Pork Rillettes

This is my recipe from Australia. It is so simple we never used a written recipe.

Note:  You certainly can chop up the vegetables and include them in the rillettes spread.  This is a country French recipe and you can do with it what you please.


5 lbs. Boneless Pork Butt
1 lb. Mirepoix. (2 parts onion, one part each carrots and celery) I estimate about 2 onions and 2 carrots and 4 stalks of celery. Doesn’t matter that much.
3 cloves garlic, mashed, no need to peel
1 tsp. Thyme
2 or three bay leaves
12 cups beef or chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Here’s how to do it:
Cut up your meat into about 10 more or less equally sized portions. Put in a pot with all the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat immediately to a simmer. Cover and let is gently do it’s thing for about 8 hours. At very low heat. Test a piece, it should fall apart with very little encouragement. Refrigerate it overnight.

Next morning skim off all the fat and save it. Remove the meat and set it aside. Save the broth because it makes a luscious soup base. No need to save the vegetables, but you can eat them if you like.

Now the real work: Remove all the fat and any other waste from the pieces of meast, then squeeze, mash, and if necessary chop and stir until the meat is fairly smooth enough to tolerate being spread on a cracker or slice of bread.

If you feel you need to do so, add some of the broth to make it spreadable.  You can make it ultra-smooth by buzzing it up in the processor.

Pack the spread into a pot, or pots of some kind, melt the fat and pour it over the meat, that will seal from oxygen and help preserve it. Refrigerate. When ready to serve remove the fat and spread on crackers, toasts etc. I like bread and butter pickles, onions, chopped eggs etc. on mine.

Shrimp Mousse

2 cups plain yogurt, room temperature
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup mayonnaise, room temperature
6 cups boiled, chopped shrimp
2 Tablespoons Knox Unflavored Gelatin
juice of 2 lemons mixed with 1/4 cup cold water
½ cup finely minced green onion
½ cup finely minced celery
½ cup finely minced red bell pepper
1/4 cup minced pimientos
½ cup salsa picante (fresh or boughten)
½ tsp. Crystal Hot Sauce
1 Tbsp. Lea and Perrins

Mix together the yogurt, cream cheese, and mayonnaise. Fold in the shrimp. Dissolve the gelatin in the lemon juice and cold water, and heat in the top of a double for 5 minutes, stirring.

Fold the gelatin mixture into the cheese/shrimp mixture. Gently add the minced vegetables and seasonings, blending well. Adjust the seasonings. Pour into a 2-quart mold and refrigerate overnight before serving.

Salmon Rillettes

Truly inspiring. Just make sure the rest of the meal is as good as the appetizer.

8 ounce  piece of salmon, preferably wild, bones removed
salt
5 tablespoons  butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped chives
4 ounces smoked salmon, cut into thin strips, then cut into ½-inch  pieces
¼ teaspoon chili powder

Season the salmon on both sides lightly with a bit of salt. Put on a plate with a Tablespoon of water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave about 4 minutes, until it flakes easily.

In a medium-sized bowl, mash together with a fork the butter and the olive oil until very smooth; otherwise there’ll be big chunks of butter in the finished rillettes.

Stir in the lemon juice, then the chopped chives and smoked salmon.

Remove the skin from the salmon (if it has any) and flake the cooked salmon over the mixture, then fold the pieces of salmon into the rillette mixture along with the chili powder.

Season with salt, if necessary.

Scrape into a serving dish, cover, and chill for at least two hours. Let come to room temperature before serving.

Storage: The rillettes can be made up to two days before and refrigerated. They can also be frozen, well-wrapped, for up to two months.

Chicken Liver Pate

1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 eggs
1 lb. chicken livers
¼ c. flour
½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. allspice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. white pepper
2 c. butter
½ c. heavy cream-Plus 2 T. Brandy if you like

Combine onion, garlic and eggs in a blender at high speed for 1 minute. Add livers and blend 2 minutes. Add flour and remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into well-greased 1 quart baking dish and cover with plastic wrap, then with foil. Set in pan of hot water and bake for three hours at 325 degrees. Remove foil and plastic and allow to cool. Recover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve on squares of pumpernickel.

Fiesta Dip

1 can black eyed peas
1 red pepper diced 1 green pepper diced
1 red onion diced

Rinse and drain peas corn

Add: 2 tbs Tiger Sauce (in the sauce section of the market)3/4 cup white sugar (I used a little less)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 veg oil (I used about 3 Tbs instead of 4 Tbs)

Mix and let stand overnight.

Drain liquid before serving with tostito scoops This also works great as a salad topper/dressing.
1 can shoe peg corn, can be any corn, or use 2 c. frozen corn

Barbequed Meatballs

1-½ pound Ground Beef
¾ cups Oats
1 cup Milk
3 Tablespoons Very Finely Minced Onion
1-½ teaspoon Salt
Plenty Of Ground Black Pepper, to taste
FOR COOKING MEATBALLS
1 cup All-Purpose Flour (coating For Frozen Meatballs)
Canola Oil
FOR SAUCE
1 cup Ketchup
2 Tablespoons Sugar
3 Tablespoons Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
4 Tablespoons (to 6 Tablespoons) Onion
1 dash Tabasco
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all meatball ingredients. Roll into medium-small balls and place on a cookie sheet. Place sheet in freezer for five minutes. After 5 minutes, remove meatballs from freezer and immediately dredge in unseasoned flour.
Brown meatballs in canola oil until just brown. Place into a baking dish.
Combine all sauce ingredients. Pour over meatballs and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve with egg noodles, mashed potatoes, or crusty French bread.

CATFISH CEVICHE

Words Fail Me...

Serve with corn chips.  I especially like the cup-shaped ones for this.

1 lb U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish fillets, cut in to 1/4-inch pieces (the smaller the better-hard to do but worth the effort)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
½ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
½ cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup seeded and diced ripe tomato
½ cup finely diced red onion
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon oregano leaves
1 jalapeno, seeded, deveined, and minced
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and diced

In a large reseal able food-storage bag, combine the fish with the lemon and lime zests and juices. Allow to marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 18 hours, turning every once and a while to mix.

Thirty minutes before serving, drain the fish and discard the liquid. Put the fish in a large mixing bowl and add the olive oil, tomato, red onion, garlic, cilantro, oregano, jalapeno, salt, sugar, and avocado. Mix gently, cover, and chill until ready to serve.
Serves 6

Melon with Port

1 honeydew or canteloupe melon
1 c. Port Wine, I use whit for the honeydew and ruby for the canteloupe-because of the psychadelic color, I suppose
Mint or orange slice for garnish

Cut a plug in the melon, (a trianble or a square will do, just make sure you can pull it out and put it back). Pour wine into hole and reinsert plug. Wrap tightly and completely in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.  Roll it around a couple of times to let the melon soak up the wine evenly on the inside. Before serving, drain wine (keep it) and slice into quarters.   Remove the seeds before serving.

Save the wine, freeze it and use it up to twice again. When you’re done with it, turn it into sangria ( add citrus slices and fruit and a blast of brandy) or just drink it.

Serves 4 to 8.

Sage Leaf Fritters

The Italians excel in appetizers. This is one of the best and most unexpected. 

When I was in Junior High I read a story in Boccaccio's Decameron that made it a myth to me.  A girl and her suitor sat in a garden and he rubbed his teeth with a sage leaf; then promptly dropped dead.  She was accused of murder and during the investigation showed the inquest how her suitor had picked a sage leaf from the bush in the garden and, sure enough, she dropped dead too.  The culprit was a poisonous frog, living underground in the roots of the sage bush; breathing his foul vapers which were absorbed by the plant.  There has to be a moral to that story but I can't think of what it might be.

½ cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
small pinch of baking soda
about 1 cup beer
plenty of olive oil for frying
1 egg white
60-80 large sage leaves, with stems if possible, washed and patted dry

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl, then add the beer and mix gently to a (fairly runny) batter, taking care to remove any lumps.

Cover the bowl of batter and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Fill a cast iron skillet with oil to a depth of about 3/4 of an inch, and place over a medium-high heat.
While the oil is heating, add a pinch of salt to the egg white and whisk until stiff peaks form, then gently fold the egg white into the chilled batter.

Check to see that the oil is hot enough to start frying: if you have a suitable thermometer, look for a temperature of about 360 degrees Fahrenheit, otherwise a drop of batter should sizzle immediately and brown quickly.

If the oil is smoking, remove from the heat to let it cool a bit before proceeding.

Working in small batches, dip the sage leaves into the batter and fry, turning once, until crisped up and golden; 1-2 minutes total time. Remove with a tongs or slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot.

Enough for 10 people.