Recently in Oven Roasted Meat Category

Was pretty much cooking for myself last night, Tiny E's consumption of food really doesn't amount to what most of us call a meal. I had time, I had pork chops and if I ruined them it wouldn't ruin anyone's evening. I wondered what it'd be like to put the center cut chops in to the oven at 250 degrees until they reach 190 degrees (pully aparty).

I used a glass casserole dish with a chrome rack installed, this would keep the meat up and out with the heat able to get all around. Marinated with kosher salt, preheat oven to 250 degrees.

2 hours later, at 190 degrees internal temperature I had a real piece of shit for dinner. The loin portion of the chop didn't have enough fat to keep it moist. While I had no temperature spikes, the fat was gone! And, considering the method used, there was no browning, no flavors. It was dry, flat tasting pork that just didn't deliver.

"But Biggles! I see browning !!!" says you. Heh, just because I ruined dinner doesn't mean I didn't have fun. I grabbed the propane torch and browned it myself!

It looks a heck of a lot better than it was. Don't do it.

Biggles

Yeah baby! I cooked something! Even got a few pictures worth posting too. Sure, it's no Bacon Tamales like Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius just did. But I was so inspired by Jerry of Cooking by the seat of my Pants recpie for Cottage Pie that I couldn't resist.

I ran across the post a few weeks ago and thought to myself, I could totally cook that. Brown ground beef with goodies, make mashed taters, assemble, bake in hot oven. Yeah, it took me a few weeks before I would attempt such a feat, but I did it. Now I own its soul.

You already know how good they are and how easy it is to prepare, so I won't go in to the gory details. It came together in a few minutes and I jacked the oven's temp over Jerry's version to 450. Z and I ate the entire pie it was so good, so perfect. I've always been a fan of the saying, "Less is More." But now I've proven it yet again to myself, it's true!

Oh boy, I can still taste it, smell it crisping up in the oven, ungh. Wanna see that again?

xo, Biggles

Doh ! I cooked this about a month ago and it's been one of the posts waiting in the wings. Yeah, it's like that and I have more than just a few.

I been so tired of the chile powder, paprika and the likes. I've had so much over the years which is why I've been using mostly good kosher salt to marinate my meat in lately. A while back Eric the Knife Guy and his lovely wife Janet gifted me some spice blends from Oregon Spiceman. This particular blend is their Pepper Rub. Black pepper, white pepper, sweet basil, garlic powder and salt. Sounds good and smells even better.

I had a good load of fancy pork country style ribs from Ted of Highland Hills, it was time. Brought down the trusty clay cooker, sliced up an onion, too much garlic, rubbed the meat 2 hours before, installed enough chicken broth, and slid it in to a cold oven set to 400 degrees. I probably even soaked the clay cooker a bit, like you're supposed to.

Pull when pully aparty, pull when broth is rich in flavor and texture. Probably around the near 3 hour mark.

How was it? The fancy pork and its flavors pulled right through, so tender, so juicy in its own perfection. But the clean bite of the pepper delivered to my waiting gullet everything I was looking for. The onions brought to the table a sweetness, the garlic rounded out all the flavors with a husky bellow. The pepper rub was a delight and packed a slight punch, tilted my head with complex flavor thinking. It wasn't something I could serve the boys with their "tender" (read: undeveloped) palate. But brother, or sister, this juicy delectable is absolutely divine poured over a more than heaping pile of buttery mashed taters, even perfect for a mid July festival.

fini

Spring is everywhere, Cookiecrumb of I'm Mad and I Eat is in full swing with light soups and green garlic. The farmer's markets are absolutely over-flowing with everything from the garden. It's time to take advantage of the season's bounty, face first. Eh?

Bah. I'm not done with winter yet.

I had a pork shoulder roast in the fridge that really needed to have something loverly done to it. I got it from Ted at Highland Hills Ranch at the Berkeley Farmer's market, high quality pork!

And by high quality, I mean he raises his own animals and brings them to market. Heritage breed stuff with nothing added and fed right.

And then? I realized it was Wednesday and I was going to be on the road picking up the boy in an hour, not back for way over an hour and by then it would be nearly 5pm. Whatever it was I had to do, it had to be done now. It'd take this little beauty hours and hours of slow roasting time. Oil, Survival Spice, a sliced white onion and 5 cloves of whole garlic. Installed to a cold oven set to 300 degrees in a water soaked clay oven.

Know what? It ain't done yet. Why did I bother posting this? The smell coming from the kitchen is an absolute delight! Spring? Bring it on, but I'm dragging my comfort food in one hand and a club in the other this year. Nyah.

Biggles

ps - As Tommy of Tommy's Kitchen requested, here are the results!

There was tons of juicy liquid only from the meat & onions. It was exceptionally rich and turned my eyes skyward.

When the meat reached 200, I pulled it. Both Z and I tore in to this within minutes, sometimes he's picky about what he eats. Not this time, no sir. It was everything we smelled for a few hours and more.

Biggles

Every time I even remotely remember some of the downright stupidity and lack of thought versus research that C.I. magazine spews my mind goes in to a tailspin. One such largish article they put in to print was a review of pork and its many cuts. It was well laid out with pictures and everything. They wanted us to know what was which and how to play with each one. My jaw hit the floor when they said the pork sirloin roast was not recommended.

Not Recommended was all that cut got. It was too hard to slice they said, too uneven. Not Recommended. Wtf, over?

The pork sirloin roast is one of my top favorite cuts! It's got the rich porky flavors that you'd find in a butt roast, the tenderness of a loin roast, you can cook it to 138 or 190. How could this cut not pass muster? They're stupid, that's all there is to that. And? For this recipe I didn't use a knife at all! Gah.

Last Saturday found Biggles at the meat area, lifting up packages of this and that. I wasn't inspired until I spied a sirloin roast in the back. Yoink! It was about 3 pounds of inexpensive perfection. I knew right where this sucker was going, in the clay cooker and it was going to be simple.

Jack oven to 400, rack on bottom. Sliced a white onion and laid on the bottom, 7 cloves of whacked garlic and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Kosher salted the roast and brought to room temperature. Put the lid on and toss in the hot oven for 25 minutes, drop to 350 for an hour. Turn temp down to 325 and cook for another 3 or so hours.

Use 2 forks to splay meat and let it sit for a bit to soak up the juices that collected on the bottom. Remove portion of meat to fry pan, add BBQ sauce and gently warm. Slice bun, install meat and enjoy! The pork could have been used in the sammich as it was, so perfect. Toothsome, rich and every bit a winner. It's porky love at its best. MmMmMmmm, porky love.

Biggles

Lemons are from my tree, not sure what happened. Most are round, lemon shaped. And as you can see, some have many fingers.

xo, Biggles

The flavors are still on my tongue. Am attempting to bring you some word, some phrase or metaphor that can describe what the last 12 some odd hours were like. Please click on the image and just sit with that for a moment while I collect my thoughts.

Over the past month I've been monkeying around with this clay chicken cooker thing. The last dish I made was exceptionally proud of, for several reasons. Not only was it a winner in the chicken & rice casserole flavor department, but it cost just under 5 bux total. This is the dish where I learned that an entire, diced onion is too much. How did I find out? Ask the boys as they dove out the car's windows the following morning, heh. I still got it.

All along, been wanting to do a pork roast of any kind in the thing, duh. Sunday afternoon found me at Joya de Ceren, visiting Omar and seeing what tasty treats I could find in his meat cooler. Pork shoulder baby! 3.5 pounds of a really great looking hunk of meat. I grabbed the ingredients I thought I needed and expected to have that sucker in the oven within an hour or so.

That didn't happen. Too much relaxing and one too many naps, the day was gone. There's always Monday!

Man, I got home Monday and was in no mood. I could tell where this was going, the days would slide and so would the pork. Nope, I had to make it work and it had to be now. All the ideas of making my own Mexicanny dry rub went right out the window. It was just after 4pm and had only just jacked the oven to 300, I had to move.

Wash, dry meat and let the chill come off. Rub with extra virgin and grab Scott's Survival Spice. This ain't just some old premade nothin' blend. Scott put a lot of time and effort in to this rub and it shows. If I don't have any of mine laying around, or no time to make one, this is the one to grab. And brother, or sister, I'm glad I did.

Sliced a white onion in to rings and laid on the bottom of the roaster. And maybe 8 cloves of garlic, whacked once with a knife, peeled. One thing I've noticed about cooking in the clay oven, I'm far more thoughtful about moisture. That is to say, what you put in there, even an onion, will add moisture that doesn't escape, much. So, just the little amount of onion, garlic and the moisture in the meat was enough to cook this thing for 9 hours.

Here it is in a nutshell, onion, garlic, dry drubbed meat, 300 for 4 hours, down to 250 for 5 hours. Pull, let rest for an hour or so and refrigerate. Total cost is about 8 to 9 dollars, not counting 9 hours of natural gas pouring in to my range. I know I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm putting the flavors, texture, juice factor and pully apartyness at the very top. I would say this roast could very well be the best pork shoulder I've ever received from my oven.

I have spoken.

ps - I didn't soak my cooker because the inside upper and lower lid are glazed. Not sure soaking it with water would have done anything positive.

Where have I been? Off having a good time doing other things, tee hee.

Well, I had a hankerin' for a good ol' American casserole a while back. Something rich with juicy flavors that satisfies down to your toes. Hip to that? Had planned on the standard chicken, rice, creamy condensed soup with a few additions recipe. It's easy and would satisfy.

Wanna come see what I came up with instead?

A few weeks ago Liteluvr of Liteluvr's Kitchen and Stuff dedicated a chile verde dish to Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius. See, Chile loves chile, especially the green stuff. He searches far & wide, high & low for the best of the best. Liteluvr was inspired enough to do up his own version. I been thinking about it. I have a super badass recipe here, somewhere. I wanted to do something different though, a little off the beaten path.

Last week I was in Joya de Ceren, perusing to see what was new, different or interesting. I walked past the poblanos and thought to myself, "Hay!" Dead ahead are the whole chickens in the meat display case. That, coupled with my recent rediscovery of roasting chickens in a clay pot and it all came together. Roast Chicken Chile Verde.

Wanna come see?

No it ain't! Last week my main flashcard went MIA, missing in action. Sure I have a few more, but there were a few posts on there and wasn't able to do my job here in The Lab. I found it! So, hopefully within a few days I'll get that together with some words and share my Pot of White Beans simmered with Pork Ribs. But until then, thought I would share this high-roast chicken I made the other day. Salt and a 450 degree oven, ain't that somethin'? But Biggles, breast meat is always dry and tasteless. Not this time pally boy, it was moist and full of more chickenny flavor than I had expected.

I bought the chicken last week from Omar at Joya de Ceren here in Richmond. I didn't ask where he got it, but it is surely not from grower you'd find at your local mega mart. Check out that leg and wing meat, it's lean. This bird was able to get about, flapping an' runnin'. And you know what? Raw it smells different, has a smell, rich and gamey. Even the fancy Rosie or Rocky Jr.'s don't have this. And after it's cooked, far more chickenny flavors. And at a $1.39 a pound for entero pollo? Count me in. Thank you Omar!

Okay, so you have a pot of beans recipe comin'. Guess what's in the oven? Just now? Am working on a Roast Chicken Chile Verde, all dedicated to Chilebrown of Mad Meat Genius. We'll see how that turns out, I used no recipe. Since it's cooked in a clay cooker along with a whole chicken, the liquid proportions are WAY down. In fact, I used less than a cup and am thinking maybe no broth could be the way to go. Plus, I cut up everything in a small dice and whizzed the tomatillos. Everything must be cut small to cook in the allotted hour or so that it takes to cook the chicken. I put a foil lined cookie tray on the bottom of the oven, just in case. I think it's going to spew some liquid, it's amazing how much liquid using a clay pot retains.

That's it for now, roger dodge and over and under.

xo, Biggles

Joya de Ceren
12545 San Pablo Ave
Richmond California
(510) 235-5315

Unbeknownst to me, I wound up with the same cut of pork twice in the same week. One ended up more like a steak, the other a roast (got this one from Omar). He couldn't tell me what it was in English and it looked like an odd globule of meat to me, at the time. It wasn't until I got home and started playing with it that I realized what it was and how I should go about preparing the beast, it was about 4.5 pounds of the Country Style Pork Ribs, all connected.

As you know, this piggy cut is full of meat, fat & bones and lends itself well to long and slow cooking. Dutch Oven or French Oven or Danish Oven cooking coming!

To be honest, I wasn't very well prepared. I thought I had everything I needed to get the job done, but I didn't. What I ended up with was missing maybe 2 dimensions of flavors. It was fricken great pork and juicy juice, but I know what I'm capable of and I missed a few things.

Preheat oven to 325 on bottom rack.

What I had:
4.5 Pork Roast
4 El Salvadorean chorizo links
4 glugs of good red wine
Carrots, onions, garlic & celery
Survival Spice
3 Balinese Long Peppercorns (tee hee, I just noticed a quote by me on their web site!)
And maybe a few other things I can't remember.

Roughly cut up the roots & veggies, add to dutch along with the whole sausages. Wash, dry meat (really well), rub with extra virgin.

Liberally rub roast with Survival Spice, add liberal amounts of the spice over the bed of non-meat products.

4 glugs of wine to bottom of pan, do not glug over the meat.

But Biggles? What happened, this actually sounds really good? Well, when putting this together I wasn't feeling herby, I didn't have the fresh herbs I thought I needed. I went through some dried ones and decided to opt out. Dumbass. And, as it turns out the onion I had was too small and the head of garlic turned out to be the size of half a golf ball. I thought for damned sure I had at least 1 large head left. So, between the lack of the herb action, lack of garlic, onion & chicken broth, the sauce just didn't have any dark, rich spark to it. See, I should have left the wine go by itself, it would have been just a tad better, but I decided to add 3/4 cup of water. I knew better, but I see chefs and read recipes where they're adding water all the time. I neglected to use The Force.

Listen up folks, water is for ice cubes to put in glasses full of booze. Water keeps you hydrated when you're at work or ghod forbid, when you're exercising. Water has no place in slow roasted meat gifts, no sir. No ma'am! Heck, even those wacky vegetarians know to roast their veggies to make vegetable stock.

Here's the roast just before I installed the glass lid and gently slipped it in to the oven.

Here's the same pot 3.5 hours later. Not bad for a Tuesday evening, eh? The rich porky smells mixed with the wine and veggies were absolutely to die for. But, due to my Tuesday ineptness, it fell short of my expectations. In the immortal words of Big D, "NEXT !!!"

Biggles

Saturday was fun. Chilebrown & Ms. Goofy showed up at my door before 8 am for a trip to the Ferry Plaza in San Francisco. We took separate cars, I followed. Man, it was cold, windy and cold. Even so, we met up with a gaggle of local food bloggers, was nice. The best part though was giving Taylor of Fatted Calf 2 hugs! I don't get over to SF that often, once every 2 years or so. It was special. On the way back, decided to hit up the Berkeley Farmer's Market and knabbed me a large pork steak from Ted of Highland Hills, talked with Eric the knife guy and chatted with another pair of food bloggers. A great morning indeed.

On the way back home stopped by the old family stronghold, where Grampa, Gramma & Uncle Ralph live. I had some mail to pick up, truck registration & a few food mags. Gramma asked Gramps is they should give the clay chicken cooker to me. They asked and I said, "sure". I already have a clay cooker, but what the hell.

I had no idea it was the 30+ year old fambly cooker from eons ago. No idea. When I saw it a chill ran down my spine and couldn't believe it. I mean, my sister and I grew up with that damned thing.

As you can see it's pretty well used, oh yes. It's got a glaze on the inside, top & bottom. It's thick too, not some cheapass rig, plus it's got a lip to help seal it tight. Nicely done!

Was considering doing a pork roast, the pork steak or a chicken. Turns out the chicken was the most doable for dinner. I don't normally do veggies in the bottom, too much moisture for an open roasting situation and the bottom of the meat gets all gray and not caramelly. But this clay roaster is all about the moisture.

In the bottom went a few little carrots, half an onion and about 9 cloves of Big D's home-grown garlic, 3 chugs of Zin and the last bit of chicken broth. I shouldn't have done the chicken broth, I'd forgotten how much liquid shows up in the final product, oh well. These are the things I have to learn to suffer through. Salt the chicken, I used dried basil, but who cares. It's all good. And of course you gotta add the butter!

I felt like setting the oven to 375 and after a half hour, installed the covered chicky.

See?

How'd it taste? No, better than that, much better. The red wine, garlic, and rich chicken flavors were absolutely amazing. Amazing with a capital A.

To finish it up, I pulled the chicken out, put the juices in a fry pan and reduced it. Then hit it with an immersion blender to make a rustic "sauce". Chicken never tasted so good!

Biggles

Am I terribly busy? Yes. Am I cooking much? No, duh!

Sunday at noon on a fancy, bright, crisp November day found Biggles racing through the store so he could spend some quality time in the meat section. The powers that be tossed some money out and decided to remodel our local largish grocery store. Ya know, it's funny where the money goes. You'd think they'd hire some people with brains in their heads, nope.

... oh no. I feel a rant coming on and it wasn't planned. I started off with me in the meat department and just about flew in to a rage about the new doors. OH sure, they're new and quiet and fast. But, you see, before, you could have 1 person leaving and 1 person arriving. The new door allows only 1 at a time through it. Oh, ghod and the flood of prepared foods! Holy crap! ...

Gah, didn't mean to do that. What I meant to say was that I'd finally, at last, found myself in the meat department. Was looking for some pork spares or loin ribs on sale, gotta pinch that penny baby. Nope, still 15 dollars for a rack of anything. But, for a 1.67 a pound the pork shoulder roasts were selling briskly. Mr. Butcher man said he'd refilled the bin 3 times already and it was only noon!

Yoink. Just like that, for the fun of it.

Raced home, kosher salted it and left it resting on the counter for an hour. Preheat oven to 300, bottom rack. Cast iron skillet with a trivet in the bottom. I think it was nearly 3 hours later when the roast got to 190 and I pulled the sucker.

The textures and flavors were excellent, very porky. It's a good solid performer, that salt stuff. However, without the smoker, I was missing a dimension of something I wanted. This could easily be taken care of ... with ... oh something, GRAVY !!! Minced onion in the fat, add flour & stir, add chicken broth and simmer.

Toot toot, here comes the Beaver Valley Express, next stop? Gravy Town.

xo, Biggles

I can remember days when I just this high, I Iook back and they were pretty darned fine. All except for ... art. This could be music, drawing, painting and/or dancing. I have 4 internal metronomes all going at once, all at a different rate. When I play the drums or a stringed instrument, both hands do the same thing. If I attempt to split the strummins? My brain splits in half, fall over and I curl up in to a little ball. As I got older, I got smarter and started using rulers to draw, anything. I still have some of those in the garage somewheres. Drawing trees with a ruler is dumb, just in case you wanted to know. By the time I was in high school I'd pretty much given up on this whole art thing, done and over with says me.

Towards the end of high school I discovered cooking and photography, That is to say, I'd been doing those things for years, but realized that as I got older and better, my food and photography didn't suck as much as it used to.

For today's entry, there is no recipe, no procedure you can follow. It's pure art, feel it, study, listen, poke & prod. You have to become one with your beef roast, zen that s.o.b. until you own its soul. MmmMMm, beef soul.

When you've spent many years studying your chosen form of art, you know the rules and your ways as second nature. The best part though? Is when you can break those rules, and have a masterpiece presented. This, my good people is just that. I broke one of the all-time huge rules of cooking roasts, don't put a frozen hunk of meat in the oven.

This was one of those meals when you only have 45 minutes to get ready, the sun is setting and the children want food now. The pork roast I bought was completely devoid of visible fat and figured just cook the damned thing and get dinner over with. I had originally purchased it for the smoker (was going to wrap it in bacon). All that, and I was tired, cranky and my back was a little sore, grrrrr. Get it? Grrrr?

It wasn't until I turned the little gem over to reveal the reversed side was completely covered in a nice layer of fat! Um, make a u-turn Biggles and get back on track. And you know what? I did just that, and quite a bit more. I totally rule, come see why.

Where would you put it?

This fat rub went on a beef roast, rosemary, salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice.

xo, Biggles

I know many people who go shopping for food and have a list, I've tried it. Yeah well, my list is usually the one blowing through the parking lot after it falls from an ill placed spot in my front pocket. I've given up long ago at keeping up with the routine and figure if I miss something, I can come back tomorrow.

Yeah, so I was shopping for tonight's dinner at my local Latino market, Joya de Ceren. All I needed was a pound of Molida (ground beef), but the pork caught my eye. And because I've made friends with the butcher, I knew I could get other cuts, like right now. We do loin chops frequently, but what about a roast? Pork loin roast.

I made a few gestures, pigeon Spanish and Carlito was dragging out a full pork loin! I motioned about yay big. Um, that comes to 8.25 pounds in English. Did I have any plans? Nope. Do I now? Nope.

The fruit shown are all gifts from friends. The peaches are from Zoomie at Zoomie Station, large pears from from Cookie of I'm Mad and I Eat, and the cute little juicy pear rigs are from Claire of Clutter Coach.

Anyone got any idears? What you gots?

xo, Biggles

Joya de Ceren
12545 San Pablo Ave
Richmond California
(510) 235-5315

I asked Z what he wanted for dinner, it's Saturday after all. I ran down a short list, but his eyes lit up at Beef Roast. I can do that, so I headed off to our local mart that's going through some renovation (it's time they put some money in the poor ol' gal).

Hurm, the meat department is still under construction and the choices were either this chuck roast or spending nearly 30 dollars on some fancy cut. Considering the source (no ideas), I opted for this 3 pound rig. I figured if I cooked it gently, with some flavors, pulled at 130 or so, we'd get something we could sink our teefs in to. This remains to be seen since it just went in to the oven.

Extra virgin, s&p, fresh rosemary, tent with bacon on the little end. Install to 14" cast iron fry pan with trivet in to 325 degree oven. Jack heat to 350. In an hour, will drizzle with red wine, squeeze of fresh lemon juice with a few pats of butter. When done, I'll pull and let rest.

The jury is out, but I'll bet you dimes to limes, this roast will do just fine.

xo, Biggles

Not sure really, on how to start this one. So, I think I'll do it this way.

Oh yes I did.

I had a little rack of ribs all ready to go. It was too icky outside, the wildfires are way out of control and makes being outside just plain miserable. Um, but I had a rack of ribs to cook. I sat around the house with the air filter going, attempting to come up with something simple, good and smoky. Wildfires are kinda inspirational that way.

What if I put the ribs in my kitchen's gas oven, at 250 or so and put a smouldering pan of hardwood dust in there? Jack the exhaust fan way up and let'er go for a few hours?

Oh yes I did. Didn't think Wedgewood made a smoker, did you?

Um, this recipe actually turned out really tasty. I pulled it out of a 1968 Family Circle Great Chicken Recipes book, see?

Yeah, that one. I had originally wanted to do a recipe from a recent Food & Wine issue. But after nodding off while reading the list of ingredients I decided this book would do just fine for a Saturday evening. Come see, the pictures are quit tastee.

You know the ones, they're shaped like a triangle log. Fat on one lengthy side and the rest looks pretty lean? Was looking for a tri-tip or sirloin, but no luck. It's the holidays for crissakes, why would they have those cuts? Sigh.

It was 4:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday, I had a preheated oven, could I get this on the table in time?

I call this, Meat Therapy. I had a hankerin' for some meatloaf the other night, a good solid hank. I knew Tiny E wouldn't have anything to do with it, so I figured I could really mess with the recipe I usually use and not hurt anyone. Or piss them off, that's no good. Wanna come see what I did to this one?

Saturday morning found Biggles thumbing through a few cookbooks. He ran across a recipe wherein the roast was cooked all night at 250 degrees F. With a nod, some rustlin's, and note taking, he was off.

Please read on and find out why he's never going to do that again.

Well, that was a lot tastier than I thought it was going to be. Okay, so people have been putting fruit with pork since pork began. But you see, I don't have a sweet tooth, I have a meat tooth. So Fruit & Pork have never crossed my path, until last night.

Music: anything by Deep Purple

Meat: country style pork ribs seasoned cajun like stuff with fatted calf's breakfast sausage

Heat: 300 degrees

Time: 6 hours

ETE: after that

Ah the joys of simple foods.

xo, Biggles

ps- Here we are 6 hours later and cooling. What's next? Anything we want. Warm as is, fry in lard, install in to soups or stews. It's juicy, tender and yet more than tasty. How do I know? I ate some. Get to it!

Whull, this turned out a heck of a lot better than I figured. I had planned on doing a basic pan seared porky chop dinner that would finish in the oven. Something with browny pork goodness that was quick and darned tasty. Well, as quick as you could slice a jalapeno pepper I decided to finish the chops in milk, in the oven. An unexected surprise indeed!

As you can see, I went for the Piglet Roulade this last weekend. Ovened it up last night for dinner. Prolly a bit fancy and yet quite rich for a Tuesday evening after work's kinda meal. What the hell, eh? A Biggles has to eat.

If you look, you can see the skin was on, got all crunchy! The pork roast was filled with juicy flavors that it got from not only the fancy meat, but the peppery sausage kicked in and did its part too.

I think next time I'm going to give myself more time and knock the oven's temp from 350 to 325 and drag the time out a bit. And since they offered, have them wrap it up with the head included. Thank you team Fatted Calf!

UPDATE: December 6th 2006

Hey, check this out! A friend of Meathenge and obviously a consumer of Fatted Calf's fine goodies sends this over for our enjoyment. Remember that roast, up there? The piglet roulade? This is the optional head!
Dang, I wish I'd got all the options on my model. Mebbe next time. Thank you Stephen!

Biggles

I'd like to preface this entry by saying it was meant for Robert over at Get Your Grill On. A few weeks ago he sent me a kind invitation to do some writing over there. I bought this little roast and had planned on doing this outside, in a certain manner, which will remain a secret for now. But we had some nasty ass cold rain and while I don't mind the cold, I'm not going to cook outside in the pouring rain. So, I moved today's entry in to the dry kitchen inside. I'll be posting a notification here when I get my first piece up for those fine people. I can hardly wait !!! It'll be later this week, me thinks.

***

Okay, on one week we're playing around outside. It's pleasant, sunny & does a body good. The next week? I got my scarf on, gloves and all the windows are closed for the first time in 8 months. Time for a little lamb leg roast on a Monday night.

Prep time was about 45 minutes with oven roasting time of 1 hour and 15 minutes (meat only).

I was standing in line at Highland Hills Farm's stall on Saturday morning. Ted was tending to a customer who ended up spending 77 dollars on a handful of beef roasts. One of the items they passed up was a cute little brisket, a few pounds worf. Snatch and grab, I had me a brisket. This wasn't planned, but the lure of the slow cooked beef brisket in my mowf was too much, I had to make it go.

But Biggles, how come the brisket you're picturing here is clearly a brisket a little more than twice just 2 pounds?

Cause I switched gears mainstream, doof. What was to be a little happy meal turned quickly in to an all day affair with a pink slab of beautiful beefy love. And I'm man enough to admit when I'm smitten and on my knees pleading for more.

Come in to my parlor, got your ring ready? You'd better be able to support my brisket or you'll have me to deal with me little mister. Beware all who enter here, it's beefy!

Click on image for a larger version with a little more detail.

Here we find Biggles' Pork Nurse inspecting the new arrival, pre-op if you will.

I picked up this interesing cut of pork at Mercadito San Juan yesterday after work. The butcher is an interesting guy, his meat changes on a daily basis. What I mean by that is one day they have a load of center cut pork chops and the next, they gone. One day they have a load of whole chickens and chicken pieces and today they're gone. Last week they only had one kind of white fish with shrimp and last night 1/4 of the cooler was filled with fishy items. While this might make some people crazy, I love it because it keeps me on my toes. And you have to admit it sounds kinda nice to have some variety in your meat selection.

I knew I didn't have time to cook this roast on a week night, but I bought it anyway.

A local grocery store with a real butcher is still eluding me, even after a week and a half. Mercadito was next on my list and yesterday was the time. It's in the wrong direction, but I don't have many choices left. I've been to this place before and only semi-recently have they opened up a meat counter. I was apprehensive and yet totally willing to let this be the place. In fact, I really wanted this to be the place. I've been feeling a little lost over the last 4 days and in need of some healing.

On today's grocery list are house marinated chicken pieces, fresh tortillas, cheese, limes and any veggies I think the kids might eat. This would be broccoli, sigh. Man, I'm so damned tired of the brocc.
Wanna know how the best damned Thursday meal went?

It still hasn't become real for me that Rick's Quality Meats is done and over with. The last few days have found me teary eyed over the fact I'll no longer find my fancy teriyaki marinated beef ball-tip roast (marinated for 5 days +) for an easy & luscious weekday meal. In spite of myself, life goes on. I must find another neighborhood grocery and meat counter to visit each and every day on my way home from work. Today's adventure lead me to El Cerrito Natural Grocery.

I hadn't planned on posting this meal from last night. It's a rehash of a few other posts I've done in the past, just search Meathenge for turkey breast. But goldangit! I just checked the snapshots to send to Kudzu, for show & tell and decided it needed to be SEEN !!! Awww, pretty meat.
Yes, yes, I know and have heard all the comments about how nasty and tasteless chicken & turkey are. I can still see Scott's face spewing and contorting when confronted with the mere thought of a chicken breast. More for me is all I have to say about that. Wanna see how you can make it worth eating? I maarrrinated it in Italian coarse saallllt.

I believe it was Wednesday when I remembered I'd picked up a little package of duck proscuitto from fatted calf last Saturday. I wanted to move fast and since it was during the week it had to be an easy meal that wasn't too involved AND the little chilrens would eat. So a badass juicy pasta dish was out of the question, along with most other things with ingredients and flavors.
We hadn't had a roast chicken in over a week, it was time.

I received an inquisitive email from Shuna of Eggbeater last week. She was interested in preparing the Fatted Calf's special this week, the Brasato al Midolo. I had to admit I hadn't purchased / gnawed on one as of yet. It couldn't be that tough, it's a simple pot roast and they did most of the work already. After a few more emails it was clear I needed to reserve myself one. Interested to see what went on that lazy Sunday afternoon?

What seemed like a simple, yet easy recipe has turned in to one of the best experiences in cooking and food in the last 6 months for us here at Meathenge Labs. Yup this would be Arrosto Di Maiale Al Latte (Pork Braised in Milk).
Earlier this week I was monkeying around at Kate's Accidental Hedonist and came across a recipe she did, this Pork Braised in Milk. It was simple, it included pork and I hadn't done anything remotely close to it ever before, I was sold.
I read through Kate's adventures a few times, she'd used a pork loin roast. While this will render you a wonderful meal, if you must keep a close watch on a pork loin roast. Once it arrives at an internal temperature of 138 to 140 degrees, it must be pulled. It doesn't have enough internal fat to keep it moist much beyond that range. The next obvious step would be to choose a pork butt roast, but I didn't want to deal with all the fat coming out in to my 'sauce'. I know that sounds odd, Biggles recoiling from pork fat, but I'm sure you understand at some level. Next up is the pork sirloin roast! It's fattier than the loin and leaner than the butt, it's what I chose for this meal. So, it was off to the market for a pork sirloin and some whole milk. Wanna come see this most amazing of pork adventures?

I'll be the first one to admit I'm a meat/food snob. This finds it's evil ways in to cooking methods as well. So, I suppose you could say I'm a meat/food/cooking snob. It's taken years, but I've learned to accept it and to hell with anyone who can't deal with it.
However, I'll be the second one to admit, I can't be an snob for every meal.
So, it's with much pleasure I bring you this awesome "BBQ" Pork Spare Rib dinner.

As I situate myself for this post, I flash back to Saturday evening when this beast was removed from the oven and plated up. I started with Justin Wilson's Mushroom Braised Brisket, followed with simmered greens (swiss chard) and finished with Meathead's Southern Cornbread. Mr. Wilson would have been proud of my version, very proud.
How did this all start? Well, that's a story in itself, are you interested?

You gotta know, coming up with a daily dinner menu has lately become akin to slamming my right hand in a door repeatedly. And lord help me if I have to roast another damned chicken. Yet, after wandering the meat counter at Rick's Quality Meats in El Cerrito for a few minutes, I came away with another !@#$%^ whole natural chicken.

Just when I thought I'd run through my bag of tricks, just when I figured I'd done it all. I roasted meat, veggies & tubers in a new and vibrant way. That's right, I brought two roasting techniques together all in one meal and in one pan no less. The results you ask? Click on brother, or sister ...

I have to admit, I've been in a decent mood over the last few days. Been day dreaming about what's next, what new meat concoction can I toss in to my smoker? Counting the little lambs dancing in my head and thinking how wonderful the olive tapanade stuffed lamb roast was. You know, those kinds of day dreams.
Last night I found myself with a whole chicken. Everyone who loves a good roast chicken, raise your hands. Excellent. Now everyone that loves a rich and savory chicken stew, raise your hands. Teeerific. That's about where I was last night. You see, our summer temps never rose above 78 degrees. The other night I considered turning the furnace on, it was that chilly. Keep in mind, this time last year it was 94 degrees outside.
The flavors I wanted for our dinner was a crispy, bright, roast chicken, but I also wanted that rich broth and stewed veggies that a stew comes with. I had an idea and it was bone simple.
You've probably already figured it out.
Preheat oven to 375, bottom rack.
Cut the back out of your chicken, lay cavity side down. Whack breast so it lays somewhat flat, doesn't have to be real flat. In fact, it helps if it has half of its curve remaining. Olive oil it lightly and install kosher salt evenly over all. Set aside.
Get your dutch oven heated up with a bit of oil and toss in your sliced carrots (it's gotta cook fast, so slice them about a quarter inch thick or so), celery, onion, mushrooms and smooshed whole cloves of garlic. Get all those sizzling along for maybe 10 minutes. Pour in not quite a quart of good chicken broth, you want to just more than cover your veggies. Get this to a rolling boil and let it run for 5+ minutes, good and hot. Lay in your chicken, you want the broth to just come up over the sides, no more.
Put in to oven for an hour or hour and twenty, no lid. Pull and let rest for 10 minutes.
It's really damned cool. When you put the chicken on your carving board, the skin is all crispy and bright and salty. Yet, the meat is fall off the bone tender from sitting in liquid. THE CHICKEN WINGS ARE CRISPY !!! The breast meat was flavorful, tender and had a nice texture. The dark meat was fully cooked and juicy as always and it picked up the stew flavor from the broth & veggies!
So, here you have, "Wet Roast Chicken" and trust me, it tasted twice as good as it looks.

Biggles

Here is a typical "look what I ate for dinner and you didn't" photograph. I'd say I was sorry, but I'm not. As simple as a roast chicken is, I'm never bored by the presentation and taste.
Wash, dry thoroughly, kosher salt the sucker and do an hour at 450 degrees.
When sliced? Juices pour and flavor smacks yer cheeks.

Nikon D70 with 50mm f1.4, used a reflected light off the breast from natural incoming daylight. I hate daylight, but it does come in handy from time to time.

Click on the image to get a larger one, now. Check out the juicy porky love puddlin' below. Come up to the wing there, right there. Golden crunch perfection. Look at the thigh & leg portion, crispy poppy. Hop up on top of the breast portion, see the darker bits? That right there is the Danish Viking-smoked salt. And if move ever so slightly to the right and look carefully you can see the bacon poking out. Do you have any idea what a high roast, viking-smoked salt chicken stuffed with bacon smells like ?!? No? You can you know, all it takes is a little effort and a teaspoon of Danish Viking-Smoked Sea Salt. Oh and a nice chicken and two strips of your favorite bacon. I'm sorry and feel like a bonehead for not keeping this stuff in stock over the last year or two. Never again.

This baked chicken was too easy. And this is why I did it, it was easy. Was it good? Does it look good? Der, it was superb. Moist, moist with a crisp chickenny skin and loads of yummy salt. Yes, it was good. Chef Thomas Keller strikes again.
Rarely do I roast a chicken I don't like, I was not looking for the perfect roast chicken. I tried it because it was so simple, I was able to remember it and it'd take 20 minutes off my cook time. Saving time is a good thing, especially when it looks like this. Interested?

A month ago I was perusing a 1965 Family Circle magazine and ran across a full page ad for Campbells Soup, some recipes too. One recipe was some kind of a meat loaf cooked in a bundt cake pan, covered in Cheddar Cheese Soup & bacon. They called it Crowning Glory. It scared me. The next recipe was a mini meat loaf & traditional American spaghetti with a red sauce. Looks like a gut glump to me. However, the featured recipe was a meat loaf slathered with creamy mashed potatoes and a gravy (yes, made from Campbells soup) over all. This I could do, after all, Comfort Food is what I'm all about. So when Moira from Who Wants Seconds? offered up a contest for a making of some "Comfort Food", I knew what I had to do. I was on a mission.

Tuesday late afternoon found me at the local supermarket feeling a bit wishy washy. I knew I had to find something for dinner, along with some trash bags and kitchen scrubbies. Shopping for meat at one of these places doesn't fill my heart with glee. The chance of getting something worth while is usually quite slim. I figured just so I could get out of there fast, I grabbed the first thing I thought would work, a turkey breast piece. I was on my way out when a light went on, an idea. In my frame of mind though, this light was no larger than a bic lighter flame. It was enough to pull me back to the meat coolers and pick up some halfway decent bacon. I was OFF !!!

Photography Note: I find that my best shots come from single focal length lenses. I know I know, everyone loves those zoom rigs. I suppose their good for many things, but last night wasn't one of them. For this one I pulled out the Nikkor AF-D 60mm f2.8 Micro set to f33. KERPOW.

This meal was a spur of the moment decision. A few days ago my uncle sent me some recipe for a 3 Cheese Potato Gratin. The vision was dancing in my head all that day and by late afternoon I found myself at the grocery store picking up all that was required. First I had to find a hunk of meat that might go with taters. I decided on a pork loin, no bone. Didn't have a choice, if I did I would choose bone-in. Off we go!

As simple as it is, a beef roast during the week brings a warm felt slab of love to the dinner table. We don't have it as often as you'd think, maybe once a month. So I don't get a lot of chance to fuss with different preparations. And since this one was during the week, keeping it simple was a must. Simple, rich, beefy that disapears off the plate too darned fast. Good thing I bought a whole roast.

Sometime late last week I came home and noticed a foodie magazine on the table. The name was Bon Appetit, I heard of it before. Never actually 'looked' at one. The theme of this issue was and still is, "What's Hot, What's Not & What's Next", keeeripes. Whatever. Plus there was something about a Pan-Asian menu, not sure what that is all about. Probably something tasty, but full of vegetables no doubt. First page is a car ad, then an ad for a Celebrity Cruise. Neither of which anyone I know can afford, so I continue. I find Bon Appetit is from Los Angeles, what do they know about anything? Botox!!! That ad is on page 113.
Mama notices me flipping at the magazine and says there's a really nice sounding chicken recipe on page 111 that she'd like to try. I nod and say it really looks like a nice rag and we should definately give it a try!

Unless you have children, please take that ugly ass space hogging microwave oven (and I use the term oven loosely) and have it recycled in to a spoon. Or something equally as useful. Yeah, I don't want to hear the whining. "But it's so fast, it saves time" and "oh it's so economical." And it ruins every piece of food you put into it. "oh but it does corn & taters & bacon so nicely." Great, you have something the size of a large dog on your counter to steam corn. You're so SMART !!!

Are you hosting a holiday meal? Is it coming up soon?

You figure you got it all sorted out huh? Your turkey/ham/duck/quail is on order. Family & friends know what they are bringing, the florist will be on time. The yard is mowed and trimmed. There's gas in the minivan, you're set.

Maybe not. There's always something, possibly ninething. How does one see if they have it together or not? Do a test run.

That's right, cook the meal a week in advance or so and run it through. Your kitchen has changed over the year, maybe your turkey serving platter has disapeared. That's what I found out.
Today I ran through a test turkey meal to see what was there and what wasn't. My turkey serving and/or carving platter is missing. Plus I noticed my linen table clothes all had serious creases in them.
Another damned thing to put on my todo list, but that's okay. I have time now to take care of those things along with everything else.

How is your silver looking today ?

Xo Xo

Yes, it is exactly that. Fried Chicken stew and it must be about the most hillbilly thing I've done in quite some time. It doesn't match my country fried pork ribs, but it still ranks pretty darned high. Read on if'n you're interested, if not, I understand.

Last week, during the Time Capsule adventures, Grampa & Gramma mentioned something about a recipe that included putting an entire lemon in a game hen. It'd have to be a small lemon, fer sure. Well, this last weekend I had a big chicken and a big lemon, it was time.

Most everyone loves beef tri-tip roast, smoked, grilled or otherwise. From what I hear, Californians have really pioneered this cut. Robert in New Orleans says finding a tri-tip locally is damned tough if not impossible. And when he did find one, the butcher asked if he was from California. Yeah well, I found a way to improve the cut. Add cured pork (see above).

Arista Panzanese, oven roasted. That's what you're gazing upon. How many of you made it to The Fatted Calf's stall this last weekend? How many of you picked up a roast, like I TOLD you to? Fess up. Good. But for the rest of you, SEE what you're missing? CHRIS YOU FOOL !!! You admitted to me at the baby shower you missed last weekend. See what happens? I didn't miss out, in fact my wife didn't miss out either. It was delightful, a bit much maybe for a tuesday night meal. But what could possibly follow last night's Dreamland smoked rib dinner? This one did, very well too.

Got chicken pieces? Was the butcher out of whole fryers? Rick was. So I bought three breasts & a pound of bacon (to make up for lost pieces I wasn't going to get). I believe I can work with this, chicken & cured pork. Nothing wrong with THAT.

Meatloaf can be one of those wonderful comfort foods that nearly anyone can cook. The simplicity is at the heart of this meaty wonder. One can use just ground beef or stir in some ground pork to help out. Emeril adds half & half and stuffs the center with an italian sausage in the casing. I usually just do a few eggs, crumble up some crackers or old bread, herbies with spices. Coat with que sauce or ketchup, install in baking dish and in the oven it goes along with some bakers.
There's one thing you simply can not leave out, no matter how you make meatloaf. The lack of this turned our meal in to a meat brick. It sat at the bottom of my tummy for over 24 hours, gack.

Salt, doesn't that look nice? I finally got a chance to use a portion of the Coarse Italian Sea salt I bought a while ago. A few months ago I marinated a whole chicken in a salt marinade for nearly 3 days. This bird came out absolutely amazingly moist & happy. You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between that and a fancy rotisserie one. Interested? Yes you are. That was a bit long and the Meathead family had a disaster of a time reproducing it. So, this last Saturday I decided to lay down some recipe that was reproducible. What I came up with only takes 2 hours and just couldn't possibly be any easier. This will render you rotisserie juice flavor action with almost no work. How do you like that? A lot. Time to move on.

One of the most frequent fears I hear from people is the one where you show up at the Super Market and don't know what cut of meat to purchase.
Sometimes the lead butcher tries to help by installing stickers that say, BBQ or Grilling or Pot Roast. Okay, that helps to some degree. But what if you don't have a grill or smoker ready and you want something juicy?

All ya'lls should just ponder this picture for a moment. Cause brother (or sister), it isn't going go get much better than this (it's a ham, eh).
A few weeks ago, The Fatted Calf's email newsletter rolled in. Somewhere buried in the prose was a mention of two hams available for purchase after the following weekend. My knee-jerk response was to email to see if one was still available, it was. I was set. I remember standing there over my computer thinking what the HELL am I going to do with a 9 lb. ham in the middle of May for crissakes !?!? No birthdays, no holidays ... nada. Oh well, make the best of the situation, I say.
The week came and went, it was Saturday morning and time to leave for the farmer's market in Berkeley. My little 4 year old boy was along for this trip, which guaranteed me no time to hang out. It was going to be a quick trip, grab the meat, look in on Jan at The Blue Bottle Coffee stall and off we went. Really quite uneventful.

click the meat to really see

I've been sitting here in front of my keyboard attempting to find words to describe this chicken breast. I wasn't going to post it, mostly because there didn't seem to be anything here that I haven't done before and/or often. But it is so pretty. Look at it. The colors, the texture, the contrast of the skin and bacon curling up. All you have to do is just 'think' bacon and you can taste it from here.

This right here is a result of a Meat Alert, just in case you were wondering. As you're all aware of, last Tuesday MeatHenge Labs received an email from Fatted Calf announcing we had about 24 hours to put in our order for Agnello Ripieno. It's a lamb roast filled with Nicoise olives, orange zest and fresh pork sausage, yum. The tough part was waiting until Easter Sunday to roast it.

Turkey, as it turns out is meat too. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who buy ground turkey for low-fat dishes, but I just ain't hip to the flavor (or lack of). So when I see my butcher has carved one up so I can buy an actual piece and not have to take home a 25lb bird, I don't hesitate. I really like the flavor of turkey and I find it a shame that we usually only have it a few times a year. Welp, the end of March sounded like a good time.
This one had several layers of flavor ...

What's good for a pre-spring happy luscious meal? That's right, a pork loin roast! Normally I wouldn't have mentioned it (yeah right), but I hear so little about this cut. Heck, I don't even see it in the grocery store that often, if at all. Rick the butcher always has one on hand, which is why we love our butchers, don't we? Yessir.

It's been quite a few years since I bought a chicken piece. Back in the early 1980s I bought chicken pieces because I found the texture of raw chicken ... icky. With those nifty little packages all nice and clean, I was able to just dump them into a bowl for marinading purposes or directly onto the grill. There used to be a package called the "combo pack" which gave you a few more pieces than a whole chicken, I felt like I was getting over on the industry and usually walked out tall and proud. "Check me out, I have one package with more than a whole chicken!" Sounds awfully silly, today. But then, I was The Man.

Well, I don't know what the weather is like where everyone else is, but here brother ... it's rainy. Another damn weekend on the inside looking out. My kitchen is still half painted, my awning that covered my grilling area blew away and my hardwood floors need attention. Can I work on any of those projects? No. You know why? That's right, it's raining. Time for a little cheffing.

I know I'm pretty easily excited when it comes to meat and/or food. But I have to say this was one of the best, easy meals I've cooked in a long long time. It was very rich and flavorful, exactly what a hearty meal is supposed to be. Plus it's low in carbs ...

Hey, go git your flu shot if you haven't already. It is such a collosal waste of time to be severly sick like that. I went down November 28th and didn't get back to work until Dec. 8th. That includes a week of pneumonia too, so go get your flu shot today!
There is some back tracking to do here. Since I was out so long, you never got to see our Thanksgiving Day meal. It was a real traditional one; I didn't smoke or deep fry the turkey. Mostly because I wanted gravy, must have gravy. If you have no gravy, you have no meal.

And this meal was no exception. We had gravy! My sister made sausage & mushroom stuffing with a wonderfully tangy tray of macaroni and cheese. It got a little crispy, which turned out fine because we all like the crispy bits. The mashed taters were done fresh right there with two sticks of butter with milk and tater water. Simple. The gravy was made with the drippins, chicken broff and Viking Smoked Salt.
I believe the only thing I did different was cook the turkey upside down. It was flipped over just to brown for about 30 minutes or so. The breast meat was drippy juicy and the skin was crispy tasty. Then we ate it.

Surely you'd have thought I would have roasted a chicken with the Danish Viking Smoked Salt by now. Nope. I believe I was waiting until I could rub the entire chicken with it and not have to leave any open parts for the kids. Well, I couldn't wait any longer last night and only rubbed 3/4 of the chicken. I can live with that.
Out came the cast iron skillet with trivet, then and only then I rubbed the chicken with extra virgin olive oil. Rubbing it with Viking Salt was a trill ride man !!! I got that awesome smell all over my hands! OH MAN IT WAS GREAT !! For hours I sat in the living room smelling my fingers. I didn't mention anything to my wife because she's already pretty well creeped out by me taking pictures of food. I figured she didn't need to find me in the living room playing stink finger with myself. But I digress ...
Cook the chicken upside down for an hour, then rotate around so the breast can get her browning. Pull and set aside. Heat up the skillet with some fresh finely diced shallots. Put in a tablespoon of flour/cornstarch (remember corn starch has twice the thickening power of flour) and make a nice paste. Add some liquid and make yer gravy. DON'T ADD ANY SALT, or wait until you taste the gravy first. Remember you rubbed the entire damn chicken with salt. Grind pepper. Steam some vegie you like and make a starch. Any kind of starch will do, you just want something to hold the gravy. Know what I mean? yes.

This entry thoughtfully given to us by Grampa!

Pot-roasted Pork and Apples

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 4
Categories : pork

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 3/4 pound pork tenderloins
1 pound medium shallots -- peeled
1 parsnip (1/2 pond) -- halved lenghtwise and sliced
1/2" thick
2 cloves garlic -- coarsely chopped
4 baking apples (2 pounds) -- peeled and quartered
2 cups apple cider (juice)
3 large thyme sprigs
salt and pepper

Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil in a cast-iron casserole. Add the pork and brown; transfer to a platter.

Heat another tablespoon of the olive oil in the casserole. Add the shallots and the parsnip and cook untill lightly browned, about 8 minutes, add to the platter. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the pot. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the apples and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the cider and thyme to the pot and simmer, stirring to scrape all the brown bits from the bottom. Add the pork and vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until the meat is barely rosy within, aboui 25 minutes. Remove the pork. Simmer the apples and vegetables over moderately high heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Carve the pork and serve with the apples and vegetables.

Source:
"Food & Wine p. 84"
Copyright:
"11/2003"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 92 Calories; 10g Fat (97.5% calories from fat); trace Protein; trace Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; trace Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Vegetable; 2 Fat.

Saturday night pork party with spicy dry rub and oranges.

Boston Butt Pork roast with bone in.

Slow roasted at 300 degrees for six hours. Just what you need.

It was this yummy.

Pot Roast. Pot Roast. Check your buds, they're tingling aren't they? You know damn well they are. There is some time in your past when you layed yourself into a gargantuan portion of Pot Roast and you can't shake it. And you know? If you spend any time on the internet reading about home chef's attempts at Pot Roast you'll find that rarely can anyone make it, or make it well. At least make it well enough to want to eat it again.

Well, ok. So it's the same as "Flat Chickenny" or "Split Chickety" or whatever. The result is still oven roasted chickey goodness. Moist and tender, mouth waterin', fork salute'n, fall apart in your fingers FOOD! I mean come on, what red-blooded AMERICAN wouldn't want to dive head first into this spread. Can't you just feel the drippin's run down yer chin! DAMN that's FINE EATIN'!!!

Last night I believe I came up with a decent upside down roast chicken. Sure it always tastes great, the dark meat cooks faster, the breast meat is juicy, but this time it LOOKED decent.

I believe this time you deserve a bit of explanation here. Uh, well this is a tough one. You see, we were supposed to have a family dinner this last Saturday. That didn't work out and I forgot to cancel the turkey order. Which means we were going to have a load of turkey for the next few days. Fine, because I WANTED A TURKEY DINNER WITH GRAVY. Okay now, that all makes sense right? Right. Here is where it takes a bit of a turn. Most of last week I've been antsy to DO something. Either the floor or the kitchen cabinets were going to get it. Some way, some how.
It wasn't until Saturday night that I had a load of dreams all about painting the kitchen cabinets blood red. So be it, I was going to paint the kitchen cabinets! Luckily I love my family so I decided to use paint instead of real blood.
However, our semi-local paint store doesn't have interior gloss blood red. They had a semi-gloss "rocket red" (just a few shades short of hot pink). Hey, I'll take what I can get. If I don't like them I can always do a darker wash or just paint over the suckers.
That's right, our lower kitchen cabinets are now very very very RED. With chrome handles and hinges.
The picture above is me getting the bird ready while the oil base primer is drying.
We ate on time and the kitchen was mostly back into place by the time we were ready for bed.
BAM.

It was so damn good.

Here's something you don't normally see on an August supper table. Beef Stew.

This week we've been having daily tempteratures at sixty degrees with overcast most of the day and maybe some sun in the late afternoon followed by fog. The Bay Area's typical summer. So why the hell not?

I cut up some Niman Beef into really small bits, bite size. Floured them with flour and heavy seasonings (paprika, onion powder, pepper, celery seed and a few other goodies) and browned in peanut oil. Tossed in an onion and 7 cloves of garlic to sweat.
And here's how I handle the liquid, 1 part red wine, 1 part beef broff, 1 part water.
Then toss in a few carrots and celery stalks. Yum.
Ground black pepper to taste with a few turkish bay leaves.
This was a quick stew so I got it boiling on the stove top, then tossed it into a 350 oven for 45 minutes.
Uncovered it for another 45.
Made up a little corn starch and water and added it to a rolling bubbling liquid.
Simmer for another 15 on the stove top.
While that was going I made white rice and steamed some brocolli.
However the shot you see had leftover homemade mashed taters (My oldest sone doesn't like rice).
ps. I've noticed that most blogs don't have a lot of feedback from people who visit the sites. For the most part it is a one sided spew. Please if any of you visitors have any questions as to my cooking methods, grilling or otherwise please feel free to send me email at drbiggles@cyberbilly.com.

I would like to preface this by saying, I love gravy. Meat gravy. Not vegie stock, not tofu gravy. Meat Gravy. This isn't normal meat gravy either, read on ...

At first glance it looks like a standard roast chicken. Sure take it at face value, AND LOSE OUT !!!! Lose out on something special. Lose out on the best damn gravy ever. And after all, isn't that why we roast meat? Gravy? Yes.
You must start with a decent chicken, this one here is a Rosie Organic Chicken from Petaluma. As far as spices and herbs go, that's up to you. Extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt is enough for me, but you deal spices and herbs. This baby is sportin' something special under the hood. Lean in and I'll tell you. That baby has several slices of bacon stuff under the skin, over the breast meat with fresh thyme and oregano. That's right, bacon. Oh I know what you're thinking, not bacon! It's too strong and fatty. Yeah it's fatty alright (keeps the breast meat happy), but it isn't strong. It's under the skin so it never gets brown. It has a nice flavor that winds up in the pan (that's where you make gravy).
Please take another close look under the meat. That's a cast iron trivet. Please use a trivet to keep your meat out of the liquid, you don't want boiled meat do you? No.

Here it is, GRAVY. After the meat has been removed, I took out all but about 4 tbs of the fat/juice. Sauteed in a bit of garlic and finely diced onion (I was out of shallots), then some flour. Brown that a bit and add chicken broff. Simmer and you have GRAVY !!!!!!! Chicken and Pork GRAVY !!! Add salt and pepper and you done.
I had made mashed taters with steamed carrots, but you don't need those to enjoy gravy. Meat and bread and gravy are all you need.

Lower your cooking time and add to the penetration of marinades by halving the chicken and putting some gashes into the thigh and leg. It looks as though I really gnashed one leg there, but it was just a little slice when I started. The breast meatses was quite juicy. And in the fashion of the doof Michael Chirarello, "use free range chickens PLUUHHHEEEEEZE!!!"

Here we see a flayed pork shoulder roast. Maybe six pounds or so. I removed the bone so I could slice most of the way through. Rub every surface with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, no more, maybe a tad under.

Now stuff it with slices of lemons (remove most of the skin), onions, garlic and some bay leaves. The bay leaves I soak in Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a few minutes to loosen them up a bit. Unless you have fresh, then to hell with me. Before you tie it up you need to make your own dry rub. Every dry rub needs a base component, I use paprika. You can start with 4 tbls of paprika. I wanted a mexicanny rub so I went heavy on the chili powders, 2 tbls of 2 different kinds of chilis (ancho and something else). 2 tbls of onion powder, 2 of salt (sea salt), and I pounded some cumin seeds up in mortar for maybe 3 tbls worth. I really wanted some cinnamon, but found quickly that I was OUT. Dang. I tossed in some cayenne and some old bay. note: make more than you require, you'll need some later on.

As you can see, it's really up to you for the rub.

Next get your butchers twine and truss the sucker up tight. UNNGH! There. At this point you can toss it into the oven and please use a roaster with a rack of some kind. Get the meat OFF the bottom of the dish for roasting. You can, at this time, drizzle more olive oil over the meat. Or not. I don't believe I did, however I did pull it out a few times and drizzle some on after some roasting.

Toss it into the slow oven for maybe 6 hours. No less, mebe more.

Once out, let it sit for a bit. Remove the twine and go through to pull out the bay leaves. Shred the sucker. Cut and shred into bits. Even the onions, garlic and lemons. Once you have done that, pull out what you think you'll use that night and put the rest into a container for the fridge.

Heat up a skillet and put in maybe a tsp of lard (made fresh from the recipe below) and dump in your meat. Add some salt and your dry rub (generous amounts). Brown the mixture until it's a bit crispy, you want little crunchy bits on the tender shreds.

Git your warmed tortillas (we make our own, but you can get by with grocery store ones. Just make sure they only have 3 ingredients listed), cilantro, sliced limes, sliced sweet onions and some maters. Uh, you're ready for food. Hugs.

p.s. I found after doing this maybe 3 or 4 times in the last six months, that the real eye popping flavor comes from the frying at the end. Of couse you could use any thing you want to grease the skillet, I recommended the lard because it's the best. Hell, don't use anything at all. There's probably enough greasin' residue in the pork already.

Here we see an all week long marinated beef ball-tip roast sliced and ready. The marinade is a teriyaki, the knife and old carbon slicer and the meat was tender tender tender.

Oh my. That right there is comfort food. I know many of you may be experiencing a heat wave, but it hasn't gotten above 63 degrees here for quite some time. And since our very own potatoes, that we grew, need to be used up in a variety of fashions, Shepherds Pie seemed an obvious choice. In the past, I've had it with ground beef, but this time my wife made it with a beef stew. Chuck roast, carrots and onions and bay leaf simmered for HOURS until insanely juicy and wonderful. Then popped it into the fridge for later. Later happened, warm the meat fixins a bit to loosen the juices, strain out the juices and reduce. Pour the reduced gravy and meat into a pie dish, smoosh left over mashed taters over all. Brush with melted butter and cook at 350 for an hour or so. We served it with The Bears Lair Cabernet 2000. I took pictures, they'll be ready some time next week ...

Another fine crock pot meal put together by Mama. Browned lamb then simmered all night with middle eastern spices (and a few vegies of course). Expect pictures sometime next week, why? BECAUSE MY DIGITAL CAMERA BROKED !!!! That's right it's dead. Dammit, so now I'm back to using film. Which is fine for quality, but timing is tough. Cause the meals and pictures will be about a week apart !!!!!!!!! Gargh.

Here we see a Rosie organic chicken split and set atop a bed of baby bok choy, carrots, onions, celery and whole mushrooms. The chicken was rubbed down with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, cayenne, oregano and some crushed celery seed. The liquid was a bit of organic chicken broth, port wine, plumb wine and a tad of water. Then roasted in a 375 degree oven for an hour with foil over the roaster, then 30 minutes without the foil. Deelightful.

Okay so it all started out innocently enough. It is the third of july and I have a refridgerator filled with meat. I figure, let's eat light and make our way into the 4th of July with ease. What menu did I choose?

Oh my. I've found, over time, that's it tough to write about food four minutes after you've finished. But this 2 hour marinated yummie chick chick couldn't wait. Sure the rich organic russet taters with european butter and cream smashed into love was terrific. Sure the steamed brocolli was amazing. But the organic free range chicken marinated in teriyaki, sesame, ginger and pineable was absolutely satisfying. I cheated though, I basted it with marinade and extra virgin olive oil throughout. Crispy love chick with parts and buttery taters with brock. Perfection of a Saturday dinner.

Wowzers, now if that doesn't look as though someone cares for meat other than myself.

Here is Secret Organisenamalous and Kallisti's Beef Meat for a special Saturday night feast.

Okay sure, everyone can make a nice roasted chicken. But I care enough about you to bring it to you on a daily basis. That, people is LOVE. Love of the Meat Degree.

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Have you ever grabbed a healthy looking chicken from the butcher ...