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♪♪
Hello.
I'm Chef Rob Stinson and this is Fit to Eat
and today we're working on a southern favorite -
pork chops!
We'll be baking instead of frying.
Keeping the crunch but losing the fat.
We're also making mashed potatoes and gravy.
But we are going to watch the fat content on that, too.
We'll even treat ourselves to a little bacon
with our green beans.
And we'll get started, soon as we come back.
♪♪
♪♪
You've been living a healthy lifestyle, but you
miss that great southern food you grew up on.
Instead of rewarding yourself with a trip out
for fried pork chops, let's make a healthy alternative
that's delicious without being full of fat.
Pork is a healthy lean meat.
Pork is a good source of B vitamins
which help metabolize food into energy.
You can see in front of us right here.
we've got a beautiful
center cut loin on the bone chop.
It sounds kind of confusing.
Well, it's your typical pork chop
you are going to use for frying.
What is not typical is what we are going to do
with a gluten-free flour mix.
So let's start there.
Where do we begin?
Flax seed - ground flax seed.
This is flax seed meal and this is golden flax seed ground.
Combining the two, I find gives you
a really nice blend of flavor.
We are just going to mix those.
And we are going to add in a lot of different flavors
to this because they don't sell flax seed seasoning.
So in there, we are going to put some dry mustard.
Some garlic powder.
And remember, garlic powder doesn't have salt.
Some white pepper.
Gotta pep it up with some flavoring.
And some black pepper.
And then some onion powder.
So you've got all of these beautiful ingredients
going in there that are going to
make the flavor of this wonderful.
Now, the one for pep - a touch of cayenne pepper.
Remember, cayenne pepper
is so much spicier than other peppers.
But it adds a nice flavor that will bring this
into that southern great flavoring
of traditional pork chops.
Mix it really well.
You've got to get all
of that seasoning mixed in there.
And I think that looks great.
Now we are going to make, with skim milk
not whole milk and one egg.
And realize, very small proportion of this
is actually going to go into the dish.
In other words, what you actually consume
is probably not even more than a quarter of this.
Got to mix it very well.
That egg actually work and I'm sure most
of you know that it works like the glue.
And that'll hold the breading on.
Easy to do this on a plate.
And we are going to take our mixture,
spread it on our plate,
put our pork chop in that bowl,
and this is the easiest way I know
to be sure that it's coated.
Move it down in there.
Make sure it's all covered.
Then take it, spread out your breading.
Really easy to do.
We are going to turn it a few times and you'll notice
by doing it this way, you don't get your hands
all coated with the breading.
Then our next step on this will be to take
the breaded chop and sear it with some zero-fat spray.
All right.
Let's go on this side.
Looks like the coating is perfect.
It's beautiful and uniform.
Really easy to do.
So now let's go over here to our pan
which I have taken the liberty of getting warm.
Spray our pan coating and we want
a nice amount so there's no sticking.
And then let's bring that plate right over
and sit it down.
We are going to turn the heat up on the pan.
If you've watched a lot of the shows,
you'll notice, I always use hot pans.
There's a really good reason in this case
that you put it in where it isn't because
we don't want that breading to burn.
But we do want it to sear.
So what's the other trick?
I'm asking you?
I don't hear anybody out there answering.
Yes!
Don't move it.
Don't shake the pan.
Don't try to move it at this point.
Until I see that it has started bubbling
all the way around the edges.
You don't want to move it because that'll do
is knock the breading off of the pork chop itself.
Which will kind of defeat the purpose at this point.
So, let's make sure that we don't do that.
And give that a chance just to cook the way it is.
Let's talk about our green beans.
I love good, fresh green beans.
What's the difference?
Look at that.
When you see fresh green beans,
they are firm.
They are crispy.
They've got all of the nutrients.
Look at how beautiful all of these are.
And that's what we are going to use.
I have done one thing to the green beans,
as you notice by looking at them.
I've cut off all the tips.
So there aren't any strings or sinews of the bean itself
and that just makes it nice and easy.
But other than that, this is just a great,
fresh green bean.
Often times in old days when you had
the smothered green beans that cooked for hours.
And what do they do?
They reduce down in pork and you name it.
All kinds of lard and pork make the dish.
This is one that won't have any of that.
So it really is a nice simple way to cook it.
Now I'm looking over at this chop.
We are going to move back there for a second.
And you see what I was talking about --
where it's bubbling?
Now you can peek.
Pick one end up.
And you see it has browned perfectly.
That's just what we wanted.
A nice brown sear in the flour.
Turn the temperature down.
Because we are going to use the same pan
to make our gravy a little bit later in the show.
Now let's switch this pan right now.
I've got another pan hot.
And this will be the pan
we are going to use for our beans.
Let's go ahead and give another shot
of our zero-fat spray, pan coating.
And now we are going to add in our beans.
Throw those in first because
we want those to do a nice little sear.
We are going to use about a tablespoon
of our beautiful, sliced red bell pepper.
About the same of our onion.
About a teaspoon of our minced garlic.
Not as much as usual.
You know I love garlic.
I don't think you can ever have too much garlic.
Some cracked black pepper.
And the flavorings already have a great aroma.
Now, let's go ahead and toss those.
Of course, you'll see those beans are
browning because I've got that pan nice and hot.
And remember, you're doing this without any oil,
keeping the fat on this at a low minimum.
And why?
Because you get the good stuff.
This is one small tablespoon
of dried cooked bacon.
So as much of the oil and fat
is already out of the bacon.
But it adds in that flavor of the pork and look.
We have a lot of great pork farms here and
we absolutely want to support our local pork farms.
I've got with me right now a little bit
of fresh chopped tarragon.
I love to add a fresh herb in to this preparation.
And then a touch.
I'm talking a miniscule touch of red pepper
because that's spicy.
We're going to deglaze the pan.
This is just some water.
And I tell you what, the beans smell incredible.
We are going to go ahead
and put our pork chop, now in the oven.
So follow me.
Turn that on.
And we're going to put that on baking.
We're going to put that on 400 degrees.
And I tell you what, looks like we've got
a lot of great flavors going on right now.
Pork chops are baking, green beans are cooking.
It's beginning to smell like a good old-fashioned
home cooked meal in here.
When we get back, we'll get started
on the mashed potatoes and gravy.
So come right back!
♪♪
(Rooster crows)
(banjo plays)
Ag Day is all about celebrating American agriculture,
about celebrating our American farmer,
all the hard work he does producing our food and fiber.
And it's about showcasing our local farmers.
Most children think right now their food comes
off the grocery shelf or from a fast food restaurant.
They need to know more about it,
about how it is grown, how to prepare it
and what better way to do it than at Ag Day
to teach them how to do some of those things.
One of the things they did with manure composting
is learning how earthworms take old compost,
food scraps and turn it into good usable soil.
And the glove activity, they were just learning
about the different seeds they could put in the gloves
so they could grow some lettuce and things like that.
We are just trying to make people aware
of what's available, when it is going to be available
and really let the kids see the raw vegetables.
They come by and they ask questions
so I will tell them how it is grown.
They get to see the person who grew the vegetables
and they know whether or not it is fresh.
One dairy we had here was Progress Dairy.
They had whole milk, they had reduced fat milk
and chocolate milk.
It's pasteurized, not homogenized.
Therefore, you can digest it a lot easier
than you can homogenized milk.
We had several chefs from local restaurants
teaching people some of their new recipes.
It's important for you to shop your local farmers market
to help your local farmers out.
But you get fresh produce, fresh eggs
without having to wait on them.
They are grown right here local.
Just eat fresh, eat local and it's better for your health.
♪♪
Welcome back.
Let's get started on the mashed potatoes and gravy.
We're going to talk a little bit about red potatoes.
We're going to leave the peeling on the potatoes.
And if you remember, the majority of the nutrients
found in fruits and vegetables
is just under the skin or the peeling.
So whenever possible, leave that peeling on
for added nutritional benefits.
These red potatoes contain about five times
the anti-oxidants of normal baked potatoes.
Some of the natural substances found
in potatoes, act like substances found
in blood pressure medication.
And that helps keep your blood pressure lower.
So, would you rather take a pill
or eat a healthy, delicious potato?
Hey!
I vote for the second.
So, let's work on this.
Red potatoes.
We're going to take and obviously to mash them,
we've got to cook them.
And all I'm going to do --
I'm going to slice these in half.
You can quarter them.
You can cut them in thinner pieces.
Whatever's easiest for you.
In that point, you've got basically what
you want to throw into the pot.
So let's go ahead.
And I'm going to cheat here a little bit.
Let's pretend we're putting these in to cook
because, you guessed it.
They take a little bit long to do and I wanted
to have them ready so I could actually show you.
So obviously they go in a pot.
You would be boiling those just like I did with these.
As you can see, they're cooked.
I like to show people.
People wonder, sometimes, how do you know
exactly when they're done.
Simple easy way, just stick a fork and if they right in
and come right out like they do, they're done.
So very easy.
We're going to get back to those in just a moment
because what we're going to do is take those
and put them in a bowl with some other seasoning.
So let's come over here, move this in the center.
Get our work surface.
We want about a cup of these potatoes.
Sorry about that.
I'm going to actually get them mashed in here first.
It's going to be about two and a half of these potatoes.
We're going to push into them.
Let's move this through.
Break the skin in there, guys.
All I'm doing is getting these into some sizable pieces
and then we're going to take over with a fork and spoon.
Remember, the better that you have these into pieces,
the smoother your potatoes will be.
Makes them good.
Now, what we're going to add in here -
and these potatoes are good and hot -
is a little fat-free cream cheese.
A little skim milk.
Then we want to put our seasoning in here.
Some black pepper.
Some white pepper.
And a little bit of our garlic.
Got to have a little garlic.
Let's move that to the side.
Going to stir this all in here.
You'll see that that fat-free cream cheese
will start melting.
So now, let's go check and see
how our pork chop is doing.
I'm going to start warming the pan that we seared
the pork chop in because a little bit of that flax seed
and seasoning and good stuff is in that pan
and we want to use that as the base to make our gravy.
Let's go check on the pork chop.
And lo and behold - I'm going to set this.
This pan is so hot.
Put that right in the center.
It looks incredible.
Perfect.
Nice and brown.
If you didn't know better, you'd think that
that had been fried, and you know it hasn't.
So now, let's finish these potatoes.
They still need to be stirred a little more.
One and to kind of let
that fat free cream cheese melt in there.
All of that ooey gooey goodness.
I've got a great aroma from this already as well.
There we go, it's starting to look creamy.
I've always liked potatoes to have a little bit of texture
so that everyone who eats them knows
these are not made from a mix.
These are not some store-bought fake potatoes.
This is the real deal and these are great.
I see that my pan that we seared those chops in
is getting warm so let's go ahead over to it.
I bet you're wondering how on earth
we're going to make a gravy.
Potatoes look perfect.
At that point, potatoes can go to the side.
The trick.
We are back to our flax seed.
Instead of flour, I'm going to take
some fat-free cream cheese.
I'm going to mix it with that flax seed
and it will make a roux of sorts.
We are going to use it at the tail end
of making this sauce.
So let's go ahead and spray a little more of our pan coating
especially in the center where I see
where that pork chop had been.
And we're going to throw in here now some celery,
some garlic, some onion.
And don't forget, like us on Facebook, go there.
All of these recipes are there.
I know this gets a little quick and there is a lot to watch.
Let's go ahead and break up that garlic.
I'm going to move this pan right
out of the way down below here.
Just a touch more just so it doesn't stick.
That's all we need.
I want to brown the onions until they get a little translucent.
Big word, simple meaning.
Just means that you can see through them.
But they start turning a little clear
which is what onions do when you cook them.
Great flavor right now.
I can already smell it because it's got some of that
seasoning that was in there in that breading,
that gluten-free breading I might add.
And this is a gluten-free sauce.
So now we are adding in vegetable stock.
That deglazes the pan.
A little bit of our beef stock.
All of these are sodium free.
Sodium free, fat free.
Looks great.
And I tell you what, gluten-free is such a great diet.
It doesn't have to be just for the people
who really need to be eating that way.
Now the trick.
I want to show this to you if I can right on camera.
I take the cream cheese in my tongs.
I dip it in my flax seed.
Where that would be in a normal cooking style,
that would be butter that you would be dipping in flour.
But here, you are taking that fat-free cream cheese
and dipping it in your flax seed.
Why?
Because it will make a roux.
Our gravy looks wonderful over here.
We're going to coat that and then just slowly
cream that into the gravy.
It won't take long at all.
It will be a beautiful consistency when it melts.
Our southern meal is looking better and better, right?
Listen, we are going to take a quick break.
And remember, you can find links to all
the nutritional information on our Facebook page
at facebook.com/mpbfittoeat.
So, come right back.
We're going to put this southern classic together
and you're going to love it.
I promise you.
♪♪
♪♪
Let's take a look at the nutritional breakdown.
599 calories.
47 grams of carbs.
40 grams of protein.
28 grams of fat.
And seven grams of fiber.
I tell you what, it's hard to believe that you could
have such a great southern classic.
This is the way to enjoy it.
So let's go ahead and start putting this all together.
Mashed potatoes we're going to put it
right on the edge here.
Kind of make a little space for our gravy
just like you always have.
Just like grandma made.
But remember, a little healthier.
A lot healthier.
And now let's get that plate
right where we can work with it.
Our beautiful green beans.
I tell you what guys, these are absolutely delicious.
I'm going to make a little room on the side here.
But I absolutely love green beans
cooked a little crispy with flavors like this.
Look how pretty that dish is as well.
Take our pork chop, put it right on side.
And now the goodness.
That gravy, let it go around the potato
just like you would in the old days.
And there you have it.
It's another delicious healthy take
on a southern tradition and you don't have
to sacrifice flavor when making these dishes.
Don't have to sacrifice your health when you want some
of those delicious foods you grew up eating.
You just have to make smart decisions
and avoid using unhealthy fats.
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Let us know what you think.
Remember to tune in next time for Fit to Eat.
Take care, now.
♪♪