Honey Habanada Pork Chops, Brisket Rice Bowls, Sheepshead White Bean Chowder & Herby Goat Burgers

We’ve had two different guests staying with us over the last week, so had to have some really good meals with them! And we’ve been upping our Brussels sprouts game with two different fried versions to really get that crispy, caramelized action going on.

Honey Habanada Pork Chops with Carrots, Turnips & Polenta

Sometimes we end up with a few single packaged pork chops at the shop — we’re happy to leave them for shoppers to pick up, but since our chops are primarily packaged with two per pack, we never add single chops to the online inventory.

So when they pile up, I figure it’s time for us to eat them! I also pulled some other two packs from inventory to make a large enough meal and leftovers.

This meal was inspired by a New York Times recipe for Honey Habanero Pork Chops. Instead of habanero peppers though, I thought this was a perfect use of the sweet habanada peppers I had stashed in the freezer from Two Dog Farms. Habanada peppers are a habanero banana pepper cross that is bred with no heat. So you get that potent floral flavor without the overpowering heat.

So I mostly followed the recipe, but I used chili lime seasoning and coriander instead of paprika to season the chops and more diced peppers since I wasn’t worried about the spice level. I also added some small hakurei turnips to the carrots.

We had the chops and veggies with polenta cooked with bone broth and a simple salad with homemade ranch-esque dressing, pumpkin seeds and crunchy onions. It was all really delicious together.

Instant Pot Gochujang Brisket Rice Bowls with Fried Brussels Sprouts

This was another fun meal with guests that doubled as great leftovers for meal prep.

I cut a 4+ pound brisket in two pieces and seared on all sides in a cast iron skillet. Then I set it on the trivet in the Instant Pot filled with a little beef bone broth and rice vinegar. Then I rubbed the brisket with gochujang, sea salt and garlic powder and drizzled in some coconut aminos, honey and soy sauce. Brisket can take awhile to reach falling apart status, so I set it for an hour and 50 minutes.

We had it with basmati rice and homemade cucumber kimchi. Plus, Grant tried his hand at deep frying some Brussels sprouts (in our abundant pastured lard). They took some patience (and doing them in batches), but they came out really good! And then to make everything extra decadent, we topped everything with a homemade spicy mayo.

Sheepshead and White Bean Chowder with Leeks

I like to vary up our proteins and include fish in the mix of recipes, but fish can be a hard thing to meal prep and reheat. But I thought a chowder, where the fish was submerged in a delicious broth, might work as meal prep.

I started by making a batch of chicken bone broth with raw backs and necks, along with cooked chicken bones we’ve stashed in the freezer from a few recent meals.

Then I used a little of that broth to cook soaked white beans in the Instant Pot. I always use a piece of kombu to help with digestibility. I didn’t salt the beans before cooking to help them keep from falling apart before being added to the soup.

For the soup, I sautéed a bunch of leeks, celery and garlic with some white miso until everything got a little caramelized. Then I added the beans, more broth and sheepshead I cut into large cubes. It’s a fairly firm fish, but I didn’t want to cut it too small and have it fall apart.

The first night we had the chowder topped with parmesan, along with a strawberry, pistachio and goat cheese salad and buttered baguettes, a great combination. And the chowder did indeed reheat just fine without tasting or smelling too fishy!

Herby Goat Burgers with Turnips & Brussels Sprouts

With guests at the kitchen island while I was cooking this, I forgot to take as many prep pictures as I usually do!

I have shared herby goat burgers before though and this is just another take on them.

I think goat takes strong, punchy, bright flavors really well, so I loaded the burger mix with fresh rosemary, garlic and red onions, plus coriander, black pepper and tons of lemon zest. Then I added some marinated feta to the mix as well. We topped them with mozzarella cheese and fresh arugula and my homemade Bitchin Sauce (an almond dip that Whole Foods used to sell, I’ve been making my own with almonds and cashews pretty much weekly).

Our farm staffer Cade and one of our visitors harvested a bunch of purple top turnips from the cover crop plot, so we did a batch of roasted turnips, along with another take on fried Brussels sprouts. This time I used a cast iron pan and put quite a bit of leftover bacon fat in it and fried them in there. I thought I was going to transfer them to the oven, but it worked out to put a grease splash guard lid on them and take it off to stir occasionally.

Together it was a really fun and tasty meal!