Barbecuing in the Rain

Or should I say a thunderstorm ... because that's what it actually was. We don't get a ton of those in these parts, but, by gum, I decided to bust out the barbecue during one. The coals were just ready when it really started to pour. I was able to move my operation under cover and not burn the house down. Nice.

Why is barbecuing associated with men? It's funny, really. If I do the cooking, it also stands to reason that I do the 'cuing. Somehow, if we add a real fire, the outdoors, and, presumably, meat, we add men to the picture? Hm.

Not that men don't cook and barbecue, of course. My dad certainly does both.

This is what the sky looked like.

And this is what I made. Zucchini and red potatoes in a mustard-rosemary "sauce".

And pork tenderloin. It marinated for two days. This was a good thing.

Marinade:

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup sesame oil

1-2tsp. honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

2T Sherry

8 garlic cloves, minced

4-8 green onions, sliced thin

2-4T sesame seeds, toasted

This is one of my dad's recipes. I think he made it up. I've used it several times and like it a lot. I'm thinking of tweaking the sugar:honey ratio. I usually use fewer green onions, too, since I don't much like them although I do enjoy the onion essence they lend to the marinade.

Chipotle Pork with Beet and Cabbage Salads

My sister gave me a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine for xmas. I have decided that I am going to do as many recipes as possible (and desireable) from the magazine in the month I receive it. This is revolutionary because my old tack was to read the thing, then rip the recipes I liked out and put them in a folder. This folder grew and grew to such proportions that I became overwhelmed and finally threw the whole thing out when we moved because we were already moving quite a bit of crap and 17 years' worth of ripped out recipes? No. So, for the upcoming week, I looked to BA and my old Cooking Light mags. They inspire me for spring. Which is a month old, I realize, but we stay pretty cool and gray in these parts for well into it. As I previously mentioned, I am done with the heavy meat cuts, like short ribs and lamb shanks. I feel ready and able to move into more fish and, hey, pork tenderloin!

Pork tenderloin is a delight to cook, isn't it? Easy and pretty quick, too. Lean, as far as meats go, to boot. And the perfect foil for so many flavors. It just gives and gives, that swine.

This is a recipe I make a bit, from one of those accumulation magazines, like The Best Winter Recipes from Sunset, or something like that. I could get up and look, but I don't feel like it. I like to have something light beside this recipe, due to the spice. I spotted the cabbage and beet salads in BA and went for it.

Speaking of which, we have some beets planted now, and I have plans to plant more in the fall so that we have them for winter. What I really want is to grow all my own root vegetables and cabbage and hard squash and then have a root veg "cellar" of sorts. I have had a design in my mind's eye that would use a wood frame and fill it with sand. I would keep it somewhere in our clogged workroom (the final frontier of move-in mayhem; yes, that was nearly a year ago!). I have lots of goals like this for my home garden. I tend to soar in imagination, making lists, drawing up plans ... then I get overwhelmed and deflated by all I haven't done. Arg. I need to think step-by-step and not go haywire when I can't reach the moon on the first jump. From my 35th birthday to Mother's Day, I've been really good at beating myself up and measuring myself against all the things I haven't done. No root cellar? Fail. No chicken coop? Fail. And where, oh where, are the espaliered pears and apples? Fail.

Wasn't I talking about pork? Right.

Chipotle Pork:

1-1.5lb. pork tenderloin (or, really, however big you want) - Trim off all the gross silverskin and fat. Heat a pan over med-high, add some canola oil, and sear the pork on all sides, about 2 minutes per. Then toss into a baking dish or onto a sheet pan and roast at 425 for about 20 minutes, depending on the size of the loin and how cooked you like yours. I like mine rare; the one pictured is medium.

Sauce: 2/3 cup maple syrup; 4 T chipotle chiles and sauce; 2 T dijon mustard. Whisk or blend together and serve on the side.

Options: I am thinking of a couple things I want to try with this. (1) Barbequing the tenderloin and basting on the sauce near the end. (2) Heating the sauce in a small saucepan and adding a cornstarch slurry to thicken.

Salads: These go quite well with the spiciness of the pork.

Beets: 2T Sherry vinegar, 2 tsp. dijon mustard, 5 T safflower or canola oil - Whisk together and pour over 3 large red beets, grated. OR, what I did was buy pre-roasted beets from Trader Joe's and slice them.

Cabbage Salad: 1/4 white vinegar, 1 T soy sauce, 1 T sugar, 5 T safflower/canola oil - whisk and pour over 6 cups shredded cabbage and 2 T chopped mint.

Split Pea

I added a few photos before we left Seattle and saved them so that I could show you what I have been making! That's how much I care.
In order to make this soup - Split Pea - I had to get smoked ham shanks. Of course, Uwajimaya has them ... because they have everything under the sun, in terms of meat cuts, as I have previously discussed. Wait. I could not find bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts when I was looking for them. In truth, I didn't ask. I bet, had I asked, I could have witnessed them killing, defeathering, and fabricating a chicken right then and there. I didn't ask. I went to Safeway.





Split pea is quite easy and quick. I don't have the recipe in front of me, but it goes something like this: saute a mire poix (2:1:1 - onion, celery, carrot), add your herbs (dried marjoram, here), split peas (a bag) and your liquid of choice. I used half chicken broth and half water, and just filled it until it looked good. Nestle the pork in, bring up to a bubble, then let simmer for 30 minutes. The peas should be nice and tender; some will be falling apart. Remove the pork to cool, and take a stick blender to the split peas, et. al. I blended the whole thing because that is how I like my soup, but you can leave it chunky. Cut the pork up, or shred it, or whatever, and add it back. Voila! Smoky, delicious goodness.


I did not tidy the bowl for this shot. The problem with a food blog is that I am often taking snapshots of dinner ... at 8pm ... when Josh and I are ravenous. So I don't have the patience to set myself up for the beauty shots. When you have a toddler you are faced with a unique conundrum: Do we eat with the child or after the child goes to bed? Each option has its challenges. Jacques Pepin once said that he never made "special meals" for his daughter. She ate what the adults were eating. This teaches children how to eat, that eating is social, what goes on at the table, and countless other things about culture and food and that you are not a god in this house and you have to eat what is in front of you, gosh darnit! And that's great. Compare that to my working memory of different meals for my siblings and I. I recall the classic tater tots, chicken nuggets, and carrot sticks. My mother swears that some nights we three children had three different meals, and then Mom and Dad sat down for theirs. It's possible. Sometimes Sam has what we have, but usually it is something unique because, and I have said this before, you are sitting there thinking that there is no way this tiny person has consumed enough calories to make it through the night and there is no way I am waking up at 3am because the kid is hungry. So, if he wants Cheerios, fine! Eating as a family is super and all, but that means Junior has to actually allow me a certain amount of time in the kitchen. Ha. It also means that Josh gets home at toddler dinner hour, i.e. 5:30 or 6pm. Double ha. So, Sam eats alone (read: while Mommy drinks) and Mommy and Daddy eat separately. The easiest. When Josh comes home I can either get cracking, or continue what I started in the kitchen in order to have dinner on the table when Josh walks out of Sam's bedroom around 7:45, having put the boy to sleep. The table being the coffee table, at which we sit cross-legged to watch what we TiVo. How was your day? Fine. Fine. What do we have on TiVo, pass the wine.


I made oven fries to go with the soup. I love this recipe.





Get yourself 3-4 russets and slice into wedges. Put the wedges into a bowl of hot water and let them soak for 20-30 minutes. This step is to leach out some of the starch, which enables these to become "fries" and not just wedged baked potatoes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 475 and prepare your baking sheet with 3-4T peanut oil, 3/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Yes, you in fat sprinkle the pan with those seasonings. Drain and rinse the potatoes, then lay them out to dry. If you want to help the process along with paper towels, go right ahead. Toss the wedges with 1T peanut oil and then lay them out - in one layer and not too crowded! - on the sheet pan. Cover the pan with heavy duty foil and bake for five minutes. Oh, the rack should be on the lowest rung in the oven. Remove the foil, then bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Flip the wedges, and bake for 7-15 more minutes until GBD. That's "golden-brown and delicious." I have tossed my fries with minced garlic, butter, and parsley at this point, and have enjoyed the results. I have also simply dipped them in ketchup or BBQ sauce.