Chef’s Log 12 March 2010 The Conflagration, And Dinner Party that Almost Never Ate

We tried again to have a dinner party for some friends, including my photography instructor, Michael Zorn, who had had to miss our dinner party on January 29. We decided to repeat the same menu, smoked salmon and jerk pork chops. The prep for the salmon was the same as always, four hours in cognac, then a day and a half in coarse salt and turbinado sugar. We varied the prep on the pork slightly, bathing it over night in dark rum and fresh lemon and lime juice before applying the jerk spice.

Of course mostly the processes after the initial prep do take care of themselves, but 12 hours before show time the salmon was ready for another layer of salt and sugar, and the chops were ready for another dusting of jerk spice.

Since there were children coming we used this as an excuse to make an old favorite from Delilah’s in Philadelphia, macaroni and cheese from cardiologist hell. There are no good intentions, or healthy life style habits, or gym memberships and personal training sessions, that cannot be undone by cream, eggs, cheese, cheese, cheese, and cheese, with a vague hint of macaroni. Think of this more as a cheese soufflé, with a touch of pasta. Jean did a wonderful job with this death-defying recipe.

This time nobody canceled and I was actually quite hopeful. And then disaster struck.

We had a fat fire! A true conflagration. I had meant to clean the grill and scrape out any accumulated fat from the previous pork loins, but it was raining, and the job is messy enough when it’s dry, and I figured it could keep for one more grilling. I was wrong. Modern pork can be served medium, or even medium rare. These were medium ruined. Well done ain’t the worst of it. The jerk spice had charred into a flaky black powder. Everyone was polite. Everyone ate salmon and more macaroni than anticipated. Sergei, true friend that he is, ate as many pork chops as he could stand. Michael, another true friend, kept his camera away from the grill and the table. People did try to eat some of the less burned chops and some of the more healthful stuff, like a huge salad, spinach sautéed with garlic, or Japonica black rice. Mostly, though, the healthful stuff was left over. Not only healthful stuff, of course. Any macaroni recipe that calls for half a dozen eggs, a box of macaroni, and several pounds of cheese is going to provide a dangerous quantity of artery-stopping leftovers. And with the Zorns’ bringing a cheesecake and the Savins’ providing a chocolate and chocolate-cream layer cake (Шантеклер) we won’t be missing the basic breakfast food groups of chocolate and cheesecake. Sergei described his contribution as heavy and delightful, which certainly fits the lamentably state of my life style at the moment. Sergei was kind enough to take some of the pork chops away, reducing the incriminating evidence. In case he intends to publicize this later, I thought I would preempt him now. This is, indeed, how bad medium ruined jerked pork chops look as leftovers, in the cruel light of the following day.

You can obtain the preparation instructions for the salmon from the blog post of 28 November 2009. You can obtain the recipe for the jerk pork from the blog post of 8 November 2009. The recipe for the macaroni and cheese follows at the end, in case you feel the need for obesity.

We did sacrifice a goodly number of beers. I think we successfully made two converts to craft brewing, as the Savins had never experienced the old oak sourness of a Grand Cru Rodenbach, the brettanomyces sourness of a traditional Belgian primatif, or the brandy barrel complexity of some of the newer American craft brewers.

The ingredient list for Delilah’s mac and cheese follows. Preparation instructions can be found online at RecipeZaar. We divided everything in half, although dividing by four would have been better when serving this as a side dish for eight people. Jean had the good sense to omit the Velveeta. And she increased the salt and added dry mustard powder.

Delilah  Winder's  Macaroni  and  Cheese  2 lbs elbow macaroni 1 1/2 quarts half-and-half 3 cups yellow sharp cheddar cheese 2 cups extra-sharp white cheddar cheese 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese 1 cup Asiago cheese 1 cup Monterey jack cheese

1 cup Muenster cheese 1 cup Velveeta cheese (we omitted!) 1/2 lb butter 1 dozen eggs 1 pinch salt 1 tablespoon black pepper 2 tsp ground dry mustard

Enjoy!

And yes, the chocolates from the Savins were lovely, even if they are a bit sweet for American pallets.

And there were reasons for the long gaps between barbecue blog postings. Each of several snow storms constitutes a reason.

When it stops raining I will clean the inside of the grill. I really will. Fat fires? Nice touch, dad!

ekc