Porchetta~ Smoked and Braised Cuban Style

JAN22

Smoked and Braised Pork Shoulder Latin Style

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Devany

Standard

This recipe has been one I have used for years. I used to make it at my cooking school for Cuban Night. I change out a few things here and there to go more Italian or more Cuban. Even if you do not have a smoker this is delicious braised or done in a slow cooker or dutch oven. You simply make a paste in the food processor and then make slits in the pork shoulder (bone in or out, your choice). Marinate it over night, smoke the next morning and then finish it off in a crock pot or in a dutch oven in the oven.  Note: I do not add salt before cooking, but I offer it at the table. 

Ingredients:

1 cup each of packed cilantro and flat leaf parsley

1/3 cup each of coriander, cumin and fennel seeds toasted

30 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup crushed red pepper (the kind you put on pizza)

1/4 cup pink pepper berries (optional)

1 tablespoon hickory powder if you are not smoking the meat

1/4 cup olive oil (I use smoked oil that I make)

1 5-7 pound pork shoulder (get them on sale and freeze)

2# Yukon Gold Potatoes

3 large onions, quartered

2 cans of beer

1/4 cup Spice and Tea Exchange Sweet Onion Sugar (optional)

Method:

Put the cilantro, parsley seeds, garlic, pepper berries, crushed red pepper, hickory powder if you are not smoking and the olive oil in a food processor. Pulse till you have a thick paste.

Put on latex gloves if you have them, this gets messy. Cut 1 1/2 inch slits into the meat on all sides. Stuff the slits with the paste. If you have any paste left over, smear it on the meat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate 12-24 hours.

Remove the meat from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature. Meanwhile set up your smoker and turn your grill on high.

Sear the meat on all sides on the grill. Then place in the smoker at about 200 degrees over a drip pan and smoke for 6 hours. If you do not have a smoker, go directly to the slow cooker or roaster but cook for 8-10 hours on low.

Prepare the roaster or slow cooker by placing a bed of Yukon Gold potatoes (small ones or cut larger ones in half) and the onions. Sometimes I add other root vegetables too. Place the meat directly on the bed of veggies. pour two cans or bottles of beer over the meat. Sprinkle the sweet onion sugar all over.

Roast at 350 degrees covered with foil or in a dutch oven. Or you can use a slow cooker on high for 4 hours (either method).  It is just that easy. The leftovers are sometimes my favorite part… tamales, tacos pulled pork sandwiches. 

The Best Carnitas EVER!

I love carnitas. They are not something I make too often, because they are fried, but when I do make them they are something that is really special. For those of you who have only seen carnitas on a menu, they can be made a variety of ways. Carnitas basically means “little pieces of meat” and while they can be made with various cuts of meat (beef or pork) they are most often made using pork butt or shoulder. Some cooks like my friend’s mother when I was growing up in Southern California brown the chunks of pork in lard and then finish them off in the oven, others of the more banal variety cut up chunks of pork and simmer or braise them for a very long time until they resemble pulled pork. There are several kinds of rubs or marinades people use for flavor enhancements, but quite frankly nothing can be substituted for really long slow cooked smoked flavor and a finish in a bath of lard. You can use canola oil with excellent results, but lard ads another element of deliciousness.

Now, before you start ranting about how awful lard is for us, take some time to do some research. My blog on how to render lard is a good place to start. You never want to buy a solid white chunk or tub of lard, that has been processed & hydrogenated and it is as bad for you as Crisco. Home rendered lard is pure as the driven snow. And in this recipe, I only lost 1 tablespoon of lard in the cooking process… meaning that the pork was already cooked and therefore did not absorb much of the lard. Of course there was already some fat in the pork, as pork shoulder is a well-marbled piece of meat. And because it had already been through the smoking and braising process, much of the fat was extruded from the pork.

This recipe came about when I tried to recreate the taste of some carnitas I had eaten in Mexico when I went to cooking school there. I still kept the flavor profile in my mind after all of these years and decided to just go for it.

If you do not have a smoker, you can simply braise your pork, even try adding some liquid smoke in the braising liquid. If you do have a smoker, you want to smoke the pork low and slow. A pork shoulder is not a small piece of meat, so you can proceed with this process and use some of the pork for other dishes like pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. Or you can add shredded pork and wild mushrooms to reduced veal stock for a pork ragu. I cooked the pork and after braising pulled it and put it in tubs in the refrigerator to use for various things. There is just enough left to make one more batch of carnitas J.


You can look here to see my blog post from Manhattan on making home made tortillas. 

Here is the recipe which I think you will find very easy, even though the cooking time is spread out over two days, the actual working time is not much at all:

• Pierce a boneless pork butt and fill the slots with garlic cloves cut in half. Take your favorite rub or even just salt and pepper and rub all over the pork butt. Place in a smoker on low heat (225) for 8 hours.
• Remove the pork from the smoker and refrigerate overnight. In the morning place the meat in a crock pot on a layer of potatoes, carrots and onions. If you do not have a crockpot, this can be done in the oven. Pour 2 bottles of root beer over the meat. The liquid should come up to the half way mark on the meat. If you need to add more, do so. Cover the pan and cook on low (250) for another 7-8 hours. Remove the meat from the pot and allow to cool.
• Using two forks pull apart the meat. At this point it should almost fall apart. Choose how much you want to use for Carnitas and refrigerate the remaining meat for other uses such as pulled pork sandwiches.
• Prepare all side dishes, garnishes and tortillas before frying the carnitas. I made homemade tortillas (but you can buy and grill some), guacamole, chopped cilantro and onions and carrots en escabeche. Another common garnish is radishes and lime. I also had some salsa verde that I used on the beans and carnitas.
• Just before serving, heat lard or oil in a deep pan to 350 degrees. You will need about 2” of oil or lard and it will be discarded after cooking. In small batches, drop in the meat with a slotted spoon or spider. Cook for one minute and then flip over and cook for another. When the meat starts to get a caramel brown coating, remove it and drain on a rack. Continue on until you have cooked all of the meat. Serve immediately. J
• 

Lucanian Ancient Roman Sausages

Our cooking club had an Ancient Roman Dinner, complete with Togas. My addition to the dinner was Lucanian Sausages. I used a Kitchen Aid Mixer with the meat grinder and sausage attachment. If you do not have the luxury of these appliances the meat can be ground in a food processor or finely minced by hand and the sausages can be hand stuffed using a pastry bag, though this method is not ideal. Natural casings were obtained at Hilo’s Sack n Save. We are fortunate to have a store that provides these casings, otherwise I would have had to order them online. My guess is that the large Portuguese population here uses a lot of casings for making sausage. Juniper berries can be found in the bulk spice section of most health food stores. They can also be sourced online. 

Lucanian Sausage Recipe 

This sausage was brought back to Rome by soldiers who had served in Lucania, located in the heel of southern Italy, probably around 200 B.C.

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4 pounds pork shoulder cut in 1” cubes
½ cup of pine nuts
¼ cup black peppercorns
¼ cup pink pepper corns
3 tablespoons cumin seeds
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
30 bayberries or juniper berries (if available)
2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 teaspoon smoked salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or dried rue
2 teaspoons dried savory
1 tablespoon oregano
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup fish sauce
¼ cup honey
sausage casings

1. Grind meat using the large die on the grinder
2. Toast pine nuts and set aside, be careful not to burn
3. If you are using natural casings, they are preserved in salt and should be rinsed several times in water, including the inside. Do this by attaching the sausage filling ring to a length of sausage, then fill with water, then squeeze all of the water out. Then soak the casings in water for at least 20 minutes, finally rinse and place in a clean bowl.
4. Toast the seeds, pepper corns and juniper berries, allow to cool
5. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the seeds etc. to a rough consistency
6. In a large bowl add the ground meat, the seeds, herbs, parsley, fish sauce, honey, salt and pepper.
7. Using a 2-3 foot or so length of casing, push the casing over the sausage filling funnel on the sausage stuffer. Tie the end of the casing and secure with kitchen string. Have a large needle handy in case of air bubbles. If you get an air bubble, poke it. Run the machine on the #6 setting to fill the sausage. If you do not have a sausage stuffer, put a 1/2 inch plain tube in a piping bag and 1/2 fill with the mixture; do not put too much in at one time or it will be difficult to squeeze. Take the open end of the skin, pull it over the tube and push down repeatedly until the majority of the skin sits like a collar half way down the tube. Grip this with your finger and thumb and slowly release the skin as you squeeze the bag. Stop squeezing well before the skin runs out, leaving 2-3 inches of skin to allow for shrinkage. It will take some practice before you get this procedure right.
8. I like to work with 2 foot sections of casing, filling it completely, but not too tightly, then twist each length of sausage into the size of sausage you want. In this case I was serving many people so I made smaller sausages. I also tied each twist off with kitchen twine because I was smoking the sausages and they have to hang for that.
9. If you are able to smoke the sausages, tie them to the top rack and suspend in cool smoke for 5 hours. You can add a smoke box to a grill if you do not have a smoker. After smoking, grill the sausages briefly till the outsides are caramelized. 

Ribs Extraordinaire

I am going to call this recipe "Cheating the Cheat".  I got the original concept from Sam Sifton who among other things (like being the chief restaurant reviewer for the Times) does a column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine called The Cheat. It has long been one of my favorite things. He goes to a restaurant and deconstructs the food that he thinks is most delicious. Sometimes he gets a little help in the way of hints from the chefs, more recently this is true. I have a dog eared copy of a recipe he did for brined pork chops with glazed apples that is at least 6 years old. This is literally how I learned to cook. I would go to a restaurant and taste... then I was most often able to replicate flavors and textures. All of this intuition was of course backed up by technique and skills that I learned along the way, but the ability to figure out the things that really make a dish unique are somewhere in my DNA. Of course Mr. Sifton takes it to a whole new level... because he is none other than Sam Sifton whom I humbly revere.

In a recent "Cheat" article he explored ribs... really wonderful ribs, Malaysian style and perfectly cooked. The restaurant he reviewed earlier and had a lust for the ribs from was "Fatty Cue" in Brooklyn. The Chef/Owner there, Zachary Pleaccio had recently made a trip to Malaysia in search of inspiration for his food. His theme is: "The appeal of “strong cocktails, chili, palm sugar and smoky fat.” All of those elements appeal very much to me. You can read Mr. Sifton's review of Fatty Cue here. Warning, unless you are a vegetarian, this is going to make you salivate incessantly and inspire you to buy a ticket on the next plane to New York. 


Here is what I have learned about really great ribs: 

#1 You do NOT want fall off the bone ribs, those are ribs smothered and cooked in a way that loses much of the flavor and all of the bite of a good rib.
#2 When smoking (my favorite way to do ribs) you need to take time, do it slowly and in the end, you must have a smoke ring when you bite into it.
#3 My favorite ribs are those cooked with Malaysian/Asian elements.
#4 Sauce is good, but it is not the key element and I usually do not sauce my ribs, but serve sauce on the side, though these ribs end up being lacquered with a glaze at the end of the cooking process.

Mr. Sifton's recipe included all of those elements ~ and so I knew I would love these ribs. He did not use a smoker, but a grill. I have and love my Digitally controlled Bradley Smoker, so I used it, but this can also be done using the indirect method on a grill and with a smoke box in the grill. I did finish my ribs off on the grill, just to get a nice char on the exterior.

And, so here is the recipe. There is some wiggle room if you want to personalize it, but one thing you cannot remove or change is the element of the Fish Sauce. Three Crabs being the preferred brand. This takes an entire day to do. I added the star anise, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves,. chiles and increased a few things like the amount of garlic. This makes a lot of brine, I halved the recipe because I was using just one rack of ribs, this formula would work for two racks, maybe even three if you cut them up into sections as I did.

Recipe: Fatty 'Cue Spare Ribs (slightly altered)

2 cups fish sauce (preferably Three Crabs brand; see note)

10 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

2 medium shallots, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

3 whole star anise

4 kaffir lime leaves

1-2 fresh hot chiles cut in half (seeds intact)

2 stalks of lemon grass, bruised and tied in a knot

1/2 cup sugar

2 racks pork spare ribs (I used meaty back ribs)

2 tablespoons toasted and ground Indonesian long pepper, or to taste (see note)

6 ounces palm sugar (see note)

1. Combine 1 1/2 cups fish sauce with the garlic, shallot, lemon grass, kaffir lime, star anise, chile, black pepper and sugar in a large pot. Add at least a gallon of water, then cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat, place in a nonreactive container and chill. Place the ribs in the brine for at least 6 hours and no longer than 12.

2. Remove the ribs from the brine and dust lightly with ground Indonesian long pepper.

* Steps 3 & 4 were replaced by me using my digital smoker. I just set it on 220 degrees, put the Jim Beam Whiskey Barrel Wood disks in and let it go. If you do not have a smoker that you can control the heat with , use steps 3 & 4. I did char the ribs on the grill. 

3. In a grill with a cover, build a small fire to one side, making sure all the wood or charcoal becomes engulfed in flame. When the flames begin to die down, leaving flickering coals, place the ribs on the grill on the side without fire. Do not let the flames touch the meat at any time.

4. Cover the grill, vent slightly and cook, checking the fire every 30 minutes or so and adding a bit more fuel as necessary, for about 5 hours at around 220 degrees, until the meat recedes from the bone and its internal temperature is at least 170 degrees but no more than 180.

5. Meanwhile, make a glaze. Combine the palm sugar and 3/4 cup water in a small pot over a medium flame, and heat until the sugar melts. Combine that simple syrup with the remaining 1/2 cup fish sauce.

6. When the ribs are ready, glaze lightly and sear on the grill for about 5 mintues, then heavily glaze them again and serve. I served them with grilled corn on the cob, grilled smashed potatoes and parsley carrots. Salad on the side. Asian Slaw would be great with them too. 

Serves 4 to 6. Adapted from Robbie Richter and Zakary Pelaccio.

Note: Three Crabs fish sauce, long pepper and palm sugar can be found at most Asian Markets or at Amazon.com or Kalustyans.com.

Makin' Bacon

Living in what I lovingly call Pig World (Pigs are revered in Hawaii and were once the food of royalty) many cuts of pork are more abundant and affordable here. Pork Bellies are one of those. I just made two pounds of some of the best bacon I have ever tasted for less than $4. Bacon, always imported the mainland here sells for $6-7 a pound when not on sale. This however was not at all a decision based on money, but instead on flavor and the kind of satisfaction brought about by making things from scratch whenever possible. I roast my own coffee beans, bake my own bread, why not make my own bacon?

I have a Bradley digital smoker which enables me to smoke at any temperature or even to cold smoke. Bacon, as you can imagine needs to be smoked at a cooler temperature than say a Turkey, which I actually slow cook in the smoker. My smoker also allows me to smoke with most any kind of wood, as it requires pressed wood chips. Every 20 minutes a disc of wood is pushed onto the smoker element and the ashes of the remaining disc are then pushed into a bowl of water, making this also a smoker that you do not have to tend to or check frequently. 

Maple is one of my favorite smoking woods, as it has a sweeter and less bitter element than say... mesquite. However sometimes I use apple or cherry for delicate smoking too. Pecan is another favorite. There are times though that the intense flavor of mesquite is best. It all depends on what I am smoking. In this batch of bacon, I used maple. 

Here are the simple step by step instructions to making your own bacon at home. I have to say, it is one of the most delicious things I have ever made, as simple as it is. 

The Cure

If you have ever cured salmon, this is basically the same process. Another great reason to make your own bacon is that you can make it nitrate free! A simple cure of a spice rub is all that you need. I used one made with my smoked Hawaiian Salt, a bit of Maui Raw Sugar and some spices.  I had two slabs, so I did one adding lots of cracked pepper corns (A mix of 6 different kinds of pepper) and the other with maple sugar and California chiles ground up.  As you can imagine there are a multitude of combinations you can try. For a good  cure though, some salt is needed. All you do is rub the spices onto the flesh of the pork belly and then put it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. In the end, the cure is rinsed off of the slabs and then you can add more aromatics for the final smoking process. The bacon can stay in the bags for up to a week, but need at least 3 days for curing. Turn every day and it is also helpful to have a weight on the bags. After the first day you will notice that the salt is drawing moisture from the meat. 

When you are ready to smoke, rinse the slabs and pat dry. Using a sharp knife (I use a boning knife for this) slide the knife just beneath the skin of the pork belly and essentially filet it, removing just the skin (not the fat beneath it) from the meat. Next, add whatever aromatics you want for the final product. These flavors will be present at the edge of the bacon. In this case I used the crushed peppercorns on one and some maple sugar & crushed rosemary from the garden on the other. 

Smoking

You will need to have a smoker that does not have a fire under the meat. One with a smoke box on the side is good, or one like mine which you can digitally set the heating element. A stovetop smoker will not work for bacon. You do not want to heat the slabs higher than 125 degrees or you will be roasting them. I place the slabs on a rack above a drip pan. I do this whenever I am smoking meats, as it just keeps the whole smoker cleaner and eliminates chances of flare ups.  

If you have a large smoker like I do, you can experiment imparting smoke flavors to other things while you are doing the bacon. I figure if I have empty shelves, I am "wasting" smoking space. I often do salt, rice, polenta, garlic and other items that taste good with a bit of smoke flavoring. 

Smoke for 8-10 hours with the vent nearly closed. 

Remove, cool and put in to zip lock bags. 

When ready to slice, use a very sharp knife if you do not own a meat slicer (I do not) and slice it. I found after a little experimenting that cutting the slab in half lengthwise enabled me to make thinner slices. Since I was using the bacon for a BLT anyway, it made the bacon just the right size for sandwiches. 

And so for a valentine's brunch today, I had home cured Bacon, garden fresh tomato, fresh genoa basil and arugula on home made sprouted whole wheat with home made mayonnaise. I also had local coffee beans roasted here at home! Life is good on the BIG ISLAND! 

A taste of Cuba... my way

I have been missing Cuban flavors. There are no Cuban restaurants in Hilo, and only one I know of in Honolulu. Hence, I made an old favorite of mine, Cuban Style Porchetta with black beans and a Cajun corn dish (Corn Maque Choux) because we have great fresh corn available year round here in Hilo.

When using the smoker, I like to fill the shelves with other things, this time, I added 10# of raw California Almonds seasoned with my own spice mix and a bit of olive oil. Other times I smoke pecans, artichokes, peppers, rice, salt, garlic or polenta.

At my cooking school in Chicago, Cuban nights were among the best attended and requested. So many people are unfamiliar with Cuban cooking and really want to learn more about it. Many people expect it to be like Mexican, Mayan or Caribbean, but Cuban food, just like it's people has a taste of it's own. It is far less spicy and probably a little more fattening (loads of sugar, starches and pork) than most Mexican food. But there are also nuances of this cuisine from various areas of the island which have had influences of other cuisines. And of course, like in all things, I take a little personal editorial power to change things to my palate whenever I make Cuban food. After reading and studying about the Castillian & Chinese influences on Cuban Cuisine, I have come to a belief that it was the Cubans themselves who sometimes watered down dishes to a more bland palate. This seems to be even more evident with Cuban Americans who came over in the 1960's mostly living in Florida and New York.

ALL food was more tempered back in the '60's. I can remember the way my mother cooked.... very mild and that was in Southern California where people had access to so many more ingredients and spices. It was certainly edited by housewives who were trying to please a broad audience of dinner guests. I clearly remember Lawry's Seasoned Salt being considered something exotic in the early 1960's today it is rarely if ever used by serious home cooks. And then there were the processed foods... Bisquick, Swanson TV Dinners, Tang, Velveeta and Minute Rice to name a few, which we thought were the "it foods" of modernity. We have come a long way baby!

The hotel chefs and home chefs of today's Cuba serve up a cuisine that is both exciting and abundant with flavors that are missing from the exile's recipes and cuisine. And then there are Cubans living in other locales that present unique new dishes with the same flavor elements like this recipe for Porchetta. This recipe is based on one given to me by a Cuban Exile living in the Philippines. It has been pointed out to me that the name is actually Italian (DUH!) but the way I make it, it is the essence of Cuban flavors from my experience and the smoking process (which I added)

The seasonings added to the dish are essential. It is Cuban inspired and loved by every Cuban I have ever served it to, as well as hundreds of Americans who were seeking a taste of Cuba.

I read up as much as I can on Cuban and Cuban-American culture and just finished an incredibly good book which I suggest any of you try, it is Tastes Like Cuba by Eduardo Machado and his partner Michael Domitrovich. I have made many Cuban style black bean dishes, but this time I tried one I had never seen called Black Beans Cuca's Way. It has some interesting ingredients, but of course I had to add some spice to it too. One of the different ingredients it has in it is a cup of sherry. Naturally that piqued my interest, but when my liquor cabinet lacked a bottle of sherry. I opted for Cognac instead. It added a marvelous element of flavor to the beans. This is something that I will be doing whenever I make black beans Cuban Style in the future.

Here are some recipes which I hope make your mouth water...

Porchetta (Slow-roasted shoulder of pork) de Devany

Serves 8-10 (and makes wonderful leftovers for tacos or pulled pork sandwiches)

20 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 Cup fennel seeds, ½ Cup cumin seeds and ¼ Cup coriander seeds toasted in a skillet
2 tablespoons coarse salt
3 tablespoon coarse black pepper
8-10 small dried red thai chiles, crumbled
½ cup of fresh flat leaf parsley finely chopped
½ cup of cilantro finely chopped

1 boneless shoulder of pork (about 6-7 lbs) Or a bone in Pork Butt Roast(also called shoulder) of same size. If you are going to do this recipe in a crock pot or electric roaster, just be sure that it fits in the pot you are using when you buy it.

Juice of 2 lemons
1 Cup of pork stock or chicken broth, divided
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1. Preheat oven to 450 or prepare smoker (my preferred method). In a pan, toast fennel, coriander and cumin seeds. Using a mortar and a pestle, crush the garlic and the toasted seeds and make sure they are well mixed add 2 TB of olive oil. Alternate method: Use a food processor on pulse. Add the salt, pepper and the chiles. Combine well.

Cut 1-inch wide slits into the the surface of the pork shoulder, including the top and bottom of the meat.

Rub the garlic mixture well into the meat. Be sure to get this mixture down inside the slits.

If using a smoker, put the meat fat side up in a smoker at 220 degrees for 6 hours. I use maple wood and sometimes cherry or apple. A sweet wood goes better with pork.

3. Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a heavy Dutch oven or if you are using a crock pot, a heavy frying pan (the one you used for toasting the seeds will work). Sear the meat all on all sides over medium low heat, making sure NOT to burn the garlic.

4. Remove the roast from the pan and add ½ a cup of the broth/stock heated in microwave first, stirring and scraping the bottom to deglaze. Place a rack at the bottom of the pan. Add the meat, fatty side up and roast uncovered in the oven for 30 minutes. If you are using a crock pot or roaster, you can skip the roasting step and let it cook a little longer in the frying pan.

5. Pour the lemon juice and remaining broth/stock over the meat and brush with the remaining olive oil. If you are doing this in the crock pot, pour the deglazing liquid and goodies from the pan over the roast in the crock pot, then add the lemon juice.

6. Reduce the heat to 250, cover the pan and roast 8-10 hours, occasionally brushing meat with the pan juices. The roast will be done when the meat falls apart when barely touched with a fork (probably 8 hours or so). If using a crock pot you will not have to baste. Crock pot should be on low for 8 hours or until it falls apart easily.

7. Remove roast from pan and place on serving platter. Skim the fat from the pan juices and serve dripping on the side or over the meat. Or you can thicken with a roux to make a gravy. Serve with the Salsa Verde.

Salsa Verde

2 Cups Italian parsley
1 Cup basil leaves
1 Cup mint leaves
1/2 Cup capers well rinsed
½ Cup of green olives
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
6-8 garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 Cup virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. coarse black pepper

*optional: 2 salt-packed anchovy fillets, soaked in water for 30 minutes, rinsed and dried, if you do this you may want to reduce the amount of olives and capers to reduce the salt impact.

1. Wash parsley, basil and mint and spin dry in a salad spinner.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the parsley, basil, mint, anchovies, capers, olives, pepper, mustard, garlic and red pepper flakes. With the motor running, slowly add the olive oil. It should form a relatively smooth puree that is still slightly chunky. Makes 1 Cup and keeps well. Leftovers can be frozen in ice cube trays like pesto or sofrito and used as a seasoning in other dishes.


Corn Maque Choux
Pronounced "mock shoe," this Louisiana staple (which is like a succotash) is a Cajun take on a Native American dish.
4 servings

Ingredients
· 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
· 1 cup finely chopped onion
· 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
· 2 cups fresh corn kernels (cut from 3 medium ears of corn)
· 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
· 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
· 1/2 teaspoon (or more) hot pepper sauce
· 1 green onion, finely chopped
· 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
· 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
· Coarse kosher salt

Preparation
· Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add bell pepper; sauté until beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Add corn; sauté 2 minutes. Add cream, thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce. Simmer until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Mix in green onion, parsley, and basil. Season to taste with coarse salt, pepper, and more hot pepper sauce, if desired.

I hope this becomes a favorite at your family table!

Aloha,

devany

Two Juicy Pineapples + 4 Juicy Pork Chops

Maybe I am a Pineapple Princess.... 

It all started when I was walking through Sack n Save in downtown Hilo. This is normally my "market of choice" for things I cannot find at the Farmer's Market. Although, living on an island, we of course have to make runs to various stores (Safeway, KTA and Cost U Less; No Whole Foods or Trader Joe's here) to find some things and there are also things that we may not be able to find at all. I was meandering in the sprout section (which is actually quite comprehensive) and saw a sign out of the corner of my eye, "Pineapples .25 cents a pound, Save $2.54 a pound!"

Being a person that finds it difficult to pass up a true bargain I decided to pick up a couple of fifty cent pineapples. Normally I buy white pineapples that come over from Maui. A woman a the Farmer's Market brings them once a week. BUT those white pineapples come at a hefty price, usually about $7 each, so doing the math did not take long for me. Dole Gold would do just fine this week. 

Another great thing about pineapples is that every one you buy gives you more pineapples. Yes, that is if you live in the right climate. I just twist off the top, strip the leaves about one inch from the bottom and put it in a glass to root. My studio has a window sill filled with rooting pineapple starts. Once roots are developed you just plant and wait about 18 months for your own sweet juicy pineapples! 

Now what? Hmm... let's see if they have some big juicy pork chops to go with the pineapples! They had local range fed pork chops which I scooped up and I made my way home with my pineapples and pork chops, my head was spinning just thinking or what I might do with them. 

Last Sunday at Scuba Sunday, my friend Carey had just given me a bag of Cuban Sour Oranges, or Orange Lemons as they call them here. She has an abundance of them and Carey always loves to share much to the delight of our dive club and Cooking Club. I decided to juice the Sour Oranges and make a marinade for the pork chops and then do a Pineapple Salsa to top them.

Here is the resulting recipe which us easy and very Ono (GOOD in Hawaiian): 

Pork Chops in Sour Orange Marinade with Pineapple Salsa

Ingredients

Marinade:

• 1/4 teaspoon lime zest
• 2 Sour Oranges or Limes juiced
• 2 inch piece of ginger chopped
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 small shallot, chopped
• 1 serano pepper, chopped 
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt

Directions

Pineapple Salsa:

• 1/2 pineapple, diced and cored, juices reserved
• 1 ripe tomato, diced
• 1 clove of garlic finely minced
• 1/2 red onion, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 red jalapeno, diced (or green if you can't find red)
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
• 1 sour orange, juiced (or lime if you cannot find sour oranges)
• Salt and pepper
• Bone-in, center-cut pork chops (this recipes makes enough for four, but you can adjust it)

For the marinade:

Blend all the ingredients in a large bowl. Place in a resealable plastic bag and add the pork chops. Marinate in the refrigerator for up to 3 hours.

For the salsa:

Mix all the salsa ingredients in a medium bowl. Taste for seasoning. Set aside for 10 minutes for flavors to meld.

Preheat grill to medium heat.

Remove chops from marinade. Grill for 5 minutes per side for a medium rare and 8 minutes for medium. Remove chops from grill and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.
Spoon on salsa.  

*note... this salsa and marinade could also be used with fish & chicken. 

Now, here are a few more great Pineapple Pictures for you courtesy of my 

Two Juicy Pineapples Productions