Outside the dugout: What's cooking?

I had half of a huge head of cabbage left over from making pulled pork for pulled pork sandwiches.

Tonight I am making caramelized cabbage (using olive oil instead of butter) with penne and breadcrumbs seasoned with garlic, anchovies and butter. I got the recipe from the NYT a few years back, but it needed a lot of tweaking. The original recipe said that you can caramelize the cabbage in ten to fifteen minutes. That is not correct. I have been slow sauteing the cabbage for over 90 minutes and it isn't really caramelized as of yet.

It is truly worth it to take your time caramelizing anything. For example, properly caramelized onions taste nothing like quickly sauteed onions. It is all about the chemistry of cooking. It really is science.

 

Anything ala The Columbia is often awesome.

 

My son does not eat my caramelized cabbage, so he had penne with arrabiatta sauce. I asked him if he wanted a wet tray.

 

With a 7 PM start we can eat a quick meal at home before going to the game and avoid ball park food. Tonight I am making a creamy pasta sauce with sun dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers with some garlic and a little red pepper flake. I just finished peeling and deveining a pound of shrimp that will be incorporated into the pasta dish.

A simple salad of mixed greens with a ripe tomato and a baguette will accompany.

 

I missed this post.

That sounds off the chain good.

 

"drank"? Is that anything like purple drank?

 

My wife is making shrimp and grits. It is almost 9:30, but I can wait.

 

Tonight it is beer can chicken and collard greens. If you think that is poor folks food you have never had my beer can chicken nor my wife's collard greens.

 

How did it work out?

My favorite way to cook chicken is to smoke it, but that takes a long time and if I am going to the bother it will be at least two birds. Or if I am smoking something else and have room I might throw a chicken in there. Beer can chicken sounds "low rent", but if you do it right it is better than very good. I vary the spice rub that I use depending on my mood and the spice rub goes mostly under the skin with a little on the outside and some in the beer. For a typical bird it will take around 1 hour and 10 minutes to "beer can" and four hours to smoke.

Tonight we are using some leftovers from our most recent beer can chicken as well as some skinless chicken thighs that I have just poached for shredding to make chicken enchiladas tonight. I think that I will save the poaching liquid (I only used onion. Often I add bay leaf.) for making cream of celery soup tomorrow. I had to buy a whole head of celery to get one stalk for Monday's rice pilaf so that is my excuse. I am also getting a hankering for braising oxtail, shredding the meat, and serving it over bucatini with a light sprinkle of sea salt. It is a very rich and deeply flavored dish to be served with a "study" wine. And the celery soup would be a great first course for that.

Also thinking about Saturday with it being Cinco de Mayo. Perhaps posole rojo. It takes all afternoon, but it is party food and I love it. And my famous margaritas for sure.