Andddd we're back with a Stuffed Roast of Pork!

Welcome back everyone to My Story and Tonight's dinner.  I have taken a little hiatus from posting as to readjust to my final term of medical school down here in Grenada.  Now that I am settled in and have gotten going (and I finally got gas back in my kitchen stove), I can continue to document my cooking adventures.

Tonight's dinner was especially tasty.  We have a nice Center Cut Pork butterflied and stuffed with breadcrumbs, cheese and parsley, along with some fresh local Grenadian String beans and Rosemary's Potatoes, um I mean Rosemary Potatoes.

Ingredients:

2 lb Center Cut Pork Roast

1 bag of Long Stringed Grenadian String Beans

4 Red Potatoes

1 Head of Garlic 

1 Tablespoon of Parsley

Salt and Pepper

1 Cup of Breadcrumbs

1 Cup of Parmigiano-reggiano grated cheese

Olive oil in hand (as always)
A sprinkle of Rice Wine Vinegar

So we start off with the the Center cut of Pork.  This was a fine piece of meat if you dont mind me saying.  A lot of people think that pork is better since it is "leaner" and is the "other white meat" but I have to say that Fat is where it's At.  Check out the beautiful layer of fat that will (and did) eventually drip down and encapsulate the whole rost adding to its natural flavors being expressed like a rhythmic dance routine at the Olympics.  

I enjoyed this meal because I got to put my knife work to the test.  This was a thick piece so I was able to double butterfly it leaving about 1/2 inch width at all times.  I started from the bottom and then when I got to the end I just flapped over and continued.  The picture to the left shows the first slice flapped open then the second in the picture down below. 

Stuffing it was as simple as pie.  While it was open, make sure to Salt and pepper that baby up as you should with any meat in its raw form.  Then in another bowl I mixed the holy quadrumvirate of Italian stuffing ingredients: Parsley (loosely chopped), Garlic (about half a head), Breadcrumbs and grated cheese.  Then I simply layered it on the opened hunk of meat, drizzled some extra virgin olio di olivo on top then folded it back to its original shape.  I even drizzled some of the mixture on top as well (dont forget to oil down the pan a bit too to keep it from sticking).  I threw it in the oven at 325 and anticipated about a 45 min - 1 hr cook time (periodically checking every 15 min or so).

Next I dealt with the string beans.  If you ever have been to Grenada you would know that their string beans are long.  And since its not the size that counts, plus its hard to spin it on your fork like spaghetti when its like that, I chopped it down to smaller bite sizes.  Then I blanched it for 5 minutes in a strong boil.

Next I did something different.  Instead of frying in olive oil like I usually do, I decided to steam the large chunks of garlic in the water from the blanching beans over a  hot pan.  This is most likely an asian way of cooking the beans which is why I subsequently used my next ingredient.

I threw in the string beans, salt and peppered them, then I sprinkled rice wine vinegar in order to give them a tangy and different flavor than I'm normally used to.  I made sure to cook them jus past "al dente" for a crunchy yet soft mixture of mouth feel.

Next were the Rosemary potatoes which were simple, you just need a bit of time.  The thing with potatoes is that it goes so well with caramelized onions.  In order to caramelize onions, you need to let them take their time to get where you need them to.  

As I usually do I did start off with some sliced salami as my primer for the onions (which if you actually read the blog you will know thats the real secret to my potatoes since I didn't put it on the ingredient list).  The potatoes were seasoned with crushed rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder and a dab of paprika.  I let them cook down for about 15-20 min or until desired texture.

Here are the results of the hard work:

Many thanks to my dinner partner for the evening and she even gave me my first revered review:

Garlicky salto texture, cooked perfectly, leaving all the moisture sealed inside.  Addition of rice vinegar adds an interesting and unexpected acidic flavor you haven't experienced before.  Potatoes with onions for a touch of sweetness to the otherwise savory meal.
- Alexandra K

Pasta Romana alla Siciliana

Ciao a tutti!

On this very special edition of the med chef I come straight from Roma Italia to bring you a delicious dish inspired purely from the fresh ingredients from the market.
I apologize in advance for the format since I'm thing this all from my phone.
To start off I bought a great bottle of sicilian wine, (the nero d'avola) which made me gear this meal in a sicilian vein. The great thing is most if the wine is under $10 or less. The even better part is every thing I buy here is a third if the price is at home. This whole meal cost at most $20 to $30.

The apartment my friend and I rented came fully equipped with a while kitchen and the essentials (at least for an italian). They had some fine salt as well as coarse grain sea salt. Some delicious olio di oliva (extra virgin and organic). They even take mention of separating organic material from plastic and regular garbage.

All the ingredients were bought at the Salumeria (the pancetta, sopressata, and fior di late mozzarella) and the supermercato and open air market.

I started out sauteing the onions and putting the water up for the fresh pasta. The pasta was fresh trofie which are like little twists that held the sauce in its tight little winds ever so gently imparting the flavor of the sauce.

Once the onions started going I added carrots then dime diced pancetta.  I then added some diced eggplant and some tomato paste.  At this point I dropped the pasta and added some of the salted pata water to the sauce to thicken it up along with a quarter to half cup of the Nero D'avola vino. 

The pasta at this point was coming together quite nicely. The only thing was they had ran out if pepper! Do what did I do...I cut up some sopressata and added it to the dish so that its peppery goodness could kick the dish up to where it needed to be.
In the mean time I whipped up a little antipasto of fresh mozzarella, sopressata, and shaved pecorino cheese. 

I also made a quick salad of fresh orgasmic spinach, carrots, cucumber and mozzarella.  I would of also added almonds and forgot to add the fresh tomatoes I bought as well...but I don't think I'll starve.

I then incorporated the pasta with the sauce to marry the flavor of both items.  A sprinkle of pecorino (which I MacGyver'ed a grader out of a slotted metal spoon) and we had ourselves a first class Roman grown, Sicilian style, fully Italian meal!
Many thanks to my friend Milena for asking me to come on this trip and enjoying the meal with me!

Buon appetito!

What do you do with Thanksgiving leftovers

You make Turkey pot pie!

I decided to go old school with this recipe.  I first started out making my own pie crust/dough.  Its not as hard as you'd think and only takes a little finesse and its worth the extra taste.   You start out with about 5/8 of a cup of butter (some say 11 Tablespoons but apprx is okay) and 1 1/4 cup of flour.  Normally one would use unsalted butter and add the salt but I did the opposite.  You dice up the butter into cubes as small as you can go.  Make sure the butter is cold because if it gets too warm it will melt in the dough.

Next you want to mix in the butter with a hand mixer or food processor so that it becomes "lima bean" size pieces within the flour.  Older recipe's call for pea sized butter balls but that, in m opinion goes too far.  Once it is incorporated, you want to add a couple of tablespoons of cold water while mixing so that if forms into a ball.

Once you have the ball formed you want to roll it out.  Now this is where the finesse comes into play.  You have to flour above and below and make sure not to roll it out to hard or too fast.  You want to do one or two go throughs a flip and keep doing that until it gets to be around 12 inches in diameter.  That will be the perfect fit for a 9 inch pie pan.

Once you have it in the pie pan, dont worry about crimping it unless you want to enter it into a contest.  There are no points for style but all points for flavor with this dish in my opinion.  Next you want to lay down some foil and fill it either with uncooked beans, pennies or in my case some uncooked rice.  Lay it in and set the oven for 375 and cook it for 15 min.

Then you want to take out the rice and foil and let it come to a light golden brown for another 5 minutes uncovered.

The finished pie crust

Now that the bottom crust is out of the way we can work on the filling, my favorite!  You first want to saute some vegetables in olive oil.  In my case I used a blend of carrots, peas, lima beans and corn.  Other recipes call for onions and celery but I felt this to be appropriate and it tasted so accordingly.

Next I shredded up what was left of the turkey I had from the other night.  I did this with a fork in order to get it truly shredded...

In the adjacent pot I made a quick rue and then bechamel with about 2 Tbs of butter and three Tbs of flour and a half a cup of milk.  In the big pan I added two bouillons of chicken broth cubes and two cups of water and waited until it came to a simmer.  Once it did, I added the Turkey shreds.

I then added the rue/bechamel to the pot of Turkey and vegetables.  I stirred it good and well until it all came together. I even added a touch of cream to it as well to get it extra creamy.

Once it was all done I repeated the recipe for the pie crust earlier having it rolled out. (FYI if the pie crust seems like a lot you can do it up to 3 days before) Then I filled the botom pie with the creamy goodness that is the filling.

Once covered I simply made 3 slits on the top and lightly crimped the edges.  Simple as pie!

I kept it in the oven for 20 min at 375 (alright maybe 30 min since my mom was on the phone with me hence the slightly darkened edges).  You can even give it an egg wash on the top before baking to get a golden glazed appearance if you'd like but I prefer the rustic look.

And thats how you can turn regular leftover turkey into a delicious pot pie!