Andrew Carmellini, chef and owner of Locanda Verde and The Dutch in New York City, released his second cookbook this week in which he celebrates the different tastes and flavors across America. Here are two easy, seasonal recipes you can use for your next party
Recipe: Cider-glazed rack of pork with spice rub (on this page) Recipe: Wild rice and quinoa pilaf with pecans, green onions and cranberries (on this page)To make the brine (best made the day before): Pour 6 cups of water into a medium-sized saucepan, and stir in the salt and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil. Pull the pan off the heat and put it in the fridge to cool. Use the brine only when it's completely cooled down. It will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
To cook the pork: Put the pork in a large container, cover it with the brine, and let it marinate in the fridge for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Remove the pork from the brine, rinse off the salt to get rid of the excess, and pat the meat dry with a paper
towel. Season the pork with the salt and pepper, being sure to cover all sides of the meat. Place the meat on a rack in a roasting pan, put it on the middle oven rack, and roast until the meat reaches an internal temperature of at least 135 degrees F (about 50 to 60 minutes, depending on your oven).
When you poke the meat hard with a finger, it should bounce back, like a little trampoline; if your finger sinks in, it isn't done yet. I don't like my pork too well done. If you prefer it that way, keep cooking it-but please don't kill it. (If the meat has no bounce and no give at all, it's overdone.) While the meat is in the oven, pour the cider into a medium-sized saucepan and let it reduce over medium high heat for about 45 minutes, until you've got a loose, dark golden-brown syrup. Pull the pan off the heat and stir in the apple cider vinegar. Pour the glaze into a small bowl and put it in the fridge to cool down. As it cools, the syrup will thicken.
To make the spice rub: Combine all of the rub ingredients in a small bowl, and mix well.
To finish the dish: Pull the pork out of the oven, but leave the oven on at 425 degrees F. Take the glaze out of the fridge. It should be sweet tangy and will probably have formed a bouncy "shell" on top. Paint the pork all over with about half of the glaze, using a pastry brush (you can also do this by pouring and spreading it with your hands, but it's pretty messy).
Put the pork back in the oven and roast it for 2 more minutes so the glaze can set. Then take it out and let it rest for 15 minutes. Paint the pork all over with the rest of the glaze. Sprinkle the spice rub all over all sides of the pork. Cut the rack into chops by cutting right down the middle between each pair of bones. Arrange the meat on a platter, and serve it right away.
If there's any leftover glaze and spice mix, combine them and pour in some of the drippings from the pork. Mix it all together, and then spoon it over the chops.
Serves 4
Combine the wild rice, 1 1/2 cups of the broth, the red onion, and bay leaf in a large pot, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat (just about 2 minutes). Then cover the pot and turn the heat to low. Cook the ricebroth mix for about 20 minutes, until the rice soaks up all the liquid, checking it and stirring it every so often to make sure the rice doesn't burn. Then pull the pot off the heat and let it sit, tightly covered, for 5 minutes.
While the rice is cooking, combine the quinoa with the remaining 1 1/2 cups broth in a small pot, and cook it in the same way you cooked the rice: bring it to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and let it sit. The quinoa will cook faster: it only needs about 10 minutes to soak up all the broth.
While the rice and the quinoa are cooking, toast the pecans in a small dry pan over very low heat, tossing or mixing them around occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until they brown and crisp up, releasing their aroma. Make sure you keep the heat very low so the nuts don't burn. When they're toasted, rough-chop them using a large kitchen knife.
Put some water on to boil in a small pot or a tea kettle. Put the tea bag and the cranberries in a bowl, and pour 1/2 cup of the boiling water over them. Add the whiskey and let the mixture steep for 4 minutes, so the tea brews. Then pull the tea bag out and keep steeping the cranberries until they plump up (about 15 minutes).
When the rice is ready, pull the bay leaf out and throw it away. Add the cranberries and half their liquid (1/4 cup) to the rice, along with the nuts, green onions, salt, pepper, and quinoa. If you're using the butter, throw it in here, too. Stir everything together well (if you're using the butter, make sure it melts in completely). Pour the pilaf into a large serving dish and serve it right away.
Serves 6 to 8 as a side
© 2013 NBCNews
How many stars would you give the dish? If you made changes, tell us how you customized it.
Melissa d’Arabian shares how LACTAID® helped her entire family fully enjoy dairy.
If you have two bucks and a dream, Powerball has a game for you. The jackpot of the multi-state lottery game has surged to $600 million ahead of Saturday’s drawing — the second-largest pot in U.S. lottery history.
“ ”