Semi-Family Style

Dinner for four on one big plate.  Maybe not as elegant as the ones at this place, but it worked out pretty well.  The salads would have been served communally too, but sadly when I pass around a bowl of salad with citrus segments everyone seems to wind up with greens and all those painstakingly removed segments get left at the behind.

What's under that mess of mushrooms (sauteed oysters from Killbuck Valley)?  Pork, of course.  What else would it possibly be?  That's some of it below:

Two big pork chops from New Creation.  Seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and Spanish paprika, seared in bacon fat, and finished up in a 425 oven.  Taken off the bone and sliced thickly for easy grabbing at the table.

And there's risotto.  Here's the rice is Vialone Nano (available locally at Gallucci's).  Better than carnaroli?  Not sure, but definitely better than the arborio I've gotten around here.  Made in the standard manner (sweated onion, rice added and briefly sauteed that with the onion, mix got drowned and boiled with a few glugs of wine, then cooked through with additions of hot chix stock).  In addition to a little butter and some parmesan, the risotto got finished with roasted acorn squash (still available from Covered Bridge at winter farmers markets).  Sweet and almost creamy, the addition of squash worked well and the color was nice to look at.  I think I liked the rice made with acorn squash more than the ubiquitous butternut variety.

Regarding that salad . . . .  Local hydro bib lettuce and non-local blood orange segments.  Dressed with a vinaigrette of blood orange juice, rice vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and honey.  The mustardless vinaigrette was pleasant change from the mustard bound stuff we usually eat around here.

Family style.  It's the new small plate.