Smoked Pork Roast

I love smoked pork product! There's just something about the hunk of pork smoking away in the back yard for an entire afternoon that makes me sooooo happy. This rub recipe came from our friend Jody. I modified it a bit and have used it on chicken, pork, and venison. In fact, one recipe makes enough rub for 2 roasts, or 1 pork roast and two chickens. We made the latter last weekend. Chicken for a backyard dinner party on Saturday night and pork for Sunday dinner with the family. 


We had a hard time getting the chicken fully cooked in the smoker, so we finished it off in the oven at 350F after letting it smoke for abut 4 hours. The pork on the other hand was done in 4 hours. Since the chicken finished in the oven we had a bunch of pan juices left over. Sunday morning I made a vinegar sauce with the chicken pan juices. 


We sliced the pork because it was a bone-in ham roast and it sliced nicely; we served it with the vinegar sauce. This would also make a great pulled pork. 


Rub
2 whole, dried ancho peppers, seeds removed
3 Tablespoons whole black pepper corns
3 Tablespoons course salt
¼ cup paprika* 
3 cloves garlic
1 onion

Blend all ingredients in a food processor. Make sure to start with the peppercorns, ancho peppers, and salt before adding the other ingredients; otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of whole peppercorns and you want them to be ground up.

Rub the paste onto your meat*. If you're cooking chicken, make sure to get the rub under the skin. Smoke the meat until it reaches the correct internal temperature*.

Notes:
*You can use any combination of sweet and/or smoked paprika. Jody likes to use 1/8 cup smoked paprika with 1/8 sweet paprika, but I only had sweet paprika last weekend and that was great too. 


*If you want to make the vinegar sauce below, save out 2 teaspoons of the rub for the sauce. 

Vinegar sauce
1 cup broth/pan juices, cooled and fat removed from the top
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons leftover rub

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat for about an hour, or until the sauce reaches a taste/consistency that you like. With vinegar sauces, everyone has a different level of vinegar love :)

Chocolate Lavender Tart

This dessert is so fast to make (honestly about 30 minutes), but it tastes and looks amazing! Fancy dessert coming through!!

For crust
5 ounces vanilla wafers (about 40)
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder


For filling
1 cup whipping cream*
2 teaspoons dried lavender blossoms
12 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate*
1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon butter


Preheat oven to 350°F.

While butter is melting, grind vanilla wafers in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add butter, honey, and cocoa powder and mix until well combined. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom (not up sides) of prepared tart pan. Bake until set, about 10 minutes. Cool.

Bring cream and lavender just to boil in small saucepan. Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes.

Place chocolate in medium saucepan. Strain hot cream mixture into saucepan with chocolate. Stir over medium-low heat just until melted and smooth. Add cocoa powder and remaining 1 tablespoon butter; stir until melted and smooth.

Pour chocolate mixture over crust in tart pan. Chill at least 45 minutes (chocolate will be slightly soft after 45 minutes and firm after 2 hours). Cut into wedges and serve.


Notes:
*Original recipe says the tart can be made 1 day ahead, but I've eaten it three days later and it was still wonderful. Cover and keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.


*The first time I made the tart I made this tart with whipping cream and the taste was incredible, but Rob and I thought it was a bit to firm - more like eating a bar of chocolate than a tart. Also, I never have heavy whipping cream on hand, so I tried it a second time with whole milk. Sadly, the tart never set completely. So I am going to keep working the whole milk angle and we'll see if I can't make it work. I'll certainly update the post when I am successful. 


*Original recipe calls for chocolate chips, but I've used both chocolate chips and big chunks of baking chocolate and both have worked well. 

Springtime Quiche

I am pleased to report that almost everything in this early spring quiche was grown in the front yard, purchased at the farmers market (and therefore grown in someone else's yard) or found in the local undisclosed woods. We made it last week and it was an awesome picnic dinner while mushrooming!

Vegetable and Cheddar Quiche
modified from from the cooks garden by Ellen Ecker Ogden
makes 6 servings

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
12 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/3 cup ice water, as needed

Filling:
1 cup whole milk
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh sage
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
pinch of salt
grind of black pepper
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons butter
10-15 stalks asparagus, finely chopped
1 medium leek, white and light green parts sliced
6-8 morel mushrooms, roughly chopped
10-12 stalks swiss chard, thinly shredded*

Make Crust:

Process flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Cut the butter in with the pulse function until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal. With the machine running, gradually add water until the dough holds together. Gather the dough into a ball and refrigerate 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F. Roll crust into an 11- to 12-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Fit into a 9-inch spring form pan (or pie plate). Prick the dough in several places with a fork. Line the dough with aluminum foil and pie beans. Bake until the dough looks set but not browned, about 12 minutes. Remove foil and beans and let crust stand until ready to fill. Sprinkle cheddar cheese evenly onto the bottom of the crust while it is still warm.

Make Filling:

Saute leeks, mushrooms, and asparagus in butter until leeks are soft and just starting to brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Steam swiss chard until cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and squeeze as much water as possible from the chard. Add vegetables to the crust, on top of the cheese.

Whisk the milk, eggs, thyme, sage, salt and pepper until combined. Pour mixture over the vegetables in the crust and top with parsley.

Bake until a knife inserted in the center of the filling comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving warm.

*Notes:
I think the absolute key to eating swiss chard is chopping it into thin slices. Before cooking, I shredded the chard into 1/4 inch slices, like when shredding cabbage for cole slaw. And then I cut those slices in half so they weren't too long.

Rhubarb Tart

I love spring and the Farmers Market! Saturday morning was the first Farmers Market of the season and Saturday evening was the Kentucy Derby! What a great day! I bought rhubarb in the morning and took this rhubarb tart to a Derby party in the afternoon. I made this tart what seems like every weekend last spring and so excited to continue the tradition.

We ate the leftovers on Sunday with vanilla ice cream and it was still d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!

Rhubarb Tart with Brown Butter Streusel
serves 8 to 10
modified from Bon Appetit, January 2004

Crust
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 egg yolk
3 to 4 tablespoons chilled whole milk

Streusel
9 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup almonds
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon molases (or 3/4 cup brown sugar)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup all purpose flour

Filling
2 pounds rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices rhubarb (about 4 cups once sliced)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

For crust:

Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Using on/off turns, cut in butter until coarse meal forms. Add egg yolk and 3 tablespoons cream. Blend until moist clumps form, adding more cream if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball. Press enough dough into 10-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom to make 1/4-inch-thick crust. Pierce crust all over with fork. Chill at least 2 hours*. Bake cold crust at 375F until golden brown, pressing with back of fork if crust bubbles, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350°F

For streusel:

Grind almonds in a food processor until they are finely chopped. It is ok to have some slightly bigger pieces, but you are looking for a nice almond meal. Cook butter in large skillet over medium heat until golden*, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in almonds, sugar, and cinnamon. Add flour and stir until moist clumps form. Cool completely. (Crust and streusel can be made 1 day ahead. Cover separately and chill.)

For filling:

Toss all ingredients in bowl to blend. Let stand until filling looks moist, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.

Spoon filling into warm crust. Crumble streusel over. Bake until filling is bubbling and streusel is crisp and brown, about 1 hour. Cool tart on rack 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.


*Notes:
I have to be honest here. I never chill my pie crust for 2 hours. Maybe it would make an absolutely melt my heart pie crust if I did, but honestly I just wouldn't make pie that often if I had to chill the crust for 2 hours. Instead, I stick it in the freezer and give it as long as possible, but usually thats only 15 or 20 minutes.

I have made this tart several times and I think this was the very first time I actually let the butter get brown enough. Just before it gets dark, the butter will start to foam, a lot, whcih makes it hard to see the color. I let it foam for maybe 30 to 60 seconds until, while stirring very quickly with a spatula, I was able to see that the butter was starting to get a deep brown.