Anyone who follows the blogs (links conveniently found to your right and below) of my various offspring, knows that we are foodie people who love to cook, eat and talk about cooking and eating. Between the Battle of the Bulge (see truce annoucement below) and my fanatical attempts to grow my business, there hasn't been a lot of opportunity to cook recently. But I really needed a break and cooking is very theraputic and creative. I had the excuse because I'd invited injured hiking buddy, Wild Bill, and wife J over for dinner.
I had nuts and veggies with dip (yes, it was homemade - the sour cream, ginger, garlic one I posted earlier) to start with. Then a first course of deviled eggs (had to try them again after the debacle in LA) flavored with pancetta, shallots, pimenton and saffron along with a salad of roasted peppers flavored with lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and fresh oregano from the garden (thanks Mrs. de-I).
The main course was a pasta sauced with a home-made pork ragu (non-foodies may stop here because I'm going into detail)
I had decided I wanted to test out some of the flavor enhancing techniques I've gotten from watching various cooking shows, especially Iron Chef. So here was the process used.
Marinated pieces of pork over night in red wine, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, rosemary, orange zest, and many bay leaves.
Drained meat, saved marinade and flavorings. Browned meat well. Sauteed more onions and garlic. Added meat, marinade with flavorings, beef broth, more rosemary, more bay leaves, more orange zest, and a dozen oil cured olives. Simmered this for about three hours until the meat was coming easily off the bone and shredding easily.
Took meat out. Took out the olives and took olive meat off of pits and added to meat. Drained the cooking fluids squeezing out all juices. Shredded the meat. Heated more olive oil in pot and sauteed the meat and olives again slightly. Added the drained cooking fluid. Added about two cups of home-made tomato confit (thanks MotherRocker). Cooked for another hour.
Cooked up fettucine until almost done and finished the pasta in ragu.
Twas Mmmmmmmmmm.
5 comments:
glad that all that work was worth it!
sounds delightful, although for me it is sad to read about cooking meat - it is something I never do, since I can't eat it. :(
Isn't it nice though to cook after a long hiatus? It is indeed very therapeutic. Oh - and what for wine did you have??
Wild Bill brought over a Villa Maria sauvignon blanc for the first courses. That's a New Zeeland brand that I've liked for years. For the main course I had a California sangiovese from Unti in Sonoma, a small winery we visited on our trip last year.
wow, they're making Italian style stuff in CA!
Yum!!
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