Cool, Very Cool

I'm referring to our weather. It's nearing the middle of April, normally a time when we get some of our hottest days of the year because the fog is out to sea and the sun is already strong, but still we are having very cool weather.

Because of the unseasonable coolth, when I saw this organic pork pot roast in my local supermarket, I thought, "Why the heck not?" This is still the right weather for pot roast.

I was in a mood to fuss with it a bit, so I browned it in my Dutch oven, dusted it liberally with Chinese five spice and ginger powders and added a whole bunch of stuff to simmer with it for hours. After browning in toasted sesame oil, I added celery tops, 6 peeled shallots, 8 lightly crushed and peeled garlic cloves, 1/2 cup of Aloha teriyaki sauce, 3/4 cup of chicken broth, a splash of banana vinegar and 3/4 cup of brewed coffee. Brought it up to a boil, then turned it down to a simmer, covered it and let it cook gently for three hours until it was tender and falling off the bone.

Brought to the table on a platter with some bright green peas and young colorful carrots, it was wonderfully flavorful with all the ingredients that infused the meat. I skimmed the fat off the goozle and served it in a little pitcher to pour over each serving. More of a jus than a gravy, that goozle was full of all those flavors, too.

Best of all, it is a large cut of meat - we will enjoy it even more in subsequent meals as the flavors ripen and improve, and any leftover goozle will end up in soup or something.

The whole dinner was cool, very cool.

Wanting Wontons

Ever since making wonton soup for my Hawaii relatives, I've been wanting to make it again. It's fun, it's not too complicated and it tastes really clean and delicious. Another rainy day was good incentive to work on my wonton soup technique.

This time, I made them with ground pork rather than ground turkey and I spiced up the insides rather dramatically with fresh grated ginger and pepper. I also sauteed green onion and minced mushrooms along with the pork, so the filling had more character than last time.

The broth was better this time, too. I used boxed broth but thinned it half-and-half with water for a milder flavor, then stirred in about a tablespoon of white miso while it was heating gently.

After filling, folding and sealing the wontons with a little egg wash, I dropped them into a pot of boiling water and cooked them just for a very few minutes, perhaps five in total, until they puffed and floated to the top - the filling is already cooked, so you needn't worry about food poisoning. I didn't bother to gather the ends into a pucker this time, just left them as triangles and I actually like them better this way because it showcased the delicacy of the wrappers.

To plate, all you do is put some frozen peas and uncooked, sliced green onion in the bowl, ladle in some of the chicken-miso stock and then add your wontons, perhaps three or four per serving. The hot stock will thaw and cook the peas just enough and heat the green onion to a brighter color.

The whole thing used only about 1/16th of a pound of ground pork, so it's a very economical dish as well as a wholesome, filling and delicious one. Even if you make it with spendy organic ingredients, as I did, it's still a bargain for that much flavor and nutrition.

As with all things, the more you do it, the better you get. My wonton technique improves with each repetition. I might try war wonton soup next, My Beloved's favorite.

The Whole Empanada

Ya gotta love a product that takes all the work and worry out of trying new dishes. Star Dough has been like that for me, a godsend. The buttery, flaky ease of the pie dough makes trying new dishes a pleasure. Get some: I have spoken.

My latest attempt was an empanada. Now, keep in mind that I have never actually eaten an empanada before in my life. I have heard that they are rather like a Cornish pasty, only not really, and Mexican. So, I invented this out of the wild scramble that is my brain and the contents of my fridge - it may not resemble in the slightest what you think of as an authentic empanada.

I used mostly veggies, plus some shredded pork and pork stock left over from a couple of spareribs that I grilled on the barbecue back when we could remember what sunshine looked like. They were not a huge success - just not something very grillable unless you have cooked them thoroughly before grilling, which I had not done. So, we nibbled at them but quickly decided that they'd make better stock than dinner. They were a huge success, however, at making smoky, porkylicious broth and I shredded the meat into the stock before freezing.

I started the empanada by chopping a whole bunch of veggies into small cubes - onion, garlic, carrot, two small Yukon gold potatoes, some mushrooms (sliced), a handful of green beans and a couple of leaves of a Napa cabbage. The frozen corn kernels didn't need chopping.

I fished out the pork (about half a cup) from the stock and browned it and the mushrooms in a wide skillet in a little oil/butter combo, then began sautéing the veggies, starting with the densest ones and going to the quickest-cooking ones, until all were colorful and still had some structural integrity. As the mixture dried out, I'd splash in a little of that pork stock for flavor and moisture. At the end, I sprinkled on a generous dash of Hop'n Jalapeño sauce and mixed it in.

When all the veggies were perfect, I took the pan off the heat and set it aside to cool slightly. While it was cooling, I unrolled a round of the wonderful Star Dough and set it on a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan, then stuck it back in the fridge to stay cold until baking.

When My Beloved got home from a successful sales trip to exotic Modesto, I turned on the oven to 475 degrees, piled the contents of the skillet onto half of the pastry, folded over the other half to make a half-circle and crimped the edges with a fork. Into that hot oven it went for 15 minutes and out it came, steaming and crisp and golden brown. Because I may have overdone the Hop'n Jalapeño just a tad, I served it with a little crême fraîche on the side to cut the heat.

My Beloved was in the middle of a story about his day when he took the first bite - it stopped him in mid-sentence to compliment the dish. Nothing pleases me more than that look of surprised pleasure on his face. It was spicy, no doubt about that, but also really tasty with that porky, smoky goodness wound in and amongst all the ingredients.

We ate the whole empanada.

Relishing Porkiness

Onions and apples have always been good friends with pork - they are naturals together - so when I had two nice thick pork chops, an apple that needed eating and a nice big onion in the fridge, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

First, I cut a deep pocket into the fat side of each chop with a sharp knife, taking care to keep the blade level so the pocket sides would be evenly thick. The chops were about an inch thick, so the resulting pocket was about 1/2" thick on each side.

Then, I diced finely about 3/4 of a large apple (snacked on the rest while I worked) and the same amount of onion. I sautéed them both in a little butter, just until the onion was translucent and the apple had softened a bit, added about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to the pan and tossed the dice to coat. Into each chop pocket, I spooned a healthy portion of the apple-onion relish, reserving the rest.

I browned the chops on both sides using a little olive oil in a heavy frying pan (being careful not to dump out the stuffing when I turned them), then added a generous splash of chicken broth to the pan and put the lid on. Steaming the chops this way kept the meat moist while it cooked for about 10-15 minutes more. My Beloved likes his pork slightly on the pink side, so I took his out a few minutes before mine. These cook faster than chops without pockets so watch them carefully.

Laying the chops on the plates, I spooned the rest of the reserved apple-onion mixture over the chops. The vinegar added a lively tang to the sweet and savory of the apple-onion flavors and gave another dimension to the rich chops. I would happily make this again - it was easy, relatively quick and we relished (sorry 'bout that!) every bite.

Burbank's Creation

In fourth grade, I went to a funky little school called the Bentley School. It was housed an a rambling old multistory wooden mansion in Berkeley. Founded by two sisters, it still exists today, although it has moved and has become expensive now. Of the ten schools I experienced as we moved around in the Navy, it was the best and my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Vohs, was the best teacher I had, ever.

Mrs. Vohs was one of those ladies who made children want to learn to please her. She was very positive and upbeat but she never took any guff from us, either. When she learned I was bad at subtraction, she immediately formed a "Subtraction Club" in which the best students helped me to get up to speed quickly in subtraction and somehow made me feel like I had gained admission to some desirable group by being lousy at math. Now, that's gifted teaching!

Mrs. Vohs also taught me about Luther Burbank and his many contributions to the world of botany; to this day, my favorite of his creations are nectarines. Easier and sweeter than peaches, nectarines are the best of all possible stone fruits. They rock as simple fresh fruit and, when you grill them alongside your pork chop, concentrating their sugars and striping them with caramelized goodness, they reach a stage of deliciosity that simply cannot be bettered in this life - and maybe even in Heaven.

Bless you Luther Burbank and thank you Mrs. Vohs!

Chops on the Barbie

A simple, pasture-raised pork chop, grilled on the kettle grill over glowing charcoal.

Not really a recipe, just a reminder that the smoky, caramelized flavor is not to be missed while summer holds sway. Go get one and welcome the summer season.

Pork and Beans and Beans

Take Two on the Pot Pork.

I cooked up a pot of Full Belly beans à la Jamie Oliver from his book Jamie at Home (how's that for name dropping on the bean and recipe sources? I'm becoming such a food snob) and piled them into a bowl with some pork, some goozle and some green beans.

Man, it was good!

Jamie Oliver's Humble Home-Cooked Beans

11 ounces dried cranberry or cannellini beans, soaked in cold water for at least 12 hours
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
a few sprigs of fresh thyme (got them out of my garden)
a sprig of fresh rosemary (ditto)
3 bay leaves
1 stick celery, trimmed
1 small potato, peeled and halved
2 cherry tomatoes
extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar
a few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
4 slices of sourdough bread (he serves his beans on toast)

Drain the soaked beans and rinse with lots of cold water. Put them in a deep pot with everything except the oil, vinegar, parsley and bread, and cover them with cold water. Put on heat and bring slowly to a boil; cover with a lid and simmer very gently for 45 minutes or until beans are soft. (Here, I added the goozle left in the bottom of crock pot when I made the Pot Pork recipe and then just enough water to cover the beans - good move!)

Drain beans in a colander, reserving enough of the cooking liquid to cover them halfway up when put back into the pot (I saved all the cooking liquid - kept the rest for some other future meal and filled the bean pot as Jamie recommends). Remove the garlic, tomatoes, celery, potato and herb stems from the beans; discard celery and herb stems. Squeeze out the garlic and tomatoes from their skins onto a plate with the potato and mash together with a fork, then stir them back into the beans. Season well with salt and pepper, pour in three good glugs of olive oil and a few splashes of vinegar.

Steam some fresh green beans. In a wide soup or pasta bowl, ladle in a nice helping of dried beans and liquid, top with Pot Pork and surround with fresh beans. Dig in. Oh, baby!

Porky Dipsea

I'm a fan of pulled pork sandwiches - I order one almost every time I see it on a menu. I don't know where this taste comes from - it was certainly never served in my family home - but it is an enduring favorite.

It's 'way too much trouble to make at home - I'm more of a "dinner in 30 minutes" person than a "smoke it for five hours" type. So, I'm always grateful for people who are willing to take their sweet, smoky time.

I didn't know that the Dipsea Café in Mill Valley had pulled pork - had I known, I'd have gone sooner. Their version is nicely meaty and barbecue-y but the best part was the addition of cole slaw as "greens" in the sandwich. The cole slaw added a quiet crunch and a little surprise, something I haven't tasted since my last trip to true Barbecue Land, North Carolina.

Like Arnold, I'll be back.

Orange Vitamins

I already told you about the caprese salad (except to remark that it's still good the next day) and, although the pork tenderloin rubbed with Chinese five spice was perfectly roasted and utterly delicious, it's really all about the kabocha squash puréed with orange juice.

I roasted the squash with the idea of making soup but the weather was suddenly summer so I just peeled the squash and shoved it in the fridge, thinking we'd be back to spring in a few days.

Those days flew by and, apparently, summery weather is here to stay. So, I put it into the blender with a splash of OJ and whirled it smooth and silky. Gently reheated and served alongside the tenderloin, it gave us a healthy dose of orange vitamins, a taste treat and a perfect pairing for the pork.

The Rest of the Pig

Chopzilla is just a delicious memory.

The rest of the meat from my chop was sauteed briefly in toasted sesame oil with garlic chips, fresh grated ginger, sliced celery and green onion, broccoli florets and stems, sliced carrots, frozen peas, scrambled egg and, last but not least, nice brown rice.

A sumptuous dinner and there's plenty left over for my lunch.

We drizzled the finished product with some soy and dug in to the rest of the pig.

Chopzilla

When we spent a rainy afternoon browsing through the Oxbow Public Market in Napa, we spied at the Fatted Calf these enormous heritage Porterhouse pork chops and simply couldn't resist buying two. To give you a sense of perspective, that's a dinner plate!

Chopzilla!

I served them simply, as befits such fine behemoths of porkitude. I slowly sauteed some onions, turning them frequently until nearly caramelized, then set them aside while I browned the chops in the same pan and lowered the heat to continue cooking. Topped with said onions and some of my homemade applesauce, they were simply delicious. My Beloved ate his in a single sitting but the rest of mine will furnish part of tonight's dinner.

Chopzilla, Destroyer of Hunger.

What Ever Happened to Trish Olson?

Trish Olson was the wife of a high school friend of First Husband's, a beautiful blonde "stewardess" who gave me the recipe for these pork chops more than 35 years ago when we were both young brides and flight attendants were still called stewardesses. The friendship didn't flourish and we later heard that the Olsons had divorced, but the pork chops live on, albeit in somewhat changed form.

The original recipe calls for an onion slice, a lemon slice and brown sugar to top the pork chops; over the years, I've tried several combinations of citrus, onion and catsup. The catsup remains the constant but the other things can change, depending on what I have in the house and I usually leave out the brown sugar these days. Then, just slide the foil-covered pan into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes for thick cut chops, uncovering and basting for the last 15 minutes or so. It's pretty simple and the flavor is not sophisticated, like so many recipes from that era, but it is tasty.

It's easy to make, a bonus for a young married woman with a job and a new husband to impress. It was the height of "Women's Lib" when we were told we should "Bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never let you forget you're a man!" and a little dab of Enjoli perfume would take care of the latter part of that promise. Turns out that pork chops beat perfume for pleasing a man, in my experience.

What ever happened to Trish Olson? And Enjoli?

What Can Brown Do For You?

Roast pork tenderloin, roast fingerling potatoes with my Christmas present of Hawaiian red salt and roast cauliflower, while composing a hearty winter meal, don't make a very colorful plate. Even the homemade applesauce I served with it didn't improve the color palette much. Kind of a UPS meal - brown.

Shoulda punched it up with a garnish of some kind, or served a green veggie instead. Maybe some clementine sections would have made an interesting addition. Next time.

Holy Smoke!

I'm not a religious person, but I've just had a religious experience.

Ribs from the Reverend Dr. Biggles.

When his crazy neighbors rejected his offer of leftover ribs, this dear man called me so I raced over to his house to pick them up right now! My mother didn't raise any fools.

Open the foil covering - the first sniff wafts up like the song of angels. The first bite sends your taste buds heavenward. Porky, meaty, smoky and lightly salty, these are the same ribs he brought to the Food Bloggers' Picnic and they are divine. The man is bucking for sainthood, both as a great Dad and as a godlike chef of smoky meats.

My Beloved and I had a heavenly summer dinner in the soft evening light. We are not religious people, but we said our own version of Grace.

Heat Wave

We had a heat wave - in fact, two heat waves, so far - here in Northern California. September and October are our warmest months and this year we've already had more than our share of hot days.

We have learned to open all doors and windows at night, then to close up the house early in the morning to keep that cool air inside but, even so, by dinner time, it's too hot to turn on an oven or a burner.

However, the idea of raw pork was shudder-producing, so we decided to barbecue our dinner to beat the heat. The bone-in chops went right on the grill, but away from the direct heat of the fire, giving them a smoky-but-not-burny flavor. The corn, ditto. Delicious, both of them. But the hit of the evening was the peaches.

I "planked" the peaches, cooking them over the direct heat of the fire but shielded by a cedar shingle*, the thin end of which smoldered and smoked, lending its flavor to the sizzling peach halves on top. They were a killer accompaniment to the pork, made sweeter by the concentrating heat of the fire but still with that peach kick that keeps them from being cloying.

Good meal for a heat wave.

*If you want to try this, be sure to ask your local lumberman for untreated cedar shingles - you don't want fire retardant in your food.

The Rest of the Roast

Right after we roasted our standing rib of pig, the Bay area experienced a heat wave, so the idea of stir-frying the rest of the pork and serving it over hot rice just seemed like too much hell.

Luckily, my friend Annie had the solution. Annie and I have been friends since we were 13 and the internet has brought us closer even though she lives in very southern Arizona where this kind of heat is pretty common. I knew she'd have an idea for using up the pork that didn't include heating up the kitchen.

She suggested a Southwest-themed salad and her recipe sounded great, to wit:

1 can black beans, drained
diced onion, diced Anaheim chili
diced jalapeno (can omit if you don't like heat)
can of corn
some garlic
chopped, fresh cilantro
quartered cherry tomatoes (they aren't on the "killer" list)
one cooked chicken breast.

The dressing is lime juice and a little oil, salt and pepper. Shred the chicken breast and stir into the mix. Serve on chopped romaine lettuce.

I made only four small changes to this recipe. Grilled two ears of corn that I had on hand, rather than using canned corn, and cut it off the cob. Added cubed avocado because, to me, it's just not Southwest food if avocado is not involved. Used canned chilis because my little market didn't have fresh ones that day. And, substituted the left over pork roast for the chicken.

It was too hot for tossing the salad so I just offered it in bowls from which we heaped our plates according to our preferences. Served under the shade on the deck to catch the breeze off the water, it made a spectacular hot-day dinner and a fitting end for the rest of the roast.

Standing Rib Roast with a Twist

This is the very first pork roast I have seen in California that still had the bones attached. Intrigued, I purchased this 'way too large cut of meat and lugged it home.

I dressed the outside with thyme, sesame seeds and drizzles of soy sauce and olive oil, since most of the fat had been pared away at the store.

I had to consult Mrs. Rombauer to figure out how long to roast it; she said 30 minutes to the pound would do the trick. Even slightly overcooked, it was juicy and hearty, big chops that elicited growly noises of pleasure from My Beloved as he carved them apart.

Should have invited our pal Jack for dinner, he of the enormous appetite. I couldn't finish my chop but it will make good stir-fry later in the week.

Pig Heaven

Whenever I go to North Carolina to visit my sister, I am hopeful of finding really good pork barbecue. People in southern Virginia and North Carolina really get pig dishes. We just returned from a visit to my sister and, yes, I found a good pork sandwich on the way there.

Interstate 85 at this time of year is a long, straight, spring green tunnel heading south from Richmond. The road signs advertised depressingly familiar fare such as McDonalds and Burger King until we noted a sign for Rumorz Cafe. It was time for a pit stop anyway, so why not try this unknown name?

Rumorz is local. Southern local. Good ol' boy local. Y'all local. The customers were all known to the waitresses and to each other. Soft southern greetings accompanied each entry and exit. The waitress called the patrons "honey" and patted some of them on the head as she passed by their table. And the pork sandwich was my dream come true, big chunks of deeply smoked pork with Rumorz's vinegary, tangy sauce on the side, enough to smother the meat if you like slathered but not just dumped on in case you prefer dabs to slathers. The french fries weren't good but I couldn't have eaten them anyway after this man-sized sandwich and the little cup of cole slaw was the perfect accompaniment to literal and figurative Pig Heaven.

Pork and Beans

If I ate leftovers like this every day, I might actually enjoy it when My Beloved is away on a business trip. A happy accident occurred when I decided to combine the last scoop of baked beans with the last few slices of a barbecued pork tenderloin that we enjoyed a few days before.

I don't think I have ever eaten Mrs. Ferguson's baked beans with anything besides hot dogs in all the years I've been eating them! Just goes to show you that you're never too old to learn. The smoky flavor of the pork that My Beloved had grilled outside on the slow side of the barbecue until it was only very slightly pink really, really enhanced the sweet-tart of the beans with onions and citrus peel - even without the salty layer that frankfurters add, this combination was much, much better. Pork and beans with a kick! Almost compensation for missing that man.

Carnitas Heaven

Our three-pound pork shoulder roast was delicious but My Beloved and I are only two; when we cook a big hunk of pig like that, we get at least two and sometimes three or even four meals from it. This time, I decided to try making burritos as, now that I'm retired, I was missing the wonderful burritos I used to enjoy near my workplace.

I cubed and heated some of the pork, cooked Mexican rice from a recipe my friend Annie sent me from Arizona, and made salsa from Roma tomatoes, onion and a can of green chilies that was lurking in the pantry. Opened a can of black beans, sliced an avocado and some lettuce. Although my local supermarket had flour tortillas, which they call "wraps," I couldn't find real crema so I substituted creme fraiche (tells you something about my supermarket, doesn't it?) and it was quite good. Pile all that into the warmed tortilla sprinkled with a little shredded mild cheese and you have a honest-to-goodness feast! It wasn't as good as Castellito B makes but My Beloved had just returned from an overnight sales trip to Fresno and declared himself to be one lucky guy.