Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Home Grown Tomatoes w/ Home Smoked Bacon
SF is hitting its summer stride now. For a few days no fog and the temps reaching highes that make San Franciscans not want to cook. So what better than to enjoy a cool end of summer salad with some fresh home grown tomatoes cut into 8ths and drizzled in good Olive Oil and salted with grey sea salt, add arugula, a smattering of home made bacon and a dash of sherry vinegar. A beat the heat meal with smokey cool flavor.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Green Chile Sous Vide Style
As fall approaches I can't help but think about roasted green chilies and the best damn stew/condiment most people out side of New Mexico or Colorado know nothing about, I am talking about Green Chile. Mean Green the stew that is satisfying on its own in a bowl, or as a condiment poured on eggs, potatoes, hamburgers, pasta, rice....... Name a food I'd put Green Chile on about anything.
The best chile for making Green Chile is a Hatch Chile Pepper from Hatch, New Mexico, but it is a rare find in the Bay Area so I had to improvise using a combination of Anaheims, Jalapeno, and Pasilla peppers. Hatches have the perfect spice, the California Anaheims tend to be milder than the Hatch Pepper, so the Jalapenos brought the heat and the Pasilla give a nice color and a rich rounded pepper flavor.
To get the best flavor out of the peppers they need to be roasted, you can do it on your BBQ, under a broiler or stove top like I did.
After charring the peppers need to hit the sweat lodge. Any environment that traps the moisture of the charred peppers works, here I have used a bowl with plastic wrap, but you could use a paper bag, a pot with a lid, anything that will allow it some sauna action to loosen the skin away from the flesh of the pepper.
Remember when removing the skins you are going to get capsaicin,the stuff that makes chilies spicy, on your hands. To avoid feeling a little burn on your hands, wear food handler gloves or after peeling give your hands a quick wash in veggie oil before using soap and water, the capsaicin dissolves in fat.
Now getting to the meat of it I have to invoke the PFR law. That is Pork Fat Rules, since this ain't a vegan blog we'll talk about our butt, pork butt that is. A nice 2 pound piece of boneless pork butt was treated with a generous rub down of kosher salt (I guess not so kosher), black pepper, dried garlic and dried onion powder sat in the fridge overnight.
The pork butt and peeled peppers, seeds included, were then vacuum sealed and ready for a 12 hour hot bath, in my Sous Vide Supreme, water oven.
Set to 80 degrees Centigrade, our submerged chile pork pack is transforming itself to the most tender and delicious green chile.
After its bath you can see the juicy pork stock transformation from our over night bath that we will use for the base of our stew!
Not that it really needs it but everything is better with beer, so we added a little beer to a sock pot to bring to a boil with our pork stock.
While the beer and stock come to a boil, shred the pork and chilies. Then add the shredded pork mixture to the pork stock and lower heat and allow the shredded pork to heat up.
Once heated, enjoy in a bowl with a tortilla if you're a purist, but if you are a fanatic like me you'll add pour it on everything. Mmmmm green chile doughnuts.....
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Basic Dry Rub for Chicken Fish or Pork
Being half Irish I understood why my Irish friend Rory, asked for a dry rub recipe. Not that Irish food is bad, but I have never heard it called spicy, or particularly flavorful for that matter. So here is a really basic, simple and delicious spice rub that works not just on chicken, but on fish and pork as well. For those on the Emerald Isle, don't worry its not spicy with heat, but rather delicious with flavor.
The measurements don't matter as long as the ratio stays relative.
So start with equal parts of coriander seed and fennel seed, and half part cumin seed.
In skillet over high heat toast the seeds until they just start to become fragrant, releasing their essential oils. Be careful not to over toast the seeds, by over toast I mean don't burn them, they should become fragrant in a minute or two.
Place the toasted spices in a spice grinder, aka a coffee grinder, just make sure you don't grind your coffee in it, unless you like a little cumin in your coffee.
Grind into a powder and place into a bowl.
Measure out the same amount of kosher salt as the coriander seed, and half an amount of each granulated garlic and granulated onion. Then place in the bowl with the ground spices.
Mix all of the ingredients until evenly distributed. This dry rub is the perfect flavor enhancer for chicken, pork and most fish, and will keep for 3 months in a tightly sealed container. Coming soon a recipe using this rub on chicken.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Retro New Rock n Roll
Looks like this video was shot in the 80's and sounds like it recorded in the 50's.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Make great bacon. You can do it!
Some people ask why I would make bacon. There are a lot of reasons, the main being the fact that I can say I did it. And so can you! Its easy once you know how and I just showed you how simple it is. Know that you can do it too. Below is a video from a farm outside of Parma, Italy where I had the best tasting pork ever. My lovey wife beams one of her great smiles as we watched feeding time at Il Tondino.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Smoking Bacon
So chilled after a night uncovered in the fridge, now ready for the hot smoke to turn our little innocent pork belly into sexy bacon. The hot coals are offset from where the pork will be. The indirect heat needed is 200 degrees F.
Since the charcoal alone won't give it enough smokiness, adding some applewood smoking pellets will produce the smoke needed. Tossing a small handful on the coals about twice an hour yields a pleasant smokey flavor and creates that beautiful smoky patina.
Internal thermometer is inserted in the pork belly, to make bacon it needs to rise to 150 degrees F.
Yes, hot smoke action.
Keep that heat slow and low 200 degrees F. I had a small Smokey Joe going with a few backup coals burning when I needed to add more to maintain the heat.
Reaching our goal of not only 150 internally, but also in creating damn sexy pieces of pork.
Skin is a little too chewy, so carefully remove it and reserve it to add to beans, soups and sauces. I chopped it up and placed in the freezer for future uses.
Sliced and ready to devour. However this bacon wasn't made to make bacon strips with eggs over easy, it was made to make more incredibly delicious meals and blog posts...nom, nom, nom
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Bacon Cont. Today we chill, tomorrow we smoke
So out of the fridge and ready for the rinse.
A quick rinse under cool running water.
After the rinse set up a sheet pan with a wire rack.
Then pat dry the pork belly with some paper towels and place on rack.
After patting dry place uncovered in the fridge over night to dry out more a little more, because today we chill & tomorrow we smoke.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Great Wine Value <$10 Caves du Fournalet from TJ's
So here is my wine theory. Europeans have been making wine the better part of over 1000 years. They have wine making down, and its a part of their culture. The US has not been around as long and while we have been wine making since Europeans began settling here, our wine making efforts have been a bit hodge-podge. Vineyards have been passed down through the centuries in Europe. Our vineyards for the most part have just been put into production in the last half century. Therefore I find that lower cost wines from Europe are much more enjoyable than wines made here.
One I find to be very tasty at the bargain price of $4.99 is pictured above and I can only find it at local Trader Joes. It will not win awards for being the best, but good wine is fine enough for me and my wallet.
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