A Pie Party Potluck & Butternut Squash Jarlsberg Cheese Croquettes

When I first started blogging I had no idea about the amazing food blogging community that exists anywhere let alone right here in NYC.  I was also pleasantly surprised to discover the wonderful food enthusiasts on the stream of twitter feeds constantly sharing what they're eating and/or cooking.  I started reaching out to some of these people that live in the city, and the first two people I met in person through twitter were Ken and Jackie.  I met them for lunch over some delicious ramen at Ippudo in NYC.  An instant friendship was formed as we all share a passion for food.   We've been meeting up to eat for at least a year now.  These dynamic duos have hosted some awesome potlucks and meetups.  The latest Pie Party Potluck Live was inspired by a virtual pie party on twitter.  The idea is simple, just bring a pie, sweet or savory and you get to see old friends and meet new ones over some delicious pies.  My contribution was the Coconut Caramel Pulled Pork Empanadas.  As expected, the party was a smashing success.  There were over 60 pies in total.  I don't think I have eaten so many pies in a short few hours.  My intention was to try every pie, but once I started eating I realized it may be impossible to taste every pie.  I think Ken may be the only person that came close to trying every pie as he is an eating machine.  There are too many pies to list but out of all the pies I tasted, these are some of my favorites:

Ken's Bittersweet Chocolate Dulce De Leche Tart
Jackie's Cupboard Harvest Pie
Justin's Bacon and Corn Pie with Cornmeal Crust
Blondie and Browie's Doughnut Pie 
Lisa's Mini Concord Grape Pies
See this link for a list of all the pies that were just as delicious!

 

The pie party took place at the Rodeo Bar.  The space was perfect and the staff was extremely helpful.  The restaurant even sent us a tasting menu of some of their delicious food.  Other than thanking the awesome hosts, Ken and Jackie; they also worked with a variety of great sponsors that provided many wonderful door prizes.  I was lucky enough to win a baking set from Chicago Metallic.  I also received a wedge of Jarlsberg Cheese to come up with a recipe that included this delicious semi-soft part skim cow's milk cheese.

So this past week, I've been thinking about how I could incorporate this delicious cheese in a recipe.  This time my inspiration came from meeting my friend, Anna, whom I haven't seen in awhile at Casa Mono for dinner.  We had the Pumpkin Goat Cheese Croquettes, and I thought this may be a great way to use my Jarlsberg cheese.  So I decided to make Butternut Squash Jarlsberg Cheese Croquettes, and I'm so glad I did as they were so delicious.

Butternut Squash Jarlsberg Cheese Croquettes (Yield approx. 16 croquettes)
1 Butternut Squash (2 lb) (yield 2 cups)
2 oz of finely shredded Jarlsberg Cheese (1/4 cup)
16 pieces of whole fresh sage leaves
1 tsp of fresh sage (minced)
1/4 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes
1/4 cup of all purpose flour
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 cup of plain breadcrumbs
Salt for seasoning
2 cups of vegetable oil for frying

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Season with salt and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil.  Roast the squash in the oven for about 45 minutes until tender and easily pierce through with a fork.  Once the squash is cooked and cooled enough to handle, scoop the squash out with a spoon.  Then add the nutmeg, pepper flakes, taste and season with salt if necessary.  Finely shred the Jarlsberg cheese.  Pack a teaspoon of cheese and roll into a ball.  Cover the cheese with a tablespoon of butternut squash and roll into a ball.  The squash may be a little wet, but don't be discouraged if you have a little bit difficulty rolling it into a ball.  I assure you it'll be well worth the effort.  Set aside until all are assembled.  Then prepare the ingredients for a standard breading procedure.  Make sure to season the flour, egg and breadcrumbs with a little salt.  Also add the minced sage to the breadcrumbs.  Dust the croquette with a little flour, roll it in the egg then lightly cover with the breadcrumbs.  In the meantime heat the oil to 375 degrees for deep frying.  Once the oil reaches to 375 degrees, fry the sage leaves for a about 20 seconds until it's crispy and set aside.  Add the croquettes a few at a time, and fry until they turn golden brown.  Once the croquettes and sage leaves are done, season it with a little bit of salt at the end, then serve immediately.

 

 

I love the sweetness of the butternut squash along with the nuttiness of the Jarlsberg cheese.  The cheese melted beautifully inside the croquettes.  There is also the subtle spiciness of the red pepper.  The fried sage leaves also contain some peppery flavor, and eating the croquettes along with the fried sage leaves really adds a depth of flavor.  Now that butternut squash is in season, you should try this recipe with the delicious Jarlsberg cheese.

I was so glad to participate in the inaugural Pie Party Live Potluck and can't wait for the next pie party!  Thanks again Ken and Jackie for putting this wonderful event together.

Coconut Caramel Pulled Pork Empanadas

In my most recent post, I wrote about Marx Foods 100% grass fed beef, and when I visited their blog page, I noticed they started a new blogger recipe challenge.  This challenge looks really interesting as they send participating bloggers a sample of five random ingredients, and each must use two out of the five ingredients to make an original recipe.  As someone who is always up for a good challenge; especially when it comes to food, I thought I would throw my name into the hat and see what ingredients I'd end up with.  Days later, I got a package of these random ingredients: coconut sugar, auburn rice, juniper berries, Cacsabel chillies and crushed Guajillo chilies.  Right away I knew I would use one of the chilies since I love my food a little spicy; even though these chilies are very mild, I still want to use them to give the dish a little heat.  I then really want to make something with the coconut sugar, and thought it would be great if I could make a coconut caramel sauce in a savory dish.  At the same time, I'm thinking about a pie party that I'll be attending that is hosted by my friends Jackie and Ken.  This party's theme is to bring a pie either sweet or savory, and it could be any type of pies from tarts to hand pies, empanadas, etc.  So I thought somehow I would tie these ingredients to this pie event and create a recipe for the contest.  The pie party was held yesterday, and will be doing a future post on it at a later date.  So upon doing research on savory caramel sauce, I discovered a northern Vietnamese dish that braised pork belly with a caramel sauce.  I tested the recipe and even though the pork belly tasted great it was too fatty to be stuffed into a pie.  So I decided to slow roast a pork butt and make pulled pork empanadas with the caramel sauce.

 

Coconut Caramel Pulled Pork Empanadas
3-4 lbs of boneless pork butt
2 tsp of Chinese five-spice powder
5 stalks of scallions
6 pieces of ginger (1/4 in thick)
Salt and pepper

Coconut Caramel Sauce
1 1/2 cups of coconut sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of fish sauce
1 tbsp of crushed Guajillo chilies

Empanada Dough (Yield about 24-30)
3 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp of salt
1 stick of butter (4 oz) - small diced and keep cold
1/2 cup of ice water
2 eggs lightly beaten

For the pulled pork, preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Season the pork butt with Chinese five spice and generously season with salt and pepper.  Spread the scallions and ginger on the bottom of the roasting pan.  Place the seasoned pork on top of the herbs.  Cover and slow roast for 6-8 hours until the meat is falling off and easily pulled apart.  Reserve the meat for later use.  To prepare the sauce, add sugar and water in a heavy bottom sauce pan over moderately heat until the sugar is melted and the sugar begins to brown further and turns into caramel.  Slowly add the fish sauce and the Guajillo chilies.  Let it cook for a few more minutes and stir repeatedly.  Once the sauce is done, strain and combine it with the pull pork and set aside.  Prepare the empanada dough by combining the flour, salt and cold butter.  Rub the cold butter into the flour until it turns into a course meal consistency.  Then add the egg and ice water, knead the dough a few times until the dough comes together and shape into a round ball.  I used a food processor and pulse to combine as mentioned above until the dough came together.  Place the dough in the fridge and let it rest for at least an hour.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the dough in half and set one half on the side and cover with a damp cloth to prevent the dough from drying out while work on the first half.  Roll out the dough on a flour surfaced into a rectangular shape until the dough is nice and thin about 1/8 or an inch.  Using a 4 1/2 inch round mold or use a round take out container (that's what I used) and cut each piece out and set aside.  Once all the pieces are shaped, fill the dough with the pulled pork filling, be careful not to over stuff.  Brush the edge with egg wash and fold the dough in half to form a semicircle.  Seal the edge with a fork to create a decorative rim.  Brush the empanadas with egg wash and bake 30 minutes or until golden brown.

I love the sweetness of the coconut sugar caramel and the saltiness of the fish sauce.  The sauce added the moisture it needed for the pull pork so after baking it with the dough, it didn't dry out the filling.  The pulled pork is so delicious with this coconut caramel sauce that you could definitely eat it by itself or make a sandwich with your favorite bread.  Enjoy!