In our recent Anarchast interview, we spoke a bit about our love for Detroit and it’s similarities to Acapulco and Mexico in general. Moving to Detroit was my real first taste of freedom in many ways as Detroit’s about as close to anarchy as you can get in the United States. There developed this dish, an ever changing one based off of what’s around but good for any occasion. The Detroit Skillet, this time with kohlrabi, carrots, bacon and all sorts of stuff honestly.
This dish was developed after we were arrested when we were low on cash but had free anytime access to our friends garden. They honestly felt bad for us and gave me permission to raid their garden for things like tomatoes, watermelon radishes and peppers whenever we wanted. Not everyone had permission to do this, at the time it was one of the few private gardens in that community. All these things went into a cast iron pan with butter and a little meat, either from the Chaldean butcher around the corner or the food bank.
What I used, for 2 servings:
1 large sized green kohlrabi
¼ onion
3 cloves garlic
½ lb cubed pork
1 small potato, peeled
2 medium sized carrots
100 g bacon
I started by frying the bacon by itself in a pan. When it was crispy, I removed it and most of the fat from the pan and added some butter.
And the cubed pork, searing it on both sides.
The veggies always vary every time I make this so it always looks different. The point is to prep it all by chopping it into easy bite sized pieces to be cooked in the pan.
This was fairly simple as far as this dish is concerned, it generally contains tomatoes from the garden but I didn’t have any available.
Just cook it like a stir fry until the veggies are soft and slightly crispy. If you do add tomatoes, add them in for just the last few minutes of cooking chopped for the best results in my opinion.
Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, hot sauce, ect to taste.
Top with the bacon fried earlier on and dig in. It was something we ate a lot while on the run in Detroit, waiting to head west. The fresh organic veggies made this FAR tastier there than I’ve been able to achieve here, just because I haven’t achieved the diversity in the garden that they did. Not that it’s an excuse, but gardening here is HARD.
Its something that will forever remind me of Detroit and it’s one of the memories that comes flooding back when I think of the place. Biking down the road, picking through the garden and coming back to start chopping and cooking. It is legendary in many ways for us and I don’t think I’ve made it quite as good since.
With exotic smoked Chaldean sausage, this was TOO good. We’d occasionally have it with lamb too because they sold that for a good price, much to our surprise. It was one of the only remaining businesses on 7 mile in that hood, and they had AMAZING meat and sausage products at reaaaallly cheap prices.
We didn’t just live in Detroit, by the way, we lived in the anarchist squatter community known as Fireweed Universe City. This was a neighborhood full of drug and gang violence that was mostly abandoned just to be taken over by a bunch of suburban kids. The experiment works in it’s own ways and while there are issues there, it is one of the most remarkable places I’ve ever lived.
Thanks for following and supporting, until next time!
All content is mine and original. All photos in this post were taken with my Nikon D5500
If you're interested in hearing more about Detroit and our time there, check out these old Steemit posts I shared on the subject: