Dude Food Collard Greens for Dinner? With Butts?

With a slow cooker this is one of those amazing home made comfort foods that makes everyone feel good. Loaded with nutrition and fiber it is a simple supper that any dude can make.

Writing about New Orleans reminded me just how many home cooks make variations on greens and rice. With a crock pot, the long stewing that tenderizes the greens is no longer needed. Put it all together, put on the lid and walk away.

Made before work, you can come home, make a little rice and impress your significant other with real home cooking.

Chopped Collards (at least 5 cups per person)
Garlic (two cloves per serving)
Olive Oil
Water or stock

Put a tiny drizzle of oil in the bottom of the crock, set on high add the sliced garlic and the lid and go have breakfast. When you are finished the garlic will be fragrant and ready for the greens.

Pack the chopped greens in the pot and use 3/4 cup liquid per 5 cups of chopped greens. Turn to low, put on the lid and walk away.

Let's talk about adding meat.

I like to pack the pan with smoked turkey butts layered in with the collards. You can also used smoked turkey wings or ham hocks. The smoke adds a great deep flavor.

When you get home, taste, adjust for salt and serve with rice.

With some butts it is a complete meal. A soul satisfying meal.

Dude Food: Simplify Valentine's Day

Whether your love is female or male they want to be indulged, just not too much.

If you decide to cook for your beloved achieving the perfect balance can be hard. Nonetheless, a quiet evening away from the bustle of a noisy restaurant can be far more romantic.

1. Set the Scene.

Linen Napkins
Candles
Dim Lights
Great wine (the champagne comes later)
Beautifully set table
Flowers
Clean

1st course: Composed Salad

How beautiful is this, it sets the tone. Your partner will appreciate that you took the time to make such a wonderful healthy dish. The composition is the indulgence. And it's easy. 

In this one we have...

Raw Cucumber

Grilled zucchini (Quickly roasted in a hot oven works just as well)

Peas

Green Beans

Lettuce mix

The great thing about this is the beauty is in the composition so you can choose any vegetables you find. Simply blanch them until they are bright and colorful and then put into ice water to stop further cooking. 

The simple dressing: 

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cups fresh dill

1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

Pulse in the food processor and drizzle just before serving. 

Now What? Dipping veg in boiling water is easy but a main can be more difficult....Nah!

12 hour Pork Shoulder

Rub, leave overnight put in oven and leave alone. It really is that simple. Start with 8 lbs of Shoulder or Boston Butt. 

1/8 cup cumin

1/8 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup white pepper

1/8 cup cumin

1/8 cup chili powder

1/8 cup or more cayenne (depends on how much spice you like)

1/8 cup salt

24 hours before roasting, rub the seasoning all over the pork, get under the fat and into every crevice. Cover and let is soak in for 24 hours. If you have a smoker you can of course smoke it. 

12 hours before serving put on a rack over a pan with a little water in the pan ( to give the fat a place to drip as it renders) and cover with foil. 

Turn the oven to 225 and walk away. Check after 10 hours and if soft and falling apart then remove, keep covered and let rest for at least an hour. 

While the pork is resting put two potatoes in the oven that have been scrubbed and wrapped in foil. They take about an hour and will be soft when poked with a fork. 

Make sure you have

Butter

Sour cream (no low fat crud)

Chives (chop with scissors)

You already had your vegetables and it is time to indulge. 

Split the potato with a knife and separate to put on the plate. Pull the pork apart, the seasoning gives it a lot of flavor, no sauce required. 

The final course is almost too easy. 

Buy a nice sparkling Cava, put in a glass with a scoop of raspberry or passion fruit sorbet on top. Serve with two beautiful chocolate truffles you got a a nice candy store (NO Russell Stover). 

You are now a Romantic Hero Dude. 

A perfect New Year's for two Dude Food Duck

I must apologize for so neglecting this site.

I got involved with a restaurant and between desperately trying to help the restaurant and teaching classes my time was taken. Even sleep was neglected.

Duck is Dude Food.

Duck is possibly the BEST New Years choice you can make if doing a dinner for two. It is special, festive and rich.

It also takes a few hours to digest so eat the large meal early and have some special treats for the champagne. I don't advise midnight duck. 

New if you live in a big city with a Chinatown you can always buy one pre-cooked and reheat it, but you can be a culinary wizard and do it yourself quite easily. 

Use DUCK, not duckling. Duck is big and loaded with fat and richness. This recipe will work with goose, but not young duckling. 

Ingredients: 

Duck

1 cup dark soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup apple cider

1 cup whole star anise

1 ziplock bag

3 days before roasting mix the above together and put the marinade with the duck in a ziplock bag. Squish it around and remove the air so that it is submerged. 

About 12 hours before roasting remove from marinade, brush off excess and place on a rack to dry UNCOVERED in the refrigerator. 

It already looks good. 

I roast on an upright rack, but any rack will do. Put some water under the duck to catch the fat without smoking and place in a 250 oven for 3 to 5 hours pricking the skin periodically to allow the fat to drip. The time will depend on the size of your duck, if it is all at lean 3 hours, if hugely fatty 5. When fully roast heat oven to 550 for 5 minutes then turn off to rest. Skin will crisp nicely. 

Not the best photo but it was the best duck. 

See the head and all the bones and the fat on the surface of the water....yea. The fat. SAVE EVERYTHING. Carve off the meat and keep every bit of the rest. 

Now boil those bones with the liquid under the duck. Strain and allow the fat to solidify on the top. 

Skim it off and use for frying potatoes. 

Oh...and that broth....that wonderful broth...make a soup. Vegetables and duck broth with a few noodles and your life will never be the same.

Dude Food can be Southern Food: Grits

Grits,

Seriously one of the best foods on earth. I and love them. They are a total Dude Food. If you can make good grits (or polenta) you can impress anyone...and well, isn't that why some of you are cooking? Breakfast with soft cooked eggs and grits will win the heart of your intended.

Unfortunately most corn these days is GMO, so it is important to choose organic grits. Boycott anything Monsanto touches and make the world a better place.

I generally don't like the quick cooking grits but go for the more coarse long cooking, however I tried Bob's Red Mill quick cook because they were the only organic type available at Fairway. They were good with just the right texture.

Shrimp and grits, gillades and grits, poached eggs and grits, cheese grits, jalepeno grits etc.

They are all good.

Yankees often love grits but have no idea how to make them, they then follow the package directions and get a lumpy mess.

DON'T FOLLOW THE PACKAGE DIRECTIONS!

The package tells you to start with boiling salted water.

Start with butter. For each cup of grits you use 1/4 lb. butter and melt it in the pan on a low heat.

Then stir the grits in.

Coating them with fat keeps them from sticking together when the liquid is added. Butter is flavor.

The package tells  you to cook in water...water? Try white wine, chicken stock, ham stock, vegetable stock, this is your chance to infuse flavor into your grits.

More flavor can come from herbs. I added a tablespoon of mixed Italian Seasoning. Trader Joe's 21 Salute is great as well.

For one cup grits add 3 cups liquid.

Stir, bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. For the quick cook you cover for about 5 minutes. But first check to make sure they are not too thick, if they are a touch more liquid will do.

See, they are already looking good.

Those are finished grits...unless you want to stir in a cup of cheese about now, or maybe just a touch of cream to make it all come together.

Did I say it was diet food?

A little beef and onion with just a touch of gravy with my grits. Looks good.

Now get out there and get yourself some good organic grits.

Dude Food: Jowlenese sauce for pasta

Jowlenese is a take on Bolognese, but made with fresh tomatoes from my terrace and a very quick summer sauce.

I have been enraptured by my pig jowl, but at the same time if you look far to the left of the photo I had some trimmings from steaks that I had prepared for class and I ground them up.

Other than vegetables that went into a big salad this was what I had in the house yesterday.

What could I make but a jowl sauce for pasta?

Jowl sauce for two
2 ounces ground beef
4 ounces ground jowl
1 ground onion
2 large and two small tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
Salt and Red pepper
Basil

I cut the jowl into cubes and put it in the food processor and ground it up with the onion. Some of the fat clung to the side, I scraped it out and used all the fat in a ceramic skillet and turned it on low to render the flavor.

When it was done I added the beef in small bits to the fat and onion mix.

The the garlic til it was fragrant and the smell was making me crazy.

I tossed in the chopped tomatoes.

They were still warm from the garden and quickly melted into the sauce, but if you have tomatoes less ripe, just mash them with a fork or a potato masher. The sauce cooks for about 10 minutes giving you time to boil water.

Add salt and pepper to taste and cook 4 to 5 ounces of pasta.

Add the pasta to the sauce to finish cooking and toss in a few handfuls of torn fresh basil.

Nothing more is needed your jowl will fully flavor the dish...and if you don't have jowl use bacon, however keep in mind that bacon will have less flavor so up it to about 6 ounces.

The finished sauce has just enough tomato but it is a jowl and beef sauce and those are the predominant flavors.

Smoked Pig Jowls, the ultimate Dude Food

Smoked Pig Jowls You can order them via this link.

We just had the Food Show here in NY. I was on the hunt for the ultimate Dude Foods and I found several, but nothing beats pig jowls.

Those of you who are older remember Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies talking about greens and jowls. It was not uncommon in the old south to use jowls to season a pot of greens or beans.

In Italy it is the most prized cut of meat  the unsmoked version is called Guanciale and is prized in dishes like Spaghetti Carbonara.

In my opinion Jowciale is more prized.

It really is the ultimate Dude Food.

Just a little bit (with all the fat) can season an entire dish.

Shells and Peas

4 ounces of thinly sliced Pig Jowl
1 lb of fresh shelled peas
1 lb of pasta
4 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
Black pepper
Pasta water

Brown your pig jowl in the pan and remove, leaving all the good fat behind.

Saute garlic in leftover oil plus added olive oil, just til fragrant, not brown.

Shell the peas in to a colander and cook the pasta in boiling salted water, when pasta is almost done take out a cup of pasta water. Drain pasta over peas, that is all that is needed to cook them.

Turn pan on high and add pasta and peas to fat, stir back in the jowl and grind with black pepper, taste for salt,  add water of liquid is needed, turn off pan and serve.

This is the simplest of summer pasta dishes, loaded with flavor.

Who knew Granny's pig jowls would some day be a highly prized item?

Dude Food: Cooking in your underwear, Braised Rabbit

I recently began Dude Food classes.

They are for folks who have little to no skill and not much kitchen experience.

Wives and girlfriends often buy the classes for the men as a 'gift', they then select the menu they would want.

Being a southern boy, one of the menu choices is braised rabbit with mushrooms.

Saturday's class 4 men showed up, sent by wives and dressed for church. Clearly they had not dressed themselves. I suggested they hang the shirts and wear their t shirts and aprons and kick off the binding dress shoes.

Relieved they came to the kitchen ready for fun.

As a man I believe we SHOULD be able to cook in our underwear, especially breakfast. We can put on pants to sit down at the table with you, but keep it casual in the kitchen. It prevents staining of that nice shirt we got for our birthday.

You can buy Rabbit whole or cut up. I get mine whole from a good butcher, it is a lean inexpensive meat and I prefer it to chicken.

Once it is cut into pieces soak for one day in either Kefir or buttermilk.

Put your seasoning mix in a paper bag and shake the rabbit in the seasoning to distribute.

Seasoning
1/2 cup dry mustard
4 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt

Take the rabbit from the wet marinade and shake off, but don't dry it. Toss first in seasoning mix, and then in another bag with flour.

You are now ready to rock and roll.

No cast Iron pan for this once since we are braising. Best is a ceramic skillet.

Put about 1/4 cup sunflower oil in pan and get smoking hot.

Carefully place the rabbit in the skillet (do not crowd) and lower the heat. Keep an eye on it and let it get a nice brown color. Turn over browning on all sides.

1 bottle Hard Cider or beer

Open the bottle and add to the rabbit CAREFULLY so you don't totally get splattered. (see why we cook in underwear and not dress clothes)

Keep pan on low and cover for 30 minutes.

Mushrooms

After 30 minutes add 1 lb of mushrooms (any kind) to your braising liquid. Check your liquid level, your sauce should be thickening but not totally reduced.

At 45 minutes remove the lid, if the sauce is thin turn the heat up for a couple of minutes to boil away excess liquid, it should be like a gravy that made itself.

This meal is so impressive, no one will know you made it in your underwear.