So first I have to apologize about the long time period with no posts from me. I have been busy with new job – that does not mean I have not cooked or eaten some amazing pork in the past few months! More to come after this….
It has become a tradition to share not only Thanksgiving with family but with friends as well, and this year was no exception. A few of us were hiking and camping in the Adirondacks a few weeks prior and decided that it should be called ‘porduckey feast’ as we wanted to have pork, duck and turkey as part of the feast. We decided on a potluck meal at our friends Will and Emily’s. I of course set out to overwhelm with pork and I think I succeeded. I can honestly say that I am not a huge fan of turkey – even though that seems to be a centerpiece of many meals.
For my turkey dish I took a turkey breast (@ 6lbs) and stuffed it with a mixture of 2 sweet Italian sausages, 3/4 bulb of chopped fennel and heaping handful of raisins salt and pepper. I used twine to tie this mound of meat together before cooking it at 375 for about an hour and a half…
In addition I always like ribs so we made four racks of ribs with my famous spicy rub and BBQ sauce to compliment. I started these the night before by rubbing them with my own rub mixture and letting them sit in the fridge overnight. Ultimately I like to smoke ribs (either in a smoker or makeshift on a grill) but as I do not have access to those things living in Park Slope I cooked them low and slow in the oven.
photo by Cliff Hawkins
photo by Cliff Hawkins
photo by Cliff Hawkins
photo by Cliff Hawkins
photo by Cliff Hawkins
photo by Cliff Hawkins
photo by Cliff Hawkins
photo by Cliff Hawkins
These are just a few pics from the epic meal that was shared among great friends… Everyone brought something to the table including indian spiced mashed potatoes, wild rice, a roasted duck, brussels sprouts with bacon and raisins (these were amazing and I will blog about another version of these later), corn, stuffing, applesauce. (I hope I am not leaving anything out!) We all dug in and I think we all ate at least one plate before we took a break to enjoy some great cocktails by Cliff – Mmmm Dark and Stormy before some of us made second and third runs!
Of course there was dessert too – two amazing pies; one cherry and the other pecan. Served with vanilla ice cream of course! Needless to say everyone left VERY full and took to go containers as well… I think we ate and drank from about 2 until sundown.
I stand by my opinion that pork is a necessary part of every holiday meal including Thanksgiving!