Friday, January 11, 2008

A Trip to the Woodshed...

WARNING:
This article does contain food porn. All audiences are encouraged to take this into account before reading and/or viewing the entire contents.


About two weeks before Christmas we went to New Orleans. I get inspired there...in the culinary sense. Very little else in the Easy bears any resemblance of illumination for me...well except for maybe the architecture, oh and the Abita Amber. Anyhoo, my accomplice and i had dinner the first night we were there at Bourbon House on The Street. It was the restaurant connected to our hotel, so we thought, "What the hey...i mean it IS a Dickie Brennan's place...".

We perused the Menu. It was a little late for me to have a full course, so we assumed our positions at the bar and i just ordered a Gulf Shrimp Cocktail appetizer...and that Amber nectar. Blue on the other hand decided on the Satsuma Glazed Pork feedbag. I tried to appear like i tasted the shrimp and not dribble the cocktail sauce down my shirt sauce as i licked it clean. Two of my Abita's had mystically evaporated before Blue's plate ever showed up. He eventually worked his way through it as i eyed it not unlike a jackal watching a lion lazily devour a gazelle. When he excused himself for a trip to the boys lounge, i pounced. As per the metaphor, i could only pull so much off the bone before the lion returned. But i got away with enough to start scribbling down the ingredients on a napkin...

Fast forward to last night.

I desperately searched the kitchen for The Napkin, i had a taste in my mouth that only Satsuma Glazed Pork was going to satiate. No where to be found, IT SAT RIGHT HERE FOR WEEKS AND ITS GONE?! I even called The Queen. Nope, nothing. So i called Blue and he sent me the above websites. I was at least on target in my head but it did help to look at the menu.

An hour later i had successfully paneed the pork chops in olive oil, fresh garlic and sea salt and laid them out on a platter awaiting their blanket. Said blanket being a mix of cubed sweet potato, julienned onion, pecans, slivered bacon, scored orange peel, and the ubiquitous smashed garlic cloves all sweetly sizzling in bacon grease, olive oil, fresh squeezed orange juice, oh and a couple tablespoons of butter. All sprinkled with just enough brown sugar, sea salt and coarse ground pepper to bring it all together. Then, the coup de grace, right before the cooking time expires, a shot (or two) of 12 year old Glenmorangie port wood finish, ahhhh... the savory fog of instantly heated whisky!

The consummation when the contents of the pan meet the awaiting pork...ok, ok i'll stop and just show the food porn...

Voila!



The Queen gorged herself, the rest of the royal court screamed their approval...all is well in The Kingdom...

Another restaurant takes an Oklahoma country boy trip to the woodshed courtesy of TFNP...



I love food!

5 comments:

mornin'lady said...

Okay, bad mistake,this reading before dinner!! Chicken enchiladas just lost all their glamor.
sounds awesome,looks awesome!

Buck said...

My, oh my, oh MY! That sure as Hell looks GOOD! I might start coking again if you keep this up, Jay.

Speaking of N'Awlins... ever been to the Acme Oyster Bar? My favorite joint in the Quarter, bar none (no pun, etc.) I first went there (stumbled in, actually, oblivious to what I'd found...) back in '64 while stationed at Keesler AFB. And I've gorged myself on oysters there every single time I've been back. Those ol' guys behind that marble bar can shuck oysters faster than I can eat 'em, and that's saying something!

The Friendly Neighborhood Piper said...

Hey! Don't ever underglamourize Mama's cookin'! Chicken enchiladas definitely have their place in the scheme of growing up!

Acme...Acme...man that sounds SO familiar. Oh, no wonder ( i looked at the website) it is right across the street from the Bourbon House! Yeah, there was an ersta shucker at the BH in the post, he was...good, very good. I mean, you could tell the man took pride in his work, ok, it was artistry.

Bag Blog said...

Toby went to NO back in the day. He drank so much Dixie Beer and ate so many oysters that he swashed when the tide changed.

We had calamari at an Italian restaurant last night that was to die for - I'm talkin' melt in your mouth - wanna go back just for the appetizer good!

The Friendly Neighborhood Piper said...

There...see...even mine doesn't hold a candle to Calamari Italiano eaten in Aberdeen, SCO.

I'm not so sure sloshing beer and oysters would be good for me.