use real butter

I had an extra vanilla chiffon cake from class and decided I’d use it for dessert this weekend when we had friends over for dinner. I normally like to work with chocolate despite my indifference toward it, but this time I wanted to try something orthogonal… something strawberry.

Originally I wanted to layer the cake with pastry cream and then frost in strawberry buttercream, but pastry cream can misbehave if it gets warm. I began the previous night washing the strawberries and setting them out to dry completely. First I wanted to do some garnishes, just for fun.

My Frasca review is up.

The pulled pork definitely gets better with age. The Carolina bbq sauce and the pork were good yesterday, but they weren’t like the bbq Jeremy and I had remembered. Today, it’s almost there. So I think the key is to make it ahead and let it mature for a couple of days… sort of like tiramisu or Brunswick stew – the flavors improve over time.

We had a crazy wind storm yesterday and this morning. Felt like winter again, except for the prolonged daylight hours and green grasses.

My class was terrific today. I got there a little early and enjoyed the chit chat with the chef and the other early students. Chef Will sent some beautiful rose and berry truffles to our class, so we passed those around at the start of the classroom session.

I inaugurated my Summer of BBQ today with southern pulled pork. Since the winds were insanely high, I had to slow cook in a low oven rather than slow cook in a low grill. First, I mixed the spices together for the rub. Paprika, chili, cayenne, cumin, salt, brown sugar, minced garlic, onion powder, and ground pepper. Grinding 1/4 cup of ground pepper doesn’t seem like much, until you actually grind it by hand.