June 2009 COTM Elizabeth David Classics: Meats

[MMRuth]

Welcome to Elizabeth David Classics, which includes these three books by Elizabeth David:

A Book of Mediterranean Food [M] - "Meats"
Summer Cooking [S] - "Meats"
French Country Cooking [F] - "Meats"

Please post your full-length reviews of recipes here for meat dishes. If a main course meat dish appears in a chapter the title of which is not covered by one of the categories in the master thread, please post it here. If such a dish appears in a chapter the title of which is not covered by one of the categories in the master thread, please post it here anyway. Since there are a number of different editions and some posters have the individual books, please post the abbreviations for the books as listed above, and the name of the recipe, as well as any modifications you made to the recipe. That way posters can then look up the recipe in the index of whichever book they have.

A reminder that the verbatim copying of recipes to the boards is a violation of the copyright of the original author. Posts with copied recipes will be removed.

Thanks for participating!

[greedygirl]

Lamb cutlets with mint butter (S)

Loved this one, even though I struggled to grill (broil) the cutlets properly in an unfamiliar oven. At home, I'd use the Weber I think.

Like a lot of her recipes, it's simplicity itself. You make a mint butter using a couple of ounces of butter, pounded mint, S&P and a squeeze of lemon. Score the meat lightly on both sides and coat with the butter. Leave for an hour then grill the cutlets. Unusually, she gives very specific instructions for this bit, telling you to grill first on each side close to the grill, then turn over twice again, cooking further away from the flame, for about ten minutes altogether. I was a bit distracted - and overcooked them a bit unfortunately. They were delicious though - juicy and sweet and ,er, minty buttery. I served with grilled tomatoes, as suggested, with some of the butter poured over them. Yummy.

[roxlet]

I'm curious -- what exactly is a lamb cutlet? It's not something that I see a lot of here in NY. Is it cut from the leg like a veal cutlet, which would be far too thin to grill, I think.

[buttertart]

A lamb chop, I believe.

[greedygirl]

If you imagine a rack of lamb cut into individual chops, that's a cutlet. It should be french-trimmed, ideally.

[MMRuth]

Do you think this would work with loin chops?

[greedygirl]

I don't see why not.

[MMRuth]

That sounds lovely - I have some loin lamb chops to cook tonight and I'll give this a try.

[blue room]

Daube a la Corsoise [S] pg 104 ("Corsoise" = in the manner of Corsica?)
I chose this because it had a new (to me) use for an ingredient-- brandy-- with beef. Also because I've always wanted to eat "daube"--which is usually described shamelessly with shameless food porn adjectives.
It worked! Man oh man is this nice -- ED calls for "rolled rib or round of beef", I had a chuck roast, which I buy often because it seems to soak up flavors nicely and low slow cooking makes it tender.
The meat is rubbed with salt, pepper, thyme. Then browned and festooned with bacon, cut-up tomato, garlic, black olives. "Christian Brothers" is the only 'name' brandy I know, so that's what I bought--and poured "a small glass of brandy" over the meat. (I figured that meant a shot glass + a little more). Then just cook for 2 hours--I kept it at 275F in a covered Creuset oven. Scatter mushrooms over the top (small is specified, I quartered some bigger ones) and cook another 15 minutes. She added small potatoes along with the mushrooms, but I'll put it over noodles tomorrow--when I'm sure it will taste even better. I can't imagine anyone not liking this, the booze adds only deliciousness like wine--not any liquor flavor.

[MMRuth]

Vitello Tonnato [S]

This is a dish that I love, but most often make with left over pork loin, which Hazan posits as a less expensive alternative to veal. I first made her mayonnaise (posted in the Sauces thread), and then, since I had forgotten to save the juices from roasting the pork, I think I just thinned it with a little water, after pounding 2 oz of high quality tuna fish in oil and adding it to the mayonnaise. You then cut thin slices of the meat, put it in a deep dish, and cover with the sauce. You are supposed to leave it until the next day, which I usually do, but this time I made it in the morning and we ate it at dinner. I did also layer the slices and sauce, rather than having just a single layer.

Hazan's recipe includes capers and anchovies in the sauce, and chopped parsley on top. I didn't miss those in this dish, but I still think I might go back to Hazan's recipe.

[moh]

Navarin Printanier: French Country Cooking

It is spring, time for lamb!

We melted some butter in a saute pan, and added sliced onions. We then browned chunks of bone-in lamb-shoulder with the onions. We removed the lamb and onions, and there was a very dark brown crust at the bottom of the pan. At this time, we were supposed to add flour to the pan and make a roux, but because there was very little liquid/fat left in the pan, and because the brown bits in the pan were so dark, we were worried about burning the brown bits. We transferred what was left of the pan drippings to a new pan, added some extra butter, and made a roux with 2 tablespoons of flour. We deglazed the first pan with chicken stock instead of the vegetable based brown stock ED calls for. We then added the chicken stock to the roux to make the sauce. We then put in the cooked lamb, rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic and a bay leaf, then simmered everything until the meat was tender, about 1 hour.

Then we added new potato, baby turnips, baby carrots and cooked for 40 minutes. When we added the vegetables, there was not enough liquid to cover the vegetables, so we added just enough water to just cover the vegetables. I think we added a but too much water. By the time the veg were done, there was too much liquid, and it was a bit thin. We tried to boil it down, but it remained a bit thinner than intended. We adjusted the seasonings, added some shelled green peas, and simmered then stew until the peas were tender. They took longer than usual, as we are late in the season for peas, and we are well past the petite pois time.

I think we should not have covered the vegetables completely, as they released some liquid as they cooked. Despite the thinness of the sauce, the stew was still really delicious. We mopped up the sauce with crusty baguette smeared with d"Echire butter, and washed everything down with Samuel's Gorge 2004 Syrah, McLaren Vale. A lovely night was had by all.

[moh]

"Le Saucisson Chaud au Vin": French Country Cooking - Luncheons, Supper and Family Dishes chapter.

This recipe is not technically in the meat section, but I thought it made the most sense to post it here.

We made a court-bouillon with chopped carrots, onion, leek, turnip and tomato. We added fresh basil, a few sprigs of rosemary, a bayleaf, parsley, salt and peppercorns to the vegetables, then added a cup of red wine and 1/2 a cup of water. However, it did not seem like quite enough liquid, so we added another 1/2 cup of water for a total of one cup water. We brought it to a simmer, then let it simmer for 20 minutes until the veggies were partially cooked. We then scored some fresh uncooked sausage and placed it in the court-bouillon, and let it simmer for another 40 minutes. We served them with boiled new potatoes and sugar peas. We used a selection of sausages that included a bison sausage, a mild italian sausage, and a duck sausage.

Well! I really loved this dish! The poached sausages are much more moist than grilled or fried sausage. The court-bouillon makes the sausage quite plump and juicy, and adds a lot of flavour as well. This dish was a lovely revelation.

We drank a very nice Domaine de la Janasse 2006 Terre D'Argiles Cotes-de-Rhone Villages with this meal (we used the same wine to make the court-bouillon), and it went very well with the sausage. I had originally planned on using a Valpolicella instead, but I figured, stick with wine from the same country/region. I was happy with the choice.

First picture: Court-Bouillon
Second picture: final product

[moh]

Oops. Second try for Court-bouillon picture:

[greedygirl]

That looks great - I love poached sausage. When you say you scored the sausage do you mean you slashed it? Wouldn't that mean the juices leaked out?

[moh]

Yes, we slashed the sausages. I was also concerned the juices would leak out and render the sausage dry, but in fact what it did was allow the sausage to take up the flavours of the court-bouillon. Delicious! I'm a convert. I much prefer this to grilled or fried sausage.

[greedygirl]

I'm not sure if it's in this collection, or in French Provincial Cooking, but she has a recipe somewhere for poached sausage with warm potato salad, a traditional bistro dish which I heartily recommend.

[moh]

Thanks Greedygirl! I found it in French Provincial Cooking, and it looks great!

[greedygirl]

I love that book - it's coming with me on holiday to France next week, along with the COTM.

[NYchowcook]

I can't locate the warm potato salad. Do you have a name or page number?

I plan to make the sausages this eve, and may saute the potatoes per F-156 (barely a recipe!)

[blue room]

NYchowcook, the book we're using contains "French COUNTRY Cooking", but the warm potato salad mentioned by greedygirl is in "French PROVINCIAL Cooking"--a different book.
(Yes, I noticed too--lots of her recipes are "barely"!)

[NYchowcook]

Le Saucisson Chaud au Vin, [F], p. 92

I made the sausages last night and liked the dish pretty well. Up front I should say I'm not a big sausage fan, but I had some sausages from my humanely-raised pig (and veggie) farm so I followed in moh's footsteps. (I was thinking of emptying out the meat from the casing and sauteeing directly w/ the greens, but then jumped back on the COTM bus and braised.)

Made the court-bouillon with chopped carrots, onions, turnip, rosemary; parsley and thyme sprigs, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns. No leeks on hand & no tomatoes. I went heavy on the onions to compensate for leeklessness, and figured the red wine would add the acid/punch instead of tomatoes -- which it did. Used 1 c. red wine and 1/2+c. water. Simmered for about 25 minutes, and added slashed sausages.

The sausages were flavorful and juicy. Served w/ garlickly braised greens and E David's skillet potatoes, which I'll post on elsewhere. It almost makes a sausage lover out of me! It's a good technique and I recommend the recipe.

[moh]

Your sausage source sounds great! I'm glad you liked the recipe despite your aversion to sausage.

I have a slightly silly question. I'm new to poaching and court bouillons. Are you supposed to eat the vegetables? Or do you do anything else with the broth? Can you reuse this stuff? I did try eating some of the vegetables, and they seemed edible enough, especially the turnip.

[NYchowcook]

I think the idea of the vegetables is they give up their flavor to the bouillon -- vegetable stock takes 45 mins or so to make and then you discard the vegetables. The sausage in court-bouillon calls for veggies half-cooked before adding the sausages for 40 minutes. So the veggies are spent. But I did eat some carrots. E David doesn't call for straining and discarding the veggies . . .

I was pondering what to do w/ leftovers -- sausages and the stock. I'm thinking of lentil soup/stew. I'll strain the stock (discarding the vegetables) and saute new veggies -- onion, celery, carrot -- and use the bouillon as a base with more water, adding sausages (cut-up) at end just to heat. I have arugula and braising greens which I might add.
What are your thoughts for reusing leftovers? I agree the bouillon -- and sausages -- are too good to not re-use.

[moh]

Oh! Great idea for the lentil and sausage stew! Brilliant idea! I agree completely that the sausage should be added last as they are already cooked and you don't want to lose that wonderful texture by overcooking them. I am an unabashed lover of pork products, so the only thing I might do is add a touch of bacon or pancetta when cooking the new vegetables and lentils, just to get a bit of porkiness into the lentils.

I thought perhaps other things could be poached in the liquid, maybe eggs or fish. But I think your idea of straining the broth and using it is a good idea. Maybe as a base for risotto? Or other soups.

[NYchowcook]

E David has a "tarragon soup" recipe that I suppose could be used with the court-bouillon [S, p. 51]

I'm looking at the sorrel and lentil soup [S, p. 50] though I want to use my sausages and question whether the sorrel and sausage would get along flavorwise.
I have some sorrel on hand, but I might prefer arugula w/ the sausage.

As for your idea to saute veggies for lentil soup w/ pancetta, my response is: nothing goes better with pork than . . . pork!

[NYchowcook]

Leftover sausage:

I made a lentil stew w/ puy lentils sauteing in olive oil: bacon, celery, carrots, shallots, rosemary & thyme. Near the end I added braising greens, 2 turnips and sausage, cut into half moons. There was not a lot of court-bouillon after I strained veggies, though I added it to the lentils.

This was the best lentil stew I have ever had. Porcine heaven!

[moh]

ooh that sounds yummy! Will make our next batch with enough sausages to make this stew the next day!

[NYchowcook]

Well it's thanks to you moh that the lentils had double porkiness -- the bacon was due to you. And heavenly! I think it's worth making extra sausage to be able to recreate into this dish. The sausage actually tasted even better the second go-round! And I think bacon is a better (and fattier and yummier) ingredient over pancetta, IMHO.

[MMRuth]

When I make court bouillons I never use the vegetables. But, I suppose one could try to use it as the base for a soup as someone else suggested.

[beetlebug]

I made this for dinner last night as well. The sausages were delicious and juicy as previously reported by Moh and NYcc.

We did try and eat the vegetables. Surprisingly, I found them a bit flavorless. While I really loved the taste of the sausages, it seemed like a huge waste of veggies that it's sole purpose is flavor and then their dumped. I'm going to follow the suggestion of straining the veggies and then reusing the broth.

BTW, I think a bit more salt should be added to the court boullion during the simmer stage.

[NYchowcook]

I think it's a noble -- and frequent -- use of veggies to give over their flavor for a stock or, in this case, court-bouillon! The sausages soak up that flavor, and I think that's what made them palatable, oh, okay, pretty darn good.

I think if you want veggies w/ your sausage in this recipe, you'd have to add some fresh veggies (perhaps cut larger so you can tell the difference from the older ones) with the sausages. That seems like not a bad idea to add some turnips, potatoes and carrots. Me, I went for the skillet potatoes!

[Gio]

Coutelletes au Porc de Cidre [F]

Had some very nice boneless pork chops so decided to make this recipe. I pounded them slightly with a mallet to thin them out. Also, hard cider is called for but since my liquor store did not have any I used sherry which I had intended to augment with a little port, but forgot..... This dish was pleasant enough but nothing more. As with other ED recipes I've made the procedure is simple and quick to complete.

Pork cutlets are browned in a little pork fat or drippings. I used a bit of pancetta rendered in a little EVOO. They are removed to a plate and a sauce is made by adding 1 T flour and letting it turn golden. When the flour is smooth a wine-glass (4 oz.) of dry cider and 2 oz. water are added and cooked for 3 minutes. DH whisked to combine all. The cutlets are returned to the pan, seasoned with S & P, a thicky sliced clove of garlic and a whole sprig of rosemary. The pan is covered and put into a very slow oven (250F) for 30 minutes. A few minutes before serving a small amount of capers are added...

The cutlets were served with the Salade Armenienne [F] and the combination went together very well. This is a terrific meal to cook when one is pressed for time. Except for the cider most of the ingredients are usually in the pantry and that makes for stress free cooking. I'd make them again quite possibly using bone-in chops or even chicken breasts for a variation, and of course, upping the seasoning.

[MMRuth]

How funny - I made those Friday night as well. I had some slices of pork loin from the butcher, and pounded them as well. I browned them in some bacon fat, and made the sauce. I did have a v. nice Berkshire hard apple cider that I'd picked up the week before, which is what led me to make this dish. I used about 5 oz of cider, and about 2.5 oz water. As you did, I seasoned the sauce, and added the crushed garlic clove and a rosemary sprig. I interpreted Gas Mark 3 as about 325 degrees, using the guide in the front of the book. I think I took them out at about 20 minutes or so, after having added the capers. We both thought the sauce was absolutely delicious, but the pork was overcooked and practically dry, reminding me again that the pork in those days tended to be fattier. I'd make this again, but cook the pork for less time, or at a lower temperature.

I served this with the matelot potatoes and an argula salad.

[Gio]

The oven temperature seems to be a discrepancy MM. In the recipe she says both "Regulo 3" then " a very slow oven." My copy has the oven equivalents in the back of the book and a very slow oven is listed at 250.... bur as you say Regulo 3 is 325. My chops had a thin-ish edge of fat which kept them juicy and not over cooked... but given the low heat I used they would not have dried out anyway, I think. The outcome was a very tender piece of meat.... but not overly browned.

[MMRuth]

Interesting. In [M], it shows that:

Slow = 240 - 310 = Reglo 1/4 - 2

In [F] - Gas 3 = 336, Gas 2 = 313

In [S] -

Very Cool - 225 - 250, 1/4 - 1/2
Cool - 275 - 300, 1 - 2
Moderate - 325 - 350, 3 - 4.

A little confusing, I think!

[Gio]

It *is* confusing. And, my first thought was that 250 is a ridiculously low temp, but I went along thinking it was correct. Plus - the difference in terminology - Gas mark in your books and Regulo in my 3-in-one edition.

[MMRuth]

I do think you were right to use that lower temp. Was the pork tender? I have two more pieces in the freezer, so I'll try it at 250 next time.

[Gio]

Yes..."The outcome was a very tender piece of meat.... but not overly browned."

I certainly hope the next time gives you a more satisfactory result.

[MMRuth]

Oops!

[greedygirl]

I'd just go with your instincts on this one, and also it depends on your oven. For me cool is 150C or less, moderate about 170 and hot 200. (Thought I'd confuse things even further by adding celsius into the mix!)

[clamscasino]

I made these last night after (incredibly) finding what may or may not have been "dry" cider. The local liquor store had two brands of hard cider. The one I chose (the clerk said it was more "authentic") was Magners [Original] Irish Cider. The ingredients on the bottle are listed as: "Hard cider, sugar, malic acid, sulfites to preserve freshness. Color added. Lightly carbonated."

Now, since the recipe calls for a wine-glass of the stuff and the bottle was about 12 ounces I had plenty left over. Wasn't sure how or if it would store, so I drank the rest....It was much milder than I expected. Rather like fizzy apple juice. Yes, just plain apple juice! If I had to sub for it I would mix about two thirds apple juice and one third ginger ale. (Not saying I would actually do that for this recipe.)

Now on to the chops: E. David calls for pork "cutlets" so I sliced two one-inch thick boneless chops in half to make four half-inch cutlets. After browning them I had doubts...they seemed practically cooked through already. So, as Gio did, I cooked them at 250 fahrenheit for the half hour called for. However, the noodles I was making to accompany them for some reason, were taking longer than usual to cook. So I turned the oven off. Also, I removed the rosemary about 5-10 minutes before the half hour was up, as I am rather wary of overdoing rosemary, which can be quite strong when snipped directly from the plant. When I did so, I flipped the cutlets in the sauce.

What magic transpired here? What looked like potentially dry cutlets going in, came out soft and tender. Chowpup gave them a big thumb's up! 250 may just become my new "go-to" temperature for finishing meats in the oven.

Oh, and I skipped the capers since I had run out and was unwilling to pay a king's ransom for them at the local market.

[greedygirl]

Magners has become a very popular brand of cider over this side of the pond. True cider enthusiasts turn their nose up at it, but it's not a bad choice at all. They also do a pear cider (perry) which is very nice indeed. Lots of traditional cider (sometimes called scrumpy) isn't fizzy at all btw.

My favourite cider though, and the only one I drink really, is Normandy Cider (brut). It's cheap as chips if you buy it in France.

Out of interest, what was the other brand? I'm quite surprised that cider seems to be quite hard to find in the US - is it not a popular drink over there?

[clamscasino]

"True cider enthusiasts turn up their nose at it..." I can see why, it does have a "wine cooler" quality (or lack thereof) to it. The other brand is "Woodchuck Draft Cider." Around the top of the six-pack box it says "Granny Smith."

Apple-jack is also available at my local store. That is much more potent stuff! And it's also what I would think of as "hard cider." So, for me at least the term "dry cider" is confusing.

Hard cider was for years, the common man's drink of choice here in the States. According to Michael Pollan's book The Botany of Desire people obtaining land under the Homestead Act were required to plant at least 100 "cider apple" trees. It was considered safer to drink than water. And people made their own. Prohibition, I suspect, killed the tradition.

[Gio]

Applejack! Of course. Why did't I think of that?? All I could think of at the time was Calvados....but I thought it would be too sweet. If I can't find the hard/dry cider next time I'm using Applejack. More is better, no? OK.... I know. (I grew up with the Less is More philosophy.)

[oakjoan]

Gio:

I've never heard of or tasted any Calvados that was sweet in the slightest. It's all been like a brandy. I may be missing out on a whole world of Calvados I need to discover.

An old friend of mine bought me an amazing bottle of Calvados in France at the distillery or whatever they call it. The bottle was ceramic and intricately carved and he was so worried about breakage that he held it on his lap the whole trip home from France to L.A.! Now THERE's a friend.

It was spectacularly delicious.

[greedygirl]

As this is a French dish, I would imagine that the intended cider is cidre de Normandie (Brut), which is lightly sparkling with a refreshing, pure taste. In the French countryside, people often make their own (there are mobile apple presses that travel around for the purpose). I just checked the bottles I have downstairs (my local supermarket just had a French week!), and they're 4.5% alcohol.

[always_eating]

All this cider talk is great since I'm planning on trying this dish too. I'm going to use a cider from Quebec.

[MMRuth]

Glad it worked - I'm definitely going to make this again if I can find the cider (got the last bottle of the season from the liquor store where I found it) and put the oven at 250.

[clamscasino]

Did some research this morning starting with google and "what is dry cider." From ochef.com i learned that "dry cider" is the same as "hard cider that contains between 5 and 7% alcohol. (The cider's natural sugars are fermented off.) There should be no added sugar. D'oh! I should have used the Woodchuck !

During this search I found a review of Woodchuck Granny Smith Cider (which is what my local liquor store has.) The reviewer was very positive. Woodchuck makes a few varieties of cider, but the Granny Smith (made with "only" Granny smith apples) looks to be the closest to "dry cider."

Woodchuck has an interesting little web-site. They have been making ciders in Vermont since 1991. And they give a little history of the making of cider. According to them, starting in about 1900, the influx of German and Eastern Europeans into the US started the demise of cider drinking, as they preferred beer....Then, as I suspected above, Prohibition killed it.

Anyway, you can't buy the cider directly on the net from them. That makes sense, since it is an alcoholic beverage. They recommend that you look for it wherever specialty beers are sold. There won't obviously, be another pressing until the Fall of 2009. So if you can find a six-pack, grab it! I know I am going to.

And, BTW, Woodchuck is gluten free.

[Gio]

What great information, Clams. I wonder if the NH state liquor stores would have Woodchuck Granny Smith Cider. There's one just about 1/2 hour from us...... Any retail locations listed on the web site? Never mind I'll take a look now.

[greedygirl]

Over here, cider is marketed as either "dry", "medium" or "sweet". All ciders will state on the label which one they are. Magners will have been fine for this recipe. Ideally you would use Normandy or Brittany brut cider which is around 4.5% alcohol. I don't think you should worry too much about which cider you use, as long as it's not sweet.

I'm slightly bemused by how hard you're finding it to get cider. Is it not just sold in the supermarket?

[MMRuth]

Well, in NYC, you can only buy beer in supermarkets, not wine or hard liquor.

[Caitlin McGrath]

You can get hard cider in NYC supermarkets. It's shelved with the beer. (its alcohol content is low enough that it's allowed to be sold in supermarkets.)

To answer greedygirl's question, my experience is that the available of hard cider (US name for the alcoholic sort) really varies from place to place, and also from supermarket to supermarket. It would definitely be considered more of a specialty item, though.

[MMRuth]

Ah thanks - I'll see what's out there!

[greedygirl]

For lots of British people, cider is the first alcoholic drink they ever try! It's got much more popular recently, and many pubs will now have a decent cider on tap.

[Caitlin McGrath]

I love when pubs here have cider on tap, as I'm not a beer fan generally, and adore cider.

[greedygirl]

How puritanical! Here and generally in Europe you can buy all kinds of booze in a supermarket, including spirits. We do also have liquor stores, which we call off-licenses.

[buttertart]

Liquor laws in the US vary dramatically from region to region. Up until a year or two ago no liquor stores (which sell wine and beer) were allowed to open on Sundays in NY state, and you couldn't buy beer in the grocery stores until noon on Sundays. Other states like Pennsylvania have even stricter hours in state-run liquor stores. Some states (California and Iowa for example) have statewide laws allowing liquor to be sold in grocery stores, and some laws are set on a county-to-county basis, particularly in the South, where it is illegal to sell alcohol in some counties. Over the years we've lived in the US (formerly lived in Ontario, where at the time we left beer was sold in beer stores and liquor and wine in liquor stores, both province-run), laws have tended to liberalize, but not everywhere.

[oakjoan]

As buttertart writes below, the liquor laws vary wildly throughout the States. When the train passes through dry states, liquor is not served on board.

Here in Califa we have everything alcoholic in all grocery stores. I do remember, though, when living in Manhattan for several months, that I was totally shocked at the answer I got when I asked where the wine section was. I always associated weird liquor laws with the Bible Belt states.

[LulusMom]

One thing that always seems weird to me when I visit California is that restaurants often don't serve hard liquor. So I'll have my dinner, nice bottle of wine, blah blah, and then ask for a bourbon or something as a night cap and be told they don't serve hard liquor. Not all restaurants, but a surprising amount.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I don't know how easy it is to find, but I had an excellent French-style dry sparkling cider called "Northern Spy" from Eve's Cidery in Ithaca, NY recently. They have a stand at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan on Saturdays, but I don't know if they are there every week. They have a website at http://www.evescidery.com/

[Gio]

The tiny city/smalltownish place I live in just recently, in the last election, voted to OK wine and beer sales in select markets...though I have yet to see it actuated. Previously, and for many years, this was a "dry" town with only a very few restaurants allowed to sell beer/wine/drinks with meals. Talk about Provincial.

[David A. Goldfarb]

NYC until a few years ago didn't allow package liquor sales on Sundays with the exception of wineries and the one or two shops that exclusively sold products from local wineries. When the law was changed, though, I think liquor store owners were pretty much in the habit of closing on Sunday, and even a few years later, there aren't too many liquor stores open on Sunday.

In any case, I saw Eve's Cidery in the Union Square Greenmarket again today, so maybe they come more than once a week.

[greedygirl]

Cider goes so very well with pork. I imagine sherry wouldn't give quite the same result.

[MMRuth]

There is another really nice sounding recipe that has cider, apples, cream and some other ingredients that I thought might be good as well. And, now that I think about it, the cider flavour is much milder than that of sherry.

[greedygirl]

Cider, apples, cream = something a la Normande, I would have thought. Totally yumptious.

[MMRuth]

Yes, that sounds right!

[NYchowcook]

I've made a roasted pork tenderloin several times with apple cider, apples and cream. That was a yumptious flavor combination -- from White Dog Cafe cookbook (one of my faves/well-tattered books).

I would think it one can't get hard cider, regular cider would do.

[greedygirl]

Is regular cider just apple juice?

[Gio]

Yes, regular cider is juice from pressed apples. Lovely in it's own right if it's unpasturized.

[greedygirl]

I'm not a huge fan of apple juice, but there are some lovely ones on the market here now, mostly from Devon. I found one the other week which has chilli in it - sounds disgusting but it's actually really good.

[oakjoan]

There are also some pretty nice fizzy but non-alc ciders out here on the Left Coast as well. I even love Martinelli's sparkling cider and the brand one can find at IKEA.

But then, I AM a big fan of apple juice....if it's good stuff. Can't stand the crap they sell in most chain groceries.

[Gio]

Yes - you're absolutely right. That's why I thought I'd add a bit of port to up the oomph, so to speak. But you know what happened. I must search out some decent hard cider. I know I've bought some in the past... if I could only remember where. (/_\)

[greedygirl]

Another reason to move to the Uk, Gio. Proper cider has made a comeback and is available pretty much everywhere. ;-)

Plus there's no comparison really between port and cider.

[clamscasino]

Pork chops Marinated and Grilled. [M] pg 89

Yeah! Another winner! Although I used a pork tenderloin, and instead of grilling, I roasted it in the oven. This dish is very simple. One strews a goodly amount of fresh herbs, chopped with garlic on top of the meat. Then the meat is seasoned with salt and ground black pepper (I subbed paprika for this.) Then you pour a little olive oil and lemon juice over them. Marinate for an hour or two and grill.

For the fresh herbs (she suggests fennel, parsley, and marjoram or thyme) I used parsley, thyme, and about a one inch tip off of my rosemary bush. I squeezed the juice from three wedges of lemon (8 wedges to the lemon) and drizzled with the olive oil. I didn't want to leave this out on the counter in case there were any flies about, so I stuck it in the oven.

After an hour and a half, forgetting it was in there, I turned on the oven to 350. Oops....I didn't realize the pork was in there until the aromas started wafting out. By that time the oven had already reached 300. So I just left it. And no harm was done.

We all loved this dish. I managed to cook the tenderloin to just the right degree of doneness and the lemon, again added a nice bright flavor.

I served this with diced potatoes, cooked and then sauteed with herbs. This was another ED recipe, until the chowpup hijacked it and made it her own.

[Gio]

Pork Chops Marinated and Grilled. [M]

Since I too had a pork tenderloin waiting to be cooked for dinner I decided to make it according to ED's chops direction last night. The herbs I used were parsley and thyme like clamscasino but used the juice of a whole lemon, and liike CC, I roasted it in the oven. The finished dish was excellent.... juicy,and flavorful. It was served with the Pommes de Terre en Matelote [M] and Haricot Verts a L'Italienne [S].

[clamscasino]

I'm so glad you liked it too! I am loving the addition of lemon to more of my cooking. It seems so "palate cleansing" after a long winter of heavy comfort foods...

[Gio]

I love lemons so use them any chance I get. In fact I often grill chops and either marinate them with a little S & P and lemon juice for a few minutes or simply give each a chop a squeeze of a lemon quarter and serve with additional quarters. Brightens such a variety of foods. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to transgress from the original recipe!!