Pork Scarpariello

This meal did not go exactly according to plan. I wanted to cook a version of the chicken scarpariello that I had eaten a few weeks ago. It was thin chicken cutlets with red and cherry peppers in a light sauce. It was slightly spicy and quite awesome.

I decided I didn't really want to eat chicken, so I was going to substitute in some pork. Hopefully the chef would be able to accommodate me.

I scanned some recipes online and came up with a rough ingredient list and recipe.

All was going smoothly until Gary showed up to play some Portal, or as he likes to call it, Holes.

I seared the pork on both sides with just a little salt & pepper. Then I started doing things in the wrong order (ugh). I poured some chicken stock into the pan to start the sauce. While this is one of the steps, I should have sauted the garlic and cherry/red peppers first in the pan. This is what I get for not writing down what I'm going to do ahead of time.

I dumped the stock out into a bowl and tossed the peppers & garlic into the pan with some olive oil. I then went and watched Gary play some Holes for about two minutes. When I came back in to the kitchen, there was a rather pungent pepper smell in the air. Woops. Combination of not enough oil, not enough movement in the pan and too much heat. The red peppers were a little charred (as you can see in the picture). I added a little more olive oil and watched them for a few minutes until the peppers were mostly soft.

I poured the stock back in along with some of the liquid from the cherry peppers (i also should have included white wine, but I didn't have any around) and put the pork in. I let it all cook for a while to let the liquid reduce.

Total cooking time was probably around 15 minutes.

It actually tasted pretty good, but I'd like to have the sauce be thicker next time. Maybe some cream and a little roux in there and it would probably be closer to what I was aiming for. I also forgot to put some of the parsley in the sauce that I had around the apartment.

The one major drawback to this operation was the apartment smelled like peppers for the rest of the evening. It may or may not have caused Gary to cough up a lung while attempting to solve 3D puzzles.

Chickpea Ragout

This is one of my favorite dishes to make for several reasons:
1) I get to chop up a lot of stuff with my knife
2) Not too many dishes/clean up (one pot, one cutting board, one bowl)
3) You can't really mess it up

However, even as easy as it is, its still possible to forget important things. For example, the layout picture is missing one key ingredient: an onion. I had to take a stroll down the street for a yellow onion after getting everything together. I'm thankful I don't have to get in a car for situations like this.

So lets get to the easy to make part:
Chop a medium yellow onion and an equal amount of green onions.
Saute the onions in some olive oil along with some salt and pepper.
Mince (or slice depending on how garlicy you want it) 2 cloves of garlic.
Throw the garlic in!!
Roughly chop the2 medium tomatoes (I usually just quarter them but I chopped them up today), throw them in!!
Drain the chickpeas, toss them in!!
Put in some chicken stock/broth or water; somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup depending on how thick you want it to be; consider adding some more salt & pepper.

Bring it to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes or so. Uncover and cook for another 5-10 minutes until it gets to the consistency you want. If your a pimp with a kitchen knife you can probably cook the whole meal in 30 minutes (I'm looking at you Rachel R.).

I put some parsley and hot sauce in and ate it as my main course, but it also makes a nice side dish. It would probably go well over rice or pasta, but I'm typically too lazy to do more dishes when I make this.

Wild Animal Crunch

I like cereal. A lot. So, I'll occasionally post some cereal reviews here if I'm eating anything interesting. You, my three loyal readers, will not see a review of Cheerios, which also happens to be in our cupboard now.

At the grocery store I shop at there is not a wide variety of cereal. They did not stock Count Chocula, Franken Berry or Boo Berry this fall season. You cannot buy Golden Grahams. And of course, the cereal prices are outrageous. Everything is around $5.00 a box unless it is on sale.

While shopping yesterday, I saw that Wild Animal Crunch was on sale for $2.99. The description of "vanilla-chocolate" flavor intrigued me. The box was pretty interesting. It was really glossy and had animal trading cards that you can cut out (Sloth FTW!!!!!11!juan). Since I will purchase any cereal that looks like it might have some sugar in it if it is on sale, Wild Animal Crunch made its way into my shopping basket.

Upon waking up this morning, I poured myself a bowl of cereal along with some organic milk (thanks for the tip Gary).

The texture was pretty interesting. I don't mean that in a positive way. I thought it might have been stale, but the "good by" date is in December.

It tasted like nothing. Cardboard probably tastes better in milk than this stuff. I'd rather eat some shredded wheat, at least that has some good texture to it.

While the cereal itself showed no signs of its "vanilla-chocolate" flavor, the remaining milk had a hint of vanilla flavor. While this was great, it by no means mad up for the rest of the experience.

Overall, a pretty terrible cereal. Not worth the $2.99 I spent on it.

Castle Rock 2007 Pinot Noir

This past weekend Mandy and I went out for some drinks and a snack at Quaint and Bar 43. We ordered the bacon macaroni and cheese at Quaint, which I enjoyed. Mandy said she enjoyed my macaroni and cheese better (not Kraft). This may or may not have been a hint that I need to make mine soon.

Before returning to the apartment, we picked up this fine bottle of wine. Now, because of the drinks I already had (an old fashion and a Brooklyn Lager), many of the details about the wine are foggy (much like the picture below). In fact, this entire review basically comes from Mandy. "There was no aftertaste/finish" and "This $5 bottle tastes just as good" were the two comments that stuck with me.

However, it was still drinkable, which qualifies it for the highest score on the Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Binary Wine Grading Scale.

Joe Cooks Dinner and Stuff Binary Wine Grading Scale:
Castle Rock 2007 Pinot Noir
$10? (this is what happens when you drink and don't write things down ahead of time)
1/1

Tortellini and Sausage

Ah. The perks of living in New York.

Two of the things I missed the most not living near New York were tortellini and thin italian sausage (also known as cheese and parsley sausage).

After three years in DC, I moved to Cleveland Park. There is an italian deli (Vace) on the main stretch of Connecticut Avenue that has a good selection of frozen pastas that are locally made. Their tortellini (both cheese and meat) were actually really good, and I was glad that I didn't have to bring tortellini back in a cooler from visiting my parents in New York. Unfortunately, they only made sweet and hot sausage.

So I'm glad to be back in NY. This tortellini is from Riviera Ravioli on Morris Park in the Bronx. I think the sausage was from a deli in Carmel, NY (not sure of the name of it, its in Putnam Plaza, but used to be on the corner of 52 and Fair Street).

Both were totally awesome.

The last time I was in Butcher Block (an awesome Irish deli around the corner from my apartment) I noticed they had some in the case in back, so I'll try that soon too.