Food Thread: Fire Is Our Friend Edition [CBD]

Many thanks to Y-not for covering for me last Sunday!

One of the advantages of knowing an excellent bartender is that occasionally he will let his hair down (that's just an expression...the dude is as bald as a ping-pong ball) and pull out the silly stuff he did in his youth.

Of course, there was a serious side to this. He toasted a lemon peel in burning Absinthe for an interesting take on a Sazerac.

"Locavore" is a dirty, stinking, vile word that raises the hackles of any normal person. It is redolent of patchouli oil, stinking hippies, late model Volvos and Priuses (Prii?), and ignorant, illogical analyses of the current state of food production. "Eat Local, Act Global," is the logical extension of this stupidity, and may be even worse.

But some things really are better when purchased locally, and not for the socio-political, masturbatory fantasies of the soft Left.

Great tomatoes are rarely to be found anywhere other than your backyard or the local farm stand. They just don't travel well, and when they do, it is at tremendous cost. Those heirloom tomato salads served in February in expensive restaurants are courtesy of our modern air-freight system. Which is why they are $14.50. And even then the tomatoes are not quite as good as what many of us can get a few miles down the road. In August.

So what to do with those great tomatoes? My favorite dish is thick-sliced tomatoes on some lightly toasted bread (good stuff...nice and thick and dense), with a sprinkle of salt and some crumbled goat cheese, all topped with a light drizzle of olive oil.

And that leads to my next "local is better" ingredient: chicken.

My favorite pork ribs are from Iowa. I will happily eat corn-fed beef from the midwest (it's the best in the world), and Colorado raises some rockin' good lamb. But chicken seems to be better from the local farms. That may be a function of the limitations of the transportation combined with the relative fragility of chicken. But the chickens themselves seem different, with plumper legs and thighs and normal-sized breasts, as opposed to the strange looking commercial stuff that obviously is selected for monstrous breasts.

Whatever the reason, I'll take a meal of those tomatoes and a simple roasted local chicken over most foods on earth.

4 whole dried ancho chilies, seeds and stems removed
4 whole dried pasilla chilies, seeds and stems removed
1 quart chicken stock
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
3 whole chipotle chilies canned in adobo
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
6 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3 bay leaves
Kosher salt

Corn tortillas, cilantro, diced onions, lime wedges, and queso fresco for serving (optional)

1. Place dried chilies in a medium saucepan over medium high heat and cook, turning occasionally, until pliable and fragrant, about 1 minute. Add chicken stock, raisins, orange juice concentrate, chipotles in adobo, white vinegar, and fish sauce. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to a bare simmer, and let cook until chilies are totally softened, about 15 minutes. Blend into a smooth puree using an immersion blender or by transferring to a countertop blender. Set aside.

2. Carefully pat pork dry with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel. Heat vegetable oil in a large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over high heat until smoking. Add pork all at once and spread evenly over bottom surface (it's ok if not all the pork is touching the bottom or if the pan is crowded. Cook without moving until bottom surface is well browned, about 8 minutes. Transfer pork to a large bowl. Add onions and garlic to Dutch oven and cook, stirring frequently, until onions and garlic are softened and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add oregano and cumin and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

3. Add chili mixture to Dutch oven and stir to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom. Return pork to Dutch oven. Add bay leaves. Bring to a boil then reduce to a bare simmer. Cover, leaving lid slightly ajar, and cook, stirring occasionally until pork chunks break apart when you apply pressure with a spoon, about 2 hours.

4. Sauce should be thick, with an almost ketchup-like consistency. If too thin, increase heat to a light simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until reduced to the desired consistency. Season to taste with salt.

posted by Open Blogger at 04:00 PM

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