“The only time to eat diet food is when you’re waiting for the steak to cook”-Julia Child
Month: May 2013
This week we are happy to share one of our new found inspirations. The NY Times columnist Melissa Clark. Not only is she smart and makes great food, check she’s also funny and cute!!! Yes we are totally crushing on Melissa Clark. This last weekend she inspired us to to make two things. Quick caramelized garlic and small-batch pulled pork. Both were quick and easy to make. We used the garlic in a lasagna, information pills by adding it to the onions and sausage, along with putting it in the sauce. Our guests we had over on Friday night were loving the it so much I am surprised there was any left! I would have to say the garlic was a big part of that.
Our second dish of the weekend was the small-batch pulled pork. This was really amazing and easy to cook. The ingredients are things most people have in there pantry. Which made this super easy to make. Also the pork is boneless so it took a lot less time to cook. We put it on some potato buns with cornichons and paired it with our famous coleslaw. It was so good we couldn’t wait for the next day to have leftovers! Well, it looks like it’s going to be another great weekend and we are really excited to see what Melissa has in store for us. For the recipes and video’s we talked about, check out Melissa at the N.Y. Times website link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/05/10/dining/100000002217020/small-batch-pulled-pork.html
We got a late start on camping this year. Mother Nature was not on our side. But our first outing was amazing and on Monday I had the sore hips to prove it!!! We started off early in the morning on the train, viagra buy then hit camp somewhere around two-ish, more about gathered fire wood, pills set up our tents and celebrated with a glass of wine. We even made a make shift DJ booth for the ipod! The next day we headed out taking the scenic route and finished with our tradition of eating Chinese food. After sufficiently filling our bellies we were ready for the train ride home with the joys of another camping adventure behind us.
So I came up with this recipe one night when we had some friends come over and convinced them to stay for dinner. We were already three hours into making a pork shoulder but hadn’t decided what else to go with it. I looked around the kitchen as I usually do to see what we need and I found a fennel bulb and thought, medical hmmmmmm what can I do with this? I was already making and Asian inspired pork shoulder, for sale Why not continue that theme with a fennel coleslaw? So here is the recipe for both!!!
Asian Pork Shoulder with Fennel Slaw
Author: Shannon
Recipe type: Main and Side
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Ingredients
- 3-4 pound pork shoulder
- 5-6 cloves of garlic
- ½ cup soy sauce
- ½ cup rice wine vinegar
- ½ cup fish sauce
- ½ cup dark agave nectar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
- salt and pepper to taste
- SLAW
- 1 medium to large fennel bulb
- 1 large carrot
- ¼ quarter of red bell pepper
- 4 green onions
- Dressing
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ¼ tablespoon of fish sauce
- ¼ tablespoon of white wine vinegar
- Sprinkle of red pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Score shoulder
- Smash garlic and place cloves in scored pork
- Combine all other ingredients in a bowl
- Place shoulder in plastic bag
- Add marinade
- Refrigerate from 6 hours to 24 hours
- When done marinating preheat oven to 400
- Place shoulder and marinade in roasting pan
- Cover with parchment paper and aluminum foil
- After 30 minutes lower heat to 300
- Cook for 4 hours
- Take off parchment and foil
- Cook for another 20-30 minutes for crispy skin
- Check with meat thermometer, should read 185 degrees when done.
- Remove from oven cover with foil again and let sit for 20 minutes before serving.
- FENNEL SLAW
- Julienne fennel bulb, carrot and red pepper.
- Chop onion
- Toss in bowl
- Mix dressing and pour over slaw
- Toss slaw to coat with dressing
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Serve immediately at room temperature.
Notes
Cooking time and temp varies with each oven. Keep an eye on your roast and baste the shoulder with juices. I like to check and baste every 30minutes or so. You don't want a dry shoulder. Dressing for slaw - taste and add more fish sauce or vinegar for your preference. Prep time does not include marinading time. If it's already too hot for you to have the oven on for 5-6 hours then use a crock pot for the roast. Just cut the fat off and pierce the meat then put the garlic cloves in the holes before you marinade. Also since you've cut off the fat, keep a good eye on it so it doesn't get dry. Cook on low for about 4-6 hours. You will know when it's done, it should fall off the bone.
What is a Beer-rita? Well if you believe the commercial hype, treatment it’s any wanna be mexican beer in a margarita. But for us it’s our chili beer mixed with margaritas. It sounds crazy, I know, and isn’t for the lighthearted. We started this last year and it was a huge hit. Most of our friends loved it and few hated it, but all were glad we made it. What we didn’t know is we found the perfect way to use this beer. We were having a bbq and a couple of our guests wanted one, but were on our last bottle. What to do? Well being us and our friends being as adventurous, we decided to put it in the margaritas we were making. Kick it up a notch. Well to say it was a hit is an understatement. That pitcher of margaritas didn’t stand a chance! I know it sounds weird, and it’s not the most attractive drink, but it worked and really well. The spice and bubbles gave the margaritas just the right amount of zing and cut the sweet enough to make it refreshing. Now cut to a year later and bam! We have more chili beer!!! So when you come over to the roof top there will be a pitcher of Beer-ritas waiting for you. For as long as they last.
But if you can’t make it over, or don’t want to make the chili beer from scratch then try adding a chopped jalapeno , that has been soaking in the juice of one lime or lemon for about 10 minutes(brings out the heat in the pepper) and one dark Mexican beer, like Negro Modelo. This is per pitcher. It may not be as exact as ours but you get the spice and bubbles that really make this a great summer drink.
Now if your like us and you make your margaritas from scratch, you might want adjust as needed or to your taste.
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