Smoking Convert

Smoked pork, shallot, garlic, squash.

I confess, I was never really big on smoked foods.  I'm not even a big smoked bacon fan.  And I'm not a fan of barbecue sauce.  Maybe I'm an American culture failure.  But now that I've smoked one spicy, dry rubbed pork loin, there's no stopping this smoking convert.

In the above photo, the spice rub looks much darker than what I see. Hmm, any photo hints?? This first photo also shows that I really went wild over the first time smoking as I also smoked shallots, garlic, and winter squash. The shallots and garlic need to be tended more carefully next time, but the winter squash had a slightly smokey flavor that combined well with the sweet carmelization and earthiness of the squash. Had I had more squash, I would have cooked it all for some great soups and raviolis!

For the pork loin, I followed the dry spicy rub from my curing bible, Charcuterie.  I also ground up some very fresh, dried herbs and spices from my favorite local Health Food Store, Mt. Mike's, in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.  After wrapping it in plastic wrap, it looked like this:

Red, wrapped, and ready to begin

I left it in the fridge for the required amount of time, then prepared myself for smoking.  We have a Brinkmann electric smoker.  We didn't use chips because they just burn too fast in this smoked; instead, we used larger, water-soaked hickory chunks.  We have some applewood, but it isn't chopped up yet and with our very wet winter, not really dry enough.  So, we used what we could find.

I thought I'd just follow the directions in Charcuterie for smoking but obviously different smokers require different timing, heat up at various rates, and have a high temperature limit.  I could not get our smoker hotter than 250F and that was with lots of wood.  So, I settled for a longer cooking time.  Also, the final temperature of the meat was a bit higher than what I really wanted, so next time I'll go for the lower, fully-cooked pork temperature.

Smoking away

On another occasion, I served the pork loin plain again, but this time with sauteed yellow peppers and onions and with saffron rice and dried tomatoes.  Loved it!





More spiced pork with peppers, onions, and rice.


I didn't have time to take a photo because we were late for our ten hour trek to the Oregon coast, but the pork also made into a delicious banh mi sandwich.  My son just cut slices and ate it plain because he liked it so much.  We have a bit left and that will become some other dish when we return to Bonners Ferry tomorrow.

The smoking bug did not stop at the pork.  I also smoked a curry rubbed, butterflied leg of lamb.  The yearly lamb comes from my friend, Annie, who raises the sheep for wool.  It's usually smaller and our local USDA butcher cuts it.  I always get the leg bone in, so I had an opportunity to try out my "butchering" skills in order to have the butterfly cut.  I felt good about how it went.  I also made some freshly chopped curry spices but followed too closely a recipe I once found on the web and ended up with a bit too much coriander, which didn't allow the cardamom to come through as much as I wanted.  But it was still good!



Curry crusted butterflied lamb leg


Again, the photo makes it appear darker than it is.  It's pretty good.  I think I'll mix it with some lentils and spinach for soup.  And make more sandwiches out of it, maybe something in a homemade pita with yoghurt raita, tzatziki, raita*, and dal.  There's just no end to it....  Now what shall I smoke next?

*linguistic and cultural confusion....

Corned Beef and Corned Beef Tongue

On to the Brine!  What a great idea for our third Charcutepalooza challenge!  My husband and I love corned beef so we decided to be really decadent and make both corned beef and corned beef tongue.  Like other bloggers mentioned over at the Charcutepalooza Facebook page, some of us had decidedly gray brisket after it came out of the brine.  Mine was really weird because it also sported a nice pink spot in the middle.

I wasn't too worried about it because several of the bloggers said that it turned properly pink when cooked.  However, I did check with one of my favorite food bloggers, facebook friend, and brilliant food scientist, Bob del Grosso.  Although he was busy and knee-deep in butchering, he did send some information.  So, after giving him an abundance of detail into how I brined the brisket, he suggested that somehow an air pocket had been created in the brining liquid because air can cause the gray.  That's quite possible because I put the brisket in a very large bowl, put a beef tongue on top of that, and then topped it all with an upside down plate.  Certainly the presence of the tongue may have caused the pink spot because that is where it rested.  But I still wasn't sure about the gray coloring.  However, after perusing many of the corned beef Charcutepalooza photos, it seems that this happened to some degree or another with everyone's beef. 

When he had a bit more time, Bob went on to explain that beef turns gray as it oxidizes.  However, if brined "...with nitrite and then cooked, the oxidation will mostly disappear as the meat shrinks and the heat drives off the oxygen."  It was a simplified, scientific explanation that I could understand.  It certainly explains why so many photos had shades of gray coloring after the brine.  And now we all know why it turns properly pink again!  Bob knows so much, shares so much important information about food and cooking, and writes so well that many people are faithful fans of his blog, A Hunger Artist.  Thanks, Bob!

I did brine the brisket with freshly made pickling spice, borrowing the recipe that Ruhlman provides in "the book."  My local health food store always has very fresh, dried spices.  I loved how the flavor of the clove came through.  I never knew corned beef could taste so good!

We ate the corned beef last week in our traditional St. Patrick's Day style with boiled potatoes, cabbage, onion, and carrots.  Then we snacked on it.  And we made sandwiches with it.  And then we took the tongue out of the brine and cooked that for even more corned beef!

My husband loves corned beef so much "too much" peeling or removal of gristle, fat, etc. is not allowed.  I'm not crazy about tongue, but it tasted as delicious as the brisket.  Now he has enough lunch to last awhile. 

I cannot wait to find out what the next challenge will be!

Salt Cure Round-Up

Between shoveling snow and picking up six substitute classes for six weeks, I just could not find the time to post my final projects on the salt cure.  Luckily, most of the snow is now gone so I reserved a morning to write.

I was extremely pleased that my second pancetta turned out as good as the first.  I'm a homemade pancetta convert and will never buy it in the store again.  I picked up a half pork belly this time at my local USDA butcher, cured it a la Charcuterie, and the result was fabulous, again!

I've used the pancetta in a variety of preparations, but I cannot stop eating one of my favorites, Angels on Horseback!  And, of course, instead of wrapping the oysters in bacon, I used pancetta!

For the final salt cure item, I made something that I had been wanting to make for a long time: Preserved Lemons.  After checking Charcuterie, I also took a look at similar recipes in two other cookbooks that I love, Sunshine Food by Sophie Grigson and Modern Moroccan by Ghillie Basan (which is way overpriced online - I bought it as a remainder for $5).  Charcuterie did not call for the addition of any liquid using only the salt.  Grigson called for some juice and some water.  Basan called only for extra juice. So, I checked out Michael Ruhlman's website on the same day that he posted an article about Lemon Confit, or, preserved lemons.  It's an article worth reading with many helpful suggestions in the discussion zone.

I bought some Meyer lemons and, using kosher salt, stuffed them into a one quart canning jar.

I decided to follow Basan's suggestion to put the jar of lemons aside for several days to let the skins soften, then push them down and add more lemons, salt, and juice.  This is what now sits in my root cellar.

Thank you Charcutepalooza!  I can't wait to use the preserved lemons and now it's time to post about brining!

Pork, Pork, Pork, Never Enough Pork

Uh, oh, I just re-read the Charcutepalooza Ruhls and discovered I was supposed to post about my delicious pancetta by the 15th!  Oh well, I did post about my quiche, which was delicious, but I never put up all those other photos and descriptions of all the other dishes I made with the pancetta.  So here goes!

Salted, bagged in fridge for seven days

Rolled and ready to hang

Yes, I'm a little OCD about all the string, but I wanted to make sure it was tight enough so no mold grew  inside....  We have another building on our property, not attached to the house, which contains some exercise equipment and a pool table.  It's easy to control the heat and humidity and the pancetta hung on an exercise bar.  We had already made pancetta in December so I bought this second half of a pork belly in order to make another pancetta within the required time frame.  After two weeks of hanging, it entered my world of pancetta-palooza!

I use pancetta for so many different dishes.  I used it to cover my meatloaf:

Pancetta meatloaf with winter squash

I decided to make a new spin on the classic BLT, so I made myself a PLT!

PLT

It actually wasn't a true PLT because I added a slice of swiss cheese.  I was really hungry!  Thinking about the Food52 Citrus & Olive challenge, I also used some pancetta to start off a braised lamb with oranges and olives.  Unfortunately, it didn't make the contest cut but it sure tasted good!  I'm not crazy about the photo, but for a tasty and easy way to add some more depth of flavor I often add pancetta to many meat braises.

Lamb with pancetta, oranges and olives

My favorite dish is one that was made completely from scratch.  I made winter squash ravioli with a pancetta cream sauce.  It's my favorite use of pancetta so far!  The saltiness and flavor of the pancetta combined with the sweet kuri squash filling of the ravioli filled my mouth with such a wonderful balance of flavors.  I think I could eat this once a week!

Winter squash ravioli with pancetta cream sauce

Finally, tonight I'm making a half leg of lamb for dinner and I'm still trying to decide if I should lard the leg with pancetta and garlic, or bone it and stuff it with pancetta, garlic, and maybe some spinach....  The goodness never ends.  I am so thankful for Charcutepalooza!

Charcutepalooza and Food52



I absolutely could not resist.  When Food52 posted this past week's contest requiring a pairing of citrus and olives, and I knew I would be bringing a pancetta and comté cheese quiche to a Superbowl party, I had to enter....Plus, Mrs. Wheelbarrow had, just the week before, announced the new Food52 and Charcutepalooza partnership.  It was fate....

I love orange and olive salads.  I like the color of black olives, although my favorite for taste is the picholine.  Since I live in a very rural area in north Idaho, I was lucky enough to receive a jar of mixed "French" olives for Christmas.  This became the perfect moment to enjoy those olives.  I know that some are picholines and some are niçoise, but other than that, it's a gamble.  At least they still had flavor.  I put several in the salad.  I used both navel and blood oranges because I cannot resist the color.  And, at the moment, we have Maya sweet onions at the local grocery store, so that became my onion of choice.  Actually, they are sweet, but they don't hold a candle to our almost local WallaWallas.

As for the quiche, well, I have been making a number of pancetta dishes for the February Charcutepalooza challenge, and for the Superbowl party I thought a quiche would be a good "finger food."  Since the pancetta has such a different flavor than bacon, and since I had some Comté, I thought that sounded like a rather good combination and, from comments made, people really liked it.  Two challenges, two simple and classic dishes. What could be better?

Orange Suprème and French Olive Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette

1 navel orange, suprèmed

1 blood orange, suprèmed

French olives, to tasted, pitted

Thinly sliced sweet onion

Romaine lettuce

Salt and pepper

Suprème both oranges by removing all membranes, skin, and pith.  Many videos are available online.  If you're relatively skillful with a knife, hold the peeled orange in your hand, over a bowl, while cutting out the membranes.  This saves the juice for the salad.

Using the flat blade of a knife, push down on the olives to remove the pits. 

Very thinly slice about a quarter of a sweet onion. 

With your hands, tear enough romaine lettuce for two into your preferred bite sized pieces, add salt and pepper to taste, and mix in the simple sherry dressing.

Top with some navel and blood orange suprème segments, olives, and onion.

Sherry Vinaigrette for Two

1 T. Spanish sherry vinegar

2 T. olive oil

1 T. juice from orange suprèmes

Mix thoroughly.

Pancetta and Comté Quiche

Pie Crust:

1 1/4 c. flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 c. chilled butter (unsalted)

scant 1/4 c. ice water

Combine flour and salt in food processor bowl.  Cut the butter into approximately 12-14 small pieces.  Add to flour.  Pulse on and off until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Drizzle in water until it loosely comes together after several more pulses.  Lie large crumbles on plastic wrap,  Using the wrap over your hands, slowly mold this into a flat round.  Refridgerate for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from fridge and roll, turning, until large enough for quiche pan.  Make sure you have enough to cover the edges.  Cut off excess.

Filling:

1 1/2 cups shredded Comté cheese

4 eggs

1 3/4 c. half-and-half or cream

1/2 tsp salt

pinch of nutmeg

4 slices cooked pancetta, cut into large dice

1 T. butter

Sprinkle 1/4 - 1/3 of the cheese over the bottom of pie shell.  Beat the eggs with half-and-half, salt, and nutmeg.  Fold in the pancetta and cheese.  Pour into quiche crust and dot with butter.  Bake at 375F for 35-40 minutes, until middle is slightly puffed and golden brown.  Let cool and serve.



Pancetta Heaven

Pancetta beginnings.  So, before the February challenge, my husband and I had already received a pork belly for Christmas, so, we ate half the pork belly braised, and now we're making foods using our cured pork belly.  However, I want to be part of the monthly challenges and deadlines for Charcutepalooza so last Thursday, I picked up another half of pork belly.  On Friday I started the curing process and have been massaging the salt and herb into it everyday.  We'll probably do the tight roll on Saturday.

In the meantime, my dear friend, Mark, gave me four wild goose breasts that a friend had given him.  Mark is sooo generous!  Since they had no skin, and, being wild, no fat, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them.  But, in true Charcutepalooza spirit I said to myself, "wild goose breast confit"!  I have enough duck fat frozen so I only needed to defrost the fat and season the goose breast (again, Charcuterie).  Tomorrow morning the confit begins...sigh...I can already feel the love.

So Much Pork Belly

The pork belly was a Christmas present from our son to his father.  However, after wringing my hands and claiming that two pancettas would feed us the rest of our lives, I did get half the pork belly.  Devious, I know.  Actually, I don't think my husband minded because I told him I had been dying to try braised pork belly.

Our son bought the pork belly, special order, from our local USDA butcher, Woods Meats, aka Wood - (Bar) X Ranch.  We like them: no hormones, no antibiotics, no steroids, locally grown, grass fed all summer, and it can't get more pastoral than Woods.  Once presented to his dad, we cut the pork belly in half, and started the curing process for the pancetta.  Worrier that I am, I wanted to make sure that conditions were as close to pristine as possible, posted earlier on this blog.  Needless to say, it turned out perfect: now I'm afraid to do it again in order to quality for the grand prize at Charcutepalooza.  Plus, that's a lot of pancetta for two people but ah, what we sacrifice for love.

Back to that pork belly.  I have been reading for some time about braised pork belly and when I finally got my hot little hands on that half a pork belly, I knew I wanted something close to heaven.  Perusing the internet, I happened upon Anne Burrell's Crispy Mustard Braised Pork Belly. As "sous-chef" to Mario Batali on Iron Chef America, Food Network's Anne Burrell, with the tight, straight skirts under her chef's jacket, spiked blond hair, and her seemingly lackadaisical but incredibly trained approach to food, offered the braised pork belly recipe of my most decadent dreams.  It had my favorite ingredients, including fennel, onion, and mustard and that was enough to capture my imagination.

The preparations began, and the house smelled like my little bit of heaven for six+ hours.  One of the comments at the recipe's site said "OMG.  Words fail me," and that is exactly how I felt.  I made plain, steamed Viking potatoes, so that they could soak up all that luscious onion/fennel/mustard/pork fat flavor.  In order to cut some of that fat with some acidity I added some sauteed cabbage with the addition of some sauvignon blanc wine.  That helped, but next time I would just make German slaw for both the acidity and the texture.  This time around, it really didn't matter much how I tried to accentuate the main course because on its own it won first place in my heart.

Addendum:  I didn't add as much fennel and onion as I should have.  Fennel, which grow like a weed along the freeways of southern California, where I was raised, is $3 for a an almost dried out bulb.  Highway robbery!  Also, I'm almost out of my own onions so I've been conserving...  it must be the depression influence of my grandma upon me.  But the meat, which cooks like a confit in its own fat, that was the star!

So for anyone ambitious enough to make their own bacon, their own guanciale, their own pancetta, seriously think about braising the other half of that pork belly.