Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Oven smoked Pork

Sunday we had a family dinner.  The weather seemed to be breaking - the ice was half-way to being gone.  We had a birthday to celebrate and a holiday as well. 

  • Menu: 
  • Oven Smoked Pork
  • Red Bliss potato salad
  • Almost Southern baked beans
  • Coleslaw with poppy seed dressing
  • Lemon-Blueberry pound cake
Oven Smoked Pork is one of those no-brainer recipes.  I put the shoulder roast in a roasting pan, scored the fat/skin, rubbed it with liquid smoke then sprinkled it liberally with a combination of salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder (which I mix up in bulk and use for a lot of things).  Pour 1/2-1 cup of water in the pan, cover tightly with foil and cook for 5-6 hours at 325.  Remove, cool slightly, pour off the liquid (but save this) then shred with two forks, removing any extra fat, skin, bones or other things you don't want to eat.  Add back some of the cooking liquid after removing fat from it, recover and put back in the oven to stay warm until serving.

Almost Southern baked beans are almost as easy.  This starts with bacon so you know it's good.
  • 4 slices  bacon, diced
  • 1 medium  onion, fine dice
  • 1/2 medium  green pepper, fine dice
  • 4 cans  pork and beans -- (14 ounces each)
  • 1/2 cup  barbecue sauce
  • 1/2 cup  brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup  cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons  dry mustard
Heat oven to 325 degrees.  If you made the pork it's already there.   Fry bacon in pan or  skillet that will hold everything and can go into the oven.   The bacon won't get crispy because the onions and peppers get added to the bacon and the bacon fat, cooking until tender. Add (dump in) the beans, barbecue sauce, brown sugar, vinegar and dry mustard, stirring and bringing to a simmer. Transfer to the oven and bake about 1 hour or until the beans thicken up.  I like to serve these at room temperature.

                     
                        Blueberry-Lemon Pound Cake

This recipe is a compilation of the Bundt cake recipe found on the Martha Stewart website and the Lemon-Blueberry pound cake from Cooking Light.  I left out the light part.  But I did use the yogurt.
  •   2 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour -- plus 1 teaspoon for blueberries and zest
  •   2 teaspoons  baking powder
  •   1/2 teaspoon  salt
  •   1 cup  unsalted butter -- (2 sticks) room temperature
  •   1 cup  packed light-brown sugar
  •   1 cup  granulated sugar
  •   1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
  •   4  large  eggs
  •   1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
  •   1  cup  sour cream or 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  •   2  cups  blueberries
  •   2  tablespoons  grated lemon zest
 Preheat oven to 350°.
 
Whisk  or sift 2 1/2 cups flour with baking powder, lemon zest and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in vanilla and lemon extract. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of sour cream, sour cream/yogurt.

Toss the blueberries with a teaspoon of flour; gently fold into batter. Coat a 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan with cooking spray. Spread batter in prepared pan.

Bake cake on bottom rack of oven until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Invert onto a rack; cool completely, top side up. Glaze with confectioners sugar thinned with lemon juice.

I think everything went well, the food certainly did.  We had cold Rolling Rocks with it but Sweet Tea would definately fit the bill as well.

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