Pork chop with a Mead reduction, Peanut Butter-Ginger Carrots and Truffle-Scented Garlic & Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes

I heard about cooking with mead some time back, and decided to give it a try.

I cooked the pork chop on the stove top. When it was finished, I removed it to rest and deglazed the pan with the mead. To the mead I added a reduced-sodium beef bouillon cube. I cooked down the mead until it was the consistency of a thick syrup, before finishing it with a little butter. The sauce turned out to be both sweet and savory, and very potent (a little went a long way).

The peanut butter-ginger glaze for the carrots I made by mixing peanut butter, crystallized ginger, a little brown sugar and heavy cream. To that, I added some melted butter. I mixed the glaze in with the cooked carrots. The result was a little too sweet (probably will omit the sugar next time). It would probably have worked with a spicy entrée, but not with the mead reduction, that was a little sweet itself.

The potatoes were my standard recipe (Garlic & Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes) with a little truffle oil mixed in.

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Bacon & Black Walnut Pesto

I started out with this recipe Black Walnut Pesto.

My basil leaves were pretty small, so I added some extra. I put the basil, walnuts and dried garlic (I was all out of fresh) into a mortar and pestle, and ground to a paste. Meanwhile, I had the butter and olive oil heating on the stove. I cooked the butter until it started turning brown, then I pulled it from the heat and added the basil mixture. I stirred it until it stopped sizzling, before adding some bacon bits and grated Romano (what’s pesto without some cheese?). I used a little pasta water to thin it a little.

I served it over some store-bought spinach and ricotta tortellini, and voilà…

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Garlic & Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes

Let me start by saying that I’m a fan of instant mashed potatoes.  As I see it, there are two differences between instand and from-scratch mashed potatoes:

1. From-scratch require a lot more time and effort.
2. They can also end up lumpy.

For those of you still reading, we will continue.

Garlic & Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes

• 1 cup potato flakes
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk
• Chicken bouillon, to taste
• 1/2T garlic powder
• Extra-virgin olive oil

Combine flakes, water and milk in a 4 cup glass bowl.  The chicken bouillon is used in place of salt, so add to-taste.  Mix thoroughly, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes (plus or minus, depending on your microwave).  Remove plastic and add garlic.  Add olive oil and stir until reaching desired consistency.

This is just the basic recipe.  You can add additional spices (like rosemary) or cheese (cheddar, pepperjack, goat cheese, etc) after cooking, or sun-dried tomatoes (before cooking).

Feel free to eliminate the garlic and/or replace the olive oil with butter and/or cream.

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