The blog of Brian Kirsten

Cooking pork at home

President's Day is one of those odd holidays I get off that my wife doesn't have off. On those rare occasions, I usually try to cook something that would take longer than usual. I'm intrigued by long cooking methods, so I decided to poke around some Gourmet magazine's I had kept to look for something to take up my afternoon. I came across Cochinita pibil (or puerco pibil) and made a mental note, it looked easy enough but I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to find several key ingredients. After viewing the following on YouTube, I knew I wanted to try cooking it.

I hit a snag at Whole Foods though, they didn't have any pork butt so I went with tenderloin (nothing too huge there). The major issue was I couldn't find any annatto seeds (doh!), so I'd have to do something I love to do when cooking, improvise.

I decided to cook the tenderloin as if I was cooking a Cuban pork shoulder, with the additional herbs and spices to head in the direction of the flavors I wanted. I dumped into the blender the following: clove, salt, pepper, lemon (3), one orange (turned out it was a blood orange - doh!), white vinegar, garlic cloves (3) and one habanero pepper. After blending I poured that liquid (which turned bright pink because of the blood orange) over the pork tenderloin, which I'd cubed and dropped into a oven safe glass pan. Tightly covered with foil the whole thing went into the oven for two and a half hours.

So how'd it turn out? Excellent actually, I was worried that the tenderloin would dry out, but the pork was wonderful, along the texture of pulled pork. The habanero added a bit more heat than I expected, I think I'll try it with a half a pepper next time. Also kids, when handling the habanero pepper WEAR GLOVES, I can't emphasis this enough. I handled the pepper for all of ten seconds with my left hand and it was burning for the rest of the night. Not fun.

Chef Grant Achatz cancer free

Earlier this year Chef Grant Achatz of the fabulous Chicago restaurant Alinea was diagnosed with tongue cancer, shocking foodies and his contemporaries across the world. Happily, Chef Achatz and his family has received an early Christmas gift in the form of his cancer going into remission, the news coming from a statement from the talented chef. I wish him, his family and all you fine folks happiness and health. Achatz Update: Cancer Free

Flank Steak Sandwiches with Beer Battered Onion Rings

I love a good steak sandwich, so I was excited to come across a "Flank Steak and Boursin Cheese Sandwich" recipe that I had to try. I was initially unhappy with the recipe because it didn't call for doing anything special to the steak, just simply throwing it on the grill until complete. I had some prior experience with a marinade from Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking" book so I went with that. Take the flank steak (I used 1/2 pound) and place into a plastic bag with five (5) tablespoons soy, one and one half (1 1/2) tablespoons honey, and one (1) tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, seal the bag and place into the refrigerator for a nice rest (I recommend putting the bag into a bowl just in case of any possible spillage). I marinated the steak overnight but I would guess you could marinate as long or as little as you want. About an hour before lunch the next day, I took the steak out of the fridge to come up to room temperature. I set it aside to prepare the onion rings. I chopped an onion into rings (well more like strips), and got out a large-ish bowl for the batter. Into the bowl I dumped one and a half (1 1/2) cups of flour, pinch of salt, and big pinch of paprika. Mix that around with a spoon (or better your hands). On top of that mixture I poured a bottle of beer I had left over in the fridge (now that we have a house with a guest room, guests always seem to be bringing beer and there always seems to be an oddball beer left over). Mix that concoction until there are no lumps. I folded the onions into the batter making sure they were all covered with the goo. I heated up a deep sided frying pan with about an inch of vegetable oil over medium high heat. When the oil came to temperature I dropped in my first batch of rings, cooking them to a golden brown. I wasn't really happy with the overwhelming amount of batter on the first batch, so I hunted around for a colander and dumped the uncooked rings & batter into that to thin it out a bit. After thinning I cooked the rest to golden brown, perfecto! Set aside covered to keep the rings warm. I moved my top rack in my oven up so the steak would rest a couple inches from the upper heating coil, I then set the oven to "High" broil. Cook the steak under the broiler for 3-4 minutes on each side, then let the steak rest on a cutting board for five (5) minutes. With the residual heat of the oven, I warmed a nice sized baguette for the sandwiches. After toasting the baguette, split and spread a nice layer of Boursin cheese on the bread. Follow with the warm rings, and top that with the steak thinly sliced. So it wouldn't be too unhealthy I finished the sandwiches off with Romaine lettuce. Serve with remaining onion rings. Things I would have done different. - The marinade I had left over I should have warmed into a nice dipping sauce. - The rings, next time I'm stuffing the onion into the blender on puree then folding into the batter. That whole mess will go into a piping bag and then....ONION RING FUNNEL CAKE! My mouth waters thinking of it.

Gordon Ramsay’s Scrambled Eggs

I came across this video the other day, claiming it shows the secret of cooking the best scrambled eggs you've ever tasted. The video (for those of you without the patience to watch it) shows Gordon Ramsay's version of scrambled eggs. Now the man has several TV shows, written books, and has several Michelin starred restaurants so I figured he might know what he's talking about. The concept is fairly easy. For my lovely wife and myself, I dropped four (4) cold eggs, and two (2) tbsp of butter (cold) into a cold pot. I turned my stove top to 3 1/2 (low but not too low, my stove's low setting is "2") and placed the pot on top. Here's where it gets strenuous, the direction you'll be taking is roughly the same as risotto. Stir, stir and more stirring. Every several minutes I took the eggs of the heat, continuing to stir. The eggs take on a pearl shaped porridge feel, I'm going to say the whole thing (stirring, move from the heat, move back to the heat, etc.) took about ten minutes. What you're looking for is about 75% firm, 25% runny eggs. Take the eggs off the heat but continue to stir, allowing the residual heat to "tighten up" the eggs. Sadly I didn't have any Crème fraîche so I added one (1) tbsp of half-and-half and stirred like a man possessed. I seasoned the eggs with 2 pinches of salt, and a big grind of pepper. Since I had two tortillas available I served the eggs on the tortillas and topped with salsa and shredded cheddar cheese. Things I would have done different: - Try adding the crème fraîche and scallions like Ramsay recommends. Also serve as recommended on sour dough toast (mmm boy) with tomatoes on the vine and portobello mushroom tops. - Much less salsa, we lost the taste of the eggs because of the salsa topping. They eggs were excellent though.