Have been reduced to a bobblehead with a wonky neck spring. Brain function reduced to a trickle. Discovered don’t have a waist upon trying on Julia Child outfits (Oxford-style shirt, tied apron, which makes me look more like Paul Prudhomme) in front of full-length mirror.
Ghoulash for dinner. Wanted to tell you about it. V. good on brown rice. Leftovers. Better after a day or two in the fridge. Freezes well.
Pulled Pork Ghoulash
adapted from Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver (a stunning book-I highly recommend it!)
canola or olive oil, for cooking with
4-5 lb. pork shoulder, preferably bone-in
1 large purple onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
1 yellow or orange pepper, seeded and chopped
2-3 hot chile peppers, seeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. hot or 1 Tbsp. mild smoked paprika
1 19 oz. (598 mL) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
salt & pepper to taste
½ cup sour cream or crème fraiche (optional- Jamie spikes his with lemon zest and a handful of chopped fresh parsley)
Brown rice or warm cornbread, for serving
Heat a drizzle of oil in a heavy skillet set over medium-high heat and brown the pork shoulder on all sides. Transfer it to a Dutch oven or slow cooker. (If you want to cook this in the oven instead of the slow cooker, preheat it to 325°F.) Add the onions to the pan and cook until they start to turn brown; add them to the Dutch oven or slow cooker; ditto the peppers, chile peppers and garlic. Add them to the pork and onions, and add the paprika, tomatoes, vinegar and sugar as well.
If you are using the oven put a lid on the pot and put it in for about 3 hours. If you are using a slow cooker, set it on low for 6-8 hours. Take the lid off and test the meat – it should pull apart easily with a fork. Remove any bones and continue cooking with the lid off if you’d like to thicken the sauce. Skim any fat from the surface, or cool the pork completely, then refrigerate it overnight; this makes it easier to pull the solidified fat from the surface, and it always tastes better reheated the next day, after the flavors have had a chance to improve.
Using two forks, shred the meat and distribute it through the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over rice or split cornbread, topped with a dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche. Leftovers are grand, and freeze well.
Serves 8-10.
One Year Ago: Beef Stu, Garlicky Cheese Biscuits and Blood & Gutscakes
October 29 2009 | pork and slow cooker | 21 Comments »
Bit of a week. My head hurts. It’s after midnight. I can’t seem to spell without the aid of spell-check. Still on Thursday and Friday’s to-do list: find a Julia Child wig (and build a costume around it, then practice my higher-octave voice) for Breakfast TV Friday morning (I’m hoping they’ll let me bloodily cut my finger on the air à la Dan Ackroyd on Saturday Night Live), shop and prep for two different cooking segments (cupcakes, shaggy monster cookies, spun-sugar cobweb croquembouche, stuff with pumpkin in it), make green food for a photo shoot for ParentsCanada magazine tomorrow afternoon (at which I’ll also be taking the pictures), finish two articles and take photos for one of them, and cook for a Napa Valley wine event at Willow Park on Friday night, which 250 hungry people will be attending. That’s not including the little stuff, and the outline and sample chapter of a book manuscript I was supposed to have done this week, which obviously won’t. And oh yeah-
I have a 4 year old.
Luckily (for so many reasons) I have a next door neighbour who happens to be a chef. He comes in handy because 1) we’re tag teaming on this Napa Valley event, which is a very good thing because he’s far more cheffy than I, making things like seared scallops over radicchio slaw in soup spoons, and there’s no way I could pull it off myself. Also, he sometimes brings us food. Some days he leans over the fence to give me a taste of a duck confit or some little cornucopia filled with something interesting. Earlier this week he brought over cold rigatoni stuffed with goat cheese and tossed in pesto, which we’ve been dipping into for the past few days.
Tonight at around dinnertime they came in handy-we set the last of them out in a bowl at the table and nervously scarfed them down with our fingers, dunked in chipotle aioli, as my sister filled out paperwork to make an offer on a house. Her very first house. Directly across the street.
Rigatoni Stuffed with Goat Cheese
from Chef Wade Paterson-thanks Wade!
1 package (500 grams) good quality dried rigatoni
1 lb soft goat cheese
¼ cup sun dried tomatoes packed in oil (well drained)
1 14 oz can artichoke hearts (well drained)
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
¼ cup ground Parmesan
½ cup pesto
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
Cook rigatoni in a large pot of well salted boiling water until just al dente. Drain well and immerse in cold water to stop cooking. In a food processor add cheeses, tomatoes and artichokes. Process until smooth. Add in basil and pulse until just mixed. Season with salt and pepper.
Fit a piping bag with a small straight tip small enough to fit in the rigatoni. Fill bag with cheese mixture. (Alternatively, fill a large ziploc bag, seal and snip a corner off to pipe from.) Drain rigatoni well and pipe cheese mixture into rigatoni. Be careful not to overfill or the rigatoni might break.
In a large bowl combine pesto and olive oil and mix well. Add stuffed pasta and toss to coat. Serve at room temperature. Store in the fridge up to 3 days. Does not freeze well.
One Year Ago: Green Hair with Bloody Eyeballs and Toenail Clippings, and Crème Caramel
October 29 2009 | appetizers and pasta | 17 Comments »
