top chef missteps, plus dinner

oh, top chef. who works on this show, anyway? i just watched the season premiere and the judges blasted a guy who had no idea what piccata was. true, he should have looked it up (and not made the thing that he made based on his childhood recipes), but then they should have blasted one contestant who made “parpadelle” and the one who used “halla bread” – both things that didn’t exist last time i checked. what does exist is just this: papardelle and challah bread. boo on you, top chef!

so last night i made dinner with sonia. she had an avocado, so we made these lime-marinated pork wraps. i wanted to marinate the pork, so i made one based loosely (ok, very loosely) on an epicurious recipe for pork adobo, based on what i had on hand. the recipe is what i think the amounts were, since i just threw some stuff together. the wraps were great, though! we had ours with a bunch of condiments, which included julienned, slightly cooked snap peas, which gave them great crunch.

lime-marinated pork wraps

marinade
2-3T cider vinegar
1T soy sauce
1T honey
1 – 1 1/2t black pepper, coarsely ground
1/2t salt
juice of 1/2 a lime
zest of 1 lime
1/4c cilantro, chopped fine

2 lbs pork sirloin or other dark pork meat, sliced thin (in whatever size/shape pieces you want to eat it in)
1 1/2T butter

1/2 large onion or 1 medium onion
1 large bell pepper of your choice
1 pkg (~1/2 lb) snow peas, julienned
2T butter or oil

1 pkg large tortillas (8)

condiments (pick your poison):
1 bunch cilantro less whatever you chopped up for the marinade
3-4 tomatoes
1c sour cream
1 avocado
1-2 blood oranges, segmented, skin discarded if desired
etc

1. mix together all of the ingredients for the marinade. add the pork and mix until evenly coated in a medium bowl. let sit 30 minutes to 2 hours. presumably you could marinate it for longer, but i don’t know how much longer. probably up to a day. i tried to minimize the lime juice so it doesn’t cook the pork (lime juice is used to make ceviche), but i don’t know what effect it will have if you marinate it for a long time.

2. heat the butter in a skillet, and when it stops foaming, use tongs or something similar to add the pork to the pan, without the marinade. brown the pork, then add the marinade and continue cooking until the pork is done. the time for this part varies, but shouldn’t be longer than 15 minutes or so. transfer the pork to a bowl and cover with foil to keep warm.

3. heat the butter for the veg in the same skillet; when it stops foaming, add the veg. cook over medium-high heat until cooked.

4. set all the pork, veg, and condiments out with a plate of warmed tortillas (you can microwave them for a few seconds or warm them in a skillet). assemble and eat!

[serves 3-4]