I decided to see if I could shrink my grocery budget any by going to Aldi instead of Kroger. Turns out, my bill came out about the same, plus, when I tried to cook dinner last night, I discovered that, aside from the couple of mushrooms on the top of the container, the rest were fucking disgusting. I'm gonna stick with Kroger, thank you very much.
I was able to restock my cream, olive oil, and extra virgin olive oil without breaking the bank, so that was nice, at least, and, since I finally had cream again, I wanted to make gravy. I diced up a radish, some yellow bell pepper, and half of a mini cucumber and sliced the (fucking THE) mushroom that was worth a damn for my gravy veg. I also chopped up a broccoli head, diced some cherry tomatoes, chopped some parsley, minced some basil, and thinly sliced some garlic for a side.
My protein for the meal was a pork chop seasoned with salt, black pepper, and ground sage. I started off by pan frying that beauty in butter.
The chop was a bit thin, so it didn't take very long to cook, which is always a blessing for a hungry fat man. Once it was done, I dumped in my gravy veggies and let them simmer in the pig juice and butter for a minute or two before I added some red wine and scraped the tastiness off the bottom of the pan.
I let the wine simmer and cook down for a few minutes, then added my cream. If you're making gravy like this and you find yourself thinking "God, that looks like vomit," you're on the right track. Just seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked down until the liquid starts thickening...that's some good shit, I promise.
I apparently made about a cup of gravy. I wasn't measuring on purpose; just had to clear it out of the pan. A quick rinse to get the remaining gravy out, and I was ready for the next dish: sautéed broccoli "salad."
Okay, so the first step is to throw the broccoli into the pan. I like to scorch it just a tad before I start the real cooking. You'll notice the stems browning just a scooch, or maybe the...little leaf part of the tree...fuck. You know what I'm talking about. Those little balls start getting darker.
After just a couple minutes, I poured in a little olive oil, then, a minute or two after, I dumped in the basil, parsley, tomato, and garlic. It turned out like I'd planned: light, tasty, and plenty of flavor, despite very little seasoning, because let's face it: garlic, basil, and parsley are gonna pack a punch on their own.
I tried something a little different with the plating. I poured a little bit of gravy into a bowl, then packed some rice in on top of it. Bowl upside down on the plate, careful removal, and boom: neat looking rice and gravy, and each bite of rice had gravy, so fuck yeah.
Outside of that, it was simply a matter of laying out the pork chop and topping it with gravy, then spooning some of the broccoli into the middle. Simple, delicious, and somewhat decently healthy. I mean, look at all the vegetables!
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