Ria's Birthday Extravaganza

I love to entertain and haven't been able to all winter, as I shut off the front of my house to hibernate in the back rooms. Sometimes I'll have a couple of the girls over but the only place to sit is the bed and it usually deteriorates into a modified slumber party setup, including trying on and modeling clothes down an imaginary catwalk and nibbling on cheese in between our turn to sashay. Anyway, this is fun, of course, but not the same as my visions of garden parties with frothy cocktails and marvelous appetizers beneath the stars.

So, as the beautiful weather is finally here, I decided to throw a little fete for my friend Maria. This was also an excuse to finally open up the house for the season. I planned a soul food/southern style meal, with some pulled pork, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese and greens. As it turns out, on the day of the party WE HIT A HIGH OF 87 DEGREES HERE IN THE 'LO. Crazy. While I am not complaining, it wasn't exactly the kind of day I felt like spending in the kitchen, shredding pork, boiling macaroni and roasting sweet potatoes. But it all got done and I even got to spend some time outside cleaning up the outdoor area and furniture.

Let me tell you a little something about macaroni and cheese. I saw Bobby Flay challenge a world-reknowned macaroni and cheese maker to a throwdown. I thought I'd look at both of their recipes for inspiration; Bobby, as usual, likes to riff on tradition and the person he challenges tends to stick with old classics. So I looked at these recipes, Jesus Christ, now wonder we're an obese nation! 2 sticks of butter, a dozen eggs, 6 cups of half and half and 17 cups of cheese! Althought I defintitely didn't follow that recipe, I still managed to spend almost $20 on an absurd amount of cheese. This is certainly a once-in-a-while kind of meal.

The crowning glory of the night came when my friend Meg, otherwise known as Dessert Goddess, arrived with her homemade cake. It was a peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate sauce and peanut butter cups decorating the top. I'm not even that into cakes but this one really captured my heart. I'm ashamed to admit how much of it I ate but, in my defense, I didn't eat sweets nor one single french fry all last week!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have Really Gone and Done it This Time!

My grandmother, who was a great cook and her own biggest cheerleader, would slave away at elaborate meals pretty frequently. Upon sitting down at the table, while everyone else was engrossed in eating, my grandmother would take one bite, slap the table with both fists and stridently proclaim, "Rose Bondi, you've done it again!" Well, after the meal I cooked on Saturday, I found myself doing just the same thing.

Lately I haven't been able to get cochon de lait out of my head. This is a dish that is hugely popular in Cajun Louisiana and typically features a whole pig on a spit. One of my favorite interpretations of the dish I discovered at Storyville, one of my old places of employment. Their cochon was more like a pulled pork, paired brilliantly with braised collard greens and sweet potato cakes with tasso and then doused with a whiskey-bbq sauce.

So, I bought my greens and sweet potatoes, took out a pork tenderloin and went to town recreating it. It was really delicious, I'm sorry that my porcine-eschewing friends won't be able to enjoy this.

Greens:

1 bunch greens, wash and picked over for woody stems
1 onion, diced
4 slices bacon, chopped
16 oz. stock
1 bay leaf
1/4 c. vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar)

Render the bacon in a stockpot, add onions and cook until soft, about 15 minutes. Add a bit of oil if the bacon grease isn't enough, not too much though. Add the stock, vinegar and bay leaf, bring up to a high simmer. Once it's there, turn it down and simmer for 45 minutes to and hour. You can make these up to a couple days ahead of time.

Cochon de Lait:

1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into chunks
spice rub-I used a mix of cayenne, coriander, garlic, cumin, thyme, smoked paprkia, dried mustard, black pepper and salt
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, chopped
1 T mustard-praline glaze*
1/4 c. vinegar
1 cup water or stock

Rub the spices into the meat and let sit anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours. Add all the other ingredients into a shallow baking dish, cover with foil and cook in a 300 degree oven for 1 1/2-2 hours. Remove from the oven and shred the meat with two fork. There will be a good amount of liquid in the pan, continue to cook down and reduce. After about 15-20 minutes, reincorporate the meat into the pan juices to keep it moist.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2 large Louisiana yams
1 1/2 T. butter
1-2 T light sour cream
2 green onion, chopped
salt and pepper

Roast the yams in the oven while cooking the pork (or for perfect timing, roast at 350 degrees, remove from oven and then add the pork. This allows time for the yams to cool.) Remove the skins and mash with the other ingredients until smooth.

As a crowning glory, I battered some onion slices and fried them to garnish the top. This dish makes a little meat go a long way, this probably could have fed four people with only one pound of tenderloin.

*Dr. Pete's mustard-praline glaze is what I used in the pork. If you don't have that, it was basically brown sugar, ground pecans, mustard and some spices. You could add that or even some good barbeque sauce instead. As long as it's sweet and spicy.