Hot Off The Haywire

Muffaletta Mi Piace!

Here's an e-mail I received from Susan Pettey, a customer of ours that is quite adept in the kitchen. If this doesn't make you hungry then I don't know what will:

Stephen,

 

Attached are two pictures of the Muffaletta made with both the Salami and the Shaved Deli Ham from Pork and Greens.

 

The recipe is as follows:

 

Olive Mix:

1 jar Italian Pickle Mix (Cauliflower, Carrots, Pepperoncinis etc) (reserve 1/4 cup liquid)

1 can pitted black olives

1 jar of pimento stuffed green olives

 

Mix all ingredients together and pulse in the food processor until well chopped.  Mix in the reserved liquid and store in an airtight container overnight (or at least one hour).

 

1 loaf muffaletta bread or 4 large ciabatto buns

1/4 lb ham

1/4 lb salami

1/4 lb swiss cheese

1/4 lb provolone cheese

2 cups olive mix

 

Slice the bread in 1/2 horizontally.  Spread both sides of the bread with a generous amount of the olive mix.  Layer the meats and the cheeses and put the top on the sandwich.  If using muffaletta bread cut into quarters now.  To serve cold, wrap individual sandwiches in plastic wrap and let the juices absorb into the bread for at least 1 hour.  To serve hot, wrap individual sandwiches in foil and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes being sure to press the sandwich together at least 3 times during baking.

 

Susan Pettey

 

Here's a photo of the cold version:

 

 

And here's the hot version:

 

 

A special thank you to Susan for sending both the recipe and the photos - Susan you rock! I'm making this sandwich subito! Thanks for reading!

 

Pork & Greens

Whataya Do With That?

One of the side pleasures of doing what we do is the friends we make along the way. We had some Sunshine Kabocha (a Japanese winter squash similar to pumpkin) at the market this past Saturday, and quite a few folks asked what you do with them. I was going to say retaining walls, but to our good fortune friends of ours, Monica Griffin and her husband Bill, arrived and said they thought the Kabocha would make a nice pumpkin style pie, and then offered to cook them side by side and do a taste test. How sweet is that?

Monica and Bill are long time supporters of the Ok Food Coop, and they visit the Cherry Street Market on occasion. A native of Ohio, Monica is now firmly rooted south of Bixby (not too far from us) and Bill is known as quite the pie maker and I see why now. Monica was kind enough to send me their recipe, so I'm just going to re-paste it here:

Here's Bill's recipe which he as literally been tweaking for years and has finally settled on, altho the final product ends up with a wee but more cloves and allspice because we like it a little more on the spicy side.

Bill's Pumpkin Pie

Preheat oven to 425

2 cups cooked pumpkin (preferably cooked in a solar oven)
3/4 cups yogurt
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup eggnog
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
heaping 1/2 tsp ginger
heaping 1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
2 medium eggs

Mix all ingredients in a food processor, pour
into two pie shells (whole wheat heart healthy pie shell)

Bake 15 minutes at 425, lower temp to 350, bake another
hour and a half.

I made the crusts which were going to be lard but my lard too old and had gone bad, so I made a butter crust slightly adapted from the homemade pop-tart crust over at Smitten Kitchen. It was delicious, flaky and held up very well for this pie. The only thing is that I did crimp the crust edges very nicely but the crimps did not hold up in baking. It was still really, really good.

Butter Pie Crust
(makes two single or one double crust)

1 1/2 cup unbleached AP flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
2 t. kosher salt
1 heaping T. organic sugar
1 cup (two sticks) cold butter cut into pats
1 lg. egg
2-3 T. milk, as needed (I used almond milk because it was what I had)



Blend the dry ingredients in a large glass bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a
pastry blender until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible. In a small bowl, blend the milk
and eggs well and add to a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix well with a wooden
spoon and then quickly blend well with hands to avoid over handlinguntil it forms a butter-studded
ball. Divide the dough, wrap and chill at least a couple of hours.

Because this is a slightly wetter dough than normal, make sure the kitchen is as cool as you
can make it in order to roll out the dough. Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap and allow
to sit for about 3-4 minutes on a clean, floured surface until it slightly softens and you are able
to work with it. Use as much flour as you need to and be careful not to overwork or allow to
become too warm. Have your pie dish ready. Roll into a round larger than your pie dish.
Once the dough is rolled out, starting from the edge farthest from you, roll it slightly around the
rolling pin. Move the pie dish to a position north of the dough and lift the dough, on the pin, and
settle over the dish and adjust. (This is a very maleable dough so any small tears are easily
repairable and it's receptive to being rolled out again immediately if you tear it beyond repair.)

Poke with fork tines around the entire surface if baking for a cold fill, or fill and bake according
to the temp and time instructions in your pie recipe.

Here's a photo they took of the finished pies. The Kabocha is on the left:

Monica and Bill actually preferred the Kabocha over the pumpkin pie, but they both sound awesome. We haven't gotten a chance to whip one up yet, but that's definitely on the agenda for the weekend.

So if you ever wonder what to do with Kabocha, at least you know recipe you can follow.

A very, very special thanks to Monica and Bill for not only taking time to bake two different pies, but also for all the time it takes to just write it up. It is greatly appreciated on our end!

Pork & Greens

Who Dat Got Some Andouille?

Andouille, pronounced ann-doo-wee, is a Cajun specialty sausage that we're introducing to our product line. As you probably know, Cajun cousine is spicy fair, and this sausage definitely follows that tradition. Andouille can be either a fresh or smoked sausage. We have all our sausages made fresh to eliminate the use of nitrates as much as possible.

There are hundreds of ways to prepare Andouille, with two of the most famous recipes being Jambalaya or Red Beans and Rice. Another recipe that sounds intriguing is Andouille and Cornbread Stuffing. We're going to try that soon, and if it's as good as it sounds we'll post the recipe up here. If you're like us, getting home late, kids to tend to, etc you look for ways to cook that are fast and simple, but still real meals you can sit down and enjoy. That's why I like the crock pot, because you can use ingredients that you just add to the pot, cover it up before heading out to work, and then have supper waiting when you get home.

We've got a simple to fix recipe for Andouille, Red Beans, and Rice below that you can fix in a crock pot. I always put the sausage in the fridge to thaw the night before I plan on cooking, and I set all the other ingredients and utensils out as well, something like this:

 On cooking day I get up 30 minutes before the kids and put the sausage in the skillet to cook. While it's cooking I put all the other ingredients in the crock pot and get it going. By the time the kids are getting up the sausage is done, so I just put it in the pot, put the lid on, and supper is finished except for the eating, and in the case of this recipe, cooking some rice which is a 5 minute affair. Try this recipe out, we think you'll really like it:

Ingredients

6 cans red kidney beans

2 pounds Pork & Greens Andouille sausage

1 ham hock or ham bone (optional)

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic minced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon sage

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

salt to taste

freshly cooked white rice

 

 Preparation

Place beans, onion, garlic, thyme, pepper, sage, and cayenne pepper (if you like extra spicy, if not leave the cayenne pepper out) in crock pot, stir thoroughly and put on low setting. Cook Andouille sausage in skillet until well done. Put sausage in crock pot, stir and cover. Cook 4+ hours, longer is better. Serve over hot rice. Serves six.

 

 

We'll also place the recipe in our list of recipes so you can find it later. Thanks for reading! Bon apetite.

 

Pork & Greens

Super Bowl (of chorizo chili, maybe?)

The biggest game, or party, or both, is right around the corner and we've got some suggestions for giving your snacking table a little uniqueness, as it's not often people are served rare breed, clover grazed pork!

For starting the party off right, we have two wonderful and simple-to-fix recipes. The first, our Super (hot) Balls, are made with our breakfast sausage or chorizo, (depending on how spicy you like your food) and cheese, and are a great appetizer and the easiest to prepare if time is a constraint. The second, our Slow Cooked Sweet Mustard Brats are absolutely out of this world! This is my favorite way to cook our brats that doesn't involve a bun and a grill. (If mustard isn't your thing, you can substitute your favorite BBQ sauce in place of the mustard sauce)

For what you would consider a second course entree, we have two more delicious recipes. These involve a little more prep time, but what else is there to do before the game except watch commercials? (Although I have to admit, we love watching the new commercials  ) The first recipe, our German Sausage Chowder is made with our popular German loop, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. Authentically German, it's a stick-to-your-bones kind of dish, and goes great with your favorite lager. Our next recipe is for those who like a little kick to their food, our Black Bean Chorizo Chili! This recipe will certainly spice up the party, but have your favorite beverages within arms length, because it is packing some heat!

We consider our Stuffed Pizza Burgers our "piece de resistance" and will require breaking out the grill to serve up this primero dish. Made with our Italian sausage, this recipe combines the best of both worlds, American burgers and Italian cuisine. If you've never had an Italian sausage burger you definitely need to give this a try.

We hope you'll enjoy these new recipes, and we think they'll be the hit at a Super Bowl party or at your dinner table any night. We've got all these new recipes listed with our older ones for future reference.

Pork & Greens

Gimme Shelter...

You try to shake the cold, but the cold shakes you. Ground freeze. The kind of freeze that will bend your pitchfork. One last detail before it's time to reacquaint hands, seed, and soil. Barn raising. Rafters, posts, purlins, tin, rise and run, square and plumb, and all the other workspeak of a carpenter. We've decided that a larger tractor is needed here at the farm, and tractors need shelter. Gimme shelter . Nothing like working in trench foot weather makes you appreciate all things Caribbean. Funny how the mind wanders when your eyes have the slow leak, nose the fast leak, both from winds that would make Thor dig in a little deeper. Margaritas anyone?  The sun is just a shadow of it's mid summer self. Feeble. Warmth only comes from action, but if you sit too long that action will turn back on you and freeze you out. That's the bad thing about not living at the farm. No source for heat. Fire is needed. Too much cold tilts you. Fire will bring your balance back. Some wear the winter like a long lost favorite coat, while for others, like me, it's all you can do to keep the winter from wearing you.

Pigs embrace the chill. Takes them up the good side of the hill while it's rolling me down the other. Simple shelter and straw. 

 That's one of the beauties of pigs outdoors. Low maintenance. Cram them in concrete floored buildings with state of the art ventilation, heating, cooling, etc and watch the low leave maintenance like we leave the Cherry St parking lot at closing.  Raccoons-on-the-corn-crop fast. What made us think you could jam animals in buildings like fans at an OU game, (having to wallow in their own excrement, and then flush all that into holding ponds, and the ponds right next to rivers or creeks) and we wouldn't have health and environmental problems? It's the A and the G,  I tell ya. Ambition cuts the trail for us and then Greed leads us down it.

Oh well, enough of that, now on to the "meat" of the post. First, we want to give a few details about our new Pork & Greens greek sausage. Kalamata olives and feta cheese are the two ingredients that give this sausage it's distinct flavor. It's a sausage similar to our bangers, in that it's hard to describe to someone what they taste like. You just have to try it. Perfect for pastas, buns, or pitas, which is our favorite. We've added a recipe PorkITAs that has has our sausage with pita bread. Super easy to make, but the tzatziki sauce is a must.

The butcher called today and said it will probably be tommorrow before we know the yield on the pig. As soon as we have it we'll send you an e-mail.

Question of the Day: What was the first car you ever owned? I'll go first. 77 Chevy Nova, candy apple red, raised white letter tires, with a black, red, and white checked interior. Chick magnet, although the hens weren't that impressed. 8 track player was extra!

Pork & Greens