porchetta (stolen from americas test kitchen)
pork shoulder or butt
cross hatch cut fat, make poke holes in meat
kosher salt and let stand 20 mins
paste rub:
3 tbls fennel seed, grind it up ahead super fine
1/2 cup fresh rosemary
1/4 cup thyme
12 garlic cloves or a small jar of minched garlic
1 tbls black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
grind up, add 1/2 cup olive oil
grind some more to make a thick paste
tie up the pork, go crazy with the rub, get it into the poke holes
but not into the fat
fat rub
1 tbls kosher salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp baking soda
rub into fat
refrigerate whole thing 6 to 24 hours on a rack
put in roast pan, cover, cook at 325 for 2 1/2 hours, get meat to 180
put oven up to 500
dump fat out of roast pan
remove twine
back in oven at 500 for 30 minutes
get it to 190 on inside
let stand for 1/2 hour
cut into thick slices
serve as a roast or on a bun with no condiments needed!!
Five Meat Jambalaya
I was in a band that covered Hank WIlliams song "on the bayou". In it he sings about having Jambalaya at a party. I thought that was a good reason to try making some Jambalaya.
I looked on the internet and found a few recipes that looked really complicated, but when I read this one site on the history of Jambalaya, I knew I had a "can't miss" dish just waiting to be added to my list of scow's classics.
The site described how Jambalaya was Cajun for Jumble. The host of the party makes a stock and all the guests bring whatever meat they can find, crawdads and such, maybe on the walk over to the party! just dump in whatever when you get there!
I also found a really funny posting called "tim's 007 jambalaya". I still use it as a rough guide for shopping and making the stock.
step 1. Make the stock
start with a package of rice, look at the serving sizes they say for how many people (e.g. 1 cup for 4 people). take the amount of rice you plan to use, see how much water they suggest and double it.
then cut up all the veg and dump them in
red onion
celery (whole stock with leaves)
green peppers
jalepeno peppers
all the peppers you want!
fresh tomatoes
add a generous dump of some cajun spice from a jar
add a ton of garlic powder
couple of bay leaves
cut up some garlic too if you are into it
cut everything up into the size that you would want on your fork and dump it in
add a half bottle of white wine. have one glass and save the rest for later.
a few glubs of fancy vinegar
a few glubs of olive oil
simmer the whole thing for a couple of hours.
this whole step can be done the night before!
2. meat
go grab whatever meat you think would be fun.
chicken, beef cubes, spicy sausage, rabbit are four of my usual five. maybe there are more maybe there are less, guests can entertain themselves trying to find the five meats.
seafood like shrimps, scallops, anything else that is a bit firm and will stay together when boiled in a little chunk
cook it all up enough that it will not be undercooked when you dump it in. i like to fry everything up in a pan full of olive oil and garlic.
3. rice and prepare
heat the stock back up, dump in the rest of the wine. there should be enough liquid that the rice will cook and there will still be a nice runny sauce.
dump the rice in and cook it for however long the bag says to cook it. get some kind of fancy brown rice in a wierd looking bag.
when the rice looks like it is nearly cooked, dump in all the meat and just cook it all long enough to be nice and hot.
serve with a big spoon from a big bowl (I have a great big pot that I do everything in including serving it up).
I always make extra and have it for lunch for the next 3 or 4 days.
Poker Salad
inspired by a Lawrence Sanders character
get a big thing of rotini pasta. get a nice one. multicoloured is cool.
get a whole bunch of sweet peppers, more colours the better.
get a nice flank steak. a jar of crushed galic.
depending on yoru time, you can get a couple of bottles of italian salad dressing (get the nice one) OR if you are super into it, make some italian dressing.
marinate the flank steak a day before. use lots of stuff. wine, vinegar, tobasco, liquor, beer, soya or wochetser... go to town. most important thing is to break the meat down and make sure it is super tender later.
next morning.
get a giant pot. boil up the rotini. pop some olive oil and such in the water. flavour as you see fit.
while pasta boils, BBQ to the steak. get it to medium so not pink in middle.
take it off and let it cool on its own to room temp.
once th epasta is done, drain it and pop it back into the pot.
chop up the peppers into bit sized pieces, dump them in.
garlic crushed goes it... flavour to your taste.
chop the steak into bite sized pieces. do it carefully so they are all the same size and roughly cubes.
give it a quick stir but not too much.
fire in the italian dressing. stir well.
serve cold. super yummy. offer up a bowl to people at a poker game!
you can also fool around with other proteins. shrimp, sausage,
could be a vegan version too...