Pork Chops & Chicken

Toro and Coppa, Boston

            

Visiting with Toro recently, it was my first time eating there. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get over there. We're working with Toro on an upcoming beer dinner. This was organized between me and Jen Fields, the general manager. We're old pals in the restaurant industry from back in the Charlie's Kitchen days. Awesome chick who loves beer and asked us to come in, try the food, and hopefully do a beer dinner with them. I contacted her later on with an idea I had about filling the summer with a series of beer dinners hosted all over the city.

BeerAdvocate presents Things We Love: Summer of Beer @ Toro

So, now that it is happening, time to put the food to the test. These are Ken Oringer restaurants, so we knew they would be phenomenal. But what we didn't know, was just how laid back and cool these places are. So relaxed and inviting, you could just hang out there all day drinking and eating small plates.

We stopped by Toro last week for a quick bite to eat first. Please forgive my iPhone pics in a dark restaurant.

Coppa (pigs neck charcuterie) and house made liverwurst. Locally sourced meats with head-to-tail philosophy.

 

That coppa tasted so amazing. And the liverwurst was super fresh and delicious. Simple foods, no fluff to to them, but insanely delicious.

 

Pork wrapped dates stuffed with Marcona almonds and salt cod fritters with fried lemon peel and squid ink aoili.

 

 

Braised short rib and Spanish-style grilled corn elote with garlic aoili and cheese and lime.

 

The dates seem simple, bacon wrapped dates is not entirely original but it's the quality of the pork and dates. Not to mention Marcona almonds. It's the perfect bite. The salt cod fritters were excellent. I love salt cod. The lemon peel looks like an onion ring. It ads the right amount of lemon and sweetness of all tings, from the rind once it's been fried. The squid ink aoili was nice, but a little bit much. I only say that because I am a hot mess and end up wearing it versus eating it. I escaped this time time, but my table wasn't so lucky.

Short ribs are one my favorite things on Earth. If you can nail that knife-not-required softness of the meat, then you are winning. This is was super rich and flavorful. It was also a nice sized portion of meat rather than a huge hulking piece. You don't need massive portions in a restaurant like this. Especially with the corn!

Aye aye aye! That corn was amazing. Super garlicky, zesty, and fattening with all that aoili and cheese on top. It was so amazing, and my stupid iPhone just didn't do it any justice by way of pictures. Pair this corn with their Spanish cider that drinks exactly like a sour lambic or gueze and you have an unbelievable combo.

 

Two days later, we headed back to Toro for lunch and power meeting about the upcoming beer dinner. More coppa, more dates, and now a chicken sandwich and white bean gazpacho.

Milanesa Bocadillo: Fried chicken sandwich with Oaxaca cheese, avocados, chipotle mayo, and refried black beans.

Chilled white bean puree with lots of garlic, cumin, and olive oil, sprinkled with some edible flowers.

 

 

Later that day, we stopped by Coppa for a quick drink. we had time to kill before meeting some fellow chocolate lovers for a drink at Max Brenner. But before that we must go back.

Two days before we had dinner at Toro. We were then told to go to Eastern Standard for Jamie Bissonnette's birthday drunk-a-thon. I call it that now because that's what happened to every single one of us who attended this. I brought Todd to come meet Jamie, thinking these two would get along famously since they are both homegrown Boston punks who are the top of their games professionally. Turns out they already knew each other from a long time ago. This is where the trouble began though. Catching up on old times and slamming back expensive shots of bourbon and Narragansett's, Todd and Jamie got tanked. Jamie was walked out by two friends and left speaking a whole other language and Todd left speaking his famed Toddinese. That's an unintelligible form of drunk speak, Blurb, glarg, nahhhhrrrrr, that I have to try and decipher while putting his ass in a cab.

The Toro people just laughed at us when we came in. But when we went into Coppa, Jamie looked like he was still hurting. So this is how he paid us back. "Oh you guys just had a bit of lunch at Toro? You're kind of full? Well, here's some whipped lardo, and some summer pasta. Load up kids, you don't want that going to waste." Damn you, Jamie! Damn you!

 

First thing's first. Walking down to Coppa, we ran into our buddy Phil, who works at the South End Formaggio Kitchen. SEFK is directly across from Coppa. He told us to swing down and get a Merman. A summer Italian-style shandy with Hell or High Watermelon wheat from 21st. Amendment. It's all about the glass and this quote from Zoolander:

Larry Zoolander: I just thank the Lord she didn't live to see her son as a mermaid. Derek Zoolander : Mer-man! [high-pitched cough]  Mer-man!

 

 

Testa, pig's head terrine with tomato tapenade. Baccala, salt cod crostini.

 

Effing fantastic. Look at all that fish on the salt cod crostini. And best of all it's pretty cheap. Both at Toro and Coppa, everything was reasonably priced. These two small plates could have easily gone for $15 or higher. And it's so good people would pay it.

 

"Hey guys, thanks for getting me so wasted at ES, have a little Whipped Lardo. I will be back in the kitchen while your heart begins to beat slower and gets clogged."

Whipped Lardo with pickled gooseberries and Coda di maiale, wood oven-roasted pigs tails with mostarda glaze.

 

Yummy, greasy, sweet, fatty, salty pigs tails. Pick them up and eat them with your hands. Deliciousness in all ways. That whipped lardo though, this is what the restaurant refers to as "meat butter." It's whipped up pork fat and balanced with a tart, vinegary, pickled gooseberries and served with rosemary crostinis. We may have thought Jamie wanted to kill us, but then we tasted it and we fully understand how delicious it really was even if we did begin to feel our hearts beating at a much slower pace.

And then as if our pant buttons weren't about to pop off at any second, this gets sent our way. Maybe he really did want to kill us. Death by expanded bellies... i.e. Big Trouble in Little China.

Oricchiette con Verdure, house made pasta with blistered cherry tomatoes, zucchini, escarole, and garum.

For me, this was all about the garum and the zucchini. Garum is a fish sauce or condiment used to flavor dishes like this. Such a simple, yet so rich and such a hugely flavorful dish. I am in love with it.

 

Todd and I both, can't believe it took us this long to venture over to these two awesome places, but now they won't be able to get rid of us. And the upcoming beer dinner at Toro is going to be EPIC!!! Spanish food and beer. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

Miscellaneous Food Pics.

Just wanted to post some fun food pics taken from my phone. Yeah, yeah. Some of these were taken with my old phone. Okay most of them were. But I have long since retired that phone. Bare with me as we go back into last summer with some of these pics.

 

Buttermilk fried chicken with mashed potatoes, sawmill pan gravy, and peas and corn. Look at those huge breasts in that first pic! Shit was banging yo!

 

 

 

Green Street: Fry of the day of Queso Fresco Taco and the Charcuterie of the day Pork Rillette.

 

 

See more pics after the jump.

Creamy Chicken Pesto with Mushrooms and Sundried Tomatoes

This is the day I realized my camera was dying. The day I realized it's time to upgrade to a more professional type camera. Yellow pictures, blurry images with the setting set on still images. What a disaster, but I couldn't resist sharing this recipe.

I attended the 1st Annual FoodBuzz Blogger festival in the beginning of November last year. As part of the tons of swag we were given, I got a jar of this Mezzetta Napa Valley Homemade style pesto. Unfortunately it leaked all over my bag on the way home so I had a day or two use it.

I am not a huge pesto fan and I haven't really cooked with it before. So I searched the internet for a creamy chicken dish that I could add the pesto to. I found a very simple recipe from the FoodNetwork for Chicken in Parmesan chive cream sauce. This was the recipe I used for my base and then improvised the rest to make an awesome chicken pesto dish.

Forgive these pictures and pay attention to the recipe. You will want to make this. I cut out the chives and added a few different things to this recipe. Look for the asterisk to indicate what has been changed from the original recipe.

Chicken in Parmesan Cream Sauce by Robin Miller

1 tbls olive oil
1/2 cup diced shallots
3 cloves of minced garlic
2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
* 1/4 cup parmesan
salt
pepper
* 1 6.25 oz jar of basil pesto
* 10 large white mushrooms sliced
* 1 cup of sundried tomatoes chopped
* 1 pound of cooked bowtie pasta

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic and cook for 2 minutes stiring with a spoon. 

Add chicken and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until golden brown on all sides.

Add thyme and bay leaves and cook for one minute, or until fragrant.

Add heavy cream and bring to a simmer for 1 minute or until sauce has thickened. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Add parmesan cheese and simmer for 1 minute or until sauce has thickened. Remove bay leaves.

Boil bowtie pasta and cook until pasta is tender. Drain the pasta and leave in pot. Add the entire jar of pesto, sliced mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes to the pasta. Pour on the creamy chicken from the skillet into the pot and stir well. Make sure all the pesto and cream sauce has coated everything.

Serve immediately in bowls with garlic bread.

The asterisk next to the parmesan is there because the recipe called for 1/4 cup, but I found that I needed a lot more than that. Start with the 1/4 cup and gradually add more as you need it. But allow it time to thicken before adding more so as you don't over do it. Just watch that you don't over cook the chicken while you wait for the cream sauce to thicken.

Mean Jean Meat Sauce (Spaghetti and Meat Sauce with Garlic Bread)

(I love that this picture shows hot steam coming from the plate.)

There is no real correlation to the name and this particular meat sauce. It entered my head and refused to leave. Mean Jean Meat Sauce is what this sauce will be called henceforth.

This is a meat sauce that I like to make from time to time. It varies with some of the ingredients, but you will notice the "optional" next to the ingredients I use or sometimes skip.

This is a recipe ideal for large families or for freezing copious amounts of leftovers. Be advised to have a pot or pan large enough to cook this massive recipe in. I use a large wok and still this sauce was almost too big.








Mean Jean Meat Sauce

Ingredients:

2# ground Beef or Turkey
2 1 pound jars of Pasta Sauce (Prego ect.)
2 cans Stewed Tomatoes not drained (optional)
1 large White Onion
1 large Green Bell Pepper
1 Large Yellow Bell Pepper
1 Large Red Bell Pepper
10 to 15 large White Mushrooms
1 to 2 Large carrots
2 stalks Celery
4 or 5 cloves of Garlic finely minced
1/2# Pancetta or a big chunk of a Prosciutto End (optional)
2 Bay Leaves
1/2 tbls. Chili Powder
1/2 tbls. Sage
1 tbls. Oregano
1 tbls. Basil
1 tbls. Italian Seasoning
1 tbls. Onion Powder
1/2 tbls. Garlic Powder
2 or 3 dashes Cinnamon (Optional)
1/3 cup Sugar (Optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste

*A couple of notes before we start. The stewed tomatoes are optional. I add them because I like them in my sauce. If you build a base sauce without the pasta sauce you can add plain tomato sauce and tomato paste with the stewed tomatoes. Just spice the sauce heavily. It's much easier to use a premade pasta sauce though.

The Pancetta or Prosciutto end add a wonderful salted pork/ham flavor to the pasta sauce. It's totally optional but I find it works well. It was a tip given to me by a cook a few years ago that I have adopted and kept on with. You won't need much salt added to the sauce if you add this step to your sauce.

I also add a pinch of sugar and cinnamon to my sauce. The sugar helps tone down the acid in the tomato sauce. If you have heart burn you might want to think about adding sugar to your sauces. I add a touch of cinnamon for a unique angle to my sauce. It will make your sauce smell like cinnamon but does not overwhelm or dominate the sauce. Believe me when I say, I know how weird this sounds. It's just and interesting option that I happen to like when balancing the salty meats added to the sauce. Sweet and Savory.

Method:

 

Wash all vegetables. Peel carrots and thinly slice them. Slice bell peppers in half and empty the cores. Cut the ends from the celery. Finely chop the peppers and celery and place in a bowl and leave on the side for now. 

Next thinly slice mushrooms and place in a separate bowl an leave on the side.

Chop onions and garlic and very fine.

In a large pan or pot begin to cook ground beef or turkey on medium high heat with onions and garlic. Once the meat is fully cooked drain off any excess water and grease.

 

Reduce heat to medium. Add sauce, stewed tomatoes, spices, vegetables, and mushrooms.

Allow the sauce to cook for a few minutes. Then add pancetta or prosciutto end and allow sauce to simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Stir occassionally while simmering. Adjust heat to make sure you have a perfect small bubble simmer.

While the sauce is simmering begin prepping Garlic bread. 

Once the sauce has simmered, remove pancetta from the sauce. Trim the fat from the pancetta and dice the meat and stir the meat back into the sauce. 

Allow to simmer for a few more minutes and then turn the heat off of the sauce. Begin boiling your pasta adding some olive oil and salt.

Once pasta is cooked, drain and add a touch more olive oil to prevent noodles from sticking. Plate the noodles and cover with copious amounts of sauce. Serve with garlic bread.

 

Garlic Bread

1 large French Baguette

1 to 2 sticks of butter (I used two because my baguette was large.)

1 tbls chopped garlic

1 1/2 tbls Italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp onion salt

Preheat oven to 375° Slice baguette in two inch pieces without cutting all the way through. Place baguette in foil and slightly wrap it up in foil.

Melt butter in microwave. Add garlic and spices and mix well. Drop a teaspoon of garlic butter between each slice of the baguette. Coat the top of the baguette with remaining mixture. Finish wrapping baguette in foil and place in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.