Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Three Beautiful Things 10-18-2022: Braising Pork in Curry Sauce, Baking Morning Glory Muffins, Home Runs Rule in the Major Leagues

1. A while back, I bought a large pork shoulder roast and cut it into about six hunks and froze them. Today, I thawed one of those hunks. I decided to see how a Thai yellow curry sauce would work as a braise and went to work on it. I heated a couple of tablespoons of Thai yellow curry paste in a small amount of sesame oil and then added two cans of coconut milk, two tbsp of soy sauce, two more of fish sauce, and two tbsp of brown sugar to the paste. I then sprinkled in some dried lime kaffir leaves. 

While the curry sauce simmered, I salted and seared the pork in the Dutch oven, surrounded it with Yukon gold potatoes, a roughly chopped onion, and chunks of carrot.

I poured the sauce over the pork and the vegetables, put the lid on the Dutch oven, and let this pork dish cook for about an hour in the oven at 300 degrees. 

That did it. 

I just needed to keep it warm and dinner would be ready when Debbie arrived home from school.

2. Yesterday, Debbie told me it would help her a lot if she could have a daily muffin to snack on when she needed something to help boost her energy during the day.

We agreed that I would bake about a dozen Morning Glory muffins.

I lacked a few ingredients here at home and buzzed over to Yoke's, shopped, and returned home.

The recipe I use to bake Morning Glory muffins is packed with ingredients, many of them all but guaranteeing that the muffins will come out of the oven moist and tasty.

It's a little bit of work.

I grated carrots. I grated an apple. I grated zucchini. I chopped pecans.

I combined the carrots, apple, zucchini, and pecans along with applesauce, crushed pineapple, vanilla extract, three eggs, coconut, and vegetable oil in one bowl.

In a second bowl, I combined all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 

I lined a muffin tin's holes with aluminum liners and preheated the oven at 350 degrees.

I combined the bowl of wet ingredients with the dry ones and mixed them with a big spoon until everything was blended into a flavorful glob.

I filled each muffin liner about two-thirds full of the glob and baked them for about 20-23 minutes.

I then baked a second batch. 

The recipe is here

Debbie sampled one.

She declared the muffins were perfect. 

She also enjoyed the curry braised pork and vegetables with rice leftover from last night.

It elates me when my efforts in the kitchen work out.

I enjoy being back into this groove again, like we were in Maryland, where I spend time in the afternoon fixing meals, trying out some new things, and keeping Debbie nourished for the challenging work she undertakes every school day at Pinehurst Elementary. 

3. While I cooked, I listened to the mighty New York Yankees defeat the upstart Cleveland Guardians, fueled by rockets ignited out of the park by Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge and by the nifty five innings Nestor Cortes spun, followed by a most effective committee of relievers over the last four innings. 

The Yankees had to fly to Houston later in the evening and will meet the powerful Astros on Wednesday without much rest. 

I didn't watch or listen to the National League game, but the Phillies also rode home run power to a 2-0 Game 1 victory over the Padres, thanks to solo round trippers by Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. I saw a replay of Schwarber's moon shot, a blast NASA itself could have launched during the Apollo years. 

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