Slim Pickins' Pork

Cassoulet-Step 2

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:37:00 +0000

Second step in my cassoulet series is pretty simple-make the sausage. Again, following the sage advice of Paula Wolfert, I'm going with a simple Toulese sausage, a pork sausage flavored with pancetta, garlic, and nutmeg.

Otto von Bismark once remarked that laws are like sausage, one is better off not seeing them made. I gotta say, he's probably right; meat gets ground up, spices are added, and the whole mess is stuffed in a casing (probably some animal's intestine). Delicious? Yes! Aesthetically pleasing? No way.

I'm on a sous vide confit campaign, so, like the duck, the sausage get packed with duck fat, vacuum sealed, and take a few hour bath.

Next up: the assembly.

Cassoulet-Step 1

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:34:00 +0000

My poor little blog-o-meat has been quite neglected in 2011, but worry not, 2012 is sure to bring more meat adventures from Central Ohio.

To borrow a phrase from House Stark, Winter is coming, and with it a return to more rustic, heartwarming fare. In other words, its Cassoulet time! Cassoulet is the French version of Pork and Beans, so naturally it takes much more effort to make than cracking open a can of beans, but the results are worth it. In a series of posts (perhaps a trilogy of sorts?, a la Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, but lighter), I'll document the steps it takes to assemble a decent cassoulet (borrowing heavily from Paula Wolfert's amazing The Cooking of Southwest France).

Step one is to prepare the meats, specifically the duck confit. Apparently there are some variations of cassoulet without duck confit, which is just crazy talk. Really, is there anything that isn't improved with duck confit (and I'm including most desserts here)?

Anyway, step one is to cure the duck thighs with some sort of salt mixture for 24 hours. There are a lot of different variations, this time I use Thomas Keller's green salt recipe.

After the cure, the duck thighs get rinsed off and slow-cooked in duck fat for about 12 hours. You can use a vat of duck fat, which is what I did before I got my latest toy, the Polyscience Sous Vide professional:

That's right, molecular gastronomy is all up in this mother! This blog has officially been upgraded to "poor man's Voltaggio brothers" status.

After the 12 hour bath (about half cup of duck fat per four-leg package), the duck gets plunged in an ice bath and then refrigerated for at least a week, and up to forever, to improve flavors.

Since cooking is always better with music, I've decided to share a selection with each blog post. This time I'm feeling a bit post-Bowie art rock, Scottish style: Franz Ferdinand.

Stay tuned next time, there will be sausage!

Medium Raw

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:36:00 +0000

I may be the one in our house with the blog devoted to all things meat, but I'm practically a vegetarian when compared to my carnivore wife. So when her birthday comes around (and I'll not mention which particular milestone she hit this year), I know that I better make something from the animal part of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", and the more the better.

This year I decide to go very simple and uncomplicated, as in, let's not cook the meat at all. Tartare is generally made with beef, but I recently picked Mario Batali's excellent Babbo, which has a recipe for spicy lamb tartare (lamb being a particular favorite in our house).

Topped with a quail egg and served on bread with mint jam, it was an instant hit with the missus:

The dessert, peanut butter candy bar pie, comes from the seriously over the top Momofuku Milk Bar, the dessert companion to David Chang's equally awesome Asian-American mashup Momofuku. Fortunately it tastes better than it looks:

Another successful birthday, now to start planning for next year...

Wings, Batali-style

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:08:00 +0000

My summer of the grill (which I hope continues on into winter) received a considerable boost when I picked up Mario Batali's Italian Grill. I'm not sure how purely "Italian" the recipes are, but they've been pretty successful so far.

My latest foray involves Buffalo wings (actually drumsticks), with an Italian twist. The chicken gets dunked in buttermilk (always a good idea with chicken) and fennel seeds, grilled, and paired with a Gorgonzola/red wine/olive oil sauce.

For the side I went with grilled fennel bulb and zuchinni from probably my favorite all-time grilling cookbook, Seven Fires. I'm not sure if it will replace the traditional buffalo wing/celery combo, but definitely a winner:

Too Many Peaches?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:20:00 +0000

That seems a bit impossible; of all the summer bounty (tomatoes, zucchini, berries) peaches are by far my favorite. A peach in January is inedible and they are not allowed past my front door. Like most other things in life, when it came to peaches, I naturally assumed more was better. That is, until we went peach picking last week with friends and ended up what the checkout lady referred to as "two bushels."

Not matter how many muffins and cheesecakes my wife made, we were still swimming in peaches. Fortunately, Francis Mallman, he of the great Argentinean cookbook Seven Fires, had a recipe for peached pork.

The whole process is pretty simple: butterfly a pork loin, rub with a mixture of salt, minced garlic, rosemary, and olive oil, grill on a large cast iron pan for about seven minutes a side. Half way through place halved and pitted peaches around the pork:

The pork was good, the peaches were even better, I'll definitely be grilling more of these (halved and sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon, along with some vanilla ice cream sounds about right)

Meat, Meet Spit

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:40:00 +0000

I'm beginning to plumb the depths of various meats that can be trussed and cooked on the rotisserie. Today's project, stuffed pork shoulder, is not much of a stretch, however. The Italians have a tradition of cooking whole, deboned pigs, which they refer as porchetta. Because this is a bit of an undertaking at home, most recipes modify this to just a shoulder.

This time I go with a recipe from an unlikely source: Donald Link's excellent Cajun cookbook, Real Cajun. The recipe is pretty straighforward: butterfly a whole boneless pork shoulder, stuff with garlic, fennel, thyme, and salt, truss, and liberally salt and pepper the outside. It didn't take long at all (just over an hour for a five pound roast) on the Weber:

The farmers markets are now overflowing in Ohio, so for the veg side I went with a simple summer squash gratin. Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home is quickly becoming one of my favorite cookbooks, and this one didn't disappoint either (you can get the recipe here). If any recipe illustrates the beauty of simplicity, it is this one:

In praise of the local butcher

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 15:25:00 +0000

Every time I go to a grocery store, I'm always amazed by the steaks. Specifically, how thin they are. Having steak is about excess, so why skimp on the meat? While I'm not a huge steak fan, if I am going to have one, I want a steak thick enough to char on the outside while remaining (relatively) raw in the middle.

Fortunately, there is a growing movement back to independent butchers, and in Columbus we're lucky enough to have quite a few. The latest one, Mosley's Meat Marke t, just opened up about a mile from me, and I've quickly become a regular customer. All their meat is cut to order, so when I went in last week for steak, I couldn't help but get a couple of porterhouses that could have doubled for Bibles.

As usual, I go with my standard steak technique: let them sit at room temp for about an hour, salt the hell out of them, and then grill over high heat for a few minutes on a side. Works pretty well so far:

I have to confess, the steaks are more for my wife. I might lose some meat cred over this, but I actually preferred the panzella (Italian tomato and bread salad). Simple, healthy, and delicious, I'll be making this all summer.

Mussels! Finally!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 01:05:00 +0000

When I met my now-wife, I didn't know she carried with her a dark secret, one that tested my very beliefs about the goodness of humanity. Quite simply, she didn't like mussels, or virtually any other shellfish. As someone who drinks the broth from cooked mussels as an energy drink, this posed a bit of a problem. Fortunately, at a get together a few weeks ago, a friend brought Thai mussels. They were excellent, and managed to convince my wife of the beauty of mussels.

I figured I'd better keep the momentum going, so I decide to go for a more Francophile approach to mussels: butter, white wine, butter, shallots, parsley, and some more butter. I'm also determined to cook most of my meals this summer outside, and the turkey fryer was up to the task:

A loaf of crusty French bread is, of course, de rigueur in this situation, as is a good Belgian witbier. Fortunately, the mussels were a hit, and are now officially on the rotation:

Grilling with Wood, on Wood

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 23 May 2011 00:36:00 +0000

I'm not sure who had the idea of grilling meat directly on a plank of wood, but it was a good one. Mike of Another Pint Please has been proselytizing the virtues of this technique, and consider me a convert.

It just so happens that this is the time of year when two of my favorite things, wild caught salmon, and asparagus, are at their best (in December I sub tree bark for supermarket asparagus, trees are more tender).

Salmon is great smoked with cedar, which is the wood plank I use:

I wanted to keep things simple, so I go with a white wine/olive oil/shallot vinaigrette (vinaigrette's are great on all types of grilled meats); this particular version cut some of the fat of the salmon, and went great with the asparagus:

For dessert I gave Francis Malman's caramelized oranges another try. I had made them a few days ago for friends, but the pan wasn't hot enough so I didn't get a good carmalization. This time the grill was hotter and they turned out better:

With a little Greek yogurt they make a very interesting (and tasty) dessert.

Lamb on the spit

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:02:00 +0000

Barring a pit in the ground to roast a whole lamb (or pig), cooking a leg of lamb over a fire on the grill seems like the next best option. I was also fortunate enough to procure my lamb from Mosely's Meat Market, which is rapidly becoming my favorite butcher in Columbus (all meat is from local Ohio farmers). This lamb was seasoned simply with garlic, rosemary, anchovies, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Here's a brief glimpse of how it all went down:

Clearly I'm no film auteur, but the lamb came out great anyway.

Some Thoughts on Flavor

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:46:00 +0000

The movement towards local and seasonal ingredients highlights the importance of the quality of products we use when cooking. So, for example, when assembling a stew we will think about the source of the meat, the freshness of the vegetables, and the type of wine (or other braising liquid) used.

Yet successful cooking hinges not only on the approach we take to these ingredients, but how we incorporate elements that, while often not noticeable in the finished product, improve the primary flavors of the dish.

Obviously salt is the most critical of these so-called flavor enhancers. If you can taste the salt in the dish, it is oversalted, but without salt, virtually all dishes (even sweet ones) taste bland.

Here are some others that I've found to be especially useful for bringing out the flavors of a dish:

Vinegar-on their own most varieties of vinegar have a sharp, almost unpleasant aroma and flavor. But when those elements are combined with some sort of fat, the acidity provides a pleasing balance. Vinaigrettes are the most common place we find this combination. While we assume a vinaigrette is solely for salad, I've found that it makes an excellent sauce, especially grilled beef and chicken.
When making sausage, I nearly always used red wine vinegar as a binding agent; it increases the flavor of the sausage in a very subtle way.
I've also found vinegar to be an absolutely critical ingredient for cutting the richness of rustic, meat-based stews. Vinegar can even work for dessert: balsamic vinegar and ice cream (or fruits) make a luscious acidic/sweet combination. The fact that there are so many great varieties only boosts the utility of this ingredient.

Fish sauce-if vinegar has a slightly bracing smell, fish sauce is downright overpowering, and not in a good way (read: pretty gross). Made from fermented fish, this is definitely something you don't want to sample on its own. But used in combination with other ingredients as a marinade for meat (thinly sliced grilled pork is especially delicious) or in sauces, it provides a wonderful complexity.

Anchovies-these little salted fish aren't just for pizza (and for plenty of us, never should be on pizza). They can add a salty (though not fishy) punch to many dishes. Roast leg of lamb is much better with a bit of anchovies stuffed in it (again, you'll never be able to tell). I also like to include them in vinaigrettes as a salty element.

Bacon fat-if fat is flavor, then bacon fat is the ultimate fat. I'm trying hard to avoid using the word "bacony" to describe what bacon fat brings to the table, but let's be honest, there's really no other way to account for it. Like many of the other ingredients listed here, bacon on its own can overwhelm (though I’ve never been bothered by it). But bacon fat can provide a wonderful richness, and bit of sweet smokiness, that really improves a lot of dishes. I especially like to use it in doughs for empanadas and perogies and as a substitute for butter or oil when sautéing vegetables.
What I love most about bacon fat is that just a little can add an extra satisfying (bacony? there it is again) element to meatless dishes, which means that we can eat a bit healthier. That's right, a bacon health claim!
I rest my case.

St. Patrick's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:16:00 +0000

I always, always forget to start the cure for corned beef ahead of St. Paddy's Day, so inevitably I'm stuck doing something that fails to honor my Irish roots (the Black Irish part, at least).

This year is no different, but fortunately, I was saved by by Endless Simmer's list of 100 recipes that use Guinness. I started off with that most Irish of foods, pizza. This has an Irish twist-potato flour, leeks, Guinness gravy, sausage, and Irish cheddar:

It turned out amazing, I'm definitely doing it again soon.

For dessert, Guinness floats:

Traditional Irish fare? I'm no historian, so whose to say what St. Patrick ate/drank after driving the snakes out of Ireland?

Crab Cake Love

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:14:00 +0000

Growing up in Northern Minnesota, I didn't have too many (read: zero) chances to experience crab cakes. I guess Pennsylvania is fairly close to Maryland, so during my time at Penn State I instantly became hooked on them. A good crab cake is a pretty simple, but beautiful thing: crispy exterior with a warm, softy crabby (for lack of a better term) interior. Oh, and hold the fancy sauces, when I eat crab cakes, I want pure, unadulterated crabmeat, and that's about it.

After making my fair share of crab cakes, I've found that the secret is to use as little binder (egg and bread crumbs usually) as possible, which interferes with that crab goodness. My latest version came courtesy of Thomas Keller and Ad Hoc at Home, which, if you don't have yet, you need to buy ASAP:

I served these with some simple braised cabbage, which I'm quickly realizing goes with just about everything.

Beignets

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:42:00 +0000

My poor little blog has been the red-headed stepchild of the family for a while now, so a little attention is long past due. Why not get back on the wagon with something deep-fried and delicious?

I've been lucky enough to had the opportunity to visit New Orleans on a semi-annual basis, and have fell in love with the city (and its amazing food). There are few things better than sitting outside a cafe on a warm spring morning enjoying a warm beignet (especially if the night before involved any sort of debauchery).

While Ohio in January isn't exactly the best setting to replicate such an experience (we won't be eating outside), I decide to forge on with the deep-fried dough experience (recipe courtesy of John Besh's My New Orleans):

Yes, I ate about ten too many (and had to fight the kids off), but it isn't like this is going to be an everyday thing, right (they were awfully easy to make...)?

A Few of My Favorite Things

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 02:35:00 +0000

While I'm a total cookbook junky I'm also pretty good separating the wheat from the chaff. I've often claimed (only half-jokingly) that my strongest talent as a cook is identifying a good recipe (and it is only loosely correlated with the amount of butter called for in the recipe).

Thus, its pretty rare these days that I invest in a cookbook that disappoints. With that in mind, and with the holidays fast approaching, here are my top cookbook recommendations for your favorite cook (no particular order):

1. Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. While ostensibly about curing meat, it changed my whole perspective on what is possible in the kitchen. It forces one to take a much longer view of the cooking process and how easy it is to fundamentally alter basic ingredients using simple techniques and time.

2. The Cooking of Southwest France by Paula Wolfert. No other author captures the essence of place better than Wolfert. Her writings on curing duck, roasting pork, and making beans feels like you are in the kitchen with your French grandmother (if, you know, you were French).

3. The Essential Thomas Keller by Thomas Keller (who else?). This is actually a bit of a cheat, since it includes both The French Laundry and Ad Hoc at Home. While The French Laundry can be intimidating, it perfectly captures Keller's quest for perfection. Mere mortals should probably stick with Ad Hoc, his collection of family recipes.

4. The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. I was lucky enough to eat there last summer and it didn't disappoint. A Paul Wolfert for American cuisine, her care in ingredients and process elevates the simple to the sublime. The recipe for zucchini pickles is alone worth the price of admission.

5. Cooking by Hand by Paul Bertolli. So engaging in how he approaches cooking that each recipe feels more like a story than a set of instructions. Each chapter takes on a particular theme or ingredient (no surprise that my favorite is the pig chapter) and provides new and sometimes surprising ways of preparing everyday ingredients.

6. Another cheat-either How to Grill by Steven Raichlin or Seven Fires by Francis Mallmann. While Seven Fires is a bit more gonzo than How to Grill (whole roasted cow, anyone?), both books advocate the simple notion that grilling can and should be taken as seriously as any other technique, and the results can be just as refined. How to Grill is especially useful for those starting out; it totally takes the guesswork out of cooking over fire. Bonus points for Seven Fires: I now desperately want to spend a few months in Argentina.

7. My New Orleans by John Besh. A true son of New Orleans, Besh writes with a passion about what I consider to be America's best regional cuisine. Too often rustic fare, like much of the Cajun food Besh writes about, is dismissed out of hand, but Besh combines the strong food traditions of New Orleans with the skill of a highly trained master.

8. The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal. Both a carnivore and a strong advocate of the humane treatment of the animals we raise to eat. While self-admittedly not a technician in the kitchen, he's recipes are a pleasure to follow and are meant to be enjoyed with loved ones.

9. On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. Not a cookbook, but a must-read for anyone interested in the science of cooking. Good cooking is ultimately a series of chemical reactions, and McGee does a first rate job of explaining this to the layperson.

10. Momofuku by David Chang. Another paradigm shifter. And while nothing is too crazy not be be included in this Asian-American fusion cookbook, most dishes are dead-on. Extra points for one of the most memorable meals of my life, deep-fried pig's head.

11. The Gourmet Cookbook edited by Ruth Reichl. I know there are a lot of all-purpose cookbooks out there, but in my mind this one's the best; very accessible recipes, but not dumbed down for the experienced cook. It has virtually every recipe imaginable, and I haven't hit a dud yet.

Honorable mentions: Real Cajun, The Perfect Scoop, anything by Peter Reinhardt, and Michael Symon's Live to Cook.

The Perfect Steak

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:53:00 +0000

I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of steak: too expensive for my tastes, and it generally disappoints. All that goes out the window when it is my wife's birthday, however. She's a huge steak lover, so once a year I make an exception to my no steak rule. This year I went for the classic bistro fare, pomme frites and steak (the fries were cooked in lard for a special treat):

I gotta say, this was probably the best steak I've ever eaten, and it required very little work on my part. Here are my basic rules for great steak (I've followed some of these instructions in the past, but this time they all came together):

1. Choose the right cut. Ribeyes, filet mignon, New York strip; these all sound sexy, but in reality they're the chicken breasts of the cow (ok, maybe not the ribeye). When I eat steak I want it to taste like beef. Skirt steak, flank steak, and my all time favorite, hanger steak have a beefy, minerally flavor (with just a hint of liver) that I love. Most grocers and butchers (the few that are left) don't know what a hanger steak is, but I managed to score a couple at Bluescreek Farms, a local butcher and farm here in central Ohio. They were about an inch thick, which means nice crust on the outside, bloody in the middle.

2. Salt is your friend, use it. I took the steaks out of the fridge about an hour before grilling them, and absolutely loaded them with salt. Forget claims that salting before cooking dries meat out; these steaks were incredibly juicy. In fact, salt was the only seasoning I used.

3. Grill hot-high heat doesn't "seal in the juices" as some people claim, but it does caramelize the outside of the steak (known as the Maillard reaction). I used a mixture of charcoal and wood chunks (mesquite) to get the grill up to temp.

4. Once the steaks are on the grill, don't mess with them, just let them cook.

5. I hope this goes without saying, but do not overcook the steak! I pulled mine when they hit about 100 degrees (rare is cool with me). You can go higher, but I wouldn't go past 110 (the temp will go up if you let them rest, see next point). You can see in the picture that the steak was bright red throughout. Remember, the cow didn't die to be made into charcoal, respect its wishes.

6. Let the steaks rest when they are done; they'll finish cooking.

That's it, steak nirvana.

If you build it, they will come

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:04:00 +0000

Been slow on the food blogging front thanks in no small part to a nagging upper back tweak I can't quite shake.

Anyway, nothing like a pizza party to get out of the cooking rut. I don't have any pictures (too busy having fun), but I do have this recommendation: find a cheapo used Weber grill, go to Webercam, and search for all "firedome" posts, and then get to work. As far as I'm concerned, Dave's simple modification to the Weber is the most important invention since the wheel.

The pizzas (sourdough crust, various toppings including my all-time favorite, onion marmalade and blue cheese), were a hit.

Serious Mac N Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:33:00 +0000

My kids love the crappy mac and cheese that comes out of the box; you know the stuff that probably glows in the dark, and is an abomination on all things cheese?

We'll, I decided to make them see the light with this grilled mac and cheese courtesy of Steven Raichlen (thanks to Marc for recommendation and also the idea for adding bacon):

Unfortunately, the kids were not into it, but I like to look on the bright side-more for me.

Hello Fall?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:39:00 +0000

It is with much rejoicing and celebration that I greet some moderately cooler temperatures in central Ohio (70s, but beggars can't be choosers). The calender says fall is still two weeks away, but I decide to take a break from the steady stream of fresh produce from the farmer's market and whip up something a bit more hardy, in this case, jambalaya:

Jambalaya is one of those great meat and rice dishes that is not only delicious, but economical as well. I've made this dish plenty of times, and the current version is a decidedly rustic one (that's saying a lot) from Real Cajun.

I always look for three things in a jambalaya: 1) smoked pork (I used jagerwurst here, but andouille, tasso, or bacon works just fine), 2) some sort of other meat (today it was chicken, but shrimp is also a winner), and 3) rice, the real star of the show, that is cooked well and has absorbed all the other great flavors.

Back to the Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:08:00 +0000

It is pitch black by nine o'clock, so summer must be winding down (for the kids it offically ended early this week with the start of school). Swimming is always the highlight of summer for our family, so one last trip to the lake seems to be in order.

One of our favorite lakes here in Central Ohio is the Deleware Reservoir (unlike MN, there aren't a lot of real lakes here in Ohio). Last time we hit the lake, there was an e coli. warning, which didn't stop us. This time, no e coli problem, but soemthing even better, toxic algea!

Fortunately the kids (and some adults) had fun playing engineer, so it wasn't a huge loss:

The beach means the grill, and we loaded it up:

I also gave the grilled vegetable terrine from Charcuterie a whirl:

and a blueberry pie and fig tart, both from John Besh's My New Orleans:

One day I hope to get to the lake and actually swim!

What the Falafel?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:52:00 +0000

Just got back from a fantastic trip up to Buffalo to visit my brother and his wife. We had a great time, taking in some of the local sights. I thought my kids would be blown away by the Niagara falls, but clearly, one of them wasn't:

We also got to sample some local fare that Buffalo is rightly famous for. Duff's wings were top on my list and didn't disappoint-they might not have invented them (that's Anchor Bar, which we'll hit next time), but they sure are good. I also tried the "Beef on weck," roast beef on a kummelweck roll, a kaiser roll topped with pretzel salt and caraway seeds. Lots of good home cooking too (great lasagna Tara!)

Needless to say my waist was expanding pretty rapidly given all the good food, so I'd better add some healthy fare to the mix.

Falafels are always a good option; grind up some chickpeas, add plenty of spices, and deep fry (hmm, about that healthy stance!):

As long as summer's here, plenty of fruits and veg will be on the menu.

Summer cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:03:00 +0000

Summer's a bit of a contradiction for those of us who love to cook. Plenty of great produce (there are about 8 farmer's markets within a ten mile radius of our house). The problem is, who wants to be in the kitchen all day prepping dishes?

One solution to this (and, I would contend, virtually any) problem, is the grill. Today I fired up the Weber, tossed a few beets in a cast iron pan, and lined the edge with seasoned chicken thighs:

I've been gradually converted to the idea that vinaigrette make a great sauce, especially for grilled meat and veg. Today I made a balsamic/Dijon mustard version, but the possibilities are endless.

All told, I spent about 10 minutes prepping the meal; pretty quick, but still enough time to warrant a Dogfishhead 60 minute IPA.

Summer's Bounty

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:26:00 +0000

I'm a pretty frugal shopper, careful not to blow the kids' college tuition on a whim. Unfortunately, that all goes out the window when it comes to food. Farmer's markets are the worst; all that produce, I just can't say no. Even my wife's most quizzical looks aren't enough to restrain me.

So, what is one to do if one finds oneself with enough eggplant, squash, zucchini, bell peppers, and tomatoes to run a small rabbit farm for a year? I decided to make ratatouille (explaining to the kids that dad isn't stewing a DVD for dinner).

With all that veg, I need a meat side, so I go for the grilled sausage burgers in Real Cajun (you can find the recipe here):

The burgers get topped with fresh tomato and zucchini pickles, my new addiction, from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, (recipe here):

Kids were not terribly impressed with all the summer veg, but that just means more for me!

Something to read while I get my you-know-what together

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:37:00 +0000

We've been traveling quite a bit late to far-flung locales where high speed internet is only but a dream passed on the lips of the young.

In other words, I've been too damned busy to post anything and to frustrated by dial-up to bother. I had high hopes for some ribs on the Weber today, but they darned things stood so high in the rib rack, I couldn't shut the lid completely, which allowed more air in and prevented the low and slow burn I was looking for (luckily enough was saved to feed the family).

Anyway, this story in the New York Times today has my wife wondering why I'm staking out the backyard and searching Craigslist for gently used backhoes:

Pig Roast!

Wish I had seen this two weeks ago when we were visiting the folks. They have more than a 100 acres of prime pig-buryin' land, a tractor with a large bucket, enough seasoned oak to immolate every pig from Northern Minnesota to Southern Iowa, and literally piles of field stones (rocks are the second most plentiful crops of the area besides snow).

In praise of confit

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:50:00 +0000

It's simple: procure some duck legs (Asian markets are always good), salt them for 24 hours, cook slowly in duck fat/lard (I use my slow cooker), cover in cooking fat (be sure to save the cloudy meat jelly at the bottom of the vessel), refridgerate for a week, heat up, and enjoy:

Perfect for an easy dinner (here with some slow-stewed green beans).