Super Bowl Sunday

Before I start with dinner tonight, I have rethought the Caribbean dinner from Thursday. I think it would be much better with sweet potatoes instead of the Plantains. Plantains may be very good when you have them in the hemisphere where they grow, but as they are probably picked and shipped raw, they just taste like cardboard.


Today was Super Bowl Sunday. Even though we grew up in football territory, we did not inherit the football gene. Jim did ask that I make him pre-dinner chicken wings for the game even though my meal was basically French. We loved the Letterman, Leno and Oprah commercial.

So, the wings, I made Adobo-seasoned baked chicken wings by Bobby Flay. I made ½ of the recipe but what follows is the whole one.

½ C mango nectar ( I just used Major Grey Chutney)

¼ C honey

1-2 T hot sauce

Salt and ground pepper

2 t garlic powder

2 t onion powder

2 t turmeric

40 chicken wings

2 T canola oil

2 T chopped fresh oregano

I mixed the garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric and 1 T salt and 1t of pepper in a bowl. Next I mixed the honey, mango nectar and hot sauce in a bowl. Due to Elaine (our neighbor) and Jim’s sensitivity to hot sauce, I used one tablespoon. I had the wings in a baggie. I added the dried herbs and oil and mixed in the bag. I put them on a sheet pan with release aluminum foil. Baked for 20 minutes. Then spread the honey/mango mixture on top and baked for 10 more minutes. After they cooled I sprinkled the fresh oregano. If you like hot wings, add the second tablespoon of hot sauce. We enjoyed these as they were.

I also cut up carrots and celery and served with an artichoke/cheese dip from Wegman’s. In addition I sliced some sausages.

Dinner came from my Williams-Sonoma Paris cookbook. The main course was a pork roast with fennel and red peppers.

Roti De Porc Aux Parfums De Soleil.

One 3.5 to 4 lb boneless pork shoulder roast cut flat, rolled, and tied. I could not find this roast rolled and tied at Wegman’s, and the boneless loin pork roast that I bought was too lean. You need a nice amount of fat mixed with the lean. I thought mine turned out too dry even though it was not overcooked and still pink the way I like pork. The cookbook says this cut is sometimes called Boston Butt. I also had to cut mine to make it flat to stuff. This is very easy. Look at the end of the roast, go down about 1/3 from the top and slice to about ½ inch thick along the whole length. Turn it over and from the other side of the roast again go 1/3 down and slice to about ½ inch thick along the length on this side. You now have a Z-shaped piece of meat. Pull the sides out to flatten it and then pound it flatter.

To make the stuffing, I used the Cuisinart. I put in the following and turned it on.

5 garlic cloves

Hand full of Italian Parsley, about 3 T chopped

Fresh sage, enough leaves that would look like 2 T chopped

Fresh Rosemary leaves, again the equivalent of 2 T chopped

Large pinch of salt

¼ t pepper

3T dry white wine

3T Extra-virgin olive oil

¼ t Herbes de Provence

¼ t fennel seeds

Rub this mixture all over the meat, roll up it up and tie it with string. Place in a large roasting pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roast until the center registers 120 degrees. This was supposed to take 1 ½ hours. Mine took about 45 min. At this point you were to quickly spoon the juices from the pan bottom into a bowl. I had no juice because it was so lean. So I added chicken stock and placed the one fennel bulb and red pepper, both thinly sliced, around the meat. You were then to cook to 140 degrees for about 30 minutes. The entire cooking time for me was 1 ½ hour to 140 degrees. I removed the pork to a platter and covered it with foil. I then add 3 shallots, chopped, to the pan on top of the stove and cooked the vegetables a little more. Then I removed the vegetables and added ½ cup of wine but no stock as called for in the recipe, as I had already added stock. This I cooked down pour over the meat. I should have added some butter to the stock. This is the perfect day to be a Monday morning quarterback.

I also made

Piree De Celeri-Rave (Celery Root Puree)

1 large celery root about 2 #

1 large russet potato

About 3 C chicken stock

4 T butter

6 T heavy cream

Salt and pepper to taste

2 T chopped chives

Truffle oil for drizzling

Peel and chop the celery root and potato. Place in a pot with enough chicken broth to cover. Cook until tender and put through a ricer or food mill fitted with a fine disk. Return the puree to the pan and add the butter, cream, salt and pepper. When serving drizzle with the truffle oil.

I should mention that both recipes serve 6.

Jim served a very nice Pinot with the meal and also a delicious Chardonnay. The first was Chalone Vineyard Pinot Noir Estate Grown. The Chardonnay was a 2006 J. Lohr from the October Night Vineyard. Our neighbor Elaine came over for dinner and the game. Elaine is one of those unlucky people who can’t drink red wine. I know I should have rooted for the Indiana team, but I rooted for the Saints as PARADE magazine said that if an NFC team wins, the stock market will probably go up; there are statistics to support this!

I chose this meal as the cookbook says the flavors would remind you of the south of France. I’ve never had celery root before and really liked it. I’d say that if you can’t find a pork shoulder or Boston Butt cut as they say in the recipe, skip this one.