Quoting Dale Shipp to Nancy Backus <=-
Our Sunday dinner was quite inexpensive but delicious and took quite
a bit of prep time but wasn't really all that labour intensive. It
was my BIL's birthday and we wanted to make something a bit special.
Roslind and her sister Sandra, who is her part time bookkeeper, were
both busy all day trying to catch up on her reports and invoices so
the whole cooking job fell upon me.
Early in the day I made bread and buns: 50% whole wheat with a
little bit of molasses in it this time.
We started dinner off with Negronis which was something new for
Matthew, a beer swilling kind of guy who only started drinking wine
a decade ago. His cocktail experience has been limited in the past
to two part highballs of rye, rum or vodka plus pop, usually cola.
He was quite impressed with Chartreuse the last time he was here and
he now seems favourably inclined towards Campari too.
The main dish was a bone-in pork shoulder roast. The one we
purchased had a fairly decent fat cap, about three quarters of an
inch thick. I slashed the rind, coated the roast with oil and then a
spice rub of pepper, garlic powder, mustard and thyme. I gave it
half an hour at 450 F starting from a barely warm oven, so maybe 15
minutes of high heat, then 2 hours at 315 and held it at 175 while I
put together the side dishes. It was well done but still juicy
thanks to the fat cap with a little pink at the bone, The rind
made great crackling too.
We wanted lots of gravy so I augmented the pan juices with a sauce
made from a roux, chicken broth made with "Better Than Bouillon"
chicken paste, some Chinese pork floss, and a slug of home made
brown BBQ sauce.
I also made a sweet and sour cherry sauce to go with the pork as an alternative. The base was half a tub of that odious sweet red sauce
that Chinese restaurants serve with chicken balls and fried wontons
improved with vinegar, lemon juice, powdered ginger, mustard powder
and a shot of Roslind's sour cherry juice and given a quick boil. It
turned out quite nice once the overpowering sweetness was balanced
with some acidity.
For the starch I roasted a cast iron frying pan full of baby
potatoes rolling around in olive oil and sprinkled with seasoned
salt and powdered bay leaves.
The vegetable sides were a carrot and cauliflower medley sprinkled
with my Lebanese spice mix and steamed cabbage flavoured with summer
savory.
To drink, as Matthew is not fond of dry wines, a bottle of Deinhard
Piesporter, a Riesling from Mosel and a 3 on the sweetness scale. As
there was sugar in the buns, BBQ sauce and pork floss, and carrots
are naturally sweet it probably worked better than a bone dry wine
although I would have preferred a modern style off dry Riesling with
about 10 g per litre of sugar not 30.
So pork, cabbage, potatoes and a medium white wine ... kind of
Germanish over all but with some Asian accents mixed in.
For afters, we skipped dessert but did have Frangelico with our
coffee. All in all a very satisfactory Sunday dinner.
Cheers
Jim
... Why doesn't "Phonetically" start with an "F"?
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