A Saturday Dinner
Well, not just any Saturday dinner but last Saturday, in fact. Not that last Saturday was anything special, mind you, but I thought it would be best to be clear.
Any hoo, the ShopRong had these Pamelas on sale for 99¢ a pound, four big honkers in the package that had to weigh a tad over a pound each; they really were more like Dollies than Pamelas actually.
I opened up a bottle of this
which is a reasonably priced Argentine Malbec: $11 for a 1.5 l bottle. Fairly good fruit, decent tannins and smooth-enough body for this price range.
And I discovered that somehow this had made it’s way into my bag at the store as well
So I had a basic idea of what I was going to do, but first I just had to trim the Pamelas down a bit, as when they are so ginormous, well, getting them done enough is always a bit of a concern. And as none of us are real fans of pollo tartare, well, it just seemed to be a good idea.
So I just trimmed off the dangly bits and evened them out a tad. Of course, this left me with the problem of what exactly to do with the trimmings…
Took a while to figure that one out.
I then very carefully butterflied the Pamelas
(and not my palm as well) and into the center placed some fresh basil
some swiss cheese
and some prosciutto
then closed them up and wrapped them entirely in a protective layer of bacon and toothpicked the beasts closed.
wash, rinse, repeat with the others (using up the entire pound of bacon…yes!)
and put them on indirect heat on the grill
for about an hour or so..during which time someone got bored and wandered off in search of greener pastures
While they were cooking I made some spicy mac-n-cheese using berbere and for something vaguely Vegetable-like I opened up a couple of cans of green beans (a, because I like them, and b, because as a general rule of thumb (and fully based on past disastrous experiences) I only try to make two components of any meal from scratch because I’m just not good enough on the timing of things (mostly because I tend to make stuff up as I go along) to coördinate that many elements in a meal).
God, I hope I closed all those parentheses.
Anyhoo, it turned out
pretty yum.
Swill Food and Grog | Mr. Bingley | 
June 25, 2011 9:01 am
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Love the green beans as window dressing on the plate there, Bing. That should keep the food police away.
I figured they would be FLOTUS-Approved.
I want some! NOW! That looks so good. I’m a snob when it comes to green beans… from a CAN? Easiest way to do green beans is rinse, trim (water necessary in bowl), put in bowl, cover with plastic wrap and then microwave 90 seconds to 3 minutes… depends on how many green beans and the wattage of your micro. Throw in a little bacon if you like, seasoning salt or butter. I stick them in the microwave while everything else is cooking and hit the start button when I take whatever meat is cooking off the fire. I’m going to have to convince the household food police to try those chicken breasts. Only thing that would make them better… deep fried in lard.
Hey Mori. That’s how my Bride usually makes them; she uses that lemon/pepper seasoning. It’s quite tasty and the micro does a great job.
But Daughter grooves on canned green beans, so one must at times play to one’s audience!
I have TONS of fresh green beans from my garden. Just blanched another package for the freezer… I’d you lived closer I would have invited myself and cooked the beans for you. What I want to know is how you made your mac n cheese
Sillly iPhone auto correct…
It was your basic white sauce, Mike: 3 tbl butter, 3 tbls flour. Let that melt/mix a bit than add a cup of milk, a tbl of sherry and I added probably almost a cup of pecorino-romano cheese and a tbl of the berbere spice. When I make it again I’ll use more spice. And maybe mix in some gorgonzola. Anyhow, over mediumish heat stir until it thickens to what you want and stir it into the pasta.
That looks mighty tasty. And I’m with you on the difficulty of coordinating multiple items when you’re cooking. I find it nearly impossible.
O.M.G.
Malbec, bacon, cheese. The 3 basic food groups!!
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