Americanized Kung Pao Chicken

One of my new favorite websites is Serious Eats. Their head chef has some great recipes informed by testing out different ways of making each dish, and they also have other authors (read into that as you will). We tried both versions of Kenji Lopez's kung pao chicken, and were pleasantly surprised by both of them. Naturally, being filthy Americans, we were fans of the Americanized or "take out" version, which uses vinegar, bell peppers, and celery to create a delicious replica of the usual restaurant order. It was instantly obvious that white vinegar was the missing ingredient in some take-out recipes, so I'll be on the lookout for ways to shove this into other stir-fries. The authentic version uses a Chinese black vinegar known as Chinkiang vinegar along with leeks and Sichuan peppercorns, which is definitely worth checking out as well. Stay tuned for my repost of that recipe, or just go here for the original one.

Blackberry Chutney over Pork Medallions

If you're lucky, where you live is berry season right now.  You're probably seeing them popping up in the grocery store on sale - $2.99 for a 6 ounce tub, trucked in from nobody knows where (aka Mexico).  But a better alternative is getting up to a farm to buy them right off the bushes, or even to pick your own.  We went up this weekend and bought 10 pounds, adding to our 10 pounds of blueberries and 5 pounds of black raspberries from an earlier trip.  You may think that this sounds like too many, but I assure you, it is not.  We now have blueberry jalapeno jelly, raspberry jam, blackberry preserves, blackberry muffins, enough frozen berries to make smoothies through the year, and this gem.

Worried for about 5 minutes that maybe we went overboard with the blackberries, we went looking for recipes.  Good old Martha Stewart came through in a pinch, bringing us an assortment of about 20 different recipes ranging from desserts through drinks, with one savory dinner option.  This dish, pork medallions with a blackberry chutney, caught my eye, since I am a huge fan of the sweet / savory pairing, as well as the meats / sweets pairing.  The recipe looked easy, and we even had a couple of shallots lying around, so it was calling to us.  And the result was fantastic - tart, sweet, and with mellow caramel undertones from the molasses and sauteed shallots, we loved the blackberry chutney so much that we're trying to figure out what else we can serve it with.  So I have chosen to rearrange the name of this dish to showcase the chutney, which was by far the star in tonight's dinner.  It came together quickly, and had a short ingredient list, although you really do want good fresh berries, so some of the ingredients can be a bit fussy.  Don't make any substitutions beyond that, and you'll do really well with this dish.

If you can find it, get a pork tenderloin.  Not loin, that's too big and tough.  Tenderloin will do you well, and will cut up and cook easily.  We couldn't get our hands on one tonight, and used pork sirloin instead, which I think is a great runner up.  Otherwise, we followed Martha's recipe verbatim, which I reprint here.

Just a small fraction of the local blackberries we picked ourselves this weekend

Warm German Potato Salad (Kartoffelsalat)

Ah, potatoes - those tasty little tubers that seem to be on every menu in the Western world, and which can stump Dan Quayle in a spelling bee.  While potatoes are originally from the Americas (Peru, to be exact), some cultures over in Europe have managed to do amazing things with them in a the few centuries that they've been cultivated there.  And I'm not talking about the Irish.  I'm talking about the Germans, who transformed the potato salad of the United States into something entirely different.

German potato salad is pretty much the opposite of American potato salad.  It's served warm.  It has only a thin sauce to it.  It is almost entirely vinegar-based, as opposed to mayonnaise or mustard.  And you can practically eat it as its own meal, since it almost always has meat right in the dish.  And bad news for some of you - this dish isn't meant for the devoutly Jewish, as it contains bacon.

I mashed up this recipe from a few different sources, then tinkered to get the consistency I wanted.  The result is from too many places to cite just one, but if you look really hard you should see the same few ingredients in different orders or with different ratios all over the internet.  But you're here reading this one, so just roll with it.


German Potato Salad (Kartoffel Salat)

• 3 pounds Yukon gold or red potatoes
• 1/4 pound thick-cut bacon
• 3/4 cup finely chopped onion (white, yellow, bottoms of a green onion, and/or red)
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 green onions, tops, sliced thinly
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Scrub potatoes and place in a large pot.  Add water until potatoes are submerged at least 1".  Boil the potatoes until they are cooked through, at least 20 minutes.  If you use Russets here, they will be mealy and gross.  Go with a waxier potato like a red or Yukon gold.  Drain potatoes and allow to chill for at least a few hours, or preferably overnight.  Once cooled, slice potatoes into 1/4" thick rounds and set aside.

Boil the potatoes the night before if you can.  Then assemble just before serving

If you want a little kick to your salad, place the mustard seeds in the cold water and let hang out for 10 minutes.  If not, just skip this step.  In a fairly large saute pan, cook bacon until crispy, and set aside.  Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease from the pan.  Over medium heat, cook the onions until translucent, about 3-5 minutes.  I used the bottom of the green onion tops I would add later to complement red and yellow onions.

Saute your onion mix

Dissolve the flour in the water, and then add water, vinegar and mustard seeds, and deglaze the pan for a few seconds.  Add the salt, sugar, and flour, and stir to combine.  Now add the sliced potatoes to this and fold them into the sauce.  Once you have tossed this around a bit, added the parsley and green onions, and crumble the bacon and throw that in too.

Toss again to combine, and that's it!  Serve warm, and enjoy with whatever German food tickles your fancy.

It's bacon!