Today was the first day in a long time where you could be outdoors without getting frostbite. After a nice brunch with friends we decided to walk through the zoo on the way home. Unfortunately we missed the new lion cubs but, it was still awesome. Here are a few pictures.
I find nothing more relaxing than slow cooking on the weekends. Up until recently I would use my crock-pot and either search for recipes on the internet or just throw items in that worked well together. I’d set it on low, walk away, and 4-8 hours later I had dinner. All in all, not too shabby.
A friend of mine turned me on to the dutch oven and the wonders it can do. She boasts about how you can cook almost anything in it because of it’s enamel covered cast-iron. I’ve had it for a few weeks and also purchased the William-Sonoma Essentials of Slow Cooking (of which another friend has a copy). Today I had my first smashing success.
I don’t think I can post the recipe due to copyright laws but to get the idea, you braise a 3lb pork shoulder in beer, onions, garlic, lime, and orange for a few hours. The key to this all was browning the pork shoulder in my cast-iron skillet prior to braising in the oven.
You’ll see my two favorite kitchen tools above. 12″ cast-iron skillet and 5qt. dutch oven. Truly a match made in heaven.
The finished product was extremely tender and juicy with the best part being the citrus hints from the orange and lime. More or less the flavors were infused with the meat which created a tasty fiesta worth repeating.
The cookbook has dozens and dozens of other recipes which I now can’t wait to try out but, the big revelation today was that a dutch oven blows the crock-pot out of the water.
Dutch Oven: Time Saver. Flavor Enhancer. All Around Bad-Ass.
I’ve been laying off the food trucks as of late. The new year brought a renewed self sense of worth which included exercise, less booze, and a healthy diet. BORING. Looking for nearly any excuse to break my diet I came across a wonderful tweet today from @PiTruckDC
“We’ll be in Penn Quarter, near F & 9th, around 5! We’ll have 36 free whole pizzas. Each Pi feeds 2. Hope to see you & sorry if we run out!”
Free pizza 3 blocks from my office?!?!?! On it.
I arrived shortly after 5 with the line roughly 15 people deep. Roughly 10 minutes later I was loaded up with an entire deep dish pepperoni pizza gratis.
Well what do we have here? A delicious pizza built for two. For the record, that’s not grease on the bottom of the box. Since it was 20 degrees out I had to hop on the train home to enjoy (deep dish pizza is messy, right?). 20 minutes of steam later and the bottom of the box was a tad soggy but, it didn’t harm the pizza.
The crust was exactly what I like in a deep dish pizza. Crisp and sturdy to support the ingredients with a subtle sweetness. The sauce delivered a tangy kick with a sweet undertone and the spices were well balanced. At the base you had layers of gooey cheese and a generous portion of pepperoni.
I also did a couple of tests to see how sturdy an individual slice was (this is street food after all!). The slice held up well and can be consumed while standing without fear of a mess landing on your shirt. What’s even better, the box converts into 4 paper plates and then can fold into a carrier for leftovers. You’ll notice perforated lines on the box with a set of instructions for folding near the top in the image below.
In short, this is an excellent pizza. They will be offering several options including some for vegetarians. It’s also the perfect amount of pizza for two people. If you can’t catch the food truck, try and hit their restaurant, District of Pi, coming to Penn Quarter soon.
Now that I’ve had my momentary lapse in diet-reason, it’s back to the regularly scheduled program.
ChewTweets
