Pork Chili Recipe That Will Make You Squeal!

So the day was Super Bowl Sunday 2012.   My NY Giants were gearing up for the game and I decided that I needed to represent and make some chili.  Nuffin' says luvin' like Super Bowl Chili.  I texted some people and got a lil Super Bowl event going on at my house.   It was time to go shopping and get my chili ingredients.

Since I called an audible on throwing a Super Bowl party I needed to get ingredients that would power up the flavor and maximize my time that I had to cook the chili.    It was 430pm and I was at the butcher.   Game time was 6pm and I planned on serving the chili at half time.   

Pork was the clear choice because it is such a flavorful meat.    I decided to go with 4 selections of meat for my chili:

6 pieces pork stew meat

1lb of Bork (part chopped beef and part chopped pork)

1 hunk of uncut butcher block smoked bacon

1 smoked pig foot.   Mmmmm smoked pig foot heh

So let us take some time to about why I chose the meat I chose.   

Well for one thing I wanted to have more then one type of meat texture so I decided to get the stew meat and the chopped meat.   The stew meat would be pulled and stringy which is wonderful.   The chopped bork would be the quintissential meat texture you expect in a chili.    

The bacon I am going to be adding at the end so let's move to the really fun ingredient...   SMOKED PIG FOOT...   Now the reason I picked up this ingredient was to really amp up the porkiness and smokiness of the chili.  But let's be honest....  it is a friggin smoked pig foot.   How could I possibly resist?!????

I mean look at that thing.  It is gorgeous and wacky all at the same time.    I needed to experience the power of the smoked pig foot.  I could need resist it's draw.  Mmmmm Smoked Pig Foot.   

So here was the other ingredients I got for the chili.   

1 hunk of beautiful aged cheddar cheese

2 tablespoon Thai chili powder

1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper corn

1 tablespoon Yellow mustard powder

1 teaspoon All spice

1 teaspoon Cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried chili flake

1 tablespoon of honey

2 large cans of crushed tomatoes

1 large yellow onion

1 large shallot

1 can of black beans

2 cans of butter beans

4 large cloves of garlic

some warm water

Kosher salt

Black pepper

pickled jalapeños

sour cream

olive oil

Given I was rushed for time I decided to use two pots.  One pot so I can stew the meat and create a base that is porky porky porky.   One pot to make a sweet and spicy tomato base.   Once I was satisfied with the flavor bases I would combine the two pots and cook it down to remove the moisture. 

Porky Pot:

First I seasoned all the meat with salt and black pepper.  I heated up the pot and put some olive oil on the bottom.   I dropped in the stew meat and started to sear it to create a nice browning on it.    Once it was nice and brown I dropped in the bork and browned that up.   I added in the mustard, nutmeg, all spice, sichuan pepper corns, and thai chili powder.   I coated all the meat in the spices and then dropped in the pork foot.   Mmmm pork foot.   I covered the whole thing with water so the pork was submerged in water but just enough to submerge it.    I started it simmering and let the meat go go go.   About 20 mins in I added in the can of black beans and about 45 mins in I removed the pork foot so the smoke flavor did over power the pork pot.  

Now I realize the sichuan peppercorn and thai chili powder are hard ingredients to find.  I suggest hitting up your local asian super markets or hitting up your local china town.   Either way they are worth the effort!  Super delicious and amazing flavor.   The sichuan peppercorn are amazing!   They make your mouth numb and taste like pink peppercorns kinda.   Yum Yum!  luckily I had someone pick me up these ingredients while in Thailand and um er um sneak em into the country.   hehe.

Sichuan Peppercorn

Thai Chili Powder

Sweet and Spicy Tomato Pot:

I cut up one yellow onion and one shallot.   I added olive oil to the pot and sweat the onion and shallot in the hot oil after seasoning it with salt and black pepper.   I added in the garlic and brought all the ingredients to a nice caramelized brown color.    I added in the two large cans of crushed tomatoes, the honey, and red pepper flakes.   I added in some seasoning of salt and black pepper and cooked all the flavors together.   I added in the butter beans and let it cook down for 45 mins.

Once the two pots were ready I combined the two pots.   I let this mixture simmer for the next hour covered.   I then removed the cover and let it simmer uncovered to let the moisture come out.  I shredded some cheddar cheese about 1 cup and folded it into the chili.

Once the chili was "ready" I started to work on two addon ingredients to plus it up flavor wise and texturally.  I cubed the butcher block bacon and cooked it up nice and crispy.  I made sure not to over cook it as I wanted the center to be a little gelatinous but cooked.  I wanted the bacon fat to burst into your mouth when you bit into it.  Mmmm Bacon.   I also cubed up some cheddar cheese.    

When I served the chili I folded in the about 10 cheddar cubes and 4 bacon cubes per bowl.   I garnished it with 6 more bacon cubes, some chopped pickled jalapeños and some sour cream.

What I got was simply delicious!   Smokey, porky, sweet, beany, super delicious chili.   This chili made we want to squeal.   This recipe has some unique ingredients but this is by far the best chili I have ever made or eaten.   Yum yum yum!

Here is the final product:

My Perfect Thanksgiving Day Authentic Puerto Rican Pernil Recipe

So if you have read this blog over past holidays you know that I am obsessed with cooking pernil for the family.    Pernil is the quintessential holiday roast from the Puerto Rican side of my family.   I LOVE PERNIL.    Garlicky, salty, porky goodness.    YUM YUM YUM

You can witness my obsession with pernil recipes by visiting my Pernil Pork Party.

Ok ok ok.   So over the last few weeks I have been experimenting with ideas for a better pernil recipe than what I put together last year.   I have been messing around with the brine, the cure, the timing of brine and cure, and a custom injection for the pig.

The recipe I developed this year ended up being the best pernil recipe I have ever come up with.    I have maintained all the authentic puerto rican essentials while applying a few tactics to dial up the flavors and perfect the crispy chicharron.

Ok so without any further notice here is my perfect pernil recipe for pernil al horno....

Lets start with the meat.   Get a nice 9lb picnic cut pork shoulder.  It's the perfect meat for pernil.    The better the pig the better the pernil.   Go for the good stuff and get it from your local butcher.    The picnic cut is the lower part of the shoulder as depicted here in this cool butcher pic:

The next step it to prep the meat by scoring the skin with nice long and deep lines across the skin as seen here:

My Tio Benny taught me this scoring technique.    In Cocina Criolla (the best Puerto Rican cook book) it tells you to score the skin with diamonds.    The lines going across the back of the skin from one side to the other is way better.   When the chicharron crisps up it ends up being little chicharron candy sticks.   It is awesome.   Crispy, salty, sticks of pork skin.  YUM

Now it's time for the flavor.  Pernil is all about the flavor.   For pernil al horno the authentic ingredients for flavoring are:

oregano

cider

black peppercorn

garlic garlic garlic

salt salt salt salt :)

You will see this ingredient combination over and over again in my recipe.   It is the foundation of the pernil flavor and an absolute requirement for an authentic pernil.

The first flavor step is the brine...   Here is my perfect pernil brine recipe:

Pernil Brine Recipe:

6 bay leaves

3 stalks of oregano

25 mixed peppercorns

2 halved heads of garlic

16 cups of water

3 cups of salt

2 cups of sugar

A healthy sprinkle of Goya Adobo 

I left it in the cold brine for 24 hours sitting in the frig.   Once that was done I removed the pig from the brine and dried it off in preparation of the marinade/cure.  

Here is my recipe for the perfect pernil marinade/cure:

(Designed for a 9lb picnic cut pork)

With a mortar and pestle mash up the following:

15 cloves of garlic
2.5 tablespoons of fresh chopped oregano (a couple fo sprigs)
16 black peppercorns
12 teaspoons of kosher salt
the meat of 2 reconstituted new mexican drilled chillies

Once that is mashed up add in the following and mash it up some more until it is a nicely integrating marinade/cure

2 1/4 teaspoons of cider vinegar
2 1/4 teaspoons of olive oil

Rub down your pig with 2/3 of the marinade.   Get the rub all over the pig.   Every inch must be coated in it.    Stab the pig with a long knife to make some deep cuts in the pig that are about big enough to fit your finger in them.   Shove the remaining marinade/cure into these holes to ensure you are infusing the flavor into the meat.

Here is a pic of my marinade and my pernil after I applied the marinade/cure

Once that is all done cover it up and stick it in the frig.   Don't touch it for 3 whole days.   The longer it sits the better.  I like 3 days.

The next step is the injection.    I whip up a quick injection by making a soup from the following recipe:

2 roasted garlic heads (45 minutes in the oven at 400)
8 black peppercorns
2 sprigs of oregano chopped up
pinch of salt
splash of cider vinegar
1 cup of water

I boil it and then strain it out so I have the liquid only for the injection.   Prepare it the night before you want to cook or put it in a quick ice bath the day of to cool it down.  The injection must be cool.

Take the meat out of the frig 30 minutes before you cook it and inject about 3 injection needles worth of the soup mixture.   This gets more of the essential flavor into the pernil and also makes sure it is nice and juicy.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and stick the meat in for 35 minutes for every lb of meat.   Make sure it is covered.  About 45 minutes before its done take off the cover.   In the last 10 minutes turn it up to 450 and get that chichiarron nice and crispy.

What you get is friggin amazing.   Pure deliciousness.   The perfect pernil!

SALTY

GARLICKY

YUM YUM DELICIOUS!

THE PERFECT PERNIL

Benton Park Cafe - Review

Today I flew into St Louis to attend some meetings.    I got here a bit early so I went down by the AB brewery and decided to go grab myself some breakfast.    I was looking for someplace close by and that was about my only criteria for a place to eat.  I checked google maps, found a spot and off I went!

I stumbled into a place across the highway from the brewery named Benton Park Cafe.    It looked like a cute spot so I started to get excited that it might just be great.    They had some outdoor tables and it seemed like a young but homey kind of spot.

When I first walked in I was greeted with the following sign:

Now being a NY Mets fan this made me laugh a little bit.    I had no idea until a few years ago but apparently the city of St Louis calls the NY Mets pond scum.   Pond scum was something from the 1986 series when the Mets took the world series.  Some local sports dude coined it and it stuck.   Of course this made me giggle.  We NY Mets fans are a proud bunch but this just makes me smile.    :)  Oh and St Louis....We might be pond scum but we still one the year you coined the phrase :) xoxo

Anywho I disgress.

The place looked awesome.   It was quiet cool and definitely seemed like a spot I want to start my morning with over breakfast and end my night with for a drink.   Spots like this are my fav.   The wait staff seemed cool so we sat on down and were ready to eat.   Based on the look of the place I began to have high expectations for the coffee and food.   It really looked like and smelled like this place was the real deal.  A place that cared about their ingredients, recuperation and recipes.   This is key for me.  Any creative force knows your idea is as strong as the thought and care you put into it.  This place looked cared for!

The staff was super friendly and all young and fun seeming.    Though I might of been dressed in a suit underneath is tons of ink and a sprinkle punk rawk.   My true me felt at home in this spot.

I ordered an iced latte and waited now with high expectations.   In the meantime I checked out the menu.   The menu looked amazing!   One thing on it really called out to me.  It was called the BP Slinger....

Here's the description:

Beer biscuits, cheese, bacon, over easy eggs smothered in their house made gravy.  

Um Yum.....So I ordered it.   When it came out it looked pretty amazing.   I posted a shot of it with the egg broken so all can see :)

I broke the egg and took my first bite.  So how was it you ask?   Allow me to summarize in a few key words:

*&!@# AMAZING

First off their gravy is just plane godly.   The gravy has a kick to it so it made my mouth tingle with joy.  It was the perfect flavor balance too.  The gravy was porky goodness without making me feel like i ate a bucket o'lard.  The consistency of the gravy was the best I have ever eaten.   This is quite possibly the best "breakfast" gravy I ever have tasted.  Thoughts of bathing in the gravy, living in the gravy and other such delusions entered my head as the gravy goodness bounced around in my mouth.

But wait....They needed to do more...Having quite possibly the best gravy I have ever eaten was simply not good enough for these guys so they chopped up crispy bacon and put it in the gravy.   (&!*@#   WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF DOING THAT?!??!??   Bacon chunks in gravy.  OMG YUM.

The put this 7th wonder of the world gravy on top of a perfectly cooked egg and a biscuit that was simply delicious.

After literally destroying my plate of food and having to hold myself back from ordering another plate I got the chance to talk to some of the wait staff.   They were social, friendly, and just plain chill.

So...What's the lesson here all?

IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE WITHIN 500 MILES OF ST LOUIS GO TO BENTON PARK CAFE.   Order anything with the biscuits and gravy.   I am seriously making Benton Park Cafe a regular go to spot when I come to the STL.

Benton Park Cafe = Awesome
Benton Park Cafe Biscuits and Gravy = A 100% MUST EAT...

YUM! 

My First Outdoor BBQ of the Year - Baby Back Ribs Galore

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure and privilege of "first use" of my parents bbq in the catskill mountains to kick off my summer outdoor bbqing.   YAY!

I decided I wanted to make baby back ribs and make them nice and slow.   I had picked up a pork baby back ribs with the loin on them.    This is the first time I cooked these style of ribs so of course it was an experiment!

The house I was cooking at had just a plane ole gas bbq and I love smoking with hickory wood chips so my first step was to fabricate a way to infuse some hickory smoke into a normal bbq.   I decided that I can fabricate one by taking a frying pan and covering it with some tin foil.   I would put that pan over the direct heat to keep the chips smoking after I got them started on the stove top.  I used the tin foil to make almost a pipe to where the meat was to ensure the smokey goodness was getting to the meat.    In my pan i placed about 10 hickory woodchips that were tossed with about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.

Ok now that I had fabricated a smoker it was time to turn to the meat.   I used my traditional rub:

Salt
Black Pepper
Yellow Curry
Cumin
Cayenne
Paprika

I then made a sauce to baste the ribs with that had the following in it:

Mustard
Ketchup
Brown Sugar
Stubbs BBQ Sauce

I spent about 5 hours cooking them at a low temperature and the result was amazing!  I would say though that if you get baby back with the loin on them I would recommend an 8 hour cook time instead.  It could of been more tender.

Pic below!

Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Cornbread and Tangy Sweet Spinach

After a trip to the farmers market I had picked up some beautiful pork baby back ribs.  My plan was to smoke the ribs after giving them a nice rub.   Then make my own bbq sauce that had real depth of flavor.  I would make a sweet and tangy greens with spinach to bring something fun to the plate.   I would finish it off with a simple cornbread to wash it all down.

So first order of business was the BBQ sauce.  That was the part of this dish that would take as long as the ribs.   So I assembled a list of all star ingredients to really help me make a robust and flavorful BBQ sauce.    Here was my list:

Scallions
Leeks
Dried Thai Chilis
Dried New Mexican Chilis
Mushrooms
Chives
Thyme
Brown Sugar
Water
Cider Vinegar

I chopped it all up and threw it in a stock pot to boil it down and concentrate the flavor.  I then combined it together with ketchup, worcestershire, brown sugar, and honey.

I whisked it all together and cooked it down so I could develop a nice sauce with it.

Now cooking down and thickening it up is the most critical step to having a wonderful bbq sauce.   Here is a picture of the sauce cooking down into a sweet and sour delicious bbq sauce.

I them developed a rub to develop some nice flavor on the porky goodness while I smoked it.   So I combined together the following spices and seasoning:

Salt

Black Peppercorns

Brown Sugar

Garam Masala

Red Pepper Flakes

Paprika

I mashed them all up in my mortar and pestle.   I then rubbed it down all over my beautiful farm fresh pork baby back ribs.   

I then smoked the ribs for 4 hours with hickory wood chips.   I love hickory wood chips and how they make ribs taste.   They are one of my favorite chips to smoke with.  

I then boiled the spinach in a tiny bit of water with the drained vegetables from the bbq sauce stock.   I mixed it all together and added some honey to sweeten it up a bit.     I quickly baked up a nice batch of cornbread and voila.

Delicious

Brooklyn

Smoked

BBQ

YUM!

The Redhead Bacon Peanut Brittle - A Review

While shopping around at the BKLYN Larder I picked up the redhead Bacon Peanut Brittle.  I mean come on!   Bacon + Caramel Peanuts!  Yes! Yes! Yes!  

I brought my groceries home and you never would guess what was one of the first things I tore open.  BACON PEANUT BRITTLE!  Mwahahahhahahaha 

I wanted to taste these little buggers.   Cooking with bacon in interesting ways has become a hobby of mine.  I especially love using it in deserts.  

So what did I think when I dived into the bag?  Honestly?  Let down!  I mean let me take a step back its a delicious treat.   Spicy peanuts with a hint of bacon and i didn't really get the brittle thing at all.  Honestly they need to repackage it.  It's good but if you are buying based on the label you will be let down.

Next time redhead if you put BACON in giant font followed by peanut and brittle I want to taste BACON first then the peanut brittle.   I got spicy peanut with a hint of bacon and i missed the brittle completely.   Still good though!

Salty Candied Bacon Walnut Chocolate Truffles - My Weekend of Truffles

Given its my weekend of truffles I decided to keep going and make some more.    Diet to start next week!!!!!

I wanted something salty sweet and given the success of my salty bacon cracker cookies I wanted to keep on going down the bacon and salt path.

I decided that I wanted to candy my bacon in brown sugar.  If you have never candied bacon you are missing out.  This is a delicious and fun palette pleaser.

I chopped up a mixture of 2/3 walnuts, 1/3 almonds.   I mixed melted milk chocolate with the chopped nuts, and candied bacon chopped finely.  I rolled the ganache in that and formed a little ball.   Coated it with extra chopped nuts.   Topped it with some pieces of candied bacon and gave it a nice sprinkle of salt.

What I got was SO yum.   Highly reccomend!

Tasty Roasted Chicken with Sage and Serrano Ham served with chicken mustard tarragon sauce

Yesterday I got into the mood for some chicken.   I was watching "Chuck's Day Off" on cooking channel and it was the truffle episode.   In this episode he make a "chicken supreme with black truffles".  This recipe looked freaking amazing.   I wanted to remake it but I didn't have access to quality truffles within walking distance of my house so I wanted to remake it without the travels but keep it super delicious.

I decided what I like about his recipe was stuffing the truffle and sage between the skin on the roast chicken and his sauce.

I needed to find a replacement for the truffle in the skin stuff and change the way I was using the sage to take the amount of sage flavor down a bit since I was removing the HIGHLY dominant flavor of black truffle.

I decided that I was going to marinate the chicken in freshly chopped sage and olive oil.   When I was done marinating them I rubbed the chopped sage and oil in every nook and cranny of the chicken.   I should be able to maintain the sage flavor but not have it overwhelm the chicken.

My next step was to replace the truffle flavor.   I wanted something really robust and delicious.   I chose serrano ham.   My 4 favorite flavors are truffle, pork, garlic, and chocolate.   So since truffles are out since I couldn't find any I went with flavor #2....PORK.   ALL PRAISE HIS SWINYNESS!

I stuffed the ham under the skin and then heated up the skillet to really (&*!@# hot with some canola oil in it.   Once the skillet was ready to singe I put the chicken skin down in the pan.   I kept it on the skillet until the skin was nice and crisp and started to brown.   I flipped the chicken over and placed the whole pan in an oven for 17 minutes at 350(F) degrees.

Before I started the chicken I had started to cook down some chicken stock.   Once it was about 1/2 of the size I whisked in some mustard and fresh chopped tarragon.   I let the flavor combine together a bit and helped it along with a small pinch of salt.   I whisked in some melted butter until it was emulsified.   ie really (!*@# mixed together so the oil from the butter isnt creating butter bubbles in the sauce.  The sauce was friggin delicious.    The only thing I added from the original recipe was the tarragon.  So yeah.    You need to make this sauce.  Chickeny, silky, YUMMY goodness.

I needed some veg with dish so I halfed some banana potatoes and tossed them in sage and olive oil.   I roasted them for about 20 minutes at 350(F) degrees.   I also halved some baby bok choi and LIGHTLY brushed them with mustard and grilled those bad boys up.

What I got was simply delicious.   Thanks Chuck!

Here is the pic of the final plate

A Sinful Breakfast At Home - Rustic French Toast with Homemade Strawberry Syrup and Sauasage

I woke up this morning after spending an evening with the #bionicwoman my momz.   We made some delicious orzotto with rosemary chicken and a goat cheese, beet, and pea shoot salad.  It was yum but the orzotto was too strong a flavor (think i used too much cheese) for the chemo fatigued #bionicwoman.  She ate a bit of it with another slice of havarti dill cheese and some blanched sugar nap peas.  YUM.

Anywho....I drove home this morning and it was chilly chilly.  Like 29 degrees.   Brrrr.   I wanted to make us a stick to your ribs winter breakfast/brunch.    I landed on my meat first as an idea.   I wanted to make some butcher breakfast sausages drizzled with some maple syrup.   So I asked myself what would go along with it.   I decided I want to tie the syrup flavor through the breakfast.   I decided I wanted to get a nice rustic french toast with some homemade strawberry syrup.

Making a nice fresh homemade berry syrup is so much fun and is so easy.   Dump a bunch of berries all cut up in a pot.    Add water to the top of them and then add some sugar.    Bring it to a nice boil then turn down the heat and let it simmer.   Mix it a round every now and again and whamo.   Simple and sweet deliciousness.

I cut a nice loaf of bread into thick slices.   I made a nice milk and egg mix where I whisked in some cinnamon.   Tossed some butter in a pan and drop in the custardy soaked bread.   Get it nice and toasty.

I drizzled the fresh strawberry syrup on the french toast when I plated it.   I put on a nice tab of butter and sifted some confectioners sugar onto the french toast.

What I got was....how do you say....DEELISH.   Absolute delicious and sweet french toast sausage party.

YUM

Tasty Chili & Seasoned Pork Sandwich

On superbowl sunday I made a GIANT bucket of chili and to be honest half of it is still up in my freezer :)

So the other day we noticed we had three tiny thin cut pork chops.   I figured if I paprika and pepper the pork I can quick sautee it and then toss the heated of chili on top.

I finished it off with a radish and fine chopped asparagus slaw to add a bit of crunch.

Simple food that was frankly all about clearing out some room in my frig :)

YUM YUM LEFTOVERS

Salty Bacon Chocolate Cracker Cookie - My Oscar Night Party Treats

My little sister Kat worked on True Grit so naturally we went to her house for an Oscar party.   She packed like 20+ people into her studio and the party was...how do you say....super (!*@# fun. 

She told me "just bring wine..."

Yeah right.   I mean...I am a foodie...I can't roll to a party without bringing some goodies.   I also didn't want to out do what she had planned so I decided to bring something that was simple, tasty, and of course made you really want to eat it.



So I racked my brain and an idea came out of it.   When we were at my families house in St Louis, MO we ate these chocolate cracker treats that were simple and delicious.   So I looked up the recipe and found it on cooks..com


Cooks.com Chocolate Top Saltines

1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. sugar
Saltine crackers
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Line 13 x 9 inch pan with foil and then saltines. Melt butter, sugar and vanilla in a small pan. Pour over saltines and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven. Cover with chocolate chips. Let chips melt and spread evenly with back of spoon. Sprinkle with walnuts. Chill. Remove foil and break cookies into pieces.

Now this was delicious but REALLY REALLY SWEET.   I love sweetness but I wanted to do something to balance it a bit...

How recently I ate at Flour and Water in San Francisco.  While there I had their dessert that was like chocolate mousse with sea salt on top.  The salty sweet combo was OFF THE HOOK.

Ok idea.

Lets bring a level of saltiness to this dish to punch it up.     So where can I find salty that isnt as obvious as salt???????

B
A
C
O
N
BACON!!!!!

So the new plan was to up the amount of butter in this recipe to add 2 more tablespoons and a bit more sugar to make it richer.   Then when sprinkling on the the chopped walnuts add some crispy salty bacon with sea salt.   If I punch it up with salty bacon and make it more buttery to tie it up with a butter bow (salt in butter should be the evener on the salty flavor) then this will be AMAZING.

And what happened....

PURE DELICIOUSNESS

I mean absurd.   Choco-bacony YUM YUM YUM

Here are the pics:

 

 

 

YUM YUM CHOCOLATE BACON!!!!!!

Roasted Duck Leg w/Hamhocked Kale and Porcini Ruota Pasta

Yesterday while stumbling around the market I picked up 3 ingredients I never cooked with before that I felt I needed to learn about:

Chicory
Duck Leg
Ham Hock

I thought I could use my Saturday to learn how to use my new ingredients by making something delicious.

Ok so what could I do with those ingredients??  Hmm....   Well.... I could roast the duck leg and that would probally be yum.    I could make hamhocked kale.   I could make a porcini ruota pasta and mix in the chicory at the end.  Ok a plan has formed!

Here is a pic of the ingredients:

First step is I wanted to really salt the duck as a salty duck is a tasty duck!   I made a rub for the duck legs.

Duck Leg Rub Ingredients:

1/4 cup of salt
I sprig of rosemary picked off
4-6 cloves of garlic (i did 6 but you could go as low as 4)

I mashed up the garlic in my mortar and peste and mixed it all together with the other ingredients.  I then rubbed down my duck.   Applying a rub to a good piece of meat is of course a private moments :) xoxo

In the pic posted above of the ingredients you can see the salt rubbed duck but let me also post this picture you can see it in more detail:

 

Ok with the duck prepped I quickly seared the skin to make sure it was brown and crispy.   I then through it in the oven for 60 mins at 340 degrees.   

Now this is duck.   So I reserved some of the fat so I could tie it into EVERY OTHER DISH.  When going duck...go big duck...BIG DUCK!!!!

I made a simple sauce with the reconstituted porcini mushrooms using mushroom stock, duck fat, and romano cheese.   YUM YUM YUM   Once I folded the pasta into the sauce I tossed in some chopped chicory to bring a bright peppery finish to the pasta coated in the rich mushroom sauce with duck fat.  To add insult to fat injury I put in a tablespoon of butter before serving and coated all the pasta with it.

I chopped the kale and put it in to boil with the hamhock by using a combo of duck fat, vegetable stock, mushroom stock and a little bit of water.   

PURE DELICIOUSNESS is what I got.  The meal was easy and amazing.   A bit of prep work but it was a charm to throw it all together

YUM YUM DUCK

YUM YUM HAM HOCK

YUM YUM CHICORY

A Tasty Serrano Ham Sandwich with Soft Ripened Goat Cheese, Chicory, Radish and Strawberries

I was walking home from learning how to sit meditation at the Brooklyn Zen Center when I decided I was in the mood to stumble into Union Market.

The first thing I saw was this beautiful whole oat baguette that looked so delicious.   I needed to build a sandwich around this baguette.   It was calling me.

So I began to stumble around the produce section and some beautiful fresh strawberries caught my eye so into my sandwich they go.   I noticed an ingredient that looked great that I have never used before...Chicory.   I broke off one leave and tasted it.   Bright, Peppery, Yum.   Ok.   Chicory it is.

Since it was peppery I decided to compliment it with some radish that I could julienne.  I mixed the chicory and radish and tossed it in some olive oil with salt and cracked black pepper.  This would be a peppery bright bed that I could use as the base of my sandwich for bright crunchiness.

I decided I would get some quality ham that I could compliment with a goat cheese that would round out the savoriness and creaminess for the sandwich.  I decided once I assembled it I would top it off with some nice organic honey to balance the tartness of the fresh strawberries with some honey sweetness.

Here is the pic of my lovely ingredients:

Here are some pics of the finished sandwich:

YUM YUM SANDWICH

Cherry, Mustard and Pistachio Crusted Bone In Pork Chop with a Cranberry Reduction and Baked Acorn Squash

The other night my lovely wife Megan brought home some delicious looking bone in pork chops.   This was a day or two before we left for sunny Florida on Christmas break.   I was soooo very tired from traveling for work that I decided to sit at home and watch TV while she went out to the store to go shopping.  

When she came home from Union Market with bone in pork chops I was thrilled.   Why you ask???  Well I was watching Iron Chef America and on it was Battle Pig Fat!   Mmmmm Pig Fat.

Allow me to take a moment here to honor his Swinyness.    The far that comes from the pig is the most heavenly of creations.   It is delish, fragrant, and everything that anyone could ever ask for flavor wise.  So when she brought it home I was DELIGHTED.    Time to tie pork fat into the remainder of our dishes and serve up some porky goodness.

ALL HAIL HIS SWINYNESS!!!!

 ALL HAIL HIS SWINYNESS!!!!

So I opened up the bag from Union Market to see what other goodies she had gotten.   I had found an acorn squash and some baby cauliflower (we are on a total kick with this stuff.)    

I decided to start by preparing the acorn squash.    I started by halving and scooping out the squash of its seeds.   I am sure I can put these to good use but not tonight.   I put nutmeg, cinnamon and butter with fresh rosemary in the center of the squash and on the ridges as I had halved it.  I then put tiny dollops of pork lard on the ridges (like four of them) and one dollop in the center.   Now you are probably thinking that is WAY too much fat but you can always spoon out the excess grease once it bakes.   I just want it to absorb as much of its flavor as possible.   I ended the squash with a bit of zest of orange for flavor and acidity.

The plan was to bake the squash at 400 degrees for about an hour.    Once we got the squash in the hole it was time to move on to creating the cranberry reduction.   I wanted the hole dish to tie together and wasnt sure if pork and cranberry would go together so I decided to tie the rosemary into this dish as the lard in the acorn squash really tied it to the pork chop already.  

I digress.

I added dried cranberries and water to a pot with a pinch of salt and a few pinches of sugar.   I brought it to a vigorous boil then put it on low and let it reduce.    This should be nice and thick by the time the acorn squash is ready.   The final step with the cranberries was to add some nice orange zest.   The zest ties it to the acorn squash which will bring balance to the dish.

Ok now onto steaming the baby cauliflower.     I cleaned them up and put them in a pot with a steamer.   I put a TINY dollop of lard and some salt and pepper to bring once again ensure that they worked well with the pork chops.   I also zested them with lemon to tie the baby cauliflower to tie the flavors to the acorn squash.   I put the heat to high and off I go to manage the pork.

 TIME FOR PIG!!!!

I always leave my meat on the counter at the start of the meal to try to bring it's temperature up a bit to ensure it cooks evenly and the spices/oils really absorb.   I had put a healthy coat of olive oil and added salt and pepper to the pork.

I then began to make my crust for the pork.

The crust had the following in it:

Handful of shelled pistachios

small handful of cherries (about six)

and about 15 mustard seeds per bone in pork chop

two tablespoons of bread crumbs

You take all of the ingredients and mash it up with the mortar and pestle.   A nice rough mash it alls you need.   Just get the particles small enough to make sure that it sticks to the pork!  The bread crumbs will help as they are like the cement once the cherry juices hit it :)

I took the now not so cold and ever so seasoned pork and crusted it with my pistachio, cherry and mustard mix.   I prepped the pan by adding a combination of butter and lard (even amount) to the pan and brought it up to a nice heat.   You want it hot enough to make it sizzle but not hot enough to make it deep fried.   I wish I knew what temperature this actually is but I usually just throw stuff into the grease and watch how it reacts.   

I disgress YET AGAIN

Once the lard/butter mix was hot enough I carefully placed the pork into the park.   Always make sure you move the meat around after you place it in the pan so that is does not stick to the pan.    I used the technique that some call french but i call Abuelita's technique of spooning the hot oil over the meat as I cooked it so that the meat absorbs the fats and cooks nice and evenly.   You achieve this by tilting the pan a bit and getting the hot oil to accumulate.   Once it it heavier on one side you can start to quickly spoon it over the meat.   

WARNING.

OIL IS FLAMMABLE.   BE CAREFUL!!!!

If you spoon some onto the flame of the burner.  BOOM FIRE.   I DO NOT suggest doing this and you should avoid at all cost.  My nice little disclaimer to ensure you dont blame me for causing a fire due to your own negligence.  

It takes just a few minutes on each side until the pork is firm enough to be medium.  I take it out and let it rest.

By the time the bone in pork chop was done everything else was finished.    I turned the steamer off and uncovered the baby cauliflower.   I removed the acorn squash from the oven and scooped out the excess grease.   I then scooped out all the squashy goodness so we had a nice "semi mash" to eat and I began to plate.  

The final product was DIVINE.   I used the cranberry reduction to spoon it over the crusted pork and it was so balanced and divine!   Yummy, pork, nutty, fruity, spicy goodness in the pork.   The acorn squash was sweet and had fatty accents that made it tie right to the pork.  The zest I put on the acorn squash and baby cauliflower really brought them together and brought amazing balance once again to the dish.  

YUM YUM GOODNESS

My quest for the perfect pernil - FINALE - Pernil Pork Party

My thanksgiving went off without a hitch.   My pernil was AMAZING.   It is a perfect recipe and one that I am quite proud of.   I will be posting and finalizing the recipe in my next post but here are some delicious pictures of the perfect pernil for the holiday and the finale of my pernil pork party

YUM YUM YUM
The Perfect Pernil