C’s Cole Slaw

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Alright, here’s a little bonus video for the four or five people who actually looked at the last pork butt post. As you’ll recall, I served it with a red cabbage cole slaw.  Well, dear reader, here’s the recipe and the instructional video.  Now I must be honest.  This cole slaw  recipe has a couple of key inspirations: 1) the pickled cabbage served on top of Salvadoran pupusas; 2) the cole slaw at  Bake Sale Betty’s in Oakland  that comes on top of their ridiculous fried chicken sandwiches –  and by ridiculous I mean fucking good.  The cole slaw is really simple to make and because of the  freshness of the cabbage and acidity of the dressing it is a nice counterbalance to grilled or fried meats.  It’s also good on tacos and pupusas or anything else you want to eat.  Without further ado, here’s the cole slaw recipe and the video. Enjoy.

Recipe
1 head of cabbage (red of regular)
1 medium to large jalapeño pepper
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1-2 tablespoons of vinegar (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper (or to taste)
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon of oregano

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I Like Pig Butts and I cannot lie…

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… so delicious you can’t deny!
This is the story of how one and a half pork shoulders (butts) became numerous pulled pork sandwiches that were consumed by many people whom upon tasting the tender meat looked towards the heavens and asked the Creator, “Is this, oh All Knowing One, the secret to life?”

Intrigued?  Well, click on the photo below for the full story and the video of how this transcendent meal came to be.

Tender pulled pork sandwhich with homemade barbecues sauce dill pickles and red cabbage cole slaw.

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summer = more ruffage

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Summer is here and that means one thing:  slow cooked, rich and hearty stew!  Kidding.  Yeah we all know summer is a time to eat a little lighter what with the warmer weather and increasing abundance of fresh summer vegetables.  Also as newbies to the whole CSA (community supported agrigculture) movement we get a weekly supply of vegetables some of which are familiar and some kind of new.  Our first week we got three different heads of lettuce and ended up eating big main course salads four nights in a row.  Here’s one of them.

Salad with three different lettuces, grape tomatoes, onions and feta cheese. It think I made a simple dressing of olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, pepper and dijon mustard.

And then last week we got rubarb which I’ve never actually cooked.  In fact, I know of only one thing that calls for rubarb and that’s strawberry rubarb pie.  So, lacking originality and inspiration that’s what I made.  I made my own crust (2 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 2 sticks of butter, 1 and 1/2 tbspns of sugar, 1 tspn of salt and about 6 tbspns  of ice cold water).  For the filling I loosely followed this recipe.  And here’s the pie fresh out of the oven:

I was pretty pyched to see how well this pie held up through the baking. Nothing overflowed or oozed out the side or over the top.

Oh snap! I guess a combination of the filling still being hot and not using enough thickening agent (I used 1/3 cup of corn starch - more than the recommended 1/4 cup), the filling just kind of came spilling out. I was pissed. But at least it was delicious. Next time though, I'd use less sugar. It was a bit sweet for my taste. Maybe one cup of sugar instead of the 1 and 1/3 cup called for in the recipe.

I figured by tilting the pie, the contents would be forced back into the crust. It kind of worked.

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Pigging Out With Family and Friends

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Alright, as promised, here’s the post about what we did after we watched the pig breakdown at Kokkari.  Though this post is a week later than the previous one, in reality the events about which you will soon read and see an amazing video occurred a  few days after our tutorial when the lesson and the excitement was still fresh.  You see, we got our very own little pig to play with!  And by “play with”  I mean, butcher and cook delicious pig dishes out of.  Hmm, that sounds a little messed up doesn’t it? Well anyway, it was fun and judging by the grunts and the way our friends’ eyes rolled back in ecstasy as they feasted on the meal we prepared, it was indeed delicious.  Click on the photo below for the full story.

Porchetta!

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Pig Breakdown!

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Alright, so a couple weeks ago I was back in the Bay Area for yet another food inspired visit.  And as usual, I ate myself silly.  But as it turns out, I didn’t just get food for my belly.  I also got some food for my brain.   More specifically, me, Matt and Minh got schooled on how to break down a whole pig from the chefs at Kokkari, an awesome Greek restaurant in SF.  It was a real treat to watch professionals in action and see where the different cuts we all see in grocery stores come from on the actual animal. And it was a lesson we would put to good use a few days later.  But that’s for another post.  For now, click on the picture below for the full story and video.

This little piggy went to the kitchen...

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