That pie for your friends is beautiful and so is your dinner.
How do you do your pork coppa steaks, with details if you don’t mind. I have tried a few and they were gorgeous raw but I feel like I let them down because they weren’t that great the way I prepared them. Yours looks amazing.
We’ve had several neighbors (one in her 90’s and one in her late 70’s) whose Thanksgiving plans were derailed by Covid concerns (all about grandchildren). This virus is not leaving us anytime soon. We shared our meal with an old friend - all of us are vaxxed, boosted and live reclusive lives.
We enjoyed another excellent dinner of our favorites, at Bloom in Verona, NJ, including short ribs, bulgogi with kimchi fried rice, shrimp with gochujang and wasabi aioli, escargot, bulgogi tacos, butternut squash soup, fried shishito peppers, and truffled fries. It all went great with an excellent Syrah.
These were about 2" thick and reasonably marbled, which helped. From eating I feel like there’s a lean side* and a side with more intramuscular fat, which is more succulent.
I already told you about the marinade. I took the steaks out about 20 minutes before cooking. At cook time, melted 1 Tbsp butter in a large non-stick skillet on MEDIUM heat. Misted the pan with canola oil as well. Then I cooked the pork on all sides, flipping about every 3 minutes, until I started getting temp readings around 130-135°F. Then let the meat rest before serving. I never raised the heat above medium and turned it to low for the final few minutes.
Hope that helps?
*ETA: I just read that the coppa is “a collection of muscles that is an extension of the loin that runs through the pork shoulder. When butchered, it has a barrel shape and is best suited for charcuterie or slow roasting. Being in the shoulder, it has a lot of fat, and it is a muscle that gets used a lot, resulting in more flavor. The tenderness has a lot to do with the quality, breed, fat content and diet of the animal.”
This makes sense - I felt like the leaner side was loin or similar to loin.
BF made açorda à alentejana - one of our favorites from Lisbon, a garlic, egg & stale bread soup. He makes an excellent version. Big glugs of good Portuguese olive oil. So delish. I had mostly broth with egg, asparagus, and a little of the tomato/olive salad. Giving the old tum a bit of a rest (after our usual fries brunch today!)
Lamb stew with kabocha squash, potatoes, carrots, chick peas, raisins, tomatoes in a mixture of coconut milk and lamb stock. Cardamom, fennel seeds, cumin, coriander, bay leafs and star anise as seasoning and finished with fresh mint, pomegranate seeds and a gremolata of almonds, parsley and orange zest.
After too many days of eating too much, and having a few last CSA veggies to use up, I decided to make a make a quick shakshuka for dinner. It included onions, Swiss chard, kale, roasted tomatoes, olives, a poached egg and topped with feta. Served with the obligatory potato latke for the first night of Chanukah. Sour cream added later.
Got the booster on Friday, I switched to another vaccine this time. Strange, got more effects than my first dose. So easy meals…
H got some guanciale a few days ago, I found some Pecorino in the fridge, with pepper and yolk, I made the traditional Carbonara for Saturday.
Sunday was truffle burrata with the last garden tomatoes and purple shiso.
Followed by braised pork roast with smoked paprika, green garden tomatoes, some can tomatoes, leek and chardonnay.
Love this, and another like for using a cardboard box to deliver!
Very clear broth, how did you make it?
it’s just plain water that you simmer garlic cloves in, cilantro sprigs, add a little salt, day old dried bread, drizzle a good amount of good olive oil, and a poached egg. you can poach the egg in the same water but it could make it cloudier. it’s really just a garlic broth.
Simple and good way to use dried bread. Thanks!
Tonight I transformed leftover turkey legs into ramen. Topped with some freshly poached chicken breast and chili oil. Really good for a cheap, quick meal. The star for me, though, was a CSA collard green slaw with a sweet, garlicky sesame-peanut dressing. 
(There should be an emoji with a heart for the tongue.)
Dessert was on theme:
Sticky caramelized shrimp, coconut rice. Radish kimchi, pickled carrots and turnips salad, rice vinegar and sesame oil dressing. The caramel could have been a little stickier, but after an incident where my cleaver stuck to the counter I erred on the side of caution. It was delicious.
Hard to see under all the stuff but this was a quinoa bowl with broccoli (roasted in the oven with olive oil, cumin, smoked paprika, tumeric), red pepper and chickpeas (sauteed with onions, garlic, ginger and a hint of cinnamon), topped with pickled cauliflower, granny smith apple, coriander, mint and drizzled with a tahini/lemon sauce
After eating turkey in some fashion for the past 5 days, I am so thankful! that today we ate pizza for dinner. It’s KA’s wonderful sourdough crust, topped with sundried tomato spread, sausage, onions, cherry peppers, artichokes and mozz. Totally hit the spot.
Your flavor combinations are so exciting!
That sounds great! 
The Instant Pot is such a great appliance for making a reasonably complex homemade broth quickly without smelling up the whole house!
that carbonara! that roast!! it all looks great.
my sister had the same problem, she had Pfizer originally and Moderna as a booster, and got sick (bad chills/aches/pains, lasted for about 18 hours) from the booster only. Hope you’re all better by now!
