Goat Cheese and Pea Tendril Stuffed Pork Chops

On Sunday night, I was looking forward to once again cooking with the pea tendrils from Silverbrook Farm that I purchased from my farmer's market home delivery service.

I had previously used the pea leaves as greens for a simple salad so I wanted to use them a bit differently this time around.  I decided to sautee them and use it to stuff some pork chops. 

To start, I washed the pea leaves while B chopped up half a white onion.

I sauteed the white onion in olive oil with fresh cracked pepper and salt, along with a few cloves of chopped garlic.

I then added the pea leaves to the pan and lightly sauteed them.  When the pea leaves were wilted, I removed the onion, garlic and pea tendril mixture from the pan and put it in the fridge to cool. 

When the mixture had sufficiently cooled down, I added some gorgeous goat cheese to about three quarters of the green mixture.  This goat cheese was another recently acquired farmer's market delivery purchase.  It comes from Crystal Brook Farm in Sterling, Massachusetts.  This goat cheese was full of herb flavor from the Provencal marinade and a little went a long way with the pea tendril mixture.

B halved the pork chops and stuffed it with the goat cheese, pea tendril, white onion and garlic mixture. 

I placed a toothpick in the pork chop to keep the stuffing inside as much as possible while baking.  I placed the stuffed pork chops on a baking tray and gave the pork a simple seasoning of fresh cracked salt and pepper.  The pork chops were put in the oven at 400 degrees for about twelve minutes and then put on broil for about three minutes.

While the pork chops were in the oven, B cleaned and sliced up some local shiitake mushroom caps.

I sauteed the mushrooms in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, chicken broth and fresh cracked salt and pepper. 

Since I had about a quarter of the sauteed pea tendril mixture left over, I added this to the mushrooms at the last minute so they wouldn't go to waste. 

The end result was a moist pork chop filled with a flavorful goat cheese and pea tendril mixture.  The side of sauteed shiitake mushrooms and pea tendrils added a salty contrast to the pork chops.  This was a healthy and tasty meal that was perfect for a Sunday supper and a great first attempt at making stuffed pork chops.

What's your favorite way to cook pork chops?

Hot Pepper & Bourbon Glazed Chicken Breast with Pea Tendril & Radish Salad

After a week off for our Florida vacation, I was happy to return home to my first Greenologist farmer's market home delivery waiting for me.  I was excited to get back into the kitchen on Saturday to cook something healthy and I couldn't wait to use some of my fresh local ingredients such as the hot pepper jam, radishes, and pea leaves.

I thawed a few boneless chicken breasts and decided to make a simple baked chicken breasts.  The chicken was simply seasoned with fresh cracked salt and pepper and put in the oven at 400 for a few minutes for each side.  While the chicken was cooking, B made a simple glaze using the Silverbrook Farm hot pepper jam.  I tasted a bit of the jam and it had a nice combination of sweet and spicy. 

To thin out the jam a bit for the glaze, B added some of his favorite bourbon - Maker's Mark.  We both thought that bourbon would add a nice element to this glaze.

When the chicken was mostly cooked through, he added the glaze to the chicken and broiled it for a few minutes before turning it over and glazing the other side for additional broiling.  Since the jam obviously contained sugar in it, we didn't want the glaze in the oven too long with fears of it burning.

While B worked on the glaze, I got to work on the pea leaves (also known as pea shoots or pea tendrils).  I have actually never tasted or cooked with pea leaves but I ordered them anyway because I want the farmer's market delivery service to be an excuse for me to try working with something new every week. 

We did some research and pea leaves are pretty versatile.  Since it was warm out, we decided to use them as greens for a simple salad.  I also sliced up a gorgeous bunch of local radishes.

I cubed some leftover Cabot Seriously Sharp cheddar cheese which I received from Cabot at the Boston Wine Exchange Blogger event that I co-hosted a few weeks ago.  On a side note, here is a great re-cap of the blogger event by Meghan, who co-hosted the event with me. 

The salad was bright and vibrant.  Although we have plenty of already-made dressing on hand, we decided to make a simple vinaigrette using our favorite white champagne balsamic vinegar that we picked up at LeRoux Kitchen during out visit to Portland, Maine in March. 

The chicken had a nice sweet and spicy glaze to it but the sharp taste of the radishes and pea leaves help break up the sweetness.  The cheddar cheese helped mellow out the radishes when it got to be a bit too sharp.

In addition to being bright in both flavor and color, I was happy that our dinner was quick, simple, healthy and made using mostly local ingredients.  I'm looking forward to cooking throughout the summer months using more local ingredients.

Tell me, what have you recently made using local ingredients?