Saturday shenanigans

Saturday morning, we headed over to the PRFM. I had pre-ordered some okra for pickling from McMullan Family Farms and some meat to pick up from Heritage Farms.

At Indian Ridge, Michael had four of these impressive hen of the woods or maitake mushrooms. I would be intimidated to buy a whole one! Michael had sliced them up, so we bought a couple of those.

Here's what we took home. Sunchokes, ginger, and hen of the woods from Indian Ridge. I also bought five bunches of radishes from McMullan with the intent to pickle them. As it turns out, you can only quick pickle radishes and they don't keep more than a month so I'll have to do one batch and probably just eat the rest.

And 10 lbs or so of okra from McMullan. It looks good!

From Heritage Farms, we bought this 10 lb bone-in Boston butt and two six-bone fresh pork racks or, as Greg calls them, bone-in tenderloins. Since they were fresh, I was able to break them down.

The pork racks look beautiful with a generous amount of creamy white fat. Beautiful!

I sliced up the racks the best I could. I had to cut through the bone, which was messy work involving a rather dull cleaver and the pounding side of a meat tenderizer. I think I should buy a sharper cleaver. It worked out to four 2-bone racks plus one that was 2 1/2 bones. We decided to have that one for dinner.

I frenched two of the racks but then decided not to do the rest since it was just meat that we paid for. We might as well eat it!

After prepping the pork and vacuum sealing it, I washed all the okra before letting it air dry.

I pickled it and then processed them. Eight quarts and five pints. A good amount! There is one batch where I wasn't sure if I balanced the brine properly. I sure hope I didn't screw up all the pickles...

I did not cut off any of the fat on the pork rack. I seared them on high heat before realizing how dark the caramelization was but it all turned out okay. It took a while to cook the pork and I took it out of the oven around 133, knowing that it would rise as it rested. The rack continued to darken and I eventually turned it over both to cook evenly and to brown the fat so it would be crispy and tasty.

It turned out quite well.

I cut the meat off the bones which meant just beautifully cooked meat with crunchy fat, and then these gorgeous bones to chomp on.

I sauteed the maitake mushrooms in olive oil and then topped it off with butter right before serving. They were meaty and good.

I cleaned the skins off the sunchokes, then boiled them until they were done. Then they got the food processor treatment with a bit of butter and milk plus salt and pepper. They are a pain to peel, but damn they are tasty.

Lastly, I made this succotash from the last of the okra, two baby zucchini, and some tomatoes. Light and tasty.

Not a bad day overall. And quite tasty.