Sunday Dinner

This was our dinner tonight. Pork chops with an apple jelly/raspberry wasabi mustard glaze, green beans and smoked tomato grits.

The pork chops were pretty easy- sear them in the skillet, baste them with apple jelly melted in a pot with wasabi raspberry mustard, then finish them in a 400 degree oven.

The smoked tomato grits were the star of the show.

Dev and I were watching "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" on food network the other day, and one of the dishes mentioned was smoked tomato grits. I just acquired a cast iron stove top smoker, so I decided to see what I could come up with.

I cut 3 roma tomatoes in half, one white onion in thirds and peeled 2 big cloves of garlic. I tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, then put them in the smoker for 45 minutes. In the process, I managed to set a pot holder on fire....



Here's what the stuff looked like after it was smoked....



After it cooled, I threw all of it in a blender with enough chicken stock to puree everything.

I prepared a cup of grits using chicken stock instead of water, then after they were done, I stirred the smoked tomato/onion/garlic mixture in and let it cook another 10 minutes or so.

I decided to pour the grits into a pan and chill it, so I could cut out rounds and pan fry them. It didn't work very well, but that didn't change the fact that the grits were out of this world!

Smoking the garlic, I think, made all the difference.

Now I must wait an exceptable amount of time before I attack a home made brownie....