It's not every day a girl gets to play with 600 pounds of meat and a smoker the size of a Humvee.
I'm going to back up for a second and tell you this: Every year at work — and this is a food company, mind you — we've eaten the same thing.
Burgers, dogs, chips and watermelon.
Not this year. This year, we were going to eat corn on the cob, saucy ribs, salmon grilled on cedar planks and pulled pork barbecue. Real barbecue. On a real smoker.
But for 1,000 people, one needs a lot of meat and a really big smoker, and as you may have noticed... those aren't available at every corner bodega.
Thus, the quest for real barbecue at our picnic wasn't looking good until someone noticed that Harry's Water Taxi Beach just happens to host a really big smoker.
You're going to need a lot of wood...
The game was on. We needed supplies. A lot of supplies. This turned into an Excel Spreadsheet. A thousand hungry people is nothing you want to tinker with. Details needed to be decided. Among other things, my boss (initiator and executor of this wild scheme) demanded:
200 lb Pork Butts 75 lb Pork Shoulder 50 lb Pork Ribs 40 lb Pork Belly 250 Packages of Potato Rolls 10 gallons of Barbecue Mop 2 Mops 1 Quart Kosher Salt 1 First Aid Kit...
And that's just a sampling. Simply planning out and gathering up the supply list was a monster proposition.
21 dry-aged steaks. You've gotta have snacks while you work.
Let yourself go... low and slow, that is the tempo.
The night arrived, the crew assembled, the supplies were delivered, the fire was lit, and... I'll just let you watch the extremely condensed version of our 12+ hour smoking party in this quick video.
And was it good? Was it worth it? Oh, yes. Best. Company picnic. Ever.
But you don't need 500 pounds of meat and a smoker of epic proportions to make good barbecue.
In my estimation, what you really need is a manageable smoker, a nice pork butt, a bunch of wood, a lot of free time and Paul Kirk's awesome barbecue book, full of recipes for barbecue mops, rubs, sauces and more. Kirk is the man.
Meanwhile, if you want yet more barbecue madness, you can see the full photo set at Flickr.
As surmised, last week Cupcake was visiting the handsome polar bear at the Musée d'Orsay. Where in the world is Cupcake this week? Be the envy of your friends and the bane of your enemies by posting a guess in the comments.
Vertical Farms for Urban Areas Critics question zucchini-in-the-sky visions: “Would a tomato in lower Manhattan be able to outbid an investment banker for space in a high-rise?”
In my short career in video blogging, I've run through making fresh paneer cheese, watching the Salvatore Ricotta folks stuff cheese into cannoli and now, my latest clip documents the making of uber-traditional pecorino in the Italian countryside.
I'm afraid you'll start to believe I'm a bit cheese-obsessed. I assure you, the theme is entirely coincidental. I swear the next video will be about something other than cheese.
Meanwhile, I have to say, this is really my favorite clip yet, featuring some truly charming Italian sheep and goats I met in the mountains of Abruzzo while on a farm stay near Sora, Italy. They were excellent actors, all. Very cooperative.
You'll notice that, in making the cheese, the shepherd uses nothing more than milk in a big, black cauldron, a stick(!), some sheep's stomach and coarse salt. That's it. There's a campfire on hand for making ricotta, which is a byproduct of his pecorino processing.
Aside from the shepherd's snazzy threads, there's very little here that's any different from the way people have been making cheese for thousands of years.
Looks easy, no? But before you go and get yourself a herd of your own, know this: the shepherd and his wife get up before dawn every day to do this. Weekends. Holidays. Every day. There's no vacation from a herd of sheep and goats.
Meanwhile, I secreted a wheel of this very cheese back to the states in my luggage and am going to ask Anne Saxelby to nestle it in her cave to age for a bit. We'll see how it tastes after it's had a few months to rest.
Spotting a fine sale on washed spinach last week, my thoughts turned to darkness... as in the rich green darkness one finds in a pot of long-simmered spinach.
"Great Scott!" I cried, "It's a sign from the food gods! I will make palek paneer!" (I'm sure this sort of thing happens to everyone, no?)
I realize that for those who haven't spent a lot of time staring at Indian take-out menus, palek paneer might sound like a lot of mumbo-jumbo. For zealots (myself included) it translates more like this: "really tasty spiced and slow-cooked spinach (palek) with cubes of very mild, creamy white cheese (paneer)"
The real problem with palek paneer is the spinach. If you've ever cooked creamed spinach, you know that a big pile of it wilts down to practically nothing. For this dish to be worth the effort, you need a bushel of spinach.
But one large produce sale and three bulky 10oz bags of spinach later, the fridge was stuffed with greenery and I was ready to get my simmer on.
First, the Palek
If you have a spice grinder (or a coffee grinder that can be put into service as a spice grinder), it's really best to use whole spices for Indian dishes. They're more flavorful, and we're looking for flavor when we add spice to a dish.
That said, if you can't grind your spices, go with pre-ground, but keep in mind that you might need to use extra spice to flavor the dish properly.
So-Simple Palek Paneer (Feeds six, if served with rice)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric 1/2 tsp ground cayenne or Aleppo pepper (if you like it spicy)
Heat in a heavy bottomed stock pot or skillet:
1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil (or ghee, if you prefer)
Add the spice blend to the pan and allow it to heat for 30 seconds.
Add to the pan:
2 small onions, diced (about 1 cup) 1 jalapeno pepper, halved and sliced thin 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated (or minced) 1 tsp salt
Saute until onions are translucent, and add to the pan:
3-4 medium tomatoes, chopped (or 1 28oz can diced tomatoes)
Bring the mixture to a simmer and add (in several batches, if the spinach is fresh)
30 oz fresh spinach (washed and chopped) OR 2 8oz boxes frozen spinach
Simmer mixture, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. While this cooks down, make the paneer. (See paneer how-to, below.)
Uncover pot and season the mixture to taste.
At this point, you may wish to make your palek smooth by using an immersion blender (or cool off the mixture and blend it in a traditional blender.) I don't mind a little visible fiber, so I generally skip this step.
If the mixture seems too thin, simmer another 15-20 minutes to reduce to your desired thickness.
Before serving, gently fold paneer cubes into the palek. Heat 2-3 minutes more.
Serve with a basmati pilaf, assorted chutneys and naan or chapati, if desired.
Variations: Chickpea lovers (you know who you are) may wish to add a 14oz can (drained) while the spinach simmers, and those who aren't dairy-eaters can certainly substitute tofu cubes for the paneer — though they'll miss out on all the fun of making paneer, of course.
All About Paneer...
A coworker recently asked me about making paneer. It took about 15 seconds to explain the process. "And that's it?" was his incredulous response. Yup. That's it.
The fact is, paneer, like all farmer cheese, is embarrassingly simple to make. I say "embarrassingly" because once you make it yourself, you'll be mortified at the thought of ever having paid money for someone else to make your paneer. That's how easy it is.
Paneer-like farmer cheeses can be found wherever milk is found (as it turns out, people all over the world come to roughly similar conclusions when confronted with surplus milk) and considering how simple (and frankly, how fun) it is to make fresh cheeses, I'm a little surprised it's not a part of everyone's standard home-cooking routine.
I learned how to make paneer using coconut vinegar, but honestly, any tasty acid will work just fine.
I've made a video to demonstrate the process, but in case you're one of those rare people who enjoy reading, the instructions are written out below.
Warning: This is my first cooking video. It's hand-held and done without a prepared script, so it's a bit rough. I promise these will get better...
So then, you'll need:
1 quart of whole milk the juice of two lemons a triple-layered sheet of cheese cloth (or a clean, thin cotton towel)
Rest the towel or cheese cloth in a colander.
Heat the milk in a saucepan to hot, but not boiling (it will steam).
While stirring the milk, pour in the lemon juice. The mixture should clot as you stir. Drain the coagulated solids through the cloth in the colander. Gather the hot curd into a packet, and when it's cool enough to handle, press it into a block, squeezing out any excess liquid. Cool down your block of paneer and slice it into cubes for use in recipes. (You may wish to weigh it down beneath a cutting board to extract excess liquid and make the paneer more firm.)
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