Stacey Ballis's Blog, page 16

The Scale of Things

I never thought of the scale as my friend. 

Because let's be honest, since about 1979, the scale has never given me the number I wanted.  The scale is the most dreaded part of any doctor's visit.  The scale is a cruel master, not just instantly responding to a single binge-y night, but famous for refusing to respond at all to an entire week of monklike deprivation and Herculean exercise.  The scale is changeable, move it two inches in any direction and the numbers can jump around like toddlers after trick or treating. 

I'm gonna say it.  I HATE the effing scale.  Or I did.  Until now.

As a cook, I love testing new recipes, trying new things. I especially love cookbooks, and cookbooks from other places are like mini vacations.  But I don't like Math, and trying to convert a recipe from metric is a mind-numbing exercise well beyond my interest.

But with the interwebs full of fun food blogs from parts abroad, and cookbooks dangling delicious sounding recipes full of grams of this and liters of that, it was time to get my stuff together.

It started simply.  We missed a pal's 60th birthday.  And she and her husband were coming up to the Farm for a weekend, and I wanted to make her a small birthday cake to celebrate.  I was informed that her favorite cake is yellow cake or white cake with vanilla frosting.  A cake I did not have in my repetoire, being more of a chocolate/banana/nut cake kind of gal.  But technology would help me!  I found a recipe online for a cake.  It sounded delicious, a simple vanilla scented yellow cake.  And lucky for me, the recipe contained both standard and metric measurements.

Except it didn't work.

The cake turned out sort of dry and leaden.  Not inedible, and our guest actually claimed to love it, but I was deeply disappointed.  I looked back at the recipe and realized something important.  In converting the metric to standard, the amounts had gotten a little imprecise.  And I recognized that there is no way to mess up measuring things by weight, but that depending on everything from the type of container to the way you scoop it, flour measured by volume can be as much as DOUBLE the weight you need, which I believe is what happened to me.

Then something wonderful happened.  Escali, makers of not only precise, but funky and fun kitchen scales, sent me a package. 

Oh yeah.  That my Chickens is a glass digital kitchen scale in a very sassy tangerine orange.  And it is, despite my original fighting, changing the way I cook.

For starters, it is really easy to use, the glass makes it easy to keep clean, and the color and clean lines mean that if I leave it on the counter it becomes decor and not clutter. 

Less than 2 minutes out of the box and I was confident in my usage, which is a pretty good curve for a new piece of equipment.  And the most important part, within a couple of weeks I had pretty seamlessly integrated it into my cooking.  Especially when I started to play with the other item in my package...


While slighly less snazzy on the looks, this nutritional scale is a dieters and diabetics dream.  Because it comes with a book of every food you can imagine, giving special codes for each.  Put your food, even pre-cooked foods like lasagna or cookies, on the scale, punch in the code, and it will give you the nutritional value....calories, carbs, sodium, sugars...as someone who is both trying to lose weight AND needs to be very careful to manage carb intake, this thing is a godsend. 
Between the two, I can now bake with confidence, try out some of the recipes in my metric cookbooks, and stop hearing Michael Ruhlman in my head chiding me for waiting so long.  (If you have not bought his book Ratio yet, do it now.  It will change your cooking forever.)  Plus I can be a smart girl and make sure I am staying on track with my carbs.
Which of course, makes the bathroom scale, that fickle bitch, somewhat more pliant. 
And since you know how we love to share, Escali sent me one of the fabulous orange scales to give to one of you!

So, comment below by Thursday May 17, 11:59 pm CST, telling the class either a metric recipe you are dying to make (feel free to post the recipe so we can all have fun) or how you think an adorable tangerine orange kitchen scale will change your cooking, and the old random number generator will pick one of you as the winner!

Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath

Happy Mother's Day!

I am the luckiest girl in the world.  Because I not only have the world's best Mom...

(and adorable sister)And Grandmother...


I also have the super bonus of the most amazing Mom-in-Law...


And some extra Moms-by-Choice!


Thanks to all of you for showing me what it means to be a woman, a wife, a mother, a sister, and the best possible human being.  What it means to love, to live, to be strong, to work, to play.  I would not be the woman or the person I am without having had every one of you in my life, and today, as every day, I am deeply humbled and so very grateful.

Love you all, thank you for being.

XOS

Jumping Genres, But Hopefully Not The Shark

Hello Chickens!  Today I want to share some lovely news about a new project with you.

But first, a teeny bit of backstory.
I always thought I was going to be a lawyer.  From the age of six or so, I would tell anyone who would listen that I was going to be a lawyer when I grew up.  And anyone who ever heard me negotiate with my parents for a second glass of pop or one more chapter before bed had no doubt that was a smart path for me.
In high school I served for a year on the Illinois Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division after-school program.  I was on my school’s mock trial team, and we took our show to the statewide competition where we went up against a school from Leaf River, IL, and I made one of their team members cry during cross examination.  The Illinois Supreme Court Justice moderating the trial indicated I might want to skip college and law school and just start litigating.
When I got to university, I was leaning towards a career in international law.  Being that this area of law is all about treaties and trade agreements, and that China was going to open to the West the year after I was due to graduate from Law School, I signed up for Chinese 101, and started imagining my junior year abroad in the exotic Far East.  Chinese 101 met five days a week at 9am.  I went to one full week of classes, learning to say “Hello”, and then proceeded to sleep thru it not only the rest of the semester, but the entire last day to drop classes, garnering me my very first F in history, and plunking me solidly on Academic Warning. 
My parents were so proud.
Since International Law was out, I shifted my focus to Entertainment Law, having been both a musician and actor, and imagined making millions protecting the interests of artists, and then retiring from practice young (with plenty of money) in order to serve as a judge.  This was my goal for a full two years, right up until I spent the three months between my sophomore and junior year living in a mud hut in Kenya and teaching at the local secondary school.  I realized there that I could be a good lawyer, and a wealthy lawyer, but not a happy lawyer.
I returned stateside to pursue a career in education.  One MA in Education and four years teaching high school English in the Chicago Public Schools, was followed by eleven years running education programs at not-for-profit professional theaters, and consulting with both education entities on arts integration in the classroom, and educational program development for arts organizations, as well as teacher and teaching artist training and curriculum development.
Leaving the world of arts education for full time writing was the hardest decision I ever had to make, but also an important one.  And making a life as an artist is a source of unimaginable joy.   But I do miss the contact with young people, the connection of teaching, working with passionate educators.
My once fervid desire to be a member of the legal community was replaced by a deep and abiding love of the legal procedural, in television, print, and on film.  Name a Law and Order episode, and I’ve seen it.  I own L&O Trial By Jury on DVD.  If cops are fighting bad guys and lawyers are defending the innocent, it is on my TiVo, much to the chagrin of poor Charming Suitor who loves me in spite of it.
Our schools, it is no surprise to any of us, are in a state of disaster.  No Child Left Behind should have been called Every Child Left Behind, with essential areas of the arts and civics education lost to budget cuts and standardized testing.  Teachers are desperate for interesting and compelling curriculum and resources, and kids are being given short shrift, especially in the area of Civics and education about our legal and judicial systems. 
So when a friend of a cousin approached me nearly two years ago about potentially working with him to co-author a young adult legal thriller that would be a fantastic fun read for middle-schoolers, but also a source of actual information about the legal system and constitutional law that teachers could integrate into their classroom curriculum, I was intrigued.  When he said we would not only write the book, which could hopefully be the first in a series, but that we would be developing student guides and teaching study guides, and creating a website to serve as a resource for educators, and that everything we did would be appropriate for use on both Constitution Day and Law Day in the schools, I was in.
As a writer, working in a totally new genre is exhilarating.  Since writing tends to be solitary and isolating, working with a wonderful collaborator is refreshing.  And as an educator, working on something of genuine academic value is the work of my heart.


Wainwright for the People has been embraced by the American Bar Association, which will publish it in March of 2013.  As I do with all my books, I would like to ask you to pre-order your copy.  Unlike my other books, I am going to ask you to do it this month through Kickstarter.  There is much work to be done, especially on the website development side and working on the educational materials, in addition to the actual writing of the book, and for all of that to happen, we need some support.
Any donation of $15 gets you a copy of the book, same as if you pre-ordered from a bookstore or online bookseller, but in addition to the book, you will know you are helping make the educational elements of this project come to fruition.  The campaign runs for exactly one month, so if you do want to pre-order your copy (or copies!) you have till the end of the month to do so. 
You can get all the info on the project you might need here, including reading the (very rough draft) of the first three chapters:
 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joelrothman/wainwright-for-the-people
 Feel free to post this on Facebook, tweet about it, send it in an e-mail to whomever you like.
 And thanks in advance for your support, it is an unbelievably exciting new venture and I am thrilled to be a part of it, and to share it with you all.
 Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath

Happy Day

One year ago today, I married my Charming Suitor, my best friend, my confidante, my muse, my partner in crime.

Are we not a bucket of adorable???I recieved as a wedding gift an extra set of wonderful parents, a new sister and brother, and two incredible nieces, all of whom I could not love more if they were mine my birth instead of choice.  I got to watch my own family open to embrace and include my CS, and watch them all come to be family in such a seamless and effortless way that it makes my heart smile whenever we are together.

In the past year we have turned two households into one home, two groups of friends into one rollicking gaggle.  We have filled the year with amazing travel, laughter, and a love that really does, despite the cliche of it, grow stronger and deeper every day.  We have supported each other through some difficult and trying times, and celebrated milestones.  We have cooked together, for each other and for others, and frankly, everything really does taste better. 

So, on this very special day, I just wanted to say as out loud as I can, thank you to my extraordinary husband for the best year of my life, the best love of my life, the best life of my life.  I am the luckiest, happiest girl in the world.  Here's to year two.

With my whole heart,
Stacey

Pumpkin Seed Oil Winner

Thought this posted, but obviously I am technically challenged...clearly computers are not one of my polymathmatical skills!

Maggie, email me your address at staceyballisinfo (at) gmail (dot) come and your pumpkin seed oil will be on its way!

The Polymath

Freezcube Winners

Congrats to Emilie, Mvarela and April, you have won your own Freezcubes!

E-mail your mailing addresses to me at staceyballisinfo (at) gmail (dot) com.

Coming soon...some more awesome new products, and the return of the Stennifer Lunch Tour!

Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath

Food Safety

It may have been mentioned before, I am very diligent about food safety.  Charming Suitor might occasionally call me the food police.  This is usually after I have recklessly and wantonly discarded four day old takeout leftovers that he "was going to eat tomorrow". 

To be fair, we come at food safety from very different places.  He has a cast iron stomach, inherited from Reverend Charming, who can eat two week old pasta with chicken and pronounce it "tingly, but delicious", with no ill effects.  I, as we may have mentioned, have a digestive system only slightly less sensitive than a fifteen year old girl with a breakout on junior prom night.  I have been poisioned by many, but never by myself, and I would like to keep it that way.

But while I am diligent, I am not insane.  I know the difference between a "sell by" date and an "expiration" date.  I believe in trusting my eyes, nose, and mouth, and just because the cottage cheese says four days ago if it isn't fuzzy, doesn't smell off, and tastes good, I will still eat it.

Today I want to talk about the freezer.  Many people think that because food in your freezer is frozen solid that it is automatically protected from bacteria etc.  For a long time I did too, and only discarded food that I knew was really old, or was freezer burnt...and even then more because I knew they would not be delicous, not because I thought they might be harmful.

I have many freezers in my life.  We have the upstairs freezer, for ice and everyday items.  We have the freezer in the downstairs fridge, for stuff like frozen meat and veg to grab for dinner.  And then we have CS's huge chest freezer for large cuts of meat, and bulk items.  And there is the freezer at The Farm, where we spend most weekends.

And that is where the problem starts. Because two out of four weeks when we get to The Farm, our microwave and the bedroom clocks are all blinky.  Meaning at some point since people were last there, the power went out.  But for how long?  Ten seconds?  Ten minutes? Two days?  The minute food in your freezer goes above zero, bacteria can start to grow.  If the power goes out, and then comes back on a day later, your food will refreeze, and you will never know what might be lurking.

Until now.

CS and I went to the Housewares show, and the minute I saw this little beauty, I jumped up and down and clapped like a child.  CS pronounced it "made for you", and I investigated.

Say hello to my leeetle friend!


This, my Chickens, is the Freezcube, and you are gonna want one for every freezer in your life.

The premise is simple.  You put this in your freezer with the small side down overnight, which will freeze the liquids solid, provided your freezer is set cold enough for safety. 

(guess whose wasn't!  THE HORROR!) 

Then you flip it over, so the frozen parts are on top.  Then leave it.  If you check your freezer and any of the liquids have melted into the bottom, you know something has gone awry.  The different colors are labeled based on the number of days you have to consume the contents of your freezer without danger, from 1 day to 14 days to THROW EVERYTHING OUT RIGHT NOW!

The simplest thing in the world, peace of mind.

And while you can get your own Freezcubes at Amazon , they have also sent me a few to give out to some lucky readers!

So, comment below with your own food safety tips, or confessions, or quirks, or any tools you use to keep the contents of your fridge and freezer safe for human consumption, and on Monday I'll let you know who is getting a Freezcube of their very own!

Your in Good Taste,
The Polymath

A Little Molecular Gastronomy

So Chickens, where do you fall out on the whole Molecular Gastronomy thing?  Pro or con?  Cutting edge cuisine, or elaborate hoax?



For me, I am pro, but with some caveats.

As with any style of cooking, it is about elevating the ingredients.  Sous vide cooking, very low constant temp immersed in circulating water, for example, can make a short rib both meltingly tender AND perfectly medium rare, heretofore impossible.  So if someone has that on the menu, I am in.  The ability to manipulate texture, especially in contrasting temperatures, is very interesting and when done well, can enhance the experience of eating a dish.  The classic El Bulli trick of taking the purest essence of olive and sperifying it so that it LOOKS like an olive, but explodes in the mouth with olive flavor is exciting, and works with the food.

HOWEVER.  The people who just put foam on everything like a garnish of cat gack, the people who are more concerned with showing off knowing a technique than they are with the food, that I find annoying.  There are many many fewer people doing Molecular Gastronomy WELL than one might imagine from the preponderance of powders, liquid nitrogen ices, and caviar-ed EVERYTHING that pop up on menus everywhere.

Not everyone can be Grant Achatz, whose Alinea continues to be one of the most exciting meals I have ever had the pleasure to experience.  And I'm less and less interested in the food that looks like something else...I actually don't find the idea or visual of eating dirt or cigar ash appealing, even if it does end up being delicious.  (Dirt Cake with Gummy Worms is exempted from this, of course, because chocolate trumps everything.)

But like many other trends and techniques, I had never had much desire to "try that at home".  My parents will remember cringingly my unimpressive C- in high school Chemistry.  And I don't want to fuss that much over my food.  But there is something to be said for the proverbial gift horse.

Culinary Imports sent me some of their products to play with, and I have to say, it can be fun, and there are some applications for the home cook.

The main thing I find cool to work with is that sperifying effect, making "caviar" is actually pretty cool, and they feel fun to eat.  I'm a bubble tea kind of girl anyway.  And I miss Freshen Up Gum. 


This is Balsamic Vinegar "caviar" floating in olive oil.  An enormously fun way to re-imagine a caprese salad for a dinner party, instead of dousing your beautiful white cheese with liquid, strewing these glistening dark balls over the top is both show-stoppingly gorgeous, but also makes the experience of the salad new and fun.  Ditto over strawberries or vanilla ice cream for an elegant and unusual dessert.

Our best applications were for cocktails, for which we enlisted our best mixologist pals, C&H.  The caviar trick allowed us to add a punch of flavor without diluting the original drink.  Since we are on such a Negroni kick, we made some Aperol caviar (a bitter liqueur) and floated them in our classic Negronis.  The drink remained the same, but now and again with a burst of extra flavor,  totally fun.

Frankly, a lot of the rest of it, foams and gels and glow in the dark and DIY pop rocks...it is a bigger pain than it is worth for the kind of cooking I do.  But I will give Culinary Imports a lot of credit, they have made the process MUCH more accessible for people who do want to play at home.  They have worked to make the chemistry easier, with a measuring system that doesn't require a scale or an advanced degree.  Their kits come with everything you will need and recipes to start you off, which make them a potentially awesome gift for the uber-foodie or mixologist on your list.



Not at all interested in food-science projects?  CI will not leave you in the cold.  Perhaps their single best product?  Pumpkin seed oil.



This bright green oil has a mild nutty flavor that is really delish!  We tried a riff on pesto, replacing the traditional basil and parsley with arugula and mint, and replacing the olive oil with pumpkin seed oil...fantastic.  It works very well on salads, especially grain salads like wheatberry or quinoa.  And it is very good for you.

And Culinary Imports wants one of you to try it for free!

Yep, they have donated a 16 oz bottle for one of my fabulous Chickens.

SO...comment below with your opinions or experiences with Molecular Gastronomy, pro or con, or a tale of what you want to make with Pumpkin Seed Oil, and one of you chosen at random will get this prize.  Winner announced next Monday.

Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath

New Book and Winners Announced

Hello Chickens!  Your Polymath has been very busy.  The most exciting news is that I have finally finished the edits on my new book, Off the Menu!  Wanna see the cover?  I know you do....


IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING YOU EVER DID SEE?????
Seriously, I love this cover.  But more importantly, I love the book.  And I think you will too.  There will be some really fun upcoming contests and giveaways and all sorts of excitement connected to pre-orders, so if you decide to pre-order yours now from any online bookseller, SAVE YOUR CONFIRMATION RECEIPT, because you are going to need it.
In other fun, Charming Suitor and I headed to Jacksonville, FL for a little quality time with the whole Charming Family.  We got to have a double date with Charming Sister and Brother-in-Law, look at wedding pics and reminice with the Rev and Mrs. Charming, got to cook a great family dinner (did we pull out that pork shoulder again?  you betcha!), and some serious giggle time with both the Charming Nieces.  Niece the Elder is away at school, but we had no intention of missing an opportunity to be with her, so we flew her in to surprise everyone....worth the price of the ticket just to watch the reactions when she walked in the door!  And it gave us some time to try and convince Niece the Younger to choose Chicago for college.  She may be afraid of cold, but we have put a major bribery campaign into play, and are not giving up.   We believe if we get her for four years, we'll have her forever.
Jacksonville provided great entertainment, including a diner so good we went twice  

Really?  Twice in one weekend?  Well, when Charming Suitor ordered this, there was no question.



Fried Chicken and Waffles.  With Strawberry Butter.  And their sweet and spicy sauce, which is just maple syrup with Louisiana hot sauce mixed in.  I had a patty melt with a side of black beans, and we decided to go back for breakfast, which also didn't disappoint.

Jacksonville also has my favorite church I have ever seen.

I call it the Church of Barry Gibb.  And here is why.



Everytime we drive by CS starts singing "Stayin' Alive".  Which always makes me hysterical.  If I could photoshop a white suit up there for you, I totally would, but I am lucky I could figure out how to take this picture with my phone.
At any rate, it was a truly wonderful trip, really nice to just hang out with the family without events or occasions to deal with.  And they indoctrinated me into the family game Aggravation, and while the Nieces were BRUTAL, I did okay.
And Louisville won their March Madness game over Florida, so there was much rejoicing.
And now, for the winners of the LoveBeets swag:
Winner of the T-Shirt and coupon is:Jen for her Beet Chips recipe Winners of coupons are: Izzyt The Beer Family Beth Julie the Wife Suzanne Anderson Unknown (Beet Roesti) SMJ Unemployed Diva Molly
Shoot me your mailing addresses at staceyballisinfo (at) gmail (dot) com and I will get your prizes out to you!
Yours in Good Taste,The Polymath 

Dinner for Eight

Sometimes things just fall into place.

As my dear Chickens know, Charming Suitor and I had a seemingly endless process of purging and merging and painting and organizing that took us off the hosting circuit for the better part of eight months.  And you know how your Polymath hates to not be hosting.



But now that CS and I are a mere 2 months (from today!) from our 1 year anniversary as Old Marrieds, I am delighted to report that our comeback has been a raring success.  We've had some small evenings with just one other couple, and bigger festivities with a dozen pals.  But for us, the ideal evening is eight people around one table eating and drinking and making merry.

Because CS is a massive wine geek (in the best possible way), many of my new besties are also oenophiles (read:winos).  And there is nothing more fun than people who know their juice and their vittles spending an evening reveling together.

For starters, I am insanely proud of this table.  Discovered an amazing chalkboard oilcloth (yes the plastic wipe-able tablecloth of your youthful kitchen table) to cover the table.  In Chicago you can get it from my fabulous cousins at Vogue Fabrics, but if you are not local to me, you can buy by the yard online at Bell'occhio



I put down a white cloth first, and then custom cut the oilcloth to fit the top.  For some reason I was desperate for large oval chophouse style plates...because we know one thing I need is MORE PLATES.  But once I get a vision, forget it.  Lucky for me Krasny restaurant supply is five minutes from our house, and accomodated me for only about $6 a plate, so not an insane investment. 

And chalkboard tablecloth means you can mark everyone's place easily, and provide for some entertainment!



CS and I bought some fun and funky screen-printed napkins when we were in Montreal for my 40th, that added a pop of color.  And I finally decided to get serious about dealing with my floral arranging problem by taking the leap and hitting Kennicott wholesale florist on Ashland for some stems that didn't cost an arm and a leg.  And I am totally chuffed with the result!



The containers were very affordable, and they gave me some oasis, that green foam stuff, which actually made arranging very easy.  I stuck with a two-tone color palette of lime green and lavender/purple, put down a tight base of both (spider mums, some cool green berries and deep purple fuzzy stuff, green hydrangeas) to fill the containers and then stuck the more special flowers (orchids and calla lilies and some sort of spiky thing) here and there, being sure to keep looking at them from all sides so there were no holes.



I am awfully proud of me, and after a week, they are still alive and vibrant!  Whee!

But mostly, we need to talk about the dinner.  Because if ever a menu turned out just the way one wants...this was it.

After pre-dinner nibbles of little smoky cocktail sausages and a 13 year old cheddar and some crudites to soak up our Negronis, we tucked into a feast of epic proportions.
Mmmm.  Served with grainy mustard and a spicy ginger dipping sauce.
We started with Michelle Bernstein's White Gazpacho, which is in her wonderful cookbook Cuisine a Latina.  I know gazpacho sounds like a weird choice for a winter dinner, but actually it is the perfect thing.  A mouthful of Spring, and a light start to a meal.



The main attraction was this Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder which filled the house all day with the most amazing smells.  The meat was sticky and moist, the skin turned into salty lacquered cracklings, and the veggies and wine and pan juices made for a savory gravy.



To accompany, we turned to our favorite potato side dish, a recipe which CS originally got from Chef David Bouley who credits his grandmother.  Essentially it is your basic potatoes Dauphinois (baked in cream) with the addition of a layer of chopped prunes in the middle, which sounds weird but is totally delish.  Our adaptation is to replace a third of the potatoes with sliced parsnips, both because it helps reduce the carb bomb aspect, and the bittersweet nature of this undervalued veg is a terrific addition.



After nearly two years of being haunted by Stephanie Izard's green beans with fish sauce vinaigrette and cashews from Girl and the Goat, she finally gave up the recipe, and we have made them three times since then.  Addictive!  You can get the recipe HERE.



And for both color and bright freshness, I invented this gorgeous salad, in tones of red and purple, with a couple dashes of white and green. 


Now THIS is a plate!



Dessert was a riff on another Michelle Bernstein fave, her insanely good Baked Alaska.  The recipe for which is only in restaurant quantities, but is essentially a light pistachio cake (use any nut cake recipe you love, would work with hazelnut or almond beautifully) with dulce de leche gelato, covered in Italian meringue, bruleed with a torch and accompanied with a mango passionfruit salsa.  Since I am not skilled in piping, and do not have the patience to do individual plated desserts like this piece of gorgeous...



I instead made the cake in my 10 inch springform, cut in in half, filled it with a kilo of caramel gelato from the incomparable Caffe Gelato on Division, and put it back in the freezer. I made the Italian meringue earlier in the day (the stuff will hold forever at room temp) and frosted the cake just before serving.  I torched it with my handy kitchen blowtorch (nothing more fun, and the house smells like toasted marshmallows) and sliced it to serve.  The salsa I made with a cup of diced mango, a cup of diced banana and (lacking a source for passionfruit puree) a half cup of melted passionfruit sorbet, which worked like a charm.  I garnished with fresh lime zest, and people scraped plates. 



After dessert we reitred to the living room for post-prandial drinks and some super dark chocolate and candied orange and lemon zest and more laughs.

And even better, at the end of the night, CS and I got to see these little gifts that our friends had left for us...



The best sign of a good dish...

nothing left but the bone!

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
adapted from Jamie Oliver

2 tablespoons fennel seeds, toasted
2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 t espelette pepper (or red pepper flakes if you must, but you can buy espelette here)
½ t ground grains of paradise or black pepper
2 fennel bulbs, in 1 inch chunks
6 medium carrots, peeled and in 1 inch chunks
3 onions, roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh thyme, tied with cotton twine
1 10- to 13-pound pork shoulder on the bone, skin scored in diamond or square pattern
Olive oil
1 bottle wine (if you want to drink white with the dish, use white, same for red)
1 pint chicken stock

 Preheat your oven to 500.
Smash the fennel seeds, salt and peppers in pestle and mortar or pulse in a food processor until you have a coarse powder.
Put all of the chopped vegetables and thyme sprigs into a large roasting pan.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Pat the pork shoulder with olive oil and place on top of the vegetables. Now get the spice rub massaged into the skin of the pork, getting it into all of the scores.
Roast for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 250 degrees, and cook for 9 to 12 hours.  The meat should be soft and yielding and you can pull it apart easily with a fork or tongs.
Pour all the wine into the roasting tray an hour before the pork is done. 
Once the pork is out of the oven, let it rest for half an hour before removing it to a large board.   Pull off the cracklings, and scrape extra fat from the underside of the cracklings and remove large pieces of unrendered fat from the surface of the meat.  You can either pull the meat apart into large pieces, or serve whole with a tongs and a large fork for your guests to pull apart themselves.  If you are pulling the pork yourself, serve the cracklings on the side, if you are serving whole, simply place the cracklings back on top of the roast once you have de-fatted.  Hold in a 200 degree oven until you want to serve.
Remove the thyme sprigs from the pan, and use a slotted spoon to put all of the vegetables in a medium saucepan.  De-fat the pan juices and add to saucepan.  For a chunky sauce, use a potato masher, for smooth, an immersion blender, and add enough stock to achieve the consistency you want.  If your sauce needs brightness, try adding a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Bouley Grandmere Potatoes and Prunes
adapted from David Bouley

3.5 lbs starchy potatoes, peeled and sliced thin on mandolin
1.5 lb parsnips, peeled and sliced thin on mandolin
2 c half and half
2 c cream 
1 clove garlic
Nutmeg
2 leeks, cleaned and white and pale green parts chopped
4 scallions, cleaned and white and pale green parts chopped
¼ c chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and Pepper
1 c prunes, halved or quartered
½  stick butter

Preheat oven to 350Rub gratin dish with the cut side of the clove of garlic.  Butter the dish liberally.  Saute leeks and onions in 2 T butter until soft, season with salt and pepper.  Put potatoes and parsnips in pot and add half and half and cream, the garlic clove, and a good grating of nutmeg, and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer, and cook 5 minutes until slightly thickened.  Ladle half of the potato parsnip mixture into the gratin dish, removing the garlic clove if you can find it, and sprinkle the leek mixture, the parsley, and the prunes evenly over the top. Add the rest of the potatoes and parsnips.  Dot the top of the dish with butter and bake 40 minutes to an hour till well browned and softened all the way through.  Should be creamy, but thick and not soupy.

Red Salad

1 head radicchio
1 package baby red romaine leaves
4 sliced roasted beets
1 pink grapefruit, peeled and sliced into rounds
2 blood oranges, peeled and sliced into rounds
1 c pomegranate seeds
5 large pink radishes, sliced thin on mandoline
2 c steamed broccoflower or romanesco broccoli florets
½ c pickled red onions (recipe to follow)
½ c crumbled goat cheese
1/2 c pitted kalamata olives
½ c toasted pinenuts

Arrange all of the salad elements in a large shallow bowl and sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper.  Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar of your choice, I used Persian Lime Olive Oil and White Balsamic with Oregano from Old Town Oil on Wells.
Pickled Red Onions
1 ½  cup white vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar
½ t salt
2 bay leaves
10 allspice berries
10 whole cloves
½  t red pepper flakes
2 large red onions, peeled, and thinly sliced into rings
In a small, non-reactive saucepan, heat the vinegar, sugar, salt, seasonings and chile until boiling. Add the onion slices and lower heat, then simmer gently for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and let cool completely.  Transfer the onions and the liquid into a jar then refrigerate until ready to use.For the salad, I used my new favorite product, Love Beets!  These ready to eat beets come in both plain roasted, and in gorgeous marinated flavors like honey ginger and sweetfire.  I have used the honey ginger ones for antipasto, skewering them with fresh mozzarella and sprinkling with chopped tarragon and black lava salt, and the roasted ones are amazing in salads.  The sweetfire have just enough heat to be a very cool twist on the usual olive or onion in your next martini, or sliced and layered over goat cheese on a crostini.



And the Love Beets people love us back...so they have sent me a snazzy T-Shirt and 10 coupons to share with you.  The best beet recipe in the comments section will get the T-shirt and a coupon, and the other nine coupons will go to comments chosen at random.  So let the class know how you love your beets!

Yours in Good Taste,
The Polymath