Iron Chef America _ Super Chef Battle _ January 03 2010 @ 9pm EST.
Food, culture and hilarity. |
Don't be fatuous, Jeffrey. |
__Carnitas__ To make the carnitas, I used 1- 6 lbs. bone in pork shoulder (boston butt). Cut into strips, gristle and tough fat removed. Most of the tender fat will be rendered in the pot, so keep it on the pork. Add to large stock or pasta pot, 2 cups orange juice and 6 cups water, 8-10 cloves garlic (1 head) cleaned, cleaned and cut pork, and season with cumin, salt and black pepper. I added 2 stem removed habaneros for flavor, if you are scared of the heat them you can substitute for jalapenos or no peppers. The habaneros have a unique sweet flavor, I love them, but I also love the heat, so be mindful. (I also added the bone from the boston butt to the stock / pork mixture to add flavor. Using a boneless shoulder would be ideal, much easier to clean but might not have as much flavor. ) Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for 2-3 hours, uncovered, until tender but not overly tender. The last part of the process is a vigorous browning so you want the meat to have some holding property. Bring to a med high heat and boil off most of the remaining liquid for ~10 minutes. The remaining liquid will be most of the broken down and rendered pork fat, this is where you can separate the pork from the fat content if you are looking to keep it healthy-(ish). To brown the meat as a final step, I transferred the pork to a large saute pan and spooned in 3-4 ladles of the rendered pork fat, cook on high heat until liquid is gone and meat has just started to brown. __Tomatillo Salsa__ 12 tomatillos husked and chopped (should be about two cups)
Quick and easy filling soup. Cook time ~ 30 Minutes.
This is a very healthy Italian Classic, beans for fiber and protein, fresh herbs and garlic for antioxidant power, everything else to fill your belly. Best to use a ceramic crock pot, or large soup pot with a thick bottom. Pasta pots are too thin to saute the starters.
All phototogrpahy and credit to Heidi Swanson.
The following recipe reflects how I make this soup, with my notes/words. The original recipe often calls for a range of a particular ingredient, for example, 10 - 15 cloves of garlic, or healthy pinch of thyme....I decided to included the amounts I use when I make it.
1 quart (4 cups) water
1 bay leaf
2 sage leaves
3/4 teaspoon fresh thyme
a dozen medium cloves of garlic, smashed peeled, and chopped
1 teaspoon fine grain sea saltBinding pommade:
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oilday-old crusty bread & more olive oil to drizzle
Bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add the bay leaf, sage, thyme, garlic, and salt. Heat to a gentle boil and simmer for 40 minutes. Strain into a bowl, remove the bay and sage leaves from the strainer, and return the broth and garlic back to the saucepan, off the heat. Taste and add more salt if needed.
With a fork, whisk the egg, egg yolks, cheese, and pepper together in a bowl until creamy. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, beating all the time, then add (slowly! slowly!), continuing to whisk, a large ladleful of the broth. Stir the contents of the bowl into the garlic broth and whisk it continuously over low-medium heat until it thickens slightly. Olney states, "just long enough to be no longer watery." I usually let it go a wee-bit beyond that - until it is the consistency of half-and-half or cream. Place a handful of torn bread chunks into the bottom of each bowl and pour the soup over the bread. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil, and serve immediately.
Makes about 4 cups of soup.
This recipe was adapted from The French Menu Cookbook by Richard Olney. Originally published in 1970, this edition was republished by Ten Speed Press in 2002.
At $7.99 for 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of cheese, my impulsive purchase did not come cheap. But it was a worthwhile splurge. Saint-Marcellin is considered one of the best cheeses produced in the Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France.
Its “intensely nutty (imagine black walnuts) and rustic flavor combined with an unctuous texture represent to me the very essence of France,” writes Steven Jenkins in his "Cheese Primer" (Workman Publishing, 1996).
Indeed, Saint-Marcellin is a soft-ripened, pasteurized cow’s-milk cheese with a rind so delicate that, once you puncture it with a knife or a spoon, it practically melts into the runny interior paste. That crock, you see, serves a purpose.
The cheese is at its runniest when it is fairly young, and in fact it should be enjoyed within a month or two of production, as it loses its extravagantly silky texture and gooeyness as it ages. Its flavor is reminiscent of good brie, but with lots more character. It tastes, as Jenkins describes, of black walnuts, as well as mushrooms and earth. It is buttery, but with a slightly bitter finish.
All of these characteristics make it — to me, at least — a perfect cheese to enjoy on a crisp early-fall afternoon. The first time I bought Saint-Marcellin, I served it with ripe Black Mission figs, which I sliced in half and arranged on a plate, with the crock of cheese in the center. The second time I decided I wanted nothing more than a fresh baguette, slightly warm, to accompany the cheese. I let the cheese sit out for a couple of hours and by the time I served it, it was so runny a spoon was required to scoop it onto the bread.
(Yes, I splurged twice. But now I have two baby crocks in my pantry!)
What is your most recent cheese discovery?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/say-cheese/say-cheese-splurging-on-saint-.html