Chicken and Pork Adobo

There's a mouse in our upstate house and it vexes me. It's not so much the fact that there is a mouse (heck, there's probably more than one) although I'd rather there weren't any, I know I'm not immune to such things either. You see, although I grew up in a city where rats rule the streets, mice and rats just give me the willies and I can never seem to get past being freaked by them. The fact that this is a bold mouse, a brazen mouse, one whose attempts to find food brings it out of hiding during times when other mice might think better of being out and about with humans nearby just makes me even more freaked than usual. This mouse stands his ground in my kitchen and openly mocks me in his quest for the slightest crumb and for this, he must be dealt with harshly. I now only need to figure out how...but hey, you didn't come here to read about me freaking out about a mouse, you came here to see what I've cooked lately and so I shall tell you!

I did my first real cooking this past weekend apart from boiling water for pasta or making a quick scrambled egg since the baby was born and OH! It felt good. We had a visit from some close, long time friends, one of whom, Cathy, often leaves comments right here on this very website. I was looking forward to this, looking forward to seeing Cathy and her husband and their beautiful daughter as well as our friend Jackie, her husband and their beautiful daughter. I was also looking forward to cooking for them. I promised Tom I wouldn't make anything overly complicated or so very odd that we would end up having to scramble around for some crackers and frozen pie crust to feed our guests after one of my cooking mishaps and for the most part, I think I succeeded in keeping that promise.

The plan was to make a few appetizers, dinner, and then a couple of desserts for six adults and 2 children ( really three children but I'm not counting Ellie because she can't eat solids yet) to be consumed over the course of several hours as we casually chatted and caught up with each others lives. The snacking items I chose were gruyère cheese puffs (in the style of the French gougères ) although I didn't use an authentic French recipe, and sausage and leeks in puff pastry. Well, the gruyère cheese puffs were a bit of a let down, I'm not sure what happened, but they turned out WAY too salty and they didn't hold their puff once they were out of the oven. Since I’ve had them before at a friends house and deemed them quite good when done correctly I'll have to try making these again using a more traditional recipe one of these days. I’m just sorry they didn’t work out for this occasion. The sausage and leek in puff pastry ended up being sausage and leek empanadas because, and this seems hard to believe, the mega Price Chopper did not carry phyllo dough! The store is twenty seven hundred times the size of the supermarkets I'm used to shopping at in Manhattan, it has these quadruple wide aisles and endless miles of wonderful and interesting food items and yet they don't carry phyllo dough NOR did any of the floor staff I asked know what it was! Surprisingly, they did have frozen empanada skins, I say surprising because I thought phyllo dough was more common an item than empanada skins, but what did I know except that I was in a pinch and they were going to have to do. They turned out delicious and although I ended up frying them against my will (I wanted to bake them but they weren't browning in the oven the way I wanted them to) I walked away happy except for the nasty burn I got from the hot oil splashing up and taking out the last three fingers on my hand that had not yet been sliced open with our new SUPER sharp knives!

Dinner was a chicken and pork adobo served over white rice and black beans. This was my first adobo and I can't believe how easy it was. I had searched the internet for a recipe a few days before our dinner party, and found that except for a few variations the basic ingredients were the same, some sort of vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. Using those ingredients as guidelines I made up my own version that turned out quite well to my surprise.

I marinated 3 pounds of boned chicken thighs and 2 pounds of pork shoulder that had been cut into 1 inch cubes for 3 hours in 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, 8 crushed cloves of garlic, 5 bay leaves, 2 heaping teaspoons brown sugar, 1/2 cup water, a lot of fresh ground black pepper and 1 tablespoon corn oil. After 3 hours I put all that pork and chicken goodness into a pot, let it come to a boil then let it simmer slowly on the stove for 3 more hours so that the meat became tender and the sauce penetrated the meat with it's juicy goodness. It went really well with the rice and beans and probably would have tasted really good with the skillet cornbread I had planned on making and serving but never got around to. I'm sorry there's no picture, but I got lazy and decided I didn't feel like schlepping out the lights and camera for this one, so, boo on me. (hangs her head in shame)

I never did get a chance to make the desserts. I had planned a chocolate soufflé and a lemon sponge custard but I was working on little sleep and Ellie was about done with her napping and cuteness and was beginning to really make her presence known, so the desserts were forfeited for the sake of my sanity. Luckily one of our guests had brought a fruit tart so we were not entirely without sweets for after dinner.

Overall I had a nice time cooking for my friends, and hopefully they enjoyed what I cooked for them and will come back for another dinner get together soon.

In baby news, Ellie has begun to have more control over her facial muscles and she smiles much more now, especially when she's getting her mouth wiped after a spit-up or when she's getting her nappy changed...it's very cute.

Written by Deb on February 18, 2004 12:01 AM