Coaching Cooking

A long time ago, I traveled to Danville for a Spanish wine-tasting with Kareasa, the wine goddess herself. To our great delight, the wines were accompanied by a roasted pork accented with garlic and chipotle chilies. Kareasa and I debated whether we should just grab the pork shoulder and run out of the place (hey, there are tons of wine stores, we don’t have to return to this one ever again…). Instead we tried, somewhat subtly, to eat our weight in roasted pork while discussing wines in a somewhat dignified manner (okay, that didn’t work because we were at least 15 years younger than the next youngest person there).

Since then, I have dreamed of that roast pork. It was tender and lusciously flavorful with spicy chipotle and sweet garlic to compliment the buttery meat. Yesterday I decided to find a recipe that approximated those flavors. This is the one that I used.

I made a few adjustments to the recipe based on what I had in the kitchen. I omitted the oregano and used ground cloves instead of whole cloves. I seared the pork shoulder until it was lightly browned instead of a darker browning. The searing took some time because I used a 3-lb. pork shoulder, but the final results were worth all of the prep time.

After the pork is ready, I let it rest for about 10 minutes. I also steamed some corn tortillas in the microwave by wrapping them individually in paper-soaked towels and heating for 1 and 1/2 minutes on high. Let the corn tortillas rest for a minute then unwrap them and serve immediately with the pork. Enjoy!

Here’s my recent take on Monique’s Corn Salad:

I used Brianna’s Chipotle-Cheddar Salad Dressing plus green onion, fresh corn, pre-shredded corn and toasted almonds. Drool…It would be perfect for a picnic.

A busy week led me to eat at several fast food restaurants and now I’m evaluating my food consumption (and searching for some fruits and vegetables). Nowadays it is so convenient to go to the store and pick up whatever looks tasty and quick. Fortunately, the folks at EatLocalChallenge.com have a week-long challenge for anyone interested in eating local. It starts this coming Monday, April 23rd and goes through the week. Here are the rules for the Penny-wise Eat Local Challenge. I plan to follow this challenge as closely as I can while documenting the hardships and successes of trying to eat on a budget and to eat locally-grown and produced foods.

Of course, I have a few amendments/statements to make about this challenge (for my sanity!):

1.) I will eat foods that are grown or produced locally, but I will also consume anything already in my pantry (and this doesn’t cost a thing…well, anymore…). Okay, that prior statement made me sound like a big wimp. I revise my prior rambling and I will do my best to use only spices and absolute cooking necessities that are already in my pantry.

2.) I plan to use this challenge as an opportunity to develop some great dishes using local fruits and vegetables (this is also to counteract my unfortunate and recent fall into the fast food quagmire)

3.) This is slightly redundant, but I have to admit that if I get grumpy, I am gonna eat chocolate. Sorry, it’s just something that I might need to do (plus I already have chocolate in the pantry)

4.) I’m really determined to enjoy this challenge, even if it truly challenges me to choose local over convenience. In fact, I’m hoping it will teach me to choose local over convenience.

And that’s it. I’m really excited for this challenge. It will be a great way to test my commitment to local products and to adapt my eating habits to a (mostly) healthy diet. And I’m itching to get to the farmers’ market on Sunday.

Now that I’m on spring break, I can road-test some cookbook recipes that have lured me in with their pretty pictures and their tantalizing ingredients.

Williams-Sonoma has a cookbook series that focuses on different U.S. cities. I had to buy the San Francisco cookbook (it’s all about the local love). And the following recipes beckoned…

The weather is still a bit crisp during the day and I love nothing more on those days than a good steak and a creamy, delicious starch.

Rib-eye Steaks with Rosemary-Gorgonzola butter

Creamy Polenta with Teleme Cheese

Cooking notes:

The rib-eyes were fantastic. I usually buy great steaks from Whole Foods. They always have so much flavor and I don’t have to sweat the fear that they come from a run-of-the-mill factory farm. Boneless rib-eyes are easy to cook. I used a grill pan on my stovetop and cooked the steaks for 4 minutes on each side (at medium heat). Then I finished cooking the steaks in the oven (set at 400 degrees) for about 5 more minutes for medium-rare. The trick is to grill the steaks and to turn them once to sear the meat on each side and then once more before putting the steaks in the oven.

The polenta is another story. I love creamy polenta and the Williams-Sonoma recipe includes polenta, minced onion and Teleme cheese. Unfortunately, this recipe is bland, bland, bland!! I have a bunch left in the fridge so I will attempt to correct the blahness by adding some roasted garlic and cutting the leftover polenta into squares and pan-frying the pieces.

So, sometimes you just have to try something out and risk the results…the steaks were excellent and we capped off the evening with some vanilla ice cream-brownie sandwiches.