MAY CHALLENGE: The Splendid Table Stumps the Cooks!

I really like the hummous idea. True East-Meets-West.

Even though Mr. 1K was right in that it looks kind of like poop, I have to say that it was pretty darned good.

rwj

I'm sure it tasted fine, and I would definitely have eaten it, as long as it didn't also smell like poop!

I'm sure it tasted fine, and I would definitely have eaten it, as long as it didn't also smell like poop!

No matter the look, I generally don't eat anything that smells like poop.

rwj

[Robin Garr]

No matter the look, I generally don't eat anything that smells like poop.

Not even a nice old Burg and a plate of andouillettes?

No matter the look, I generally don't eat anything that smells like poop.

Not even a nice old Burg and a plate of andouillettes?

I said, "...generally...".

rwj

[Jenise]

No matter the look, I generally don't eat anything that smells like poop.

Not even a nice old Burg and a plate of andouillettes?

I said, "...generally...".

rwj

Then drink the burg and send the andouillettes back.

[Robin Garr]

Then drink the burg and send the andouillettes back.

I guess you wouldn't approve of the dish I had at a little cheese shop-eatery in Paris, then: Andouillettes and Roquefort over pasta. There was only one possible beverage match: Beer.

Then drink the burg and send the andouillettes back.

We really should consider getting married.

rwj

[Jenise]

We really should consider getting married.

rwj

It's getting harder to ignore the signals.

I finally finshed my dish. Here is my Apple Wood Smoked Pork Belly platter.

The Splendid Table Recipe Challenge
1 Head Frizze (Curly Endive)
2 leeks

Pork Belly
1 lb pork belly (w/rib bone)
¼ c brown sugar
2 Tbsp kosher salt
2 Tsp black pepper
2 C water

Bring 1 c water to boil and remove from heat. Add kosher salt, brown sugar and black pepper; stir to dissolve. Add remaining c water and cool to room temperature. Add pork belly and brine to 1 gallon ziplock bag and refrigerate at least 48 hours. When ready to cook, prepare gill for indirect heat, ignite charcoals in chimney and pour hot coals over apple wood. Cover and smoke until done (at least 1 hr).

pork belly.jpg

Chickpea Fries
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 leek
1 Tbsp oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Drain chickpeas and reserve liquid. Slice leek in half lengthwise and clean. Slice leeks crosswise, add to small sauté pan with 1 Tbsp oil. Saute leeks slightly, then add 2 Tbsp water, cover and sweat until tender and all moisture has been rendered. Remove 2-3 chipotle peppers from adobo sauce, reserving sauce, remove seeds and chop into large chunks. Add all ingredients to blender, and 2-3 Tbsp reserved chickpea liquid and puree. Place mixture into loaf pan and chill until set (at least 2 hrs). Remove chickpeas from loaf pan and cut into ½” x 3” lengths. Preheat oven to 400º F. Spray baking dish with cooking oil and place fries into pan. Bake in preheated oven approx 20 mins, until dry.

chickpea fries.jpg

Mole Sauce
Adobo sauce
Reserved chickpea liquid
1 2-oz bar Dagoba Xocolatl Oganic Chocolate (74% Cacao dark chocolate with chiles and nibs)
1-2 tsp brown sugar

Strain adobo sauce into small saucepan to remove any seeds and stems. Add remaining chickpea liquid to adobo sauce and 1 oz dark chocolate. Heat until chocolate is melted. Add brown sugar to cut bitterness and heat, and enrich flavor.

mole sauce.jpg

To prepare dish, remove rind from pork belly and dice into cracklins. Clean remaining leek, spray with oil and place over hot coals. Cover and cook for 10 minutes (check every few minutes to avoid burning). Move leeks to center of the grill. Spray endive and place over hot coals for about 3 minutes. Remove all ingredients to platter. Sprinkle lettuce with cracklins. Drizzle with mole and serve.

Finished Product.jpg

Jo Ann, those chickpea fries look interesting. I'd try them. You only used 1/2 the bar of Dagoba chocolate in the adobo? The cook must have eaten the rest - I would've, I love those dark chocolates!

Okay, guys
For a postmortem on my dish -- the pork was fabulous! It was moist, perfectly cooked and well seasoned (without being overly sweet or salty), and it picked up just the right amount of the apple wood flavor. The last 5 minutes of cooking I stood it up on the rind just above the coals so that the rind would crisp. It was perfectly crunchy. I love grilled vegetables and the leeks and endive were perfect. (It took a little longer to grill them because the embers were beginning to wane -- but that assured cooking witha slight char without burning.)

The chickpea fries took two tries. The first time I tried to fry them (literally). They disintegrated into the oil! What the hell happened here?! So, I sprayed a pan and baked them. They turned out okay, but it wasn't the crunchy sticks I had hoped for. The flavor was good though.

The mole would have been perfect had it not been for the pepperiness of the adobo sauce. I couldn't decide whether it was too hot or if it was too smoky. One of the two flavors was overpowering to my taste. Though the chocolate was just enough and the brown sugar hit made all the difference (I used only 1 tsp). It was just the amount needed to balance the flavors. But, somehow mole wasn't the dressing I would have used to make this dish perfect for me. I would have preferred something a little more fruity to play off the apple wood and the brining of the pork. But, it was good experiment. I'm ready for the next challenge. Who's going to issue it?

[Jenise]

Jo Ann,

That looks absolutely splendid. The photo of the whole smoked pork belly, a whole unsliced chunk bacon if you will, has me feeling famished about an hour earlier than I normally even start to get hungry. And of all the ways I considered dealing with the pork, smoking it didn't even cross my mind, so my hat's off to you.

You know it's really quite fascinating, as restrictive as these ingredients were, that we're all coming up with dishes so different. I am quite relieved in fact that my dish, when I finally get to it, has a different plan for both the pork belly and the garbanzos than you, Robert or Ines produced--I've been really worried that I'd end up looking like a copycat by reporting so late. And where I said I'd be cooking it tonight? Not so, when I said that I was just steering around the holiday weekend and forgetting that I'm having dinner with Bill Spohn and friends tonight in Van. And tomorrow night we're committed too, so I'll start my pork tomorrow morning and do the meal for Thursday dinner. Barb has yet to report in, too.

As for who's next, I'd like to invite Ines to come up with a challenge.

Great looking dish, Jo Ann. I love that you smoked the pork. That is one of my favorite flavors; slow cooked pork.

If we had been allowed a binder of sorts (cheese, egg, breadcrumbs, etc.) then those fries would have worked out perfectly. But the idea is great! I'm going to be using that in my classes down the line.

Great job, girl!

rwj

Great looking dish, Jo Ann. I love that you smoked the pork. That is one of my favorite flavors; slow cooked pork.

If we had been allowed a binder of sorts (cheese, egg, breadcrumbs, etc.) then those fries would have worked out perfectly. But the idea is great! I'm going to be using that in my classes down the line.

Great job, girl!

rwj

Thx, Robert.
Actually, I felt as if the fries would have worked out had there been a little flour (or something to absorb the residual moisture content). I'll need to think more on that. But, the flavor was fantastic. I would have added it to the dish as a spicy hummus, but R. Reynolds had already done that. Be warned, the chipotle added a smokiness and a heat factor that many will not be able to take. But, I think the flavor was perfect (and I didn't have to add salt). I would definitely serve them with a side honey/mustard dressing of sorts. Let me know what you come up with if you take this on as a project.

Actually, that was me that made the hummus. Mr 1K can't cook .

You know, I found that I didn't need to use much salt in this challenge too. Between the smokiness, sweet, and fat there was just plenty of flavor.

rwj

Actually, that was me that made the hummus. Mr 1K can't cook .

You know, I found that I didn't need to use much salt in this challenge too. Between the smokiness, sweet, and fat there was just plenty of flavor.

rwj

Only fruitcake.

Actually, that was me that made the hummus. Mr 1K can't cook .

You know, I found that I didn't need to use much salt in this challenge too. Between the smokiness, sweet, and fat there was just plenty of flavor.

rwj

Only fruitcake.

You know, I still have a tiny bit of that piece you sent me. I had a little nibble the other night and it just keeps getting better.

rwj

[Jenise]

Actually, that was me that made the hummus. Mr 1K can't cook .

You know, I found that I didn't need to use much salt in this challenge too. Between the smokiness, sweet, and fat there was just plenty of flavor.

rwj

Only fruitcake.

You know, I still have a tiny bit of that piece you sent me. I had a little nibble the other night and it just keeps getting better.

rwj

Okay, I did my dish. Not last night as planned as I was a little under the weather, but tonight. However, there's no time to write it up just now and I'll be away on the Party Bus all day tomorrow, so I'll post on Sunday. With pictures.

Until then, keep cooking!

[Jenise]

Okay, so my dish was: Lechon Kawali (Filipino deep fried Pork Belly) in Adobo with Sweet & Spicey Pork Reduction Sauce, Chickpea Johnnycake and Crusty Chocolate Onion Ring.

PorkBelly.JPG

Lechon Kawali
Lechon Kawali is pork belly that is marinated in salt and pepper for hours, then poached for a few hours until tender, cut into chunks, air dried to get rid of the surface moisture, frozen, then deep fried, a series of steps that basically requires completing all steps through freezing the day before and cooking at best the next day, or some time after if illness delays your ability to work in the kitchen as it did me last week. In fact, only the imminent threat of rotting frisee and further delay over the weekend due to other plans got this on our table Friday night.

I chose this methodolgy in hopes that it would recreate the first pork belly I ever tasted. It was at a pan-Asian restaurant in Huntington Beach that was a brilliant foodie destination upon first opening but all too soon morphed into more of a nightclub for martini-guzzling surfer dudes and dudettes. It was clear were the profit was.

For the purposes of this recipe, I marinated the pork with salt and canned adobo sauce, which would penetrate better with the salt as carrier. After the poaching, I reduced the poaching liquid to about a third of a cup, then added brown sugar to achieve a carmelly, sweet-salty balance, and then mounted the sauce with cold butter and added a little more of the adobo for a sharp, fresh chile hit. The sauce was delicious.

Chickpea Johnnycakes
A week or two before I'd already ground and fried off several patties of ground just-out-of-the-can garbanzos just to get a feel for how they'd hold together and taste cooked that way, and it was that which made me think of, and wish for, the texture of a johnnycake (southern corn meal pancake, usually just corn meal and water or milk). Maybe, I thought, if I could make a garbanzo 'flour' I'd have something that in combination with the ground garbanzos right out of the can would make an oozier but congealing batter somewhat like the original.

So I drained and rinsed two cans of garbanzo beans, then dehydrated them for several hours before grinding them into a coarse flour in my food processor. The processing warmed and moistened the flour, so I removed the flour to a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes to dry it out before further handling/use. (picture below)

GarbanzoFlour.JPG

Unable to get the flour as fine as I wanted in the food processor (after 20 years, it's probably time for a new steel blade), I removed about half to a coffee grinder and did get a finer powder so I now had two sizes to work with. A mixture of the fine, coarse and roughly ground-out-the-can garbanzos worked. NOT as well as it would have with a binder like egg or even milk as my liquid, mind you, but I was able to get more of a pancake texture than the rustic patty I got from canned alone. I seasoned the johnnycakes with bits of a mashed chipotle.

Crusty Chocolate Onion Ring
Now here's the big thing: the garbanzo flour I made also gave me an opportunity to take my one member of the onion family out of the seasoning realm and make it a featured item with the chocolate. I had prepped green onions (trimmed to the best five inches, with the ends cut and ice-water soaked for frill) and thick slices of sweet Vidalia onions for the occasion, kind of thinking maybe one would work but not the other, and I'd take the best. The one I hoped would work was a tempura-like coating of the finer garbanzo flour mixed with water on the green onion. It didn't, several tries failed to find a way to make any of the flour stick to the onion--no matter what, it slipped off as soon as it went into the hot oil. But pressing the vidalia slices into the garbanzo flour, then into a paste of garbanzo flour and water and then the coarser grind garbanzo flour worked. Not fabulously, but well enough to brown the onion (two rings thick, for more structure) in a skillet, and coat with shaved chocolate. By the time I took the picture (the phone rang and delayed both dinner and photography), the onion has softened some, but in fact when it first went on the plate it stood up next to the pork nice and firm.

Frisee
I toyed with several methods here, too. In the end, I served it just pan-seared, having cut and separated a couple large swashes from the core end of the head. But that's after trying, and rejecting, a "candied" version wherein I made a pan caramel that would harden quickly onto the endive, and a version where the endive was pressed into the brown sugar before going into a hot non-stick skillet. Neither was any good, it surprisingly just made the good bitter of the endive into a bad, nasty bitter. The endive was best unadorned but for a pinch of fleur de sel.

What we liked and what we didn't
We loved the fried pork belly. Hot and crispy, a guilty pleasure. My lean and lovely chunks were in fact, a bit too lean--streakier would have been better in a deep fry. The sauce was good. The johnnycake was a good concept and quite tasty. It suffered for the things I couldn't add to improve it, but we both liked it a lot. I regretted that the frisee ended up in straight garnish service like a parsley sprig, but without the acidity that everyone else wished for too, it added nothing flavorwise to the dish that the dish needed. The biggest and most unanticipated surprise of the meal was, however, the onion ring. For a last-minute, second choice preparation, the way the onion sweetened the bitter chocolate and created a very complete, attractive and tasty whole, mesmerizing by itself and adding the dazzle to a forkfull of pork with the sweet and spicy reduction sauce. We both regretted that there wasn't more onion on our plates.

Would I make it again?
No, not exactly the way I made it, but the onion-chocolate discovery is an absolute keeper. For that, and for the lessons learned playing with the garbanzo beans and my first attempt at deep-frying pork belly, this stumper was the most challenging and rewarding of our FLDG Cooks challenges so far.

I'm ready for the next one!

Way to go, Jenise. Chickpea flour -- girlllllllll, you need to quit! Too much work for something that needed the addition of more ingredients to make it worthwhile. But, that kind of enginuity is what separates the pros from the wannabes. But, don't look Back!
CONGRATULATIONS!!

Jenise, in a word: Killer.

I love the onion ring idea.

rwj

Wow Jenise...you always blow me away! Incredible and so out of the box. I wish I could taste it!

btw, hope your feeling better!

[Jenise]

Way to go, Jenise. Chickpea flour -- girlllllllll, you need to quit! Too much work for something that needed the addition of more ingredients to make it worthwhile. But, that kind of enginuity is what separates the pros from the wannabes. But, don't look Back!
CONGRATULATIONS!!

Oh no, never too much work. Challenges like this are brain food, exciting to contemplate and prepare for, and one learns as much from what doesn't work as what does from what the way the rest of the group approaches the project, too. (Because of you, I am now hellbent on making my own bacon, which I've never done.) And discovering a combination like chocolate and onion, that's worth everything. Who knew?

Thanks to you, Lynne and Sally for creating such a challenging challenge.

Whose left to report in, Barb? Oh, Baaaaaaaaaaaaa-aarrrrbbb!