Author: Briana Meshkofski

Of course, when we think of valentines day we think of a surf and turf dinner, an over-priced giant bouquet of roses, and one of those incredibly huge boxes of chocolates that us girls think we can eat in one sitting when were drinking champagne in our bath robes.. but it just never happens like that lol. It doesn’t always have to be so basic though, does it? you don’t always have to go on the same date everyone else is going on. When planning your valentines day for your significant other, or even a “Gal-entines Day” party that you’re throwing.. make it unique! Surprise everyone in your life that you love, and do something fun and indulgent! What better way to celebrate the day, than with chocolate? Lots and lots of chocolate 🍫!  My two friends from work are dating, and she happens to be obsessed with dark chocolate, and so that is exactly what he wanted the date night to be wrapped around! As soon as he said the idea, I knew I could create a killer tray for her that she’d fall in love with, and when I asked for anything specific, he replied.. “the darker, the better!” I must day diamonds.. he asked, and he did receive!

Even though I’m not a dark chocolate fan myself, I loved the concept and the challenge. The key to creating a monochromatic piece of art, is adding pops of color. It is necessary! A must have to make the eye fall in love, before your taste buds even get the chance to do so..

This is for sure something you could even do with your partner! It would be so fun to build a dessert board together, and then grab a bottle of bubbly.. or heck maybe even a big cold glass of milk ( you may need it with all the chocolate 😉 ) and watch a romantic film together. No matter if you want to surprise someone special, or see the joy in their eyes creating it with you, you will be so so happy with the outcome!

I can’t think of many people who will be sad with fruit covered in glorious, smooth chocolate, ooey gooey chocolatey cookies, and pops of colored candy..

Instead of having dinner with 50 other people inside of a restaurant, paying big money to impress the one you love... impress them at home, spend half the money, and indulge in dessert for dinner! You for sure, will NOT be disappointed. Even if you need savory as soon as you’re finished with dessert.. just like me, the heart shaped pizza is all the rage this year, and they’re everywhere! I think it is beyond precious, and who doesn’t love a wine night in with pizza and chocolate? 😉

You can add intricate details by cutting heart shapes into your brownies once they have cooled after baking, and dipping your own pretzels & fruit into dark chocolate instead of buying it already made. At the end of the day.. the cookies are pre-made, but no-one could ever replace those “famous” cookie sandwiches  we all know and love! It just is not going to happen. LOL

If you’re planning on going out to dinner, and you are completely sold on doing the traditional valentines day, but still want to have a special evening when you come back home, you can certainly make a dessert board that’s ACTUALLY for two! Haha, but no seriously, if you’re wanting to indulge only a little bit.. this is the perfect amount, and it still looks romantically beautiful.

The size is your choice. Both beautiful, and can still definitely be presented as a valentines day gift!

Happy Valentines Day, diamonds! Remember you don’t have to do what everyone else is doing on valentines day to have a perfect date with your loved one. All that matters is you show someone love, and compassion. Have fun dinning with dark chocolate, and I’ll see you next week for one of my favorite things in this life!

xoxo

My very first FRIED post ever here on deep fried diamonds! I guess a little Pun intended 😉 Most of the time… eh, more like ALL of the time I make everything super fancy, and decorated when I entertain, or concoct a new recipe, but these pork cutlets speak for themselves. They’re decorated in their own special way, with the most unique, delicious breading.. dressed in deliciously golden brown crispy bits; ready to be devoured! 

There used to be a catering place in my hometown that were known for their “cutlets”, and my boyfriend Cody fell in love with them years and years ago, the first time he indulged in them at Easter dinner with my family. When the place closed down a little while back, he was heartbroken with the fact that he would never have the best cutlets ever again…. so he thought 😉 . We celebrated his 26th birthday last week, and have all been trying to eat clean since the new year started; you know..no junk, no fast or fried foods, SO I thought I would surprise him by making the absolute best pork cutlets I could fry up, trying to bring that memory back when he took that first bite of the cutlets he had soooo long ago.

I Like frying in a deep “stew pot” if you will, so that it gives the grease more air space and room so that if the oil starts spitting up a bit it has a harder time getting the stove greased up, along with giving the cutlets much needed room to fry!

Fill the pot or frying pan up of your choice with vegetable oil about an inch in a half, to two inches from the bottom. Let the oil heat up on medium low heat for about ten minutes. I know that doesn’t seem like the heat is high enough to be able to fry with but TRUST ME: the oil will heat up hot, and once you start frying you definitely do not want the oil to be so hot that it will burn, or develop into something much worse..

There are different dredging/frying techniques to create your own personal breading to turn into your traditional breading that you use when breading, and frying pretty much anything, but the only way I think these should be breaded is tossing them in high seasoned flower with salt and pepper, then laid in whisked eggs for a nice little egg bath if you will, and lastly, pushed in cracker meal ONLY (no breadcrumb!) seasoned with salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and paprika.

Obviously before breading anything you need to start with meat, or there are no cutlets! I believe the only cut of pork to use for pork cutlets is “the butt”! You need the fat! It is so necessary for a GOOD pork cutlet.

Instead of using dredging bowls to bread your pieces of pork in, I used big plastic food bags; that way you can put the pork in, close the bag with your fist and shake shake shake! And in a flash everything is fully coated the flour, and breading.

When using the bags you can fill them with more product than you would if you were doing it in bowls because you’d probably only be able to really do it properly with five pieces at once.

“Test the waters” 😉 Before loading up your oil will freshly breading cutlets, and having them not fry properly for you because the oil is unfortunately too hot, or not hot enough, test the oil by frying one ,or two pieces to see how long you’ll be frying each side. Then once they are completed there is no better thing to do than to give it a bite to see if the seasoning is perfect for your taste buds!

Now, being that we are not filling the pot entirely with the vegetable oil, that’s why I don’t take temperatures. If you do “deep fry” anything you can certainly take the temperature to make sure that you reach 350 degrees, and to insure that it stays at that temperature, as well. In this case, we are simply just pan frying!

If the testing went right, fill up the pan with your cutlets. Fry each side for approximately five minutes, or until golden brown and crisp! Honestly.. it may not be the “perfect” way to do things, but ever since I was young, and I would watch my dad fry homemade chicken fingers he never waited until one side got completely crispy. The goal is to make them perfectly golden, and never over done because you do not want to dry them out. That is a crime! The best way he found that they come out is turning them over each four times. The crispy breading turns out so so incredible that way.

Also, take into considering one cutlet might get done before the other. Being that they are hand cut after trimming the fat from the pork butt, you can’t assume that a smaller piece will get done at the same time as a bigger piece. Science will prove you wrong every time lol

When the frying process is coming to a close!

From the first batch straight out of the oil, to the last! They look insanely delicious, and I know it sounds a little crazy, but if you look closely, you can almost see little wrinkles throughout the breading that resembles what a pug’s body looks like, and THAT my friends, is how you know that breading is going to be mouth watering! Which is exactly why we use the cracker meal instead of any sort of bread crumb. We want scrumptious crumbs when we take our big bites! You can dip them in anything you want, but they are truly amazingly tasting to the point  that you don’t even need anything at all, and that’s coming from a condiment queen!

P.S. Cody loved them so much, and said that they were “the best cutlets he has ever had”!

Have fun frying diamonds 😉 I’ll be back with an incredible game day dip.

xoxo

     As you guys may have learned from my last post.. I love love love salmon! Smoked or pan fried.. which is what you are seeing on this gorgeous white platter, right here. I adore this fish so much, so I never want to get bored of it!! Finding creative ways to play around with it, so it will always be super enjoyable in various ways, is what I aim for! This is such a fun way to be inventive with your salmon, making a great date night idea for interacting with your significant other, or perhaps.. your first time making him, or her dinner. 😉 My favorite way to eat food is by “picking”! The idea of taking different flavors and textures; combining them to design a whole other meaning of what being a foodie is really all about, makes what I do so fulfilling to me. You don’t ever just want to eat, you want to enjoy what you are eating, even if it is good for your body! I truly believe sometimes thats why most people see “eating healthy” as boring, and something that they feel they will never be able to do forever because they are forcing themselves to do it. Fortunately.. feeding your body good things doesn’t have to just mean fueling yourself with plain chicken and broccoli, and these make your own lettuce wraps will not be something you are eating with force. 

           Some people who think they don’t like salmon.. I truly believe never had gooooood salmon.. if you guys know I mean by that. If it is over cooked.. like any fish; forget about it! It needs to be panfried on medium heat, skin-side DOWN to get that skin nice and crispy.. just as if you were eating skin on a chicken wing! Once it is nice and crispy.. being in the pan for 10 minutes, flip it on over to the other side. Cook the other side the same way for about another ten minutes. If you have small piece of salmon, cut the time in half. 

For the final step, that gave this salmon the delicious creaminess it deserved for these lettuce wraps.. I mixed equal parts of mayonnaise, and sriracha in a small bow..lathered it all over, letting it soak into this fatty piece of fish right before I pulled it off the heat. Lastly, all you need to do is put it on a platter and flake it apart a little, to easily get a nice chunk to wrap in the middle of you butter lettuce.

 You can for sure use any rough leaf lettuce that you would like for these wraps but I really do not think that there is anything more perfect for this than “butter lettuce” or also known as “bib lettuce”. It holds everything you put into it without breaking, while being crisp, tender, and super mild tasting. Sometimes lettuce can be a little bitter, which is why I truly believe that there are people that prefer to not eat anything green or “healthy”, but this lettuce is perfect, and you must give it a try. Even if you do not like salad..I feel it in my heart, and soul that you will like these wraps.. very much so! 🙂 

 After piling your little lettuce cups with salmon.. I highly advise various veggie choices with different colors, and textures to adorn it with! 

I sliced cucumbers, mini orange bell peppers, and tri-colored steamed potatoes into small strips. 

While enjoying a meal.. of any kind I was always always the type of person to say that I needed a side dish, or chips, fries, a side salad. Something! I would feel like you can never ever just eat one certain thing and say you had or meal, or lie to yourself and say.. “I love what I just ate”. Being a chef, and a total food lover, it is ALL about options. In that case, I choose to decorate the platter with yummy spicy tuna rolls (staying with the spicy theme here) and some spicy crab salad.. just incase you wanted to change your taste buds a tad during your dinner journey through this wrap making jungle gym. 

The crab salad is just some imitation crab meat, mayo, cajun seasoning, diced onion, and celery. 

 To decorate this platter board.. I decided to drizzle sriracha where I thought was needed, and would please the eye. I wanted to do it over the potatoes so that it would soak into them, giving them TONS of scrumptious flavor and zap! I also wanted to do it around the plate with the salmon because well.. one it looks gorg, and two.. if you’e putting this out for a party of some sort, you want your guests to know that it has sriracha in it. Thats letting them know right away what’s in it, without having to be around constantly to let me know first hand. 

     CHOPSTICKS.. for the final touch! Super cute for “eating with your eyes” and the proper way to indulge in the lettuce wrap feast. 

Have fun wrapping diamonds, and I’ll be back in a few with snow and game day boards! 

                                                                                       xoxo