Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Pulled Pork Nachos

I know that I've mentioned the Porkfest dinner party we threw at the beginning of the month.  One of the dishes we served was pulled pork.  Of course, it's scientifically impossible to make a small quantity of pulled pork, and there was lots of other pork product on offer that night.  As a result, we had a good amount of pulled pork left over.  Fortunately for me, we were entertaining again in two days' time. 

I've probably already mentioned this also, but in case I haven't: every year on Opening Day of baseball season, my husband and I get together with some other baseball-obsessed souls and watch baseball.  All of it.  Priority is given to the Yankee game, of course, but we make a real effort to watch at least half an inning of every televised game.  Most years, we actually manage to pull it off.  People drift in and out, which creates an interesting problem for menu planning.  Food must be brought out steadily through the course of the day, and it must be doable with a minimum of effort on my part during game time.  I absolutely refuse to spend time during a Yankee game mucking around in the kitchen.  (Unless they're really doing badly, in which case I look for intricate pastry recipes to screw up.)  Nachos really fit the bill.  Assembly can be done in between innings.  Unless the pitcher is the reincarnation of Cy Young, the half-inning usually takes long enough for the cheese to melt appropriately.  They're ideally suited to baseball, because versions of basic nachos can be found in ball parks all over the country (and, rumor has it, even in Canada!)  These went over quite well.  A close friend of ours was in from California, and he avoids eating pork, so we made a special batch of pork-less nachos just for him.  Neither batch had more than crumbs left over.  You can substitute shredded, cooked chicken or turkey for the pork if you prefer. 

Pulled Pork Nachos (serves 3 - 6; approx. cost per serving not available)

Two cups (more or less) leftover pulled pork

1 bag regular corn tortilla chips (use the good stuff)

1 bag blue corn tortilla chips (I have yet to find a lousy brand of blue corn chips)

1/2 cup (more or less) sliced, pitted kalamata olives

4 ounces Monterrey Jack cheese, grated

4 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 cup (more or less) jarred jalapeno slices

3 tablespoons (approx.) barbeque sauce (we used bottled sauce on this occasion, because we were out of the real stuff.  You just want a little hint of the flavor anyway, so it's not really worth making a batch of real sauce unless you're a true purist.)

Equipment:

• Some sort of vessel that you can take from oven to table easily.  I used the bottom part of my tagine.  

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  This should take about half an inning of an average game.
2. Line the bottom of your baking vessel with a mix of blue and white corn tortillas.
3. Scatter pulled pork over the top of the tortillas.  Layer with sprinkled cheese, olives and jalapenos.
4. Repeat until you've achieved a level of height you're comfortable with.  Think structural stability. 
5. The top layer should be mostly cheese.
6. Squeeze some barbeque sauce on top of the nacho pile.
7. Bake approximately 10 - 15 minutes, or the length of an average half-inning of baseball.  Yes, this is really how I timed it. 
8. Remove from oven.  Serve and enjoy!

If you want to make vegetarian nachos, just omit the pork. 

Recipe: Consoling Daiquiri

  My husband and I are big sports fans.  More specifically, we're big baseball fans, and to be even more specific we are extremely enamored of the New York Yankees baseball team.  We rarely miss a televised game, especially now that we've got a DVR and can watch them on our schedule, and we're amassing a fairly impressive collection of Yankee merchandise.  As I sit here typing this I'm wrapped in a Yankee throw, with my Yankee pajamas on, looking at a framed picture of Reggie Jackson hitting a home run for inspiration. 

The thing about baseball is, well, there are a lotof games, and no team can win them all.  Sometimes my beloved Yankees actually lose.  And sometimes they lose big.  This recipe, and the tradition that comes with it, comes from one of those unpleasant occasions.  Our buddy Terrence was over.  Terrence is a fellow expatriate New Yorker and Yankee fan, and is one of the few people in Boston with whom we can watch games.  At any rate, in a game that the Yankees should have had locked up by the second inning, they got completely blown out.  It was miserable.  It was like watching major leaguers take on a little league team.  We'd been drinking beer, but by the third inning Terrence looked at me and said, "I think we need a little something stronger." 

At the time, we had daiquiri mix in the freezer.  It was no big deal to run upstairs, throw some in the blender and whip up some frozen consolation.  Of course, as time has gone on, I no longer keep frozen daiquiri mix in the house (I think it was left over from a party we threw) and daiquiris have become a traditional beverage for when our sports team of choice is really choking.  Baseball is the most common, because it's the sport that most arouses our passions, but the other day I broke these out for college basketball.  My hometown team, the Syracuse Orange, had made it to the Sweet 16.  They didn't look like they belonged there when they played Oklahoma.  While there were a few bright spots, Oklahoma pretty well owned them from the time the ball first hit the floor.  I moaned.  I groaned.  I cursed.  And then I made daiquiris. 

These will serve anywhere from 2 - 6 people, depending on the size of your glasses.  Feel free to mess around with the fruits.  I prefer strawberries, mangoes, peaches, blackberries or raspberries, in that order, but if you really feel the need to make a kiwi-dragonfruit daiquiri to mourn the fate of your favorite team, so be it.  If none of the fruits I like are in season, I'll use frozen fruit.  I'm told that I make them strong, so be warned and adjust to your personal needs.  Fresh fruits work better.  Oh, and don't skimp on the rum and use that paint thinner that they sell on the bottom shelf in a plastic tub.  I like Bacardi for this - plain old light rum, no spices or flavorings added. 

I felt that I should post this as we prepare to (finally) enter another season of Yankee baseball.  We've got a great team put together and I'm feeling pretty confident, but anything can happen in baseball. 

Consoling Daiquiri (serves 2 - 6; cost per serving incalculable but includes dashed hopes and lost playoff dreams.)

2 pints crushed ice, divided

1 quart fresh, tasty strawberries, stemmed and quartered

2/3 cup light rum

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lime juice

Equipment:

• Blender
• A second baseman who can't field a routine pop fly

1. Pour one pint of crushed ice into the blender.  (You can use cubes if that's all you have, but do this too often with cubes and you'll blow your motor out.)
2. Add the strawberries, rum, sugar and lime juice.
3. Pour the second pint of crushed ice on top of the first.
4. Blend until you have the consistency that best suits you.  You shouldn't be able to see many big chunks of strawberries, though.
5. Serve.  Garnish with a strawberry, if you're feeling so inclined.