North Carolina

We've been looking forward to this meal for a while. Years ago, Marc and I lived in Maryland and several of his colleagues were transplants from North Carolina. Two gentlemen in particular--Willie Smith and Linwood Williams--knew where to find all the best food in the area. One day for lunch they went out for Carolina barbecue and promised Marc they would bring some back for him. Mr. Smith described the shredded pork and vinegar sauce and informed Marc that the sandwich would include cole slaw. Marc was not pleased--cole slaw, in the Midwest, is a side, not a sandwich topping. Not to mention, he doesn't even like mayonnaise.

But, Mr. Smith ignored his protests and told him to sit down and eat the sandwich. Marc talked of nothing else for days. In fact, I think that specific event may have been a turning point in his foodie career.

This is most certainly not a quick meal. It's an all day event for man and grill alike. The goal is to get a hunk of meat up to a temperature of 185 degrees as slowly as possible. As it cooks, it develops a deep smoky flavor and a crisp charred bark on the outside. Good stuff.


Start with a bone-in pork shoulder (this one was about 8 1/2 lbs), with a good, thick fat "cap" on one side. Generously season with salt and pepper. Heat charcoal and soaked hickory chips and try to maintain a temperature of about 225 degrees. Smoke the meat for 8 to 9 hours, replenishing the charcoal and chips every hour or so. Remove the meat from the grill and wrap well in foil to rest for about 45 minutes.

The shoulder blade should slide easily out of the roast:


Remove any excess fat, and finely chop the meat.


Finish with cider vinegar, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Use enough vinegar to thoroughly coat and moisten the meat.


Now for the slaw. Traditional Carolina slaw is not mayonnaise based (much to Marc's surprise years ago!). In the past, I've used this recipe, and it's very good. I've recently been converted to Rick Bayless's version, which is quicker to prepare:

Hickory House Sour Slaw
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 T dry sherry
1 T sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt

1/2 medium head green cabbage, shredded.

Blend the dressing ingredients with 2 T water and pour over shredded cabbage. Refrigerate for an hour before serving.


You'll noticed there are no "plate" pictures--I was in too much of a hurry to eat!

Lucy was initially skeptical, as she was not a big fan of the brisket we prepared for the Missouri meal. We assured her that this was nothing like brisket. She liked the slaw well enough to agree that this meal is pretty good. Maia also liked it, and was looking forward to concocting another Arkansas barbecue salad with the leftovers.

We (finally) got to draw our next four states: Alaska, Delaware, Nebraska and Colorado!

Missouri

It took us a while to decide what to eat for Missouri. I grew up near the Lake of the Ozarks, far from Kansas City and St Louis, each of which get a fair amount of attention for their food. Barbecue reigns in Kansas City and St Louis gave us toasted ravioli and some pretty tasty frozen custard. In the rural part of the state where I grew up, many people (including my family) regularly hunted. Wild rabbit, fried squirrel, dove and frog legs were not uncommon at our table. Now that I'm a city girl, these things are harder to come by.

We're always up for smoking a hunk of meat, so Kansas City barbecue it was. We had a brisket in our freezer from our favorite local grass-fed beef producer that was about 4 lbs. Marc smoked it for about 6 hours on a Saturday morning on the charcoal grill, keeping the temperature at around 225. The night before, he coated it with a blend of 2 T brown sugar, 2 T paprika, 1 T black pepper, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder and 1/2 tsp celery seed.


It turned out beautifully--the outside "bark" was nicely charred, but the inside was tender and juicy.

On the side, we served our now standard rosemary potatoes and this outstanding cole slaw from Rick Bayless:

Hickory House Sour Slaw
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 T dry cooking sherry
1 T sugar
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt

1/2 medium head of green cabbage
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Combine the first 6 ingredients along with 2 T water in a food processor and blend well. (Or, just chop the garlic very fine and blend well with a whisk). Thinly slice the cabbage. Blend cabbage, parsley and dressing in a large bowl. Refrigerate for about an hour before serving.

Lucy and I opted to construct sandwiches, Marc and Maia ate theirs on the plate with sauce.




I deviated from our state and built a "Carolina style" sandwich, with the coleslaw and sauce right on top.


Marc and I enjoyed this meal quite a bit. The girls, less so, but they powered through! Lucy said that the flavor wasn't too bad, but she didn't like the texture. We had quite a bit of leftovers, which were excellent both as thinly sliced, cold sandwiches and cubed and heated up with sauce.

Next stop: Ohio

Arkansas

Well, we considered heading down to the Wal-Mart and buying a big bag of Tyson chicken tenders for this meal. But, we figured that Arkansas must have some more interesting food traditions than big box stores and factory chicken!

My new favorite state cookbook suggested an Arkansas Barbecue Salad, which sounded like a pretty good idea to us. Basically, a chef's salad with lots of veggies, only instead of chicken or ham, you use slow, smoked pork barbecue for the meat. Conveniently, we had a boneless pork shoulder in the freezer that was just itching to be cooked.

We thought about using our slow cooker and some liquid smoke, which Marc's friend (and real-live chef) Tim said was perfectly acceptable. But, it was a lovely day out and we couldn't resist improving the crisp Fall air with the aroma of smoking hickory chips in our backyard.

Most recipes called for Iceberg lettuce, which I used along with some chopped Romaine. I also used up some of the stray vegetables in the fridge: radishes, blanched green beans, carrots, red pepper and tomatoes.



Our cookbook recommended using either barbecue sauce or your favorite dressing to top the salad. I put out our whole arsenal. Marc used bit of homemade vinaigrette (red wine vinegar, chopped garlic, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, sugar and fresh thyme blended with olive oil). Maia used ranch, I chose bleu cheese and Lucy continued to work her way through the bottle of honey barbecue sauce that I bought for our chicken wings last week.

I made everyone a separate salad, putting on their favorite veggies (Lucy prefers green beans to carrots, Maia doesn't like tomatoes, etc). This was a hit with everyone, and is a really good way to use up leftover bits of fresh meat and produce. The salty, smoky barbecue was great with the crisp, fresh lettuce and veggies.


I think I might incorporate a "salad night" into our regular repertoire.

We drew our next four destinations tonight: Oklahoma, Illinois, Kentucky and Washington!

Tennessee

"Here's to the United States of America, and to the founding fathers, who created this great nation, which we can now eat." So begins each of our state dinners--our "toast," now part of the ritual.

Tonight we went to Tennessee. We considered serving fried peanut-butter and banana sandwiches, ala Elvis--but decided to go with a classic Memphis barbeque instead. I've been looking forward to this meal all week! On the side, we served cornbread, fresh green beans and homemade refrigerator pickles, made with fresh ingredients from our CSA.

This is not a quick and easy meal, but the results are well worth the effort. We started this one at about 8:00 this morning by putting the dry rub on the ribs. Lucy mixed up the following ingredients:
1/8 cup paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon pepper.

You have to remove the silver skin from the underside of the ribs, get a sharp knife under one end and work it loose, it should peel off easily.

Marc was in charge of the grill, he started with a few handfuls of hickory wood chips that he soaked in water. He heated the grill and used an oven thermometer to keep the temperature between 225-275 degrees.

He smoked the ribs for about 3 hours, then let them rest, wrapped in foil for another 30 minutes.




Almost ready....















When the ribs "bend" like this, they're done.










This method makes the meat tender, with a dark, crispy bark on the outside.

Cornbread is a semi-regular side for us, here's my easy recipe:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
1 c yellow corn meal
1 c whole wheat flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 c sugar
1 c milk
2 tbsp olive oil
1 egg

mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients (milk, oil, egg) separately. Add wet to dry just before you put it in the prepared pan (see below).

As the oven comes up to temperature, put about 1 tbsp of butter in a 10 inch cast iron frying pan and put it in the oven. When the butter has melted, remove the pan and swirl the butter around, then pour batter into pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes

One of my favorite summer treats is refrigerator pickles, this dish seems to be a staple wherever there is a strong gardening tradition in the South and Midwest. Thinly slice one cucumber and one sweet onion (a fresh garden onion is best, storage onions will not taste as good here). Add about 3/4 cup of cider vinegar, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and a good handful of fresh dill. Refrigerate for a few hours to let the flavors blend. Enjoy!


This was pretty popular with everyone, except the refrigerator pickles which both kids found too sour. I remember hating these as a kid too, maybe someday they'll enjoy them. In true oppositional style, Maia preferred the tender meat of the ribs, Lucy liked the crispy outside. Like Jack Sprat and his wife, I suppose.

This meal ended our first week of the project, about which we all congratulated ourselves and declared it a success! We've been impatiently waiting for the opportunity to draw for next week's meal, so after we finished our ribs, we drew:
West Virginia, Montana, Georgia and Alabama.

The Janssen clan is embarking on a real roadtrip next week to South Dakota to visit Mount Rushmore. None of us has ever been there before, and we hope to catch all the good stuff along the way, too, including the Corn Palace and the musical instrument museum at the University of South Dakota. Hopefully, we'll get some good ideas for our South Dakota meal while we're there. We'll pick up on our dinners when we return.