Crows in the Kitchen » cookbooks

pork for the week

emily — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:49:28 +0000

Thanks to an awesome cookbook bestowed onto me by my mother-crow called “The thousand recipe Chinese cookbook” by Gloria Bley Miller, I’ve committed myself (at least temporarily) to a one-meat-a-week diet. This book teaches cooks how to start the week with one type of meat, cooked __ way, and then use that already cooked meat in the rest of your meals until it is gone.

Meat
Roasted Pork Shoulder
275 Degrees
6 hours
Dry spice rub of your choosing
–>I used a certain spice rub created by Ms. Maureen S. last xmas

When I started reading through this cookbook I realized that I would need a wok. My first wok was non-stick, and rusted after about 6 months where the Teflon peeled away. (gross!) When I lived in San Francisco there was this awesome store in Chinatown called The Wok Shop. I always went in there, but never bought anything- even though it is freakishly reasonably priced. Once I moved and started looking for woks online, I realized I had missed a great opportunity- this store is considered one of the best wok shops in the country, if not THE wok shop. Luckily for me they have a fairly straight-forward online ordering system. I ended up with 1 handmade iron wok, a gas oven ring (yay! no more electric stove!), a two tiered bamboo steamer, and a Chinese-style pickling jar for my main squeeze all for under $50, including shipping. What a steal!…I appreciate the big warning on the ordering page “our products do not have lead.” Did they previously?!?

Dinner
Roast pork stir fry with kale
and julienne veggies
Place the wok over high heat, drizzle oil into the hot pan
Add julienne veggies, stir fry 1 minute
Add pork and kale, stir fry until warm
add a 1/4 c or so broth, cover and steam- serve with rice

We’ve had a tub of plan greek-ish (thick, but not quite thick enough to count as strained) yogurt in the fridge for about a week. We also had some cucumbers and some dill, along with a few lemons to boot. So, I made a little tzatziki sauce to eat with my Chinese food, and it was delicious.

Lunch/Dinner
Pulled pork sandys
We used Fornax sliced sourdough boule, but just about any hearty bread would do
smear mustard on one side of the bread and BBQ sauce on the other
place pulled pork on sandi, put pickles, or jalapenos, or any other treat on the pork
Slice cheese (we used Moz.) and make sandwich
Toast for 5 minutes until warm through and the bread is crispy

Dinner
Pork Chili
Chop: onions, carrots, potatoes and soften over heat with oil S & P
Deglaze the pan with some red wine, hopefully less crappy than the wine I chose
Add pork, cumin, chili powder, oregano, and full head of garlic, pressed
cook until the liquid is absorbed
deglaze with broth and bring to a boil
add tomatoes- simmer 30 minutes
Add red and white kidney beans- simmer 30 minutes

Who knows what creation will result from the leftover chili!

Summer Love

Vbar — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:19:01 +0000

Hello all! I admit to laziness lately, mostly because this intense urban heat has left me with little desire for time in the kitchen and more inclination towards things like frozen veggie burgers and take out. Of course, there are always ways to get around it being “too hot to cook” and I think that all this ordering out is finally putting a great enough strain on my budget that I’m recommitted to finding out what they are.

In case readers are interested, my ManCrow and I recently made it official and got engaged. Yay! We had a celebratory party last weekend and the amazing outpouring of love that came from my fellow Crows made my lil’ heart swell. Lucky for me, a lot of this love came in the form of amazing food, which I will leave to them to share. Let me just say that the antipasti was legendary.

Along with the Crows, I was lucky enough to have the beautiful company of two of my all time besties, Elaine and Katlhleen who came all the way from New York for a mere 14 hours just to show the love. They also brought me some just amazing (and unecessary!) gifts- a beautiful bamboo bowl and a lovely leaf platter from the MoMA. Also, a cookbook/culinary essential that I have been meaning to pick up for a long time: Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it.

I used Elaine and Katlheen’s gifts for the fist time tonight, and I think that along with some leftover Cava, they made for a beautiful spread.

I’m a lucky lady, in so many ways. Our quick and easy summer dinner included:

-Brown Basmati Rice

-Green beans- grilled in a pouch with lemon rounds, crushed garlic and olive oil. Topped with clumps of riccotta (not shown)

-Grilled chicken sausage

-A fresh garden salad with white balsamic

A perfect solution to the to-hot-to-cook rule is always to grill.

I love you, Real Simple.

Vbar — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:11:50 +0000

Its true. I love Real Simple Magazine. Sure, there are a little to many articals that reference having children. And sure, it promotes almost every heteronormative stereotypes under the sun, but I don’t care. Who knew that you can clean a keyboard with stickynotes? Or what brand of curl smoother works best? Or which brand of pickles has the best crunch? Real Simple will teach you all this and more. It rocks. Plus, they have awesome, easy, inexpensive recipes.

I made this super yummy Potato Leek and Feta Tart from their September issue the other nice and it was so savory and comforting, and super, super easy. Try it out!