Dude, get a Crock Pot

We eat a lot of bbq in the South and it's mostly pork here in Virginia with its proximity to North Carolina. I've found the easiest way to make pulled pork is with a Crock Pot. I highly recommend you get one.

Since it cooks for twelve hours, you can use pork butt, shoulder or roast...as long as it fits in the pot. I give mine a quick spice rub in olive oil, chopped garlic and a healthy dose of Garam Masala.

Take about a cup of bbq sauce, whatever you have around the house...KC Masterpiece works fine, miz it with about 2 cups of water. Mix it up and pour about a third into the pot then lay the pork in filling the pot with the rest of sauce until the meat is 2/3 covered. Set the temp to low and it it go for half a day. Once it's done, break apart with a fork and drain the sauce.

About a half an hour before you serve, make some cole slaw. I use green cabbage, purple cabbage and carrots in mine. Mix together a cup of mayo, 1/2 cup of sour cream, a dash of mustard, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp of cider vinegar. Chop up a whole head of green cabbage, 1/4 head of purple and 3 carrots and add them to the mix. Let set for about a half hour.

Last thing to get is the buns. I go for potato rolls but regular hamburger buns work too.

Heat up a little extra bbq sauce from the bottle on the side and assemble the pulled pork sandwich by laying down a layer of meat, add a little sauce, top with the slaw and eat.

Stock

Pretty much the foundation to a lot of the cooking I do is good, quality stock. I've made veggie and beef in the past, but mostly I make chicken stock. It's also a very therapeutic endeavor. Great for Saturdays or Sundays during football season. I tend to only roast chickens during the winter months. Besides, you don't want something giving off six hours of steam in your house in the middle of summer.

First thing's first. You need to get a chicken carcass and some veg together. Here's my basic roasted chicken recipe.

1 good chicken. I rarely side with the foodies, but I cave on birds. Get an organic without any antibiotics. Free range is less of a concern to me because, after all, it's a chicken. The crap they put into the chicken is another matter and from my experience, the taste is effected by said crap.

1 head of garlic, 1 onion, 2 cups chicken stock - store bought is fine, 1 lemon, rosemary (I use fresh but dried works), butter, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Remove giblets if any. Rinse the chicken. I know, seems daft but do it. Pat it dry with paper towels and pitch them when done. Wash your hands after touching the chicken at any point throughout the process.

Coat the cavity with salt and pepper, quarter the lemon and cram it in the cavity along with the rosemary. Close the legs with kitchen twine or those kick-ass silicone rubber bands. Rub the chicken with about 2 Tbsp of butter.

Stick the chicken in the hot oven for 30 minutes.

Peel and chop up your onion and break apart your garlic head keeping the skins intact.

Once the first 30 minutes has gone by, pull the chicken out of the oven and remove it from the baking dish. Drop the oven to 350 F. Add the stock, chopped onion and separated garlic. Stick the chicken back on top of that stuff and put it back in the oven basting every 20 - 30 minutes until it hits 165 F. Remove and let sit for 15 - 20 minutes before carving.

After you've picked the carcass clean, you can toss it in the freezer in a ziploc until you are ready to make the stock.

Put the carcass in a big pot...5 quarts or so...and cover with water. Add whatever veg is almost rotting in your fridge. Carrots, celery, parsnips, onion, peppers, broccoli, whatever you got. Add a pinch of salt, a handful of peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves, bring to a boil, turn down and let simmer uncovered for about six hours. Run to the hardware store and pick up a case of Bell's mason jars. I get the pint sized because that's usually how much I need down the road. Once it's done, strain it from the solid bits, skim any fat off the top and pour it into the jars. Don't fill it all the way to the top...leave about an inch...let cool to room temp and then stick them in that spare Sub Zero you got out in the garage.

Simple egg sandwich

One of the standbys I use at least twice a week is making egg sandwiches for the wife and kids. Lately I've been going to Trader Joe's and getting their tubed refrigerated buttermilk biscuits and making two batches over the weekend so I've got them at the ready. A good egg sandwich is ridiculously easy to make...you don't need to douche it up like Bobby Flay probably wood with chipotle infused carne asada that's been marinating for three days in your spare Sub Zero in the garage.

One egg. Fry, scramble, poach, hardboil or however you like it. Remember it's got to fit snugly on the round biscuit bottom. Folding in half is OK but I wouldn't recommend that if it's got a runny yolk.

Meat. I usually use sliced sandwich ham. After the egg is almost done cooking, I add a slice to the frying pan.

Cheese. I usually go swiss or cheddar. Sliced or grated both work.

Biscuit. Sliced in half, I turn my broiler on, lay the cheese on the top and bottom slices of the biscuit and put them on the oven rack until the cheese melts.

Stack the ingredients between the biscuit halves and chow down. I usually need two. On the weekends, I pair it with a Bloody Mary.

Athletes

Baseball food

It's time to take the kids to the park for a healthy dose of unhealthy-ness. Here in DC we have the greatest hot dog on earth, the half-smoke. For those uninformed, the City Paper did a great story on half-smokes a couple of years ago.

I went to opening day in DC today and Dippin' Dots, my girls' reason for going to games were nowhere to be found. But they did have 20 different gelatos. Go figure. That and Peroni on tap. Maybe the Nats could at least beat the Italian national soccer team...in baseball.

Latest Food TV obsession is Chopped. My 10 year old daughter turned me onto it. Which is odd. I'm sure a band is next.

Have some Easter leftovers to deal with so there should be some soups coming soon,

Remnants

Leftovers. Great if you can get another dinner out of them, but if you can't - do lunch. I had some roasted chicken that needed consumption and was out of bread except hot dog buns.

I'm not a big fan of lobster rolls because I don't like lobster. I prefer my crustaceans to be of the Maryland Blue variety. But my wife likes them so I know what they are. Since I only had a hot dog bun, I decided on a quick, poor man's version with chicken. For flavor I looked around the fridge and found a half stick of pepperoni from the last time we made pizza and made a couple of thin vertical slices; some cheddar, cornichons, mayo and yellow mustard. Usually I use dijon, but I reckoned the pepperoni would be enough of a kick. For the younger set, try a milder salami.

Lay the chicken, salami and grated cheese on a hot dog bun and put it in the oven onder the broiler for a couple of minutes. When cheese is melted, remove, slap on the condiments and enjoy.

Inspiration and influences

I've had a few people ask me what my influences are beyond the few cookbooks I've mentioned. I guess if I had to choose a singular influencing factor, it would be this.

Recession recipe #1

So I've been trying to spend less money at the store over the last few months as my 401(k) has become a 001(k). I honestly never paid that much attention to what I was buying cost-wise...I just replaced what we'd gone through the week before. Since it was time to shake up the menu as all four of us were getting into a rut, I decided to take the opportunity to pare down the grocery budget. You know what's cheap? Beans. Lentils, black, black eyed, split pea, etc. The beef and barley soup from earlier benefited from this new found frugality as well.

Now for the recipe: Split Pea and Ham Soup. (Replace the chicken stock with veggie stock and leave out the ham for the non-carnivore version.)

We eat chicken at least once a week and as you know, buying a whole chicken is usually cheaper than the sum of it's parts. Since I can't give the bones to the dog, I have a big freezer bag of chicken bones and parts in the freezer and when it gets full, I make chicken stock.

A chicken carcass. I love the word carcass.
6 cups of water
Celery
Onion
Carrots
Bay leaf
Salt

Combine, boil and simmer for 4 - 5 hours. Should yield 4 cups of stock.

Refrigerate or freeze the stock depending on when you are going to use it.

For the soup:

4 cups chicken stock
1/2 lb split peas
Fresh thyme
1 small vidalia onion
3/4 cup cubed ham. More if you want it
s & p

Wash and pick through spit peas.
In a stock pot (a Le Creuset works well) caramelize onions over low heat.
When onions are translucent, add ham and spices and saute for a couple minutes.
Add stock and peas and bring to a boil
Reduce and simmer for 90 minutes

Enjoy

Simplicity

I was the first one home so dinner fell to me. When the wife and kids arrived, she said something interesting. "I love it when you cook dinner. When I make dinner, I make it too complicated."

I try to keep things to two pans max...one if possible. Tonight was pan fried pork chops and bow tie pasta & broccoli.

4 pork chops (more if your family is larger)
Herbs de Provence
s & p
Olive oil
Bow tie pasta
Italian cheese (romano or parmesan or both)
Broccoli
Garlic

Marinade pork chops in a Pyrex dish with olive oil, garlic, HDP and S&P to taste

Heat oven to 425
Cook pasta
While pasta is cooking, boil water to steam broccoli
Heat more olive oil in oven safe pan for chops
Sear pork chops on one side till brown and turn. Cook for 2 more minutes
Steam broccoli
Put chops in oven for about 10 minutes tops depending on thickness
Once pasta and broccoli are done, put in one pot and add cheese to taste; mix and cover
Take chops from oven and put on platter
Put chops pan on stove, scrape out fatty chunks and boil down juices for about a minute; when done, pour over chops and serve with broccoli and pasta in seperate dish

Start to finish should take about a half hour.


Cook pasta

While pasta is cooking,

Weclome, 2009

Being old and boring, I stayed in last night so I didn't really need a bloody mary. But it is new year's day so what the hell. Like the martini, the bloody mary is a perfect drink if made properly. My version has a slight regional variation as I add the classic mid-atlantic staple of Old Bay. I know it's widely available because I used to buy it in the middle west when I was in college. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.

I've varied the recipe over the years. I used to add Clamato to it but that grossed out my wife too much so I'm back to V8. If you do use Clamato, I recommend that you mix with tomato juice and not V8.

Fill a 12 oz glass with 10 oz of V8.
Add lemon juice
Worcester sauce
a tsp of Old Bay
fresh ground pepper
a tsp of prepared horseradish (not sauce)
a few dashes of whatever hot sauce you have. I use Valentina.

Stir it up.

Fill a pint glass with ice and pour in 2 oz of decent vodka. I use Smirnoff. No need for top shelf here.

Add the bloody mary mix, stir and garnish with a lemon wedge and celery stalk.
If you're from the mid-atlantic and like Old Bay, rim the glass with it like salt on a margarita glass.

Repeat as necessary.

Peace.

"The elixir of quietude." - E. B. White

I had a couple of martinis with some friends last night, by which I mean chilled gin and vermouth served cold and neat with olives. There is no such thing as a "vodka martini" just as there's no such thing as a "tequila screwdriver" as that is called a tequila sunrise without grenadine. I'm sure there's a name for chilled vodka in a martini glass. As it seems to be primarily consumed by females, it should have a feminine name such as puppycups.

Gin is what makes a martini and I like three: Junipero from SF,CA, Hendrick's from Scotland and good old, mass produced Tanqueray.

I was taught to make a martini like any proper child of the seventies. One of my parent's friends taught me when I was 10 or 11.

Fill a shaker with ice.
Pour in a dash of Noilly Pratt; swirl it around the ice and dump.
Fill shaker with gin.
Shake until very cold; pour into martini glass and garnish with what you see fit. I prefer olives.

Repeat as needed. Which means tomorrows post will be on the other perfect cocktail - the bloody mary.

Happy New Year.

NYE

I assume that by reading this blog, most of you are dads or at least husbands. Therefore I can assume you have a spouse. If she happens to still live with you, go out and buy the following:

Hypnotiq
Decent vodka
Grand Marnier or Chambord
Pomegranate juice
Lemon

In a shaker filled with ice add:
1 1/2 oz vodka
1 1/2 oz Hypnotiq
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
juice of 1/4 lemon

Shake until it's cold and pour into a martini glass. It should be a freakishly unnatural color green. Pour in a dollop of pomegranate juice which should stay at the bottom giving you a rather cheerful looking holiday cocktail sure to make her remember just how awesome you are.

The joy of ground turkey

The mid-atlantic is a pretty big poultry area so I'm not sure if ground turkey is as cheap everywhere, but here it's about $4 a lb.

Two things I can bank on my kids eating are pasta and tortillas. Every week I buy a lb of ground turkey which results in at least two of taco night, spaghetti and meatball night or sloppy joe's. Augment that with broccoli, green beans or chopped veg and you're done with dinner. If you choose taco night and are looking for a starch, a can of Goya black beans mixed in with a cup of cooked rice and a dash of cumin work for us. Our kids are somewhat adventurous so we add some chopped cilantro.

As far as spaghetti night goes; Barilla all the way.

Weather capitaization

Winter grilling. One of the things I do in the summer on Sunday after the trip to the grocery store is grill stuff for the week ahead. Flank steak, chicken breasts, tofu, lamb, whatever Safeway has on sale. That way I have lots of options when I get home at 6 pm in terms of what to make for dinner. If you have tortillas and cheddar cheese or pita bread, a cucumber, a lemon and some dill, you've got dinner ready before the Simpsons reruns at 7 pm.

Lately here in DC the weather has been in the 50's so grilling is an option. So if you've got the warmth, take advantage of it and set yourself up for a week of reheated grilled meat. If you're anti-meat, grill some tofu or portabello mushrooms to add to dinner as the week progresses. But if you are in fact anti-meat, you shouldn't be reading this blog.

The remains of the roast beast

Every Christmas we have my family over and cook a standing rib roast which my kids have dubbed the roast beast. If we have leftovers, they're generally made into sandwiches and the bones go to the dog. Well, with the recession upon us, I did the responsible thing and made them into stock which became beef with barley soup.

1 cup of barley
3 cups of beef stock
1 1/2 cup water
splash of red wine
splash of any tomato sauce you may have left and need to use
s & p
sour cream
parsley

Wash a cup of barley well.
Simmer 1 hour in 3 cups of stock and a 1 1/2 cuppa h2o and splash of wine.
After an hour add cut up carrots and celery.
Cook another hour.

Serve with chopped parsley, sour cream and pepper.

Holiday cookbooks

My wife got me the new Jamie Oliver cookbook. It's called Jamie at Home and it's got some good stuff in it. It's British so there's some typically disgusting stuff using blood, etc. The book design is great and there are some great photos of dead rabbits for the kids.

Last night I roasted two Cornish game hens and made the first recipe from the book: Roasted beets and carrots. Dead simple.

8 or so small carrots. Bagged from the supermarket is fine, just find a bag with lots of skinny ones.
4 beets
4 sprigs of thyme
5 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
5 cloves of garlic peeled and smashed up to smithereens
olive oil
s & p

Parboil peeled carrots and beets in separate pans for about 10 mins.
Heat oven to 425.
Put some olive oil in a shallow roasting pan.
Peel beets and cut into quarters or smaller depending on size. You want 'em bite size.
Toss carrots and beets with mashed up garlic, s & p and thyme leaves.
Lay remaining thyme at the bottom of the pan and put veg on top. Roast for 30 min.

Cooking playlist

It's essential to have tunes in the kitchen. We do something really simple: hook my iPod Nano up to a couple of cheap Bose speakers. Helps contain the sound to just the kitchen area so when I'm listening to The Hold Steady and making Steak Diane, I won't interrupt homework.

I think it's good to pair music and food. For example, Saturday morning brunch prep goes well with any Jenny Lewis - solo, Rilo Kiley or w/the Watson Twins.

Here's a picture of pan roasted chicken I made right before the holidays while listening to the new Okkervil River album.

1 good chicken...supermarket or Perdue work, but if you can get a better one, it's worth it.
1 lemon, quartered
1 sprig rosemary or dried
2 -3 sprigs thyme or dried
1 cup white wine
couple shakes of olive oil
2 tsp butter
3/4 cuppa chicken stock
4 - 5 slices of thick bacon
head of garlic, pulled apart but not peeled
s & p

Preheat oven to 350.
Quarter the chicken; rinse and pat dry
wash the dead chicken bacteria off your hands
cut up bacon and fry in an oven-safe skillet; cast iron works well
put some s & p, half the thyme and half the rosemary in a bowl with the butter and mix it all together. Rub on the quartered chicken.

When bacon is getting crispy, move it aside and lay in the chicken skin side down and brown on medium heat. Turn it over after about 5 minutes being careful not to break skin. Cook 5 min more.

Take it off heat, add wine, stock, lemons, garlic and the rest of the herbs. Cook for 35-40 minutes in the oven or until your meat thermometer hits 160.

First

So I've had a fair amount of time around the house over the last month as I tapped my unused vacation fund before it went poof. Aside from losing to my daughters in all things Wii, I've been cooking my sack off.