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The Unnatural Cook

“a chronicle of weekly meal plans from someone who can't just throw a meal together”

Tag Archives: Pork

March 22, 2012 Week 11: Thursday Night

A last minute change to the meal plan because I didn’t go grocery shopping today; got sidetracked by a bad day of writing. The freezer was my friend. Pulled some leftover slow cooker pork out for sandwiches and made lemon coleslaw with red cabbage. I’ll try not to get too discouraged, in the words of the great Hoagey Carmichael, “Wish for a catch every day and you’re wasting a wish / For some days, there just ain’t no fish.”

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February 5, 2012 Porkfest!

For twelve years we’ve had a New Yorker Cartoon taped to our refrigerator: a disgruntled butcher is speaking to a customer as she stares, wild-eyed, into the meat case. He says, “That’s pork – the meat of the pig. It makes an excellent substitute for tofu.” What is it about pork? What inspires such love that this cartoon can still make me laugh after 4,000 viewings? What makes the meat of the pig so irresistible that a whole class of vegetarians exists called bacon-a-tarians: committed vegetarians who have given up all forms of animal but refuse to give up bacon? All I know is that the love of pork inspired a family gathering this weekend called Porkfest.

Porkfest involved family and family friends (many of whom happen to have birthdays in January & February) getting together at my sister’s house and bringing on the pork. Our contribution was as follows: a pork belly, smoked for six hours & served on flat Chinese buns w/scallions & cilantro, bacon jam, pig cupcakes, Porkslap beer and a t-shirt from our new neighborhood butcher, Fleisher’s that says, “Bacon The Gateway Meat.” My brother-in-law made an absolutely divine pork shoulder called Bo Ssam, a recipe featured in the New York Times created by chef David Chang of Momofuko. Our friends brought a variety of pickled side dishes: homemade kimchi, pickled jalapenos, pickled cucumbers and apples, and ginger scallion sauce. My sister’s buddies brought beet salad and delicious wine. Dessert was a free-for all which included, gin soaked prunes in chocolate, a semolina orange cake, pecan pie, home made cookies and cupcakes and, because there’s something wrong with us, three kinds of ice cream.

We all complained that we ate too much but it wasn’t that convincing, in the same breath we were planning Porkfest 2013.

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January 23, 2012 Week 3: Monday Night

Tonight’s photographs are very deceptive. The meal looks so beautiful but things went wrong. That pork loin sizzling in the pan is meant to be roasting in the oven, but it wouldn’t cook! After doubling the cooking time given in the recipe I gave up, sliced it in half and seared it. (This is when it’s good to be an unnatural cook married to a natural cook who can come home and tell you what to do.) The recipe for Balsamic Glazed Pork with Lentils comes from Real Simple Magazine and I’ve made it successfully in the past; so theoretically, there shouldn’t have been a problem. I think my tenderloin was too fat. To complement my undercooked meat I served overcooked lentils (really not something I recommend). I remember liking this lentil salad with lemon, celery, apples and fresh parsley but I’m sort of the only one in the family who does. The pork was a hit though, and John suggested that next time I serve it with a white bean salad. Anybody got a recipe for one of those?

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