Thanksgving in planning

2009 Thanksgiving dishes

Well every year it starts. I plan on doing new things at Thanksgiving and then I do the new things and the same old things and the darn menu gets bigger and bigger. This year I wanted to go out to a fancy restaurant because to a foodie, frankly, t-day is overwhelming and a lot of work! Well family whining prevailed and I am cooking anyway. Usual menu is pretty lengthy and I won't waste space here. However, my new creation is a go on the caveman diet! Steam cauliflower for about 20 minutes. Mash gently to break into small, rice size pieces. Mix together with fresh parsley, butter, salt and pepper and premade bacon bits (I broiled belly trim leftovers for 20 min and then gently pulsed in food processor). FANTASTIC. More on Thanksgiving later. And yes I eat a lot of pork, thanks, I can't help myself. Basically, you people can have my share of chicken, blech. Future blogs will see more pork in action, lamb and oysters...

Green veg of fall I love you so




 


collards yum yum



Sometimes you feel like a cook, sometimes you don't . Today we have to talk about my favorite food though, green leafy things. I love love love seeing collards in season. You don't have to worry about your calcium and drink that pesky milk if you get tight with collards, kale and all those other dark green things that you might not be excited to cook. Until now. So easy!

The secret: Fat. Oh, sorry, did you think I would say spice or water or something good for you? No! The secret is good good pig of and some sort of oil! You don't need anything else.  Here's how I make my collards these days (used to boil them until a friend taught me better, Thanks Deb Hines!). Coat the collards in canola oil or EVOO or melted butter if you like (the taste will be different so try them all). Add your fat back to the bottom of the pan, or pancetta, or leftover pig parts (here I used some from a shoulder roast). Over medium heat, wilt the collards in the oil. Stir often. At about 15 minutes, they will be tender enough eat. At 30, they will be even better if you have the patience to wait. Then, serve with a concoction I call Carolina BBQ Sauce, Deena Classic Southern version. Basically it is equal parts brown sugar stirred into apple cider vinegar and hot pepper flakes to taste.

Family bbq dinner...again!

Just when you thought we had stopped eating pork for a while, here comes another pork post! Granted in between we had sauteed Rock on Tues and rock stuffed with crabcake on Wed. However, on Thurs my brother comes in town and well...we ordered bbq! Of course! From the BBQ Joint in Easton. They have a platter that has brisket. Ian's homemade pink slaw. Andrew's potato salad with fresh dill (love it!). Baby ribs. Pulled pork with lots of sauces to choose from if you wish. The grand finale...oc french fries with CHEESE on top, my favorite way is finished off with a sprinkle of their sweet chicken rub. I don't know why, but that is soooo goood and yet soooo bad! Sorry, cholesterol levels but forget you today, we're having some delicious stuff.

Readers, you will not be surprised after all this research that I have concluded one thing. The bbq you crave the most is always going to the one you can come home to. Since these are my friends that make it, the fact that it is cooked perfectly just makes it all the better...I love my neighborhood joint!

But since I'm home, I served it with the perfect martini too. Yum, yum, yum. Atmostphere: Authentic yet hip. Barbecue: No sauce needed, but all of them taste so good you have to dip your fries anyway.

Today's Fish Special!

Is anything anything anything better than fresh caught rockfish from the chesapeake bay? That fish can invoke memories in me of briny air, clear open skies and being covered in salty film from the water splashing over the bow. The sweet meat is not in need of anything but a few simple spices. Today, I marinated mine in oregano, cilantro, old bay and a swirl of EVOO for a few hours. Then I sauteed in butter in a cast iron pan. No real lessons needed here.

Yes, the tricky part is getting your friends to bring you fresh rockfish!

Tomorrow I will stuff the rest with crabcakes and serve with a lemon butter drizzle. Anybody want to bring me wine for a fair share of fish?

A Few Notes to Wrap-up the BBQ Adventure

As I think back over the weekend...and tried to decide which BBQ was best...I had a problem. Was anyone perfect? Did anyone earn a hundred percent? More importantly, did anyone cook it as well as I do, or as good as my grandma makes her collards? Probably not. However, I have to give an explanation that explains my total immodesty in that last statement. The one thing good food has in common, always, is the love of the people behind it shining through. At all of these places, the waiters and cooks, owners and cashiers we encountered were incredibly polite and accommodating. I really felt that each and every one of them wanted us to enjoy the food as much as we did. The question is: do you see this in other forms of cuisine? Is it as easy to see years of tradition on a plate when looking at a stuffed rockfish, as it is when you see a hot smoky pile of meat that you knew that took many hands and years to create? To me, it is not. No one can recreate tradition without truly participating in the culture that surrounds it. To understand that a customer needs a pitcher of tea, and a sink right in the middle of the dining room shows not only concern of the technical aspects of cooking a meal but also concern for the customer’s general well being. So if I had to rate my grandma’s collards against everyone else's, they might get nines. But she gets a ten because she chopped and cleaned and seasoned, not because she wanted praise, but because she wanted me to eat my vitamin D. That’s good cooking.

New Ideas But Same Traditions

We were not sure how to get through Virginia Beach without getting lost let alone finding the best BBQ. We took a chance off of a recommendation on the Internet and went to Whitney’s BBQ. This contemporary version of an old BBQ house sits in a strip mall and is entirely staffed by young people. The decor is modern, but humble with chalkboard menus and plank board tables made to look old. The menu claimed old fashioned roast BBQ. The contemporary presentations, such as pork rolled up in tortillas or BBQ and sausage combos, had me wondering what we were going to find. Luckily, the friendly demeanor of the cashier put me at ease as we decided on our choices. I got the BBQ plate with collards and slaw. Sarah gambled a bit and got a burnt ends and sausage sandwich with mashed potatoes. We sat down.  A server brought the BBQ to the table after we ordered at the counter. The first thing I noticed was the extreme brown bits in the BBQ and the overall sun burnt color that differentiated it from the classic North Carolina BBQ. We had crossed the state line and my fears were realized. The BBQ had changed. Although it claimed to be North Carolina eastern shore style, there was clearly something different that was happening on this plate. I sighed and prepared to take a bite… would it be desperately sweet with slimy tomato sauce that messed around with my pork?  The first bite revealed that appearances weren’t always what they seem. The delicate caramelization of the meat yielded a rich roasted flavor that was a delight. The bite of the meat was again tender but not squishy. It was gently pulled into bite-sized pieces and not senselessly chopped. The unusual dollop of some sort of tomato sauce added to the flavor when in fact I was quite expecting it to put acid back in the mouth that would ruin the meat. While the slaw looked like it was going to have that stringy slimy feel, it was surprisingly light. The recipe contained the right amount of vinegar to make it pleasantly crisp but not too sour. Sarah’s sandwich was non-traditional, but surprisingly nice. The pickles, burnt-edges, sausage, and slaw really fashioned the ideal sandwich that still had some traditional value, but with it’s own modern twist. The collards, while not too spicy and not too sweet, were cooked well and delicious. We both agreed, real butter, and not your traditional pork fat, might have been in play at this restaurant. I looked forward to trying the other tempting things (such as the dirty rice, pork, and collard roll up) on a return visit.
No sauce needed! Authentic, if playful, bbq atmosphere.

The Ones That Got Away

 
 
Like I mentioned before, we are taking the scenic route home. One of the first things you might notice is the little white fluffy piles along the highways. Most people would think it was trash, people from Delmarva might think chicken feathers, but if you are a student of the region, you know it's fluffs of cotton off the trucks. As you past acres and acres of the low laying plants with the little puffy white heads, you realize that there are many people for whom picking cotton is still a livelihood. Despite it’s sad history, the legacy of cotton and tobacco still permeates the culture and the countryside. Small shanties and houses in between the fields delineate the age old farms and their careworn fields. Here and there you’ll see tobacco, goat, pigs, and horses; the people who tend them right by there sides. This brings me to “the one that got away” and the title of our story. Luckily for the people who live down here, they really do have fresh meat. Right on the side of the road, Sarah and I saw a side for fresh cured ham. Throwing on the brakes, we made a swift right hand turn to see if we could get some. We passed the farm with the fresh ham sign out, but there was no indication that they were open on this Sunday afternoon. Darn it. That would have been great.

A little farther down the road, we got teased again. The sign proclaimed: Tarheel BBQ serving families since 1960. Closer inspection, however, revealed a small handwritten sign that said, "closed Sunday and Monday". A couple of cars pulled in with people in their nice Sunday clothes made me pause; there might be a private party, for locals only. Too bad. On the road again.

As Sarah and I contemplated our next move, we saw what might be someone’s BBQ platter in the future. Right on the side of the road, there were dozens of hogs. Porkers and sows and piglets were laying and playing and munching in their makeshift home. Some were on the outside of the fence, some were on the inside; it didn’t seem to matter much. Dozens of goats milled about aimlessly too, amongst junk cars, flowerpots, and various castoffs. There was a small ram-shackled house at the back of the property. The size was such that unless the humans that inhabited it enjoyed piling up like the pigs, there couldn’t have been more of them than the animals surrounding them. Only the threat of a farmers shotgun aimed at me kept me from saying “Sooey sooey pig!” as Sarah struggled to capture the implausible picture of modern man at his most rustic moment. As we drove off, the thought of a little pig roasting on a spit, clearly raised natural and organically in the truest sense of the word, made us hungry again. Where to go next?