What Would Brian Boitano Make?

Okay, I will admit it;

I am hooked on Brian Boitano's new show

on Food Network.

Sadly, it is the best and brightest thing on the network.

You would think that Food Network would buy a clue about now.

Or later.

Anytime is good.

Braised Hawaiian Pork Shoulder

A recent episode had Brian celebrating his niece's recent marriage.

But What Would Brian Boitano Do?

OOOH, ME, Pick me please!

I know the answer!

Brian Boitano would start with this recipe:

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons red Hawaiian sea salt or kosher salt

(or in my case French Sea salt*),

2 teaspoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

(or ground cilantro, since I didn't have coriander on hand)

1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

1 1/2 pounds pork shoulder or Boston pork butt

1/4 cup canola oil, divided

1 onion, chopped

1 (3-inch) piece ginger, sliced

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 cup pineapple juice

2 cups chicken stock or broth

(or turkey stock - hello! some of us

are allergic to those nasty chickens.

We are on to their little scheme to take over the world.)

*So who really cares if French sea salt comes from a different ocean

than Hawaiian sea salt?

It's an ocean, right?

It's saline, right?

Who really cares if it is from half-way around the world?

And besides, how many school kids today can correctly identify

the world's oceans anyway?

Yes, it's sad, I know.

And we now return you to our regularly scheduled recipe.




The seasonings are mixed.




Then the pork shoulder steak is trimmed

and rolled before being tied with butcher's twine.



Each piece is sprinkled with

1/2 teaspoon of the seasoning mix.









The pork is seared in a pan over medium to medium-high heat.





Watch, as the spice mixture burns easily.

After the pork is seared,

the meat is moved to a plate.

Then, the onions, ginger and garlic

are added to the pan.

Add more oil if needed and saute for 2 minutes.

Pour in the pineapple juice and the stock

and return the pork to the pot.

Cover the pan and place in a

preheated 300 degree oven.

Braise for 2-1/2 hours or until the pork is fork tender.

Remove the pork and place the pieces on a baking sheet.

Sprinkle each with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon

of the seasoning mix.

Put under a low broiler until the tops are brown and crisp

but not burned, about 2 minutes.

Place the pork in a serving dish

and add the reserved sauce.

Be kind to your guests and remove the twine before serving.

The braised pork was served with

basmati rice and raw sugar snap peas.

The meat was absolutely tender, no knife needed.

The flavors were subtle, but wonderful on the palate.

The Foodie Boyfriend stated that on a scale of 1 to 10,

this rates a 10-1/2.

Brian,

this dish is a winner.

What Would Brian Boitano Make?

Well, Brian Boitano would make Coq au Vin-guine, but as I am famously allergic to chicken, I am making Dinde au Vin-guine per his recipe from his Food Network show. Hint, dinde is turkey in french.

I went to Wally World (WalMart) today and, thus had to make a couple of substitutions. I subbed pearl onions for the cipollini onions and bacon for the pancetta. Sigh, guess that's what I get for slumming it.

I also have:

linguine

olive oil

salt

black pepper

merlot wine

crimini mushrooms

flour

flat leaf parsley

tomato paste

garlic cloves

thyme

butter

turkey cutlets (on sale!)

I cut the turkey cutlets to bite size pieces.

Before lightly coating them in seasoned flour.

This was set aside in the refrigerator until needed.

Then I brushed clean the crimini mushrooms and sliced about half of them for the dish. The Foodie Daughter does not like mushrooms, so I opted to leave the rest for another meal.

And then it was time to get emotional. The package directed me to drop the onions in boiling water for a couple of minutes before rinsing under cold water. Honestly, I found it just as easy to simply peel the things as is. However, nothing stopped the tears. It got so bad that I couldn't see what I was doing. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and I was in pain. I was beginning to wonder if this dish was worth all this misery.

All right, fast forward a bit. The bacon has been cooked and drained and now the onions are cooking. The cat was busy being cute, so the Foodie Daughter had absconded with my camera for a while.

Then the mushrooms and the turkey were browned.

The garlic and tomato paste were cooked for a couple of minutes before the wine was added to the pan. This was allowed to reduce for a few minutes before the rest of the ingredients were added back in.

Finally the Dinde au Vin-guine was plated and presented to the hungry family.

The verdict?

This goes into the recipe rotation, but I will definitely be halving the recipe as it makes a lot of food.

Labor Day Weekend in Bloomington

This is always a special weekend in Bloomington. The students are back in town and Bloomington celebrates by hosting a nationally noted arts festival. I make sure to clear my calendar for this festival every year.

I was a bit sluggish this morning and didn't arrive until after 10:30 am. Things are already hopping.

A band is playing along one side street. Hm, that's an interesting place to put the port-o-lets.

Yep, definitely glad that I got here early.

I decided that since I was already going to be downtown, I would finally finish out my Asian culinary tour by eating at an Indian restaurant. I had earlier chosen the Bombay House Restaurant on 4th Street.



They had a menu posted outside the door, but for lunch they ran a lunch buffet. Well, why not? Let's be adventurous. And it's all you can eat for $5.99.

I found that the only meat on the menu was chicken, so I opted to go vegetarian for my lunch. Now, I knew better than to expect beef on the menu, but I had been hoping for some lamb. But that's okay. I can do vegetarian. And, hey, many in the population in India are vegetarians, so it's gotta be good, right?

I chose: curried potatoes
butter naan
garlic naan
chick peas masala
fried potato slices
green salad
chick pea salad
veggie biryani

These were all very good. For dessert I had a vermicelli dessert, which as far as I could tell was short pieces of cooked pasta in a sweet cream sauce. This was a nice finish to a somewhat spicy meal. The biryani was by far the spiciest thing I had picked out, but was child's play compared to some of the Thai food I have eaten in the past.

Now, would I go back? Based on this meal, perhaps not, but then again, India is a large country and this was but a small buffet.





Like many of the restaurants on 4th Street, this place was once a private home.

I would say that we were sitting in what was once the front parlor.

And now we fast forward a day. A favorite new show of mine on Food Network is "What Would Brian Boitano Make?" Based on the recent decline in the quality of the programming on this network, I, like many others, expected a glorified train wreck. Imagine my great surprise and delight to find instead an intelligent and entertaining program. Bravo, Brian.

One of his recent shows centered around bacon, and given that bacon is one of the Foodie Daughter's favorite and most important food groups, I knew I HAD to make at least one of these recipes. I chose to make the Bacon Cups with Sweet Potato Hash the first time out. Surprisingly enough, I pretty much followed the recipe, except that I only made ten pancetta cups and I used only two celery stalks. Of course, I had extra hash left over, but I have plans for that, so no worries on that front.

See, just a bit of hash left over. I think that will be a nice side dish for dinner.

They turned out rather well, don't you think?

Meanwhile, I had put the Foodie Daughter and her boyfriend to work on the BBQ Bacon Krab Bites.

We decided, quite by accident, that a bit of the barbecue sauce with the Bacon Cups with Sweet Potato Hash was pretty good eats.

Oh, and the only thing spoiling our appetites? Sandra Lee* and her "Money Saving Meals". I'm still not sure how it saves money if no one will actually eat the food. Isn't that "Money Wasting Meals"?

*Click on the picture for the full effect.

And now you see the down side to having your daughter being the manager to her old high school's football team. Too bad they haven't invented smell-ernet. You'll just have to believe me when I tell you that the "aroma" from dozens of sweaty teenage boys wafts throughout the entire house. *Gack* *Cough* *Choke* *Gasp* *Errk.....*