Saturday night we had the annual Cherry Creek Chorale picnic. I’ve been in charge of this event now for six or seven years and every one has been a learning experience. This year, as for every one except the first three, we’ve had the event at someone’s house and those people did the setup and drinks. Whew! The first picnic I did was pretty traumatic, back six or seven years ago, as it was held at a park. The amount of schlepping we did was a sight to behold. I said, “No more of this!” So for the next two years we had it at our house, which cut down on the schlepping but meant that we had to do the setup. We borrowed tables and chairs from our church and I made most of the food. It was totally exhausting and totally rewarding. But then I was ready to have someone else host it, and for two years we had it at a big house out in the country. That was so much better! All (all) I had to do that first year there was to make pretty much all of the food. A few people brought appetizers or salad, but I didn’t really ask them to. The second year I wised up a little and had people sign up to bring desserts. This year we had it at a suburban house with a lovely back yard, which the owners (a member of the Chorale and her husband) labored diligently to make into something that felt like a resort. Because we had some last-minute cancellations due to illness and other issues, there was enough room for everyone to be out there. It was great! And I had people sign up for salads as well as desserts. I brought barbecued pork and chicken, rolls, and pasta salad with a vegetarian and non-vegetarian (containing salami) version.
And you know what? I didn’t need to make the pasta salad, even though, if I do say so myself, I make a pretty mean one. People raved over it. I had quite a bit left over since other people were so generous with bringing stuff, and pasta salad can’t be frozen. (I just went on an Internet dive to confirm this.) We’ll eat up as much as we can before we leave on a trip Friday and then I guess I’ll have to toss it. Too bad! But there it is.
I didn’t do too badly with the meat; if we’d had everyone who rsvp’d then there wouldn’t have been all that much left over, and there are now several packages of each in the freezer. I need to be sure to use them up within the next month or so, though. Cooked meat doesn’t do well with long-term freezing. We bought way too many rolls (I opted out of making my own, as I said in the previous post), as most people just ate the meat on its own, but they’re also in the freezer and are going to get turned into breadcrumbs.
Let me include how I make pasta salad and also some helpful hints on making pulled pork. First, the salad: I use cheese tortellini instead of plain pasta. Years ago I had this brainstorm because I thought regular pasta salad (which is a distant cousin of the old macaroni salad) was so boring. We were fans at our house of the frozen cheese tortellini that they sold at our warehouse club, and I decided to try it in salad. Everyone was so amazed! (Plus, my adorable toddler had an adorable way of saying the word: “tortewini.”) There’s no set recipe, but I say, based on my most recent experience, that you should be very conservative in how much you make because people can only eat a few of the honkin’ cheese-filled thingies. I’m going to say that you start with one ounce of uncooked dried pasta per person or two ounces of the fresh per person if the salad is going to be served without a lot of other dishes. The add-ins plus dressing should add half again as much, giving you three ounces per person. But if your lovely salad is just one of many I’d cut that amount in half. You could, if practical, make up only a portion of the salad, keeping the additional ingredients for more servings separate. For the dressing you want something very robustly flavored and not too oily.
So I’m going to give some general guidelines here:
Use cheese tortellini, fresh or dried, as your pasta if you want something a little different from the run of the mill. Otherwise, fusilli is good because it traps the dressing, and you can then use cubed mozzarella cheese to make up for the plain pasta. Count the tortellini, or the plain pasta + cheese, as one ingredient. For each pound of this ingredient you want at least half a pound of other ingredients, which might include:
Chopped red onion (You do need some type of onion; red is the prettiest.)
Chopped/sliced black or Kalamata olives (Black olives from a can don’t have much taste, but they lend a meaty texture and look nice. Kalamatas are much more flavorful but also more expensive. You can usually get them at Costco in a big deli container, but if you know you won’t use them very often you’re probably better off buying a small jar or container from the deli at the regular grocery store.)
Chopped red and/or green peppers. (I had some poblano peppers that I used; they added a subtle kick.)
Grated Parmesan cheese
Sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped (These are so good! But if you buy them at the regular grocery store they’re insanely expensive. I get the big jar of oil-packed ones at Costco. Just be aware that you need to refrigerate them after opening and the oil solidifies, so you need to take out your portion and let it sit in a paper-towel-lined strainer over a bowl to get off the excess oil. Press them with another paper towel before you chop them.)
Thinly-sliced salami or pepperoni, cut into smaller pieces if the slices are larger than bite-sized (Leave out this ingredient, of course, if you want to make the salad vegetarian.)
Chopped parsley
Capers, drained and rinsed, chopped if large (These are briny and pickle-y, not to everyone’s taste, but I like them!)
Arugula or other greens such as basil, or a combination of both (I mention this option only because America’s Test Kitchen includes it in their pasta salad; I think it sounds gross, as the greens would get slimy if they sat in the salad for any length of time. You’d have to serve it at once, and pasta salad is so often a picnic food that I just don’t understand this idea. But if you’re able to mix up your salad at the last minute it would be very good, I think, if only for about five minutes.)
Pepperoncini, finely minced (Another ATK idea that I didn’t use, although I had a few mild pepper rings that I threw in–I don’t think you need this item plus capers plus Kalamata olives plus anchovies in the dressing. At some point it just gets to be too much!)
For the dressing:
You don’t want to be subtle here! I’d use a 2:1 ratio of oil to vinegar, with a big tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1-2 cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, and a teaspoon of anchovies (I buy the paste in the tube; it keeps forever) for each cup of oil. You probably don’t need any salt. Whiz up in a blender; with that much mustard it should emulsify well without any of the egg or gelatin that I use in my regular salad dressings. Toss the pasta with half the dressing (this is very much by eye) after it has cooled. If at all possible keep the rest of the dressing back along with your mix-ins and toss the whole thing together on site. As pasta salad sits it absorbs the dressing, and while that doesn’t have to be a deal breaker (Lindsay Ostrum over at Pinch of Yum says that she likes her pasta salad better the next day), I like it best when it still has visible dressing. But the exigencies of the occasion may militate against that. So just do what you can, perhaps saving back just a little of the dressing at least to drizzle on at the last minute, tossing it as well as you can as the ravening hordes pour in the door.
Since this post is running really long, let me just briefly say that for the barbecued chicken I just shredded/cut up the nice Costco packaged deli chicken meat and put it in a pan with some barbecue sauce drizzled over the top, covered the pan with foil, and heated it up in a low even. For the pulled pork I put on a rub that wasn’t all that successful because it was too thick and just sat on top of the meat. (I sort of followed this Smitten Kitchen recipe but cut way down on the salt and didn’t bother with the weirdly vinegary-y “mop sauce.”) Next time I make this item I’m going to cut the pork shoulder into smaller pieces—no more than a pound each–which will accomplish three things: 1) the rub will be able to penetrate the meat better, 2) there will be less work on the other end with all the shredding, and 3) the meat will cook faster and can be done at a lower temperature. The rub I’ve come up with is very simple and very much to taste: equal parts cumin, salt (coarse salt; use half that for fine table salt), smoked paprika, chili powder, brown sugar, and taco seasoning. Rub a thin layer on all surfaces of your meat. Roast covered at 3000 for an hour or so, then turn down to 2750 and roast for another couple of hours. There are recipes out there that talk about getting the skin crispy, but the pork shoulders I buy don’t have any skin, and roasting uncovered can dry out the meat. At the three-hour point you should be able to start shredding. But give yourself some leeway here, allowing at least one extra hour in case things haven’t progressed to the proper stage. There’s nothing worse than realizing when it’s too late that the meat isn’t quite shreddable!
Okay. Enough for now. I didn’t get the post out very quickly after the picnic, but perhaps these ideas will be helpful for your Labor Day cookout if you’re still in the valley of decision. On to fall!