A tale of too much pork

If there were such a thing as too much pork, this would be it. We had done a pork shoulder on the egg for a work party. And it was pronounced delicious. The trouble is, Costco's pork shoulders come in packets of 2. Each weighing about 5lbs. So one was smoked, shredded, sauced and eaten. The other was sitting in the fridge looking at me, desperately in need of some love and attention. So what to do?

Pork tacos, of course. But sadly when getting that ready, we ended up with too much meat for the dutch oven, so had to step down to yet another dish. Fortunately there was all sorts pf stuff in the fridge - and we have a great Mexican supermarket (Fiesta) nearby.

Ingredients (Paste)

6 ancho chiles stalks removed and seeded

8 chile d'arbol - stalks removed and seeded

Juice of 4 limes

3T sugar

Method (Paste)

Cover the dried chiles with boiling water, weigh them down under a plate and leave to stand for at least 30 minutes. Put all ingredients into a blender with some of the reserved liquid and blend until you have a smooth paste. It will need between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid.

Ingredients (Pork Taco Meat)

3T Vegetable oil

2 Large Onions sliced

6 garlic cloves crushed

2T ground cumin
3T ground coriander
1T ground allspice
2T Mexican Oregano (dried)
3 Bay leaves
12 oz bottle of dark beer
4/5ths of the above paste

4 lbs pork shoulder - cut into 4 1lb pieces

Method (Pork Taco Meat)

Salt the pork and rub with the paste. Leave to stand for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a large Dutch Oven until shimmering and add the onions, garlic and the spices. Soften the onions and garlic - about 5-10 minutes or until the spices are nice and fragrant. Add the beer, bring to a boil and put the pork into the pot. Cover tightly. Put into the oven for 2 1/2 hours (maybe a bit more or a bit less) until the pork is tender.

Strain the liquid and separate the fat. Shred the pork and add the strained liquid back into it. Serve immediately or allow to cool and serve over the following few days.

Ingredients (Pork Stew)

2T vegetable oil

6 Shallots - crushed

3 Garlic cloves - crushed

3 Celery ribs

1 Apple - diced

1/5th of the paste

1 lb pork shoulder - cut into 3/4 inch cubes

8 oz beer (anything but light/low calorie. We used Fireman's 4)

1/4 cup bitter orange marmalade

Method (Pork Stew)

Salt the pork and rub with the paste. Leave to stand for about 30 minutes. In a 4 quart saucepot heat the oil until sizzling. Turn heat to low and add the celery, shallot, apple and garlic. Allow the shallot and celery to soften.

Transfer the celery/shallot/garlic/apple to its own bowl. Add a little more oil and start to brown the coated pork. Do this in batches to avoid simply steaming it.

Add the seared pork to the vegetables. Deglaze the pan with the beer and add the range marmalade. Add the pork and vegetables back into the pan. Stir, put the lid onto the pan and simmer gently on the stove until the pork is tender (about 90 minutes).

When it is cooked, serve over plain white rice, garnished with Mexican Oregano.

Sous Vide Part 1 Chicken Beef Lamb and Pork

In this posting, I am laying out those items I plan to do in the first week or so of the grand sous vide experiment. Madame and I went shopping for:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Pork ribs
• Lamb chops
• Beef sirloin
• Leeks, peppers, celery

These are going to be turned into:

Chicken:

1. mushrooms, onion, cream, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper
2. onion, fennel, indian spices, salt, pepper
3. ginger, kaffir lime, coconut milk, lemon grass, salt, pepper
4. cumin, coriander, star anise, cinnamon, clove, hot pepper sauce, salt, pepper
5. tarragon, salt and pepper

Pork Ribs

1. home made bbq sauce (ketchup, fish sauce, brown sugar, paprika, molasses, cumin ++)
2. fish sauce, lime (juice and zest) shrimp paste, mirin, palm oil, szechuan peppers
3. apple, calvados, cider vinegar

Lamb chops

1. mint, garlic, salt pepper, trace of grapeseed oil

Sirloin (prime)

1. salt, pink pepper corns, trace of oil

Vegetable Medley

1. leeks, peppers, fennel, carrots, basil,

here's hoping that at least some of these will come out well. The chicken will be set to cook at 65 C. The lamb and the beef at 50C. The pork at 60C. The vegetables at 80C. Since the dishes will be finished later (sauced dishes by reheating, non sauced dishes by searing), the final temperatures should come out properly, and in line with the FDA guidelines in the USA. The vegetables should concentrate their sweetness too, by finishing in the oven.
These dishes will all be frozen, and then brought out as dinners at various times this winter/spring. If I have to travel, then I want to make sure that Madame has tasty/nutritious items.
Subsequent postings will detail the experiments.



A celery trick

I like to try to do things efficiently in the kitchen. One of my pet peeves is dealing with celery. The ribs are long and cumbersome and variable in width as you go down towards the root. So rather than breaking off a single rib and chopping that, I leave the bunch (head, or whatever the word for the whole celery is) intact and slice crosswise across all the ribs. That way, I can get the pieces even in size quite simply. The main downside, of course, is that you have to guess at the amount of celery you are using. That isn't usually a problem, since most stews, braises, etc. are not that critical. Also you don't get suitable length pieces for stirring your bloody mary.