>>joanne: you hear words like brining and you go "i can't do that." you know, it sounds like it's complicated. little do people know it's salt and water and what it does is kind of miraculous. [ music and background conversation ] >> funding provided by bella sera wines. >> what makes a beautiful evening? savoring the day's end, a time together, or is it something more? it's going to be a beautiful evening, a bella sera. bella sera, wines of italy.

>> by king arthur. king arthur flour asks, "what's 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 sun-maid california figs. by hansgrohe. kitchen, shower, and bath ideas since 1901. and by mcevoy ranch organic extra-virgin 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. i've seen it. >>joann: you have? >>cheryl: i've seen it but i've never actually done it before so -- >>joanne: good. what i love about brining is it's such a great technique because it really tenderizes meat.

>>cheryl: so what exactly is brining? >>joanne: i'm 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 you're going to add 4 tablespoons of that kosher salt. for each 1 cup of water add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. let's put these in the refrigerator. >>cheryl: do you need to cover it? >>joanne: absolutely not. you don't need to. it's only going to sit in there for one hour. now we'll get the garnishes ready for this, morel mushrooms and asparagus. >>cheryl: ok, are these the morels? they're very strange looking. >>joanne: these are morels. i know they look like they're from outer space. they do, i mean they look, but they're delicious. they're a wild mushroom that is more mellow in flavor

but when they're 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 you'll be able to find them. and then we're going to revive these. you're 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 we'll 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 don't because i find that mushrooms are really like a sponge. they're going to absorb as much moisture as they come in contact with. and i think they're fine. i don't even see that they're that dirty. so i'll 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: i've never seen those before. i honestly haven't. i've 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 you're 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 they'd be great with pasta, they'd be great on a pizza and i can bet you she'll be using them again. >>joanne: do you like asparagus? >>cheryl: i love asparagus. i saw that on the side i'm like ok, i'm not going to jump ahead to the asparagus. >>joanne: oh no asparagus is so delicious. what we'll 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 you're going to cut this at about 1 and a half inch, i'm taking off the ends but then i cut this at about 1 and a half inch pieces like this. that's perfect. there you go. now what we're going to do next is we'll blanch these, so we're going to put those in boiling water. what will we need though in the water? >>cheryl: salt? >>joanne: salt exactly for flavor. so we'll 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. it's 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 we're just cooking this until it's still bright green. you want it cooked through but you don't want to cook it so much that it's grey so we'll really watch that and make sure

that it doesn't get over cooked. alright next what we'll 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 they're not going to brown in the pan. so whenever you cook some meat you want to make sure it's dry and so i really pat those and remove that access moisture. see the color now? >>cheryl: yeah, i mean it's faded but it's still pretty bright. >>joanne: exactly and you can feel they're slightly tender >>cheryl: yes, slightly >>joanne: that's what you're looking for. so we can remove these. >>cheryl: so you don't want to cook it all the way through because that way it leaves it time to cook later? >>joanne: exactly. we're ready now to cook the pork chops. and when i feel the edge of the pan is warm, feel that. >>cheryl: yeah, that's warm. [laughter] >>joanne: and so we're ready to add a little bit of oil to the pan. when i see that oil is rippling then i'm ready to add the pork chops. okay, let's 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: i'll do this one. >>joanne: excellent. now we're going to cook those on the first side so they're light golden brown and then we're 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. they're not hot anymore because that liquid has cooled and what we can do is just coarsely chop those. don't throw this liquid away. that's important. >>cheryl: ok, we're going to use that later. >>joanne: we are. we're 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: i'd 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 don't be afraid. you can really bear down when you chop. good. that's 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 don't 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: it's 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 don't need too much. but remember brining doesn't add too much salt anyway so it's ok. >>cheryl: so we didn't salt these beforehand because we had brined them? >>joanne: yes and also we don't 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 i'm 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: let's 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, let's see. ooh, this is great. 149, so that will rise up to 150, 155 as it rests, which is perfect. ok, let's 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 don't want them to steam. now the next thing is the mushrooms. so we've got all those mushrooms. we're 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. don't 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. that's great. ok, now once again we'll cover this and the heat will stay right there. we'll set that aside. ok, i've got a little bit of chicken stock that i've 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 it's 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 that's 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? that's what you want. >>cheryl: and do you usually just do it by sight? it's not a timed thing or? >>joanne: no, it's not. it's really hard because sometimes your pan's a little bit wider. sometimes it's more narrow. so it really depends on what you're cooking with and how much stock you have and how high your heat is. so there's so many variables in your cooking. >>cheryl: well it's handy to learn how to judge it by sight. >>joanne: right, absolutely, exactly. i'm going to turn that off. i want to strain it because there are those little bits that didn't melt so i'm going to just strain that and then, and if there's a couple in the pan, that's fine.

we'll 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 we'll also take these pork chops and the morels and just in a minute everything's 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: doesn't 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 we'll 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, they're cooked so perfectly. how is that? >>cheryl: these mushrooms are good. >>joanne: aren't they good? >>cheryl: yeah, and with the asparagus it tastes so good, not that i don't think everything in the world tastes good with asparagus but this tastes really good. >>joanne: oh, this is such a nice dish, isn't 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 i've 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, let's talk a little bit about rioja wines. >> andrea: >>la rioja is spain's classic red wine region. now they also make white rose but it's 90 percent red and so that's 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 it's young and even when it's inexpensive. and when it comes to rioja there's a little bit of a range so you've got three different levels that you can look for. there's crianza, which is the basic level. just a short amount of time aging in barrels and bottles before it comes out. then there's reserva which would translate as reserve and that's aged a little bit longer. the wines are a little bit more complex and then for special occasions there's gran reserva and that's the mac daddy where it's aged 2 years in bottles and 3 years in barrels before it's released so it's really, really got a lot of complexity and character when it comes

on the market and a great food affinity because there's lots of layers of spice and truffle and mushroom that go along with the fruit. really, really wonderful wines to try. >>joanne: you're going to love this. oh that's so good, with the wild mushrooms. just perfect. >>cheryl: oh gosh. >>joanne: and you know, the wine enhances the food so much. >>cheryl: i'm 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. we're going to start by putting some lemon in that saucepan so let's turn this on. ok, let's 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 that's pretty level.

can you get that? good. >>cheryl: like that? >>joanne: yes. so next what we'll do is we'll bring this up to a boil and we're 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 that's going into it if i'm adding a pinch or something. ok, this is finished. the butter is melted. you can pour that right into this bowl. alright, now we're 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 we're 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. i'm only adding a half of a teaspoon so not too much. that's good. it takes, honestly it takes about 330 lemons to make lemon oil. it's 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, aren't 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, it's really good. >>joanne: is it good? that's great, good. excellent. >>cheryl: do we need to cook it? [ laughter ] >>joanne: well it will taste even better.

and we'll just let that rest in the refrigerator. you can always find lemons and you're always looking for something that's refreshing. and it's 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 it's 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 you're ready for them. now i love this. this is a pastry scraper so the best thing is just to take a piece. you don't 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. i'm 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. that's 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 we're going to be cutting this into diamonds. next what you do is you're going to cut this into 1 and a half inch strips. >>cheryl: ok >>joanne: so first one, you're going to cut off the edge on that first one. and you can reroll these scraps so you don't have to throw them away. i know you'll be eating them. >>cheryl: i will not be throwing them away. [laughter] >>joanne: one and a half inch is about there. and let's see, we'll do another one. so these we can save. so i'm going to do the first one and then you can do the next one. >>cheryl: ok >>joanne: just cause i'm having too much fun. ok, so next what we're going to do is we're going to cut this way, on the diagonal you're going to cut across

and so you end up with diamonds. >>cheryl: yeah. >>joanne: there you go. so this we're going to have to reroll so next time we'll 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 they're golden. >>cheryl: oh, that's quick >>joanne: during the cooking time they're going to crack and puff up a little bit but they'll fall again. so right in the middle of your oven. [ music ] >>joanne: this is a fabulous drink that comes from italy and it's the most deceptive milkshake you'll ever have in your life. it's called sgroppino, it comes from verona, the veneto area of italy and it's really incredible. it's so delicious.

ok, here's what we do. >>cheryl: well i see ice cream so that's a good start. >>joanne: so it can't be bad. ok, i'm going to show you. but it's easy. it's so deceptively easy. ok, i've 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 we're going to add, not enough lemon, we're going to add some lemon juice to the other ingredients. sparkling wine or champagne-- traditionally it's made with prosecco. and the reason i call this a deceptive milkshake is because it's 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, that's it. look, we've got to have a little taste before it gets in the glass just to see how it is. >>cheryl: wow, that is deceptive. >>joanne: isn't that delicious? >>cheryl: it's really good. >>joanne: very easy to drink that. it's so fantastic. >>cheryl: it tastes like a lemon vanilla milkshake. >>joanne: i know, i know. isn't that amazing? >>cheryl: that's really, really good. >>joanne: ok, let's go. we're ready, so dessert time. you can see it's got the most beautiful texture. it's just creamy and smooth and lemony and oh, all those great things. >>cheryl: well it tastes really light. >>joanne: i know, doesn't it? i said it's deceptive. i think i'm going for the milkshake. >>cheryl: and i think i'm going for the cookie. >>joanne: that's good.

ok, let's see. that is so fabulous. >>cheryl: wow, those are really crispy. >>joanne: oh good. how are they? lemony? >>cheryl: they're really good. >>joanne: i'll 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 you'd 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 weir's cooking you can order the companion cookbook, wine country cooking, which contains every recipe joanne teaches in the series and many more, plus 50 full-color photos. it's available for $22.50. you can also order the entire series of joanne weir's cooking class ii, all 26 episodes on 4 dvd's for $27.95.

you can order the book, the dvd's, 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 e-mail feedback and more. it's 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. it's 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, "what's your reason to bake?" king arthur, since 1790. by valley fig growers, sweet additions with blue ribbon orchard choice and sun-maid california figs.

by hansgrohe. kitchen, shower, and bath ideas since 1901. and by mcevoy ranch organic extra-virgin olive oil. [ music ] [ music ]

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