Spelt Breaded Pork Chops with Spicy Citrus Marinade

This recipe is from the Sauces and Marinades class that I took.  It’s a quick and easy marinade to put together.  Keep in mind that marinating the pork chops overnight will make a world of difference. 

In class, we grilled these - which was good.  Personally I love breaded pork chops.  I used spelt bread crumbs because I eat a lot of spelt bread, and when it goes stale, I make breadcrumbs out of it (oven dry them, then blend them up in a food processor) - Also, I've heard that spelt is good for you.......so there's that too.  I employed my oven frying skills to make sure the breaded pork chops were nice and crispy without adding too much fat.

These pork chops are great with apple sauce and boiled & pan fried potatoes (pictured above). 

Spelt Breaded Pork Chops with Spicy Citrus Marinade

(adapted from Sauces and Marinades George Brown College Manual)

Serves 4

Teriyaki Marinated Salmon Fillet in Phyllo Pastry

So I saw the movie 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' a couple of weeks ago - which was the inspiration behind me sitting down to write this post for my favourite salmon recipe.  This movie is probably one of the best romantic comedies that I've seen in a while.  It’s hilarious (which is almost entirely because of Kristen Scott Thomas) and heart-warming.  And come on....the title alone would make me want to see it....

I picked up this recipe from my Sauces and Marinades class.  There is something about wrapping the salmon teriyaki in layers of butter and phyllo pastry that makes it a-mazing (I am sure wrapping anything in layers of butter and phyllo pastry would have the same effect....I might even consider giving tofu another chance if it was wrapped in layers of butter and phyllo pastry....).  I think the phyllo pastry has the added benefit of 'fancy-ing up' (yes, 'fancy-ing' is a word) the basic salmon teriyaki recipe.  Whatever the reason, the combination is delicious.

This is an adapted version of the recipe that was taught in class.  I turned the marinade into a glaze.  I find the glaze holds better to the salmon once it's wrapped in phyllo.  Should you want to be healthy, you can skip wrapping the teriyaki glazed salmon in layers of butter and phyllo pastry and instead pan fry or grill it.   

Also, since salmon has a lot of natural flavour, make sure you use a low sodium soya sauce - otherwise you will end up with a big salty mess.

Teriyaki Marinated Salmon Fillet in Phyllo Pastry
(makes 4-6 servings)

Ingredients:

Sauces and Marinades

Sauces and Marinades is a 6 week course offered at George Brown College through their Continuing Education program.  The main focus of this course is marinating different types of meats and fish, and then either creating a sauce out of that marinade, or pairing the dish with an accompanying sauce. 

The instructor for this course was fantastic.  She taught us to analyze and dissect each recipe in order to really question and understand why each step was included - which helped to further my quest to be able to 'cook without a recipe'. 

Week 1: Mmmmm...Carbs....

First class.  This was a demo-only class.  The instructor provided an introduction to the properties of sauces and marinades and the flexibility that these provide a cook in the kitchen. 

Demonstrated in this class were sauces specifically for pasta.  All of the sauces tasted awesome (It's not too surprising that I found all of these recipes amazing...I do love me some carbs...).  There was a Three Green Pasta with Scallops and Pesto Sauce - this pasta had peas, pesto (making pesto was part of the demo as well) and asparagus (hence - three green) and a healthy dose of whipping cream.  When I've made this at home, I replaced the whipping cream with skim evaporated milk and it actually tasted great.  There was a Spagettini Col Sugo Di Erbe E Pomodoro Crudo, which was a lovely basil/sage/rosemary/mint tomato sauce.  It tasted amazing with olive oil and parmesan cheese (I never would have thought to put mint into a tomato sauce...).  There was a Pasta with Sun Dried Tomato in Cream Sauce.   I loved the flavours of the red pepper and sun dried tomato.  There was also a Pasta with Cream Wild Mushroom Sauce.  This sauce had dried wild mushrooms (which were rehydrated), white wine, shallots and (you guessed it) whipping cream.  Rich, but very good.  And lastly, Linguine with Clams in a Spicy Pernod Sauce.  This recipe had fennel which I had not worked with too much before this class, so that was interesting.  Pernod (for those who don't know) is a French liquor (tastes like Anise).  Also, this was my first experience with cooking clams.  So that was it for the first class.  I found these to be very easy, not time-consuming recipes that would work for a weeknight dinner.