Pork Chops with Stir Fry Noodles, Goat Chops with Black Rice, Sausage Collard Pasta, Black Drum, Marinated Beets & More!

We welcomed back more and more spring goodies with these dishes, including green onions, cilantro, the first of the beets, bountiful mushrooms, collards and more.

Stir Fry Noodles with Pork Chops

I’d say these are Pad Thai adjacent, with a traditional tamarind, fish sauce, ginger and garlic sauce, slightly sweetened with honey, but missing peanuts, which I was out of!

I started by cooking a bunch of mushrooms in a dry cast iron pan (learned this tip a while back and recently relearned it from James with Family Fungi). If you’re patient, they brown and release their liquid without sucking up a bunch of oil.

Once that happened, I added a little sesame oil and cooked some onions, eventually adding carrots, pink daikon radishes, then the beginnings of the sauce with ginger and garlic and then sliced Napa cabbage that has been in my fridge forever, destined for kimchi that I have still yet to make!

Meanwhile I cooked some rice noodles and once the veggies were cooked and soft enough, scrambled some eggs with green onions in the center of the veggie pan. Then I added the noodles and tossed it all together.

I was originally going to slice these these XL pork chops to stir fry with the veggies, but they had such perfect fat caps, that I decided to cook them separately and serve on the side.

In lieu of bean sprouts, we had it with microgreens dressed with lots of lime juice, plus more green onions and cilantro.

Goat Chops with Black Rice Pilaf, Brussels Sprouts & Cilantro Sauce

Goat chops are the most popular cut besides ground goat, so I rarely pull any for us. But we did a big goat harvest this year and I decided we had enough to spare!

And wow, they are so good. These are the rack steaks, also known as rib chops. They are the same cut as ribeye on beef. The goat loin chops are the equivalent to T-bone steaks, or beef filet and NY strip cut together.

I salted the chops and seasoned with Smokey Shiitake and Black Garlic Seasoning and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours, then cooked with some fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme.

We also had a pilaf with black rice, sun dried tomatoes, green onions and kalamata olives and the last of the Brussels sprouts — pan fried in bacon fat. I’ve been making versions of homemade Bitchin Sauce almost weekly, using this recipe as a base. For this batch, I did half almonds and half cashews and added fresh cilantro. It was so delicious and perfect to drizzle on the chops, rice and Brussels sprouts.

Rigatoni with Sausage, Mushrooms & Collards

We have a sausage called simply “Hot Pork.” I tried it months ago when we first started getting the links, but we also recently had the butcher make some loose/ground sausage with the same spice blend. The spice companies often just list “spices” in the ingredient list, so I had to refresh my memory if it did have sage in it and breakfast sausage flavors.

So I took some home and made a pasta dish with it. We tried it after sautéing before adding anything else, and it indeed has sage and is very breakfast-y. And delicious! And not really all that spicy, either.

For the pasta, I also cooked down a bunch of mushrooms and then added onions and garlic and collard greens.

The pasta was Il Supremo’s cute short cut rigatoni, called Mezzi Rigatoni. We topped the finished dish with lemon zest and fresh grated parmesan and it came out so lovely. And great for lunch leftovers all week.

Parmesan Black Drum & Quick Marinated Beet Salad

I was so excited for the first beets of the season that I brought some home the very night we got them in from Two Dog Farms.

My favorite way to cook beets is just putting them on a trivet and steaming in the Instant Pot. For this size beet, I think I did 25 minutes. Then I put them in an ice bath and easily peel off the skins, slice and marinate in a mix of olive oil (this time I used orange infused olive oil), good vinegar (often balsamic, this time strawberry rose vinegar) and coconut aminos for a little umami, salty and sweetness at the same time. A lot of times I do grated garlic and lemon zest, too, but since I knew I was putting on greens with the cilantro nut sauce as a dressing, there were going to be enough big flavor that I skipped.

For the protein to go with it, I pulled a large Black Drum filet, cut it into four pieces and topped with a little truffle mayo, Trader Joe’s Green Goddess seasoning and fresh grated parmesan and then baked in the toaster oven for 10 minutes or so at 400 degrees. We also had some leftover black rice pilaf. It all was so good and the leftover beets were lovely as green salad toppings the rest of the week or just dipped into the cilantro sauce as a snack!

Flat Iron Steak Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette

Another quick weeknight meal that was simple, came together so easily and was so fresh and satisfying!

Flat iron steaks are cut from the top blade muscle of the chuck primal and have a big beefy flavor and are a great alternative to pricier cuts like ribeye and filet. If you sear and let it properly rest, then cut against the grain, it’s still fairly tender and perfect on a salad like this or for a rice bowl, tacos, etc.

I made a cilantro vinaigrette with some homemade carrot and pepper fermented hot sauce, olive oil, lime juice, green onions and coriander.

The salad was mixed greens, corn chow chow, fermented radish salsa and some salty grated fontinella cheese.

Truffle Black Garlic Egg Salad

Revisited this concept from the couple of weeks when we had already moved the stove over to our new house but were still living in our tiny house. I didn’t have a stove and had to do everything in the Instant Pot or toaster oven.

But this egg salad is also a dream for not having to peel eggs. You crack them into a bowl that can go into the Instant Pot, set on a trivet and add a cup or so of water to the base of the Instant Pot. This was 11 eggs, so I think I steamed for 5 minutes, let it sit for another 5 minutes and then released the pressure and put the bowl in an ice bath.

I topped with Smokey Shiitake & Black Garlic Seasoning, then chopped the eggs and mixed with truffle mayo, dijon, lemon juice and sea salt to taste. It’s really good and makes for quick breakfasts or lunches. I forgot to take any pictures, but I had it on baguettes and toast with homemade red kraut and chili crisp.