Filipino Pulled Pork

South Seas Savor



I plan almost all my meals a week or so in advance. I first began the practice when I was working 60 - 70 hours a week and only had the time and opportunity to cook on the weekends. These days I continue to plan ahead because I have to continually come up with new recipes to publish on Gather, Seriously Good, and About.com as well as less frequent venues. That's a lot of cooking so I'd better be organized.

Because of this plan-ahead approach it's seldom that I have anything other than pantry items in the house that isn't already earmarked for a specific dish. However, last week the local supermarket had a sale on whole Boston Butts. So I bought one and had it cut in half. I knew what I was going to do with the first half, but it took awhile to figure out what to do with the other half.

I quickly found a bunch of closely related articles where cubed pork is braised in soy sauce and vinegar.

For some reason (and I've no idea why) I decided to look up Filipino recipes. To the best of my knowledge I've never cooked anything Filipino before but I quickly found a bunch of closely related articles where cubed pork is braised in soy sauce and vinegar. The idea really appealed to me so I assembled my own version and made it. Absolutely delicious.

My roast was bone-in and instead of cubing the roast I decided to cook it whole. That way the flavor and gelatin from the bone would enrich the sauce. And although most recipes called for braising the meat then browning it, I did the reverse — again to produce a richer broth. Served over basmati rice it was a winner and, although time-consuming, it only needs about 15 minutes of hands-on cooking.

Filipino Roast Pork
Serves 6.

3 lb bone-in Boston butt or pork shoulder
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp cooking oil
2/3 c white distilled vinegar
1/3 c soy sauce
5 cloves garlic — peeled and smashed (left whole)
5 whole cardomom pods
2 bay leaves
1 1/2-inch fresh ginger — peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp fresh orange zest
1 medium yellow onion — peel, quartered, and cut into 1/4 rings
2 tbsp sugar

Heat oven to 325F. Generously season the roast with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, then brown roast on all sides. Move roast to a plate and pour excess oil out of pot.

Deglaze the pot with the soy sauce and vinegar, then add a cup of water. Add garlic, cardomom, bay, ginger and orange zest. Return the roast to the pot and add 1/4 of onions.

Bring back to a boil, then cover and place Dutch oven in the center of the oven. Simmer for 1 hour then turn roast over. Cook another hour and turn over again. Cook 1/2 hour then add remaining onions. Cook 1/2 hour longer.

Add sugar to broth and shred roast using a pair or forks in the pot. Taste and adjust seasonings (In addition to salt, I ended up adding about another 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar and soy sauce.

Serve over basmati rice.

Try this Filipino pork with...
Curried Plantains
Calabacitas
Fried Green Tomatoes

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Country Ham Breakfast Sausage

That Wonderful Machine



There was a strange old butcher, His name was Dunderbeck
He was very fond of sausage-meat, and sauerkraut and speck
He had the finest butcher shop, the finest ever seen
Until one day he invented his wonderful sausage machine

Oh Mr. Dunderbeck! How could you be so mean?
I told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machine
For all the neighbor's dogs and cats will never more be seen
They'll all be ground to sausage meat in Dunderbeck's machine

Sausage has a reputation for being made from all the things that would ordinarily be thrown away. In truth, so long as the sausage tastes good I see nothing wrong with that. Better to use those bits and pieces in sausage than throw them away. But if that kind of thinking makes you nervous the solution is to make your own sausage.

As much as Benton's hams and bacon deserve their national reputation, the sausage is even better.

There’s a place about 30 miles up the road from here that sells the best country sausage I’ve ever had. You may have heard of it, Benton's Smokey Mountain Country Hams. You may not have heard of the sausage though, because he doesn't ship it. This is a shame because as much as his hams and bacon deserve their national reputation, the sausage is even better. He sells three varieties: hot, mild, and smoked. My personal preference is the hot (the smoked is too smoky and the mild is, well, mild).

I've been eating Benton's sausage for nearly 20 years now (since my father discovered it) and it's unlike any other country sausage I’ve had. It has a strange texture — sort of grainy — and a flavor I simply couldn't tie down. Not a strange flavor, but I it baffled me. Then I figured it out a couple of years ago — he was mixing ground country ham scraps in the sausage. He was following Dunderbeck's lead and using whatever came to hand (and for all I know his sausage also contains pig lips and ears) and the ham scraps were a brilliant addition. So I set out to replicate it.

Benton's sausage is still better than mine, but he's been perfecting it for a long time. And I'm just getting started. Nevertheless I can tell you that some finely ground country ham added to the mix makes a world of difference.

Country Ham Breakfast Sausage
Adapted from a recipe by Bruce Aidells.

3 lb boneless Boston Butt roast
1 lb fat back
1/2 lb country ham
1 1/2 tbsp red pepper flakes
4 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp dried, ground (rubbed) sage
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup water (or pork stock if you have it)

Chill your grinder and mixing bowl in the refrigerator.

Cut pork and fat into strips and toss with seasonings. Spread in a layer over a baking sheet and partially freeze. You’re going for stiff but not hard. This takes about 1 1/2 hours in my freezer and I rotate the baking sheet half way through. (The time depends on how efficient your freezer is and how much food is already in it.)

Cut country ham into 1-inch pieces and process until very fine in a food processor or blender.

Grind the seasoned pork and fat using the 1/4-inch plate. Add water, and mix thoroughly.

Fry up a small taste and adjust seasonings, but keep in mind the flavors will mature. Refrigerate overnight. Form into patties and fry.

The sausage will keep for 3 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer. (I make patties in advance, separate them with waxed paper, wrap in two layers of foil and then freeze in a ziplock bag until needed. I can then pull out a patty or two and keep the rest frozen.

One day a very little girl came walking in the store
She ordered up some sausage meat and eggs, a half a score
And while she stood a-waiting she whistled up a tune
And the sausage meat it started up and danced around the room

Oh Mr. Dunderbeck! How could you be so mean?
I told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machine
For all the neighbor's dogs and cats will never more be seen
They'll all be ground to sausage meat in Dunderbeck's machine

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Leftovers:Making the Most of Pork

This is the first in a series of articles/recipes that demonstrate a featured recipe and then offers a schedule and additional recipes to use the leftovers. The featured recipe does require some time and, sometimes, effort but the leftover recipes are all quick and easy enough for a weeknight meal. This week we'll make the most of a pork loin roast.

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Candied Bacon

In 2009 Candied Bacon was all the rage. Ok, so in 2009 anything involving bacon was all the rage including bacon placemats and chocolate-covered bacon. But of the less-over-the-top ideas, candied bacon was a definite winner. It's easy to make, absolutely delicious, and good for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For that matter, it's an awesome snack at any time of day.

Recipe here...

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Oven-Barbequed Ribs

Blasphemy or Saving Grace



Two years ago the damned local fire marshal decreed that not only was it now against fire regulations to use an open flame grill (gas or charcoal) within 20 feet of a multi-family dwelling (read "my condo") but that you can't even store a grill (gas or charcoal) within 20 feet of the dwelling. It's a completely reasonable rule. Most people are idiots and I don’t want an idiot burning down my house because he gets drunk and uses too much lighter fluid. But I'm not an idiot and I totally detest the rule because it put an end to one of my favorite modes of cooking.

I hauled my grill and smoker out to my parents' house and visit them (parents and grills) when I can, but my parents live 30 minutes away and I've gone from cooking over flame two or three times a month to cooking over flame two or three times a summer.

I hauled my grill and smoker out to my parents' house and visit them (parents and grills) when I can.

If all I want is a grilled flavor in a steak, I can use my stove-top smoker and then toss the steak on a really hot grill pan to get the sear and char. But that's a quick technique that doesn't work for smoked Boston Butt or pork ribs, which require long, slow cooking to become tender. So recently I tried a technique I've been hearing about in unexpected places — liquid smoke.

Probably like you, I figured liquid smoke was an artificial product. That's not necessarily bad, but typically such products are one-dimensional. For example, artificial vanilla extract contains vanillin but none of the other complex flavors that make true vanilla true vanilla. I figured the same was true of liquid smoke. I was wrong.

Liquid smoke is made from real smoke filtered through water. It has most of the flavor — and probably all of the carcinogens — you get from cooking over wood. So I've been playing with it to see if I could get at least the flavor, if not the texture, of meat cooked in a smoker. I'm still experimenting, but these ribs turned out reasonbly well.

Oven-Smoked Country Ribs
Serves 4.

12 country-style pork ribs — bone-in
Dry rub
1/4 c liquid smoke
Barbeque sauce (if desired)

Generously season ribs with rub, stuff in a zippered bag, and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.

Wrap ribs tightly in heavy-duty foil, add liquid smoke, and cook at 225F for 5 1/2 hours.

Open up foil and drain off the liquid, it's too smoky to keep, so discard it.

At this point I had preheated my grill pan over medium-high heat. I brushed the ribs with sauce and tossed them on the grill pan for about 4 minutes per side to provide browning and caramelization.

Liquid smoke does give you a genuine smoke flavor, but the result is more one-dimensional than actual slow smoking over charcoal with soaked wood chips. So in terms of genuine flavor it falls somewhere between imitation vanilla flavoring and real vanilla extract. My conclusion is the techique is an improvement on doing without, but it still feels a bit blasphemous.

Try these ribs with...
French Fries
Potatoes Parmigiano
Fried Okra

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | pork | barbeque | main dish

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Rum-and-cider-brinedPork Sirloin Roast

Falling



The day-time temperature has been in the 70's this fall — right up until a few days ago when it plunged 30 degrees over-night. Colors haven't really started changing yet — because of the warmth, I suppose. But perhaps now we'll see fall. Although New England is certainly the most beautiful place in the country for leaf peeping, East Tennessee does pretty well — and for that matter when the aspens turn gold on California's mountain sides it's pretty stunning.

At any rate, I woke up to a cold house Saturday morning and didn't want to get out of my warm bed. So I put off getting up for a few minutes and gave some thought to supper. The first thing that popped into my mind was roast pork. To me fall means pork — and it also means apples and it just so happens that apples and pork go together beautifully, but what to do?

I woke up to a cold house Saturday morning and didn't want to get out of my warm bed.

I let my mind free associate and settled on cider (hard or soft... soft) with rum and juniper berries. A brine not a marinade so the salt would draw the flavors fairly deeply into the meat. However, choosing to use a brine meant it would be too salty to use as a sauce — but there was no reason not make a separate pan sauce using rum and cider — and toss in some sautéed apples as well.

I've done something similar, but without brining, without juniper, and using Calvados instead of rum. I made a grocery run and came home to make up the brine. I'd already decided it needed 24 hours of brining so I'd have it for supper Sunday night instead of that night. The longer I cook the more I learn that patience is a key technique and I've found that most of my meals fall into two categories: they are either quick and simple or slow. I cook fewer and fewer dishes that fall in between.

I don’t mind letting a roast brine for 24 hours, and I don't mind slow-roasting it for a couple of hours so it arrives on the table perfectly cooked throughout.

Rum-and-cider-brined Pork Sirloin Roast
Serves 4.

Brine:
1 1/2 c dark rum
1 1/2 c apple cider
1/4 c kosher salt
12 juniper berries — coarsely crushed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
12 pepper corns — coarsely crushed
2 lg garlic cloves &mdash: smashed
Roast:
2 1/2 lb pork sirloin roast
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Sauce:
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 apple — peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2" cubes
2 tbsp finely minced onion
1/2 c dark rum
1/2 c apple cider
Salt and pepper

Brine:
Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Place over medium-high heat, bring to a simmer, and cook until salt is dissolved.

Cool brine to room temperature. Put the roast in a gallon zippered plastic bag, add brine, evacuate most of the air, and refrigerate for 18 - 24 hours — turning three or four time while brining to distribute the brine.

Roast:
Heat oven to 250F.

Rinse roast and pat dry with a lint-free kitchen towel. Discard brine.

Heat oil in a heavy, oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add roast and brown well on 3 sides — about 3 minutes per side. When you flip the forth side down, place the skillet in the center of the oven.

Cook roast to 140 - 145F at its center according to an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven, place on a cutting board, and tent with foil.

Sauce:
Unfortunately the fond that accumulates in the bottom of the skillet is a bit too salty to use in a sauce, so use another skillet.

Heat skillet over medium heat. Add butter and swirl to melt. Add apples in a single layer and lightly brown. Flip and brown other side. Add minced onion and cook 1 minute longer.

Add rum and reduce by half. Add cider and reduce by half. Taste and season with salt and pepper (light on the salt).

Serve.

Try this pork roast with...
Roasted Rutabaga
Glazed Carrots with Mint and Lemon
Italian Sausage Pilaf

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pork | apples

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Southwestern Pulled Pork

Spicy-licious



We're now into our third day of fall showers. The rain comes and lasts for two - three - four hours interspersed with periods of clouds and sunshine. Unlike Tennessee's summer storms, the autumnal rain is steady, not violent, and extended, not brief. Unlike Northwestern rains they aren't day-long middling drizzles and perpetually overcast skies. In fact, when I moved from Knoxville to Eugene I discovered Knoxville gets about the same rainfall as Eugene. But in Eugene you get six months of drizzle and six months of sun. Here you get genuine rain throughout the year.

There's something ineffably sweet about Tennessee's autumn rain. Like the summer storms the rain begins with an odor of hot rock and hot soil — granite and iron — but without the lightening the acidic ozone element is missing. Which isn't to say lightening doesn’t also play a role in the fall. There was a long roll of thunder just minutes ago. A deep sonorous voice that gave me a shiver.

Unlike Tennessee's summer storms, the autumnal rain is steady, not violent, and extended, not brief.

But as the rain wears on and the air clears you notice sweet, grassy notes from still-green leaves and lawns. Hiding behind the scenes is the coming decay. Dusty smells of leaves nearly turned and mushrooms turning death into life as everything dies back for winter.

For the past hour I've been sitting out on my (covered) balcony enjoying the latest rain and getting a bit wet. Bella, my companion, was sitting just inside the door grumbling as only cats can about my exposure to an element as negative as rain. My only complaint was that my balcony is exposed to the neighborhood and so I had to wear clothes to enjoy the experience. Summer and early fall rain is much better indulged in while naked.

The rain ended and I moved back inside to listen to" All Things Considered" and figure out what to do with the Boston Butt in my fridge, I decided on something Southwestern -- replicating in some way the smell of hot rock and soil from summer and the cooler, darker flavors of fall. Oregano, thyme, and basil add the grassy notes. Dried and smoked peppers bring in lightening, musk, and granite. Stout adds more musk, shifting the dish closer to fall, while fresh parsley added fresh as a garnish reinforces summer.

Served on my standard Mexican/Southwestern rice it was pretty damned good.

Southwestern Pulled Pork
Serves 6 - 8.

1 3 - 4 lb Boston Butt roast — trimmed of visible fat
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp lard or oil
1 lg onion — diced
1 md bell bepper — diced
2 lg cloves garlic — minced
1 lg jalapeno pepper — seeded and minced
3 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp chile powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 can chopped green chiles
1 bottle stout
1 c tomato sauce
1 c chicken stock
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 bay leaves

Heat oven to 250F.

Season the roast well with salt and pepper. Heat in oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat then brown roast well on all sides. Remove roast to a platter and reduce heat to medium.

Add onions and peppers to pot and cooking, stirring frequently in they soften. Add garlic, jalapeno, cumin, and chili powder. Stir and cook 1 minute longer. Stir in stout, tomato sauce, cocoa, chicken stock, vinegar, and bay leaves.

Return the roast to the pot. The liquid should come about halfway up the sides of the roast, add water if needed. Bring just to a boil, then cover and place in the center of the oven.

Cook 1 hour and turn roast over. Taste and adjust seasonings and cook 1 1/2 hours and turn roast again. Cook 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven and skim off as much fat as you can. Serve over rice garnished with fresh cilantro.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pork | mexican

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Pork Chops with Pineappleand Soy Sauce

Taste of the Islands



My gig as the Cooking for Two Guide at About.com has led me to create a lot of quick and easy recipes. Most of my readers have regular jobs and so they're looking for things that are suitable for making after a day at work. I used to be in the same boat, and even though I'm now working at home I still find I'll get caught up in a task and not think about dinner until 7:30 or 8:00 when I realize I'm starving.

This was the case yesterday when I'd planned on making polenta with mushroom ragu but realized I hadn't even been to the grocery store. Fortunately I had a boneless pork loin chop on hand and in rummaging around in my pantry I found a can of pineapple, which reminded me of something I used to make years ago.

I also had some pink potatoes that I'd bought them at the farmers' market a few days before. Yes, the potatoes' flesh is literally pink. Although the color is distinctive, they flavor isn't. They just taste like potatoes.

Chops with Pineapple
Serves 4.

4 pork loin chops
Salt and pepper
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp peanut oil
6 oz can of pineapple chunks (reserve juice)
3 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce

Heat oven to 375F.

Generously season chops with salt, pepper, and ginger. Heat oil in a large stainless steel skillet over medium high heat. Add chops and brown on one side. Turn chops over and put the skillet in the oven. Cook until an instant-read thermometer reads 140F. Remove from oven, put the chops on a plate, and tent with foil.

Over medium heat, add mirin and deglaze skillet. Reduce mirin by half. Add soy sauce, pineapple chunks, and juice. Reduce liquid by half. Remove from heat and stir in any juices the chops have lost. Drizzle sauce over chops and serve.

Try these chops with...
Curried Plantains
Beets Dijonaise

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | pork | main dish

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Southwestern Ham Casserole

This Southwestern Ham Casserole is perfect for using up that last bit of baked ham - you know, when you've got too little to feed everyone and too much to throw away. If you happen to have some leftover rice all the better, but if not rice is easy enough to make. You can use a commercial chile powder if you wish, but my recipe for chile powder has a nice smoky flavor from the chipotles.

Recipe here...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | cooking for two | main dish | ham | pork

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Bacon Buns

Baking Better Barbeque Buns



When I was in the hospital last August with a staph infection the intravenous antibiotics I was getting knocked me for a complete loop. I don't know why a drug would have this side-effect but apparently it's not that uncommon. I do know that I barely made it home in one piece (the hospital had no business releasing me to drive myself home) and I realized a couple of days later that "today" was Friday, not Thursday. In other words I'd lost a complete day in the hospital without knowing it.

I suppose this could be called jamais vu, meaning "never seen" in reference to my missing day, But jamais vu is actually reserved for that weird feeling of catching your own reflection in a mirror and momentarily failing to recognize yourself. At any rate jamis vu doesn't account for the feeling I got yesterday.

It was common-place to be planning the May issue, working with writers on the April issue, doing initial edits on the March issue, making final tweaks on the February issue, and have the January issue at the printer — all of this in December.

I was reflecting on the fact that this past week has been almost a total washout — I accomplished almost nothing and I was trying to figure out how to salvage the week. I was checking my calendar to figure out where I was most behind when I realized I wasn't behind, I was a week ahead. This feeling used to be common when I was editing a monthly magazine and had as many as four issues at various stages going at once with a fifth just arriving from the printer. It was common-place to be planning the May issue, working with writers on the April issue, doing initial edits on the March issue, making final tweaks on the February issue, and have the January issue at the printer — all of this in December. I loved that job, but it had its temporal challenges.

The result of my latest case of temporal confusion means I'm planning to go out to my parent's house on Sunday to barbeque a Boston Butt (for pulled pork) and some pork ribs for Father's Day. But Father's Day is still a week off as I write this — and I realized while I was panicking yesterday over a wasted week.

Not only have I already met all of next week's deadlines, but all but two of the following week's. This is exactly where I should be. Over the past 20 years as a professional writer I've learned that things can interfere with deadlines. And so I set my own deadlines a week in advance of my editors' deadlines. In all these years most things I've written have been submitted early, a few went in on time, and only two were ever late. And the week I spent in the hospital back in August had no effect on deadlines beyond the two weekly things I can't do two weeks in advance.

So tomorrow, a week early, I'm going out to my folk's celebrate Fathers' Day by barbequing. Today I applied dry rub to the pork and I've got my bacon buns rising. The bacon buns are something I came up with specifically for pulled pork sandwiches. Something with a bit more flavor and texture than the usual hamburger buns, but also complementary to the star of the show — the pork.

I think some whole-wheat flour is needed for both flavor and texture — but I've learned it's much less than I originally supposed. This time the proportion of wheat to white was less than 1 to 3. Slow rising and minimal yeast produce deeper and richer flavors and I have bias toward such flavor. But these characteristics also produce a tougher bread because the gluten is more developed. And I didn't want the bun to be so much an ingredient as a condiment — at least in this case. A quick single rise works best. For additional flavor bacon fat in the buns instead of the usual butter, is an excellent choice.

Bacon Buns
Makes 8 buns.

1 c milk
1/2 c water
1/4 c bacon fat
1 c whole-wheat flour
3 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 ea egg

Heat the milk, bacon fat, and water in a small saucepan until about 120F.

Mix together 2 cups flour, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. Mix in milk mixture, followed by the egg.

Add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time — switching to the dough hook after adding a cup and a half of flour. Knead for 8 minutes then turn out on a floured board and knead 2 or 3 minutes longer if required. Shape dough into a roll and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 10 equal pieces. Form each piece into an oblong shape and place on a parchment lined baking sheet (you'll need two sheets). Spritz buns with a light coating of oil and cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until slightly more than doubled in bulk.

While the buns are rising, heat the oven to 400F and position a rack in the middle of the oven.

Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate baking sheet 180 degrees. Bake another 2 to 4 minutes until golden brown.

Try these Bacon Buns with...
Pulled Pork
Potato Salad
Blackberry Ice Cream

Technorati: Food | recipe | bread | buns | bacon

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Braised Pork and Onions

Tastes and Flavors



A few days ago I braised a pork shoulder. I seasoned the roast well with salt, pepper, and ground juniper berries. Then I browned it in a Dutch oven in some olive oil. Following that I added a couple of cups of dry vermouth and three onions, quartered. The pot went into a 275 degree oven for five hours. It smelled pretty bad while it was cooking.

When I opened the pot it smelled great and when I served it an hour later it tasted even better. What happened?

I called my friend Bob del Grosso, a former teacher at the CIA and currently a salumuniere at Hendricks Farms and Dairy because I was baffled. We decided that the foul odor was probably a result of the onions — which went into the pot completely raw. The slightly rotten odor I was smelling was the natural sulfur compounds in the onions which were recombining because the pot was sealed instead of venting off quickly as they do when the onions are sweated before cooking.

We could be wrong. I've caramelized onions in sealed pots and they smelled great from beginning to end. But it brought back to mind a topic I find infinitely intriguing — the interaction of taste and smell.

The slightly rotten odor I was smelling was the natural sulfur compounds in the onions which were recombining because the pot was sealed.

Current thinking is that our taste buds can detect five character-istics: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and savory (umami). These basic tastes are complemented by the thousands of odors we can detect. What we think of as "flavor" is actually that combination of odor and taste. Those of us who love cheese (and are willing to experiment) are familiar with stinky cheeses — cheeses that smell almost rotten — but taste marvelous. And there's the famous durian fruit that, reputedly, smells absolutely vile and yet tastes wonderful.

When I create a dish and decide something is missing, I'll frequently open jars of herbs and sniff until I find what's needed. And although we know from watching the Food Network that even famous chefs taste their creations, it's not so obvious that when they aren't tasting they're still smelling. In the case of my pork shoulder I knew absolutely that the ingredients should work well together — experience taught me this. So although I had doubts about the final dish because of the smell, I stuck with it to the end and was rewarded with a wonderful meal.

Braised Pork with Onions
Serves 6.

3 lb pork butt/shoulder roast — trimmed of all apparent fat
2 tbsp juniper berries
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1 - 2 cups dry vermouth
3 md onions

Heat oven to 275F.

Put juniper berries in a small zippered plastic bag and flatten with a meat mallet. Scoop into a mini food processor and process until the size of coarsely-ground pepper.

Pat the pork dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Season with ground juniper.

Remove ends of onions cut into quarters top to bottom then cut each quarter in half horizontally. Peel.

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven until shimmering then brown pork on all sides. Add onions and enough vermouth to come half way up the pork. Cover pot and place in oven for 5 hours.

Try this roast with...
Baby Potatoes
Fried Okra
Buttermilk Pie with Lemon/Mint Sauce

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pork

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Left-Left-Overs

Left-Left-Overs



Like so many of my fellow bloggers, I've been trying to clear some of the detritus out of my freezer. So far I've eaten freezer-burned chicken thighs with rice, freezer-burned Italian sausages in a ragout, and freezer-burned peas and beans. I just threw out the freezer-burned shrimp. (By the way, confit doesn't get freezer-burned - a very good thing). These efforts have made a dent in the ice-box, but I still have a ways to go until I can see the back wall.

I've been wanting to get one of those food sealers, but had trouble justifying the cost. But a friend recommended the new hand-held vacuum sealer from Reynolds ($9.95 + special bags) so I'm checking it out and will post a review here in a month or so.

I was inspired by Dr. Biggles posts on cooking pork roast in his clay cooker, but I seldom use mine and when I pulled it off the shelf it was moldy inside.

This week I pulled out a two-pound pork shoulder roast (not freezer-burned) and cooked it. I was inspired by Dr. Biggles posts on cooking pork roast in his clay cooker, but I seldom use mine and when I pulled it off the shelf it was moldy inside. I'm going to try cleaning the cooker, but in the meantime I still needed to fix supper. So I rubbed the roast with a paste of lemon zest, crushed garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and olive oil and let it marinate for about six hours. Then I roasted it at 300F for a couple of hours covered with foil, pulled off the foil, and continued cooking for another hour and a half until it was nice and crusty.

The roast was good, but the rub was undetectable - so I put some freezer-burned Romesco sauce on it. I'm going to try this again but plan to give it 24 hours to marinate wrapped tightly in plastic.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | seriously good | left-overs

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Benton's Country Ham

Road Trip



It was a gorgeous winter day — or at least as gorgeous as any winter day in East Tennessee meaning the hills were brown, the trees were bare, and the sun was shining but with that watered-down light that seems to make colors duller rather than brighter. It was also warm (mid-50s). So I finally made the trip out to Benton's Country Ham that I've been meaning to make for the past year.

It's a long drive (two hours round trip — 80-plus miles) and because my father lives closer and makes the trip regularly, I usually just ask him to pick up an order for me that I get the next time I visit my folks. However, I've been wanting to take photographs of the low, concrete building and the wooden racks on which hams and bacon hang. I forgot my camera the last time I drove out there, but a chance comment on Facebook yesterday (someone was wishing for a Benton's ham room freshener) prompted me to put today's plans aside and head out there.

There was fellow there ahead of me buying a big bag of stuff. Heavy set, 30ish, blue-collar type in a safari jacket (of all things) who seemed a tad out of place so I asked him if he'd been there before. "Nope." So I told him to be sure and get some sausage: "Benton makes the best sausage in the world." He ordered some and while we were waiting I learned he'd been sent on a six-hour round trip to pick up an order for his boss — and I thought I had a long drive.

My father is the one who first introduced me to Allan Benton's products some 15 years ago and it was love at first bite. Even when I was living in Oregon, New Hampshire, and California I'd get him to bring me a ration of cured meat whenever he and my mother came for a visit or I'd make a run out to Vonore whenever I visited them. At first this was the only way to get the stuff, but even after Benton started selling mail-order on the Web it was still the only way to get his sausage.

Having lived all over the country I'm convinced that the only place you can find decent country sausage is in the South. Southern sausage is meaty and it seems like everywhere else it's mealy - the texture reminds me of something made using bread crumbs, or, worse, oatmeal. And everywhere else the flavor is one-dimensional lacking depth, breadth, and subtlety. Southern sausage, even poor Southern sausage is chewy, fatty, and brilliant on the tongue.

Benton goes a step beyond ordinary Southern sausage. He offers four varieties — hot and mild, smoked and non-smoked. As I said, this is the best damned country sausage in the entire world — or at least that I've ever eaten. Over time I've come to prefer the hot having decided the smoked hides the nuances of the seasoning (and only wimps eat mild).

The oddest thing about the sausage is its slightly grainy texture. I finally decided Benton adds a bit of ground country ham to the sausage. This explains both the graininess and the depth of flavor. I've experimented with trying to duplicate the recipe and with a fresh batch of the real thing on hand for comparison I'll try again. It isn't that I'm not perfectly happy buying from Allan Benton, but there's a puzzle there I want to figure out.

At any rate, I came home with a pound and a half of sausage, a half-pound of bacon (you really don't need more than a slice per meal), a few ham steaks, and what they call Benton's Prosciutto — by which they mean thinly sliced country ham. It may not be Prosciutto de Parma, but this so-called prosciutto makes one of the best panini I've ever eaten. Along the same lines, I often do a variation on Pasta Carbonara using country ham instead of pancetta. Its character is completely different from the original dish and absolutely delicious.

Benton sells his products to some of the best restaurants around the country and you can order the ham, bacon, and prosciutto from his Web site. But if you want to taste the best-damned country sausage in the world you'll have to come to East Tennessee and make a run to Vonore (just down the road from Madisonville) to pick some up. But wait until spring, the countryside is a lot prettier then.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | seriously good | Bentons ham | pork

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Toutièrre

Christmas Dinner



My parents won't drive at night, so if I want to have them over to my place for a meal it has to be lunch and on most holidays I end up going to their house. That's fine except it usually means I can only cook one or two things and they either have to be transportable or simple enough to prepare in an hour. So when I learned my sister was coming down for Christmas I insisted we have Christmas dinner here - driving at night isn't a problem for her so she could bring the folks.

We began our meal with champagne, a smoked trout and cheese spread, and a mushroom pâte my mother had made — and we opened gifts. It was a significantly bookish year gift-wise. But given we're all fanatic readers that worked. (Dad gave me Fearnley-Whittingstall's Meat, which has been on my list for ages.) Then we had Christmas dinner.

Like everyone else, money is really tight for me right now so roast goose or prime rib were out.

Like everyone else, money is really tight for me right now so roast goose or prime rib were out. But this wasn't a huge problem as I've been wanting to make a traditional French Canadian (Quebecois) Christmas dish — Toutièrre. This is a savory meat pie made of pork and beef and it's not only extraordinarily good, but as you can see in the photo above it makes an impressive, albeit rustic, presentation.

To accompany it I sautéed kale with garlic and pork confit and made cauliflower puree. I've done cauliflower puree before but I ran across a recipe on Serious Eats that added shredded Parmigiano to the mix. For me, this was the surprise star. The cheese was an extraordinarily good complement to the cauliflower.

Inevitably, dessert was Bourbon Cake.

Tourtièrre
Serves 8 - 10.

pastry (see below)
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 lg onion — diced
3 cloves garlic — minced
2 tbls bacon grease or vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 c beef stock
3 ea medium potatoes — peeled and quartered
salt and pepper
1 ea egg
1 tsp milk

Make pastry and refrigerate (see below).

Boil potatoes until fork tender. Drain and cool.

Heat bacon grease or oil over medium high heat. Add beef, pork, onion, and garlic. Season with salt, pepper, and allspice. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring to cook evenly. Add beef broth, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Cool. Drain liquid and reserve.

Heat oven to 400F.

In a bowl, coarsely crumble potatoes with a fork and add meat mixture. Stir in enough of the reserved broth to thoroughly moisten mixture but no more.

Remove pastry from refrigerator and allow to warm up until top edges are pliable -- about 10 minutes. Fill pastry shell to within 1/2" of top. Moisten edges and lay on top crust and press to seal. Beat together egg and milk and brush pastry. Cut several slits in top and bake in middle of oven for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Pastry

You can substitute shortening for the lard if you wish, but the lard really works in this recipe.

2 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
3/4 c cold lard
1/2 c cold butter
5 tbsp ice water

Thoroughly mix flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.

Add the lard and break up with your fingers until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse corn meal.

Add water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture clumps together. Use your hands to mix in the water.

Form two balls from the dough, one a bit larger than the other. Press the larger ball flat on a floured work surface and roll it out to form a circle. Line the inside of a 9" springform pan. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate.

Roll out second ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate.

On this occasion I made a mushroom sauce using red wine and veal demi-glace to go on the pie, but it isn't necessary.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pot pie | savory pie | beef | pork

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Sausage Balls

Early Genius - Holiday Pork



I was nine or 10 when I got the assignment: make sausage balls. I suspect I brought it on myself. My memory from so long ago is fuzzy but I seem to recall lobbying my mother to make them one Christmas (she must have made them the previous year) and, as she was wont to do, her response was, "If you want them, you make them."

You know the things I'm talking about, country sausage, cheddar cheese, and Bisquik mixed together, rolled into balls, and baked. The perfect task for a nine-year-old cook. So I made them and when we had our annual Christmas Day open house my sausage balls were part of the spread. Woohoo! I not only got to make them and eat them but I got to show them off to all the adults!

My job, my Christmas calling, was to make sausage balls.

Well…. From that day on I was the sausage ball king. As the years passed and my cooking skills improved I'd contribute other things to the Christmas open house menu, but my job, my Christmas calling, was to make sausage balls. And I did, every year until I left home.

I made them a few times thereafter, but eventually I forgot about them until I was writing an yesterday article about those long ago Christmases and remembered them. How could I have forgotten? Sausage is the next best thing to bacon and these included cheese! So this morning I had to go to the store, buy the ingredients, and make a batch. Lordy, lordy, lordy…

They were everything I remembered: greasy, chewy, spicy, bready, delicious. There is nothing remotely sophisticated about them: the flavors are simple, assertive, and one-dimensional; the preparation is so simple a nine-year-old can do it; and they were invented simply to offer another way of using Bisquick (current Bisquick recipe). But, nevertheless, they're damned good. If you want to get a tad fancier you might make these sausage rolls, but frankly, the sausage balls are better.

Sausage Balls

1 lb. bulk country sausage
1 lb. sharp cheddar cheese — shredded
2 c. Bisquick

Heat oven to 350F.

Measure Bisquick into a large bowl. Add small pinches of sausage to the Bisquick, stirring often to coat the sausage. Add shredded cheese and mix thoroughly. (Note: I used my KAStand Mixer with the paddle blade to do the mixing.)

Form mixture into 1-inch diameter balls and place on a baking sheet (Note: I usually line the pan with aluminum foil to eliminate cleanup.) These will fill two quarter-size baking pans.

Bake the first pan for 15 - 20 minutes until lightly browned, cool pan on a rack then peel foil from balls. Repeat for second batch.

Options: Gruyere would be a great alternative to cheddar as would comte - even Jarlsburg would work. You could also use Italian sausage and provolone.

Although most country sausage includes fennel seed and/or sage, bumping up either of those flavors would work.

You can offer a good brown mustard or a homemade flavored mayo as a dip - but frankly that's gilding the cabbage (there's no way these can be called lilies).

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | appetizer | pork

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Pork Chops with Apples

Thinking About Supper



It's six o'clock and in a couple of hours I'm going to want supper. I know what I'm going to fix because I started thinking about it last night in bed right after I turned off the lights. I've got some boneless pork loin chops and some apples I bought at yesterday's farmers market. Last night I made my hot potato salad for supper, so I'll have some leftovers tonight as well.

My plan is to peel, core, and chop the apples. They'll go into a sauce pan with some butter for a quick browning, then I'll add a splash of beer, some molasses, cinnamon, curry powder, and a pinch of salt. To finish, I'll simmer the apple until soft and most of the liquid evaporates.

The chop I'll simply pan fry until medium-done while I heat the oven broiler. Then I'll spoon some of the sautéed apples over the pork and, echoing my Austrian Pork Chops, add a slice of Jarlsberg and melt the cheese.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | pork | main dish

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"Austrian" Pork Chops

Spontaneous Creation



Where does creation come from? I'm not talking in the religious sense (at least not directly) but in the human sense. Where do we get our ideas? Particularly those that seem completely off-the-wall and yet aren't?

I've long sense given up on the idea that I'm in any sense capable of original thought. For instance I once came up with the idea of being able to draw a user input screen on a computer (this was back in the days when most monitors were textual and not graphic). I spent over six months designing a program to design the screen and create the computer code to support it. About the time I finished a fellow named Dan Bricklin, who created one of the first spreadsheets, released his program doing the same thing. This wasn't the first software idea I had several months too late.

This dish is wonderfully savory and edgy — not unlike a Reuben sandwich.

And there was the time I first added anchovy paste to marinara sauce. I thought the idea was brilliant, adding depth and richness to the sauce without altering the flavor. I subsequently learned it's an old Italian trick. I even know why now (anchovies contain MSG and so heighten savory flavors).

Being a day late and ending up a dollar short pretty much sums up my creative abilities. So this recipe is probably nothing extraordinary. I was in the supermarket and picked up a package of boneless chops and wondered what I might do with them. This idea came to me. I've never seen such a thing before but I could taste it the moment I thought of it. In fact, I liked it so much I made it twice in a row.

Austrian Pork Chops
Serves 4.

4 boneless pork chops - 3/4" thick
Salt and cracked pepper
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 15 oz can chopped sauerkraut - well drained
2 tbsp minced fresh rosemary
4 slices Jarlsburg

Heat oil over medium-high in a saute pan. Season chops generously with salt and pepper and brown well on both sides.

Mix sauerkraut with rosemary and spread chops generously with the mixture. Cover pan and reduce heat to medium low. Cook for about 10 minutes. Top chops and kraut with cheese, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes until cheese is melted.

Scoop up the kraut that fell into the pan and browned and use as a garnish on the chops.

This dish is wonderfully savory and edgy. Not unlike a Reuben sandwich, but not like one either - it evokes connections, but not memories for me. Try it with Brussels sprouts or broccoli on the side. And some potatoes roasted in lard wouldn't be out of place.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pork

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Roast Pork Sandwich

Magical Sandwich



For the most part I'm a fairly laid-back guy — calm and collected with a light Southern drawl (actually, an Appalachian mountain drawl). Not real excitable. At both meetings and parties I spend more time observing than talking. And so it sometimes surprises people when I get off on one of my passions, because I do have passions.

I can rant for hours on software quality and the value of proper software testing. The same when it comes to software design. And don't get me started on the importance of editors for producing quality written work — this blog really suffers from not having a second pair of eyes approve each post before it goes online.

My friend, Kitchen Mage, calls me "Pig, Sandwich Boy," reflecting my passion for pork, sandwiches, and pork sandwiches.

I have culinary passions too. My friend, Kitchen Mage, calls me "Pig, Sandwich Boy," reflecting my passion for pork, sandwiches, and pork sandwiches. Get me started on a food passion and I'll go a mile-a-minute, my words spilling over each other like ping-pong balls cascading down a stair-well. Witness this podcast on NPR.

One would think that having just completed an article on sandwiches that I'd be sandwiched out, but in fact I was inspired to come up with something new. So I bought a pork sirloin roast.

I cut slits in the roast and stuffed them with slivers of garlic and fresh rosemary leaves and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Then I browned the roast in a skillet before slow-roasting it at 225F to medium. I knew going in that the strong garlic/rosemary flavors would make selecting other ingredients for a sandwich tough, but I like a challenge.

I selected Kaiser rolls for the bread, picking up a package at Fresh Market (the local equivalent of Whole Foods). I wanted the thin but crackly crust and dry, spongy crumb of a good Kaiser roll. The first sandwich was the roll with mayonnaise and Dijon mustard for condiments, provolone cheese, lettuce, and sliced tomatoes. In short, nothing out of the ordinary but I wanted a base line.

The cheese was completely wrong. I'd had smoked cheddar in the back of my head, but although smoked cheese seemed like a good bet, cheddar didn't and neither did smoked swiss. Rummaging through the cheese case at the market I found some sliced smoked gouda. Milder and more creamy than cheddar or swiss I figured it was worth a try. Bingo!

The tomato and lettuce didn't really contribute anything either. So I dumped them and went with very thin (1/8-inch) slices of red onion. The sweetness of the onion was a perfect foil to the garlic slivers.

Sandwich two was better, but still not there. Not enough cheese and the condiments weren't working. For sandwich three I pan-roasted some cloves of garlic, pureed them and added them to the mayo, then I stirred in some whole grain mustard. This too was a winner. I now had the right bread, the right cheese, the right condiment, and the right veggie. But something was still needed. Thinking back over the sandwiches I'd recently written about I suddenly had it. I'd quick-pickled some daikon for the bhan mi and that combination of slightly spicy/hot, sweet, and tart would be perfect on this sandwich. It was. Over the top.

I think, in honor of my friend, I'll call this a Kitchen Mage.

Kitchen Mage Sandwich
Makes 1

6 oz garlic/rosemary roasted pork (recipe here)
Kaiser roll
Garlic/mustard mayonnaise (see below)
Red onion — sliced 1/8" thick
Smoked gouda — 1/4" thick, at room temperature
Pickled daikon (see below)

The pork should be sliced very thin, the more flesh exposed to air the better the flavor.

Kaiser rolls tend to be thick, so I cut out a center slice to reduce the amount of bread.

Spread both halves of the roll lightly with the garlic/mustard/mayo. Layer on remaining ingredients.

Garlic/Mustard Mayonnaise

4 large garlic cloves
1/4 c mayonnaise
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp whole-seed Dijon mustard

Roast whole, unpeeled garlic cloves in a small skillet over medium heat until soft — about 15 minutes. Turn garlic frequently to avoid burning. Peel garlic and puree garlic in a mini food processor, add remaining ingredients and pulse several times to blend.

Pickled Daikon

1/4 c rice vinegar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c daikon strips

Whisk together vinegar, sugar, and salt until dissolved.

Peel 3 inches of daikon, then use peeler to make strips of daikon. Soak in vinegar solution for at least 30 minutes. Drain before using.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | sandwich | pork

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Mediterranean Pork Roast

Sandwich Planning



As you may have gathered from my Kitchen Window article, I've been on a bit of a sandwich binge lately. But in fact, I haven't eaten that many sandwiches because two of the recipes were for sandwiches I'd previously perfected and photographed. Yesterday I felt myself suffering from a sandwich deficit. On reflection, I decided I wanted a pork sandwich, that meant I needed roast pork and so last night I roasted a pork sirloin roast. Tonight, I make the sandwich. More to come...

You can find my recipe for the roast on About's Cooking for Two.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | cooking for two | pork | main dish

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Paisano: Schnitzel

Forgotten Tastes




About a month ago I purchased American Classics by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine. The book is a good modern reference to such traditional favorites as Chicken Pot Pie, Parker House Rolls, and Yellow Layer Cake done in the magazine's inimitable style of setting a goal and the experimenting until they achieve it. I don't always like their recipes, but I trust them and the investigation behind them.

One of the recipes I browsed was Crisp Pork Cutlets — something I haven't fixed in ages. So the other night I pulled a boneless pork loin chop out of the freezer and thawed it. I didn't follow the book recipe (although I'm sure I remembered parts of what I'd read) but instead followed my own instincts. The result was juicy, tender, and the essence of pork flavor.

Pork Cutlets

6 oz. boneless pork loin chop
1 egg — beaten in pie plate
1/4 c all purpose flour
sage, paprika, salt, black pepper
1/4 c sourdough bread crumbs — seasoned with sage, paprika, salt, & pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Pound chop to about 1/4" thick and season generously with sage, paprika, salt, & pepper (I'm particularly fond of freshly-ground Lamphong black pepper which is both spicy and highly aromatic). Dredge the chop in the flour, coat with egg, and thoroughly coat with bread crumbs. (Note: seasoning the pork directly is much more effective than seasoning the flour and or seasoning the bread crumbs alone.) Set chop aside.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add oil. Fry chop on each side until golden and crisp (about 2 minutes per side). Serve immediately.

I sauteed some frozen turnip greens in oil seasoned with curry powder to go with it. A great meal.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | paisano | pork

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Sirloin Pork Roast

Take it Easy



There's something odd about buying meat off the back of a truck in vacant supermarket parking lot. The setting makes me feel as though I'm engaged in something unsavory — like buying porn — nevertheless, I do it on most Fridays. West Wind Farms, which is located up on the Cumberland Plateau, makes three regular stops in Knoxville, including the grocery store parking lot, on Fridays to sell chicken, beef, pork, and turkey as well as a collection of specialty products they make such as summer sausage, corned beef, and salami.

The couple who own West Wind are nice folks and if I remember correctly they're both environmental scientists by training who decided to get into organic ranching. At any rate, on this day I'd been planning on getting a pork butt to make a pork daube. They didn't have a shoulder but they did have a pork sirloin roast.

My thinking was this approach would minimize the contraction of the muscle fibers and so avoid toughening the meat and driving the juices out.

This is a cut from the opposite end of the pig and is also largely opposite in character. Where the butt has multiple muscles running in different directions with layers of fat separating the muscles, the sirloin is only two primary muscles with relatively little internal fat. The character they have in common is that both cuts tend to be tough which means they're best cooked low and slow. But because of the lack of fat and connective tissue (both of which melt and produce a tender pork butt when braised or barbequed) the sirloin has a tendency to dry out. So I decided to roast it at 225F — very low and slow.

My thinking was this approach would minimize the contraction of the muscle fibers and so avoid toughening the meat and driving the juices out. I was right. I pulled the roast from the oven at 145F and after resting for 15 minutes slicing into it did no more than moisten the cutting board — the juices were all still inside and the roast was a perfect medium from about 1/4 of an inch inside to the center. And although not as tender as a loin roast, it certainly wasn't tough.

Roast Pork

3 lb. pork roast
3 lg. garlic clove &mdash smashed
Salt and pepper
Ground dried rosemary
1 small onion — diced
1 carrot — diced
1 stalk celery — diced
2 Tbsp. olive oil, separated
2 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
~3/4 cup red wine, separated

Heat oven to 225F.

Rub pork with one of the smashed garlic cloves. Sprinkle lightly on all sides with ground rosemary then season generously with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil in a large, oven-poof skillet over medium-high heat. Brown roast on all sides then transfer to a plate.

Add onions, carrot, and celery to skillet along with additional oil if needed and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to brown. Add garlic and thyme and cook a minute longer. Deglaze skillet with 1/2 cup of wine.

Place roast on top of vegetables and place skillet in center of oven. Cook until an instant read thermometer show the internal temperature reaches 145F (about 2 hours). Remove from oven from tent roast with foil.

Transfer 1 1/2 cups of vegetables from the skillet to a sauce pan and add enough additional wine to completely cover. Bring to a soft boil and cook about 15 minutes. Puree vegetable mixture in a blender or food processor. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve over sliced pork.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | pork | pork roast

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Pancetta, Yet Again

This is my second (and much more ambitious) batch of pancetta. As with my first pass, this is based on the recipe in Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. Someone (and I seem to have lost the email) suggested I do the drying in a wine fridge. I happened to have access to one and tried it — the results, as you can see, are gorgeous. Sadly, now I need to buy my own wine fridge.

Ever wondered what to do with pancetta?

Sauté with some garlic and minced anchovies until the fat renders. Add fresh spinach or blanched broccoli rabe, kale, or chard. and cook three or four minutes.

Add sautéed pancetta to risotto, polenta, or even grits.

Use a bit of ground pancetta in stuffed mushrooms.

Mix sautéed pancetta with chopped fresh tomato and shredded cheese as a topping for bruschetta.

Toss chopped, cooked pancetta in a salad.

Make a sandwich using several thin, grilled slices.

It's wonderful stuff.

Technorati: Food | photo | kevin d weeks | seriously good | pancetta | pork | italy | bacon | pork belly

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Meat

Meat



I noticed that my friend, the good Doctor and Reverend Biggles of Meathenge, was reduced to posting a photo of chicken in a pot this morning. The struck me as the perfect occasion to rub his nose in the pulled pork I smoked for 12 hours on Thursday.



You can find a recipe for the dry rub here and the sauce here.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin weeks | seriously good | pulled pork | barbeque

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Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Living Small — but not too small



This has been a tough month financially. My two most regular clients have been on hiatus and although my one-off business (dinner parties, picnics, that kind of thing) has continued to improve, food costs have been eating me alive.

I've always had a problem managing food costs. My attitude is I want to eat the best food I can find and that attitude extends to my clients as well -- I want to serve them the best food I can find. But food prices have risen a lot this year (cutting into profits from my regular clients who have a fixed, per-service, price) and although I cost the menu for a one-off before quoting a price I've done a poor job of estimating direct subsidiary costs.

Tonight I plan a wonderful cold broth based on fresh ice cubes and to go along with it some moldy asiago.

"Direct subsidiary costs?" Ok, just for the hell of it, here's how I classify food costs. Note: this is my working approach, not my accounting approach. (Just in case some IRS dude sees this and tries to hang me on it.)

Direct costs are the costs of all the fundamental elements of the meal. Meat, vegetables, fresh herbs, heavy cream, canned stock when I don't have homemade. These items compose the bulk of the meal.

Pantry costs are the ingredients of a dish that I amortize over multiple clients. Dried herbs, oils, vinegars, flour, wine, and on and on. I figure these constitute 25 percent of total food costs for my personal chef service clients.

Direct Subsidiary Costs are where I really get burned. These are expenditures associated directly with a meal, but they only apply to one-off meals. They're for things like flowers for a table setting, radishes for a garnish, or nice paper napkins for a fancy picnic. I never think of them while I'm planning the menu and concentrating on the food and recipes and burners and oven space and the 100 other things needed to serve a fancy meal precisely at 6:30 PM on a Monday evening. No, I think of these things when I'm in the store buying the ingredients or the night before as I'm working out the cooking schedule and figuring out what equipment I need to lug to the site.

Direct Subsidiary items are non-essential from the flavor standpoint, but essential for creating a perfect experience for the client. My Monday night dinner party cost me $15 in unanticipated direct subsidiary costs. A 23 percent cost increase over my estimate. Damn! I've got to do better.

All of this is to say I'm broke again after a decent spring and early summer. So I've been eating out of my freezer as much as possible. A good thing as it's time to scrub my refrigerator again. Hiding in the back I found a pork tenderloin from Laurel Creek Farms.

Laurel Creek is owned and worked by a fellow named Tracy Monday. I'd guess he's in his early forties. He's a short and rotund fellow with a slow, but ready, smile; a soft voice; old Southern manners; and the bib overalls that would make him a complete cliché if you didn't shake his hand and feel the callouses. He exudes honesty like parmigiano regiano exudes flavor crystals.

I've been saving the tenderloin for a special occasion, and I guess not starving to death would have to do. So I moved it to the fridge to thaw and gave some thought to how to cook it. I finally settled on marinating it in wine, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and a touch of lemon juice. Once thawed, the tenderloin got 24 hours in the marinade, was patted dry, and went on a hot grill for 2 minutes per side (I figure the cylindrical tenderloin has four sides). As you can see it was nicely pink in the center and I only needed a fork to cut it thanks to Tracy.

To go along with it I blanched some broccoli rabe then sautéed it in olive oil with pancetta, garlic, and anchovies. I also repeated the Potatoes Parmigiano recipe because I had a few taters left and it's so damned good.

Tonight I plan a wonderful cold broth based on fresh ice cubes and to go along with it some moldy asiago. And, well, there are a few tomatoes I got at the farmers' market yesterday and a cucumber. Checking freezer... Hmmm... Wonder what I can do with raw pig fat? Oh, I know...

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin weeks | seriously good | pork | essay | italian | grilling

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Pork Chops Florentine

alla Fiorintina



A few weeks ago Doc/Rev Biggles of Meathenge posted a photo of a gorgeous grilled pork chop. Then a week ago I received the August 2007 issue of Cuisine at Home that offered a recipe for "Pork Chops Florentine-Style." This was just too much. I haven't eaten a grilled pork chop since last summer and it was clearly time to do it again.

The recipe in Cuisine at Home intrigued me. Bistecca alla Fiorentina is a famous dish made with a thick T-bone or Porter House steak. I started doing research on it.

In this country we associate "Florentine" with spinach and cream sauces because of dishes such as Eggs Florentine or Chicken Florentine. The origins of this association aren’t clear, but according to one tale Catherine de Medici (yes, of those Medicis) brought spinach to the French Court and in honor of her Italian heritage, she called any dish containing spinach alla Fiorintina: "of the Florentines." Apocryphal or not, it probably was the French, those irrepressible arbiters of culinary terminology, who applied the term to any dish including spinach and cream. But no cuisine, particularly not one with the history of an Italian region behind it, can be so neatly encapsulated in a single preparation.

According to Lidia Bastianich, "[Steak Florentine] seems to have its origins with the many people from Northern Europe who fell in love with the countryside around Florence and decided to move to Tuscany. In fact, so many English relocated to the Chianti area that is has been dubbed 'Chiantishire.'" At any rate, ideally the beef for
Steak Florentine is from the Chianina cattle of the region, which were used primarily as draft animals and could be so large that a single steak might weight 6 pounds.

As I expected, the recipes were all over the map. If anyone ever tells you "this is the absolutely authentic and only way" to prepare a dish, put your boots on, the manure is getting deep. But lemon juice and olive oil were common ingredients in most of the recipes. So I took that as a given. The recipes were divided between marinating or not. I decided to marinate. I also decided not to include any acid in the marinade.

The two chops I had were grass-fed Berkshire hog and grass-fed meat tends to be tough. Marinating in acid would have made the meat even tougher. So instead of juice I elected to use lemon zest. To make sure the lemon got into the meat I heated the olive oil to a low simmer and infused it with the lemon zest, fresh oregano, and garlic. That was some damned-fine tasting oil.

Braciola di Maiale alla Fiorentina (Florentine Pork Chops)
Serves 2.

2 bone-in rib chops, at least 1 inch thick
1 cup olive oil
zest of two lemons (reserve lemons)
2 cloves garlic — minced
3 sprigs fresh oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine olive oil, lemon zest, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small skillet and cook over medium heat until it begins to bubble around the oregano sprigs. Remove from heat and let cool. Pour into a ziplock bag, add chops, and refrigerate for at least eight hours — turning occasionally to distribute marinade.

Remove pork from fridge an hour before cooking to warm up.

Build a hot fire in the grill. When the coals are ready, remove the chops from the marinade and dry on paper towels. Cook on each side for about 2 1/2 minutes over direct heat — until mahogany brown. Move chops off the direct heat but with the bone facing the heat and cover the grill and cook for four minutes more.

Serve with lemon wedges.

I had tabouleh with these chops — a perfect accompaniment. The flavors from the marinade are mild, but detectable, especially with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on top. Encourage your eaters to season generously with salt and pepper. Encourage your eaters to gnaw the bones as I did, searching for that last delectable morsel.

Technorati: Food | recipe | italy | italian | steak | pork | pork chops | florentine

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Paisano: Pinchos Morunos

In April of 711, the Arab governor of Tangiers, Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the strait between what are now Morocco and Spain with an army of 10,000 Berbers. At the time the Iberian peninsula was ruled by the Goths and their king, Roderick, took an army south to repel the Moorish invader, but Tariq and his troops defeated Roderick's army in a battle near the River Guadalete.

Tariq's army then followed the old Roman roads north to the Goths' capital city, Toledo, taking the cities of Ejica and Cordoba along the way. Resistance was minimal, whether reduced by Tariq's intimidatory propaganda (reportedly he'd had group of prisoners cut into pieces and their flesh boiled in cauldrons) or not. The invasion had been ordered by Musa, the governor of North Africa, who joined the invasion the following year with another Berber army of 18,000 -- including a large number of Arab officers. Musa took Medina Sidonia, Seville, and Merida, where a last stand by the Goths failed. And that was more or less that for the next 700 years until the Christians defeated the Moors and drove them out.

Close your eyes and taste the spices swirling across your tongue.

To this day traditional Spanish architecture shows a clear Moorish influence -- so does the cuisine.

Called Pinchos Morunos (Moorish Pointed Stick or Thorns), this recipe, adaped from the Williams-Sonoma Web site, highlights the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking. The Moors didn't eat pork but the Spaniards have, apparently, always loved eating pig. I can imagine the marinade with lamb, but judging by the results I'm positive it has been tweaked over the centuries to specifically complement pork.

These bites of pork are extraordinarily good. Close your eyes and taste the spices swirling across your tongue. One moment they stamp on your taste buds -- a Flamingo dancer pounding a rhythm of sensation, hard heels beating a tattoo with skirts flouncing. Then the flouncing skirts morph into swaying silks and delicate veils and the erotic languor of a belly dance caresses your tongue. Two cultures, choreographed into a seamless dance across the palate. Romancing the nose. Seducing the belly.

Moorish Pork Kabobs (Pinchos Morunos)
Serves 8.

1/2 cup olive oil
3 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt, plus more, to taste
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 lb pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 c chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 c fresh lemon juice

Combine the olive oil, cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne pepper, turmeric, oregano, salt, and pepper in a small skillet over low heat. Cook until warmed through and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Place the pork pieces in a bowl and rub with the spice mixture. Add the garlic, parsley and lemon juice and toss well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat a cast-iron grill pan over medium-high heat, or prepare a hot fire in a grill.

Thread the meat onto skewers and season with salt. Grill on all sides until just cooked through, 12 - 15 minutes total.

Technorati: Food | recipe | pork | pork kabobs | spain | morrocco | pinchos morunos

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The Day of Pigs

The Day of Pigs



Today was far more special than you could have imagined. This is not only the Chinese Year of the Pig, which occurs every 12 years, but the Golden Year of the Pig, which occurs every 600 years. On top of that, March 1 is National Pig Day, the first, and perhaps only, time there will be such a confluence porcinus. Clearly such an auspicious event called for a panoply of piggish prodigality. Fortunately I didn't have anything time-critical scheduled today so I had time this morning to give a little thought to the matter.

But what to do? I didn't want to make a trip to the store just to buy a pork chop for some lame last-minute effort at some lame last minute effort. And although I did have bacon and a couple of different kinds of sausage in the freezer, I wanted something special. Then I remembered I had some pork confit that I'd made a month ago and hadn't gotten around to tasting since I'd made it. This was the perfect occasion. A little more thought and I had my menu planned.

I decided to fry some potatoes with the pork confit in the fat from the confit and then toss the potatoes and confit with some grated Parmigiano Reggiano. I would serve it on a bed of Italian green beans sautéed with some of my homemade pancetta, garlic, and a couple of minced anchovy fillets (a treatment that has become one of my favorite ways of fixing greens and I thought it would work equally well with the beans — it did). I also had a few homemade bratwursts in the freezer, so I thawed one of them out as well. Then, figuring if it's worth doing it's worth over-doing, I decided to make buttermilk biscuits using lard that I'd rendered.

But even that wasn't enough. La Tienda had a sale on Serrano ham last week and I'd ordered some. It arrived today, clearly a omen, and in a last frenzy of pig-headedness I decided to wrap a few orange segments in ham as an amuse bouche. (The flavor pairing worked, but the orange overwhelmed the ham. I may try this again using country ham.)

And, as you can see above, that's exactly what I did. It was a remarkable meal built almost entirely of pork products that I made myself. I think even the CIA would be happy with the results.

Technorati: Food | recipe | pork | pig | National Pig day | bratwurst | pork confit

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