Pulled Pork

We had a party at the office this weekend.  It was a shredding, electronics disposal, BBQ and chair massage.  Oh, and folks could sign their paperwork for our big change.  Several weeks ago we had a BBQ tasting and determined that Black Diamond was the best.  Like they won by 27 points out of 30 to the other's 19 points.   See the things we go through for our clients?  I know.  It's tough but somebody's got to do it. 

Time came to order and the website said the big tray of pulled pork or beef brisket would serve 40.  I ordered a tray and a half of each.  Then, I ordered a tray and a half of mac and cheese and a tray each of slaw and baked beans.  Should have been plenty of food.  Let's just say the mac and cheese and baked beans were inhaled.  I got a little taste early on then headed to my office to meet with folks.  When I came up for air four hours later the pans were empty.  Bare.  Nada.  The only thing we had much left over was pulled pork.  There was about four pounds of that.  And, maybe a pound of the beef brisket. 

With the hours we've been working cooking has not been a priority.  But, I'm craving some good homecooked food.  So, I decided to take an evening and turn the pork into four dishes of about six to eight servings each.  I'd decided to make chili, shepherd's pie, stuffed peppers and something else.  As luck would have it, there was an article in Food Network Magazine by Melissa D'Arabian about ten uses for leftover pulled pork.  I was pumped.  As it turned out, I'd already made "sloppy joes" with some of the meat.  And, I had the chili and shepherd's pie on the menu.  Then, I found an old recipe from an antique Woman's Day that I'd pulled out of the stack in the basement to go thru and toss.  It was for a beef stew with garbanzo beans, black beans, salsa...  Perfect for pork.  I had my four dishes.  And, I came home in time to cook.

Here are the basics.  Since time is so precious here I'm going to be brief...

Shepherd's Pie:  Mix pulled pork, jarred gravy (pork is best but turkey will do,) a good splash of white wine, a good dose of herbs, frozen peas, chopped and cooked carrots, frozen pearl onions and a can of mushrooms.  Top it all with cheesy mashed potatoes and a sprinkle of paprika or emeril's essence or BBQ rub or something that'll give it some color and zing.  Bake until it's nice and bubbly.

Stuffed peppers:  Mix pulled pork, cooked brown rice, black beans, salsa, chipotle chili powder and shredded mozzarella cheese.  You can either freeze them and cook them later or bake them until the peppers are cooked through.

Chili:  Saute a large yellow onion (diced) with some diced green pepper.  Add a can of chicken broth (homemade stock is best but use what you've got,) a couple of cans of diced green chilies, pulled pork, a couple of cans of beans (rinsed and drained - I like pinto, white kidney and/or black beans,) along with a good sprinkle of cumin and chili powder.

Pork stew:  Mix a can of corn (drained) with a can of garbanzo beans and a can of black beans (both drained and rinsed,) pulled pork, 1 c each salsa and BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Rays,) and a package of taco seasoning mix.  It also calls for mixing in chopped cilantro but since I was putting the mixture into a foil lined casserole dish then freezing the whole deal, I decided I'd top it with some grated cheese and cilantro when I actually bake it.

So, there you have it.  How I turned a few pounds of pork into about 16 meals.  Now, if I can keep from going nuts from eating pork too often  over the next month, I'll be in great shape.  That and if I can get through the veritable mountain of paperwork in my office... 

pork stew adapted from Women's Day

Leftovers with a Greek Flavor

Connie did an audit of the basement refrigerator after the party.  Peppers.  Use peppers he said.  I had browned six lamb patties for a greek layered dip for the party.  The dip never got made.  I'd used up my last six lamb patties from the huge bag I bought at the local farmer's market last summer.  Unless we make a special trip to Terry's place or pay the delivery fee for him to deliver lamb to us, the ground lamb is over until April when the farmer's market starts up again.  Consequently, wasting an iota of the lamb was not an option.  It was time to make Greek Stuffed Peppers.  Now, I didn't measure well as I made this so the measurements are a guideline - nothing more.


We really enjoyed these and I'll make them again.


Greek Stuffed Peppers


Ingredients
orange or red bell peppers
hummus
1 medium onion, chopped
olive oil
1 lb ground lamb, browned and drained
1 c cooked brown rice
14 oz can diced tomatoes plus the juice
dried mint
honey
cumin
oregano
feta cheese
avocado
sour cream

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400.  Cut the peppers in half and seed them. 

Schmear the insides of the peppers with hummus. 

We used red bell pepper hummus because that's what we had on hand, but any kind should work equally well.  Saute the onion in a bit of olive oil until it's a bit browned. 

Add the lamb, brown rice, tomatoes, mint, honey, cumin and oregano in a small skillet and heat it through. 

Stuff the peppers with the lamb mixture. 

Bake for about 20-30 minutes until the peppers are softened.  Serve with feta sprinkled on top and a side of sour cream topped with avocado slices. 

Lamb Stuffed Peppers

This recipe is from Food and Wine and is supposed to be sausage stuffed peppers.  We didn't have any sausage and I didn't want to wait for a grocery run to start dinner.  The lamb for the lamb stew was browned.  I'd just throw some of that in...

What did we think?  Well, these can't hold a candle to the ratatouille stuffed peppers I did this summer.  If this hadn't been one of the Food and Wine recipes, I'd have not posted about it.  Maybe the sausage really ramps up the flavor???  I don't know and probably won't find out because I won't make the recipe again... 

Lamb Stuffed Peppers

serves four

Ingredients:

5 oz bag baby spinach, rinsed and NOT dried
2 slices white sandwich bread, finely chopped
1/4 c milk
1 large egg
2 T freshly grated Romano cheese
2 T pine nuts
2 T chopped red onion
1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed or 1 lb lamb stew meat, chopped and browned
8 small or 4 large Italian frying peppers, halved lengthwise, cored and stems left intact
1/4 c olive oil
1 c canned tomato sauce
1 c chicken stock


Directions:
Cook the spinach over high heat in a large skillet just until wilted. 

Drain it and press out all the water.  Chop it coarsely and set it aside


Knead the bread with the milk, egg and cheese. 

It'll be a paste when you're all done. 

Add the pine nuts,

onion,

lamb or sausage and spinach. 

Mix it gently.  Divide it into quarters and lightly pack it into the pepper halves. 

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil.  It should be shimmering before you put the peppers in.  They go in stuffing side down to start with. 

Let that side get good and brown before you turn them. 

Then, once the skin side is good and browned, add the tomato sauce and chicken stock. 

Cover the skillet and cook for about 10 minutes until the filling is cooked through and the peppers are tender.

Adapted from Food and Wine


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Ratatouille Stuffed Peppers

After we toured our B and B at Rosewind Farm and ohh'd and ahh'd over how wonderful it was, we unloaded the coolers and packed the refrigerator

and counter. 

Then we debated, pull out the jigsaw puzzle or head to Huber Winery?  What, me miss out on a wine tasting?  You're right, we were off to Huber's.  Those of you who aren't from Indiana are probably wrinkling your noses and thinking, ugh, what kind of wine do they have there?  That sweet, icky stuff?  Well, yes, they've got some of that because that's what a lot of folks drink.  But, they've also got some very good dry reds and whites.  I won't stretch it and say anything they have is fantastic but most of the dry wines are perfectly good house wines.  Sally was manning the tasting room.  How she manages to keep everyone happy and dispense lots of info and take care of a tasting room with about six stations, I have NO clue.  But, she does.  She's a wealth of knowledge about the wines and figures out pretty quickly what you like and what you don't like.  We've been lucky enough to visit a couple of times when she's been there.  We settled in and enjoyed three whites and three reds.  A Seyval Blanc that we really like (and consider to be one of our house whites,) a Chardonel and a Viognier were the whites.  The reds were Generations, Cab and ummm, I can't remember!  The generations is a red blend - rather reminds me of Red Truck.

Finally it was time to head to Rosewind and fix some dinner.  I'd brought lamb chops, steaks and chicken.  And, as you can see in the photos above LOTS of fresh veggies.  Drick's Sugar Rubbed Steaks were calling my name.  I had a couple of wonderful peppers and the makings for ratatouille so decided that I'd ditch the eggplant casserole I'd planned on and stuff some peppers.  We also did the goat cheese mashed potatoes that evening.  YUMMMM  The inspiration for those was a deviled egg recipe with goat cheese.  I've pretty much found that anything you can do to a deviled egg you can do to a potato!  The inspiration for the peppers was simply what we had on hand and how much would fit into the peppers! 

Ratatouille Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant, cubed (1/2")
1-2 c cherry tomatoes
1 jalapeno, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, very finely minced
handful of chives, chopped
olive oil
romano cheese, grated
havarti cheese, grated
2 large green or cubanelle peppers
bread crumbs, buttered and browned

Saute the eggplant and jalapeno in some olive oil. 

When they're pretty soft, add the cherry tomatoes, garlic and chives. 

Saute until they're very soft.  

Add in the cheeses and stir until they're melted. 

Core the peppers and split them lengthwise - but do not cut them apart. 

Stuff the peppers with the filling. 

Grill until the peppers are very soft.

Try and keep Connie focused on the grill and NOT the hot tub :-)