Jar B Q

Wine:
DeRose 2002 Cedolini Family Vineyard Cienega Valley Zinfandel
Shotfire Ridge 2003 Barossa Cuvee

First Barbecue of the Year!

One of our favorite restaurants in Los Angeles is JAR. With love their Char Sui Pork. We have asked the chef: Suzanne Tracht for the recipe for the marinade. She never got around to writing it down for us, but wonderfully she would always just give us a large container of marinade to take home and we would use it.

Our neighbor Bea informed us that Bon Appetite March 2006 had an article with Suzanne’s recipes. Wow! There it was. The mystery Char Sui Pork recipe was no longer a secret. We immediately knew we would be making it!

We bought a copy of the magazine, ordered some pork chops from Niman-Ranch and awaited Fedex to bring us our meat.

We made the recipe for the marinade (we cheated and left the Red Dye #3 out). We grilled them outside and they were great. We used our new Rice Cooker to make Japanese Rice, to it we added a Mushroom Mixture we purchased at a Japanese market. We have no idea of the name (it is all in Japanese) but it is very tasty. Kazue our neighbor introduced us to it. When we go to the market we take the empty box to identify a replacement! The rice can easily the next day be turned into fried rice.

There was a recipe in the New York Times for a Squash Soup. We made that as a first course. We substituted some Japanese kabocha squash from the Hollywood Farmer’s market. The soup was very rich and good. Will make again.

Roast Squash Soup With Brown Butter
Adapted from David Kinch
Time: 1 1/2 hours

A medium-size butternut squash, 2 to 3 pounds, halved, seeds removed
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
3 cups vegetable broth, approximately
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Pinch cayenne.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place squash halves on baking sheet, cut side up, and into cavity of each put a tablespoon of brown sugar and a tablespoon of butter. Season lightly with salt and pepper and bake until tender, about 1 hour.
2. While squash is roasting, place remaining butter in a heavy 1-quart saucepan over low heat. Have ready a big bowl of ice water to accommodate pan. When butter is almost melted, increase heat to medium-high and allow butter to come to a boil and start to foam. As foam subsides, when butter turns a hazelnut color and acquires a nutty aroma, immediately place bottom of pot in ice and water to stop cooking.
3. When butter is no longer hot but still liquid, pour it through a very fine mesh coffee filter or strainer into a container to remove solids. Clean saucepan and return butter to saucepan.
4. Scrape out flesh of squash and place in a blender with any juices from baking sheet. Purée. With machine running, slowly add half the broth. Gently warm brown butter. With blender running, drizzle in warm butter.
5. Transfer soup to a 3-quart saucepan and heat slowly until not quite simmering. Whisk in enough of remaining broth until soup is no thicker than heavy cream. Season with vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper and cayenne and continue to heat. Do not allow soup to come to a full boil because it may separate. Serve at once.

Dessert: German Chocolate Cake from Perfectly Sweet.