Bourbon Peppercorn Cream Sauce

One way to turn a good steak into a great steak is with an awesome sauce!  Bearnaise and Hollandaise sauces grace many a table at fine steak houses to complement Filet Mignon and Ribeye, Prime Rib is always a little better with an excellent horseradish sauce, and for my money, a hearty New York Strip is heavenly amazing with a fine Cabernet Sauvignon and a velvety Peppercorn Cream sauce!  Let's get started...

You Will Need:

• 1/4 Stick butter
• 1/4 Cup finely diced shallots
• 8oz Good Bourbon
• 3 Cups low sodium chicken stock
• 4 Sprigs FRESH thyme
• 2 Cups heavy cream
• 2 tsp. freshly cracked black peppercorns
• 2 tsp. whole peppercorns
• 1/2 oz. Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Ok, melt your butter in a large non-stick sauce pan and sweat your Shallots.  Remember, when sweating, you want to see little bubbles but you don't want to hear a loud "sizzle!"  Sweat the Shallots for 5 minutes.

Take your 8oz of Bourbon and pour half of it into a good glass with a few ice cubes.  This is for you to sip on while you stand there stirring the sauce.  Turn up the heat to Medium High, and take the remaining 4oz of Bourbon, and pour it over your Shallots, stirring until the mixture reduces by about 1/2.  This should take about 3 mins.  Shallots, Garlic, and Onions are all packed with alcohol soluble flavors, so do not skip this step unless you have a deadly allergy to booze!

Now pour in the Chicken Stock and add the Thyme.  Stir until it has a nice boil, and then leave it alone, glancing over at it every now and again to make sure it's not boiling over, and let it reduce by half.  This should take 20-30 minutes! 

While the sauce reduces, turn your attention to your peppercorns.  Take 2tsp of peppercorns and place them into a plastic sandwich bag.  Give the bag a few sturdy WHACKS with a mallet to crack them up.  You don't want pulverized pepper powder here, you're going for a "rough chop" of sorts.

Once your sauce has reduced, use some tongs to remove the Thyme sprigs, and add the cream and the crushed peppercorns.  Reduce the heat until you get what I like to call a "firm simmer" (obvious bubbling, but not a rolling boil, see photo on left).  Let it simmer, stirring often, until the mixture reduces to about 2 cups and is slightly thicker than cream.

While you're waiting/stirring the sauce as it thickens, have another sip of your Bourbon and prepare the final mix for the sauce.  Whisk together the mustard, Worcestershire, lemon juice and the remaining 2tsp of whole peppercorns.  Set it aside and grate your cheese. 

Here's what 1/2oz of ungrated Parm looks like.  Grate it into a little pile and sprinkle the pile over the sauce as it thickens.  Stir it in, and continue to reduce the sauce.

Near the very end, when the sauce is juuuust about as thick as you want it, add the whisked ingredients and stir them in.  The sauce should certainly coat and stick to the back of a spoon!

If you make this sauce ahead of time (I highly encourage it because when you're grilling steaks, your focus should be on the steak and not the sauce), you can store it for hours in a clean stainless steel thermos.  Don't use a cheap plastic one because plastic holds onto flavors like "coffee" and you don't want that in your sauce!  Ignore the empty Bourbon decanter in this picture... that was a personal tragedy that required an entirely different effort to solve.  Just remember to pour the sauce into a gravy boat or something before you serve it.  Pouring sauce out of a thermos bottle at a well set table is not exactly, "Fancy!"

Corn Polenta Pulled Pork Tacos!

When I make pulled pork, I make a LOT of pulled pork!  This usually leaves me (or my customers) with some leftovers.  This explains why I hear the question, "What do you do with your leftover pulled pork?" asked a lot!  Today, I am presenting a simple, yet delicious way to present your leftover BBQ pork as if it were a brand new dish.  I present to you, the Pulled Pork and Polenta taco!

Old, made NEW

Polenta is incredibly versatile!  You can serve it creamy, or you can fry it into fritters and serve your pork on top of it, like a crunchy cornbread tostada!  This recipe will make a large batch of basic corn polenta.  If you want the fried fritter version, just park this recipe in your fridge overnight, then cut and fry your fritters the next day.

You Will Need:

• 1 large "Blurp" of Olive Oil
• 1 medium yellow or red onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup coarse ground yellow cornmeal.
• 1/2 stick butter.
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• 2oz grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (the good stuff.  It should not say, "Kraft" on the label)
• 1 bundle green onions finely diced
• 1 oven, pre-heated to 350 degrees F 

We'll begin by sweating the onion and garlic in olive oil, in a large pan on the stove.  What's a "Sweat" vs a "Saute?"  Heat!  If you hear hot sizzling, you're sauteing.  Turn the heat down to Medium and let the oil bubble very slowly while onion and garlic take a nice sweaty sauna.  Leave them in there for at least 5 minutes.

Add some salt and pepper and stir things around.  If the onions are soft and you smell the garlic, it's time to move to the next step and pour on your Chicken Stock.  Bring the whole mess up to a quick boil, then reduce it to a bubbly simmer.

When your stock is bubbling, it's time to add the cornmeal.  Do NOT dump it in all at once!  Cornmeal grains are like Freshman at a college party.  If you bus them in to your party all at once, they'll get frightened and huddle and cling together in a lump and they won't help your party at all.  The trick is to sprinkle them in slowly, letting them each get surrounded by a flavorful liquid, individually, while you stir the mix.  Before you know it, they'll start dancing in the simmer and the party will be nice and thick, with everyone having a great time!

Once all of the cornmeal is stirred in and the mix is nice and creamy, put the lid on the pot and slide it into your oven (pre-heated to 350F, remember?) for 40 minutes.  Every ten minutes, reach in (with gloves) to remove the lid and give it a stir.

While the polenta is in the oven, chop your onions and grate your cheese.  You should weigh the cheese on a kitchen scale because 2oz of Parm is more than you think!  This picture shows exactly 2oz of great Parmigiano grated in a bowl, sitting next to 1 cup of yellow cornmeal.  See?  Quite a handful!

When your 40 minutes are up, remove the polenta from the oven and stir in the butter.  Stir and stir until the butter melts and is fully incorporated.  Give it a taste at this point, it should taste like it needs just a little bit of salt.  Do NOT add salt yet... the Parm is coming!

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is a remarkable thing (no, not the shit in the green can, I'm talking about the stuff you pay $20/lb for from your cheese monger).  It will bring more creaminess and more "salty" than you might imagine.  Add your green onions and Parm.  Stir it all together while the cheese breaks down and moves into the dish with everyone else. 

After a final stir, it will be ready to eat!  NOW is the time to adjust for any seasoning.  It's good, right?  Better than grits, and good enough to stand on its own!

This stuff is incredibly versatile, and it goes so well with pork!  Add a bit of sugar, and it makes an amazing side dish on it's own.  Spread it out on a flour tortilla and stack on some pulled pork, fresh salsa, and some Cilantro!  Roll it into a street taco, or (my favorite), cut a round or square portion of polenta after it cools in the fridge, and fry it like a pancake until it develops a crispy brown crust.  Stack a generous pile of pork and maybe some avocado cream and fresh pico de gallo on top?  HOOOO boy, it doesn't get much better than that!!