What's cooking?

You may say it's frost, but I think those tomatoes just decided to give it up for Stuart's b-day.

Ha! You may not be far off, Mike, as they seemed to be fine before today....

It was this weekend rather than last night, but I had a hankerin' for some good ole southern comfort food. So, I smothered a chicken, made some rice for the gravy, baked some cornbread and made a skillet full of okra. Finished up the meal with chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. I can still smell and taste it. Yum!

Okra.jpg

Okra stew.jpg

Dinner last night was Thai pad korat, a stir-fry of meat (I used sliced pork loin), bean sprouts, bok choy, and rice stick noodles, seasoned with garlic, soy sauce, ground chiles, and fish sauce. I was using fresh rice stick noodles rather than dry, so I had to reduce the water by half.

The recipe is here: http://importfood.com/recipes/padkorat.html

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Jo Ann, Bob is drooling over your okra. I never cook it, and with the corn and onions, yours looks sensational.

Have a slammed week with dinner invitations almost every night so I haven't been cooking at home. IOW, all I have to talk about is lunch. Today it's hot and spicy chicken wings (marinated overnight, then baked until crispy) with a red cabbage and snow pea slaw.

Tonight was mixed green salad with ciabatta toasted with ripe garden tomatoes and fresh mozz (OK, so the plants bought it in last night's frost and we had to rescue the fruit), Patricia Wells's crustless onion quiche, and pots de creme. Gruet Brut to toast Stuart's birthday.

Cyn, it is nice to see you around again, hope you stay a while.

[Jenise]

Cynthia, happy birthday to Stuart!

Jenise, when a guy has as much white in his beard as Stu does, he "ain't" counting birthdays anymore!

Jo-Ann,

That's bodacious okra!! I wish I could whip up dishes like that.

-Paul W.

Jo Ann, that okra looks so GOOD! Okra is out of season here, but frozen ain't bad, so Give me that recipe.....please?

Jo Ann, that okra looks so GOOD! Okra is out of season here, but frozen ain't bad, so Give me that recipe.....please?

There ain't no recipe, Bob. This is one of those things I grew up with and learned to cook early. We have a Mediterranean store that has the best fresh okra year round. But, what you see in the picture is both frozen okra and frozen corn. Here is how I prepare it.

1 lb bag frozen or fresh cut okra
1/2 lb bag frozen petit corn kernals
1 medium onion, diced
olive oil or bacon drippings (guess which I used!)
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 large clove garlic, diced
~ 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepepr to taste.

I think okra tastes best cooked in a well seasoned cast iron skillet -- but, that may just be a tradition thing. Anyway heat the pan and grease until just before the smoking point. Toss in the okra and onions and fry over medium high heat about 5 minutes -- some pieces will begin to slightly brown. Use a few drops of lemon to get rid of rope if that bothers you. Add corn and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add in tomatoes, garlic and seasonings. Simmer long enough for the flavors to marry, about another 5-7 minutes. Don't let the okra lose it's integrity or turn gray. If that happens, you've gone a little too far in the cooking, but it will still taste pretty good. Enjoy!

[Robin Garr]

[quote="Jo Ann Henderson"] a skillet full of okra. /quote]
I could eat that.

[Jenise]

Tonight: mushroom and herb stuffed rolled boneless pork loin--for 90. The pork's prepped and seared off already, just have to transfer it to the venue where it will get it's final baking. I've made a chardonnay-apple gravy to go with it, too.

Tonight: mushroom and herb stuffed rolled boneless pork loin--for 90. The pork's prepped and seared off already, just have to transfer it to the venue where it will get it's final baking. I've made a chardonnay-apple gravy to go with it, too.

Jenise, when you say "rolled" how exactly do you go about that? I envision the roast sliced nearly through then tied with butchers twine, but am not sure I have the right picture. When I buy boneless pork loin it is cylindrical piece of meat about 2-21/2 feet long. I like the sound of the chardonnay apple gravy quite a lot too. And, finally, how many pounds of pork loin does it take to feed 90 people?

[Jenise]

Tonight: mushroom and herb stuffed rolled boneless pork loin--for 90. The pork's prepped and seared off already, just have to transfer it to the venue where it will get it's final baking. I've made a chardonnay-apple gravy to go with it, too.

Jenise, when you say "rolled" how exactly do you go about that? I envision the roast sliced nearly through then tied with butchers twine, but am not sure I have the right picture. When I buy boneless pork loin it is cylindrical piece of meat about 2-21/2 feet long. I like the sound of the chardonnay apple gravy quite a lot too. And, finally, how many pounds of pork loin does it take to feed 90 people?

35 pounds of pork and 6 quarts of gravy. Raw ingredients: 35 pounds of boneless pork loin, 20 cups of panko crumbs, one pound butter, 1 bottle of chardonnay, 5 quarts stock, and various other things.

The loins came from Costco and each is about what you say, two feet long. I buy the smallest ones so that the rolls I end up with are about four inches in diameter. I cut each in half, trim the ends (the last two-three inches at the small end has some silverskin and gristle that's better off in the trimmings pile, then take each half and butterfly it, remove a bit of extra meat so that I have no more than one inch thickness anywhere, then pound them a bit for tenderizing and trim from the sides to have a more or less uniform piece. In goes the stuffing, pressed and compacted to a log shape, and then I roll and tie it off using the classic butcher's technique. The tying not only secures the roll it lengthens each roast by two inches. I trim again at this point to ensure neat end slices, and quickly pan sear. Later, I roast them for about an hour and a half at 300 F, looking for around 135 degrees for medium. Stuffing is a great method because you don't have to worry about the pork cooking all the way to the center, the meat cooks very uniformly on the perimeter of the roast. And there's nothing else that gives you so much elegance for so much economy: I pulled this off for under $1.50 per serving.

Thanks for the reply Jenise. I have saved this to file and hope to get around to it very soon. I love pork, and from the sound of it, all the other ingredients too. Of course I won't need 35 lbs of pork nor 6 quarts of gravy.

35 pounds of pork and 6 quarts of gravy. Raw ingredients: 35 pounds of boneless pork loin, 20 cups of panko crumbs, one pound butter, 1 bottle of chardonnay, 5 quarts stock, and various other things....

This sounds real good, but I'm having trouble visualizing this as a recipe. Are the panko bread crumbs used as a coating before searing in butter? Pealed, cored and chopped apples or cider in the gravy?

Wow, Jenise. I marvel at your ability to do these huge dinners.

[Jenise]

Howie and Bob, maybe it will help if I post a pic of the leftovers, which shall be lunch with a salad. Here:

IMG_2971.JPG

And Howie, that wasn't meant to be much of a recipe, just a glimpse into the magnitude of the project. The panko was for the stuffing. A pound of crimini mushrooms and two big shallots were ground up in the Cuise and put in an extra large saute pan with a pound of butter plus one stick. Fennel seeds and a lot of coarse ground black pepper and dried thyme were added. Then in went the Panko crumbs, one bag at a time, six bags in all. I then added some chicken stock a small bit at a time, looking for that point where a handful of it just barely clumped. After the roasts were rolled and tied, I rubbed the exterior with olive oil and patted it everywhere with a sage-intensive herb salt and more thyme.

Thanks, Jenise - more clear now. Yum!

This year I will be holiday dinners for Christmas Eve and Day and New years Eve and my make the stuffed, rolled pork loin for one of those dinners. Thinking Riesling or Pinot Noir here.

Wow, Jenise. I marvel at your ability to do these huge dinners.

Yeah, if I had to provide entrees for 90, I'd end up in a corner in the fetal position, whimpering pathetically.

Then again, Jenise does make it sound do-able.

Tonight was homemade vegetarian green chile cheese tamales, rice, and beans. And a bottle of Gruet Brut.

We had a vegetarian friend of our daughter's over tonight, so we made Black Pepper Tofu, from a Jotam Ottolenghi cookbook. It was not bad. Soy sauce, ginger, hot peppers, garlic, shallots were all in good balance. The black pepper was the only aspect I wasn't fond of. It was cracked in a mortar and pestle before adding to the dish and it was just too coarse and chunky for my taste. About half the amount called for could have been run through a coarse grinder and it would have been better. Still, a very tasty dish for a cold evening.

[Jenise]

Wow, Jenise. I marvel at your ability to do these huge dinners.

Yeah, if I had to provide entrees for 90, I'd end up in a corner in the fetal position, whimpering pathetically.

Then again, Jenise does make it sound do-able.

Oh it was entirely doable. The night before I had trouble sleeping until daylight came for some reason, so I didn't even get out of bed until 11 a.m. and had to load in at the clubhouse by 4:00. And I did all that food plus fed us some lunch, showered, dressed and packed up in those five hours. Things actually go a lot faster when you cook by the seat of your pants instead of following recipes. I just did what I know how to do for a small dinner party based on mastered techniques and experience--times 10. Cooking large is just a math problem.

Cynthia, dinner sounds great. Do you make big lots of tamales and then freeze them for later use?