As a food reporter for WLS-Ch. 7, Steve Dolinsky is always looking for the next big thing. As it turns out, he may have dreamed it up himself, with his now-annual Pig & Pinot Party, an old-fashioned pig roast with new-age twists. He hosts the to-do at his Bucktown home with fellow foodie Rick Cooper, a music promoter and partner in the Chicago eatery Avec, the weekend before Labor Day to mark his Aug. 25 birthday and the end of summer.
Absent are the Goliath-size grills one would expect to see at a barbecue where the main course is a few 60- to 90-pound porkers. And gone is the 8- to 10-hour wait it usually takes to fully roast them.
Instead, Dolinsky and Cooper use La Caja China roasting boxes, plywood cookers lined with marine-grade aluminum, topped with coal-holding steel grills and fitted with handles and wheels like a garden cart. They can cook those meaty babies in four hours flat.
Despite the name, the device was invented in Cuba. It’s similar to other fast-roasting gadgets developed in the Caribbean and Louisiana, and it’s economical: A small one holds a pig weighing up to 70 pounds and costs $320, and a large one can handle a 100-pounder and costs $350 (lacajachina.com).
Also absent is any semblance of a traditional backyard to give the to-do that iconic alfresco ambience. Dolinsky lives in a contemporary house on a narrow city lot. He has no backyard, but there is a back porch and spacious roof deck on an alley-side two-car garage.
Their lot limitations inspired Dolinsky and his wife, Amy Dordek Dolinsky, to get creative when they held their first Pig & Pinot in August 2006.
“We commandeered the alley for the afternoon,” explains Dordek Dolinsky. To get the go-ahead from neighbors, she went door to door or sent out a letter explaining their plans, which involved closing off most of the alley all day to accommodate the cookers, a few dozen tables and folding chairs, serving tables and a crowd of hundreds. “Fortunately, no one objected,” she says. The two men dreamed up the to-do the first time they met, in May 2006, while seated together at the West Town Tavern’s annual charity benefit. At the time, Dolinsky told Cooper he wanted to do something special to mark his birthday and was thinking about a pig roast. But he planned to hire out the roasting process.
Cooper objected: “I told him, ‘You’re the “Hungry Hound.” You’ve won all these James Beard awards. People will expect you to do it yourself. And it’s not that hard.’ Then I told him about the La Caja China cookers and offered to help him,” recalls Cooper, who already had his own roaster and knew how to use it. West Town Tavern’s owner/chef Susan Goss stoked the idea when “she promised to create a jerk marinade just for the occasion,” recalls Cooper.
It took Dolinsky just a day to decide to do it and to order his own cooker, which he reports is a cinch to put together. “It uses wing nuts, you don’t need any tools and it only takes about 25 minutes,” he crows.
But it does require meticulous cleaning after each use and must be stored where it can’t get wet, to prevent corrosion.
For their first Pig & Pinot, the hosts invited a crowd of dozens and roasted two 65-pound pigs. Cooper brought his cooker over, and they smothered the pigs with a dry rub; injected them with the marinade, olive oil and white wine; stuffed lots of garlic cloves under the skins; and basted them with hoisin sauce. “We really didn’t know what we were doing. They came out good, not great,” Dolinsky admits.
But thanks to their guests, which included friends, neighbors and a star-studded lineup of local food stars, the accompaniments were stellar. Few came empty-handed, and several contributed restaurant-size side dishes and desserts. There was mac and cheese from Rick Bayless (Frontera Grill), barbecued beans from Barry Sorkin (Smoque), coleslaw from Scott Kac (Scott Dogs) and a stunning spread of desserts, including cakey brownies from Ina Pinkney (Ina’s) and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from Debra Sharpe (Feast restaurant and The Goddess and Grocer) — staples that have graced the party every year thanks to the generosity of these chefs. And Goose Island Brewery’s Greg Hall always sets up shop in Dolinsky’s garage to dispense draft beer.
Not surprisingly, the turnout and trappings have grown each year. The party drew almost 200 in 2006, about 250 in 2007 and about 300 last year, when the humble alley also got a campy new party look: a full-length Astroturf carpet Dolinsky scored at Menards.
“Amy thought I was out of my mind, but it was really cheap, so we bought 100 yards,” he reports. She now concedes that it was a great upgrade. “It covered up the potholes and made the alley look like a picnic area in a park,” she says.
The roasted pigs also have improved as the chefs perfect their technique. For example, “the hoisin sauce we used the first year made the skin flaccid and soggy instead of letting it crisp,” Dolinsky says.
They also started brining the meat, a suggestion from Red Light executive chef Jackie Shen, to make it more savory and moist. Working out that process was another creative challenge, which Dolinsky and Cooper solved by bringing in gigantic coolers. “We got three of them and, two days before the party, put a pig in each one, then filled the coolers with about 15 gallons of water, 15 cups of salt, 12 cups of sugar and two or three bags of ice,” explains Dolinsky. They added more ice each day, and before they cooked the meat inserted garlic cloves under the skin and slathered it with the jerk marinade. “We got the best results yet,” says Dolinsky.
This past year, the duo bought a third roaster — the largest size made — and added a 90-pound pig to the menu, cooking up more than 200 pounds of pork.
Despite all the work the party entails, Dolinsky can see only two downsides to the day.
The first is cleanup, which goes faster thanks to neighbors and friends but still takes a good couple of hours. “We have to really hose down the roasting boxes so they don’t attract critters over the winter. And cleaning the coolers took a lot of bleach,” Dordek Dolinsky says.
The second is that Dolinsky’s mother, who lives in Minneapolis, doesn’t come. Last year the event marked his 40th birthday, so “she came on Friday, we had a family birthday dinner on Saturday and she conveniently left on Sunday. I grew up kosher,” he explains.
Cooper is also Jewish but did not grow up in a kosher home. “But where food is concerned, I made Steve a rebel Jew like me,” he quips.
Find the roasters at lacajachina.com, and the recipe for the pigs and jerk marinade at Dolinsky’s Web site, stevedolinsky.com.
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MENU
Steve Dolinsky’s Pig & Pinot party
Potluck sampler
Drinks
Goose Island beer
Sodas and bottled water
BYOB Pinot supplied by guests
Main dishes and sides
Roast pig*
Mac and cheese from Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill**
Barbecued beans from Barry Sorkin of Smoque
Coleslaw from Scott Kac of Scott Dogs in Lake Villa**
Fried rice from Jackie Shen of Red Light
Assorted salads from Limelight: food illuminated
Desserts
Cakey brownies from Ina Pinkney of Ina’s**
Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from Debra Sharpe of Feast restaurant and The Goddess and Grocer
*For roast pig recipe, go to stevedolinsky.com
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Bash in Bucktown recipes
Frontera Grill’s Macaroni and Cheese
Serves 8 generously
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups Roasted Jalapeno-Tomato
Salsa (recipe follows)
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound dried pasta (corkscrew cavatappi, spiral rotini, fusilli or elbow macaroni)
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish
1. Into a large pot, pour about 4 quarts of water, cover and set over high heat.
2. While pasta water is heating up, measure the milk in a glass measuring cup and warm for a minute in a microwave on high (or warm in a small saucepan). In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the flour and whisk until the mixture turns a deep golden, about 2 minutes. Add the warmed milk all at once and continue to whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and comes to a full boil, 4 or 5 minutes. (Whisk diligently and there will be no lumps.) Stir in the salsa and remove from the heat. Mix in the cheese, stirring until it melts. Taste, and season generously with salt.
3. When the pasta water has come to a boil, add the dried pasta. Stir well so that no pieces stick together and boil until the pasta is al dente, about 7 minutes, depending on the type of pasta used. Drain thoroughly and return to the pot. Stir in the cheese sauce, then spoon into a serving dish. Sprinkle with the cilantro and you’re ready to dig in.
Note: If you want a wonderful contrasting texture, spoon the macaroni and cheese into a buttered baking dish and omit the cilantro until after the dish is baked. Top with buttered bread crumbs and bake in a 375-degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until richly browned and crisp.
Roasted Jalapeno-Tomato Salsa
Makes about 2 cups
1 1/2 pounds (6-7 medium) ripe plum tomatoes
2 to 3 (1 to 1 1/2 ounces) fresh jalapeno chilies, stemmed (see note)
1/2 small white onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick and separated into rings
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup loosely packed, chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
Note: Other chilies you can use are habanero (orange or green), serrano, Santa Fe, Fresno, fresh pequin (go light; they’re hot!), Hungarian wax, fresh arbol, cayenne, Tabasco, as well as most small hot fresh chilies.
1. Heat the broiler. Line a broiler pan or baking sheet with heavy-duty foil and lay the whole tomatoes and jalapenos on it. Set the pan 4 inches below the broiler and broil for about 6 minutes, until darkly roasted — even rather blackened — on one side (the tomato skins will split and curl in places). With a pair of tongs, flip over the tomatoes and chilies and roast the other side for another 6 minutes or so. The goal is not simply to char the tomatoes and chilies, but to cook them through while developing nice roasty flavors. Set aside to cool.
2. Turn the oven down to 425 degrees. On a similar pan or baking sheet, combine the onion rings and garlic and set in the oven. Stir every couple of minutes, until the onions are beautifully roasted (they’ll be wilted, even have a touch of char on some of the edges) and the garlic is soft and browned in spots, about 15 minutes total. Cool to room temperature.
3. While working over the baking sheet so as not to waste any juices, pull off the peels from the cooled tomatoes and cut out the “cores” where the stems were attached and discard.
4. Slit the sides of the jalapenos (no need to peel them) and remove and reserve most of the seeds. Transfer the chilies to a food processor, and pulse along with the onions and garlic until moderately finely chopped, scraping everything down with a spatula as needed to keep it all moving around. Check the mixture for spiciness, adding some of the reserved seeds, if desired. Scoop into a big bowl. Without washing the processor, coarsely puree the tomatoes — and all the juice that has accumulated around them — and add them to the bowl. Stir in the water to give the salsa an easily spoonable consistency (salsas in Mexico are usually a little smoother and saucier than they are here — not very chunky or thick). Add a little more water if necessary. Stir in the cilantro.
5. Taste and season with salt and vinegar, remembering that this condiment should be a little feisty in its seasoning. Use immediately or prepare in advance and keep refrigerated up to five days.
Scott Dogs Coleslaw
Serves 12 to 15
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 head red cabbage (about 9-10 ounces)
1/2 head green cabbage (about 1 1/2-3/4 pounds)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup shredded carrot
1. In a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, honey, sugar and cider vinegar. Whisk in mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Refrigerate dressing until needed.
2. Cut the red cabbage into fine, thin shreds on a slicing machine or with a sharp knife. Transfer to a colander and run under cold water for 10 minutes. Drain completely of all water, blotting with an old kitchen towel if necessary.
3. Cut the green cabbage as instructed above. Place green and red cabbage, parsley and carrot in an extra-large non-reactive bowl. Mix a little to distribute the ingredients. Pour in the dressing and thoroughly combine. Refrigerate for several hours. Occasionally toss the coleslaw in the dressing accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning before serving.
Ina’s Cakey Brownies
Makes a 12 x 18-inch half sheet pan
(Note from Ina Pinkney: I never make a small pan of anything! Since it’s worth doing, I use a larger pan so I can freeze the remainder.)
18 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup boiling water
2 1/4 cups sugar
6 extra-large eggs
10 ounces (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare the half sheet pan by lining it with aluminum foil (allow enough to come up over the sides so it can be crimped down along the edges). Grease the foil with a little oil.
2. Put chopped chocolate, vanilla, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the boiling water and sugar and stir until dissolved, 1-2 minutes. Pour the hot liquid over the chopped chocolate and other ingredients. Let it sit for 2-3 minutes, then stir gently until chocolate is melted and smooth and cools down a little.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until incorporated. Add flour and mix until mostly combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan, spreading batter evenly into corners, and bake 36-40 minutes, until a skewer comes out with only a few crumbs attached. Cool for 15-20 minutes, transfer to the refrigerator and thoroughly chill in the pan. Peel off the foil and cut into desired sizes. Freeze uneaten brownies for later.
