Interstellar Epistles

Justin’s (Potential) Chili

So, one weekend whilst galavanting around the state we stumbled upon an awesome butcher with a sale on pork shoulder.  We bought some up, but couldn’t decide what to do with it!  What a dilemma.  Instead of my default answer of pulled pork, we decided chili would be a great thing to try and make.  Here’s what we did :

Ingredients :

  • 2 lbs of pork shoulder
  • 1 bell pepper (any color)
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 can of Guinness
  • 1 large can of Muir Glen fire roasted crushed tomatoes
  • 1 can of low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 small can of tomato paste
  • 3 TB of Penzey’s Chili 9000
  • 1 bag of frozen corn (not pictured)
  • 1 can of black beans
  • 1 can of kidney beans
  • 1 can of roasted green chiles

First, we cut the pork shoulder into about 1 inch cubes. We trimmed off the huge fatty chunks, but left the other stuff on.  Pork fat = YUM.

We then threw the cubed pork and Penzey’s into a bag and tossed it all around.  After dicing the peppers, garlic and onions, toss the onions in a pan with some olive oil (or bacon fat).

Cook the onions on medium for awhile by themselves.  Before they start browning, throw in the peppers and garlic.  Salt and pepper these and let them cook together for a little bit.  Once they have cooked for a few minutes, toss in the pork.

Brown the pork with the veg and let them get all delicious together.  Awesome.  While this is going on, you can combine the crushed tomatoes, paste, Guinness and chicken broth in your crock pot/slow cooker.  Once the pork is all cooked through, you can add them to the liquids in the crock.

We let that cook all day on low, roughly 8 hours.  At about the 7th hour, we added the corn, beans and chiles.  Let that cook until everything is heated through and tasty.  Before declaring it ready, I tasted it and it seemed a little acidic.  I added about 1.5-2 TB of brown sugar to balance that out.  Here’s what it looked like for us before putting it in a bowl :

Add your favorite toppings for chili, whether it be sour cream, cheddar cheese, a big hunk of crusty bread or green onions.  We’re pretty sure anything and everything would be perfectly acceptable with this chili. 

The only thing I would do differently when I remake this again is cut down on the pure liquids added to this.  Maybe cut it to half a can of chicken broth (roughly 7oz) and 1/3 of a can of Guinness to make the base slightly more thick.  Otherwise, it was pretty good.

I’d like to give a shoutout to Peef over at BURP! Where Food Happens.  He can basically take almost all credit for this recipe.  THANKS!

8 June 2010 • pork chili corn beans dinner crock pot

Scrambler!

One thing we both love to do on a Sunday morning is create a scrambler.  Our most recent incarnation of this favorite was quite delicious, but the beauty of this is that you can do anything you want with a scrambler.  Here is our patented, one-of-a-kind Mexican Scrambler.

Here is what you’ll need:

  • Chorizo (we used 3 links)
  • Eggs
  • Milk
  • Cheese (we used a smoked somethingorother)
  • Peppers
  • Onions

First, we used my new grill to grill that chorizo.  Basically, it tasted like a hot dog with taco spices in it.  Awesome.

We then sliced up all of our veg.  We used both red and green peppers for some color.

The veg was added into the egg and milk mixture.  I use just a tiny bit of milk in my scrambled eggs to give them some extra fluff.

This was then put into a pan and cooked until the eggs were mostly done.  At this point, we added the chorizo and cheese.

As you can guess, this was a very hearty breakfast and gave us a ton of energy for the day.  There are a couple things I would do differently though:

  • Add garlic.
  • Cook the vegetables and let them saute for just a little bit before adding in the eggs.
  • Use a cheese that was a bit softer.  The cheese we used was harder and formed little chunks instead of incorporating throughout the dish.  But, if you like getting little surprises instead of a more constant flavor (which sometimes I myself enjoy immensely), then use a harder cheese.

20 April 2010 • breakfast scrambler Mexican

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

We were walking around the grocery store one day and found this in the deli window.  No way were we going to pay the six or whatever dollars a pound they wanted; we can make our own!

Here is what you’ll need:

  • Pasta (we used Farfalle)
  • Chicken
  • Parmesan (shredded, not the powder junk)
  • Caesar dressing
  • Spinach

First, we poached the chicken.  Simple.

After that, we cooked the pasta, drained it and ran cold water over it.

We then combined these two items in a large bowl and refrigerated. 

While we were waiting for our food to cool down, we went for a hike at the Lower Sioux Historical Site near Redwood Falls.

The building there is the stone warehouse that was built for the Native Americans.  We went on a hike for about a mile and a half on a trail that wasn’t the greatest thing ever, but it wasn’t the worst.

We came back and made the rest of the dish, which basically consists of adding the spinach, parmesan and dressing to the chicken and pasta.

After this was all mixed together, we ate it.  Surprised?

We both found it very refreshing and not too heavy at all.  Very nice as an appetizer or a main course at lunch during the summer.

20 April 2010 • pasta chicken caesar summer lunch

Leftovers!


With our first post comes one of our most favorite things to make: pulled pork.  Now this isn’t necessarily your traditional pulled pork, but for two people living in the midwest with no access to a gigantic smoker, we’d say it’s pretty tasty.  Also, it creates a massive amount of food and is totally customizable to your favorite flavors.

Basically, all you need is a crock pot (slow cooker), pork shoulder, liquid and about 10 hours.  We trim off the fatty side before putting it in there; it doesn’t provide much of anything.

From there, you can do just about anything your hungry heart desires.  Remember to at least put some liquid in there to keep the pork moist during the cooking.  Here is what we do:

Roughly 4-5 lbs pork shoulder, fatty side trimmed

Some sort of Barbecue rub

1 can of Coke

2-3 shots of Jack Daniels

As you can see in the photo, we added onions and garlic to this pot as well.  The house smelled like garlic for hours!  But, that is perfectly alright with us.

After

This is what it looked like after 11 hours in the crock pot.  Be careful when pulling the meat out as it falls apart at the slightest touch.  Make sure to let this rest for at least 15 minutes before pulling it; keep those juices in the meat!

After letting it rest you are ready to pull your pork apart.  You can use a couple forks if you’d like, but we have found using our hands gets the best results.  Using forks seems to shred it more than give it that pulled texture.

Once it’s all pulled, get some of your favorite buns, barbecue sauce, sour cream, coleslaw, whatever you want and scarf!  We’ve found that just a miniscule amount of barbecue sauce mixed in brings out a lot of the flavors used in the crock pot.  You can even eat this plain and it is very flavorful. 

Just 4-5 pounds of pork will feed 2 people for roughly a week.  Plus, preparation literally takes 10 minutes.  There is no reason not to make this.  Unless you’re allergic to pork.  In that case, we might consider an intergalactic papal pardon.

13 April 2010 • crock pot pork barbecue