Blog Archives
French Fridays with Dorie: Lemongrass-Coconut Braise
As I sit here writing today’s post, all I can say is that if you live on the East Coast, what’s with this heat? We thought we were leaving the Boston area heat behind by escaping to the lake in Maine, but as I follow the temperatures today, it’s just as hot here as at home. Ugh!
I found this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie, Braised Lemongrass-Coconut Pork, to be a seasonal challenge. A stew with root vegetables just didn’t feel like the right thing to be eating when you’re stuck under a “heat dome”, temperatures in the high 90’s for days. I have eaten more ice cream this week, 4 times already, and, true confessions, I don’t even like ice cream that much. (I know, it’s not normal. I’m also not a huge chocolate fan.)
My version is more of interpretation on the theme than a strict following of the recipe, though it does have the same structure. I kept with spirit of Dorie’s recipe so the sauce and flavorings were the same. I used chicken thighs because Howard made ribs over the weekend, and I was just plain “porked” out. I also took inspiration from the season’s vegetables and used steamed green beans and raw red and green pepper along with cherry tomatoes instead of the more autumnal ones suggested. I just realized I didn’t add anything from the onion family. I think I should have included some diced onion chunks, briefly stir-fried. I served this stew over jasmine rice, in a bowl.
This one will go in the “OK” category. It was fine, but lacked excitement. It wasn’t quite Thai, it wasn’t quite Indian, it definitely wasn’t French. Even though I used hot curry powder, the flavors weren’t as strong or as interesting as they could have been. I’m not sure whether I will play around with this to try to make it more to my liking, but there are so many recipes out there to try, I think I’ll just move on. (To be fair to the dish, I don’t mean to dis it, but it just wasn’t 90-degree-weather fare.)
Next week’s recipe is intriguing: a mixed berry terrine. I’ve never made anything like it before. I know I’m the only one in my house that will eat this one, so I either have to figure out how to make a mini-version, or find someone who wants to share it with me.
For this cooking group, we don’t share the recipes, but if anything looks good to you, you can find it in Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Of course, you are welcome to cook along, any time you like. We’re here every Friday at French Fridays with Dorie. (Note that, this week, the server is probably down until the end of the weekend…)
If you are under the heat dome with me, stay cool this weekend. It looks like the temperatures will go back down on Sunday.
Let It Snow!
Posole with Pulled Pork and Hominy
Well, the Blizzard of 2010 is over. Supposedly, it was the 10th biggest storm in Boston’s history. Honestly, it didn’t seem that bad. Granted, it was happened on a weekend when we had nowhere we had to be. It snowed a lot and got extremely windy. But, on the whole, I’m not sure it seemed like “Top 10”. We got around 15 inches here in Lexington. That was more than the 7 inches my sister got outside of Philadelphia, and less than the nearly 2 feet my sister-in-law got in Northern New Jersey. The end result was a cozy day spent inside.
2 feet in New Jersey
15 Inches in Lexington
7 inches in Philadelphia
One of Howard’s activities of the day (besides several rounds of shoveling and snowblowing the driveway) was to organize our extra freezer space. We have a full-sized freezer unit in the basement. To quote Howard, “it is way too full”. He contends that, as long as we didn’t lose power, we could probably live off its contents for at least a year. He might be exaggerating, but not by much. Post-organizing, he told me there was almost a full shelf of homemade tomatillo sauce, some of it dating back to 2005.
As a result of his good-natured teasing, it seemed appropriate to make a dinner from the stockpile in my frozen larder, featuring, naturally, some tomatillo sauce.
I made an old favorite, Quick Posole, using a frozen packet of pulled pork from a summertime smoking along with a quart of homemade chicken stock (also frozen). I like this recipe because it’s a sort of mix-and-match deal, depending on what’s at hand. The original recipe used chicken, freshly poached. Black beans or another variety can easily be substituted for the hominy. I’ve also made it with a red cooked salsa instead of the green tomatillo sort.
Pumpkin Seed Flour
I think one of my favorite things about it is that it is thickened with ground toasted pumpkin seeds. I toast the pumpkin seeds in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, then let them cool off. I use a coffee grinder (which I’ve never used for coffee, just spices and other non-coffee items) to transform the seeds into a nut flour. I’m not sure whether the flavor is noticable, but I think it’s a cool ingredient to add.
Here’s how you do it:
Quick Posole
Serves 4
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups tomatillo sauce or cooked red salsa
4 cups chicken broth
½ cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted and ground
2 (15-16 oz) cans hominy, drained and rinsed
1½ cups shredded chicken or pulled pork
Chopped cilantro
Note: If you start with uncooked chicken (1 breast or 2 thighs should yield the 1½ cups needed), poach the chicken for about 20 minutes in the chicken broth you will use for the posole. Cool the chicken and shred.
Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the sauce. Be careful, it will spatter. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, until thickened. Add pumpkin seeds and 1 cup of chicken broth. Simmer for 5 more minutes. Add chicken or pork, hominy, and the remaining 3 cups of broth. Simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Stir in chopped cilantro.
A Plateful of Happiness 