Smells like spring in Houston

I have lived in Houston (more or less) since July 1980 (5 of those 32 years were elsewhere) and nothing makes me think of spring more than the smell of Carolina Jasmine:



When I first moved down here I lived in some apartments just outside the northwest corner of the loop. (3700 Watonga, if you must know) I was on the second story, and the apartment had Carolina Jasmine climbing up the stairs. When spring broke in 1981, the scent of this yellow flower was overpowering, new to me, and wonderful.

In subsequent places in Houston where I have lived, there was always Carolina Jasmine nearby. (I also like Confederate Jasmine, but it is not nearly as evocative to me.) Every whiff of the sweet scent sends me back in time.

At our place here in The Montrose we have planted several citrus trees:

This is a lemon tree, and indeed the lemon flower is sweet. You can't walk past these without feeling good.


These are lime trees. These, too, make you happy.

I love springtime here. The things to can smell as you walk down the street are always interesting.

Pork Rib Roast

Doreen gave me a copy of Thomas Keller's new cookbook Bouchon for Christmas. One of the recipes we had been wanting to try was a Pork Rib Roast. It looked delicious and realtively simple, so we had some friends coming over for dinner last night and decided that we might as well experiment on them.

I have never seen a pork rib roast in the butcher case, so I was not sure what to expect. Doreen, though, promised to get the food. I was, gladly, off the hook!

But, as fate would have it, and as you all know, sometimes people get tied up. As Doreen got tied up Friday night. SO she called me up and asked me to get the pork.

Luckily, there is a Whole Foods on my way home, and so I (ahem) gladly stopped by to see if I could find the meat.

I got to the meat counter and asked the first butcher about a pork rib roast. He didn't know anything about it, but the head butcher did. I had to wait a couple of minutes for him to help someone else (by the way, French kids can be bad, too), but then he quickly came to me.

I explained what I needed (a four pound pork rib roast) and he went into the back, and returned with a half a hog! Yipes. But I was able to watch him cut, carve, clean, and french this side of pork into a beautifully presented pork roast:


Man does not live by pork alone, of course, so we started with Tuscan White Bean soup from Cook's Illustrated. Here is Doreen, waiting for the pot to boil:


That is really a great recipe. A little fussy, but worth it. (Some of the Cook's recipe's are fussy, and not worth it)

Along with the soup and pork, we made boiled new potatoes and hashed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon Zest. Oh yes, very nice.



The pork had to be brined with salt water, garlic, parsely, thyme, pepper, honey, bay leaves overnight. The next day you bring it up to room temperature, brown it, and then roast it at 325 for about 40 minutes (Keller says 30 minutes, but the meat was only up to about 100 degrees at that point. Another tem minutes or so took care of that)

Here is what the pork looked like after it was cooked:


And of course, we had to have Dan's Famous Apple Pie for dessert:


We had a bottle of Champagne to start, and some Ayres' Ribbon Hill Oregon Pinot Noir with the meat.

We had a great meal, and of course, great conversation.

Christmas Dinner, part two

I have to say, I am really proud of our Pâté. It was a lot of work, but boy, was it good.



Trouta and Quinn were the first to arrive. Let the party begin!


Of course, we put Trouta to work. Quinn also helped with numerous tasks around the kitchen.


The goose is about half done at this point.


More Pâté pics. I cannot resist.


Mushrooms


The stuffing, cooked.


That Ham!


and Mushroom soup


Here is the layout. Peas and Mushrooms, Mashed Potatoes, Red Cabbage, Ham, Goose, Gravy, Stuffing, and just off camera, rolls.


Another shot of the food.


Our friend Eddie always makes Doreen's favorite birthday cake. Italian Cream!


We all ate a lot.


And talked a lot.


Even the baby.


Just about ready to clean up


Then, the next day (today, that is) we make stock and goose gumbo.


A great holiday.

Christmas Dinner 2011, part one

Christmas is a nice holiday in our home, as it is also Doreen's birthday. We have celebrated the holiday with the same people for many years. The menu has sort of coalesced into a more or less standard selection of food. Goose is always the focus, and we always have red cabbage. We usually have mashed potatoes, and often green peas. This year, as last, we also had cauliflower gratin. For a new treat this year, we had a Honey Baked Ham! It was delicious.

Here, the day before, we are making the stock for gravy.


We also make the mushroom soup in advance.


You have to blanch the bird to help tighten the skin a couple of days before you roast.


This is blanching the goose.


You also have to pick out all the last little feathers.


On Christmas Eve, Doreen always picks up some beautiful flowers:


Then we start cooking.

Bread for stuffing,


Blanching the cauliflower,


Making sandwiches for lunch,


Stuffing ingredients,


Peeling and coring apples,


Apples,


Putting the goose in to roast. We were a bit behind our time this year. No matter.


Red cabbage,


Stuffing. Some of the stuffing went into the bird. Some was just baked.


Apple cider for the cabbage,


Honey Baked Ham!


Accompaniments for the Pâté,


Whew. Time for Champagne!


and Pâté.

Pâté for Christmas

We purchased some Mangalitsa pork fat and pork liver from Revival Meats a while back. The intent was to make a pâté or two. The liver was big, about 2.5 pounds. So we needed to find a couple of recipes, and someone to eat them with.

So, since we are having a big crowd for both Christmas and New Year's Eve, this was a good time to try out these recipes.


This is the pork back fat.


Doesn't it look great? I have another couple of pounds of this. I may make my own lard.


Doreen gave me this Le Creuset pâté dish last year, along with the book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Rulman and Polcyn. We have cooked a little from it before, but there are a ton of recipes here that I want to try. In particular, I want to make sausage.


The Julia Child recipe requires that you line the dish with fat.

Then you cook some rice:

which you use for binding.

Here is the fat, along with some liver. Isn't that liver great looking?

but it was not really that pleasant to the touch.


Here is Doreen, in her role as the grinder.


You have to weigh the pâté  to firm it up.

Looks nice, eh?


Next, we made one of the recipes from the book mentioned above. Here is the mixture, all ready to go:


You have to test the emulsion before you bake it. But you should not eat it raw. So you have to wrap it in plastic wrap and boil it. It gets hot:



For ease of de-molding, you need to line the dish with plastic wrap as well:

That is sort of odd, but it really helps.

Ready to cook!


This is the next day:


Here is the Julia Child pâté:


and the Ruhlman and Porcyn pâté:

It will be a delicious meal!

(More on the goose later)