The Knife and Fork

One man's opinion on cooking (and drinking)

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Side Dish - Roasted Tomatoes and Onions

A recent evening I had two beautiful pork rib chops slated for dinner but really didn't know what to serve with them. The wife was dead set on making polenta with a tomato mushroom ragout to go with them, but that was almost a standalone dish. I wanted something to complement the pork chops without being too heavy-handed. Taking a cue from mother, I used what I had on hand - a pile of marginal tomatoes and an onion. I simply halved the tomatoes and sliced the onions in slivers, tossed them all with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them at 400 degrees while making the pork chops. I seared the chops in a cast iron pan and finished them in the oven with the tomato/onion mixture.

The sheet pan may look like hell but look at those stunning chops.
I pulled the tomatoes and onions when they were clearly caramelized and let them rest while I finished the chops. The chops were done when I pushed on them with my finger and they stopped yielding. Nothing is worse than a dry pork chop. I placed a bed of arugula on the plate for the chops to rest on and topped them with the tomato-onion mixture. The juices the chops yield while resting wilted the arugula and made an additional sauce that went great with the tomato-onion topping. Mother would be proud.
This would also be good with a chicken breast or firm white fish.

Shrimp Cocktail

We hosted a dinner party the other night and roasted a whole tenderloin roast. I had cut off the narrow tail end of the roast that would have been overcooked and was planning on making it for dinner tonight. It was pretty slight, making me think I needed to fortify the meal so I bought some small shrimp from the grocery store. These weren't high grade shrimp but I had no choice - we don't have a Whole Foods in our area. The wife didn't like the "surf 'n turf" entree idea (good call - it's kind of a white-trash-with-money menu item anyway) so I decided to make Ina Garten's shrimp cocktail. I was interested in her technique of roasting the shrimp in olive oil, kosher salt and pepper rather than boiling them. It seemed like the flavor would be more intense and it was. As an added benefit, the production was easy. Large shrimp take about 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven while these shrimpy shrimp took about 6 minutes. The cocktail sauce was good but I think a remoulade sauce may have been even better. I tweaked Ina's cocktail sauce by using lemon zest in addition to the juice. Here is her recipe for this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-shrimp-cocktail-recipe/index.html

A square plate makes everything look better.