Yeah!!!!!! Eggfest!!!!!! (Pork Tacos, Chinese Style Ribs)

As promised, here are the recipes for what I was serving at PA Eggfest 2014 earlier today.  I had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed cooking next to my friend Jim Markowski.  It was his first catering gig and he pulled it off like a champ. 

For those I met today, please continue to follow the blog.  Good stuff here. 

A long, hot day.  Now, it’s nap time, right after bourbon time.

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Chili Smoked Pork

4 pounds pork butt

3 tbs. chile powder (recipe below)

2 tbs. brown sugar

1 tbs. kosher salt

Mix the chile powder, brown sugar and salt in a separate bowl until well combined.  Rub the seasoning mix onto the pork butt.  Marinate covered in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours, turning occasionally to redistribute the seasonings.

Heat your smoker to 160°F.  Smoke the pork butt for about 6 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.  Remove from the heat, hold warm for 10 minutes before slicing.  Serve sliced on a grilled corn tortilla with sliced iceberg lettuce and salsa (recipe below).

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Chile Powder (about 3 cups)

6 Ancho dried chilies

6 Pasilla dried chilies

8 Guajillo dried chilies

1 tbs. cumin seed

1 tbs. black pepper, coarsely ground

2 tsp. kosher salt

In a large, heavy sauté pan, toast the cumin seeds over a medium heat for five minutes while stirring constantly.  The cumin will begin to brown and may pop.  Transfer the seeds to a food processor.  Add the salt and black pepper.  Process on high speed for am minute, until finely ground.

Using the same sauté pan on medium heat, toast the chilies in batches until they begin to color, only about a minute per side.  Press down on each of the chilies with the back of a spatula, so that most of their surface browns.  Move the toasted chilies to baking sheet to cool.

Carefully remove the stem and the seeds from the chilies.  It is unlikely that you will get all the seeds, but don’t worry.  Break the chilies into roughly 1 inch squares.  Put them into the food processor with the other seasonings.  Process until the chilies have powdered, at least 10 minutes.  Store in an airtight jar.  Shake before using to remix the chilies, cumin, salt and pepper.

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Salsa

1 28 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes

½ cup white or red onions, diced

½ cup scallions, sliced

½ cup green pepper, diced

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

2 tbs. canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce

2 tbs. red wine vinegar

3 tbs. olive oil

salt and pepper, to your taste

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Remove 1/3 of the salsa.  Puree it finely to thicken the sauce.  Return it to the mixing bowl.  Refrigerate it for at least an hour before serving.

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Chinese Style braised Ribs

2 racks of pork spare ribs

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup water

2 tbs. salted black beans

1 tbs. chopped ginger

1 tbs. chopped garlic

1 tbs. sliced scallions

Ask you butcher to split the ribs lengthwise, then cut the meat between the ribs, making riblets about 1 1/2 inches long.

Preheat your egg or oven to275°F.  Combine all the ingredients except the pork in a large, heavy stockpot.  Place the pot in the oven until it just begins to boil, then add the ribs, cover and cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

When the meat has softened, but is not falling off the bone, remove it from the pot of sauce and put it on a platter.  Drizzle the ribs with a few tablespoons of sauce and serve.

A Soup for James (Cold Peach Soup)

Peaches are just about ready to come in Pennsylvania.  The better ones are available at farmer’s markets.  You should test the peaches before you buy.  They should look and smell like late summer.  Are they warm or cold?  Peaches that have been refrigerated are more likely to have traveled far, maybe from the Carolinas or further south.  If the peaches are warm, it is likely that they have been picked and rushed directly to you.  Secondly, feel the fruit.  As you lift them they should feel heavy in your hand, filled with juice, not mealy.  Lastly, gently with your thumb, press down on the top of the peach.  It should yield slightly and not be firm to the touch.  If it is still hard, put it back.  You want a tree-ripened peach.  If your thumb punches through, it is probably either just perfect or over ripe.  Either way, you have bought that particular fruit.  Don’t try to sneak it back on the table.  You’ll be sticking the farmer, since no one else will want to buy a peach with your thumb print

Make cobbler.  Fannie Farmer has a great recipe.  Make pie using Julia Child’s crust.  A simple tart, made with impeccably fresh peaches and glazed with apricot jelly is just one of those things that let us all know we are loved.  Eat them up, because peaches don’t get any better in the fall.   

The first time I got a compliment from Chef Jean Pierre Petite at the Café Royal in Philly was for a peach soup I made in August of 1984.  Normally, he spit out the food that I cooked and cursed about how much money I was wasting, how much time he would have to spend to fix my stupid mistakes, how my palate was made of tin…you get the picture.  This time was different.  He actually liked my cooking and put it on the daily menu.  Here is the recipe.

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Cold Peach Soup (serves 8)

4 pounds fresh peaches, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

2 cups dry white wine

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk

the juice of 1 lemon

4 tsp. fresh mint, chopped

Combine the wine, water and sugar in a medium saucepan.  Bring it to a boil, simmer for five minutes, then remove the liquid from the heat and cool completely.

In a large nonreactive soup pot, mix the peaches, buttermilk and lemon juice.  With a hand blender or food mill, puree the fruit.  Slowly stir in the wine syrup, mixing until it comes to a thick soup consistency.  Taste for sweetness.  You may want to add more sugar, but if the peaches were perfectly ripe that will be unnecessary.  Chill the soup for one hour.

Serve the Cold Peach Soup in chilled bowls garnished with chopped mint.  This recipe also works well with melons and many other soft fruits that puree smoothly. 

The cooks used to add vodka to the leftover peach soup and drink it down.  I can’t endorse that kind of bad behavior.

Dogs Hate This Time of Year (Preserved Lemons, North African Cous Cous)

Look for our ad in Natural Awakenings magazine.  A full schedule of classes is here.

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It really is too hot to cook in Pennsylvania at this time of the year.  I know this because Rufus, our handsome, brilliant Golden Retriever, spends the day crashed out in the mud room.  Normally, any talk of a walk elicits barking, jumping and dog spins.   

This time of year, Rufus gives me that, “You kidding me, right?” look so familiar to parents of teenagers. 

But we still have to eat, and we should eat well this time of year.  Even the supermarkets have what they bill as LOCAL produce.  Really, just inside the door, the Giant has a faux market cart filled with zucchini and other stuff that they have marked with the farm where it was grown.  Some of it might be Astroturf local.  That they should be doing this all year is another discussion. 

You ought to be buying up everything at farm markets and roadside stands now.  I’m doing that and, with lust in my heart, awaiting the first local cantaloupe.  Not the refrigerated ones that come in from the Carolinas, the real melons with deep longitudinal ridges and a sweet perfume, because they were gathered in when ripe, rather than when the semi pulled up to take skids of produce to market.  Cathy insists that I have a weird, unnatural relationship with late summer melons and, as always, she is correct.

This time of year, cooking times should be shorter and we need to avoid turning on the oven.  That means that grilling is the way to go, sautéing is the preferred method for vegetables and that a starch like cous cous is a natural, because quickly boiling up a pot of water will not heat up your kitchen.  Tonight’s dinner should take less than 30 minutes to make.  Try preparing this menu of mint grilled turkey legs, string beans with balsamic vinegar and garlic and North African cous cous. 

Begin by marinating butterflied turkey legs (1 per person) in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of 1/2 of a lemon, some chopped fresh mint and a little salt and pepper.  If you are not good with a knife, ask your butcher to butterfly the turkey.  Let the legs marinate for 2 hours, then grill.  As the turkey is grilling, blanch then sauté some fresh green beans in olive oil.  Glaze them with balsamic vinegar and season with salt pepper and a little chopped garlic.  Set them aside to serve at room temperature.  I prefer the beans from Cathy Farrell Farms, a local organic place where the owner always treats me well.  Now, you can get to work on a deceptively complex, North African style, cous cous that is easy to make and sure to impress your friends.  The recipe follows.

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 Preserved Lemons

3 large firm lemons

2 tbs. kosher salt

4 tbs. olive oil

1 large bay leaf

Slice the lemons into thin rounds.  Lay them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt to pull out water and concentrate their flavor. 

After 1 hour, dab the lemon rounds with a paper towel to remove the water that has been drawn out.  Pack the lemons in a small glass jar, alternating layers of lemon and olive oil, until the jar is filled.  Lay a bay leaf on top of the preserved lemons in the oil.

Preserved lemons do not have to be refrigerated.  Store them in a cool, dark place.  They will keep almost indefinitely, but are better if used within 6 months.

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North African Cous Cous (serves 4)

1 1/3 cups uncooked cous cous*

1 tbs. olive oil

2 cups water, boiling

3 tsp. sliced almonds

3 tsp. raisins

2 tsp. preserved lemons, chopped

2 tbs. parsley, chopped

salt and fresh black pepper

Heat the olive oil on high in a large pot with a tight fitting lid.  Sauté the almonds, raisins, preserved lemons and parsley for just a minute, stirring constantly.  Add the cous cous, lower the heat to medium and toast the cous cous until it begins to pick up a light brown color.  Season with salt and fresh black pepper. 

Add the boiling water, stir once so that nothing has is sticking to the bottom of the pot, cover it tightly.  Allow the cous cous to rest for 5 to 7 minutes, according to the package directions.  When the cous cous has soaked all the water and has absorbed all the aromatics from the almonds, raisins and preserved lemons, fluff it with a fork and serve.

*Read the package directions before preparing the cous cous.  The brand you are using may have slightly different  proportions of water and cous cous.

"Spa" and a Greek Salad (Spanikopita)

Today's offering is a  recipe from last Saturday's Vegetable Main Courses class.  I really appreciate the folks who are coming out for the classes.  A full schedule is here and a gallery of pictures can be found here.  Next up is a pasta class on Thursday evening at 7:00 and at out usual 1:00 time on Saturday we'll meet to talk about Hors d’oeuvres and appetizers.

Spanikopita is the traditional Greek spinach and feta cheese pie.  "Spa" is restaurant slang for Spanikopita, as in "Gimmie four orders of Spa like yesterday, Malakia."  Variations, good and bad are made all over.  I learned this recipe thirty years ago from Mrs. Petsos.  Her twist was to substitute leeks for 1/3 of the spinach.  Give it a shot, it works out well.  All you have to do is wash the white part of the leeks, cut them into 1/2 inch dice and sautee them in olive oil with the onions.  

It is crucial that Spanikopita be fresh or else the phyllo dough breaks down and becomes soft and pasty.  Not good!  Spanikopita should go directly in the oven after it is assembled, since the phyllo dough will become soggy and never crisp up.   Also, buy a block of cheese, rather than getting that pre crumbled stuff.  That way, you'll know what you are getting, instead of having the feta cartel sell you sweepings from the factory floor.

Serve with a Greek salad, a simple thing with lettuce, olives, tomatoes, red onion and cucumbers.  Make the dressing out of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and oregano.

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Spanikopita (serves 6)

2 lbs. fresh spinach

2 tbs. Spanish onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/4 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated

4 eggs

8 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

3 tbs. olive oil

8 oz. frozen phyllo dough

salt and black pepper

Take the phyllo dough out of the freezer to thaw one hour before preparing the Spanikopita.

Preheat the oven to 375°.  Heat 1 tbs. of olive oil in a large soup pot.  Sauté the onions until transparent, lower the heat to medium, add the garlic and handfuls of spinach, until all of it has been sweated down, stirring constantly.  Season with nutmeg, salt and black pepper.  Cook for an additional minute, until the nutmeg flavor opens up, then put the spinach in a large mixing bowl to cool for about ten minutes.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix them.  Reserve 2 tsp. of eggs for glazing the top of the Spanikopita.  When the spinach mix is cool to the touch, add the eggs and crumbled feta.  Mix to combine, do not whisk vigorously, since that would break up the feta too much. 

Lightly brush the olive oil into a 9 x 12 inch baking pan, fully coating the inside.  Line the bottom and sides of the pan with 4 sheets of phyllo dough, using a pastry brush to oil between sheets.  It is fine if they over lap.  Pour in the spinach mixture and spread it evenly over the phyllo.  Cover the top with 4 sheets of phyllo that also have been oiled.  Fold the edges over to seal the pie.  Brush the remaining egg on the pie, glazing the top of the Spanikopita. 

Bake for 40 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

*Spanikopita can also be made by folding the phyllo into triangles that enclose the spinach stuffing or by oiling and lining muffin tins with phyllo.