Making Sandwiches

beef-brisket-sandwich.jpg

The photo on the left is courtesy SiFu Renka. The beef brisket sandwich pictured is available at the Black Camel cafe across the street from the Rosedale subway station. I’ve been there. I’ve eaten the sandwich. And it is excellent.

I get e-mail about my blog, but I never thought I’d be asked to post recipes. However, here James J gives me a shout on my Facebook account:

You blogged about Pulled Pork this weekend.

Sounded very good; don’t supposed you would share the recipe?

Well, I don’t know if this recipe is particularly good, since I pulled it off the Internet before tinkering with it, but here’s what I do. I go to my local grocery store and buy about a $10 cut of pork shoulder or pork roast. I then take it home and give it a rub. My dry rub mixture is as follows:

2 Tbls salt
2 Tbls ground black pepper
1 Tbls cayenne pepper
1 Tbls paprika
1 Ts rosemary
Mix well.

I first coat the pork shoulder with honey mustard and (in yesterday’s case) maple syrup. I then sprinkle on the dry rub on all sides, rubbing it into the meat. I then place the meat on a baking pan on a bed of sliced onions, and put it in the oven at 250’F (note: not Celsius). I cook for about six hours.

I then remove the roast and cut it up, removing the fat and the rub crust. The remaining meat is shredded and placed on a pie plate. I then pour liberal amounts of vinegar and barbecue sauce (the one I like is President’s Choice stampede sauce) over the meat. Mix well, and place back in the oven at 375’F for thirty minutes. Then remove from oven and let cool a bit.

Take any sort of bun, scoop on the shredded meat and, if you like your sandwiches St. Louis style, a couple of spoonfuls of cole slaw. Pour on the barbecue sauce you used earlier, finish the sandwich, and eat! A $10 shoulder roast makes enough to serve four comfortably. You’ll need about twelve buns.

Now this is a lot simpler than those restaurants that marinate their meat for days or more, but I don’t pretend that my food is restaurant quality. However, does have a great recipe for a good Italian beef sandwich that’s she’s welcome to post in the comments. Anybody else?


Weathering the Storm

So, today was pretty bright and sunny, though we were still quite snowed in until the condo guys worked overtime and got all our driveways cleared. The snowbanks are now officially taller than Vivian.

I also notice that Toronto is approaching a century-long record of winter snow accumulation, but it too appears to be handling this storm well (the fact that it took place on a weekend probably helped). No calls to bring in the army, certainly.

And, you know, that is probably going to be the defining point separating current mayor David Miller with his excitable predecessor Mel Lastman. Here we are, facing a winter that’s as bad as the one in ‘99, and Miller is nowhere near a bunch of cameras, freaking out, shouting “I’m terrified! I’m terrified!” Instead, the business of the city is quietly getting done.

And given that the structural problems that dog this city are more pressing now than they were in 1999, that’s a benchmark. This is why I believe that David Miller is giving this city the best government that he can, and why this city is, frankly, receiving the best government that is possible, under the circumstances.

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