Bon Voyage, Badsnake
2001-08-03 @ 10:48 a.m.
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I dropped Badsnake off at the airport a little while ago, and I've already sent her an e-mail that she won't get at least until she gets to her hotel in Chicago. Who knows when she'll be able to get to a computer and get her e-mail even then. But sending it makes me feel more in touch with her. I've been in denial for the last few days about how long she's going to be gone, now it's come home to me.
I have it easy though, I get to stay home where the Emergency Back-up Girlfriends are, and Jake is spending the night with me Saturday night (thank you Sara!). When I went to Germany, even though I was headed for a great trip, I had to leave all my girls behind. That was hard. Badsnake is headed for a boring conference in Chicago for six days without any of her girls. That's even harder.
Last night we had her going-away family dinner. I made pork chops and a white bean and tomato thing (don't know what else to call it) that I got out of the local newspaper. They called it Golden Tomato White Beans, but I used red tomatoes instead. I made several other adjustments. I'll give you their recipe and then tell you my changes.
3 cups white beans, such as Great Northern
6 cups chicken stock
2 cups diced yellow onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
6 slices applewood-smoked bacon
4 ounces pancetta
4 large ripe yellow tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup champagne vinegar
1 tsp saffron threads
2 jalapenos, minced
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp ground white pepper
Soak beans for 24 hours in cold water. Drain and rinse. In a large Dutch oven, combine the beans, stock, onion, garlic, bacon and pancetta. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a blender or food processor, combine tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, saffron and jalapenos. Blend or process until smooth. Add the tomato mixture to the beans, and continue to simmer until beans are tender, about another 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
First off, I used 2 cans of Great Northern beans instead of dried. Looking back on it, I probably should have reduced the other ingredients. It was a very thin sauce-like mixture at the end. But I served in on spaghetti noodles so that worked out okay. Since I used canned beans, I didn't need the chicken stock, and I didn't cook it nearly as long. I used regular bacon because I didn't feel like making a special trip somewhere to get applewood-smoked. Though that sounds really good. I also left out the pancetta because Publix didn't have it. I probably could have substituted prosciutto, but I thought it would be fine without. Most importantly, I only used about 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. I just didn't think I would want it that sweet. Actually, I started with 1 tablespoon of sugar. We tasted it and decided a little more to balance the vinegar would be good. I used white wine vinegar instead of champagne vinegar because that's what I had. I don't understand why it would call for minced jalapenos when you're going to put it in the food processor anyway. So I spared myself the pain (Have you ever forgotten and wiped your eyes an hour after cutting up jalapenos? It isn't fun.) and just cut the ends off and removed the seeds, spending as little time touching the peppers as possible. (You could use rubber gloves to cut them, but I don't like rubber gloves.)
The pork chops I simply pan-fried with a light coating of olive oil and garlic and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
With dinner we opened a bottle of 1998 Witness Tree Pinot Noir. It is a luscious Oregon Pinot with just the right balance of earth and fruit. To be honest, it probably wasn't acidic enough for the bean dish. But the wine was wonderful with the pork chops. We just decided not to drink the wine when we had a mouthful of vinegary beans. A better match would probably have been a Chianti or Sangiovese with enough acid to hold up to it.
After dinner we watched Barbarella. Yippee, Direct TV! Jake and Sara had never seen it. We laughed so hard we would have woken the neighbors if we weren't the neighbors. We naturally enjoyed all the bondage scenes (I had forgotten just how much bondage there was in that movie) and particularly enjoyed the scene where the man in the hairy suit is about to make love to Barbarella. He takes off his fur garment to reveal a chest that's almost as hairy. Luckily none of us had a mouthful of wine at the time.
Today I am having lunch with Jake at her job. I'm taking us a pesto potato salad and leftover pork chops. I made pesto yesterday from the basil that desperately needs (still needs) to be picked in the garden. I guess I will make more Sunday. I froze most of it but kept some to make this.
Pesto Potato Salad
4 potatoes, chopped and boiled
2 celery sticks, chopped
1 1/2 cups chick peas
2 tbsp capers
1/4 to 1/3 cup pesto
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