What's Cooking (Take Three!)

I made Cuban Mojo Pork last night from a Lopez-Alt recipe on Serious Eats. It involved marinating a pork shoulder in the mojo sauce and then putting it in foil with the marinade. It was slow roasted for three hours at 245 degrees, the foil was opened up, and it was finished for a couple more hours at 325. The drippings were then combined with some reserve mojo sauce with mint and fresh oregano added to serve with the pork. It was a mixed success. The pork came out fork tender and easily shreddable. It didn't seem to get much flavor from the marinade, though, and the drippings that went into the sauce ended up being 100% rendered fat, which didn't work very well. The pork made for a great game day Cubano type sandwich, with pickles and mustard.

Served the pork last night with a combined rice and black bean dish and hot and sour coleslaw. The rice and black bean dish was easy and very flavorful.

Sorry to hear the pork didn't turn out well. What is mojo sauce?

Sorry to hear the pork didn't turn out well. What is mojo sauce?

This one had garlic, cumin, bitter orange juice, and olive oil. Would have been better to make a larger batch of it and leave out the drippings from the pork.

Sorry to hear the pork didn't turn out well. What is mojo sauce?

This one had garlic, cumin, bitter orange juice, and olive oil. Would have been better to make a larger batch of it and leave out the drippings from the pork.

Hm, that flavor mix does not do it for me. I find cumin hard to work with because it's so strong it tends to overwhelm the rest of the seasoning.

Sorry to hear the pork didn't turn out well. What is mojo sauce?

This one had garlic, cumin, bitter orange juice, and olive oil. Would have been better to make a larger batch of it and leave out the drippings from the pork.

Hm, that flavor mix does not do it for me. I find cumin hard to work with because it's so strong it tends to overwhelm the rest of the seasoning.

There wasn't too much cumin in it. and the addition of a bunch of mint and fresh oregano after it was cooked with the pork should have helped balance it out. Unfortunately, there was too much fat after the cooking process and not enough of anything else. I probably should have untied the roast, trimmed off the external fat, and then re-tied it but I was too lazy to do that.

[Jenise]

Meatless Monday dinner: cold sliced cucumbers with black lava salt, Chinese gailan on a Caribbean coconut-pea rice.

Pad prik gai bai grapow (Thai stir-fried chicken with chiles and holy basil) last night.

-Paul W.

I got home at 6 last night with absolutely no idea of what we were going to have for supper. Ended up making sloppy joe and serving it up with leftover hot and sour coleslaw.

[Jenise]

Mike, I love sloppy joe's! Haven't had one in years, but just this week Bob requested them so we'll have them soon.

[Robin Garr]

Melissa Clark's red lentil and carrot soup with lemon and cilantro. I substituted chopped whole canned tomatoes for the tomato paste and halved the recipe for two, but otherwise followed the linked recipe fairly closely.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016 ... id=5381100

red-lentil-soup.jpg

[Jenise]

What a rich and beautiful color, Robin.

Similar but different: on the stove right now, a vegan split pea and green peppercorn soup. Peas, water, bay leaves, one huge clove of garlic, several fat pinches of herbs de Provence and a bigly teaspoon of dried green peppercorns. They soften during the cooking process and a nice zing when you get one in your spoonful. Btw, it's vegan because vegan's healthy, but also vegan because for me personally there's no comparison between the clean, herb-driven flavors of this soup and the more typical ham versions wherein the pea aspect is merely a meat vehicle and no longer star of the show. This wins!

Melissa Clark's red lentil and carrot soup with lemon and cilantro. I substituted chopped whole canned tomatoes for the tomato paste and halved the recipe for two, but otherwise followed the linked recipe fairly closely.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016 ... id=5381100

Looks great. I'm gonna make this. I was thinking of finishing with a spicy cilantro gremolata or a cilantro chimichuri. Or maybe something with yogurt. Thoughts. Would that be a fail?

Jason

[Robin Garr]

Looks great. I'm gonna make this. I was thinking of finishing with a spicy cilantro gremolata or a cilantro chimichuri. Or maybe something with yogurt. Thoughts. Would that be a fail?

Not at all, Jason. I think the basic concept would be pretty flexible. The yogurt sounds good, and more cilantro (assuming one's a fan) seems like a no-brainer.

Looks great. I'm gonna make this. I was thinking of finishing with a spicy cilantro gremolata or a cilantro chimichuri. Or maybe something with yogurt. Thoughts. Would that be a fail?

Not at all, Jason. I think the basic concept would be pretty flexible. The yogurt sounds good, and more cilantro (assuming one's a fan) seems like a no-brainer.

We love cilantro. Even the smell puts a smile on our face. Will report back.

J

[Jenise]

Finally got around to making Sloppy Joe's last night, an unusually casual dinner for us but deeply comforting while watching the latest news about Baby Hitler.

It dawned on me while making these that I've never had any Sloppy Joe except what I make, save for the first that introduced me to the breed when a pre-pubescent girl scout. That one was made by one Mrs. Lasleben (loss-lay-ben) and it was made from Campbell's tomato soup, Worcestershire sauce, dehydrated onion flakes, dehydrated bell pepper flakes, brown sugar and Liquid Smoke. The dehydrated vegetables were actually not just convenient (if you happen to own them, my family didn't), they were a killer ingredient and better than fresh as they provided cool texture and the sharp sweetness of bell peppers without overwhelming the dish the way fresh would have. I use fresh onion and a chipotle BBQ sauce I make myself in my modern Joe's but the rest of the ingredients are the same, and I add lots of black pepper and cayenne.

For a first course, we had grilled artichokes.

[Jenise]

Last night we had lamb shoulder chops. The price of lamb has come down locally and these thick cut steaks were only about $5 each. In fact, we could and should have just shared one. I prepped them in what I think of as a greek marinade: dry white vermouth, soy sauce, red wine vinegar, oregano and bay leaf, then grilled them on an open flame and finished them in the oven for a perfect medium. The marinade got reduced until syruppy and was used, along with lemon juice, to season some orzo. Quite good.

But my favorite part of the meal was the first-course salad. There are lots of ways to approach salad in this world and almost everything works, though some ideas are better than others. This one was just the result of me having two ingredients on hand that needed to be used up: frissee and enoki mushrooms. I combined them, about 50/50, with some slivered almonds for crunch, a little green onion, and a dressing made from lemon juice, canned tuna oil and sesame oil. All things I use from time to time but not necessarily at the same time. The result was a salad so perfectly balanced and wholly cohesive with flavors both exotic and familiar that it could become a known salad, like a Caesar (however blasphemed same is by poor knockoffs), and this would be the one supremely right way to do it. To leave anything out, or tart it up with extras, would only demean it.

[Jenise]

Tonight for dinner: eggplant parmesan.

Tonight for dinner: pork secreto with sauteed apple and baked butternut squash.

Last night we had pork shoulder which I rubbed with a spice mix, injected with apple juice and dry vermouth and smoked low and slow for 8 hours. Served with a variety if salads.
It was jolly good if I do say so.
And of course we will be having pulled pork sandwiches for lunch for a few days!

[Jenise]

Last night we had pork shoulder which I rubbed with a spice mix, injected with apple juice and dry vermouth and smoked low and slow for 8 hours.

I've never smoked a pork shoulder. A grevious error, as it's such a great cut for doing that to. We don't use our smoker nearly as often as we should--my husband cleans it so thoroughly that I put off using it because it's such a hassle when we do. Need to fix this!

We don't use our smoker nearly as often as we should--my husband cleans it so thoroughly that I put off using it because it's such a hassle when we do. Need to fix this!

Simple solution: Buy another one. That one can get grungy while the "real" one stays clean.

Jenise I love the smoker, for one thing male participation is almost inevitable so I can get the meat on and disappear off to, say, a scrabble game etc.

Anyone who has been paying attention will not be surprised that we had pulled pork sandwiches for lunch!

Dinner tonight will be home made rigatoni with a simple sauce of home grown tomatoes (finally, it has been a bad season in the veggie patch), home grown garlic, home grown basil. Local olive oil. Imported Parmesan

[Jenise]

Anyone who has been paying attention will not be surprised that we had pulled pork sandwiches for lunch!

Dinner tonight will be home made rigatoni with a simple sauce of home grown tomatoes (finally, it has been a bad season in the veggie patch), home grown garlic, home grown basil. Local olive oil. Imported Parmesan

Try a Cuban sandwich! Best thing that ever happened to pulled pork.


Speaking of smoked pork, we had another couple over last night to watch a movie. We had popcorn with the movie and a French Country style bistro dinner after, which baked while the movie was running: two individual (one for each couple to share) potato gratins with a huge smoked pork chop nestled in the middle. Garlicky green salad on the side--fantastic!

[Jenise]

In the oven right now: the famous two-hour baked potatoes!

Also, a loaf of banana-coconut-walnut bread.