01.21.07

Braised Pork Shoulder w/ Spiral Staircase

Posted in Recipes & Techniques at 9:00 pm by Erik

So, you’re probably wondering what a spiral staircase has to do with braised pork….I’ll get to that later….as well as the resonance and sustain it has……

 To begin, I had some buddies in town this weekend.  We decided at the last minute to cook some food and open some wine.  Earlier in the day, my friend Paul told me about a technique i had never heard of.  Once explained, it totally made sense, and I immediately got excited and decided to try it out that night.  What he explained was a little simpler than this, so i decided to finesse it a little bit.

Pork Shoulder Braised in Polenta:

  • 5# pork shoulder steaks (aka country ribs)
  • 1 onion, sliced thin
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced into a paste
  • 1.5 C slow cooking polenta
  • 2 QT Chicken Stock or water
  • 1C HC
  • 1/2 C Roquefort
  • 1 head Radicchio, chiffonade
  • 1 Spiral Staircase
  1. Pat pork dry with paper towels.  Season with generous amounts of salt and pepper.  In a hot steel pan, sear pork steaks in canola oil until brown and delicious.  Only 2 will fit in the pan at a time, so between each batch, degrease and deglaze the pan to pick up the deliciousness.  Rest pork and pan drippings in a pan deep enough to hold them.
  2. THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT…….READ CAREFULLY!!!   Make sure the pan of pork is resting on the rail next to the spiral staircase.  Make sure you tell yourself, “Something bad may happen…..”   Don’t listen to yourself, and allow the pan of pork to rest there…..balancing….prone….vulnerable….browned and delicious….peering over the spiral staircase you walk up and down everyday.
  3. Allow your favorite Fancy Food Purveyor…..who shall remain nameless…….Sergio…..to deftly knock the pan down the aformentioned spiral staircase.  Hear the ringing of the pan, the “splash” of the delicious juice….the “clang” goes on and on…..you wonder, “do i really have that many stairs?????”
  4. It seems to go on forever.  Time stands still.  Put your hands over your face, and picture the pan walking down the stairs like a Slinky.  5 Steaks, one “plop”.  They do everything together.
  5. Now, laugh to cover up the tears welling behind your eyes.  Allow Jay and Sergio to retrieve the pieces of fallen pork, and to scrub the walls, window, and metal stairs.  Thank God that you had the foresight to Swiffer the stairs before folks showed up.
  6. Examine each piece of pork as they bring them back up the stairs, rinse out pan, and put them back in.
  7. Preheat oven to 375.
  8. Caramelise the onions in the searing pan, picking up what’s left from the last batch.  Hit the pan with chicken stock, and whisk in the polenta.  Dump half over the pork, and add the heavy cream to the rest of it.  BTAB, season well, and pour over the pork.  Braise in oven for 2 hours, lowering the temp to 300 after 1.5 hours.
  9. Pull out the pork, allow to rest, and whisk the blue cheese and radicchio into the polenta. 
  10. Chat with Sharkey about the Bag Game, drink some wine and enjoy the Pork…..remember, you swiffered….you can rest easy

01.08.07

Sou Fassum

Posted in Recipes & Techniques at 4:32 pm by Erik

Anyone who was at my last dinner party saw the Sou Fassum, in all of its glory.  I think there may be some photos of it out there on someone’s cameraphone.   

Compliments of Steve….newest member of the Tenacious D road crew……in charge of high-fives 

sou fassum

Sou Fassum (in Provencal dialect), is Chou Farci, or stuffed cabbage.  But, it’s no ordinary stuffed cabbage.  It’s a tradition in the area around Nice.  Cabbages are stuffed all over the world, but this is definately provincial.  Traditionally, the whole cabbage was stuffed, re-molded, and wrapped into a net-like bag, called a fassumier, then poached. 

Great for a dinner party, especially for the dramatic anticipation before slicing…sort of like when making any kind of layered terrine, or pate….did it set properly??? 

There are a few resources out there, but I just sort of adjusted things to my own taste

 special tools:

  • 3′ x 3′ piece of cheesecloth
  • 3′ piece of butchers twine
  • 12 qt stockpot
  • long wooden spoon, longer than the diameter of the pot
  • 6 to 8 hungry friends, maybe some foie gras too…maybe some scotch and a mechanical bull

 

Ingredients

  • 1 5# Savoy cabbage, nasty leaves removed, stem end cored out, but still with leaves intact
  • 3/4C Riz Rouge de Camargue, blanched for 15 minutes in salty water
  • 2# ground pork (Windy Hill is good), mixed with 1T Chili flake, 1T toasted Fennel seeds, 1t quatre epices, salt and pepper.  Taste it raw for seasoning…don’t worry.
  • 3 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste with a sprinkle of salt
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 8oz cubed porkloin, 1″ dice
  • 1 gallon chicken/beef or veal stock.  I used some ethereal pigfoot stock from the previous pigfoot party…mmmmm….

 

  1. In the stockpot, fill 2/3 with h20, BTAB, season with a handful of salt.  Plunge whole cabbage into boiling h20, allow to blanch for 8-10 min, remove to an ice water bath.
  2. While cabbage is cooling, sear the cubed pieces of pork in some OO, season with salt and pepper.  Add the minced onion, garlic and sweat until translucent.  Remove from heat
  3. Lay cabbage, stem side down, on the spread of cheesecloth.  Undo 1 leaf at a time, in order, dont break any, so it opens like a sunflower.  after about a dozen layers, cut out the core.  Chiffonade and add to the pork and onion mix, and put back on med heat until the cut cabbage wilts into the pork.  Set aside to cool.
  4. Once cool, mix with the ground pork sausage, adjust seasoning.
  5. Roll the farce into a ball, maybe about the size of a softball, depending on the size of your cabbage, and place into the center of the open cabbage “flower”.  (You may have a little bit left over,so roll into a cylinder of plastic wrap like a tootsie roll and freeze…slice off 1″ thick medallions and fry to med-rare for breakfast….or with scotch)
  6. Rebuild the cabbage, bringing the leaves up to the middle, in order….dont rip any.  Once cabbage is rebuilt, pull cheesecloth up around it, and twist to a compact ball.
  7. wrap a piece of twine around the twisted end and tie a slipknot.  Wrap the twine around 6 times to tighten, then secure with another knot, making sure it is SUPER tight.
  8. In the stockpot, you should have your stock of choice already simmering at between 180 and 190ish degrees.  Tie the other end of the twine to the wooden spoon, and dip the cabbage package into the simmering stock, resting the spoon across the rim of the pot.  Make sure the cabbage stays off the bottom of the pot, and suspended in the center.  (does that make sense???)
  9. Allow to simmer 3-4 hours.  If the cabbage wants to float, put a glass bowl upside down over the cabbage to weigh it down…but dont let it hit the bottom.
  10. After 4 or so hours, pull the cabbage out, wind the wooden spoon like a big key on a wind-up toy, to tighten the cabbage package again, and retie it.  Cool the liquid, and allow the cabbage to cool in it over night.  The next day, untie everything, pray that it set up, get your broiler hot, and slice into it like a birthday cake. Make your friends go “oooh-ah”
  11. Broil individual pieces with foie gras drippings spooned over, and a sprinkling of Maldon Salt