I first got the idea of cooking a shoulder of pork over 24 hours like this from the second River Café Cookbook. My take on it is really a de-Italianized version. Any mixture of herbs or spices you want would do; this isn't a recipe so much as a suggestion.
Sort of a scrappy extramural stuffing, this is a warm mix of crispy, tender and chewy chunks of bread, moistened with vinaigrette and turkey drippings. It is a holiday variation on our traditional bread salad—I've substituted dried cranberries for the usual dried currants. Tasting as you make it is obligatory, and fun. I recommend you allow a little extra bread and vinaigrette the first time you make this recipe, so you can taste with impunity. For the best texture, use chewy, peasant-style bread with lots of big and little holes in the crumb. Such loaves are usually scaled at 1 or 2 pounds; plan on 1/4-pound bread per person. I don't use sourdough or levain type bread for this recipe, finding the sour flavor too strong and rich for this dish. And make sure to use day-old bread; fresh bread can make a soggy, doughy salad.
Eggplant gets kind of mushed up as it cooks in the hobo pack, which actually turns out to be a good quality, particularly if it’s getting mushed up with tomatoes and garlic.
Ingredients
1. Make Gravy Broth (can do a day ahead): After turkey goes into the oven, place the neck, giblets and wing tips in a 4 to 6-quart saucepan. Add 1 carrot, 1 stalk celery, 1 large onion, and 2 cloves garlic, all chopped. Cover by 2 inches with 1/2 bottle white wine (inexpensive sauvignon blanc, fumé blanc, or pinot grigio), 2 1/2 cups (20 ounces) canned chicken broth, and water as needed. Simmer, partially covered, 2 to 3 hours. Broth will reduce. Keep solids covered with a little liquid. When ready to start gravy, pour broth through a strainer into a bowl. Discard solids remaining in the strainer.
This recipe's inspiration was Chinese chef Susanna Food of Philadelphia. When we interviewed Susanna, we were struck by her lack of rigid culinary rules. She interprets the traditional Chinese palate with modern Western ingredients, boldly mixing balsamic vinegar with soy sauce, or rosemary with dried yellow soybeans. Surprises fill her books. For instance, did you know that fresh corn is used often in the northern regions of China?
With this recipe, the only thing you have to cook is the pasta. My cousin Edda makes it all summer long. This is the freshest, purest-tasting recipe I have found for a sauce of raw tomatoes and uncooked seasonings. You rub a bowl with garlic, dice up ripe tomatoes, leaving their skin and seeds intact, tear a few leaves of fresh herbs over the tomatoes, twirl in a thread of olive oil and finish with salt and pepper. Nothing could be easier, or taste better. In some country houses, you might find capers and oregano in the bowl, or hot pepper and crushed garlic, or mint or even celery leaves. Everything in this dish is about what the country cook has on hand.
Slightly reminiscent of paella, this aromatic chicken and rice is a favorite meal for Arlene DeMelo, a Portuguese home cook in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Because the chicken slowly absorbs its seasonings for 8 hours, you'll need to think ahead.
Sometimes if you cut a vegetable in a different fashion it will make it seem entirely new.