A Traveling Crockpot Dinner

 

While this is my first formal post about it, the Traveling Crockpot has actually been in my life for some time now.  A group of four gals get together once a month (mostly) where one of us hosts a dinner.  Really, it's an excuse to find our fanciest recipes we've always wanted to try out but couldn't justify (or had time for) making on a Tuesday night after work.  

My second Traveling Crockpot dinner was summer-themed (the first was a Middle Eastern Feastern!).  Located here are my personal photos...which, as usual, kind of suck.  But!  Happily, our group includes Mrs. Becky whose talent populates Little Siddall Studios with much more pleasing visual fare.

To Drink

Mango Balsamic  Spritzer with Mint

I'm not even going to try with a photo for this one; it was too lame.  Check out Beck's.

Don't get weirded out about a drink with vinegar in it.  It brings a totally unique brightness to the flavors.  If you live in Toronto, you can get excellent mango balsamic at Crescendo (two locations).

This drink could probably use a high-ball glass.  The structure is that of a mojito, but the two drinks share nothing else.

1 drink

1 tsp mango balsamic vinegar

2 sprigs mint

1 oz orange liqueur

3/4 oz vodka

Crushed ice

gingerale

 Strip the mint and muddle the leaves with the vinegar in a cocktail shaker.  You want a lot of mint; if your sprigs look measly, don't shy away from adding more.  

Top with enough crushed ice to fill your glass.  Add the orange liqueur and vodka (go for the good stuff!  I used Patron's orange liqueur and Grey Goose vodka).  Shake, and pour ice and all into the glass.  Top with gingerale to fill the cup.

To Start

Cold Apricot Soup*

Scallop-Mango Ceviche

Again, "real" photo here.

The ceviche was a big guessing game.  I googled a half a hundred recipes and cobbled together my own.  Use more mango than you think, make sure the scallops are bite size (I should've trimmed down even my bays), and toss in acid briefly.  All those recipes recommending 4-8 hrs are going to turn your scallops into rubber.

Main

Seared Pork Chop with Chipotle Butter and Avocado Mousse

Mango-Kholrabi-Radish Slaw

The chops are seared in a hot pan with butter and a little oil to keep it from burning too fast.  Don't use a nice olive oil--use a grapeseed or something else with a high smoke point that will allow you to sear the chops super-hot each side for just a few minutes to get that golden-crisp exterior.  A barbeque would be equally as awesome but I don't have access to one of those.

My chops were centre-cut, bone-in, local pork affairs purchased at the awesome Sanagan's in Toronto's Kensington Market.  Leave the bone in--it helps with moisture retention and is quite easy to eat around with this cut.

Chipotle Butter**

1/4 lb butter, unsalted, softened

3 chipotles, seeded and minced

several dashes liquid smoke

honey, to taste

cracked black pepper

good, flaky salt, such as maldon or fleur de sel, to taste

The butter in this recipe is unsalted for two reasons.  1) You need control over the salt to get the right balance.  2) The texture of crispy flakes of good salt are wonderful.

Put the butter, chipotles and liquid smoke in a large bowl--you'll want room to whisk vigorously.  Add approximately 2 Tbsp of honey, 1 Tbsp cracked black pepper and 3/4 Tbsp salt to start.  

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth.  This will take time to come together--it may seem like you'll whisk forever at first.  Be patient.  

Taste, add as needed, whisk.  Taste, add as needed, whisk. 

Avocado Mousse

1 avocado, very ripe

2.5 Tbsp heavy cream

juice of 1/4 of a lemon

You could make this mousse much more complicated.  I had enough flavors on the plate with the coleslaw and the butter and I didn't want to take anything else away from those amazing porkchops.  So this just became a fatty foil for heat and acid elsewhere on the plate.

Get the avocado into a bowl; doesn't matter how.  Add the cream.  Whip like the dickens.  Again, this will take time to come together.  Near the end, when it's almost perfectly smooth, add the lemon juice to keep it from browning.

Mango-Kholrabi-Radish Slaw

1 mango

1 kholrabi

5 radishes

acid

oil

1.5 tsp sugar

Matchstick the fruit and vegetables.  The kholrabi tastes very much like cabbage.  If you can't find one, actual cabbage would do; they're even the same color.  I found pretty little Easter Egg radishes for the rest of the color in this dish.

Mix the acid (I used a calamansi vinegar from Crescendo(as mentioned above)) and the oil.  Get creative here if you like--an avocado oil would be awesome, for instance.  Or use lime juice if you have leftovers from the ceviche.  I like a 2:3 acid to oil mix, personally, which may be a little heavy on the acid depending on your palette and what you're using.  Taste and adjust as necessary.  You'll need a little sugar but not too much--a nice ripe mango adds plenty here.

Dessert

Goat Cheese Pudding with Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

Another recipe not my own. While it's not photogenic, it's unbelievably good.  The singularly excellent recipe is here at Food & Wine.  I've made it twice, excellent results both times, but you must have some kind of acid (like the raspberries in their version) to cut this.

The compote was my own.  You simmer strawberries and rhubarb and a bit of water and a bit of sugar together for a long time.  I can't tell you anything more about that.

Bon appetite!

*I love the guys behind Real Food Has Curves which is sadly no longer updated.  I'm just so glad they left the links live on this old version of the site.  Their new materials exist here.  Also, having the thyme added to the apricot soup was crucial, imo, though they list it as optional in the original recipe.

**This is what's called a compound butter.  You can basically take any mash of flavors that appeal to you and use them in a compound butter.  Other suggestions would include rosemary, anchovies and garlic.  Sage.  Lemon and thyme.  Basil and black pepper.  Roasted garlic and chili flakes.  You get the idea.

To store excess (the recipe above provides plenty of excess), dob butter in a log-ish shape on a length of plastic wrap.  Use the plastic to make a neat log, twist off the ends, and toss in the fridge.  Lasts a good long while.

Compound butters can be used at room temperature, smeared on bread, dobbed on meats, as the gloss-and-fat addition to a sauce, cold disks to melt over your hot veg, as the fat to fry an egg in...  The list is pretty ridiculous.

F-Word Salad

I've said before that I consider salad posts cheating.  Most salads are creative fridge-dumps, folks scouring to do away with the ends of this and that.

This one was intentional, the result of an inspiring trip to the grocery store, but really, still cheating.

I've got a good-'en lined up, however, for later on.  So if you can forgive me this salad, you'll be rewarded.

F-Word Salad

Proportions are largely up to you.  Eyeball the salad and make yourself happy.

Frisee, torn up

Fennel, sliced very thin

Figs, quartered or even eighthed

Fresh basil, chiffonaded (about 2 Tbsp if you're going to make this an entree.  Don't skimp.)

Fffffgoat cheese

Fava beans (optional)*

Date vinegar

oil

salt to taste

lots of pepper

 Toss the frisee, scatter on top the fennel, fuss with the figs, chunk the cheese and sprinkle with basil.

Mix the vinegar, oil and salt to your taste.  Drizzle.  Crack lots of black pepper over top.

*Fava beans were part of the original recipe here.  I wasn't as excited about them as I had been in the store, seeing the giant pods (you could use frozen, I suppose, but seeing fresh favas got me all a-twitter), but it wasn't a bad addition to the salad.  My sister, on the other hand, liked them.  So.  *shrugs*

We served with peppery shrimp, a whack of bread for the sauce therein and a pseudogarita.

A Salad Riffing Freshly

First, this was going to be a post about challah, which seemed timely, but since I haven't posted in ages, posting just a link (it's not my recipe) after all this time didn't seem right.

Then I was going to start it with, "Chicken breasts are difficult."

What I've decided on, after some thought, is to open by excusing my posting a salad recipe. See, I always feel like salad recipes are a little bit of a cop-out unless they're somehow unusual or a great break from tradition. Salads, much like soups, are a conglomerate of the stuff you have in your fridge and therefore have always been done before. I'm familiar with this sensation, however. As a writer, anything I put to paper has probably been done before; it's an on-going struggle. The result is, however, that I also feel somewhat secure in my ability to recognize a fresh riff.

I believe my salad riffs freshly.

Cajun Chicken and Mandarin Orange Salad

This salad contains a few extra steps beyond bowl, lettuce, dressing, fork. You could probably dump one or two if you really wanted to.

Second note--I used romaine hearts here. You could use whatever greenery pleases you because I'm of the feeling that lettuce is largely interchangeable unless you're looking for a very particular texture or flavor. In this case, the lettuce is just dressing vehicle. Use whatever you've got.

Lastly, I was originally going to measure ingredients for you. Then I decided against it. Much of this salad's beauty is its well-sprinkled toppings. Sprinkle as you see fit.

Serves twoish, depending on appetite

1 romaine heart, torn up
1/2 fennel bulb, sliced

2 chicken breasts
2 tsp Cajun spice (like this one?)
1/2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil

mandarin oranges
toasted walnuts (To toast a nut: Set oven to 425. Spread nuts in single layer over cookie sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, stir, bake five minutes more or until fragrant and browning.)
asiago cheese, shaved

2 Tbsp avocado oil
2 tsp white wine vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Toss romain into a bowl. Top with fennel, sliced into matchsticks or rings or what have you.

For the chicken, mix butter and olive oil in a pan and add the chicken. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with the spice and sautee until chicken is crispy and browning all over.

Drop chicken on top of salad. Scatter oranges, walnuts and cheese over top. (Toasting the walnuts is one of those steps you could skip if you must.)

For the vineagarette, I chose avocado oil because I wanted something fruity to go with the oranges. You could do olive oil or walnut oil for that matter, though I think the walnut oil might OD the salad on walnut. Maybe you'd like that. Whisk the oil, vinegar and salt and pepper together. Drizzle over salad.

I vote a winner. I may be biased.

PS - Crappy photograph to come.