Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

I am cooking flattened pork chops (pounded thin). One topping is pickled shallots (sliced thin and then sitting in a mixture of mustard seeds, vinegar, sugar, and salt) and the other is mustard greens. I was going to just use the pan drippings hot to wilt the mustard greens, but my wife objected so I am blanching them first. She is used to cooking collard greens and mustard greens are not the same as collard greens! You have to boil collards a long time because they are tough. Mustard greens are like a spicy swiss chard and don't need that much cooking. I love chard and especially love beet greens, but my wife dislikes them both. Sigh.

It will be OK. I boiled the mustard greens for 4 minutes and then doused them with cold water. That should take any crunch out of them.

 

Gator volleyball to attend at 7 tonight so some snacks before the match and something cold after.

For a prematch snack I made pickled shrimp with fennel and onion. Lots of lemon juice from some locally grown Meyer lemons, white wine vinegar, a serrano pepper sliced thin, and just a touch of sugar.

And for after the match squid salad. Squid bodies cut into 1/3 inch rings and tentacles cut in two and boiled for one minute and then cooled under cold water. Celery, grape tomatoes, red onion, kalamata olives, flat leaf parsley with a garlic, olive oil, redwine vinegar, and black pepper dressing.

Some leftovers (I made a lot!) and both will be great tomorrow for lunch.

 

Deer hunting?

Up in rural northern Wisconsin driving anything faster than a farm tractor from dusk until dawn is called deer hunting. ;^)

And they grow some big ones up there. My dad totaled a car hitting a big buck with a full rack about 60 miles north of Green Bay. When he was stopped on the side of the road some locals showed up and asked how the deer was. My younger sister was there and said "dead", but they wanted to know if there was any meat to be salvaged.

Added in edit: Just saw the post about the O&B scrimmage so of course it is deer hunting. Save some back strap for me!

 

No cooking recently as I have been in Austin for 4 days. Lots of great Tex-Mex, live music with $2 Lone Stars (crappy beer, but the price is right and the music was awesome), and family time with a wedding.

Now gearing up for the food avalanche called Thanksgiving. At last count I am cooking for 14 and some have eating quirks that I have to work around.

 

Getting ready for the big meal on Thursday. Menu is now set and we will have three folks preparing food. I am in charge of grilling a turkey, cooking a pair of pork tenderloins rubbed with spices (mostly coriander, black pepper, and kosher salt) , making two pans of poblano potato gratin, and making a dark cherry reduction with red wine, shallots, and thyme mostly for the pork but will be tasty on the turkey white meat.

 

That makes it work out. I remember one Christmas where all I did all day was cook when we had over 20 folks for dinner. I was so sick of food at the end of the day that I couldn't eat anything.

Those are some yummy greens. My personal favorite is beet greens, but my wife HATES beets. She did eat some orange/yellow beets once and said they were OK.

My dad would grill under duress a few times per year when it was the expected manly thing to do, like Fourth of July, and knew nothing about smoking meat except that it tasted great and his experience was limited to sausages and hams. And my mom would destroy good meat. She was an RN and was always concerned about meat being undercooked and a health risk. So many times at holiday dinners we would get a standing rib roast cooked to shoe leather. I grew up thinking that I didn't like meat because it always tasted so awful. I am not saying my mom was a bad cook, though. She could bake better than anyone I have ever met. I don't think she ever bought a pre-made pie shell in her life and her pies and cakes were to die for. And her Christmas cookie collection was legend. She would spend two weeks baking cookies and putting them in tins to send to scores of people she knew. I miss those cookies.

 

What kind of ribs?

I prefer Memphis dry-rub style pork ribs so no sauce. Smoked, of course, using hickory. And I like them St. Louis cut instead of done as spare ribs.

Other folks like Kansas City style ribs with a sticky wet sauce to finish them.

Then in Texas they typically use beef ribs instead of pork and smoke with oak.

 

Turkey is on the grill. 22 pounds of bird.

Rajas (poblanos charred and skinned, deseeded and deveined, cut into thin strips and added to sauteed onions) made for the potato gratin. Five pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes peeled and sitting in water so that they don't turn brown. Got the mandolin out and ready to thinly slice the potatoes. The first time I made a dish like this I did it the way my mom did and sliced the potatoes by hand. The next day I bought a mandolin.

Pork tenderloins are rubbed with ground coriander, salt, and pepper.

Brussels sprouts are trimmed.

Stuffing was assembled and sent away for baking. We never actually stuff the turkey, but make it separate.

Two bottles of Gary Farrell chardonnay chilling in the frig. One bottle of Gary Farrell pinot noir also for those that prefer the pork to turkey.

Still have to make the cherry/shallot/red wine/thyme reduction, but that goes pretty fast.

And in the middle of this there was a lot of house cleaning (we have guests for the weekend coming in about 30 minutes) and a double batch of Wick Fowler's 2 Alarm chili for lunch. Being the retired person I spent most of yesterday scrubbing porcelain, washing baseboards, vacuuming, etc. And found the time to go out and get one dozen yellow roses to brighten up the house.

Taking a break with a small martini. Call it a mar-tiny?

 

That works.

An old school trick is to use a hair dryer to get them ready quickly.

 

Tonight is grouper, yellow rice pilaf, and seared asparagus. Also made a sun-dried tomato/pistachio tapenade for some pre-dinner snacking. Somebody else is making the salad.

Two 4lb butts are rubbed and in the frig for tomorrow. Pulled pork sandwiches with vinegar slaw will be the main attraction. Also making a lot of pickled shrimp with fennel, onion, and serrano pepper as well as a corn and tomato salad. Friends from Michigan spent the week in Tampa and will be stopping by for the afternoon and early evening on their way back to the Great White North so they are added to the holiday crew. Probably picking up some baked beans from Sonny's as they are the bast thing on their menu and I will have enough cooking to keep me busy as is. And no baked bean mess to clean up afterward is a bonus.