Eating In

As the front page of the New York Times pointed out Sunday, food prices have gone through the roof causing riots in numerous countries, yet the Southern Gent must still eat and eat well, especially when he's entertaining. So, as restaurant prices go up and my grocery bill tries to catch up with my tailor bill, I'm increasingly dining in.

Slate published this article on the poor response of the food press to this culinary crisis, citing the expense of the recipes frequently published and the tendency of inexpensive meals to be gimmicky stunts. I'm afraid that I must concur with the learned authors of Slate. The culinary world in general responds poorly to rising costs. Simply put, foodies like to eat exotic and expensive food. It's a status thing. It's a matter of keeping up with the Jonses, but imagine that the Joneses all shop exclusively at Dean and DeLuca. In response to that, I've decided to occasionally post a recipe that can be made inexpensively and easily.

Today's offering is:

Tea-Braised Pork Loin with Brussels Sprouts and Apples. (Serves 2)
Reccomended Wines: Benton Lane Pinot Noir, Oregon ($25), Nicolas Potel Santenay, France ($28), Leo Hillinger Burgenland Zweigelt, Austria ($18)

This is probably one of the best and most reliably inexpensive recipes I know. The Brussels sprouts can be readily replaced with sautéed shitake mushrooms, wilted spinach, or some other simple accoutrement. Boysenberry chutney works well. I serve this when I'm really in the mood for a steakhouse dinner but not the steakhouse tab. If someone you're entertaining doesn't eat pork, this can work well with a skin-on chicken breast.

Ingredients:
2 pork loin chops
3 red creamer potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
20 Brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved
1/4 cup walnuts, crushed
2 tbsp. grapeseed or canola oil
4 tbsp. butter
1/8 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. finely ground black tea*
sea salt
pepper

* You can cheat by simply opening up a decent black tea bag or two, I use Taylor's of Harrowgate because that's what I drink in the mornings.

This recipe has three basic parts: The meat, an apple-potato puree, and the sprouts. Make the puree first because it can be reheated in the microwave before plating, then par-boil the Brussels sprouts, then cook the meat, and while the meat is in the oven, finish the sprouts.

Puree:
1) In a 4 qt. or larger saucepan boil water and add salt until the water is "as salty as the sea". (Undersalting is better than oversalting.) Add potatoes and apples and cook on high heat until both can be pierced with a fork without significant resistance.

2) Strain off the water and put the potatoes and apples into a food processor or blender with 2 tbsp. butter and the heavy cream.

3) Puree. (If you undersalted, here's where to add more, but be careful. Remember that salt has a cumulative effect in the mouth, so when you're just tasting you want it to seem a little undersalted.)

4) Pour the puree into a microwave-safe bowl and set aside.

Par-Boiling the Sprouts:

1) Prepare a large bowl with ice and water. (Ice bath)

2) Repeat step one from the above using the Brussels sprouts.

3) When the sprouts are bright green and can be pierced with a fork take them out and put them into the ice bath to stop the cooking. Strain off and set aside in a bowl.

Meat:

1) Salt the pork on both sides with sea salt (I prefer the crystals.), and then dust liberally with a mixture of the chili powder, tea, and pepper.

2) In a sauté pan on high, heat 2 tbsp of oil (grapeseed or canola has the best smoke point) and preheat the oven to 400. Add the chops.

3) Turn them repeatedly until they brown on both sides.

4) Transfer to oven to finish cooking. (They're done when a meat thermometer reads 160. You might get by with lower temperatures (I do.), but for liability reasons I won't endorse anything lower as safe.

*Note: If substituting a chicken breast, the thermometer should read 170, and you should leave the skin side down when in the oven.

Microwave the Puree:

Pop this in the microwave for 30 seconds or so if it's gotten cold.

Brussels Sprouts:

1) In a sauté pan on high, heat a tablespoon of oil.

2) Add the sprouts turning as many of them as possible flat-side down.

3) Quickly add the walnuts and after giving them just a moment to begin to brown, remove from heat, add 1 tbsp. of butter and more salt (if needed). Then return to an eye with medium heat.

4) This is where you want slide the pan rapidly back and forth to keep anything from sticking or burning. Using a wooden spoon or tongs stir the sprouts to ensure that they heat evenly. They should be done in mere moments. Remove from heat.

Plating:

With a large spoon put a large dollop of puree on each plate. Swirl with a spoon to flatten it. Place the meat in the center of the puree, either whole or sliced. Pile the sprouts onto the meat allowing them to flow onto the rest of the plate. Crack pepper over the whole thing and serve.

Take the Wind Out of the Sails

The single biggest problem with the clothes that most men wear is that they simply don't fit. Let's be quite clear about this. Your clothes, directly off the rack, almost certainly fit like shopping bags. The most common example is the shirt. When you put on that shirt from Brooks Brothers, Banana Republic, or Thomas Pink, why does it have the same big bulge of fabric in the back that looks as though you could lie face down in a body of water and catch a lift from the prevailing westerlies? Why does it fit like you bought it at Wal-Mart? Because shirt makers, even designer shirt makers, presume that you are a bit on the chubby side. If you are a bit on the chubby side, then you probably notice that to get a shirt that fits around the waist you have to get one that's a bit loose in the shoulders. For the latter problem, you may simply need to have your shirts made for you (Bespoke shirts usually run between $150 and $600.), but for the former there is reasonable help.

Inquire about the store's tailor. Virtually all stores that sell quality menswear have tailors on staff or outsource to a good local shop. Simply have the shirt fitted to you and snip away all that extra fabric. If you're a beanpole like me, then you'll want the shirt fitted at both seams along the back and along the sleeves. Shops will not usually advertise this service overtly for one simple reason. It's a pain in the ass for the tailor. Having bought shirts at numerous high-quality, off-the-rack stores I cannot remember a single time when the services of a tailor were offered for shirts. Shirt seams are not only sewn together, but are also sealed with glue requiring a lot of time consuming and tedious work for people performing alterations. This is, however, a necessity for your shirts to fit properly.

Many shops offer a "slim fit" shirt to suit skinny guys. These are rarely all that fitted, and worse, they usually limit the number of styles this shirt comes in. You might be limited to barrel cuffs or point collars, and if you have this tailored you'll be creating the same amount of work for the tailor. Unless the slim-fit comes in a style that you specifically want, just pick the features that you want (cut-a-way collar, French cuffs, long tails, etc.), and have it tailored to fit.

Tailors, loathe to perform this service, might know a secret bespoke tailor which they will tell you about in lieu of tailoring all of your shirts. This happened to me once recently. I was quietly informed of a Chinese immigrant tailor who made shirts at his boss's shop for $40 a pop plus the cost of fabric. Sometimes these guys are good, and sometimes they're not. When I check into this guy, you'll get a report here.

One last tip: Always shop at a store that offers shirts sized by collar and sleeve length. The sizes will read something like 15.5/33. If you wear barrel cuffs you'll want to show about 1/4 - 1/2 inch beneath the cuff of the jacket. If you wear French cuffs (unless you're shy) go ahead and add an inch to the sleeve length.