Super-Pulled-Pork-Party February 9, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Cooking, Events, Recipes, Updates , 1 comment so far
Ok – that picture of coleslaw sucks. I knows it. But hey, you try starting to drink at 1pm while cooking and entertaining 40 people and then trying to remember to take picture of the food. Yes, the coleslaw recipe will be in this post…but wait…we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s rewind to Saturday evening around 7.30pm.
I went up to my favorite place to buy meat - Marconda’s at the 3rd street Farmer’s Market (http://www.yelp.com/biz/marcondas-meat-market-los-angeles) to snag 8 lbs. of beautiful fatty pork butt. Little known fact - Jews actually learn how to spot a good cut of pork butt while studying for their haftorahs. And…now that we’ve offended several dozen people with that joke let’s move on.
At Marcanda’s I had a good conversation with a guy next to me at the counter who was buying 20 lbs of pork butt for his Super Bowl party (ok, showoff Mcgee). He and HIS buddy had gone halvsies on a $500 smoker and were going to town starting it at 5am (oooo la-fuckin la, Im SOOO impressed early risers).
Since I had just drank an orange pop, which to my sensitive system might as well be made out of adderall,water and orange food dye, and since I wanted to knock this guy off his meat high horse, I told him I was starting my pulled pork THAT NIGHT bc I’m that dedicated to my craft. I then did some side to side finger snaps, told him to talk to the hand and took a huge bite out of a raw steak to let him know a) I’m crazy b) don’t step to this bull bc he WILL get the horns. Supposedly he was just trying to make casual conversation, but I was way too much in the zone.
I got home at about 8ish, cleaned some of the fat off the top for the (heart attack alert)pork fat sauteed onions and then put a nice dry rub all over the PB. The dry rub consisted of Salt,Pepper,Onion powder,Paprika,Brown Sugar,Cayenne Pepper,Cumin and Garlic Powder. I seared the pork belly and cut off a small hunk to make a pork sandwich for that evening cuz, dudes gotta eat.
Then I put the remaining butt in the dutch oven with the braising liquid, which consisted of – apple juice,ketchup,grey poupon mustard,more cayenne and a whole yellow onion. Into the real oven set at 220, I placed the dutch oven ever so gently and waved goodbye.”When I see you again you’ll be pulled pork!!” I said. It was as emotional as it sounds.
At 1.30am as Ashton Kutcher continued to be consistently unfunny on SNL,I knew I needed to taste the PB and make sure this train hadn’t gone off the rails on the way to flavortown. I pulled the pork using two forks,my massive triceps and all the personal will i had to not gobble it all down right then and there. The aroma wafting up was like if Albert Einstein built a special BBQ in heaven for Julia Childs to make God’s BBQ lunch. I put the shredded meat back in da dutchie,closed the oven door and let it do it’s damn thang.
Still awake at 3.30am, I made an executive decision to not leave the oven on all night for fear of liquid evaporation and separated the pork from the liquid allowing both to cool faster. At around 4.15 I put it all in the fridge. The next morn at 10am it was back in the 220 degree oven cooking away till 2pm. By mid-party, the sun still high in the sky, discouraged party guests were left with nothing else but the ability to wipe clean the sides of the dutch oven to gather the last tasty morsels of liquidy porky goodness. 8 lbs taken down in no time. Save your clock/portion management mumbo jumbo for someone else.To me, THAT is party success.
In addition to the coleslaw and the slow cooked pulled pork I made a variation of German potato salad with pork fat onions and bacon and then a sample pack of handmade donuts. Here’s a shot of the donuts
from L-R : M&M encrusted, Vanilla Frosted, Almond and Vanilla, Caramel coated.
Overall the Super Bowl party was a slambash of epic proportions. Half a keg, 100+ beers, a handle of Johnnie Walker, 8 lbs of pork, 5 pounds of slaw and 10 pounds of potato salad. If you were to tell ME that you left hungry, I would tell YOU that you also left a goddamn liar (or perhaps you just came a vegetarian…)
Jalapeno Coleslaw
1 head green cabbage, quartered then sliced into strips.
2 medium sized jalapenos,cut in half lengthwise then sliced on a mandolin
1 whole carrot, grated
1 red onion, quartered, sliced nearly paper thin on mandolin (while drinking Gin)
juice of 1 lime
2-3 tablespoons mayo
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 cloves of raw garlic diced fine
salt and pepper to taste
OPTIONAL – 1-2 shakes Cayenne pepper (this will obviously make it spicier)
Cut all veggie ingredients. Mix well.
Add mayo and gently toss.
add vinegar and lime juice.
salt and pepper. Mix well.
Taste it.
if you want it to have more of an acidy flavor (more bite) add another 1/2 tablespoon vinegar until its where you want it.
Remember that as this sits overnight, the flavors/spice will intensify
Max at Friday Mornings @SELMA May 21, 2009
Posted by Max in : Cooking, Events, SELMA , add a commentFriday Mornings @SELMA is a hub of Ann Arbor’s West Side local food community. Every Friday morning, a different guest chef prepares their take on a breakfast dish. It’s a delicious way to start off the weekend and there’s always ample Roos Roast coffee in addition to whatever the chefs prepare. Here, I should probably reveal that I was a guest chef a few weeks back and prepared two delicious entrees, Hippie Hash and Sweet and Savory Crepes (sounds complicated but really wasn’t). I held the record for attendees for a few weeks until Silvio came by with his Pizza Rustica.
I’ll be there again tomorrow, serving up Breafast Burritos with Jeff’s homemade chorizo, homemade authentic (that means lard, folks) flour tortillas (ok, we made vegetarian too) and a scrambled egg inside. Topped off with some homemade salsa and served alongside a green salad straight from the SELMA hoophouse…what more could you ask for? Stop by between 6 and 10AM for breakfast.
Max Live @ Google! May 3, 2009
Posted by Max in : Events, TODAY Show, Video , add a commentLast month Max gave a short talk about 5 ways you can cook like a chef as part of the Google Authors program. Thanks to their tech wizards the entire video is available online! Of course we posted it here for your viewing pleasure.
Book Signing at Barnes and Noble April 11, 2009
Posted by Max in : Events , add a commentEli and Max will be signing books at the Fifth Avenue and 46th Barnes and Noble in New York City from 12-1PM on Saturday April 18th! Come out, pick up a book and say hi to the authors!
Rescheduled: TODAY show April 17! February 20, 2009
Posted by Max in : Events , 2commentsHey everybody! The TODAY show is still on, but it’s been rescheduled for April 17. More details to come!
Can you say The Today Show with Hoda and Kathie Lee?
I am sure you are reading this post and thinking “How did 2 young guys with a cookbook get noticed by a national TV show?
Well here’s the answer : Luck, amazing family friends and having something that you really believe in (whatup Hallmark card…)
Anyone from Michigan will tell you that we help each other out there. Maybe it’s that Midwest mentality, but when people in Michigan have something to offer to another person – be it time, connections or just some good ol positive encouragement, Michiganders are quick to dish it out.
So through this Michigan networking, a family friend’s relative was given a copy of our cookbook and liked the book enough to show it around to some of her work friends. Oh yes, this family friend happens to work at the Today Show in New York City. This far flung shot in the dark actually came to fruition when we received a phone call that the Today Show was interested in us and our cookbook.
Max called me and in his typical dry, very nonchalant fashion he said something like “So I think The Today Show wants us to be on sometime.”
A week went by and Today Show called us and said “Can you clear a week of your calendar?”
We didn’t want to seem desperate and tell them that pending nuclear disaster we would be in New York at any time or day they wanted us, so we gave a few “potential dates that would work for us.”
Once the Today Show settled on March 20th, we both bought calendars and circled the date.
This post means we are only a little more than a month away from our Today show appearance. If you think we’ve slept well since we found out you are very very wrong. We’ve been ramping up our efforts and practicing our witty banter (we hope to be better than Penn and Teller and near Vince Vaughn Swingers by the time of our appearance).
In order to connect with all our web-saavy fans out there we decided to create a twitter account. Now you can now instantly follow the food musings, dinner party menus, random thoughts and blatant self promotion at FreshmanKitchen on twitter.
Max and Eli
