Cooking with Kids – Chef Nathanial Zimet,  Boucherie and Bourrée

Nathanial Zimet, Chef 

Boucherie and Bourrée

 

 

First, smoke a whole hog. OK, that might be a bit much in a home kitchen, so Zimet says it’s perfectly fine to substitute a pork butt instead. Here are the directions:

 

Rub the pork butt with Zimet’s house BBQ rub. To make the rub, combine and pulverize equal amounts of black peppercorns, paprika, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard seeds, cumin, and coriander. Place the pork butt on the smoker and cook at 200 degrees for 12 to 16 hours – low and slow! When the pork butt is finished cooking, pull the meat and set aside.

 

Next, make the Carolina Slaw. Combine the following ingredients to create Zimet’s “Carolina Fancy Sauce”:

 

Next, get a head of green cabbage and soak it in water for 20 minutes to get it super crispy. Then, dry it out, mix it with the Carolina sauce and some green onions.

 

Finally, make the challah bread. Mix the dry ingredients together:

Then, mix the wet ingredients together:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour and oil mixtures and knead for eight minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow it to sit for an hour or so until doubled. Knead the dough for two minutes, to de-gas or deflate, then divide it into four balls. Let the dough balls rest for 10 minutes, then create four strands from the balls and braid. Allow the braided dough to proof for 60-75 minutes until 1 1/2 times the original size. Brush the braided dough with egg yolk and bake until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 190 degrees, or about 30-35 minutes.

 

 

My love of baking comes from my mother. She’s a good cook, but she’s a better baker! I always watched her in the kitchen using her “special” rolling pins. She recently gave me two of her rolling pins. One is a hollow plastic pin that holds ice, which keeps the dough cold while rolling. The other pin is wooden and 40 years old. I spent many mornings in the kitchen watching her make bread for special days. She was our family baker – always making the bread for the holidays!

Pork reminds me of my roots – Hillsborough, N.C. In Hillsborough, there is a cool festival called Hillsborough Hog Day. Hillsborough is a small and historic town that celebrates hogs once a year! The festival always included car shows, and I have an obsession with cars. So, it was always cool to walk around and look at all of the new and classic cars. And while I was walking around looking at cars, I’d always check out the BBQ pork dishes. As you probably know, barbecue in North Carolina means one thing: pork!