By king arthur. King arthur flour asks, whats your reason to bake . King arthur, since 1790. By anolon gourmet cookware. For the home cook who demands professional performance, anolon. By valley fig growers, Sweet Additions with blue ribbon orchard choice and sunmaid california figs. By hansgrohe. Kitchen, shower, and bath ideas since 1901. And by mcevoy ranch organic extravirgin olive oil. Joanne sometimes when i put together a class i like to think about a technique that someone may never, ever have heard about. So i thought today i would do brined pork chops with asparagus and morels with my student cheryl who works at a record business. Have you ever done any brining . Cheryl i have never done brining. Ive seen it. Joann you have . Cheryl ive seen it but ive never actually done it before so joanne good. What i love about brining is its such a great technique because it really tenderizes meat. Cheryl so what exactly is brining . Joanne im going to show you. Ok . Cheryl ok joanne i take beautiful, big, thick pork chops like this and i place those in a bowl and then i add to this some salt and water. And i usually use, just Room Temperature water is good for this. Now youre going to add 4 tablespoons of that kosher salt. For each 1 cup of water add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Lets put these in the refrigerator. Cheryl do you need to cover it . Joanne absolutely not. You dont need to. Its only going to sit in there for one hour. Now well get the garnishes ready for this, morel mushrooms and asparagus. Cheryl ok, are these the morels . Theyre very strange looking. Joanne these are morels. I know they look like theyre from outer space. They do, i mean they look, but theyre delicious. Theyre a Wild Mushroom that is more mellow in flavor but when theyre dried it gets a little touch more concentrated. Cheryl where would you buy Something Like that . Like a Specialty Store . Joanne no, you can find them in a lot of grocery stores. Not every single one but youll be able to find them. And then were going to revive these. Youre going to take a couple of ladles full of water and just pour that right over these dried mushrooms. We can just set those aside and then the other thing that well do is just to clean these but these morels they look really great. I just use a pastry brush. You can go and buy a there are mushroom brushes that are available but i find that just a pastry brush is fine. Cheryl do you want to wash them with water at all or . Joanne i dont because i find that mushrooms are really like a sponge. Theyre going to absorb as much moisture as they come in contact with. And i think theyre fine. I dont even see that theyre that dirty. So ill take a little pile if you want to do the same. I just cut them from top to bottom into two pieces. I always like nice big pieces of the nice fresh morel so on the plate you can really see those beautiful , Wild Mushrooms. Cheryl ive never seen those before. I honestly havent. Ive heard the word morels before but i have never seen them. They are really, they look very strange joanne these are really odd ingredients but you know, you become familiar with them and then the next time you see them in the store youre like, i know that and you apply them to the next dish. I mean, you know, the nice thing about those morels is you know theyd be great with pasta, theyd be great on a pizza and i can bet you shell be using them again. Joanne do you like asparagus . Cheryl i love asparagus. I saw that on the side im like ok, im not going to jump ahead to the asparagus. Joanne oh no asparagus is so delicious. What well do for this is you just pick it up and snap it off, where it snaps very easily just like this. So i always hold one end and just snap. And that really shows you where that asparagus starts to become tender. Take a knife and youre going to cut this at about 1 and a half inch, im taking off the ends but then i cut this at about 1 and a half inch pieces like this. Thats perfect. There you go. Now what were going to do next is well blanch these, so were going to put those in boiling water. What will we need though in the water . Cheryl salt . Joanne salt exactly for flavor. So well add a little bit of salt to that so there you go. You can put a good pinch in there. You want a good amount of salt in there. Its really just flavoring the water. You want more than that. Cheryl ok joanne you want about 3 pinches of those. Now what we can do next is just to drop the asparagus and really were just cooking this until its still bright green. You want it cooked through but you dont want to cook it so much that its grey so well really watch that and make sure that it doesnt get over cooked. Alright next what well do is take these pork chops out of the brine and pat them dry. Cheryl ok, so why do we have to dry them off . Joanne because otherwise theyre not going to brown in the pan. So whenever you cook some meat you want to make sure its dry and so i really pat those and remove that access moisture. See the color now . Cheryl yeah, i mean its faded but its still pretty bright. Joanne exactly and you can feel theyre slightly tender cheryl yes, slightly joanne thats what youre looking for. So we can remove these. Cheryl so you dont want to cook it all the way through because that way it leaves it time to cook later . Joanne exactly. Were ready now to cook the pork chops. And when i feel the edge of the pan is warm, feel that. Cheryl yeah, thats warm. [laughter] joanne and so were ready to add a little bit of oil to the pan. When i see that oil is rippling then im ready to add the pork chops. Okay, lets see how this is. You want to hear that nice sizzle. [sizzle sound] cheryl oh ok. Joanne ok, you add yours to the pan. Cheryl ill do this one. Joanne excellent. Now were going to cook those on the first side so theyre light golden brown and then were going to turn those over. Ok, now in the meantime what we can do is we could strain these mushrooms. So just pour it right through and then we can take those mushrooms out and you can just place this right on the top. And now we have these mushrooms and we can take these out. Theyre not hot anymore because that liquid has cooled and what we can do is just coarsely chop those. Dont throw this liquid away. Thats important. Cheryl ok, were going to use that later. Joanne we are. Were going to put it in the sauce along with some nice Chicken Stock. Cheryl so do i slice them similar to these mushrooms or . Joanne id do them a little bit smaller cause we really want the flavor of those mushrooms to really be mixed throughout the sauce so you can do it a little bit smaller. And dont be afraid. You can really bear down when you chop. Good. Thats great. Ok and we add those to the fresh. Cheryl ok alright joanne ok, now we know that these are cooked on one side when they dont stick anymore to the bottom. See this is perfect. Look at this. Cheryl oh, that looks great. Joanne what you have this is the caramelization so the meat is really caramelized on one side. Cheryl that looks beautiful. Joanne its perfect, absolutely perfect. Now what did i say . We sear and then cheryl and then we season them. Joanne season, exactly. Perfect student. Okay, a little pinch of salt, you dont need too much. But remember brining doesnt add too much salt anyway so its ok. Cheryl so we didnt salt these beforehand because we had brined them . Joanne yes and also we dont want to salt too much because remember what i said, it draws out the moisture. Cheryl i tend to do things too long. I really liked her checking on things and you know teaching me to watch it visually instead of relying on time guides because i do have a tendency to go, it says 15 minutes im going to sit here until 15 minutes is done and you know, smoke is coming out and you know. I just feel like i have a more intuitive sense of what might work. Joanne see how golden these are . Cheryl yeah, yeah, they look pretty good. Joanne lets just take this out and see all those good bits on the bottom of the pan . We want that. Ok, so place this right in the middle, lets see. Ooh, this is great. 149, so that will rise up to 150, 155 as it rests, which is perfect. Ok, lets take these out. So what we can do now is just to take a piece of foil and very loosely you want to cover. So, i just set those aside, so i dont want them to steam. Now the next thing is the mushrooms. So weve got all those mushrooms. Were going to add those right to the pan and then turn that down a little. Here you go. Those mushrooms will cook very, very quickly. Cheryl they smell really good. Joanne i know. Dont they . You want to have a little bit of texture with morels. That really works. Ok, so you can take those out. Add those right on top of the pork. Thats great. Ok, now once again well cover this and the heat will stay right there. Well set that aside. Ok, ive got a little bit of Chicken Stock that ive reduced by half. So a nice homemade Chicken Stock but if you want to use canned you can add that. Cheryl and what does reducing it do . Joanne it concentrates the flavor along with that mushroom soaking liquid. And you know one thing, one other thing i thought would be really good in this . Is some fresh thyme and i was just looking over and i have a little plant of fresh thyme so i thought this would be really nice so hey, why not . Cheryl how convenient. [laughter] joanne i know. So we can just take some of the tops right off the thyme and you can just mince it. And not a lot of thyme, just a little bit. Yes, now you can turn your knife and keep it parallel to your work surface again. And i think sometimes its better if you hold your hand like this rather than pinch it with your fingertips. Yes, you see how much easier it is . Cheryl oh, yeah. Ok joanne now you can see how this liquid is boiling and so as it boils thats how it reduces and concentrates the flavor. Cheryl oh, ok. Joanne and the other thing that it does which is very important is those bits that got cooked onto the bottom of the pan, those start to melt and they combine together with the flavor of the Chicken Stock and they really add flavor to the sauce. So you can put that in. So cheryl, this is what i do. See how i just scrape off the bits that are on the bottom of the pan . And that releases those and they melt in with that stock and really create the flavors of the sauce. See how this is starting to thicken just slightly . Thats what you want. Cheryl and do you usually just do it by sight . Its not a timed thing or . Joanne no, its not. Its really hard because sometimes your pans a little bit wider. Sometimes its more narrow. So it really depends on what youre cooking with and how much stock you have and how high your heat is. So theres so many variables in your cooking. Cheryl well its handy to learn how to judge it by sight. Joanne right, absolutely, exactly. Im going to turn that off. I want to strain it because there are those little bits that didnt melt so im going to just strain that and then, and if theres a couple in the pan, thats fine. Well just put that back in the pan and then what i like to do now is cheryl place the asparagus joanne your favorite. Cheryl my favorite. Joanne the heat, turn it back on and well also take these pork chops and the morels and just in a minute everythings going to be warm. Ok and then we have these last few mushrooms and a little bit of the juices from the mushrooms. Cheryl it looks fantastic joanne doesnt it . So i saved this platter and i think probably the asparagus and the mushrooms and everything is hot already. Put it on the platter and now well turn this off. What you can do is just to take this whole mixture and pour it right over those chops. Cheryl oh, yeah. That sauce, the consistency is wonderful. Joanne yeah, you can use your spoon a little bit. Great. This smells wonderful. Cheryl that looks fantastic. [ music ] joanne go ahead, start. Cheryl trying to be polite. Like hurry up. Joanne alright. Oh, theyre cooked so perfectly. How is that . Cheryl these mushrooms are good. Joanne arent they good . Cheryl yeah, and with the asparagus it tastes so good, not that i dont think everything in the world tastes good with asparagus but this tastes really good. Joanne oh, this is such a nice dish, isnt it . The flavors marry so well. I know what would even enhance this dish even more. A little glass of rioja would be perfect. Cheryl that sounds fabulous. [ music ] [ clink of wine glasses ] andrea cheers joanne so lately ive been spending a lot of time in the rioja, which is the wine region in the northern part of spain. And i absolutely love tempranillo. I love the grape, i love the area and just, lets talk a little bit about rioja wines. Andrea la rioja is spains classic red wine region. Now they also make white rose but its 90 percent red and so thats what most people associate with there. The local grape is called tempranillo, which you said, and it is wonderful because it has really delicious earthiness and a lot of character even when its young and even when its inexpensive. And when it comes to rioja theres a little bit of a range so youve got three Different Levels that you can look for. Theres crianza, which is the basic level. Just a short amount of time aging in barrels and bottles before it comes out. Then theres reserva which would translate as reserve and thats aged a little bit longer. The wines are a little bit more complex and then for special occasions theres gran reserva and thats the mac daddy where its aged 2 years in bottles and 3 years in barrels before its released so its really, really got a lot of complexity and character when it comes on the market and a great food affinity because theres lots of layers of spice and truffle and mushroom that go along with the fruit. Really, really wonderful wines to try. Joanne youre going to love this. Oh thats so good, with the Wild Mushrooms. Just perfect. Cheryl oh gosh. Joanne and you know, the wine enhances the food so much. Cheryl im sold on these mushrooms. What are they . Joanne morels. [ music ] joanne these are these pucker up citrus crisps so that means they have a lot of lemon in them. Were going to start by putting some lemon in that saucepan so lets turn this on. Ok, lets turn that down a little and a little bit of lemon juice and then also a quarter of a cup of sugar. So you want to make sure thats pretty level. Can you get that . Good. Cheryl like that . Joanne yes. So next what well do is well bring this up to a boil and were going to cook that until it reduces just slightly. Cheryl ok, add the butter. So how much butter is that . Joanne four tablespoons and i usually use unsalted butter. And unsalted butter just because i can control the amount of salt thats going into it if im adding a pinch or something. Ok, this is finished. The butter is melted. You can pour that right into this bowl. Alright, now were going to add the rest of the ingredients. So you can add the sugar. These are just ground almonds. Baking soda. And we have a couple of tablespoons of cream, heavy cream, now were adding some lemon zest. We just want the really nice flavored part. You can add the flour and then finally the last thing is a little bit of a lemon oil. Cheryl oh, wow. Joanne this is delicious. Im only adding a half of a teaspoon so not too much. Thats good. It takes, honestly it takes about 330 lemons to make lemon oil. Its made from the peel and it really has fabulous flavor. Really mix it. Cheryl they smell really good. Joanne you probably are dying to just taste that, arent you. Cheryl are we done . Joanne you can try it. Do you want to . Cheryl i do want to. Joanne try it, try it. You can taste a little. That will be fine. Cheryl oh, its really good. Joanne is it good . Thats great, good. Excellent. Cheryl do we need to cook it . [ laughter ] joanne well it will taste even better. And well just let that rest in the refrigerator. You can always find lemons and youre always looking for something thats refreshing. And its definitely got the wow factor. And the wow factor, people love the wow factor for dessert. But i like to do the wow factor without spending 5 hours in the kitchen. You know, creating the wow. So its kind of a cool dessert. Cheryl ok, so how long do you leave it in the refrigerator . Joanne an hour is the minimum. But you can even make it a couple days ahead of time and then roll them out when youre ready for them. Now i love this. This is a pastry scraper so the best thing is just to take a piece. You dont want to roll all of it at once but you can take a little bit of flour and put it out on your work surface. Im going to let you do this. And first of all what i do is i just press this a little bit to make it easier. Thats probably good. And then a little bit of flour on the rolling pin and now you can go ahead and roll. Cheryl am i rolling it to a certain . Joanne probably about an eighth of an inch thick. So you want to get that in really good shape because were going to be cutting this into diamonds. Next what you do is youre going to cut this into 1 and a half inch strips. Cheryl ok joanne so first one, youre going to cut off the edge on that first one. And you can reroll these scraps so you dont have to throw them away. I know youll be eating them. Cheryl i will not be throwing them away. [laughter] joanne one and a half inch is about there. And lets see, well do another one. So these we can save. So im going to do the first one and then you can do the next one. Cheryl ok joanne just cause im having too much fun. Ok, so next what were going to do is were going to cut this way, on the diagonal youre going to cut across and so you end up with diamonds. Cheryl yeah. Joanne there you go. So this were going to have to reroll so next time well do a bigger piece. You can do a bigger piece. You want a little bit of space in between each one. These go in a 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes until theyre golden. Cheryl oh, thats quick joanne during the cooking time theyre going to crack and puff up a little bit but theyll fall again. So right in the middle of your oven. [ music ] joanne this is a fabulous drink that comes from italy and its the most deceptive milkshake youll ever have in your life. Its called sgroppino, it comes from verona, the veneto area of italy and its really incredible. Its so delicious. Ok, heres what we do. Cheryl well i see ice cream so thats a good start. Joanne so it cant be bad. Ok, im going to show you. But its easy. Its so deceptively easy. Ok, ive got some vanilla ice cream. I want you to see how fast this is to make. Then i also have some lemon sorbet and of course we all know how you feel about lemon. Cheryl i love lemon. Joanne then were going to add, not enough lemon, were going to add some lemon juice to the other ingredients. Sparkling wine or champagne traditionally its made with prosecco. And the reason i call this a deceptive milkshake is because its got a good amount of vodka. [laughter] and honestly this is made in italy. I wish i could say to you that i made it up but i got this recipe from one of my favorite restaurants there and this is not something that you serve your children. This is the adult milkshake. And then top on [ blender sound ] joanne okay. Yep, thats it. Look, weve got to have a little taste before it gets in the glass just to see how it is. Cheryl wow, that is deceptive. Joanne isnt that delicious . Cheryl its really good. Joanne very easy to drink that. Its so fantastic. Cheryl it tastes like a lemon vanilla milkshake. Joanne i know, i know. Isnt that amazing . Cheryl thats really, really good. Joanne ok, lets go. Were ready, so dessert time. You can see its got the most beautiful texture. Its just creamy and smooth and lemony and oh, all those great things. Cheryl well it tastes really light. Joanne i know, doesnt it . I said its deceptive. I think im going for the milkshake. Cheryl and i think im going for the cookie. Joanne thats good. Ok, lets see. That is so fabulous. Cheryl wow, those are really crispy. Joanne oh good. How are they . Lemony . Cheryl theyre really good. Joanne ill tell you, this is my kind of dessert. Really delicious. And boy, was that hard . Cheryl no. Joanne dessert so easy, both things. Cheryl super easy and really, really good. Joanne i kind of, i started at the beginning talking about brining and doing a little twist and learning something that youd never think about and finishing with Something Like sgroppino or the italian milkshake and boy we turned out some really, really, great dishes. It was fun cooking with you. Thank you. Cheryl it was really fun learning all this stuff. Joanne thank you. Cheryl thank you so much. If you enjoy joanne weirs cooking you can order the companion cookbook, wine country cooking, which contains every recipe joanne teaches in the series and many more, plus 50 fullcolor photos. Its available for 22. 50. You can also order the entire series of joanne weirs cooking class ii, all 26 episodes on 4 dvds for 27. 95. You can order the book, the dvds, or both at cookingclass. Joanneweir. Com. You can visit our website to find and print selected recipes, get information about each episode, learn more about joanne and the show, see behind the scenes photos, provide email feedback and more. Its all at cookingclass. Joanneweir. Com. Funding provided by bella sera wines. Why do things taste better in italy . Enjoyment of life, food, friends, and family. Its going to be a beautiful evening, a bella sera. Bella sera. Wines of italy. By anolon gourmet cookware for the home cook who demands professional performance. Anolon. By king arthur. King arthur flour asks, whats your reason to bake . King arthur, since 1790. By valley fig growers, Sweet Additions with blue ribbon orchard choice and sunmaid california figs. By hansgrohe. Kitchen, shower, and bath ideas since 1901. And by mcevoy ranch organic extravirgin olive oil. [ music ] [ music ] maybe you have some Energy Saving appliances, like an Energy Starrated washer and dryer. But what about your tv . Chances are its on more than your washer, dryer, and Kitchen Appliances combined. Did you know that if half of us in the u. S. Replaced our regular tvs with an energy star model, the change would be like shutting down a power plant . You can find the energy star on everything from standard to high def to the largest flatscreen your heart desires. Ow that makes sense. x . . Z77 ow that makes sense. Hi. Im rachel. Come join my friends, alex, leah, and hopkins, for signing time leah uses american sign language. Well teach you some. Come sign with us. Theres singing time and dancing time and laughing time and playing time and now it is our favorite timesigning time