Pork shoulder is sooooo good

Pigs are the perfect sustainable animals to feed man. They produce both protein and fat, the very fuel your body needs to run efficiently.

Here is some pork shoulder that eventually was added to some leftover bacony onions and rounded out with Eggs and a splash of Tapatia for good measure.

A Worthy Post

Finally have my room set up, so here is a better caliber of post.

Last weekend at the farmers market I picked up a bag of multi-colored fingerling potatoes. In their raw state, they aren't very usable. My favorite "easy" way to get potatoes edible is to simply roast them.

It was 11:00 a.m. and I figured I would do some economy-of-scale cooking and make lunch while simultaneously preparing other condiments for later. Had some herbed goat-cheese and a spring greens mix from trader joes, so I figured I'd make a salad. I consequently wanted bacon, and figured I could use the rendered bacon fat for the potatoes- and then use if to cook up some yellow and green onions. Understand, the fat from the 3 pieces of bacon I cooked was the only fat that was used to cook the meal (and left-over portions).

Once the bacon was done, I patted it dry on a paper towel. After it had cooled and become crispy, I roughly tore up the pieces to make sure each bite of the salad could get a little bit of bacon.

About half of the rendered fat went into a stainless steel bowl with the potato wedges and I tossed with salt and pepper to even coat everything. Using tongs in a bowl is probably the easiest way to do this effectively to ensure that your finished potatoes aren't greasy. Meanwhile, into the skillet with the other half of the bacon fat went a whole yellow onion and the white-leakish side of 3 green onions and 1 or two of the stalks.

I let the onions cook on high since were so many of them. The potatoes went back onto the sheet pan and into the oven set to 550F (as high as it would go). They ended up taking about 30 minutes- but I was opening the door a bunch to move the onions in and out since the smoke detector kept going off even though there was really no discernible smoke. The potatoes took longer than anticipated, so I already had busted into my finished salad before they were ready to go on.

Putting it all together.... With proper amount of acid- in this case, balsamic and red wine vinegar

Have about 2 portions of onions and potatoes ready for the next meal :)

Computer back up and running!

Finally hooked up my main computer so I can blog again. Here was breakfast...

Summer Squash, Goat Cheese, Bacon, and Onions

Random fridge purging at 11:00 p.m. w/ friends. Very rich, but very delicious.

Heirloom Tomato Tart

Had some left over pizza dough in the fridge and one more tomato from the farmer's market. A make shift pizza was definitely in order.

Bacon Basil Tomato Sandwich

Take advantage of the cheap and delicious tomatoes right now in the farmer's market- here is a great way:

Bacon Basil Tomato Sandwich

I like basil over lettuce in my "BLT" just because I prefer the spicy and sweet aspects of fresh basil over the watery or bitter crunch that you get with lettuce. Plus the bacon is already giving you crunchiness, so I think the basil on the whole adds more to the sandwich. Bright colors and bold flavors- but really it is all about the  meaty slices of delicious summer tomatoes.

Ingredients:

• Favorite artisan roll toasted w/ bacon fat from the pan as the bacon cooks- Alot of the bakeries in Eugene make roll size versions of their breads. New Eugene Bread Co has a stand at the farmer's Market where you can get 6 for $5 or $1 a pop. Really good- I got 2 Cheddar Sourdough, 1 Cibatta, 1 French Rye, 1 Sourdough, 1 Kalamata Olive. The sandwhich in the picture is on a Cheddar Sourdough Roll.

• Heirloom Tomatoes w/ Salt, olive oil, and a little balsamic- I prefer the tomato to be the star of the sandwich with the basil and bacon helping to show off the tomato. The heirloom range runs the gamut of color and flavor, so mix and match until you have a good idea of what you like. 

• Fresh Basil- Fresh basil has a natural spicy sweet quality, a vibrant green color, and adds an additional texture to the sandwich.

• Thick Cut bacon- cooked till crispy and most of the fat had rendered- then cooled till crunchy

*if you need a fatty component to round it all out- I'd hit it with some Goat Cheese or a fried egg*

Chicken Salad

Had not updated for a while- here was yesterday's lunch:

Chicken Salad
- Hard boiled egg whites (yolks were used in the vinegrette)
- Confit Chicken Thighs- cooked in bacon fat, garlic, rosemary, and thyme
- Bacon "lardons" - giant chunks of really crispy bacon - bacon bits on steroids
- Oven-roasted potatoes - leftover w/ cajun seasoning
- Baby Spring green mix
- Balsamic vinaigrette w/ red wine vinegar, olive oil, and the hardboiled yolks of the eggs.

Really good- the vinaigrette turned out a bit on the acidic side and consequently was able to hold up against the chicken thigh meat and the salty bacon. No complaints, and an elegant way to use leftovers from breakfast.

Making Use of Leftovers – Old with the New – Part Deux

Missed my morning bacon and eggs fix, so I figured I'd have them for dinner instead. Also had a left over "baked" potato in the fridge and some salad greens that I figured I should try to use up...

I normally turn to a small cast-iron skillet for the majority of my single serving cooking. It can go from the stove top to oven to under a broiler with ease. I have found that bacon cooks nicely (renders and browns at a reasonable pace) in it on my electric stove-top's "medium" setting. Normally, there is a lot of excess rendered fat left over when I cook bacon. Never throw out this browny/gray gold. I keep a glass jar in the fridge that I add the (strained) excess bacon fat from each time I cook bacon. Aside from being delicious and imparting salty-bacony-goodness into all that it cooks, bacon fat has higher smoke point than olive oil, allowing you to sear things with less risk of filling your kitchen with smoke.

- Started with the baby skillet and added the 3 half slices from the "meaty" side of the bacon (so effectively 1 and 1/2 slices, but literally the "good" half from 3 slices of traditionally cut bacon).

- After I had an ample amount of rendered fat in the pan, I flipped the bacon turned up the heat, and allowed them to completely darken up. After shaking them off in the pan for a couple of seconds, I laid the pieces down on the remaining salad-greens in the fridge hit with balsamic vinegar. The game plan was to have some of the bacon fat mix with the yolk of the egg and the vinegar. You can see my sloppy plating with the bacon fat smeared off to the right side of the egg.

- With the little pool of bacon happiness in my pan, I cut up the potatoes to sear them off. They were already cooked- just need to be re-heated and crisped. Was going to reconstruct the potato after searing, but this proved to be overly-dramatic and not worth the effort
***Hindsight - would have been better to just roughly cut them up so there was more surface area the bacon fat in the pan could crisp and flavor***

- Lastly, I fried 2 eggs in the remaining bacon fat in the pan (oh ya- that much fat in the meaty half-ends of 3 slices of bacon that I was using). I shattered one yolk on impact in the skillet. It flattened and dispersed across the top of its whites and quickly turned into an overcooked monstrosity while the other fried nicely and soon became attached to him. I decided to perform surgery on the conjoined-egg twins, and separated the deformed "older" brother from it's tastier looking sibling. I plated the good looking egg atop my now very crispy bacon, and devoured the aesthetically unappealing egg off camera with the meal. A good fried egg will have at least one crispy caramelized side. I am not a fan of "cooked" egg-yolks- I find their intense fattiness and pasty texture unappealing. Sunny-side up (with firm whites) are how I like them.

Taking all the components in 1 bite- Yummmm.

Making Use of Leftovers – Old with the New

Recycling food is a good way to save money (that you can use to “re-invest” in quality products). Consequently, I try not to toss cooked food, and I try to cook in a compartmentalized fashion, so components can be subbed in as basic condiments to enhance later dishes. That is effectively what the best high end restaurants do. Most dishes are pre-cooked so that they can be “fired” or finished in a quick and efficient fashion without a drop in the actual quality of the food served. If you are served pork shoulder and it is meltingly tender – that shoulder meat has likely had to cook for well over 2 hours, meaning it was cooking long before you sat down and ordered it. Yes and No, its like at home where you cut a square out of Mom’s left-over casserole dish, except at the high end restaurants it is re-heated to optimal temperature, seared or sauced, and finished with a bunch of fresh touches that make it seem like something far more than “left-overs.”

I picked up some beautiful broccoli at the Saturday market and wanted to give it a try. I cut the florets off each bunch and oven roasted them. I cut the stalk portion into strips and pickled them (inspired by Mollie Katzen's recipe), adding lemon peel and cloves of garlic to the jar. We’ll see how they turn out in the next couple of days. I am finding I really like farm-fresh eggs, especially soft-boiled ones. I like the zip of vinegar with the vegetables, and the yolk and egg white add the protein and fat to round out the experience.   

Here we have a bed of mixed-baby greens, some leftover roasted onions (w/ bacon fat) from last night, the roasted broccoli florets on top. I sprinkled some classic blend of cajun seasoning on top of each egg and then cut them to make sure they weren't over cooked. Topped with some salt, pepper, balsamic and red wine vinegar. Really easy and tasty- an accidentally vegetarian and substantial salad that even a carnivore can enjoy. 

Summer Squash

Summer squash now should be widely available in your local farmer's markets. I have always generally tried to steer clear of zucchini since 90% of the time they are served cooked to relative degrees of putridly sweet mush.

I saw some great looking squash at the market and decided to play with the textures.

1. Roasted Squash traditionally (upper left)- sheet pan, olive oil, sliced squash into large inch thick slices and laided them on the sheet w/ onions and rosemary, into 500F oven for about 15-20 min (lost track of time). Look for the significant carmelization on the top- and the insides should be done. Once they cool down, their outside is crispy like a baked potato skin and their inside sort of pops. The liquid seedy portion is "trapped" in the center of each slice, bound between the squash's tender interior flesh and the seared top and bottom layers. Delicious.

2. Zucchini ribbons poached in bacon fat (middle right)-  I used a vegetable peeler and shaved off ribbons from 2 large green zucchini until I had effectively a square core of the seed portion of the plant. I added to a pan of sizzling hot bacon fat- onions, rosemary and 2 smashed cloves of garlic. I diced up the zucchini cores and fryed them in the bacon fat until they had been drained of moisture and started to crisp up. I then added the ribbons, gently coated them in the fat, and stuck them into the 500F oven for a couple of minutes. The goal was to get them to the tender stage without crossing over to the mushy side. Not really sure on effective times, but I think I they were in the over for about 5-8 minutes. Texture was great, and interesting to eat alongside an oven roasted chunk.

3. Soft boiled eggs (bottom middle) - Yolks were runny and would join the rendered bacon fat from the pan, and some red wine and balsamic vinegar to form a nice vinaigrette sauce to coat everything.

Absolutely delicious and a great way to experience all of the different textures the squash has to offer. You could easily make this a substantial meal with a good chunk of your favorite bread and a glass of your favorite beverage.

THERE WAS A GREAT BAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTLLLEE!!!

No Mercy

"Sausage and Peppers" and baked potato

Decided to branch out and give Latin flavors a shot for a while- especially since the only source for veggies within walking distance is a Mexican market. The market had some fresh chorizo that looked pretty tasty. I decided to pick up a couple of portions and play around with it this coming week. Still not a huge fan of the fresh stuff. You can't really chop it up/control it as well as the smoked product. This market's chorizo didn't turn out to be very spicy at all- but worked all the same. I am not a fan of bell peppers- so I went with one of its angry distant relatives with the same surname.

Here's what I did:

- Scrubbed a potato and stuck it into a 375F oven for 1 hr +15 min. 

*While the potato cooked*

- Vaccuum sealed the portion of the sausage I was going to eat and stuck it into the immersion circulator set at 160F. I was hoping the sausage might keep its shape and oils/fats if it was cooked to a low temperature- this failed. The sausage kept its shape (and was much easier to sear off in the skillet), but a lot of the fat/juice had boiled out of the casing and into the bag).

- Hot cast iron skillet- added olive oil enough to barely coat the base of the pan, seared off the sausage on either end. Didn't do a whole lot since the portion that really had contact with the pan was a narrow strip on either end. 

**Hindsight- Probably should have sliced the sausage into bit sized rings and seared them off on either end in the pan- will do next time (would work especially well if stacked)**       

- Onions- I cut an onion in half, and diced some thick rings- I wanted them to have a meaty texture and not break down quite as fast. In they went with the sausage along with all the juices from the vacuum bag the sausage cooked in. 

Added:

- Serrano Peppers 

- Dried thyme

- Salt + Pepper

- Pimenton

Cooked on high until most of the juice had boiled down, added:

- Red Wine Vinegar

- Lime juice

- Coors Light Beer (and finished the can with dinner)

Looked alright, but I had some more produce to spruce it up texturally. Added some diced raw tomatoes and some finely sliced raw serranos (since the cooked ones had lost all their color and texture to the pan-sauce). I wanted to try slicing the baked potato thinly so I could use each as a base to pile on the onion and pepper mixture and sausage. 

** Hindsight- These would be better off caramelized under a broiler w/ a little oil and then re-assembled for  plating***

- Topped everything with reduced pan juices, some Balsamic vinegar, and a little olive oil (picture was taken just prior to the balsamic and oil) and lime zest (which turned out to be irrelevant) 

Everything worked well together- The sweetness of the Onions and balsamic balanced well against the heavy heat and acidity in the dish. Slicing the potato that way made it much easier to eat- although not as visually homey as one turned into a boat and fluffed with a nice knob of butter. 

Next time I think I am going to try and keep everything in relative rings- maybe by baking each component individually on a sheet, and then layering it like a fallen tower on the plate. Alternating rings of potato, chorizo, whole round braised onions, peppers, all covered in the pan sauce. The diner could then easily take in forkfuls of each of the major components of the dish. Oh- and cilantro is 100% going in over the lime-zest in all future versions of this dish (all the cilantro the store had was old and not worth it when I visited today).

Helpful Cooking Tip #10 - Heat Explained

Helpful Cooking Tip #10 - Make sure there is a liquid or fat in your pan

Most cooks have sort of a vague notion about how heat transfers to the food they cook. Electric stoves are all the rage, and they typically use heat settings distributed in a uniform way- either from 1 to 10 or low, med, and high (with some settings in between). What those numbers or settings correspond to is the amount of time that the coil which your pan sits on is activated. When active, electricity is sent through the coil, heating it up to temperatures much hotter than anything your food will end up being. When you sit a pan on the coil, the heat from the coil transfers over to and across the area of the pan. Sticking something into the pan allows the heat to in turn transfer from the pan to your food. That is why setting most consumer pans on a coil set to high with nothing in them will ruin the pan because the metal gets too hot and starts melting/warping/tempering, but by placing water or any other substance to absorb and radiate the excess heat in the form of steam, the pot will be fine. Cast iron pans are especially great because they can disperse heat across the pan very well, reducing specific "hot spot" points where the pan might be dramatically hotter or cooler than corresponding. They are also tend to be more heavily constructed than other pans, making them more durable and resistant to especially high heat. Plus, they can go straight from the range to under a broiler/in a hot oven with ease.

Perfectly Cooked Steak:
- Requires high heat/oven safe pan (cast iron is great)
- Steak
- Fat w/ high smoke point (corn or canola oil is most common - has a higher smoke point than olive oil)
- Cooking thermometer (digital is typically better because they give a more accurate/faster reading)

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Add a little vegetable oil/fat with a high smoke point
- Turn the burners on high
- Wait until the oil gets hot- almost smoking (will start to shimmer)
- Add your steak and make sure to drag it around the pan a big to coat the bottom layer in oil so it doesn't stick/burn
- Once the bottom side has enough color for you, flip the steak, and spread it around the pan to coat the new side initially just as you did with the other side.
- Once both sides of the steak look pleasingly caramelized, stick the pan into the oven until the internal center temperature of the steak reaches the desired doneness you'd like- I'd start probing every 5-10 minutes until your steak is close (but remember, each time you open the oven door the oven's internal temperature drops) :

140-145F Rare
145-150F Medium Rare/Medium
150-155F Medium/Medium-well
160F+ Well done

Make sure an let the steak rest for a couple of minutes after cooking so that the juices that have dispersed from the outer "well done" areas of the steak settle back evenly through the meat. Enjoy.

Helpful Cooking Tip #9 - Have fun

Helpful Cooking Tip #9 - Have fun

Cook food that YOU want to eat and that YOU enjoy, and try to have fun. Play music or turn up the television, decorate the kitchen in an appealing (yet functional) way, and get the tools to make the technical process simpler. The worse thing to happen to the amateur cook is to become discouraged and swear off cooking forever. Not everything you cook will be flawless, but with time, practice, and constructive criticism, you will eventually be able to turn out perfection (or close enough to it) with ease.

Helpful Cooking Tip #8 - Take advantage of color

Helpful Cooking Tip #8 - Take advantage of color

We eat with our eyes (normally) before any other sense can contribute to our experience. Our eyes can't sample aroma or taste flavor, but they do devour light. Just as with texture, color is an excellent medium that can be used to enhance a dish.

What most people don't realize is that color actually can impact the diner's enjoyment of the dish at the psychological level. Studies have been done to determine whether we get more satisfaction from the anticipation of a reward or receiving that ward. Essentially whether you happier about being told your about to receive a cookie compared against the happiness you get from eating it. If I remember correctly, the potential for the pleasurable experience clearly induces more happiness (in the form of dopamine). In fact, psychologists have pointed to this aspect as a way to rationalize how people become addicted to gambling- the thought of winning $25 for .25c actually makes you happier than if you win the $25. What this means is that if your food looks really good, your diners are going to get a greater hit of dopamine in their brains and consequently enjoy the overall experience more than if they were blindfolded. That being said, in the event that your food looks unappetizing, it might be a good idea to bust out the bandannas and have your guests try your food initially without the use of their eyes.  

Whenever cooking, I always try to incorporate the most vibrant colors possible. If the main dish comes out looking a little dull or one note, give it some additional flare by adding some colorful condiments. I don't think I would ever add an ingredient solely for color (seems sort of silly), but if it adds something else that contributes to the taste of the food (texture, flavor, smell) I think the addition is easily justifiable.

So in addition to playing with texture, utilize products with vivid color to enhance the eye appeal of your food.