Sausagefest

Eat that!

Since this is amature food porn after all I will let the pictures do most of the talking. That and I failed to take adequate pictures throughout the sausage making process. I will say making sausage is pretty easy and the results where super tasty!

Pork shoulder cubed and seasoned with salt, chili powder, cumin, garlic, and fresh oregano.

Ground pork and seasoning.

Roasted and rough diced poblano peppers


Pig Intestines appear fragile, they are not.


Locked and loaded!

Getting my hands on the meat!

Not bad for my first time.


Linked up!

Fired up!

Hot off the grill. Homemade Pork and Roasted Poblano Sausage.

Tartiflette is Bacon Crack

Actual results differ from those pictured

When you have 2lbs. of home cured bacon in your fridge your mind starts obsessing on all things cured, salted, and smoked. My dream’s now come bacon-wrapped, what a wonderful fat-free delight!

So it is...while waiting for my wife as she ran into the mall for a minute. I had my River Cottage Cookbook in the car. Flip it open, and there it is, Tartiflette. A rustic sounding dish made with bacon, onions, potatoes, cheese, and heavy cream. Although, I would like to imagine it being made 150 years ago in rural France I come to find out after a little research that it actually was created as a marketing ploy to sell cheese. Oh...well.

If you are the type to judge a book by its cover my poor dish would not garner even a taste. I over parboiled my red potatoes so my dish lost some texture and shape. My "gas-grill-as-oven" experiment failed so I was unable to get a bubbly golden cheese crust. Lucky for me I was able to look past appearance and enjoy a devilishly good dish.

Tartiflette (My adaptation)

8 oz. Quality bacon or pancetta diced
1 lb. Yukon Gold Potatoes (parboiled then sliced)
2 Small white onions sliced
2/3 Cup Heavy Cream

4-6 oz. Emmenthaler (Traditionally Reblochon but any good melting cheese will do)

Preheat oven to 450. Set potatoes to parboil. Add the diced bacon to pan and set heat on medium.


Once bacon has begun to crisp and rendered most of it's fat add onions and cook gently till soft and golden. Add sliced potatoes and cook a few minutes more until potatoes brown slightly and onions begin to caramelize.

Pour bacon, potato, onion mixture into oven safe casserole. Pour cream over top and add the shredded or sliced cheese. Dish can be baked in oven until bubbling or can be refrigerated to be finished later.

Finished dish may lack visual appeal(to be corrected) but damn if it wasn't tasty. Paired perfectly with a tannic but fruity 2005 Vacqueyras (Southern Rhone red blend).

Bacon Part Deux

Home cured smoked bacon is pig candy! It took awhile, 7 days curing, 36 hours rinsed and resting to develop a pellicle , a tacky surface that allows the smoke to literally stick to the meat, and 3 hours hot smoking. But wow...just look at that picture. Bacon!

What went down...abbreviated version. I took the curing bacon out of the fridge, rinsed the belly well, and patted it dry. Back in the fridge for 36 hours uncovered. Saturday evening started up a little fire, soaked the apple wood chips, and smoked the belly for 3 hours.

The fire with the 1st addition of water soaked apple wood chips.

The pork belly at the start of the smoking process.

3 hours @ 200 degrees = Pig candy!!!

Into the Black...Hole in the Wall

Searching for new, exciting, and unusual eats in San Antonio and beyond

Machacado

It all started a few months back when I sent my friend and co-worker J. Rizzo a Serious Eats link about a sun dried beef popular in Mexico. The first words out of his mouth..."Machacado con huevo ". Somehow in all my years in San Antonio I had never heard of this. My friend enlightened me on the basics. Machacado con huevo is shredded beef (Carne Seca) made with eggs and usually chopped tomatoes, onions, and peppers. A beef jerky taco! I had to try it.

J. Rizzo sent me the recon for Las Gueras and we made a plan to meet the next day before work. We entered the small establishment and took our seats. When the waitress brought our menus I couldn't believe my eyes. On the cover was a blown-up glamour shot of the owner and her two daughters. Anybody who thinks this highly of themselves must have confidence in the food they make. I know I do.
I ordered up two tacos machacado con huevo, one on corn and one on flour. Before any discussion on the merits of a taco filling the tortillas must be evaluated. Both the corn and and flour tortillas were home made and fresh. I expected a lot more dried beef, each taco had only flecks of beef throughout. They tasted great though. The suprisingly tender beef a supporting player to the eggs, onion, and pepper, added a depth of flavor and savory richness. That flavor reminded me of what fish sauce or sardines do when well integrated in a dish. A rich saltiness that you may not be able to pinpoint. Asians call it Umami, the 5th taste. On a side note, I normally prefer corn tortillas but the neutral flavor of the flour tortilla allowed the subtle flavor of the carne seca to shine through. A new favorite.

Belly Dancers....aka Pork Confit

Well marathon pork belly weekend continues. Bacon is curing away in the fridge so time to move on to Pork Confit. What’s that you say? French cuisine is to stuffy, pretentious, and complicated. Sometimes...but not confit. Confit began as a method to preserve meat before refrigeration and now it is used as a method to make meat super freaking delicious. Once you complete the basic process you will also have the ultimate fast food waiting for you in the fridge.

Making confit is actually pretty simple. The process takes time but is not time consuming, so plan accordingly. It makes a nice weekend project. This is only my second confit and I am already very comfortable with the process. Basically you cure the meat of choice in a mixture of salt and herbs, then slow cook that meat in it’s own fat. Once done the meat can be refrigerated for at least a month or two submerged in said fat and then pulled out and reheated at a moment’s notice. Like I said, “The ultimate fast food”. I am going to use pork belly for my confit but you could use a nice fatty pork shoulder, picnic, or rump roast, even pork loin. The key here is not the ingredients but the method. But you will need the following.

2-4lbs pork, belly or picnic roast work well
pork fat (ideal) or lard that will cover meat during cooking

salt and pepper
garlic
thyme
other spices…be creative!

Step 1: The Meat and the Cure

I am using pork belly with a nice layer of fat. I score this fat well with a sharp knife. It will help the cure penetrate. I have cut my belly into mostly 3x3 pieces.

The Cure

Here is where the only rule comes in. You want to use sufficient salt. According to Charcuturie you want to use a min. of 1/3 oz. salt per pound of meat. You can be creative with spices but I am going to keep it simple.

My Cure

Salt and Pepper

Fresh thyme

2-3 cloves garlic

Coat the pork pieces all over with the rub, transfer to non-reactive container and cover. Let the pork cure for 24-36 hours.

Step 2: The cooking process. I am including the ideal oven based instructions but since my oven has been out for a week I had to improvise. My confit was cooked on the stove top for about 3 hours. I kept the fat at a constant 200 and it bubbled vigorously. If I could I would preheat oven to 190. Remove the curing pork from the fridge, rinse with cold water, pat dry. Slowly warm up the rendered pork fat or lard in a stove/oven safe pot. Place the pork pieces in the fat and ensure the are submerged. Add the garlic and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. Place in oven and cook for 7 hours. You are looking for a very subtle bubbling. Temperatures and times differ widely on published recipes so don't be afraid to research and adjust. Once the pork is done remove from oven and allow to cool to manageable temp.. The pork could be sauteed up in a hot pan immediately but will only get better with storage and aging.

Step 3: Storage
Once the pork has cooled transfer the pieces to lidded containers. Pour the reserved fat over the pork to cover. Avoid pouring any non-fat liquids (they will have accumulated at the bottom of the pot). Refrigerate until ready to use. I promise a tasting report….patience.

Make'n Bacon

I put in a special request for pork belly at Central Market a week ago and to my delight received a call as I was leaving work yesterday, the belly was in! Without hesitation, I ran over to the market and made my way to the meat counter. On the phone, the butcher had told me they had 28 lbs. of belly. A local sushi restaurant had dibs on 20 lbs. Wow! Wish he had given me the name of that place. So he brought up the rest, and I selected 3lbs. from the thickest part of the belly(for roasting) and another 3 lbs. of thinner belly for making bacon. That left a perfect little 2lb. piece, hum...confit perhaps. At that moment he cut me off. "The guy's back here don't even know what price we are supposed to be selling this for, so I have made the decision to let you take it @ $2 a lb.." Oh...really? Well, like I needed much convincing. I took it all.

I am now a proud, first-time owner of pork belly, 8lbs. of pork belly! So what do I do now? Make smoked bacon of course. The recipe I chose was from Charcuterie. It is a basic rub of kosher salt, sugar, pink salt(a speciality salt used in curing to protect against bacteria growth), and maple syrup. A sweet rub works best if you plan on slicing strips or using the bacon for breakfast.

Basic Cure

8 oz. Kosher salt
4 oz. sugar
2 oz. pink salt

Mix the ingredients well and shake even in a pan large enough to hold the belly. Place the belly on top of the salt and press. Flip the belly and make sure all sides are coated. My belly is about 3 lbs.. This amount of rub will work for a belly between 3-5 lbs..

The belly is then placed in sealed container. A large freezer bag is perfect. The maple syrup can be added now, about 1/2 a cup will do. Then into the fridge for what will probably be a 7 day cure. Don't forget to flip the belly every other day to redistribute the cure. The bacon will be ready once it becomes firm. Can it really be this easy? We will see.

Loddy Doddy Who Likes to Party?

http://www.slate.com/id/2210014/

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
-Abraham Lincoln

Birth of a Blog

Wow! This was easier than I thought it would be. Sitting in my little cube with the normal 5-6 daily work hours to kill. Let me see. Start the food and wine blog you always tell yourself you’re going to start. An hour later (had to break for caffeine) and here it is. I can’t say for sure where I might be headed with this thing but I do love all things eatable and drinkable regardless of shady reputation. Add to that my ferocious appetite (no pun intended, well maybe) and curiosity toward all things digestible and I believe I have a decent foundation to build upon and maybe something to share. We will see.


There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry. – Mark Twain