Cocktail: Richard's Remedy

I can say with ease that my grandpa Dick was the best man I've ever known. Without getting too gushy about it all, he lived a simple life with grace, humility, compassion, and most of all happiness. Hey may not have always let you know it obviously, but if something tickled his fancy he would immediately throw on his unmistakable upside-down smile and have a hearty laugh about it. I could do the world no greater service than to model my life after his virtues.

It's a hefty undertaking to live up to that standard, so in the meantime I will be content just mimicking some of his favorite habits. Food and drink related this probably accounts with my fanatical appreciation of bread, cheese, and brandy. The bread and cheese always made perfect sense, but as a kid I always found it hilarious how his answer to any of life's ailments usually involved brandy.

Bad headache? A bit of brandy and a nap will set you straight. Starting to feel a cold coming on? Warm some brandy and honey (always honey, as he was a beekeeper by trade) and it will pass. Sore throat? Brandy, lemon, and honey. Bad day? You get the picture.

Oddly enough, I rarely ever saw him drink brandy as a kid, although this was probably more my grandma's doing than his. When he got his hall pass on the holidays he was always one of the happiest and funniest drunks I've ever seen.

Simple and thrifty are two of his traits I will never know. He would never consider making this exact cocktail due to the ingredients, but would love it none the less. (And then he would tell you it would cure whatever ails ya)

Richard's Remedy

2oz Spanish Brandy
3/4 oz Meyer Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Honey-Ginger Syrup *recipe to follow
1 Rosemary Sprig for Garnish

Combine the brandy, meyer lemon juice, and syrup in a glass with ice. Stir thoroughly for 10 seconds, then garnish with the rosemary sprig.

A few ground rules:
1) Use Spanish brandy. It's sweeter than traditional brandy or cognac, which is great for this cocktail. I used Lepanto because it is what I had on hand, but most any traditionalist would kick me for using such a high end brandy in a mixed drink.
2) Meyer Lemons are not necessary but I like the sweeter, less acidic,orangey twist it gives. Plus they are in season. Regular juice would work just fine.
3) I love the bitterness and freshness that herbs add to cocktails. The rosemary adds another understated note to it all, but if you don't have it on hand, by no means do you need it for this preparation.

Honey-Ginger Syrup
3/4 cup of Honey
3/4 cup of Water
1-2 inch Nob of fresh ginger, peeled and minced

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan, stir as you bring it to a boil. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and strain into a squeeze bottle.

Ode to Apples - Bourbon and Apple Cider Braised Pulled Pork, Apple Fennel and Carrot Slaw, and Applejack Pie Cocktail

I love apples. They pair seamlessly with a number of other flavors and ingredients, and provide natural sweetness/tartness, and varieties of texture to any dish. As you will learn going forward, I am almost entirely against the use of artificial sweeteners, but do love introducing sweetness and acidity to a dish through the natural sugars and acid in the ingredients. Beyond your basic aromatic vegetables, this usually means addition of any of fresh fruit/dried fruit/ fruit juice/zest as flavoring agents for a majority of the dishes that I cook.

Being the middle of the winter months, apples are one of those seasonal ingredients I can't pass up. Common themes you will see in everything I cook applies to the recipes below. Salty, Acidic, Sweet, Porky. The cocktail is sweet but potent, and blends in the acidity of fresh lemon juice to bring together one hell of a cocktail.

I halfheartedly apologize for only having pictures of the finished product. I started this blog after cooking this food (yeah, it's 3 days old, and the leftovers are still amazing, so sue me) and couldn't imagine washing and drying my hands every 15 seconds to take a picture of my prep work. There's something a bit strange about food photography, so expect to see only a few pictures a post from here on out.

Bourbon and Apple Cider Braised Pulled Pork

• 2 Boneless pork loins (about 4 pounds)
• 2-3 Large onions, sliced
• 1-2 Braeburn Apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 a bulb of garlic, sliced
• 2 Sprigs of rosemary
• 8-12 Sprigs of thyme
• 6 large bay leaves
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 4 cups of unfiltered natural apple cider
• 1 cup of bourbon (approximating, I have no idea...)
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil ( a few tablespoons?)

Preheat your oven to 250.

Let the pork tenderloins sit out of the fridge for about 20-30 minutes to come to room temperature. Pat them dry with a paper towel, and season heavily with salt and pepper.

In a hot dutch oven over medium-medium high heat, add the olive oil and brown the pork loins on all sides. When finished set aside.

Add your onions and season with salt and pepper. Saute until starting to turn translucent, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and apples, and cook for another 6-8 minutes. Add the rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and bourbon to deglaze the pan. Flame the bourbon with a grill lighter off the flame and allow the mixture to reduce for a second, making sure you scrape up the brown bits off the bottom. Add the chicken stock and cider, and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, return the pork to the pan, make sure there is enough to cover by at least 3/4, and pop a lid on it, and put it in the oven. If you need more liquid, add more cider, stock, or a touch of water.

Wait 10-12 hours* (turning the pork once or twice at most). Take the pork out of the braising liquid, and set aside. Strain the braising liquid into a glass bowl, and allow to set for a minute. Once the fat has started to seperate towards the top, remove the fat and then return the liquid to the pot and allow the mixture to reduce by half.

While waiting for the liquid to reduce, shred your pork loins. Add them back to the braising liquid after it has reduced by half, and toss to combine. Serve or store for future use.

* If you did not want to leave the pork in the oven for 12 hours, you can do the following:
1) Follow the same steps as above, but set the oven to 400. Braise in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour, turn the temp down to 350, and let it go for another hour and a half before pulling the pork.
2) Brown the meat in a pan, cook the apples&onions&garlic then add of the liquid to a boil and add everything into a crockpot on low. Shred when you get home.

 Apple, Fennel, and Carrot Slaw


Slaw

• 1 Bulb of fresh fennel
• 1-2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and cored
• 1/2 a red onion
• 2 carrots, grated (actually whatever amount is about equal to the fennel and red onion
• 2-3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, minced

 Dressing

• Juice of two lemons
• 3/4 Cup of olive oil
• Honey
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon of dijon mustard

Thinly slice/shred the fennel, apples, red onion, and carrots with a mandolin. mince parlsey and mix together in a large bowl.

Combine all of the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and whisk together. Taste for appropriate amounts of honey and salt and pepper (remember the salt is going to flavor the slaw as well as the dressing).


Toss the slaw and the dressing together and refrigerate for 3 hours, up to 1 week.


Applejack Pie Cocktail

This is a delicious little cocktail I created with a few of my favorite ingredients: Applejack, Falernum, and Christmas Syrup.

For those uninitiated, Applejack is an apple brandy...which is exactly what it sounds like. A brandy made from apples rather than grapes, with a pleasant apple flavor. Falernum is a Caribbean clove liquor  fortified with rum, lime, and other spices. Christmas syrup is a homemade simple syrup combining orange peel, ginger, clove, star anise, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

 

• 1 oz Laird's Applejack
• 1/2 oz Velvet Falernum
• 1/2 oz Christmas Syrup * recipe to follow
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• Lemon peel for garnish
• 2-3 Sprigs of fresh thyme for garnish and mixing

Chill a martini glass. Fill a mixer/Boston Shaker with ice, and add the applejack, falernum, syrup, lemon juice, and 1-2 sprigs of thyme. Shake vigorously for 10 seconds, and strain into the chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with thyme and a lemon peel.

Christmas Syrup:


3/4 Cup of turbinado sugar (raw brown sugar)
3/4 Cup of water
1 Cinnamon stick
1 inch cube of fresh ginger, peeled
1 star anise pod
10 whole cloves
2 allspice berries
1/8 a whole nutmeg
Peel 1/4 a medium orange


Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and stir to combine. Put the pan over high heat, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a slow simmer for 5 minutes, stirring to prevent any sticking.


Remove from the heat, allow the mixture to cool, and strain into a squeeze bottle. Keep in a fridge for as long as you can keep it (won't be long).

All the Fat Kids on the Bus

It's about time I started a blog. I've been doing a bit of writing recently, and wanted another outlet for the things I really love most in life: food and drink. Chances are, if you're reading this blog and this post, you have already listened to me rant about something, anything that catches my eye and pleases my palate. In the hopes that Fat Kid Field Trip actually catches on, here are a few things the rest of you should know:

1. I stole this blog title from Eddie Spaghetti who wanted to know the next time I went "on a fat kid field trip" so he could come along. Thanks for allowing me to plagiarize your genius.
2. I'm pretty much right about everything, especially things where I think I am well informed. Don't fight it.
3. There isn't really any purpose for this blog other than for me to tell you how much I love being a fat kid at heart. Left to my own devices I'd be about 300lbs. Luckily vanity, a hate for packaged/processed/fast foods, and occasional trips to the gym keeps me from getting too much meat on these bones.
4. I am horrible at creating recipes. If you read this blog to get ideas, and not exact proportions, times, or  measurements you will be fine. The rest of you just need to give it up and learn to cook with your senses rather than reading abilities. I will only get specific when I'm mixing cocktails.
5. Mixology is my new thing. Expect to see a lot here about random drinks or my love for brown liquors and gin.
6. I will do everything in my power to make sure there will not be a vegan/vegetarian dish or menu on this blog.
7. Jamon Iberico and Pancetta are the two greatest things on planet earth. If you disagree, reread point two, and then never read my blog again.

 -Dutch