White beans, Italian sausage, tomato sauce. It's sort of like spaghetti but with white beans instead of pasta. Filling? Yes. Resistible? No.
