Eat Around the Pitt is a Transplant's View of Pittsburgh and Food.
September 28, 2009
The Beauty of Pork Shoulder
Posted by Kathryn @ 12:12 PM
I adore pork shoulder, it should be the official food of the slow food movement because it can be simultaneously slow, delicious, and really really easy. This recipe isn't really a recipe, just a thrown together meal that you will love and want to make just for the leftovers.
I started with 1 small pork shoulder it was probably about 1.5 to 2 lbs. I just bought the smallest package at the store since there are only two eaters in the house. I sprinkled about 2 teaspoons of Adobo seasoning all over the meat. The I threw it in my slow cooker on low for about 7 hours. Once the meat was completely tender I threw in 1 small diced tomato about a quarter cup of stock and 1 chopped green onion. Tada! You are done... you are ready to eat tacos... spoon over rice or eat with tostones. There is something magical about pairing this with plantains if you have them.
Then after the first dinner you still have enough for another dinner. Beans and Pork on cheesy rice. It is a comfort food for me. Saute 1/3 cup diced onion and 1 hot pepper like a jalepeno. Through in 1 large tomato that is roughly chopped and simmer until it is saucy. Add in one can of drained pinto beans, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander powder, and any leftover pork. Cook for a few minutes maybe 10 to allow the beans to absorb the flavors. Serve over cheesy rice.
Cheesy rice- I have made this dozens of ways but today's version involved 1.5 cups of rice sauteed lightly with a tablespoon of butter. Add to this 1 tsp coriander and cumin powder. Add a little less than 3 cups water to the pan and cook until almost all the water is absorbed. At which time sprinkle over the top 1/3 cup feta cheese crumbled and 1/4 cup monterey jack. Cover. Once the rice has absorbed all of the liquid and melted the cheese add 1/3 cup sour cream and mix until combined. It may be necessary to add a tablespoon of milk to loosen things up. Serve with pork and bean mixture.
Each month when I receive my food magazines I flip through the pictures for inspiration. This time around I glanced through the reader requests for recipes from their favorite restaurants. One in particular caught my eye, "Bedouin Salsa," the ingredient list was remarkably like a recipe I had receive from a kind potter at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. For whatever reason he had brought some in for fellow potters to sample and I loved it! Apparently he got the recipe 30 years ago at a party and we are all the better for it! So while I can make no claims about the "Bedouin Salsa" I can give a full review and recipe for "Skook." This recipe makes a lot of sauce that has a little kick, but not as much I as I would have expected considering the inclusion of habanero. I have found that it can be used on almost anything savory and also frozen for longer storage, but that my favorite way to have it is mixed with a bit of cream cheese and scooped up in tortilla chips. That being said I have had it on chicken and mixed as a salad dressing. It is incredibly versatile.
2 Large bunches of Parsley stems and all
2 medium tomatos
1 Green bell pepper seeded
4 cloves of garlic
3-4 Habaneros
11/4 cup Olive Oil
1 cup lemon juice
1 Tb. salt
1 Tb. cumin
Blend or use a processor at high speed. Keep in fridge overnight to let the flavors blend for best result. The bedouin salsa recipe suggested that it would last for 2 weeks in the fridge. I kept "skook" for about a week and then froze in smaller portions the remainder.
Skook
These are the days when I wish I had central air conditioning! In the spirit of easy summer recipes that don't heat up the kitchen I tried a new recipe a cold corn soup. I know it sounds offbeat, but it is absolutely delicious and is a great way to eat the bounty of fresh produce that is available this time of year.
* 20 oz frozen corn kernels, thawed
* 1/2 cup plain yogurt ( I used whole milk yogurt, but low fat would also be good)
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from 2 or 3 limes)
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* Pinch cayenne pepper ( I like Cayenne so I used more)
* 1/2 pound cooked frozen shrimp, thawed, roughly chopped, reserving 4 whole shrimp
* Coarse salt and ground pepper
* 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
* 1 small avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, and diced
In a blender, working in batches if necessary, puree corn, yogurt, milk, lime juice, coriander, and cayenne. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids. Stir in chopped shrimp, and season with salt and pepper. Top with grape tomatoes and avocado chunks and whole shrimp.
This served 2 for a light supper, but it would be even better as a appetizer for 4.
It has been ages since my last entry and I have an excellent excuse. My kitchen is being remodelled. I thought that while it was out of commission I would go to a lot of new restaurants... but reality is when you are paying contractor bills... you want to eat for cheap. This meant that i made a ton of food in my basement out of a really handy little appliance... the electric skillet.
I bought the electric skillet just for the purpose of having something to cook in while the Kitchen was torn up and it has worked beautifully for grilled cheese sandwiches and the like. My most recent invention with the skillet was a simple chickpea curry.
1/2 can coconut milk ( I have used low fat and regular and regular turned out a bit better)
1 can chickpeas
1 can Rotel ( chopped tomatoes with diced chiles)
3 spring onions chopped
1 tb madras curry (or to taste)
Cook coconute milk, drained chickpeas, and entire can of rotel for about 15 minutes or until thickened bubbling and the chickpeas are very tender. Add madras curry powder to taste. Then toss in spring onions at the last minute.
This is pretty satisfying over rice and is really fast for somebody without a kitchen.
Many of my friends know that I love sour cream enchiladas. One of my favorites restaurant versions was the Carnitas ones at the Ninfa’s in Waco, TX with a few slices of avocado. Now at home I am not likely to make carnitas and then make enchiladas too… so instead I have settled on perfecting a different version called smoked chicken enchiladas more similar to Trudy’s in Austin, TX. I am not going to claim that these are low fat, but they are good for you in the good for your soul kind of way. This must be my 10th version of these, so I hope they please.
• 16 corn tortillas ( flour tortillas may turn out too gummy for this)
• vegetable oil for pan-frying about an inch in the pan will do
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• Several drops liquid smoke
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander (optional)
• Pinch of red pepper flake ( omit if you want this more mild)
• 1 can Rotel (optional… makes filling moister)
• 16-18 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup minced onion
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 (4 ounce) cans chopped green chiles, with juice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
I started out this recipe by cooking the chicken breasts in strips in my stovetop smoker with some alder chips for 2 hours. At the end of the two hours they were a bit smoky, but certainly not smoky enough to taste the flavor through all the enchilada components. Resigned, I succumbed to the little bottle of liquid smoke. It worked wonderfully and I would say in the future just start with cooked chicken breasts and add the smoke from a bottle unless you have an outdoor smoker.
Saute the onions in a skillet until softened. Turn off heat. Add the can of Rotel (you can drain off most of the juice), Cumin, coriander and chicken and cilantro. Mix and set aside. Check for salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until mixture begins to boil. Slowly add the broth, stirring with a whisk until thickened. Mix in the sour cream and chiles, heat thoroughly but do not boil, stirring occasionally. Add 3-4 ounces of cheese to the sauce and stir until combined. Add red pepper flakes if desired. Check for salt and pepper.
Fry tortillas (one at a time) for 5 seconds on each side to soften and make them pliable. Add more oil to pan as needed. Drain between layers of paper towel and keep warm. Other people just microwave their tortillas in a damp paper towel. I find that this usually doesn’t work for me in the land where tortillas are not delivered every day to the grocery store called Pittsburgh. They usually end up splitting and the tortillas seem to lack texture against the substantial sauce.
Take a casserole pan. Pour a quarter cup or so of sauce on the bottom. Assemble the enchiladas by dividing the chicken and 10 oz of cheese among the tortillas. Roll the tortilla and place seam side down in the pan. After all enchiladas are in the pan, pour enchilada sauce over the top ( there may be more sauce than you need… no need to drown them). Sprinkle 3-4 more oz of cheese on top. Cook in 375 degree oven until bubbly.. about 25 minutes.
One nice variation is to actually make the enchiladas on a cookie sheet with sides where each enchilada is separated and just has some sauce poured on top. This makes them a little crunchy/chewier sort of like the enchilada edges which were always my favorite and I think they seem more like restaurant style, but this does make serving less elegant if the pan comes to the table, but as this is casual food, it didn’t matter to me.
The other day when I got my haircut, the stylist mentioned that a Dunkin Donuts would be going in near Greenfield. In most towns this would be of little note, but as newcomers my husband and I have struggled to find a source for donuts other than the grocery store. The few bakeries we have found with donuts have focused almost exclusively on glazed raised varieties. I am a bit finicky and don't actually like glaze on my donuts, so the possibility of Dunkin Donuts means that I can get plain cake and double chocolate with ease maybe even the occasional coconut or nut!
Of course I am aware that there is a DD location downtown, but unfortunately it has the sorriest selection of Dunkin Donuts I have ever seen, so I fear that the Greenfield location should it come to be will suffer a similar problem. As the store doesn't exist yet, I will just have to make do. I found an interesting option in a cupcake cookbook I flipped through at Joseph Beth Booksellers this week, Doughnut Muffins..
Unfortunately I neglected to look at who the author was when I jotted down the ingredients quickly.
6 oz of butter ( 1 and 1/2 sticks)
7 oz superfine sugar (1 cup) ( I actually substituted regular and just beat it with the butter longer.)
2 large eggs
13 oz flour (2 1/2 cups generous)
3/4 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
9 oz milk ( generous 1 cup)
cream butter and sugar. Add egg slowly. Mix dry ingredients together and add half with half of milk stir until just combined, don't over mix. Add second half of dry ingredients and milk. Fold together.
Grease 12 large muffin tins or 18-20 in regular muffin tins. I actually did half grease and half in paper cups. The greased ones got a nice crispy crunch reminiscent of a donut, so that is a better way to go. Fill each cup 3/4 of the way full.
Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon to top the muffins. I actually took my muffins out a couple minutes shy of being done, added the topping, then returned them to the oven for the last bit of brownness. The author suggested brushing the muffins once they are finished cooking with a bit of melted butter and then sprinkling with the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
I of course couldn't leave well enough alone. I tweaked the recipe a little trying to get more flavor. I put in some buttermilk instead of a couple oz of the milk. I was trying to achieve the tangy flavor of a cake doughnut. Next time I would really up the amount of nutmeg. I felt like the flavor was tame. In addition the crumb was larger than your typical doughnut. So I need to do a bit of research on how to make this even better, but it does act as a decent breakfast stand in when you have the doughnut craving.
