Beer Braised pork butt

4-6lb pork butt (get it from the butcher)

3 Bottles Sam Adams Black Larger Beer

 ( you can use your favorite dark beer, like Guiness)

2 Cups red wine

½ cup Balsamic Vinegar

1 medium onion chopped

 2 cups carrots (either diced or you can use baby)

1 cup celery

1 clove garlic

2 sweet potatoes

6 baby red potatoes

2TBL spoon olive oil

Peel potatoes if you like, I usually don’t

Cut the red potatoes in half 3 times.. .so you have 8ths

Cut the sweet potatoes in to slices about ½ - ¾ “ thick

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

In your dutch oven, pour 1 TBL spoon olive oil

Sprinkle Ricks Meat mix over entire butt a brown pork butt on all four sides.

Remove the meat from the pan

Add remaining olive oil and Sauté the onion garlic and celery over med heat, once the onion becomes translucent, add half of the balsamic vinegar to the pan to deglaze it, using a wooden spoon, scrap the bottom of the pan to get any browning up, return the meat to the pan, pour the remaining balsamic vinegar over the pork butt,  pour in 2 ½ cans of Sam Adams Black Larger and then the 2 cups of red wine. What’s the ½ of bottle of beer for, well if you don’t know you can invite me over and I will show you or you can add it to the pot if you like… I usually don’t add it to the pot and I never waster a good Sam Adams beer, even ½ of one….. turn the heat to Hi and Bring to a boil, place  the cover on the pan and place the pan in  the  oven.. now any time you open this pan you need to open away from you so you don’t get a steam burn…ok, lay your hand on the table in front of you, keeping you palm down lift just your fingers off the table, that’s lifting away from you…ok, now

After 2 hrs, add the carrots

After another 15-20 mins, add all your potatoes

Wait another ½ hour and then check the meat for tenderness, it should almost fall apart, if not let it cook another ½ hr and then remove pan from oven.

Todays review,

Fiesta Mexican Restaurant

I went to Fiesta October 1^st, I had been dying to try them out,  ..  we were greeted right away when we walked in and seating immediately. Everyone was very and courteous. the restaurant was very clean and there was Mexican music playing softly and the décor was very well done. We were brought chips & Pico de Gallo which actually means roosters beak and if you can explain to me how or why that translates into a very freshly made almost salsa like condiment, I would be grateful.. but its not salsa, salsa is usually cooked, they really are different…. The pico was very fresh and had a great flavor, a little heat in the end , done very well

We had Enchiladas, we tried the chicken and the pork, I asked for the pork to be spicy, the chicken was for my 8 year old son so that wasn’t to be.. the waiter asked if we wanted my sons to be child’s enchilada, that would be great, now mind you, mine was 8.99, good price yes, when they brought our meals, they looked the same size to me. I had rice and beans with mine, Zack had fries… very nice crunchy not over cooked fries, my rice was very good, but the beans weren’t beans .. they were a puree’ .??? who puree’s beans  ?? the Pork Enchilada, had flavor, but not really spicy or calente’, the chicken Enchilada was very good, had plenty of flavor and just a little spice behind it.. I would eat more of those for sure.  Another critic said that the Carne esata was the best they ever had…Very tender meat and full of flavor.. I will be looking forward to trying that…

 Now for the hard part

 First I will go back again and see if they made a mistake on the sizes of the meals, the food was good, I wont have the beans again though

Ratings

Service 5 spatulas

Portion 3

Presentation that’s tough if it weren’t for the puree I would given them a 4 but 3

Cleanliness solid 5

Bang for the buck 3

For a total Cooking Ala Rick Spatula raing of 19 out of 25

I need a 2^nd visit to Fiesta and my guess is that the numbers will all go up .. my enchilada for 8.99, where another Mexican who we will review next week sells me 2 much larger ones for 2 dollars less.

Potato Pancakes

6 potatoes (russet or Idaho)

1 small onion (optional)

½ cup flour

1tsp salt

1tsp blk pepper

Veg oil for frying

Peel potatoes

Using a grater, grate the potatoes into a large bowl, you can use the fine or coarse side, but I prefer the fine, using the coarse side makes them more like a large hash brown instead of a potato pancake but, if you want hash browns .. then you can use the coarse side/// everyone has a different pref.

In a different bowl grate the onion

Drain of the excess water from the potatoes

Add the onion, salt and pepper 

Add the 2 beaten eggs

Using a wooden spoon mix them thru

Start adding the flour a little at a time mixing with your wooden spoon.. you should have the consistency of an oatmeal. Heat veg oil to med in your fry pan (again cast iron is the best)

Take about a tablespoon size dollop of the potato mixture and place in the hot oil taking care not to get burned by splatter.  Turn after a couple of mins and cook until both side are brown, remove from pil using a metal slotted spoon  and place on paper towel, If the pancake falls apart while cooking, add a little more flour to you mixture. Once on the paper towel you can sprinkle with salt and pepper or even some of rix meat mix. This is a good thing to do if you are just going to eat them with a little butter or maybe some sour cream but not if you  going to serve with apple sauce. Continue cooking pancakes in small batches until you have used all your batter. You can keep the batter in the ref for a day or so, but it may turn color.but you can add a squeeze of lemon to help that from happening… Believe it or not , sometimes when cooked the pancakes look blue… I am not sure what causes that, if you know please call or email me with the answer.

We used to have these for a meal, this was it.. when I first had them with my wife and kids, they were more like a side, what are we having with them. I asked what do you mean, they are the meal… I got a really strange look.. oh well.. and you can heat them up the next day (if they are any left) they’re still great.. and since they are so close to a hash brown, you can treat them like that and have them with your eggs.