2009 Household dinner, Pork Pork and Morpork

[ppfuf]

Every year GM has a dinner for his squires and apprentices. We don't usually have a themed dinner, but for this year I decided early I wanted to do a "everything but the squeal" pork dinner. I didn't succeed as well a s I wanted, partly because I didn't find a way to fix pork liver such that I liked it. But the dishes we ended up serving were good, so I'm happy enough with how everything turned out. Every dish had pork in it.
Cocktails before dinner were "Drunken Sows", bourbon with ginger ale and a swizzle stick of crispy fried bacon.
The appetizer course: 
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup buttermilk
1 green onion, coarsely chopped
1 ½ Tbl coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley
½ garlic cloves, minced
1 tesp fresh lime juice
20-24 cooked large shrimp, clean and tails on
20-24 thin slices prosciutto
20-24 mini-skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes and drained
Blend mayonnaise, buttermilk, green onion, Italian parsley, garlic, and fresh lime juice.
Wrap shrimp in prosciutto, fastening with skewers as necessary. Grill shrimp. Serve warm with sauce.  
 Pancetta stuffed mushrooms (wrapped in slices of pancetta)
Phyllo Triangles with rosemary and pancetta filling
j_i_m_r's incredibly addictive dates stuffed with almonds and wrapped in prosciutto
smoky green olives stuffed with pate
Pate cut into cute little shapes
The salad course was Alton Brown's spinach salad with bacon and warm bacon fat dressing.  
The main dinner course:
Pork loin with garlic and sage, wrapped in prosciutto recipe from Gourmet magazine Sept05, use thin pieces of garlic, truffle oil, and bake for about 35 minutes.)
CousCous with veggies, wrapped in prosciutto recipe from Gourmet magazine Aug04, except I used sun dried tomatoes instead of bell peppers.
Mushrooms stuffed with Soppressata 
Steamed broccoli with maple/mustard sauce, recipe from Gourmet magazine, only for this recipe I used bacon fat instead of the salmon pan drippings)
Bread pudding with bacon and mushrooms , recipe from Emeril, double the garlic and cheese
Cheese puffs, recipe from Gourmet Aug03, except I used 1 cup of gruyer, 1/2 cup of parmesan, 4 ounces fried pancetta, 2 tesp prepared mustard and 1 tesp of ground pepper. I should have added at least 2 more tablespoons of flour.  
Dessert was blueberry pie with a lard crust (Bad link! Google for "All-Butter Pie Crust (With Variations)" I used 90g Plugra butter, 50g leaf lard), pig-shaped chocolates, and pig brittle.

I think next year's dinner will be Duck, Duck, Goose.

edited to add: I think I fixed the pig brittle link, many thanks to Urtatim who posted it last October..

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Cool themes! I remember hearing about leaf lard on America's Test Kitchen.

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

It's very interesting stuff, and fortunatly avalible from the pig people at the local farmer's market. It's smooth and lovley like butter, but far more tender.

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

Yay, thank you for sharing! I was actually plotting to ask you for some of those recipes. :-) The bread pudding was one of my favorites, though I was sadly too full by then to have more than a couple bites. I'm totally going to make it for brunch sometime.

The pig brittle link's not working, though. :-(

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

I think I fixed the pig brittle link, but if not, try http://www.aldenteblog.com/2008/02/put-away-the-pi.html or google Put Away the Pigskin and Put Out the Pig Candy
by Elizabeth Karmel on February 06, 2008.
I thought the pudding needed something...maybe more garlic or more agressive onions, but I liked it. I think a version may go the the next church brunch.

Hey, that was my theme!

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

mmmm. Bork!

Re: Hey, that was my theme!

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

I only steal your good ideas!

And that's why

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

you steal so few!

Re: And that's why

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

Although I think I originally stole this one from you...dang.

[doll-paparazzi.livejournal.com]

YUMMY!!! Sounds devine!!

You know, I don't think I've had pork liver before. I love chicken liver the best, but beef is ok.

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

I got pork liver from the German butcher, but I noticed some at the Hispanic market, if you're feeling experimental.
I'm generally ok with bird livers, and I thought because I like pate, I'd be ok with pork liver, but I was just wrong. Of course, it could just be because I'd never cooked liver before I don't have the knack for it. Maybe I'll try something again with chicken livers.

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

pork liver pate. Itz teh best.