The Bitten Word

Cabbage-Beet Slaw with Ginger Vinaigrette

A Bitten Word Recipe

While our Indoor Pulled Pork was roasting away in the oven, making our house smell all kinds of wonderful, we contemplated what we wanted to serve on the side.

We're of the school that believes baked beans are a must when barbecue is involved, so that was a no-brainer.

But we also wanted something lighter, like a salad.  Rummaging through the fridge, there was no lettuce to be found.  In fact, it looked as if everything green had headed for the hills. (Maybe they're vacationing in Florida?)

There was some red cabbage, though, which made us think that a slaw might be order. But what to put in the slaw?  The only other potential ingredient we had on hand was a bag of beets.  Beets in slaw?  We'd give it a go!

Indoor Pulled Pork with Three Sauces, And More Superbowl Food Ideas

Cook's Illustrated (January/February 2010)

Maybe you tune into the Super Bowl for the commercials.  Maybe you watch for the halftime show.  Perhaps you want to see who's singing the National Anthem.  (Or maybe you actually want to watch football?)

For us, though, the Super Bowl is really about the food.

And this year, the menu is all about barbecue.

When we saw this recipe for Indoor Pulled Pork in the January issue of Cook's Illustrated, we instantly knew we had to make it. In our minds, this became something of a Super Bowl in itself, but it's about something much bigger than the Colts vs. the Saints.

Could this Indoor Pulled Pork beat the defending champion, Ultimate Cheater BBQ Pork?

That Ultimate Cheater Pork has some pretty impressive stats. It's delicious, and the meat is amazingly tender and juicy. And because it uses a slow cooker, it's super easy. 

But there's one drawback to the slow cooker pork. There's no smoky char, none of the delicious crunchy crust you'd get from real, honest-to-goodness pit barbecue. The meat's good, no question. It just sort of takes on the flavor of whatever sweet sauce you slather on it. There's no bite.

That's where this Indoor Pulled Pork comes in. By roasting it in the oven -- uncovered for part of the time -- the recipe promises pork with an actual crackly skin.

So can you really make pit-roasted smokehouse barbecue in your oven?

 
Heaven on a bun

Absolutely! An unqualified yes. This pulled pork tastes like it came from the best, divey-est Memphis BBQ shack. The pork's got a real smokiness to it. (Actually, both of these BBQ recipes include liquid smoke. But the smoky flavor didn't really come through as strongly in the Cheater BBQ Pork.)  The meat is fork-tender with an awesomely crunchy crust. 

Because of the brining and the removing of the foil and the pouring off of the liquid, this recipe requires more active attention than the Cheater BBQ. But we think it's worth it for the truly authentic smokehouse effect you get.

But a great barbecue needs a killer sauce. We actually made all three of the sauces that the magazine suggests:  a Sweet and Tangy Barbecue Sauce, a Lexington Vinegar Barbecue Sauce and a South Carolina Mustard Barbecue Sauce.

Saucy!

When we've made barbecue sauces in the past, honest to goodness cooking was involved, simmering ingredients on a stovetop.  Here, ingredients are whisked together with defatted cooking liquid from the pork, and that's it. No additional cooking required. Our 5 pound pork butt produced more than enough liquid to make all three sauces.

Each one of the sauces is fantastic in its own way. The Sweet and Tangy sauce is the closest to your standard, thick BBQ sauce. It's a classic and our favorite of the three. The Lexington sauce was terrific as well, thin and sharp and spicy. And we just loved the mustard sauce -- it's really hot and spicy. You can't go wrong with any of these three sauces.

Whether you make this Indoor Pulled Pork or the Cheater BBQ Pork for your Super Bowl party, you can't go wrong. 

But just in case you don't want to serve pulled pork at the big game (what??), take a look at our list of great Superbowl party ideas, after the jump.

Baked Chicken with Fennel and Apples

Everyday Food (November 2009)

 

Over the past week, we read Tom Colicchio's pre-Top Chef cookbook, Think Like a Chef.

We love the structure of Colicchio's book.  Rather than divide his recipes by meat or season, he starts out the book with a focus on techniques (roasting, braising and so on), showing how each tactic can be applied to different proteins or vegetables. 

From Techniques, he transitions into Studies, showing, for example, how to roast tomatoes and then use that ingredient in a variety of dishes.

But the next section, about Trilogies, really got our attention.  Here, Colicchio focuses on three trilogies -- asparagus, ramps & morels; lobster, peas and pasta; and duck, root vegetables, and apples -- and then shows many ways that trilogy can be applied in the kitchen.

Asparagus, ramps & morels, for instance, become a ragout, a ravioli, a custard and the accompaniments to both a braised fish and a roasted poussin. It's an interesting approach for a cookbook, and really lets you see how the chef thinks about building dishes, so that you, too, can "think" "like" "a" "chef" (see what he did there??).

All that got us thinking about about another trilogy we loved. 

No, not Lord of the Rings. 

It was this recipe from Everyday Food for Baked Chicken with Fennel and Apples. 

Twelve-Month Aged Eggnog

[Updated: Check out our video taste test of this eggnog after aging it for a year!]

Hey look -- we made eggnog! 

The hitch?  We're not going to drink it for a year.

That's right -- these bottles are going to sit in our refrigerator for 12 months, at which point we're going to beg some friends to come over and try it. 

Why, you ask, would two well-adjusted people voluntarily make and drink a dairy-based drink that's a year old?

Let us explain.

Orange-Scented Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with Candied Blood Orange Compote

 

Bon Appétit (December 2009)

The last chocolate cake we made -- a Hot Chocolate Cake with Homemade Marshmallows, just before Christmas -- was a whimsical triumph. Skyscraper tall and slathered in fudgy frosting, that cake was lauded with a crown of vanilla marshmallows and sprinkled with a dusting of cocoa. It was whimsy at its finest: Delicious, sure, but also silly and fun.

Think of of this Orange-Scented Bittersweet Chocolate cake as the exact opposite.

Dark, rich and lusciously smooth, this is one serious cake. The regal chocolate glaze anoints the dense, orange-scented cake with a subtle sweetness. The candied oranges add more sweet flavor, but it's a measured sweetness, balanced by the tart citrus. The whole thing is indulgent yet refined. It's all very...adult.

Put it this way: If the Hot Chocolate Cake was a silly schoolyard crush, this Orange-Scented Cake is a full-blown affair.

The Leftovers | Interesting Stuff You Should Know About

Here are a few things that caught our eye over the last month that aren't necessarily recipe-related.

While in Tennessee over the holidays, we picked up bar of chocolate from Nashville-based Olive & Sinclair Chocolate.

We were sucked in by their cute labels but immediately became fans after tasting the Sea Salt chocolate bar. It seems the company is just getting going, judging by the limited info on their website. 

Here's hoping they expand nationwide in 2010!

The December issue of Real Simple featured Herb-Savor, a product designed to make your herbs last up to three weeks in the refrigerator.

Admittedly, we've pulled our fair share of dead herbs out of our fridge, so we're intrigued. Prepara, the company who makes the product, is sold out online, but if you want to try it, Amazon has is it for $29.99. If you already have one, let us know what you think!

We featured ROOT Organic Liqueur in our holiday gift guide. Zach gave Clay a bottle as a Christmas gift, and we've enjoyed trying it.  On the rocks, it's a bit much for us, like a really boozy root beer.  But we loved it mixed with ginger ale.  Want to try it? You can order ROOT here.

In their December issue, Fine Cooking features an interesting blog that was new to us: TheOldieFoodie.com.  On the site, author Janet Clarkson writes about food history and historic recipes. The recipe archive is astounding, with titles like "To dresse a Hare or Cunny in brothe, with a pudding in their bellyes (1588)." We're adventurous cooks, but we're steering clear of that one. 

And finally, friends and family gave us some wonderful food-related books at the holidays.  Here's a rundown of what we'll be reading over the next few months:

The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis -- We've read raves about this book for years and can't wait to cook from it ourselves.

Craig Claiborne's A Feast Made For Laughter -- The autobiography of a former New York Times food critic and writer, we wrote about this previously when we recommended Gael Greene's Insatiable.  It's out of print, but available online through resellers.

Cleaving by Julie Powell -- We're keen to hear about Powell's experience apprenticing as a butcher, even if we'll only be able to imagine Amy Adams wielding a cleaver the whole time.

The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis & Scott Peacock -- Another classic Southern-themed cookbook. We've been meaning to to buy this book for years. We're glad it's finally on our shelf! 

Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller -- It seems that everyone was talking about this book over the last few months. We look forward to trying out some of the recipes.

The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook -- We spent a lot of time thumbing through this book while staying with a friend in San Francisco this spring.  We're happy to have a copy of our own.

What's on your reading list?

**You can read previous Leftovers posts here**

Wild-Rice Pilaf with Cranberries and Pecans

Martha Stewart Living (November 2009)

This wild-rice pilaf was included among the Thanksgiving recipes in this past November's issue of Martha Stewart Living -- and it's easy to see why.  Sweet cranberries and golden raisins mix with crunchy, toasted pecans for a pilaf that would make a great addition to any Turkey Day table.

We'd intended to make it for our own Thanksgiving feast, but there were just too many other things we wanted to cook. So we saved the recipe for another day.

And while this rice pilaf would be terrific on a Thanksgiving menu, we think it's a delicious dish worth serving any time of year.

Roasted Turnips with Maple and Cardamom

Fine Cooking (November 2009)

Pity the turnip.

In the social order of root vegetables, turnips are by far overshadowed by their flashier, more adored brethren.

There are onions -- perhaps the most popular kids in school -- who get invited to every party.

The prettiest girls in school -- carrots and beets -- get attention for their looks.

And potatoes -- the chunky but popular kids -- inspire all manner of enthusiasm, drawing crowds wherever they go.

But the lowly turnips sit at the table by themselves, passed over and often forgotten. (At least they're a bit closer to the action than jicama and rutabaga -- nerds!)

It's time the turnip got its due.

Vinegar Glossed Chicken with Oven-Roasted Vegetables

Martha Stewart Living (December 2009)

 

Confession time.

We're not doing a lot of cooking right now.

Maybe it's the winter doldrums. Or perhaps we're just uninspired at the moment. But most of the cooking we've done since the holidays has been the throw-it-in-a-pan-pop-it-in-the-oven-and-wait-for-the-buzzer variety.

Sure, we have plans (we're especially eyeing that Austrian feast from the January Bon Appétit), but we're working up to them.

What we are cooking at the moment is simple, straightforward fare that requires little work.

Well hello, Vinegar Glossed Chicken.

Kale, Blood Orange and Hazelnut Salad

Martha Stewart Living (December 2009)

We struggle for good salad ideas in the winter.

In the summer? Not so much, when we can easily throw together a salad with ingredients found right in our kitchen -- leafy greens from the farmers market, juicy tomatoes from our CSA, and a quick vinaigrette we'll improvise.

But in the winter, it's salad doldrums at our house. We haven't been to the farmers market as often (it's cold!) and with no CSA in the winter, our fridge is looking awfully empty.

Could kale, blood oranges and hazelnuts cure our winter salad doldrums?