Pastrami Cured & Smoked Beef Tongue

28 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Beef, Charcuterie, Meat, Spices

≈ 1 Comment

Transforming a tough, throw-away part of the animal into something beautiful and delicious is the true measure of a cook. A few weeks ago I had dinner at my favorite Austin restaurant, Foreign & Domestic. The special that night was thinly sliced pastrami cured beef tongue, and it was outstanding.

The experience motivated me to try making it myself. I had toyed with the idea of tongue pastrami for a long time. Last year I made it with the traditional brisket and wanted to substitute tongue, a much cheaper and leaner cut of meat.

We ordered some tongues from Richardson Farms. Five pounds of locally raised meat for $14 was a steal. I prepared a sweet and savory brine flavored with salt, homemade pickling spice, garlic, sugar, brown sugar, and honey. Adding some sodium nitrite gave the meat a beautiful pink color and the familiar pastrami-like flavor.

I cooled the brine and submerged the tongues in the liquid where they pickled for 3 days. Then I rinsed them off, coated them in ground black peppercorn and coriander seeds, and smoked them for about 8 hours.

That’s the tongue pastrami overview so you can prepare yourself 3 days in advance. Here’s the step-by-step procedure adapted from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie:

Brine:

  • 1 gallon water
  • 1 1/2 cups kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 8 teaspoons pink salt (sodium nitrite)
  • 1 tablespoon picking spice
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 5 garlic cloves, crushed
  • One or two beef tongues
  • 2 tablespoons coriander seeds, lightly toasted
  • 2 tablespoons black peppercorns, lightly toasted

1. Combine the brine ingredients in a pot large enough to hold the tongues. Bring the water to a boil. Remove from heat and let the brine cool to room temperature.

2. Submerge the tongues in the brine. Place a plate on top to keep the meat covered with the brine and prevent it from floating. Refrigerate for 3 or 4 days.

3. Remove the tongues from the brine. Rinse them, pat dry, and set aside. Get rid of that brine!

4. Grind the coriander and peppercorn mixture in spice grinder or food processor. Coat the tongues with it on all sides.

5. Hot-smoke the tongues until they reach an internal temperature of 150 degrees. (Try to keep the smoking temperature as low as possible so the tongues can smoke for a long as possible. We smoked ours overnight)

6. Let the tongues rest for a few hours after smoking. To prepare the meat for eating, slice it as thinly as possible. Heat it in a pan, or steam it before serving.

Grapenut Pudding

18 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Dairy, Dessert, Uncategorized

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My family and I took a drive out to Little Compton along the Sakonnet River while I was in Rhode Island for Christmas.  Our destination was The Commons, a New Englandy lunch spot I’ve gone to all my life. I’d love to tell you I grew up on their lobster rolls, clam cakes, and chowder, but I was a picky kid who stuck to grilled cheese and the restaurant’s OUTSTANDING onion rings.

I’d also be lying if I said that I grew up eating Grapenut pudding, a traditional New England dessert. I actually tried it for the first time at The Commons. It’s a rich custard flavored mixed with Grapenuts and flavored with vanilla. The cereal gets soggy when it absorbs the milk, creating a simple dessert with a variety of layers and textures. It’s best served cold and topped with whipped cream.

I couldn’t wait to try making Grapenut pudding back in Austin. I got the recipe from trusty Yankee magazine. We always had copies of it laying around the house while I was growing up.

Grapenut Pudding

  • 1 quart milk, scalded
  • 1 cup Grape-Nuts cereal
  • 4 large eggs
  • scant 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (approx.)
  • Whole nutmeg
  • Water

Heat oven to 350°. In a medium-size bowl, pour scalded milk over Grape-Nuts and let sit 5 minutes. In a second medium-size bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add egg mixture to milk and Grape-Nuts and stir well. Pour into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish. Generously grate nutmeg over the top. Place the casserole into a deep roasting pan. Place in the oven and pour water into the roasting pan, enough to reach halfway up the side of the casserole. Bake 45 to 60 minutes, until almost set in the center (very slight jiggle).

The Whole Duck Continued: Duck Rillettes

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in Charcuterie, French

≈ 2 Comments

A whole duck is the gift that keeps on giving. Before Christmas I used one to make duck confit. I was left with lots of meat clinging to the carcass, as well as a tub of fat. They screamed out to me, “make rillettes!” But I was too overwhelmed and tucked them away in the freezer for later.

Rillettes are a traditional French hors d’oeuvre served in a jar or ramekin. They are usually made of some type of meat (pork, fish, chicken, and duck) long-simmered in fat with herbs and aromatics until tender and spreadable. Sealed with a layer of fat, they keep in the fridge for weeks and are served at room temperature accompanied by slices of baguette or crackers. It’s a thrifty cooking technique that turns almost unusable scraps of meat into a delicious treat. Duck rillettes are particularly rich and satisfying.

Last weekend I felt inspired and removed the carcass and fat from the freezer. It was painful, but I picked off all the meat for my bastardized version of duck rillettes. I flavored them with aromatic spices and garlic, and it all came together in less than 30 minutes.

Duck Rillettes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups of shredded duck meat
  • 3/4 cup duck fat, or as needed
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • kosher salt to taste

1. Combine the meat and 1/2 a cup of the duck fat in a saucepan. Turn the heat on low and stir to evenly coat the meat with the melting fat.

2. After the fat has melted, stir in the spices and garlic. Cook the mixture on low heat for about 20 minutes.

3. Remove the rillettes from the heat. Using a hand mixer, beat the mixture on low until the fat is evenly distributed and the meat is uniformly shredded. The rillettes should be moist and creamy but look separable. Add more fat if the mixture looks too stiff. Flavor with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Pack the rillettes into glass jars. Melt the remaining fat and pour it over the rillettes to seal. Store the jars in the fridge.

Remember to bring the rillettes to room temperate before you serve them. They will keep for 3 to 4 weeks with an unbroken fat seal. But they won’t last that long, because this recipe is just as good as the long-simmered traditional variety. It’s been less than a week since I made these duck rillettes, and we’ve almost finished our stash.

Carrot Ginger Soup with Cashews

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Soup, Vegetables

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It’s time to step away from the meat, albeit briefly, and chill out with some soup.  I’ve been sick and craving carrot ginger soup with cashews.  This recipe is close to my heart because it was one of the first dishes I learned to make in college. Back then, the Moosewood Cookbook was a standby. I tracked it down thanks to the internet and Savory & Sweet. Other carrot ginger soup recipes just don’t compare.

The cashews set this recipe apart, making the soup creamy without adding dairy. Adding ginger and chicken stock (my addition) makes it the perfect remedy for feeling under the weather after too much travel, alcohol, and Christmas cookies.

Carrot Ginger Soup with Cashews (adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook)

2 pounds carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 cups homemade chicken stock

1 tablespoon olive oil
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon dried mint
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground fennel
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

juice of half a lemon
3/4 cup toasted cashews

Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven. Add the onion and cook over medium heat until translucent. Add ginger, garlic, salt, and spices. Lower the heat and continue to cook for another 8-10 minutes, until the onions are soft.

Add the carrots to the onion and spices and pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook until the carrots are very tender (20-30 minutes)

Remove the pot from the heat and use an immersion blender to purée the mixture until smooth. Return to heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes more until the flavors are well combined. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes more and serve.
(Serves 8-10)

Happy New Year!

05 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in Random Musings

≈ 1 Comment

Happy New Year! Only five days late. The Holiday season was a frenzy of parties and travel.  Now I just want to take to my bed like my parents’ new dog.

I was fortunate to spend Christmas with family and friends in Rhode Island. I ate clam chowder & lobster rolls and caught up with friends who I have known since kindergarten.

Dustin and I ended 2011 right where we started it— in New York City. This time last year we were living in Manhattan, packing up to move to Austin, and I was dreading it. I was hesitant to leave behind the exhilarating city, new friends, and proximity to my family. But this trip gave me some perspective. I often feel sorry for myself that my loved ones are so far-flung around the country, but I’m thankful that I have a loving family and so many friends. I’m consistently amazed that they are willing to take time out of their busy lives to catch up with me when I visit.

Despite the pulsating excitement of New York City, returning reminded me that living there was a daily struggle. New York City is incomparable, but it is utterly exhausting. Most importantly, I’ve been lucky to meet so many friendly, passionate, and creative people here in Austin. I have big plans for 2012, and I’m excited to see what the year will bring.

12 Goals for 2012

28 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

1. Post more pictures of my cat on my blog

2. Post a real picture of myself on my blog

3. Stop being so scrap in my grooming practices/get my hair and nails done more than twice per year

4. Conquer my fear of public speaking

5. Get back in the yoga routine

6. Take more walks

7. Relearn Spanish

8. Keep the kitchen clean

9. Peel the brown bananas before throwing them in the freezer

10. Entertain at home more

11. Take classes (knife skills, writing, sewing)

12. Practice moderation

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

24 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by in Pork, Vegetables

≈ 3 Comments

Here’s a simple side dish that was a Thanksgiving success, and it would also be perfect for Christmas. I searched the internet high and low for recipes for Brussels sprouts combined with my excellent homemade bacon, but everything called for stir frying the vegetables. That preparation would result in a bitter and too-crunchy dish.

I followed my instincts and roasted them, and the result was outstanding. The vegetables were tender and sweet, mixed with bits of crisp bacon. The lemon juice tempers any remaining bitterness.  It’s best to render the bacon fat in the cast iron skillet, add the vegetables, and then place everything right in the oven.

Ingredients:

  • 4 ounces thick sliced bacon, cut cross wise in small squares
  • 1 lb. Brussels sprouts sliced in halves or quarters, stems removed
  • 1 yellow onion, cut in half and then sliced
  • 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
  • juice of half a lemon
  • salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the bacon in a large, cast iron skillet over medium heat. Cook until most of the fat has rendered, but the bacon is still a little flabby, not quite crisp. Remove the bacon pieces to a plate.

2. Add the Brussels sprouts and onions to the rendered bacon fat along with the rosemary, salt, and black pepper. Stir so that the vegetables are well-coasted and the seasonings are evenly distributed. Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the Brussels sprouts are well-browned.

3. Remove the skillet from the oven and mix in the bacon pieces. Place it back in the oven for 10 minutes or so until it is crisp.

4. Remove the skillet from the oven. Pour the lemon juice over the top and stir to distribute. Season with more salt and pepper if you’d like.

One Meal to Ruhl(man) Them All: Duck Confit Pierogies & Bigos

06 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Fat, French, Frying, Meat, New York Times, Pork

≈ 8 Comments

Lately I’ve alluded to my stockpile of homemade charcuterie including bacon, pork belly lardo, wild game sausages, and duck confit. It was all part of a larger plan for the Charcutepalooza finale. My Pole-ophile partner proposed I make bigos,  the national dish of Poland. This “hunter’s stew” of meat, sauerkraut, and cabbage was traditionally made with wild game, but these days it’s almost always made with pork. I wanted to change that.

Pierogies seemed like a natural accompaniment, but filled with what? I dreamed up a French-Polish fusion of shredded duck confit, caramelized onions, and mashed potatoes. Like traditional pierogies, but better.

Thank God my best friend was planning to visit me later that month. She was actually excited to help out. We’re former roommates with a history of taking on crazy cooking projects. On weeknights during college we often made “Japanese extravaganza” with homemade sushi, miso soup, and sweet potato tempura. Our peers thought we were weird. Rachel and I also traveled to Eastern Europe together, including a memorable stop in Poland, so it was fitting that she would help with the dinner. The date was set for Saturday, November 19.

That night we cooked for hours. We maintained our strength with snacks of beer, Polish vodka, and pork belly lardo. I also busted out some symbolic pork rillettes made from the bits of meat accumulated from all of these projects and stored in the freezer all year.

I culled over bigos recipes for weeks. Recipes that included tomato had no appeal. It didn’t seem like something a Polish hunter would eat.  But I was charmed by this story in the New York Times about the author Louis Begley and his bigos recipe. I made some modifications to use my charcuterie stockpile, including wild game sausage to make it all the more hunter-y.

Bigos or “Hunter’s Stew”

Ingredients:

  • 2 large sweet onions, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces homemade bacon, cut into 1/2-inch squares
  • 1 pound sauerkraut, preferably fresh
  • 2 pounds cabbage, thinly sliced
  • 2 potatoes, peeled and cut into eighths
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 15 black peppercorns
  • 1 pound homemade kabanosy
  • 1 apple, cored and sliced
  • 2 cups homemade duck stock
  • 2 pounds homemade venison & wild boar kielbasa, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 1/2 cup to 1 cup vodka.

1. In a bowl, mix onions with salt and set aside. In a large pot, cook over medium heat until it is crisp and most of the fat has rendered.  Add onions and sauté over medium heat about 10 minutes. Add cabbage and sauté for about 5 minutes until some of the water has cooked out.

2. Add sauerkraut, potatoes, garlic, peppercorns, kabanosy, and apples to the onions and cabbage. Add enough wine and stock to just cover and mix well. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

3. Add kielbasa, and cook over low heat for 1 hour before serving.

4. Fifteen minutes before serving, pour vodka over the bigos. Spoon into bowls or onto a plate and serve with a garnish of chopped dill.

Yield: 8 generous servings.

We worked on the pierogies while the bigos bubbled away for about 3 hours. I loved the idea of using sour cream in the dough and settled on this dough recipe. I prepared and assembled caramelized onions and mashed potatoes in advance.

Duck Confit Pierogies with Caramelized Onions and Mashed Potatoes:

Dough by Barbara Rolek from About.com

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus flour to dust the work surface
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup water
  1. Combine flour, salt, sour cream, egg and water in a large bowl. Mix until dough comes together. If dough is dry, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time, until it’s moist and springy. If the dough is sticky, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it’s smooth.
  2. On a floured work surface, knead dough for 3 or 4 minutes until elastic. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

  • 2 cups prepared duck confit, bones removed and shredded
  • 2 cups mashed potatoes
  • 1 cup caramelized onions, prepared in advance, flavored with black pepper and thyme

1. Roll out the dough about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut circles about 4-inches in diameter.

2. Holding a dough circle like a taco, layer about 1 teaspoon of potatoes, 1 teaspoon of duck confit, and 1/2 a teaspoon of caramelized onions. Encase the filling in the dough by sealing the edges. Set aside on a plate lined with parchment paper.

Making rustic pierogies is much easier than making delicate raviolis, but I won’t minimize the work involved. It’s labor intensive! I made about 50 during that weekend and learned something extremely important: place the pierogies on parchment paper because the dough is super sticky. Otherwise they’ll stick to the plate, resulting in oyster-shaped pierogies after they’re cooked. Yes, oysters. You don’t want that to happen after all that hard work.

Boiling the pierogies wouldn’t suffice for this occasion, so we fried them. In the duck fat leftover from the confit. We finally sat down to eat seven hours after we started cooking. The pierogies were absolutely everything I dreamed they would be, and I had been dreaming about them for about a month at that point. The bigos was sweet, sour, and smokey. I think any Polish hunter would have approved.

We made so much food that we enjoyed a second installment of the meal with Dustin’s parents the following weekend. Louis Begley spoke the truth— the flavor of the bigos improved after a few days in the fridge. The sweet and sour qualities of the apple and sauerkraut mellowed while the smokey richness of the meat deepened in flavor. The pierogies froze beautifully

Charcutepalooza taught me so much about food while connecting me with many kindred spirits here in Austin or via Twitter.  I’m more than a little sad that it’s ending, but I loved sharing the experience with friends and family over the past few weeks. I couldn’t have done it without their help and support! A special thanks to Rachel for taking control of the pierogies (she has always been more talented with dough than me), and to Dustin for his unwavering support, meat smoking skillz, and eating all the bigos.

Transforming a Whole Duck into Duck Confit

05 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in Fat, Meat, Charcuterie, Charcutepalooza, French

≈ 2 Comments

I have a love/hate relationship with the movie Julie & Julia.  The Julie character annoys the crap out of me. In a fight with her husband she screams at him, “…I have to bone a whole duck!… Can you even conceive of boning a duck?!” She makes it into such a big deal, signalling to home cooks everywhere that no mere mortal is capable of it. But I’m here to tell you that anyone can bone a duck. You aren’t going to win any butchery awards, but the result is just fine for home cooking. I’ve discussed before on earlier posts about butchering a chicken, and a duck is very similar. Check out this video of Jacques Pepin boning a chicken.

A whole duck is a bargain. Duck confit was my goal this time, and I realized I would spend about $40 buying duck legs and duck fat separately. Instead, I purchased a whole duck for about $22, and I will make confit as well as stock, rillettes, and mousse au canard with the liver. This is true cookery.

I removed the breasts, legs, and wings and seasoned them with salt, garlic, bay leaves, and cloves. The meat cured in the fridge overnight.

Then I placed the carcass in the dutch oven and roasted it at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. I was doubtful that the duck would yield enough fat to cover the meat, but I had more than enough. Those birds have a tremendous amount of fat! I strained it, placed it in a container, and let it harden in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I pulled out the duck meat and rendered fat. I rinsed the duck pieces off in the sink and patted them dry. I combined the meat and the fat in my dutch oven and brought it to a simmer on the stove. Then I placed the lid on top and slipped it in the oven to cook for about 8 hours at 200 degrees. Finally I removed it from the oven and let it cool overnight. Before work the next morning, I placed it in the fridge where it remained for 3 weeks while it cured and ripened. Duck confit is an old method of preserving meat, and it is imperative that the fat covers the meat completely or it will go bad.

Three weeks later, it was time to try this food project. I pulled the dutch oven out of the fridge, let the fat soften for a few hours, and fished out the duck pieces. I crisped the skin in a pan but was disappointed that it didn’t look like the beautiful browned legs found in restaurants. Instead, all the meat was falling apart, really pulling away from the bone. But is that really such a bad thing?  It was still outstanding. I didn’t ‘get’ the duck obsession until I made confit. It has made wonderful sandwiches, pizzas, and played a starring role in my Charcutepalooza finale dinner.

Dry Curing: Kabanosy & Cured Pork Belly Lardo

01 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Charcutepalooza, Charcuterie, Fat, Italian, Meat, Uncategorized

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I wanted to make something different for this challenge, something none of the other charcutepaloozers would make. And Dustin, a kabanosy enthusiast, had been craving the thin, dry sausage hanging in every legit Polish deli in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They are flavored strongly with black pepper, smoked until evocative of an old crypt-keeper’s finger, but remain moist and pleasant thanks to the generous chunks of fat interspersed throughout the coarsely ground pork meat. Since there are no Polish delis that I know of in Austin, kabanosy is impossible to find here.

A recipe was difficult to find, too, but I settled on this one from a book by Stanley Marianski. I ground the pork shoulder and belly, and flavored it with lots of black pepper, caraway, nutmeg, and a little sodium nitrate to guard against botulism during the smoking and drying process. Then I stuffed it into thin sheep casings.

After I smoked them in my chiminea, they looked beautiful hanging to dry for a week next to my brooms, reminding me of the sausages dangling from the hooks in those delis in Greenpoint.

Unfortunately the kabanosy was a bit of a bust. I worked myself up reading about the dangers of botulism or “sausage disease,” fearing we would poison ourselves. I distinctly remember my 9th grade biology teacher describing botulism, traumatizing me with stories of paralysis, blindness, and death. She said you could get it from dented cans at the supermarket, and made it seem quite commonplace. I’ve never gotten over it.

So as a precaution, we smoked the kabanosy a little longer than we should have. We tried them a week later, after they had sufficiently dried out. The flavor was there, but the texture was not. Oversmoking made all the difference, and the meat felt like sawdust in my mouth. Oh well, lesson learned.

I redeemed myself with some cured pork belly. I cured it with the same mix I use for bacon and then wrapped it in Saran wrap and foil, protecting the delicate fat from light. Then I placed it under a heavy can in my fridge for about two weeks, and then wrapped it in cheese cloth to hang at room temperature for two weeks more. It is milder than pancetta, but so much easier to make since wrestling with pork belly isn’t necessary.  I use the cured belly for Bucatini all’Amatriciana, a pizza topping, or snack on it raw. Cured pork belly will be in my fridge at all times from now on.

And the kabanosy won’t be total loss. It will be featured in my final Charcutepalooza challenge along with a few other exciting items.

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