Sunday Afternoon Cookin'

If you live in New England, then you know that a sunny warm day this late in November is a rare gift not to be wasted. So I did what any food junkie would do in such a situation - I uncovered the grill and got to cooking. My fiance hit up the local farmers market this morning and came back with some very nice free-range chicken breasts, some locally produced chicken sausage and an appetite. I decided to grill up the sausage and chicken breasts. I had some of the Roasted Red Pepper plum sauce left over from my MasterChef audition, so I decided to add a little vodka to the mix and use that as a BBQ-type sauce for my bird. Before putting the chicken breasts on the grill, I threw together a bit of my "secret" chipotle cumin spice rub and put that on the skin. After letting the chicken cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, I brushed on the sauce and turned the grill down as low as it would go (about 250 degrees) and let the poultry cook until the skin was crisp and the sauce a nice dark red in color.

First thing this morning, I took the left-over bone and meat from the pork shoulder that I prepared earlier in the week and placed that in a stock pot with water, a little salt and some fresh herbs. I diced up some onions and garlic a sauteed that mixture in a little olive oil. Once the onions and garlic started to brown, I deglazed the mixture with some sweet burbon, a dash of fresh-brewed coffee and added fresh dried herbs from our garden, including rosemary, sage & thyme. This mixture was combined with the pork shoulder which was starting to warm up on low. I then quick-boiled some black-eyed peas and added those to the stock pot. Finally, I cut up a half dozen potatoes into 2" cubes and threw those into the pot as well. The grilled chicken sausage was cut up into 1" pieces and added as well. I will let this simmer on low for the next four hours or so and then add some mushrooms, bell peppers and leeks later this evening. Come back later to see the finished product.

I think I am going to need a bigger pot.

I was right about needing a bigger pot. My fiance returned home from the market with leeks, portabella mushrooms and green bell and poblano peppers. I chopped these into large pieces and sauteed them with a little olive oil and fresh herbs. After locating a larger pot (I had to transfer everything over to my lobster boiler) I added the veggies and let simmer on low for about 2 more hours.

Here is a picture of the pot with everything in there. I will post a final update once the stew has had time to, well, stew.