Pepperoncini Brined Pork Steaks

The Captain and I love pepperoncini. We go through about a quart a week, We eat them for snacks and slice them up for salads. I also like to brine my pork (and sometimes chicken) so one day I thought to myself “what would be more brilliant than to brine a couple of pork steaks in some of the pepperoncini juice that I throw away every week?" I figured the juice would have all the salt and heat that it would require to make my pork steaks juicy and spicy.

So, I marinate 2 porksteaks overnight in the leftover pepperoncini brine. (No comments about what the brine looks like. I know, And gross.)

The next morning, the pork steaks were looking like some kind of pork ceviche with the outside looking almost cooked by the brine. Yuk. Oh well, I’m just experimenting anyway. I’m pretty sure none of this will kill me.

Then, when I am ready to grill, I season the steaks with seasoned salt and pepper and put them over direct heat until they look kind of cooked. Then move over to indirect heat to melt the fat and tenderize the meat. I like to take my time and drink a glass of wine or two while I let the meat get nice and tender. It usually takes about an hour or so until they are ready for the sauce.

My sauce is a mix of Maull’s and El Yucateco with a chile mixed in.

What can I say? We like hot stuff.

Brush on the steaks and let the heat cook the sauce slightly. A couple minutes and they are done.

The finished product photograped with a can of Stag, because according to The Captain, "no barbecue is complete without a Stag."

Well, for a while, it didn’t look like they would be good, but they were awesome. The next morning, The Captain said, “I’m still thinking about those pork steaks.” So, I’ve decided I can stand the ooky way they look for the first 24, since it yields a pretty darn good pork steak.

PROMISE ME (This one's not about food)

Its Sunday night and I am currently in a hotel room in the Ozarks writing this while The Captain mans a booth in the convention area of the resort. He has volunteered his time (and part of our weekend) to educate people about the Emerald Ash Borer. So I thought I might take a couple of minutes to mention the EAB (as the people in the know call it) to those who might otherwise not have any exposure to information about the critter.

Have you seen the “PROMISE ME” billboards on the highway? The one near my house (at 40 and Jefferson – ish) has a sad little girl imploring me to promise her something. I usually have driven by before I can read what the rest of the sign says, but coincidentally got to read one while The Captain drove us out of the city today. It says “Promise Me That You Will Not Move Firewood”. Now, because I am with The Captain, I know what this means. For those of you not lucky enough to live with an urban forester/arborist, let me enlighten you about what this sign is trying to tell you.

Since the 1990’s the Emerald Ash Borer has destroyed 30 million ash trees within 10 states. The EAB was first found in Missouri just last summer. The EAB will kill an Ash tree that it inhabits and the current method for dealing with this pest is to remove the tree. Anyway, the most common way that the EAB is moving into new states is in the transport of firewood. Meaning that camper from one state will pack up their stuff (and firewood for the campsite) and head off to the camp location. EABs living in the firewood infect trees in the new location. So don’t move firewood. As the USDA says, “Buy local, burn local.”

Most of my friends aren’t campers, but if you ever wondered about those billboards, well, now you know.

For more information about EAB, visit http://www.emeraldashborer.info/

Warm Grilled Sweet Potato Salad

So I've got sweet potatoes from the farm share and, believe this or not, green onions popping up in the garden that somehow didn't grow this spring, but laid dormant in the soil and started growing after this recent cold spell. I've got pork steaks on the grill so I decide I will make a warm grilled sweet potato salad. Super easy.

Step 1: Peel and slice sweet potato, brush with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

Step 2: Grill until soft. Bring inside, and slice into bite sized chunks.

Step 3: Place green onions, white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, olive oil, chile, lemon juice, and dijon mustard in pyrex. Blend with immersion blender.

Step 4: Taste and make adjustments. Pour over warm potatoes and garnish with scallion greens.

The Tomato Plants Are Out: Fried Green Tomatoes

I almost never fry food around here, the one exception being at the end of tomato season when I pull my plants out and harvest all the green tomatoes. I pulled the plants out yesterday. I'm not a fried green tomato purist, so my recipe is a little bit different than most.

As you can see, I picked three different varieties of tomato to fry. They all have slightly different tastes. Cut them into small wedges.

I use the three step battering method. Flour (with pepper and seasoned salt), then egg, then seasoned bread crumbs. (blogspot reoriented this pic and I can't figure out how to flip it.) Anyway, I show the egg here on a plate, for the sake of everything looking the same in the picture. I don't recommend putting your egg on a plate as it makes it harder to coat the tomatoes. Anyway, Brian Boitano taught me a great method for breading. I cover everything in the flour mixture first, then put the tomato in the egg using one hand, and coat it with breadcrumbs with the other hand. A wet hand and a dry hand, if you will.

Then fry em on a medium high heat. I use the smallest pan I own and do several batches because a) I don't like to stand over a big pan of grease and b) it feels like a huge waste of oil to fill a big pan, fry for a minute and then throw it away.

Ta Da! Salt em up a little and eat. Sometimes, if I've got extra ripe tomatoes lying around, I will make a simple red sauce to dip them in.

Jealousy (Sidney Street Cafe)

My heart is breaking as I type this entry. You know how some women get jealous when their boyfriends or husbands go out for beers with their friends and worry all night about what they're doing and with whom they are doing it? Well, I'm not the jealous type, but I have to say that it is absolutely killing me that The Captain is at Sidney Street Cafe right now with some work people, and I am home, alone, drinking boxed wine and feeling sorry for myself.

It's not what you think. I'm not jealous of his companions or the fact that he's out and I'm home. I'm jealous of the fact that he is probably eating delicious little savory veal dumplings, and a richly sauced filet au poivre, or something seasonal and delicious that Kevin Nashan whipped up with ingredients he collected at the Maplewood Farmers Market yesterday. The saddest part is that I am sitting by my phone, wishing he would text me to let me know what the specials are today or telling me how the staff is asking about me. :( Too sad, really.

(The above picture is from the SSC website. Those are the veal dumplings that I dream about in my sleep.)

An Odd Way to Relax or Why I Am Screwed If the Power Goes Out for an Extended Period of Time

During the summer, between the farmshare and the garden, we get way more vegetables than we could ever consume. So we eat some, and I freeze a bunch. I always found the process for freezing green beans bothersome, but something changed this last year (I have no idea what or why) and I absolutely look forward to doing this chore. Here's how that works:



Step 1: Snap the tips off the green beans and give them a quick rinse.



Step 2: Throw the beans into a pot of boiling water. Boil for 3 minutes.

Step 3: Remove beans from water and place into an ice bath for another 3 minutes.

Step 4: Allow beans to dry out on a towel.

Step 5: Bag, remove air, and freeze.

They look so orderly and precious. I write the date on them so I can use the older ones first come winter when I am cooking up frozen vegetables.

We bought a chest freezer for the basement this year, so I am on a mad freezing kick. These are the things I froze the day before we left for Seattle. Some beans, corn, peppers, tomatoes, and pesto. The freezer is nearly full, so if the power goes out I am screwed.

Got a Lot of Free Time and Need a Way to Use Up Some Squash? Butternut Squash Pie is Here For You.

I found myself with 4 varieties of squash sitting in my squash bowl, so I was trying to think of an interesting way to use some of them up. I thought "What if I made a pumpkin pie, but instead of pumpkin, I use butternut squash?" And I really thought I had come up with something brilliant and new. So, of course, I googled it to verify that I had invented a new pie and, of course the pie already existed. I picked this recipe to try:

http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/8477/2004/11/24/Butternut-Squash-Pie/recipe.html

I started by splitting and seeding my squash and placing it in a 350 degree oven to roast.

On to the pie crust. I don't own a food processor, so I did a few things a little differently than the recipe directed. I had to make mine old school which means I had to get out the pastry blender and do a little upper arm work out.

After the butter and shortening were incorporated, I added some egg and ice water to bind it together. I have never used egg in a pie crust. When it all pulled together, I saran wrapped it, and chilled it in the fridge.

Hmm the squash roasted up nicely. The kitchen had a nice fall harvest smell about it.

This was fun. Picking up the hot squash and scooping out the flesh from the skin. And then again, because I don't have a food processor, I kind of mashed it up with a fork a little bit. Then I put it in the fridge to cool it down.

The crust was in the fridge for about 30 minutes when I pulled it out to roll it. Now, I have many good qualities and talents. Pie crust rolling ISN'T one of them. Still, it turned out not half bad if I do say so myself. And it goes back to the fridge to chill some more.

While the crust chilled again, I started on the filling. Some sugar, eggs, spices, cayenne pepper (whooooohoooooo) and my squash. I mixed it up in the kitchen aid. I added the cream and for good measure (since I wasn't using the food processor again) I whirled it up with my immersion blender just to make sure there wouldn't be any weird chunks. I put this in the fridge and grabbed the pie crust.

Time for some blind baking. I lined the crust with foil and filled it with dried beans.

After the crust was partially baked, I put the filling in the pie shell and returned it to the oven.

I cooled it on a rack for a while and transferred it to the fridge before I went to bed.

Hmm, that fluting didn't turn out so well once it baked up.

No squash pie would be complete without a little whipped cream. So a little cream, a little powdered sugar and whip it. Whip it good.

And the finished product. A little Butternut Squash Pie for Breakfast. This pie was a lot of work, but it was REALLY good. It might be good for pulling an old switcheroo at Thanksgiving to see if anyone notices that its not pumpkin pie. (The Captain said it was better than pumpkin pie. Go figure, its about 4 times the work of my normal pumpkin pie recipe.)