Yes, I’ve taken another two-week break. It’s summer – the busiest time of year for us do-it-ourselves, radical homemakin’, types! I’ll show you later what’s been keeping me so busy (hint: jars and jars), but for now I really need to get this off my to-share list. It’s a real doozy.
I bought a big sampler box of gorgeous Tails and Trotters hazelnut-finished pork. Think Jamón ibérico, except with hazelnuts instead of acorns. Think Flintstonian pork chops that weigh a pound each, cloaked in two inches of built-in lardo. Spain may be the football wizards, but Oregon does this shit right. Testify.
One pork chop would easily feed two people, if I was judicious and didn’t make the meat the center of the meal. Fortunately, I also had fresh corn on the cob and maitake mushrooms. I love Japanese flavors with pork, and that shogayaki I made awhile back came out so nice, that I thought I’d go a similar route this time.
Do this, and thank me later: slice off most of the thick slab of fat (setting it aside) and bathe the pork chop in a slurry of shiro miso, soy, lemon juice, mirin, sake and rice vinegar. Add a scant teaspoon of sugar and some grated ginger for kick. Massage, and let it bask for a spell in all that umami (ooh, mommy). Get a pan pretty hot (medium high?) and hear that pork squeal when you lay it down. Oh, how it will sizzle and spit! The sugars will caramelize! The proteins will Maillard…ize! Flip after a moment or so, then turn off the stove and leave this in a warm (350° or so) oven to finish cooking through while you make the Calrosotto.
You can make an “-otto” out of pretty much any grain (unless you are on the faddish “paleo diet,” in which case you don’t eat grains, even though I am willing to bet good money that a caveperson wouldn’t turn down a good bowl of risotto). I made a risotto of sorts using Calrose (sushi) rice instead of arborio. I sauteed some corn cut from the cob with some shallot and maitake mushrooms, then did the “making risotto” thing, using sake instead of white wine to deglaze the pan and adding a little ginger and soy to the chicken stock. Oh, and I’m sure I needn’t remind you to save those cobs in the freezer for future corn broth, need I?
(Sidebar: paleo diet people eat don’t eat corn on the cob? Or potatoes? Or dairy? If I do my math correctly, that’s a life without corn chowder, and friends, THAT’S NO WAY TO LIVE. There, I said it. Moving on…)
Pull the pork chop out of the oven, and after a five minute rest, slice the meat provocatively across the grain, on the bias, and drape it sumptuously over the Calrosotto. Expertly dribble the pan sauce (it made itself! how clever!) over the meat. With blithe and irreverent laughter, sprinkle minced garlic flowers across the top.
Serve with a little cocktail I’ll call a “spuritseru” (say ‘spritzer’ in a Japanese accent): chilled sake on the rocks with a splash of sparkling limeade.
“(Sidebar: paleo diet people eat don’t eat corn on the cob? Or potatoes? Or dairy? If I do my math correctly, that’s a life without corn chowder, and friends, THAT’S NO WAY TO LIVE. There, I said it. Moving on…)”
A-fucking-men sister. I considered it for about half a second, and then I regained my senses.
So what’s this about saving cobs for soup?! What have I been missing? Can you point me to another post? All of mine have been going to the chickens and though I love them, me and Mini-Me love corn chowder even more.
BTW – next time you go to Fubon, or wherever, may I tag along? I want my cupboard to look somewhat like yours.
Melissa, you can totally come to Fubonn with me. Oh, and I save my corn cobs and simmer them in chicken stock for making chowders and tortilla soup (another thing a caveperson can’t eat! pity…). You can still give them to your chickens after coaxing all the flavor into the chicken stock, though that seems a bit…I dunno, wrong?
Am I wrong, or did cave people have a life expectancy of about 30 years? The world needs another fad diet like it needs a Palin/Bachmann Presidency.
Gorgeous photos, gorgeous dish…screw the paleo diet.
Speaking for the Neanderthals, just imagine eating more pig and less poke? Kidding. The pork would pale eventually without some stodge beside. Ah, the price we pay for civilization!
How absolutely gorgeous!
I can see your mind twisting when it comes to reinventing the wheel with your dishes Heather. I love visisting to see what you come up with next:D Motherhood has not squashed your foodie experimentation.
Paleo diet? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Why?
Me, I like my grains too much. And meat. That’s some fine-looking grains and meat you’ve got there. I wonder how this would work with a multi-grain pilaf?
any diet that denies food is nothing more than tyranny promoted by tyrants who simply don’t like a food and want everyone else to not have it and weren’t breast fed!
great looking chop Heather! i see that there is some rice or something else there, but that CHOP!
crap, it’s only breakfast time and i am salivating for a slice of that.
Jube – I know, right? Plus, if you enjoy being more than 5 feet tall you can thank agriculture.
Maggie – Fad diets are stupid.
Ken – Only you would speak for the Neanderthal. Do I smell a new book idea?
Alicia – Aw, shucks.
Val – I’m trying to stay fresh, but I usually just want a burger and a beer.
Nicebroom – The stupid thing is that grains are a harvestable food – how do they think our ancestors found out about them?
Donald – People have to come up with ways to make themselves special. I think most diets (non-celiac gluten-free and vegan included) are just thinly-veiled anorexia.
That just looks like happy food.
Caveman diet? Really? Did I miss something? How are we supposed to get mastadon these days?
Heather,
What happened to that 1-3/4 inch strip of lardo you set aside? It sounded like it had some important destination.
That food looks killer.
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