Chef's Feast

Last night, I was able to help out at the 12th annual Chef's Feast, organized by Peninsula Grill's Chef Bob Carter.  The event raises charity money for the Lowcountry Food Bank.  Around 1,000 people attended, wearing tuxes and cocktail dresses, and over 25 chefs were there to represent their restaurants.

Each chef had a little station where his team could put out a small plate, and the guests came up to the stations as they wanted.  There were tables all over the auditorium for the guests to sit and dine.

Blake, Chef Ramon, myself, and Chef Lee

The four of us, plus Jeff, a cook from SNOB, represented High Cotton and Maverick Southern Kitchens.

What we cooked.

Needless to say, with that many guests attending, we stayed very busy, especially for the first hour.

Our plate. 

I thought our plate turned out nicely. It tasted good, and lots of guests came back for more.

Ramon and David Marconi, one of MSK's owners.

We saw lots of friends and familiar faces all night long.  Blake and I ran into tons of students and teachers from our respective culinary schools (she goes to Art Institute, I go to C.I.C.).  Of course, there were lots of industry people there who we knew just from working in food and beverage in Charleston.

Me and Chef Stefanelli from school. Love him.

While we didn't taste every dish, it was definitely fun to taste what the different restaurants were putting out. Chef Stef's braised oxtail and polenta was delicious, and I also really liked the sauteed calamari in tomato sauce from the Wild Olive, the restaurant we were stationed next to.  A couple cold beers at the end of the night (of course) helped wash it all down. Overall, it was a blast, and I was happy to step outside of my usual realm to participate in something so big and exciting.

Tim's Birthday Feast

I've got to start this post by apologizing for the annoying gap between posts! I've been super-busy this week, which is no excuse, so here is a nice long one for those of you who've been so loyally keeping up with my little blog.

 

The lineup

My buddy Tim celebrated his 25th birthday this past weekend.  Much to my dismay, I had to work Sunday night, so I was unable to join our little group of friends at Charleston Grill.  So, I promised him that our next day off together we would get together and cook a big feast. 

We didn't really have a plan for what we wanted to eat, so we shopped around until we found something we liked.  We ended up with a pork loin roast, which is kind of silly because the last time we cooked we did a pork roast too.  But, they're good, and affordable, and can feed several people at once.

We decided to rub the roast down with a paste of finely minced garlic and rosemary, salt, and pepper.

 All rubbed down.

Then, we seared it to give it a nice head start on the browning process.

  Onion bed.

So, in the oven it went, and we got started with a fun game of Apples to Apples, which always seems to get broken out when this particular group of kids gets together.  While everyone got started playing, Tim and I puttered around in the kitchen and whipped up some Caesar salads.

I love a good Caesar salad.

Tim's girlfriend, Amanda, got started on a kickass risotto, made with lots of chicken stock and wine.

 Tim was a big helper.

When we got closer to eating, we made some green beans with bacon (one of my favorite things to throw together)...

  Bacon makes everything better.

...and some carrots with chile and mint, inspired by this recipe from the March 2010 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.  We didn't roast them because the pork was roasted.  Instead, we blanched them and sauteed them with butter, mint, and crushed red pepper.

Carrots are good for you.

Finally, it was time to eat.  I'm not gonna lie, we managed to overcook the pork, because, well, you saw the wine lineup.  So we threw together a simple red wine-pan sauce-reduction-type-thing for a little moisture, and it tasted fine.  Granted, the pork could have been a little more on the medium-rare side for us foodie restaurant kids, but the taste was there.

 

 Mmm.

It was all good, but I've gotta give it to Amanda- the risotto was outstanding.  She stirred it the entire time- I don't have that kind of dedication.  But it was sooo creamy- and it didn't have a drop of cream or milk in it (one thing we forgot at the store)!

Happy birthday Timmy!

And now for the post-dinner, full-belly, wine-drunk pictures that everyone will just love that I posted:

Patrick, Cindy, Tim

Amanda, me, Brandon  

Let's not forget sweet Stella.

 She was so GOOD the whole time!

Mmmkay so that's about all I've got. Cheers to Timmy on his quarter-century!

Another Pork Roast Dinner

mmm...

 I know, I know, it seems like I just posted about a pork roast.  The truth is, they're really cheap! When I find one on sale, I can't help but to grab it up, even if I'm not exactly sure what to do with the cut.  This particular cut was a pork sirloin roast, and was very easy to make. I just followed this simple recipe on Epicurious.com for Honey, Mustard, and Rosemary Glazed Pork Roast.

marinating 

So, to change things up, I'm not going to focus this post on the pork.  Instead, I want to showcase the beautiful acorn squash I picked up at the Farmer's Market this week.

I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do with these

I've really wanted to experiment with squash recently, but Brandon gets a little finicky when I mention the idea.  Upon my continual prying, he finally admitted that he doesn't really like sweet preparations (brown sugar, marshmallows, etc.). Which makes me kind of sad. But, alas, you can't always get everything you want, so I set out to find a savory recipe. I finally found a recipe that I deemed acceptable for both of us on Allrecipes.com, which I used as a base for this recipe:

Savory Roasted Acorn Squash

 

 
2 medium acorn squash

3 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 onions, thinly sliced (the original recipe called for 2 onions, which seemed like just a little too much in the end)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 cup chicken stock (use your judgment here)

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (here as well)

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  

Cut acorn squash in half. Roast them cut side up on a baking sheet for 50 minutes or until the flesh is just tender.  Let the squash cool for 20 minutes. 

Going into the oven

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter; saute the onions.  Stirring occasionally, cook the onions for 10 minutes, or until they begin to brown at the edges. Mix in the garlic, ginger, coriander, and nutmeg. Cook the mixture 2 minutes more, then remove the pan from heat.

Spoon the seeds and stringy middle out of the squash, and discard these. Spoon out the flesh, chop it and add it to the onion mixture. Discard the skins.  Heat and stir the squash-onion mixture.  Add chicken stock and applesauce to moisten the mixture, as it may seem a bit dry.  Gently mix the ingredients, adding more stock and applesauce if the mixture still seems dry.  Season with salt and pepper, and serve hot. 

Finishing up the squash, sauce, and brussels sprouts.

To round out the dinner, I made some easy Brussels sprouts.  I washed and trimmed them, taking off all bitter outer leaves.  Then, I boiled them until they were tender.  I cooled the Brussels sprouts and roughly chopped them while the squash was roasting. When I was starting to finish up the squash and the pork sauce, I browned some chopped bacon with a little garlic, and added the Brussels sprouts to the pan.  Finished with a little salt, pepper, and dried thyme, and it was as easy as that. 

The final product

 All in all, this was a pretty easy dinner to make.  Roasting the pork and squash took a little time (I roasted the pork first, then the squash. Probably could have done them at the same time, but I was happy doing it this way), but it gave me time to get everything cleaned up.  I was also able to enjoy a couple of leisurely glasses of wine with Brandon.  Who, by the way, enjoyed the not-so-sweet squash.   

The Feast

The lineup

The idea for the feast started when I found a 5 lb. pork shoulder roast on sale at the grocery store. I threw it in the freezer and saved it for a night I could share it with some friends. When the feast was decided for this week, I defrosted it, packed it up with some equipment, a recipe, and Brandon, and headed to Tim's house. Once we got there, we figured out what else we wanted to make, and went out to get wine and groceries.

For crudités, we cut up some veggies and Tim poached some local shrimp in a court bouillon (Brandon and Justin were big helpers and peeled and de-veined the shrimp).  I made some Green Goddess dressing (and as a result became thoroughly jealous of Tim's awesome food processor).

Mmm . . .Green Goddess

For the pork, I followed a recipe I've been saving out of the September '09 issue of Gourmet magazine.  It was actually pretty simple, besides the fact that I called six places before I could find pink peppercorns. Finally, I was able to place a hold on the last tin at Caviar & Bananas downtown.  Here is the recipe:

Peppercorn Roasted Pork with Vermouth Pan Sauce

6 Tbsp pink peppercorns, divided

2 Tbsp black peppercorns

1 1/2 Tbsp fennel seeds

7 garlic cloves, minced

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 (5-lb) boneless pork shoulder roast (butt end)

1/2 cup dry vermouth

2 cups chicken broth  (that's right, I used my homemade stuff)

1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Grind 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp) pink peppercorns with black peppercorns and fennel seeds in electric spice grinder, then stir together with garlic, oil, and 1 Tbsp salt.  

Pat pork dry and use a paring knife to make about 16 (1-inch deep) slits all over roast.  Stuff slits with all but 1 Tbsp garlic-peppercorn paste, then rub remaining Tbsp all over roast.  Put in a small (13 x 9 inch) flameproof roasting pan and marinate, chilled, 8 to 24 hours.

All rubbed down and ready to roast

Let pork stand at room temperature 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350 with rack in middle. 

Roast pork, fat side up, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 150 degrees,  1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Mine took a full 2 hours.)  Transfer pork to a cutting board and let rest 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour off all but about 1 Tbsp fat from roasting pan.  Add vermouth to pan and boil, scraping up brown bits, 2 minutes.  Stir in broth, any meat juices from cutting board, and remaining 2 Tbsp pink peppercorns and boil until reduced to about 1 1/2 cups, about 5 minutes.  

Working on the sauce

Knead together butter and flour, then whisk into sauce and boil, whisking constantly, until just slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Serve pork with sauce.

~

While all this pork roasting was happening, Tim was working on the sides.  He had already made some collards earlier in the week, and we decided to doctor them with a little mustard and brown sugar.  I have only recently been teaching myself to enjoy collards, and I thought these were great. He threw together a really delicious risotto, which had red wine, crimini mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese folded into it. He also carved the pork, because it had a very small little bone running through it, and I couldn't figure how to work around it (yes, I was also about 5 glasses of wine deep at that point). That bone is also probably why the pork took a little longer to roast. 

The outcome

In the end, it all tasted fabulous. The pork was still nicely pink and juicy, the risotto was really creamy and flavorful, and I loved the collards.  

Tim, Brandon, Morgan, Justin

We all had a blast. And yes, I found myself hanging out with four boys for most of the night.  Morgan's girlfriend Carlie did show up later to keep me company, and to enjoy some nice leftovers. All in all, a very enjoyable feast :)