Root Beer Pulled Pork

Okay. I saw this pin on Pinterest for Root Beer Pulled Pork and I had to try it. It comes from another blog called Bubble Crumb.

This is a really simple recipe--put a chunk of pork in a crockpot, add a bottle of root beer and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Shred the pork with a fork. Add desired amount of BBQ sauce and eat!

True to form, I screwed up the recipe! :).

I mixed the root beer and bbq sauce and added that directly to the pork and then cooked it. It still turned out delicious, but I wonder what it would have tasted like just cooked in the root beer....I guess I will have to try again.

I toasted the buns with butter on the ol' iron skillet! The next day, I had some Chinese steamed buns from Chinatown so I steamed the buns and had it with that....delicious!

White Bean and Pancetta Soup

I came across some Pancetta a few months ago at Marin Sun Farms. It was on sale, so I purchased a good pound or so of it. I keep it in the freezer is a zip lock bag and use it from time to time for various recipes. This is one of those recipes. Pork and beans--its tradition for a reason-it tastes delicious! The pancetta offers a lightly smokey profile to this dish.

Ingredients
Pancetta-between 1/2 LBS to 1 LBS, diced
1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
2-3 garlic cloves, diced
Homemade chicken stock (1.5-2 cups)
White beans, Cannellini or Great Northern about 2.5 cups
2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence
Fresh lemon thyme and rosemary (although fresh parsley would be nice)




Directions 
Add oil to a saucepan and cook the pancetta. I had never cooked with Pancetta before, and I thought it would smell and taste like bacon, but it has a  smokey flavor. At first, I thought the meat was off, but that is just the way it smells. 


When the pancetta releases some of its fat, throw the onions in and continue to cook until the onions are nicely browned, and the pancetta is cooked.

Add the chicken stock. How much you ask? I think it depends on how liquidy you want your soup and how many beans you have. I tend to like mine somewhat liquidy, so I add about a cup and a half.  


Add the white beans, Herbes de Provence, fresh lemon thyme and the rosemary. Reserve the fresh parsley, if using, as a garnish. 


Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook and stir until the beans are cooked. Add more stock as necessary. 
















Once the stock has reduced and the beans are cooked, you are done! Serve with freshly toasted rustic bread! Delicious! 

Fish Tacos

Fish Tacos scream summer! Nothing beats a plate of fresh fish tacos, with freshly squeezed lime and a cold beer.


Ingredients
4 lbs Halibut steaks, snapper fillets or any fish you can get hold of (you can always reduce the amount of fish)
Salt and pepper
Taco Seasoning
1 small green cabbage, shredded
juice of 2 limes
1or 2 limes, thinly sliced
Cilantro sprigs
Lime wedges
3 dozen corn tortillas
Fresh salsa

Guacamole







Clean the fish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the taco seasoning generously on the fish. Rub the salt, pepper and seasoning into the fish. Cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Bring the fish to room temperature before cooking.

Shred the cabbage with a mandoline or a sharp knife and put it in a bowl. Lightly salt the cabbage and toss well. Add the lime juice and toss again. Let sit for 10 minutes or so.

Fire up your grill. When the coals are hot, lay down the lime slices and place the fish on top of the lime slices. This way, your fish won't stick to the hot grills. Grill for 3 minutes on each side, until just opaque.










If you don't have access to a grill, the broiler in your oven works just fine. Place the oven rack as close to the broiler as you can. I usually use the rack that comes in my toaster oven. Just place the rack on a cookie sheet. Cook the fish for a few minutes, until opaque and then flip.









Heat the tortillas. If you have the grill going, spread out the tortillas and heat them well on both sides, they will puff up a bit. If you are using an oven broiler, heat the tortillas in a good cast iron skillet. Wrap the tortillas in a clean dishcloth to keep the steam in and keep them toasty warm. 

Plum Pie

 There is a season for plums, and that season is summer! 

These plums were screaming out to me "pick me pick me" so I couldn't resist. 

Adding some cardamon sugar to the plum mix really helps to bring out their flavor. 

This pie is delicious with ice cream! 

Ingredients

recipe for 1 tart or pie dough

plums, around 10, cut and pitted

Cardamon sugar

Melted Butter

Freshly whipped cream from heavy whipping cream, vanilla ice cream or cardamon creme

Pyrex Glass Pie Plate, 9 1/2" x 1 3/4"

"Roul'Pat Small Countertop Roll Mat"

Procedure

Preheat oven to 400 F. 

Cut the plums into dice and place into a bowl. 

Sprinkle cardamon sugar on the plums and mix the sugar into the plums. 

Roll out your pie crust on a pastry roll mat and place into a greased pie pan. 

With a pastry brush, gently brush melted butter on top of the entire crusts, including the sides. 

Sprinkle some cardamon sugar on the bottom of the pan in the crust. You don't want to sprinkle the sugar on the sides of the pie, because they will be exposed and both the sugar and the cardamon will burn!  By pouring the plums on top of the sugar, the sugar will mix in with the plum and juices. 

Pour the plums on top of the pie crust. The plums will be really liquidy from the sugar you added previously. Don't worry about it, it will burn off in the oven. 

Fold over any pie crust. You can also make a lattice crust if you want to. 

Apply another brushing of melted butter on the pie crust. 

Lower the temperature of the oven to 375 F.

Bake for 1 hour, or until the crust is cooked and turns a delicious golden brown. 

Remove from the oven and let the pie cool on a cooling rack. 

As the pie is cooling, apply another layer of melted butter to the crust and sprinkle the cardamon sugar 

on the crust. 

Serve with freshly whipped cream or ice cream! 

Corn Stock

Summer is in season and corn seems to be everywhere! Ever wonder what to do with those used cobs of corn? Make them into corn stock! That's right, there is no need to let those cobs go to waste! This is a really simple and delicious recipe for corn stock. I use this stock as a substitute for chicken stock if I am having vegetarian friends over for dinner. You can also use this as a base for making a really rich corn soup or corn chowder. It is delicious and hearty!

I use corn stalks for this recipe. When I cook corn on the cob, I will usually slice all the kernels off with a knife and then save the cobs in the freezer in a large ziplock bag. Once I get a full back of cobs, I will whip up this stock.

Obviously, if you just eat your corn right off the cob by biting in, don't use the cobs for this stock.

Ingredients
1 large yellow onion, quartered (Skin on is okay)
5-8 garlic cloves (Skin on is okay)
1 or 2 Carrots, roughly cut
Ginger, 1 inch piece roughly cut
Roasted Sichuan peppercorns 1 tablespoon
Dried Mikan Peel, a few large pieces
Star Anise, 2 or 3
Dried onion skin
1 large ziplock bag worth of corn cobs, corn removed with a knife (either fresh or frozen)



Add some vegetable oil to a large stock pot and heat. Add the quartered onion and stir fry for 5 minutes, until the onion browns and the skin starts to peel off. Add the garlic cloves and continue to stirfry.

Add the carrots, ginger, roasted Sichuan peppercorns, dried mikan peels and star anise. Stirfry the spices with the onion and garlic for a few minutes.

Add the dry onion skin and stirfry for a few more minutes.




Add the corn cobs.

Add water to the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. You want to add enough water so that the corn cobs will be completely submerged in water, with only about 1/2 inch of water above then.

Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce heat to low.










Simmer on low heat for 1-1.5 hours.

Remove from heat and strain with a colander.

Use stock immediately as a substitute for chicken stock or freeze in ice cube trays.

Spicy Pork Stew

This recipe is really a combination of three separate dishes--chicken fat left over from making Pan Fried Southern Chicken, the leftovers of Lamb Barbacoa and a recipe for Green Chili Stew from David Tanis's book A Platter of Figs.

Its a pretty simple preparation. Pork is first fried in chicken fat, so the outer skin is nice and crispy, sealing in the juices. The sauce from the lamb barbacoa, which I had frozen, is thawed with a can of beer and homemade rick dark chicken stock added to dumb down the spices. Onions, garlic, cumin, tomatoes are then stir fried and added to the barbacoa sauce. The pork is then slowly stewed in the sauce! Its delicious!


Ingredients
1 lbs pork (preferably boneless, but boned pork would work fine)
Salt and pepper
Chicken fat from Pan Fried Southern Chicken (lamb fat, pork fat or vegetable oil is fine as well)
Lamb Barbacoa sauce, thawed
1 cup Homemade rich dark chicken stock
1/2 bottle of Corona or a light colored beer
2 large white onions, finely diced
4-6 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and finely ground
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
3-4 green chilies, chopped (optional)
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chunked
2 Carrots, roughly chunked
Fresh raw corn (optional)

Preparation
Trim any fat off the pork. Dice the fat into small bits and freeze for another use (scallion pancakes anyone???).

Cube the pork and salt and pepper generously.

While the pork is sitting for a few minutes, take a sauce pan and combine the barbacoa sauce, chicken stock and beer. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan and burns.

You will need a good stewing pot for this dish. I used my trusty LeCreuset. This way, I can fry my pork in the pan and then use the same pan for stewing the meat.

Dollop a few spoonfuls of the chicken fat into your stewing pot.
Allow the fat to melt then slowly and carefully add the pork pieces, making sure not to crowd the pan. Do a few pieces at a time. Turn the pork over slowly, so not to splash hot oil on you. You don't need the pork totally cooked at this point, just the outside skin seared to lock in the juices. Once all the sides are fried, remove with a pair of chopsticks or a slotted spoon and set aside.




















In the same stewing pot, add the onions and garlic and stir fry for a few minutes. The onions will absorb the oil and get a little orangy. I tried to cut some corners here and used my food processor to cut the onions. I got a little carried away, and the onions were really small, almost liquid. It worked out okay, and saved some time and some tears!

Add the cumin, tomatoes and chili (I recommend going easy on the chili-- the barbacoa sauce is plenty spicy) and stir.

Add the barbacoa sauce.

Add the pork back into the pot.

Add the potatoes. Cover and reduce the heat to low, cooking for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, add the carrots and cook for another 10 minutes.

Continue to cook on low heat until the carrots and potatoes are done to your likeness (I prefer my potatoes and carrots a little firm).

Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste!

Serve with rice or freshly toasted rustic bread!

Lemongrass Granita

Nothing is as refreshing in summer as a fresh, cool sorbet. 

We got a Ice Cream maker for a wedding gift! Thank you Reid and Joy! It has been tempting me for a few months now, but we agreed not to eat any ice cream until after the wedding! Let the good times roll! 

I used the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Stand Mixer Attachment. It comes with a churning spatula which attaches to the Kitchen Aid and metal bowl which has some sort of liquid between the layers of the bowl to keep it ice cold. Its super easy to use! Just chuck the bowl in the freezer the night before, attach the paddle, pour in your ice cream mixture and let the Kitchen Aid do all the work! The bowl is a really nice invention, because I have used ice cream makers where you constantly have to add salt and ice to keep the mixture cold. This Kitchen Aid works much better. 


This sorbet combines lemongrass, lime-mint and fresh lemons, all locally sourced from my backyard in Oakland and a friend's lemon tree (also in Oakland!). The lime-mint and the fresh lemons give this sorbet a deliciously tangy flavor, and the lemongrass spikes the flavor slightly! Unfortunately, the way it came out, it is more like a granita (a Sicilian dessert of ice and sugar) than a sorbet. 


This recipe calls for a lot of lemons, mint and lemongrass. I fortunately had a super abundance of all! A special thanks to the generosity of  Robyn's coworker, who gave us a whole bag of lemons! I used Lime-Mint, as opposed to regular mint in this recipe, and I found it works much better. The lime mint is heartier, and doesn't break down in the steeping process. It also gives a subtle lemony taste which complements the lemons and lemongrass! You can substitute regular mint if you don't have Lime-Mint. 

I also was fortunate enough to have a hearty lemongrass plant. I used all the blades of grass from the lemongrass, saving the stalks for another day and another recipe. The lemongrass really adds a layer of complexity to the flavor profile! 














This recipe will use up a lot of lemons. Be sure to wash the lemons before squeezing them, and you can use the flesh of them to make White Lemon Pickle or Moroccan Preserved Lemons. 

Ingredients
1.5 cups sugar
1 cup chopped fresh mint or lime mint
Lemongrass leaves, chopped fresh
Zest of 1 lemon, removed with a vegetable peeler
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (4-6 lemons)


Procedure
Combine the sugar, mint, lemongrass and lemon zest in a large metal bowl. Pour 1 cup of boiling water
over the mixture, and let seep for 20 minutes. 

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth.

If you are doubling this recipe (I was because I had so much lime-mint and lemongrass), I would keep the previous batch of mint, lemongrass and lemon zest and add it to a fresh batch of sugar, mint, lemongrass and lemon zest and steep the boiling water in the ever larger mixture of mint, lemongrass and lemon zest. After you are done making the sorbet, you will have a big bowl of these herbs mixed with sugar. I chucked all of them into a big bowl, added some tea and brewed a new batch of kombucha out of it! 

Stir in the lemon juice. Chill until cold.

Churn the mixture according to the directions on your ice cream mixer.

For me, I was using the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Stand Mixer Attachment

Remove the chilled bowl from the freezer. Place the ice cream paddle in the center of the bowl. Secure the bowl firmly into the Kitchen Aid Mixer. Lower the head (it should fit right on top of the ice cream paddle). Turn the Mixer on STIR (Speed 1). Pour the mixture into the freeze bowl.














Continue on STIR (Speed 1) for 7-12 minutes, or until desired consistency.

















Immediately transfer the sorbet to an airtight container (I used a Ziplock bowl, as you can see from the picture! :) and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Enjoy!