So there was this pork shoulder in the freezer. It had been there for a very long time (properly vacuum-sealed, don’t worry) and the warm, burgeoning gorgeousness all around- plus the fact that the smoker is right next to my studio, so I see it 20 times a day- inspired me to thaw it and do things to it. To begin, the espresso-based rub, and then a bit of time to sit while I lit…
Category: Pork
John and Debi brought Tim (up for the weekend from FL) for a decadent dinner. I made the food; John brought the wine. That was the deal. Normally with multi-course meals I can see the dishes in my head beforehand, but in this case they were a little blurry until just a few hours before dinner. Most of it came out pretty well, though I had to scrap one course and I forgot to add…
This is some Southern-style cooking, but done a little differently. Country pork ribs, rubbed and then vacuum sealed with espresso, salt, garlic, 5-spice, and pink peppercorns cooked sous vide at 66˚C for 5 hours; it would have been longer, but I didn’t get to it until after noon. Later on, I put sweet potatoes and quartered red kabocha in the oven and cooked collards with onion and a bit of salt pork. Once the meat…
So the experiment worked; I pushed the pea soup through a tamis and added a bit of activa, then piped it onto wax paper and let it sit in the fridge overnight (it’s uneven because I don’t have a pastry bag; I just cut the corner off a ziplock.) Then I cut the snakes into gnocchi and gave them a quick boil just before serving. We had invited friends over, and then two more at…
I got a couple of things done today, chief among which the ham ravioli- smoked ham glued together with activa and with a filling of acorn squash, apple, pine nuts, onion, ginger, spices, and an egg yolk. There were a few left, and some of the buckwheat mixture, which, like risotto, made great supplì with a bit of aged gruyère and an egg-cornmeal coating. So for an appetizer, to christen the new small plates (it’s…
As I mentioned yesterday, our 1976 Clos des Mouches was cooked, so today I marinated pork chops in it with garlic, herbs, salt, 5-spice, and a pinch of brown sugar. They went on the grill after a sliced zucchini got a nice char (I don’t grill veggies with oil any more; the flare-ups are carcinogenic) and then got tossed in oil, salt, and thyme. I also steamed a sweet potato and made an endive mash.…
First, the carrot ice cream. All the kids came with me to the garden first thing in the morning and we pulled a nice bunch of different colors. Chopped and steamed with a pinch each of Vietnamese 5-spice and cayenne, then puréed, pushed through a tamis, stirred into a nice custard, and then frozen once chilled, the result was a really good accompaniment to the peach tart I made later when everyone was out sightseeing.…
I went to Fleisher’s today to stock up- haven’t had meat in quite a while- and so was moved upon return home to use the pulled pork in the freezer from last fall in order to make room for a whole lamb shoulder. I pulled up the hon tsai tai from the garden, since it had all bolted, and stripped the leaves, giving them the garlic & oil treatment with a squeeze of lime at…
This tantalizing triskelion is made up of espresso-rubbed, homemade sauce-basted, and apple wood from our tree-smoked pork ribs cut apart and arranged over mashed sweet potatoes and the yams from the night before and garnished with the pineapple salsa. For Mothers’ day, we opened one of Christine’s favorites: a 2001 Carver Sutro petite sirah, which is finally coming into its own as a rich, gorgeous wine. Next time I want to try it along with…