Cooking a weekend dinner with Jim Beam and Elvis Presley
Cooking a weekend dinner with Jim Beam and Elvis Presley
What I am putting on the table for Labor Day Weekend
Beloved food friends,
I am sitting in my living room, a Jim Beam maple pecan pie in the oven, and Elvis is crooning to me. Okay, it’s not actually like I got him in a time machine, brought him in here with the Jordanaires, and the pecan pie in the oven is to feed them after band practice, but still — I am more of a fan of Elvis than a normal woman of my generation would feel.
To drink a glass of bourbon means one welcomes a kick. Bourbon is not for dancing on table tops, no. It’s for quiet contemplation of mendacity and moonlight.
Decades before I moved South, I tried to convince my sophisticated Generation X New Yorker friends to go with me on a pilgrimage to Tennessee to visit the Jack Daniels distillery, Listen to music at the Grand Ol’ Opry, then go on to Sun Records and Graceland. They laughed at me, especially since they could see I didn’t want to visit these places “ironically,” they way that they often did many things they considered kitsch. No, I am thoroughly charmed by the corny music, the overwrought jumpsuits, and the unstoppable pelvis of Elvis. And before I knew I loved Southern literature, Southern cuisine, or Southern hospitality, I knew I loved Southern Elvis. He sang on my clock radio when I was a little girl, “Are You lonesome Tonight” On an oldies radio station, and food friend, I was lonesome back then. He asked me if I were lonesome that night. I whispered yes in the dark. I felt seen.
Tonight, I thought I would honor the South I have come to love with a bourbon-infused and Elvis-soundtracked dinner. Have you SEEN the movie directed by Luhrmann? Seriously, have you seen it? It’s impressionistic, rather than documentary, but I kept asking myself HOW could someone outside of this country understand one of our great icons with such insight? As a carpetbagger to Southern icons, I shouldn’t ask this question. Here I am, making a Southern meal, which like Luhrmann’s film, is an impressionistic twist on the South.
It’s a holiday weekend. I felt like cooking with (and drinking a bit of) bourbon. Tonight, we are having pork chops marinated in Jim Beam and braised with pears, and in the oven, I have a Jim Beam molasses maple pecan pie. With these things, we’ll have baked potatoes with sour cream, biscuits out of a can and an arugula salad in a simple vinaigrette.
The first thing I did was to marinate my pork chops in a plastic bag. Strong alcohol marinades softens tough meat, kills bacteria if there is any, and if the strong alcohol is accompanied by dried herbs or seasonings, those seasonings soften and release their flavors into the meat. Here, I marinated these pork chops in Jim Beam with mustard seeds, dried whole cloves, salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic powder. I left it in that bag an hour. Had I been going to work today, I could have made the marinade in the morning, stuck the ingredients in the bag, left it in the fridge, and when I got back to work, my chops would have been fully flavored. Leaving it in a warmer place (like I did), makes the marinade work a little faster.
I love many foods that Southern folks make with sour mash whiskey and bourbon. Furthermore, I have been a fan of bourbon and sour mash whiskey as long as I have been a drinker. To drink a glass of bourbon means one welcomes a kick. Bourbon is not for dancing on table tops, no. It’s for quiet contemplation of mendacity and moonlight. Add mint and ice, maybe a little simple syrup, and one has a julep, a drink for a sad Southern woman who intends to smile.I am contemplating mendacity, but look at the moonlight! I am not sad. I am determined, if a little weary. Those things that stand against me and against good moral principles — by faith in Christ, I declare they are going down. Me, I am just sipping here, waiting for my pie to come out of the oven, listening to Elvis promise me that he is a hunk of burning love. I am prepared to believe him.
While sipping, I cut up my mirepoix. If you occasionally hear the term “mirepoix” on cooking shows but don’t know what it means, let me help you out. It’s a French tradition to add vegetables to a meat that is roasting, often with spirits or wine, in order to have the vegetables’ flavor steam into the meat so that the meal is more delicious. Having a mirepoix with pears is not typical of all regions of French cooking. The three traditional mirepoix vegetables in all French cooking are onions, carrots, and celery, largely because these are often in abundance in French vegetable gardens and épiceries. But any fruit or vegetable can infuse its flavors into a meat while roasting. Choose what you think would add a flavor you would like. Use your nose at the grocery store and imagine.
While I chopped, Elvis was singing “Viva Las Vegas,” and it’s amazing how he could make any song he ever sang sound like a masterpiece. That, in essence, is what Southern food often does. It takes humble ingredients and finds a noble flavor with which to imbue them. Pork chops are ordinary, but the world of flavors that culinary techniques can unlock in them renders them extraordinary. I know we are are in for an elegant meal, even though my pears were mushy when I added them to the mirepoix. I did that for two reasons:
All I had were mushy pears, and
Because I was roasting them with the hope of infusing their juices into the meat (along with the onions, carrots, and celery in the mirepoix), it was an ideal ingredient for the purpose.
Before I popped the chops in the oven, I browned them for a minute on each side. I fired up a high flame under a skillet, and I browned about a minute or two each side. I then put them on top of the mirepoix, and I poured the marinade in the bag over the whole of the ingredients. Note that if I had the slightest doubt my pork chops were very,very fresh, I would have tossed out the marinade and poured new bourbon into the pan instead.
I also made a bourbon molasses maple pecan pie. I have been trying to eat healthy, but it’s a holiday weekend. To me, nothing in the whole world tastes better than the combination of bourbon and molasses. It tastes like the lyrics of “Love Me Tender” if they were written on a scroll and given to me from God like the prophet Ezekiel received a scroll from God to eat. Elvis singing “Love Me Tender” isn’t holy, but it’s lovely, a hug in a breath, a nuzzle in a note. Bourbon and molasses, I love them tender(ly).
In my mixer, I poured a half cup of bourbon, a half cup of molasses, a half cup of maple syrup, added four eggs, a cup of sugar, a cup of pecans, a dash of salt and cinnamon, and beat this mixture, poured it into a crust. I baked it for an hour in my oven.
Timing for a pecan pie is tricky. It is best to take it out when the center wiggles ever so slightly but not a great deal. Once that center stops wiggling, the pie can burn quickly.
Meanwhile, I have been braising my brain with just a little bourbon. I am not drinking a julep. I like my bourbon decanted with water on the rocks. I don’t need a sweetness to it, as I like the dark flavors of the drink. I am sipping slowly, oh so slowly, not even finishing a low-ball glass in two hours. The point isn’t to get drunk. The point is to hear Elvis and imagine he’s close enough to throw me his scarf from around his neck, like he did to all those squealing grown-up women at his Vegas show. I smell pork roasting in with a bit of mustard seed and clove. I smell my wet dogs, who just went outside. I don’t smell Elvis, not that I would know how he smells, but I am sure that if I did catch his scent, I would know it.
Dinner is nearly ready. Elvis has left the building. My husband and I are here. The dogs are here. And as you read this, you are here. Have you sighted Elvis? I haven’t. I suppose we’ll have to start supper without him.
Tonight’s Bourbon-y and Elvis-background-music menu:
Arugula Salad with an oregano vinaigrette
Bourbon-marinated pork chops with pears and mirepoix vegetables
Baked potatoes
Bourbon and molasses pecan pie
SHOPPING LIST
Produce
1 container of arugula
2 potatoes
1 large onion
2 large carrots
1 celery
3 pears
1 bunch of parsley
Meat
4 bone-in pork chops.
Dairy
Eggs
Butter
A pie crust (of course, you can make your own, but I buy ready-made pie crusts as a rule)
Alcohol
1 pint of bourbon or sour mash whiskey (more than a pint for drinking — this is just for the cooking you see here)
Grocery
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
12 oz Chopped pecans (more if you like)
Molasses
Dark brown sugar
Granulated (white) sugar
Cinnamon
Dried oregano
Mustard seed
Dried whole cloves
Peppercorns
Garlic powder
The ingredients listed here would cost $112 at my grocery store today, and I would have much leftover if I bought these things today as listed. There is a good chance you have many of these ingredients already at home.
RECIPES
Arugula Salad with a simple oregano vinaigrette
1/2 box (or bunch) of arugula
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
Toss all the ingredients together and serve.
Bourbon-marinated pork chops roasted over a pears and mirepoix vegetables.
4 center-cut bone-in pork chops
For the marinade:
1 cup of bourbon
1 tsp. Dried whole cloves
1 tsp. Garlic powder
1 tsp. peppercorns
1 tsp. Mustard seeds
For the mirepoix:
3 pears, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 tbsp. Chopped parsley
Set the oven to 400 degrees.
Place the pork chops in a plastic bag or a bowl with the bourbon and the other ingredients for the marinade listed above. Make sure that all the chops are covered evenly with the bourbon so that all will marinate together evenly. Let them marinate for about an hour at room temperature (more if you like), or marinate them in the refrigerator for the better part of a day.
Mix the chopped pears, carrots, celery, and onion, and put them in a baking pan large enough to contain the four pork chops as well.
Using a griddle or a grill pan, place some oil and a little butter over a rather high flame. When the butter is completely melted, add the pork chops. Brown them on each side for 1-2 minutes.
Remove the pork chops from the griddle, and place them on top of the mirepoix vegetables in the baking pan. Pour in the liquid and herbs from the marinade bag. Add a pat of butter to the top of each of the pork chops. Sprinkle the whole with parsley.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil, and roast for about 30 minutes.
Baked Potatoes
I know this is quite a basic recipe, but for those who might be reading for whom this is a new attempt to cook, this is the simplest possible way to bake potatoes:
For each potato that you would like to bake, wrap it in foil. Set the oven to 400 degrees, and bake for an hour.
Note that you can put the baked potatoes in the same oven as the pork chops here.
Anne’s Bourbon Maple Molasses Pecan Pie
A pre-made pastry crust
1-2 cups of chopped pecans
1/2 cup of bourbon
1/2 cup of maple syrup
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of molasses
4 eggs
1 tsp. Salt
1 tbsp. Cinnamon
Preset the oven at 350 degrees
Roll out the pastry crust. Place it in the base of a pie pan.
Pour in the pecans into the pie crust. You will pour the other ingredients over them. Your pie crust base should be covered but not overflowing. My pie was 1 1/2 cups of pecans.
Break the eggs into a bowl. Add the molasses, sugars, syrup, bourbon, salt and cinnamon. Beat until consistent.
Pour the mixture over the pecans into the pie pan.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. If the pie is still too wiggly (you want it to be slightly moving but really not very much), add 10 minutes more. Repeat in 10 minute increments until the pie’s surface wiggles only a very slight amount. The timing of the cooking of pecan pie varies a good deal between ovens and even sometimes between pies. It is a moody pie, one might say.
Remove from the oven and let cool.