The Hunts - Day 23 - Guests

Nate and Kate are our friends. This May-October, we shared our Oxbow Farm CSA box with them. Last week was the last box of the season, and we ended up with the whole thing because I spaced out on corridinating the pick up with Kate. To make up for it, we invited them over for dinner. Turns out, though, I didn't really cook too many items from the box, but oh well.

I made Jen's smothered pork, the rustic onion tart I posted about earlier in the week, roasted beets salad, and a greens salad. We also had a half a loaf of Essential Bakery's whole wheat bread with Beecher's Blank Slate Tapenade, along with a little homemade (but not by me) plum jam & quince paste. We had a bottle of Chinook Wines' 2006 Yakima Valley Cabernet Franc, and started on a bottle of Desert Wind Cabernet Sauvignon. It really felt like a feast. We haven't had dinner guests in ages, and it felt so good to do something like this. I really do love a nice, homemade, sit down dinner with friends.

For the pork, I made it in a crock pot instead of dutch oven (I don't own a dutch oven, sadly). Rather than starting the braising liquid with butter & flour, I started it with butter, onions and garlic. I sauteed them a minute or so, then added the flour, let that cook another minute, and whisked in the chicken stock. I seared the meat, placed it in the crock pot & poured in the braising liquid, being sure to get some on top of the meat. I let it cook on low for half the day, from about 9:30am-2:30pm. At that point, I turned the heat up to high and let it go for another couple hours. Once the liquid was reduced and skimmed of fat, I strained it. Since we were having an onion tart for dinner, I didn't feel like we needed the onions for the meat.

For the tart, I used the Martha Stewart pate brisee recipe instead of the one from Simply Recipes. I ommitted the sugar for this dough.

Everything turned out great. Everyone ate a bunch, and I was amazed at how much bread and tapenade Vincent ate!