Shrimp Hot Brown

The Hot Brown is a traditional southern dish that originated in Louisville, Kentucky. It has migrated, in various fashions, all over the country – I once had a version in Fairbanks, Alaska, which tells you how good the basic idea of a hot, open faced sandwich really is.

I confess that a friend of mine, Kevin Atkins, put the idea of this version into my head. It was his discussion of a shrimp-on-toast dish that moved me in this direction, using the shrimp to boost up the Hot Brown, and the Hot Brown to add substance to the shrimp. I took care to use only the best ingredients for the dish, these adding a depth and richness to something that can sometimes be a little bland.

This is a perfect winter meal, and is especially good with that familiar sandwich partner – a bowl of soup !

Ingredients

• One loaf of fine textured white bread, with a cheese component
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
• 8 strips applewood thick cut smoked bacon
• 1/2 pound deli sliced roast turkey
• 1/2 pound medium gulf pink shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup white sweet cooking sherry
• 5 ounces gruyere cheese
• 5 ounces smoked gouda cheese
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• parsley for garnish

The great thing about making this is that all the components can pretty much be prepared separately and ahead of time, leaving only the final assembly and cooking to be done, prior to being served.

Start by making the toast. Slice your bread about 1/2 inch thick. I used an asiago cheese bread. If the crusts are too hard, cut them off. The idea is to have a nice soft bread underbelly to the dish. Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a small dish with the clove of minced garlic. Brush the top side of the bread with the garlic butter and toast in a 400 degree oven until the bread is only lightly toasted. Do not overdo it – you want the bread to remain mostly soft.

Cook the shrimp next. Place the stick of butter in a sauce pan, and melt it over medium heat. When melted, add the smoked paprika and the shrimp. Allow the shrimp to poach in the butter for about 5 minutes. Do not overcook the shrimp – the final assembly and cooking of the Hot Brown will finish the job of fully cooking the shrimp.

Cook the bacon slices in a hot pan, until the bacon is browned, and most of the fat is rendered out of it. Again, do not overcook it, as the final cooking of the Hot Brown will do that. Nevertheless, make sure most of the fat is cooked out of the bacon. I used a very high quality, lean applewood smoked bacon for mine, which made this easier.

Prepare the mornay sauce. This is the cheese cause that gives the Hot Brown its earthy goodness. Shred the gruyere and smoked gouda into a bowl. Coat with the two table spoons of flour, the white pepper and the nutmeg. Toss the cheese sufficiently well to throughly mix the ingredients. In a sauce pan, add the heavy cream and the white sherry, heat over medium heat, but do not let it boil. When the cream/sheery is hot, begin slowly adding the shredded cheese mixture, a little at a time, giving it time to melt before adding more. Keep doing this until you have a thick, rich and smooth cheese sauce.

Now assemble the Hot Brown. On a well buttered baking sheet, lay out your prepared toast. Dabble a small amount of the cheese sauce onto the toast. Layer some of the sliced roast turkey on top of the toast, folding the turkey to give it a little more volume. Arrange a layer of your poached shrimp on top of the turkey. Then top with a generous amount of the cheese sauce. Finally top the sandwich with the sliced bacon, and finish with more of the cheese sauce. Place the baking sheet in a 400 degree oven and bake it until the sauce begins to bubble and brown. Remove from the oven, and using a large spatula, transfer the sandwich to a warm plate for serving. Garnish with a little chopped parsley and serve piping hot, as these are, after all, Hot Browns !

Pig Week: Reconstructed Pork Tenderloin

In cooking, the term ‘deconstructed’ means to take a dish, like a beef stew, and cook the ingredients separately, using techniques/flavors not necessarily associated with the parent dish. Finally the separately cooked items are then plated or combined for the final presentation. As a simple example, in the case of a deconstructed beef stew, you might slightly fill a bowl with a reduced beef stock, then place some grilled steak in a corner of the bowl, some glazed carrots and onions in another part of the bowl, and finally gratin potatoes in another part of the bowl. ‘Deconstruction’ is a nice, but maybe a little over used technique, and eventually, I’ll get around to doing some deconstructed dishes.

But what about ‘Reconstructed’? What could that mean? I thought about it for a while, and nearly everything I ended up with was some kind of soup, stew or casserole. Not bad, but not terribly cutting edge. And then I looked at it a different way – giving back to something that man had taken away. And I came up with this.

In the case of my reconstructed pork tenderloin, I am putting back in two things that pork should come with, and naturally does come with, but butcher-men, in collusion with homogenized American tastes have taken away : Fat and Skin.

Now I realize that not everyone will want to try this out. Even beyond that, not everyone will be able to try it out, as it involves a substance you will not find at the grocery store: Transglutaminase. Transglutaminase is an enzyme (naturally derived) which binds protein together. It is more commonly referred to as ‘meat glue’. If you have ever had Chicken McNuggets, or Turkey Loaf, or fake crab meat, you have eaten it. It what holds ‘mystery meat’ together. Now while none of the above probably sound very appealing, it is not the use of transglutaminase that makes it so. It is the fact that you are taking crap, and trying to make something better out of the crap – not the best plan for great tasting food. You will have to order transglutaminase from the internet, where it is available under the brand name Active RM. It is not cheap, and is usually sold by the kilo. But a little goes a long way, and properly stored in the freezer, it will last a very long time.

In this case, I am using the ‘glue’ to meld together the pork tenderloin and chicken skin. My idea is to use the skin to hold in juices and fat, while the pork cooks. And yes, it works !

I don’t blame you if you find the whole idea weird – my wife Julia did as well, and was not anxious to try it out. But when she did, she gave the final product a big ‘thumbs up’. If you try this, I think you will agree.

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin (about a pound)
• skin from 10 chicken thighs
• rendered fat
• 1 tablespoon transglutaminase enzyme (Active RM)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fine minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Start by preparing the tenderloin. You need to slice and trim it so that you end up with 2 evenly shaped sections, about 6 ounces each. Set them aside and refrigerate.

Now, in the oven or in a pot on the stove, render your fat. I used goose fat from a goose confit I was making, but a few ounces of rendered bacon fat will do just fine. You want fat with flavor, so don’t just render some lard, and for Pete’s sake, do not use vegetable fat or oil. Remove the tenderloin pieces from the refrigerator, and using a meat injector syringe, inject the rendered fat into the pork. Do not be shy ! When finished, return the pork pieces to the refrigerator to allow the injected fat to re-solidify, about 30 minutes.

Now take a long piece of plastic wrap and spread it out on a flat surface. Take about 5 of the chicken thigh skins and arrange them in the middle of the plastic wrap so they form a square large enough to ‘roll and wrap’ the pork pieces.

Prepare the transglutaminase. Mix one tablespoon of it with 4 tablespoons of water to form a slurry. Using a pastry brush, coat the top of the chicken skins throughly. Place a piece of pork on the skins and roll the skin up around the pork tightly. Make sure the ends are covered as well. Roll up the newly constructed meat in the plastic wrap, and twirl the ends of the plastic wrap until the whole concoction is firmly sealed. The objective is to make the skin and pork really stick together. Return the wrapped meat to the refrigerator, and allow the ‘glue’ to set up for at least 4 hours prior to cooking.

Whew ! The hard part is now done. After that, the rest is simple. Combine the olive oil, herbs and spices in a small bowl to form a paste. Remove the pork from the refrigerator, unwrap it, and slather the paste all around the meat. Place the reconstructed pork on a wire baking rack, and cook about 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven, until the skin has turned brown and crispy.

Your reconstructed pork is now ready to serve. Serve with about anything you would normally serve pork with, but be prepared to enjoy the explosion of tender flavor that comes from this technique !

Pig Week: Bacon Wrapped Fruits

Ok, maybe the focus of this dish is not necessarily the pig, but when a dish includes bacon, you have to count it !

Over the years, I have learned that you can wrap pretty much anything in bacon ( bacon wrapped tater tots , bacon scotch egg ) and end up with a great final product. OK, I have not tried ice cream yet, but anything is possible in the future !

Very simple to make and prepare in a hurry, this is a perfect starter for many a meal, and is great for cocktail parties as well.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces thin sliced smoked bacon
• 1 large red delicious apple
• 1 large ripe bartlett pear
• honey (for garnish)

Halve the apple and pear from top to bottom, then quarter it, and finally slice into eighths. Remove any seed or pulp from the center part of the sections.

Tightly wrap each section of fruit with a slice of bacon. Placed the bacon wrapped fruits on a wire baking rack, and place in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until the bacon is golden brown. Note that when the top of the bacon is browned, you may want to flip the fruit over so the botton side browns equally well.

To serve, place on a platter or small plate, and drizzle with a little honey. For mine, I also prepared a simple smoked Gruyere dipping sauce, as follows:

Ingredients

• 6 ounces smoked gruyere cheese
• 5 ounces dry white wine
• 1 ounce cooking sherry
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon groung nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon flour

Grate the cheese into a bowl, and add the tablespoon of flour. Toss the cheese to throughly coat it with the flour.

In a small saucepan, heat the wine and sherry until near boiling. Add the white pepper and nutmeg. Reduce heat to medium low, and begin adding the grated cheese, a litlle at a time, stirring to allow the cheese to melt and incorporate with the wine. Continue adding cheese until the desired consistency is achived – not too thick, or the sauce will re-solidify too quickly after it is placed in a bowl for serving. When the sauce is ready, pour it into a bowl and using it for dipping the bacon wrapped fruit.

Pig Week: Souse

Perhaps nothing sums up the phrase “parts is parts” better than Souse, a type of head cheese which is popular (?) in the South. Now while souse is typically made from a the head of a pig, it should come as no surprise that Kroger was fresh out of pig’s heads, and even if they did have them, I really do not have pot big enough to hold one anyway !

That being said, you do not necessarily need a whole head to make souse – in fact, you could dispense with the head altogether, and use meats which are quite a bit more common, and perhaps, even more palatable to average tastes. That is what I decided to do in this recipe. While some of the traditional components are used, the bulk of the souse meat is good old pulled BBQ pork – something that few will have a problem with. Of course, I still used some ‘tasty bits’, because , hey, it is souse, and because the less common pieces of pork really do still taste like pork, in spite of any preconceived notions someone might have. Regardless, you will need some pieces of pork that have bone and cartilage in them. This is necessary to create the gelatin that holds the souse together.

When you look at commercially available souse, it looks a lot like pork pieces in jello – a pig aspic, if you will. That’s OK, but, I was able to duplicate a version of souse which I had at a local eatery – one which uses a lot of pork fat. This renders the souse more like a pork ‘butter’ instead of an aspic. The result is more like a pate and less like a slice of lunch meat, and can be spread on sandwiches or crackers.

Trust me, if you can get past the ingredients, you will really enjoy this dish !

Ingredients

• 1 pound smoked pulled BBQ pork
• 1 pound smoked hog jowl
• 2 smoked ham hocks
• 2 smoked pig tails
• 2 smoked pigs feet
• 3 pigs ears
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 package unflavored gelatin (optional)

In a very large pot, add all the pork pieces. Add the apple cider vinegar and then enough water to cover the pig parts. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer the pork pieces for 3 hours. At this point in time, the meat should be falling off the bones.

Drain the pig parts in a large colander. Reserve 2 cup of the pork stock – this will be used later on. Carefully pick trough the pig parts removing any bone or gristle or still hard cartilage. Don’t be afraid to used any of the un-rendered fat as well. This will improve the texture of the souse, and, of course, make it a lot richer. The only cartilage I used in my version was the pigs ears, which were soft and tender after 3 hours of simmering. Take the meat and fat you pick out and finely chop it up and place in a bowl.

Season the chopped pig with the salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes, mixing all together throughly.

Take your 2 cups of reserved pork stock and heat in a saucepan over medium heat. At this time, you may add the envelope of unflavored gelatin to the stock. If you used a lot of bone in your selection of pork meat, this will not be necessary, but if you were short on bone and cartilage, you will definitely need it. If in doubt, use the gelatin.

In a buttered terrine dish, add the chopped, seasoned pig parts, pressing down to make sure the meat is tightly packed. Begin adding the pork stock, allowing the stock to seep into the pork pieces. Use as much of the stock as necessary to ensure the pork pieces are thoroughly coated in the stock.

Place a piece of plastic wrap over the terrine, and using a weight of some sort, weigh down the top of the terrine, to make sure the finished product is tightly packed. Place the terrine in the refrigerator and allow to set up – about 2 hours, at least.

When the souse is set up, remove it from the terrine, and cut into slices to serve. DO NOT try to heat the souse up – it will disintegrate into a mess!

Pig Week: Brunswick Stew

One of my earliest recollections as a child of BBQ was my dad bringing home Brunswick Stew, from a restaurant in Columbus, GA, the name of which I cannot remember. But the stew, I certainly do remember – rich and meaty, it is something that I searched all over for as an adult, never quite finding anything nearly as good as I remembered. Only later in life did I realize that most of the stews I had been having simply had too many vegetables, and not enough meat – they were more like soup than stew.

This version solves that problem in spades. It will only take a small bowl of this stuff to fill you up, that is how much meat is in the stew. And note, I used venison in the recipe, as some kind of game meat is traditional in the preparation of a Brunswick Stew, and Kroger was fresh out of squirrel meat !

Ingredients

• 1 pound pulled BBQ Pork
• 1 pound pulled BBQ Chicken
• 1 pound ground venison
• 1 medium yellow onion, medium dice
• 1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 12 oz bag frozen baby lima beans
• 1 12 oz bag frozen yellow corn
• 1 hot pepper, finely minced
• 1/2 cup tomato catsup
• 1/2 cup sweet brown BBQ sauce
• 2/3 cup spicy mustard BBQ sauce
• 1 quart chicken stock

Start by preparing the ground venison. To be sure, if you want to omit, or cannot find any venison to use, simply add another pound of pulled pork and chicken. Brown the venison in a little butter, as you would hamburger meat. Drain.

In a large pot, put a tablespoon of butter, and begin sautéing the diced onion and minced hot pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent.

Now add the cooked venison, the pulled pork and the pulled chicken to the pot. You could, of course, fire up your smoker and create these meats from scratch, but clearly, it is easier and just as effective to go to your favorite BBQ restaurant and buy it, ready made. Just make sure that the meat is NOT smothered in any kind of sauce – dry rubbed is OK, but it is better to just have the smoked and pulled meat.

Add the lima beans, corn, sun-dried tomato, BBQ sauces and catsup to the pot and stir to mix throughly. A word about BBQ sauces : Again, you could make your own, but that is a lot of effort for use in a stew. Feel free to use any commercial brand you like, but make sure, as indicated in the recipe, that the dominant one is the spicy mustard based sauce. This is extremely important for the final flavor.

Allow the stew to simmer for about 2 hours, adding extra stock as necessary to prevent the stew from becoming too dry. The final consistency should be VERY thick, not at al like a soup. There should be no excess thin liquid on top.

Pig Week: Crackling Jalapeño Cornbread

Let me say a word about pre-packaged commercial products. It is rare that I see a product at a grocery store, or have a meal at a restaurant, that I don’t say, “I can make that better”. Of course, what I really mean most of the time, is not so much “make it better” as “make it different”. You see, most cooking is always about personal preference; What do I like to eat? It is why I hate recipes, for the most part. And it is why I encourage anyone reading this blog to take my recipes as suggestions, rather than gospel. More as a guide or source of inspiration.

 However, sometimes, when eating out, or using a pre-made product, I find something that is just right. In the case of dining out, I may furiously try to duplicate a recipe, and after several swings-and-misses, just give up and ask the chef how to make the dish. And if the chef refuses to share the secret, I give up again, and just say “To heck with it, I’ll just eat it at the restaurant”.

The same goes for commercial products bought at the grocery store, but even more so. It is hard for me to imagine that people actually eat some of the stuff sold there. Of course, I am kind of snobbish here, but really, chili in a can!?!? Nevertheless, there are some things, which, if I were making them myself, I would not make them any different. One of those products is Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix. I use it for all kinds of things: cornbread, corn cakes, fritters, hush puppies, etc. This stuff is versatile and good. If I were making it at home, I would use the exact same recipe – but I have never gotten the proportions just right. So I just buy it, and at less than a buck a box, I call it a win.

Now, I may add to the mix, based on what I am doing with it, and this cornbread is just such an example. The use of the jalapeño is kind of obvious, but the use of cream corn, and especially the pork cracklings , much less so – and that’s what makes this special.

Easy to make and very satisfying, I have been making this for years. I hope you like it.

Ingredients

• 2 boxes Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
• 2 large eggs beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 8 ounce can cream style corn
• 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 medium jalapeño peppers, finely minced
• 4 ounces hard pork cracklings, chopped

Prepare the dry ingredients first. In a large bowl, empty the boxes of Jiffy mix into the bowl. Add the finely minced jalapeño peppers, chopped green onion, and the chopped pork cracklings. It is very important that you use the ‘hard’ pork cracklings. The light,crispy ‘pork rind’ style will NOT work. Mix throughly.

In a small bowl, beat the 2 eggs, and add the milk, butter and cream-style corn. Mix well, then add to the bowl of dry ingredients and fold in, distributing the pork cracklings, jalapeño, and onion.

Spoon the batter into a buttered muffin pan (the recipe above makes about 20 muffins, so you will need 2 pans) or use a mini loaf pan. Bake about 15 minutes at 375 degrees, until the top is golden. This is a little longer (and a lower temperature) than the package interactions call for, but there is more liquid due to the cream style corn, so you will be OK. Let the color of the cornbread serve as your guide to doneness.

When done, remove from the oven, and allow the muffins to cool before removing them from the pan. The muffins can easily be reheated in the microwave, and will keep several days, refrigerated.

Pig Week: Hopping John

What better way to start off Pig Week, than on New Year’s Day, and with a southern New Year’s classic: Hopping John ! This quintessential dish of rice, black-eyed peas and pork has a long tradition. For me, the tradition is especially strong. For decades, there has been a New Year’s Day tradition of some of my high school and college friends, to gather and watch college football – something we call the “Football Fest”. The Fest has always been about watching every single college football game played on New Year’s Day, even if it necessitated having 4 TV sets going at one time to watch them all. Just behind the football watching in importance, has been beer and food. The food has always been ‘solid’ : Bratwursts, Chicken Wings, Chili, etc. Traditional sports viewing fare. And Hopping John has made many appearances – and in many forms. Based on what we put in it, it has been called Hopping Jack, Hopping Juan, Hopping Jacquez, Hopping [string of expletives], and others. It is a game to see who can capture the essence of each year’s version with a new name.

This one stays very close to traditional, and I hope you make it a part of your own New Year’s celebration !

Ingredients

• 2 pounds smoked hog jowl -OR- 2 bounds low-sodium thick cut bacon
• 2 1/2 cups dry black-eyed peas -OR- 6 cups cooked black-eyed peas
• 2 cups dry white rice
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 10 ounce bag frozen pearl onions
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1 habanero pepper, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 penny, washed, for good luck (optional)

Start by making the black-eyed peas separately, if you did not buy canned peas. This is important, as dried peas and rice do not have any where near the same cooking time. You do not want to end up with undercooked peas or mushy, overcooked rice. If you are using dried peas, prepare them according to package instructions. If you are using canned peas, drain and rinse them thoroughly – you do not want any of the ‘pea juice’ the peas were canned in to muck up the dish!

In a large skillet, cook the jowl or bacon. Cut the jowl or bacon into a medium dice, and place over medium heat in the skillet. The goal here is to cook out some, but not all, of the fat. When about 1/3 of the fat has rendered out, remove the pork pieces from the grease, and drain on paper towels, and reserve.

Rinse out the skillet, and melt the half stick of butter in it. Add the pearl onions and minced habanero pepper, and stir fry in the butter about 2 minutes over medium heat. Add the rice and seasoning to the pan, and stir fry for one more minute. Then add the jowl/bacon pieces, and the chicken stock and bring to a boil. After boiling for 1 minute, reduce to a simmer, and let the rice cook, according to the type of rice you are using. When there are about 10 minutes remaining on the cook time of the rice, add the black-eyed peas, and mix thoroughly. It is also here that you would add the good luck penny ! Allow to finish cooking, covered, adding a little water or stock, as necessary to ensure the rice is cooked.

The Hopping John is now ready to serve. For New Year’s, it is customary to serve with some kind of greens, as shown in the picture. I severed them with my collard green recipe. Don’t forget to remind your dinner guests about the good luck penny, if you used it !

Mock Cheese Grits

There are times, albeit few, when grits may not be appropriate. Maybe someone is on a silly low-carb diet, or still refuses to believe grits and polenta are the same thing (neither of which grow on a bush), or maybe, just maybe, you need a slightly different flavor/texture profile. QED, we have these mock cheese grits. The secret ingredient is orange cauliflower in place of the corn meal. Easy to prepare and very versatile, try them with your favorite seafood entree.

Ingredients

• 2 heads orange cauliflower
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon white pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper

Remove the leaves and thick stems form the two heads of cauliflower, and break the cauliflower into large chunks. Place in a large pot, with plenty of water, and boil on low heat, until the cauliflower is very tender, about 40 minutes. Drain using a colander, and place in a large bowl.

While the cauliflower is still hot, add the 4 tablespoons of butter, allowing the butter to soften, and then beging mashing the cauliflower with a fork. The idea is to thoroughly mash the cauliflower, while still leaving some lumps, for texture. Next add the salt pepper and cayenne pepper, as well as the cheese and fold it all in with a spoon, until well mixed.

The mock cheese grits are now ready, or they can be kept refrigerated and reheated in the microwave when it is time to be served.

The Pork Explosion

OK. If bacon makes everything taste great, then certainly adding not one, but two more types of pork to it will make it transcendentally better ! You end up with the wildy popular (at least on the internet) Bacon Explosion. In my version, I substitute pork tenderloin for the core, instead of using more bacon, and use Italian sausage instead of country sausage, to add nuance to the dish, and, frankly, reduce some of the fat. Hence, the Pork Explosion.

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean center cut bacon
• 1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
• 1 8 oz. pork tenderloin
• salt
• black pepper
• Coarse grain brown mustard (for serving)

Perpare the tenderloin. Trim it down until it is about 7 inches long, and about 1 inch in diameter. This is very important, so that your pork explosion does not actually unravel and ‘explode’ ! Salt and pepper, to your taste, the tenderloin, and in a samll amout of butter or oil, in a hot pan, sear the tenderloin until it is browned, about 5 minutes. This will add to the flavor, and ensure that your pork is fully cooked at the end.

Next, thightly weave, in an over-under fashion, strips of the center cut bacon to form a mat. Make sure the weave is very tight, so the bacon, which will shrink during cooking, does not alow the rest of the meat to pop out during cooking.

Now spread the Italian sausage over the bacon mat, about 1/3 inch thick, covering all but about the last inch of the mat.

Center the seared tenderloin on the mat.

Carefully roll up the mat, keeping the tenderloin in the center of the roll. Use the bacon which was not covered with sausage to overlap and help seal the roll. The roll should be very tightly wrapped to prevent the roll from coming apart whnhe cooking. Wrap in plastic wrap very tightly, and refrigerate about an hour to help all the meat bind together.

Now it is time to cook. Place the roll on a baking rack and place in a 350 degree oven. Allow to cook for about 30 minutes, until the bacon is golden brown and a little crispy, as much of the fat cooks out of the dish.

Your pork explosion is now ready to serve. I can be sliced and eaten hot, but I have found that I prefer to let it cool, then refriferate it, and then slice it into 1/2 inch slices. It serves more like a terrine or country pate when done this way. Serve the slices as an appetizer, with some coarse grain brown mustard on the side.

Perlue

There are a lot of ways to prepare chicken and rice, but this traditional Southern way is one of the best. What we are aiming for here is not quite a soup, and certainly not a pilaf, but is more like a stew – rich and hearty. My recipe changes things up a little by adding sausage to the mix – not enough to be overpowering, but just enough to enhance the flavor. Of course, the prodigious amount of butter does not hurt either!

Ingredients

• 2 quarts + 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 pound pulled chicken
• 1 pound andouille sausage
• 3 cups short grain white rice
• 2 medium sweet onions
• 8 stalks celery
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 sticks of butter
• salt to taste

Assuming you do not have a pound of pulled chicken sitting around, you will first have to make it. The preferred way would be to boil the chicken, and if you are going to do that, why not make up a batch of fresh chicken stock, which will be needed anyway? Regardless of how you come about it, make sure you pull the chicken into shreds – do not cut or dice it! Reserve.

Cut the sausage into 1/4 inch cubes, and fry it until the sausage is brown, and most of the fat has been rendered from it. Drain and reserve.

Chop the onion and celery into a 1/4 inch dice. In a soup pot, add a couple of tablespoons of butter and over medium heat, saute the onion and celery until the onion is translucent. When this happens, add 2 quarts of the chicken stock, the uncooked rice, and the chicken. Simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, until the rice is tender.

Add the chopped parsley, the red and black pepper, the salt, the butter and the reserved sausage to the pot and continue cooking. Now comes the important part. The additional quart of chicken stock is used to ‘balance’ the consistency of the perlue. You do not want it to be too thin or too thick, trying to achieve a stew like consistency. This will be a matter of preference, so as you continue to let the perlue cook, add more stock, as necessary, to achieve this. After about 20 minutes, the flavors will be integrated, and the perlue is ready. Serve hot, in very large bowls, as befits a dish of this nature.