Monday, February 18, 2008

Spicy pork and chili pepper goulash

My sister is a big fan of Jamie Oliver, I've bought her at least one or two if his cookbooks.
I never gave him much thought one way or another. When the new Iron Chef season kicked off on the Food Network I watched Oliver challenge Mario Battali. That show was basically a way for the Food Network to promote Oliver's new show, "Jamie at Home."

It's on a bit early for me so the only one I have caught was his chili and pepper show that I had set to record. The show is entertaining but the thing that bothers me about Oliver is that he doesn't work very clean. He doesn't wash his hands often and never seems to wipe anything down. It just bugs me.

But that was the episode where me made the Spicy Pork and Chili-Pepper Goulash. This was one where I watched it and said, "I'm going to make that."

This is the perfect one-pot meal. You'll want to sharpen up your knives because there's a lot of chopping involved but it's worth it. This this turned out excellent. I let it cook in the oven for four hours because I wasn't in a hurry. Also, the sour scream and lemon zest was a perfcet topping opening up another dimension of flavors.

It had a full flavor, but wasn't spicy at all, maybe a two on a ten scale. The one area I skimped on the recipe was the paprika. I didn't seek out a good smoked paprika beforehand, though I did look for one at the store. I ended up using what I had in my cabinet. A good paprika probably would have made this recipe even better.

I also enjoyed Oliver's method of preparing rice. Rice has long been a problem for me, I either overcook it or under cook it and never get it right and it pisses me off to no end. But his idea of boiling it and then steaming it was quick and easy and it turned out very well.

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