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Italian Bahn Mi

Italian Bahn Mi

I love the bahn mi.  I think it’s a wonderful sandwich.  Typically, you see it offered from small Vietnamese sandwich shops and they are filled with a variety of meats or soy products, lemongrass, cilantro and kewpie.  Taking all of this into account, I decided to go I-talian style on it so I kept the pork belly but changed everything else.  I rubbed the pork belly with rosemary, salt and pepper and grilled it slowly until I got a nice char.  The kewpie became veganaise because I was making this dairy free.  The cilantro became parsley and the carrots and or lemongrass because quick pickled onions.  I served it with a simple spinach salad with Jersey tomatoes.  I think this sandwich is quite befitting of Philadelphia and I enjoyed both making and eating it.

 

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Posted by on September 4, 2012 in dinner, grill, recipes, slow cook

 

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Confit Pork Belly

Confit Pork Belly

So we had another potluck.  This time, brunch was the theme.  There were a ton of cool dishes and I was happy I made this one.  It was pretty simple, it just required some advanced planning.  You need to let the pork belly cure overnight in wine and the spices and then, an 8 hour low cook in the slow cooker.  Finally, when you’re ready to use it, you sear it up and get ready for a taste of heaven.

I went with a chardonnay which actually gave a very cool sweetness to the whole dish.  The herbs played nicely but let’s be honest, there aren’t many ways for pork belly to be bad.  The only downside of this recipe is that it uses a ton of oil because you actually keep the belly in oil in the fridge.  It will stay for months like this  (which is the purpose of making something confit) and it’s very worth it.

The original recipe can be found here which I followed exactly.  Thanks for I Stuff My Face for the recipe.

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Posted by on August 27, 2012 in brunch, dinner, recipes, slow cook

 

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Crock Pot Brisket

Crock Pot Brisket

So yeah, about that vegan thing.  Well, I never said that I was going totally vegan, just that I was pursuing a vegan lifestyle when appropriate.  The beauty of being vegan-ish is that you can break from your normal routine from time to time.  I had wanted to make brisket in a crock pot for quite a while and since this recipe involved no dairy, it was a perfect meal to share with my girlfriend.  She had mentioned that brisket was something her mom made growing up and it was delicious.  Hence, this dish came together.

Slow cooking meats is sort of a white rabbit for me.  I don’t get the science behind it but I have had very good results.  The concept of taking a high fat content piece of meat and cooking it way beyond the accepted temperature of one of its less fatty counterparts (aka, ribeye, filet) and having a truly delicious and mouthwatering product is something that doesn’t get old for me.  I figured with all the stuff in this pot, I could very easily reduce it for a delicious sauce.

Pro-tip: Trust your nose on this one.  Depending on your slow cooker, the brisket may be done a bit earlier.  I’m not saying dramatically earlier, but if it’s looking / smelling right and there is an hour left, I’d check on it.  You don’t want it drying out.

 

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Posted by on July 2, 2012 in dinner, recipes, slow cook

 

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Kalua Pork

Kalua Pork

The real magic of this recipe is that it’s pork cooked in pork fat.

So I’ve been on this vegan-ish kick recently and while I’ve been enjoying all the veggies and healthy stuff, once in a while, I crack.  I’ll never go vegan, I just don’t think I have the fortitude.  All I can say is that I’m minimizing meat and focusing on a whole food, plant based diet.

Now let’s turn our attention away from the previous paragraph to talk about pork.  How can something so simple be so delicious?  I tasted the outcome of this recipe and I my first thought was, “this stuff should be illegal.”  If you also want to talk about simple, I honestly urge you to try to find something simpler than this.  There is a time investment and perhaps that’s what might be the only hangup about this recipe but it’s totally worth it.  Just set your alarm, wake up, drop a few things in the crock pot and go back to sleep.  In a few hours, you will awake to a wonderful smell in your home that will whet your appetite and leaving you counting the minutes until dinner time.

We paired this with a very simple mango salsa and some jasmine rice perfumed with lime zest.  Avocado also seemed like a natural pairing so we sliced some up and put it on the plate, sprinkled with salt of course.  The real kicker here is the Alaea.  It does something magical to that pork.  You can specifically taste the richness in the final product.  Fortunately, my partner in crime brought some home from Hawaii from her recent trip and also was the inspiration behind making this dish.

 

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Posted by on June 18, 2012 in dinner, recipes, slow cook

 

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Duqqa Beer Can Chicken

Duqqa Beer Can Chicken

During my recent trip to Canada, I was lucky enough to visit one of Edmonton’s indoor farmer’s markets.  We ended up purchasing a few items there for the dinner that we cooked during the freak snowstorm that happened Saturday night.  Fortunately, I was able to bring back a spice blend called Duqqa.  The spice blend that I picked up pretty much sticks to what is referenced in that wikipedia article.  I immediately thought of putting it on chicken and cooking it, which led me to today’s recipe.

After the easter ham, I knew that I was able to cook low and slow on my grill.  I took that approach today with this recipe.  I ran it at about 225 until it was cooked through (safe cooking temp about 180 for chicken before carry over)  The result was one tasty bird.  While this recipe takes some time, it saves you in prep work which takes all of 5 minutes.

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Posted by on June 4, 2012 in dinner, entertaining, grill, recipes, slow cook

 

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