I’m Here... But Holdin’ and Making Rillettes

Tech challenges continue, plus I’ve been busy both with the January Magazine end of year features and the re-imagining of the January main page as a blog. This is a move we’d planned for some time. We did it partly to be able to offer our readers more news-type information and partly because the energy that has infused the Rap Sheet since we moved it to blogger has been so incredible, it seemed a logical next move to do the same on the main site. My thoughts on the change are here. The reason we’re doing it right this second (rather than waiting until after the holiday cookies and turkey have been digested) has more than I’d care to admit to do with my hardware woes. And, I dunno... there’s never a right time for a big change like this, but after doing it that other way for almost a decade, it felt time for a really big change. (So it’s givin’ me a headache. So I’ll live.)

Another huge news break: I currently have a big ol’ batch of rillettes on the stove. (For those who are interested in such things, the recipe is from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, a big favorite of mine.) In case you don’t know what rillettes are... first, if you’re a vegetarian, plug your ears or just move on out of here. You don’t wanna know this. Rillettes are like the very opposite of vegetarian food. For the right people (the wrong people?) the very thought of rillettes can start making your arteries harden. I love ’em (and thus far my arteries are keeping their own counsel).

Rillettes are essentially pork fat with pork, spread on toast. In Bourdain’s words from the book, “It gets right to the heart of what’s good: pork, pork fat, salt, and pepper. Easy and cheap to make, it’s one of the great casual starters of all time .... Rillettes is something you serve your friends -- and people you already know you like.”

(Vegetarians still averting your eyes? Good. Keep doing so.) Basically, you take a bunch of pork, cube it roughly, throw it into your Le Creuset (or other heavy bottomed pan) along with a bouquet garni, salt, pepper and water and cook it for about six hours. After it’s cooked -- and you can tell when it is -- you shred the pork, then put it into small containers. I use small ramekins, which I warm slightly then up-end on the center of a small plate to serve. This way I can keep serving brand new rillettes throughout the holidays.

In the shredding part of his recipe, Bourdain sez, “Feel free to shovel a little still-warm pork into your face. C’mon. You know you want it.”

(Vegetarians can look now.)

Anyhoo... this posting was not meant to be a book review or a cooking lesson, rather just a bit of an update to let you know I hadn’t totally been eaten up by my new computer. (Just partially.)

I gotta tell you: I’m convinced 2007 is gonna be terrific.

Hope you’re enjoying your holiday!