Saturday, February 4, 2012

Tomato, Vinegar, Mustard or Mirepoix


Of the many food gifts that have made it to Vinings Castle Mountain, Jay’s pulled pork was certainly one of our favorites.  It was, as the previous two times Mr. FOG has had it, delicious. 
However, after many BBQ sandwiches, Mr. FOG was searching for other ways the pulled pork could be served.  
Thinking that healthy and cancer fighting was better for us, Mr. FOG first looked in our Cancer Fighting Kitchen cookbook for a pork recipe. There were no pork recipes in our cancer cookbook.  Perhaps the noble pig is not a cancer fighter.  Do pigs get cancer?  Sharks don’t cancer, and we use shark cartilage as a medicine?  However, there weren’t any shark recipes in the Cancer Fighting Cookbook either.
 Mr. FOG, true to his roots, then considered trying to give it a Cuban style.  Almost as soon as he thought it,  this seemed very wrong and almost blasphemy; dishonoring both Jay’s pulled pork and Cuban cooking.  It seemed a little like a tourist crossing the border and donning a sombrero.  The tourist looks silly and doing this isn’t exactly a compliment to the locals either.  Mr. FOG did not want the pulled pulled pork to look silly.  He would have to cook his own pork, if he wanted it Cuban-style.
 A logical alternative, at least in Mr. FOG’s mind, was still keeping the dish true to its Southern roots, by having a face off of BBQ sauces, tomato, vinegar, or mustard for our Super Bowl Party.  While a tomato-based BBQ sauce is king, or perhaps queen, in most areas; in North Carolina vinegar-based sauces are popular and in South Carolina, probably due to the German influences, mustard-based sauces are a favorite.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbecue_sauc
However, the leftover leg of ham they still had, claimed the right to go to Superbowl #46 and Mr. FOG and the Laird wanted something good for Friday night.
With both Mr. FOG and his Lordship wanting a comfort food, a stew seemed like a good compromise that would not make the pulled pork look silly.  Mr. FOG and his Laird finally settled on a pork stew with a French influence and a tomato base.  Both FOG and Laird thought that the garlic should have been added earlier in the cooking.  Mr. FOG added some fresh rosemary that had survived from his Asheville garden and would consider adding mushrooms, a cancer fighter, to the dish which had several cancer fighters already.  The stew was good and both Lord and Butler had seconds.  It was served Cuban-style over rice.      It all seemed like a good compromise.   Bubba Pulled Pork did not seem to mind and he actually may have spoken some French to the mirepoix, since they got along so well. 
Readers may follow links to recipes and educational insights.
ERRORS, OMMISIONS, AND CORRECTIONS
The photograph of our Thursday Central City Tavern trivia night failed to mention one or our top players.  Tom Duffy (the younger) was not included in the citation.  We apologize for this omission and any distress it may have caused.  In the future,  bar staff will be asked to take the photo later into the game so that all participants are included in the photo.   We had nine participants, yet only 5 were pictured.

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