Oven-Roasted Pulled Pork

Ingredients

Dry Rub:

• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 3 tablespoons coarse salt
• 1 (5 to 7 pound) pork roast, preferably shoulder or Boston butt

Cider Vinegar Barbecue Sauce:

• 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
• 1 cup yellow or brown mustard
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 hamburger buns
• 1 recipe Spicy Slaw, recipe follows
• Pickle spears

Preparation

Mix the paprika, garlic power, brown sugar, dry mustard, and salt together in a small bowl. Rub the spice blend all over the pork and marinate for as long as you have time for, as little as 1 hour or up to overnight, covered, in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Put the pork in a roasting pan and bake for about 6 hours. Basically, roast the pork until it's falling apart and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 170 degrees F.

To make the barbecue sauce: combine the vinegar, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic, salt, cayenne, and black pepper in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently, stirring, for 10 minutes until the sugar dissolves.

Remove the pork roast from the oven and transfer to a large platter. Allow the meat to rest for about 10 minutes. While still warm, take 2 forks and "pull" the meat to form shreds. Using 2 forks, shred the pork by steadying the meat with 1 fork and pulling it away with the other. Put the shredded pork in a bowl. Pour 1/2 of the sauce on the shredded pork and mix well to coat.

To serve, spoon the pulled pork mixture onto the bottom 1/2 of the hamburger bun, and top with the spicy slaw. Serve with pickle spears and the remaining sauce on the side.

Short Ribs Braised in Coffee Ancho Chile Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 dried ancho chiles, stems, seeds, and ribs discarded
• 2 cups boiling-hot water
• 1 medium onion, quartered
• 3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo plus 2 tsp adobo sauce
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 6 lb beef short ribs or flanken
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup brewed coffee

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.
Wipe anchos clean and soak in boiling-hot water until softened, about 20 minutes, then drain in a colander set over a bowl. Taste soaking liquid: It will be a little bitter, but if unpleasantly so, discard it; otherwise, reserve for braising. Transfer anchos to a blender with onion, garlic, chipotles with sauce, maple syrup, lime juice, and 1 tsp salt and purée until smooth.
Pat ribs dry and season with 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then brown ribs in 3 batches, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes total per batch. Transfer as browned to a roasting pan just large enough to hold ribs in 1 layer.
Carefully add chile purée to fat in skillet (it will spatter and steam) and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, 5 minutes. Add reserved chile soaking liquid (or 1 1/2 cups water) and coffee and bring to a boil, then pour over ribs (liquid should come about halfway up sides of meat).
Cover roasting pan tightly with foil and braise ribs in oven until very tender, 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Skim fat from pan juices and serve with ribs.

Branzino Baked in Salt Crust

Ingredients:

• 2 whole branzini
• lemons
• 1 large box rock or kosher salt
• fresh thyme sprigs
• garlic

Preparation:
Clean and gut each fish.  Stuff fish with thinly sliced lemon, whole garlic cloves, and sprigs of thyme.
Line a baking sheet with about 1/2 inch of salt.  Place fish on salt, and cover the fish well with another thick layer of salt.
Sprinkle water with your fingers on to the salt covering the fish until damp but not too wet.
Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  The salt will form a hard crust that you must break with a wooden spoon.  The skin should peel right off the fish.  The fish is ready to serve.

Turkey Scallopini with Lemon and Capers

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pound (1/4-inch-thick) sliced raw turkey cutlets
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cup chicken broth
• 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation:

Pat turkey dry and season with salt and pepper. Dredge half of turkey slices in flour, shaking off excess. Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté turkey until browned on both sides and just cooked through, about 4 minutes total. Transfer to a platter and keep warm, covered. Dredge and sauté remaining turkey with another 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in same manner.

Add remaining tablespoon oil to skillet and cook garlic over moderate heat, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add broth and deglaze over moderately high heat, scraping up brown bits. Boil until broth is reduced to about 3/4 cup. Stir in lemon juice, capers, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Return turkey to skillet with any juices on platter and simmer until heated through, about 1 minute.

Chipotle Chicken

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cans Mexican style stewed tomatoes
• 1 small can fire roasted green chiles
• 1 can chipotle peppers
• 1 onion
• Cumin

Preparation:

Mix all canned ingredients in the slow cooker, blend if possible.  If not, dice the chipotles as small as possible.  Place chicken in slow cooker, and cook on low for as long as possible (6 hours works well).

Finely chop the onion and sauté until it starts to turn brown.  Put this in the slow cooker for the last hour or so.

Add cumin and salt to taste.

Remove chicken from sauce one breast at a time, shred with forks, then put back in sauce.

Serve on tortillas with tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and lettuce or serve with rice.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Ingredients

  

• 1 pound dry spaghetti
•  2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces pancetta or slab bacon, cubed or sliced into small strips
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
•  Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Directions

Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken, but do not scramble (this is done off the heat to ensure this does not happen.) Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls and garnish with chopped parsley. Pass more cheese around the table.