BBQ Sides

The famous Club Yankeelov (aka "The Club") came over for dinner tonight and Todd BBQ'd a pork shoulder. I find it hard to pair healthy foods with BBQ. It just cries out for deep fried sides and/or lots of starch. However, I had to try for a healthy starter and sides so that we could splurge a little on dessert. Given that 7-month old Lexie the Great was coming to dinner as well, I knew that dinner would not be a long drawn out affair.  So, a quick simple appetizer, healthy-ish main course, and a satisfying chocolate-y dessert (The Club loves chocolate!) were in order for the menu.

For the appetizer I settled on dried apricot halves slathered with a little goat cheese (I used blue goat cheese for half of them and a French chèvre coated with dried tarragon for the other half), and I topped each with a roasted Marcona almond and drizzled them with a touch of honey. Inspiration came from a recent Sunset Magazine. The ingredients make all the difference in this little morsel.  If you can, use Blenheim variety dried apricots. They are the best apricot for eating outright. If you were going to cook apricots I might suggest something else, but for eating out of the bag I haven't found any dried apricot better than the Blenheim variety I buy at Trader Joe's, well, other than those my Grandmother dried from her own little tree that she rescued from the cherry orchard.  Use high quality goat cheese (good French chèvre is unbelievable - you could mix it with a little fresh basil or thyme if you have a plain variety).  Only use Marcona almonds - luckily these are fairly easy to find now.  I've seen them at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and even Costco. Yes, they cost more than regular almonds, but they are totally worth it.  Regular run of the mill apricots, almonds, or goat cheese will just not be the same experience.

For the sides, I made a double salad.  The bottom layer was a stripped down spinach salad with a roasted garlic and smoked paprika caesar dressing.  The top was a roasted corn, Vidalia onion, basil and cherry tomato salad layer (in the most recent, July 2011, Sunset Magazine).  Along with the BBQ'd pork and buns, it was a fairly light meal as BBQ goes.

To finish the meal we had crepes stuffed with peanut butter & chocolate (a la "Reeses") topped with vanilla bean ice cream.  The stuffing was made with a little creamy peanut butter mixed with grated Mexican chocolate (yes, the stuff you melt in milk to make hot chocolate - "Ibarra" is a common variety). I used about 2 Tablespoons peanut butter to 1/3 cup grated chocolate.  Microplane the chocolate before mixing with the peanut butter.  Because the chocolate has an almost gritty sugar texture, the filling ends up having a slight crunch to it.  Mmmm. 'Twas good. However, if that crunch doesn't appeal to you just - your favorite chocolate instead.  If you need a good crepe recipe, French Classics Made Easy has a good one with detailed drawings and instructions (although it neglects the "always throw out the first" one rule).

That's my menu planning for the week!