Chris
Aug 252010
Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Potter
I want to love this book, but it’s so.. geeky. There loads of good information here, but peppered throughout the book are CompSci references, and interviews with social media stars and blog owners that I found to be a distraction from an otherwise good book. I really don’t care how the creator of BoingBoing makes her roast potatoes [or whatever].
However, the recipes are easy to read, measurements are often given in imperial as well as metric, and from a technical standpoint most of the recipes themselves seem solid.
There is so much information packed into this book that I think it is a good read for anyone interested in the ‘whys’ of cooking. If you’ve tried to read through Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking and fell asleep, Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food is a good alternative, and in some respects may be an even better book for the home and professional cook because it includes a ton of well thought out recipes.
30 Second Review: The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen by Michael Ruhlman
If you’re a fan of Anthony Bourdain, you will probably like Michael Ruhlman too. This book is a follow up to The Soul of a Chef/Making of a Chef, and in it Ruhlman revisits the people and places of his past. The other books aren’t prerequisites though.
I would say this book and Bourdain’s latest, Medium Raw, make good companions with similar topics and stories: chef branding and ever expanding empires, and the rise of celebrity chefs.
The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen is probably the closest many of us will get to being able to sit down with some of the CIAs chefs, Grant Achatz, and Thomas Keller and for that reason alone I think it’s worth a read.
Aug 052010
In March, the Culinary Tips household moved from a 450 sqft apartment with no balcony or windowsills to their new home – a slightly larger apartment with some outdoor access and windowsill! Obviously, this meant it was time to start a larger garden than the tabletop Aerogarden we had going before.
Plants need three things to live:
Water, light, and a growth medium – soil, or suspension in a nutrient rich liquid. Each of these requirements can be met in a multitude of ways.
Water:
A number of self watering pot designs are out there on the market, including the much hyped Earthbox. There is also the Aerogarden ‘aeroponic’ system, traditional hydroponics, or the good old watering can.
Light:
High pressure sodium and metal hallide bulbs are the standard when it comes to growing uh… plants, but for the apartment gardener, both of these types of bulbs run too hot and eat too much energy. Compact fluorescent and standard fluorescent grow lamps are becoming more commonplace, but may be little more expensive initially. LED lamps are available, but the cost is often prohibitive, and the effectiveness depends on what kind of plant you’re going to be growing.
Growth Medium:
Aerogarden or a DIY solution for indoor tabletop ‘aeroponic’ gardening
Planters and pots of soil for windowsill gardening
Earthbox or planters of soil for patio gardening
But when it comes down to it, if you have a windowsill, you can have a garden. A yogurt pot with some holes in the bottom filled with soil from a park sitting on a plate in a window is all it takes to grow say, a pot of basil.
Walking the Walk:
So, with all this preaching about how you should grow your own herbs, and possibly a tomato, what am I doing?
Tomatoes and Fresno chilies in an aerogarden, sprouted from gathered seed
strawberries
Lettuce and escarole in an Aerogarden Space Saver 6
Lemon verbena and thyme in yogurt pots, sitting in a planter as a drip tray
Tarragon, oregano, and rosemary
Acorn Squash, Globe Carrots, Chives
Cherry Tomatoes
pineapple mint and lemon balm
early girl tomatoes
Planning ahead:
It’s August, so its too late for outdoor planting in most places. It is the perfect time to pick things up for indoor gardening and to get ready for next year, though. Planters, nutrients, soil, and seeds are often discounted 50% or more at department stores in the summer. Buy them now and store them away to get a head start on the 2011 season. If you’re buying seeds, be aware that the older the seeds, the less likely they are to germinate. With the discounts that some retailers are offering right now, it’s probably worth the risk.
Most of the garden I have going didn’t get planted until mid to late June, as I was still gathering soil and planters until then. Next year, things will be sprouted in Rockwool – a fibreglass spongey material that retains water. You can find it online, or at garden and hydroponic stores. It is cheap, and can be cut into any size and shape you need for germination. Jiffy, the maker of the Jiffy peat pots also makes a nice 80 slot seed starter tray with peat pellets, a drainage rack, and a lid that can be had for about $7, and is great for indoor seed starting.
I know this has been light on the tips and tutorials, but I mainly wanted to inspire those that haven’t played with gardening to get their hands dirty, so to speak. One thing you’re likely to run into, both indoors and out, are some pests. Little critters live in dirt, and little critters like eating your plants.
Dealing With Pests:
Aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, and whiteflies are common indoor pests. There are a number of treatments people use to remove and destroy pests: washing with a light dish detergent solution, dabbing with rubbing alcohol, and neem oil. Neem oil is probably the most effective of the above methods, as it is a strong deterrant to most pests. My favorite method, however, is total obliteration with diatomaceous earth. Ground up, fossilized diatoms absorb the fats in the exoskeletons/skins of many pests, causing them to dehydrate and die. It is especially effective against larvae and aphids. Diatomaceous earth can be found in most garden stores, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, and Rona.
To prevent infestations, sterilize your soil:
Pour the soil into a roasting pan, or one of those disposable aluminum pans and spread to a couple inches deep. Preheat your oven to 180F, and roast your dirt until it reaches an internal temperature of 180F for 30 minutes. Try to avoid letting it get over 180, as it may burn creating some compounds that can be harmful to your plants.
Duck prosciutto is probably one of the easiest things to cure. If you were a little scared of Pork Week‘s bacon and pancetta, and like the mild gamey flavour of duck, give this a shot.
Get a nonreactive container, like these Pyrex ones. Put down a layer of coarse salt.
Container with coarse salt
Put your duck breast in, skin side down. Top with more coarse or kosher salt, making sure the breast isn’t touching the side of the container, or any other meat.
Duck breast on salt
Duck breast topped with salt
Refridgerate 24 hours. Remove, rinse, pat dry. Cover with cracked black pepper, wrap in cheese cloth, and hang in a cool area for 7 days.
Cured duck breast dusted with black pepper
Duck breast in cheese cloth, ready to hang
Mine got a little too dry, but it’s still delicious.
Duck Prosciutto
So, one of the bits of trim from our pork belly was the skin. While they may not look it, pigs are hairy. If you intend on using the skin for anything, you’ll need to first either shave the hair off with a very sharp knife, or burn it off with a torch.
Pig skin, raw
Once clean, the skin can be cured to make pork rinds, pork scratchings, or chicharrons.
- First, rinse the skin thoroughly and dry it well. Get a baking sheet or cambro, and put down a layer or coarse salt. Lay the pork belly skin side down and cover entirely with another layer or coarse salt. Cover it, and let it cure for 5 days to a week. Pour off any liquid that collects daily.
Pig skin, salted for curing
- When cured, soak the pork belly in water for 4-8 hours. The cure removes water from the cells of the belly and allows salt to enter them. Soaking it afterwards causes more water to rush into the cells than was originally there, making the cells swell and allowing it to fry up super crispy.
Cured pork belly, soaking
- Now you’ll be confit cooking the belly. Get a skillet and fill it full of rendered pork, chicken, or duck fat. Yeah, you probably don’t have this on hand, neither do I, so use vegetable oil. Put the belly in the skillet, and cover with a layer of oil. Confit the belly at 250F for about 2 hours until it is very soft. Watch your temperatures and don’t fry it. This is meant to be low and slow. Be sure the pork belly stays submerged in the oil for the whole cooking process. When it is done, it will tear easily, so if you’re taking it out of the pan be very careful. You can store the belly in vegetable oil for a week, and in rendered fat for months until it spoils.
Confit pork skin, be sure to keep the skin under oil
- When you get snacky – cut a portion of the cooked skin and put it on a baking sheet in a 350F oven for 5-10 minutes until crisp and puffy.
Pork scratchings, ready for the oven
Pork scratchings, pork rinds, chicharrons, cured roasted pig skin
Serve with salsa verde, hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard, or virtually any other condiment.
Pancetta is dry cured bacon made from pork belly, and its generally found rolled and unsmoked, but may be left flat.
To make pancetta, you’ll need:
- A slab of pork belly around 5lbs and rectangular or square if you intend on rolling it, skin off.
Pork Belly Ribs Removed
- Curing salt, pink salt, or Insta-cure #1
- Sugar
- A place to cure the belly in the fridge for a week
- A place to hang your pancetta
Those are the basics, but we’re going a little traditional with this one, so if you’re following along, mix up this cure:
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 12 grams curing salt (if you’re using a premix, make sure that 6% of your total cure mix is comprised of curing salt)
- 50 grams kosher salt
- 75 grams brown sugar
- 20 grams crushed black peppercorns
- 10 grams juniper berries, crushed
- 4 grams nutmeg, grated
- Mix up your cure.
- Remove the skin from your pork belly using a very sharp boning or chefs knife. Cut just under the skin, pulling back on it.
Pork Belly, skin off
- Square off the pork belly, and save the trimmings for sausages if you like.
Trimming up the belly
Pork Belly, squared off
- Rub the cure all over the belly on both sides and put it in a big zipper bag or in a shallow pan that can be covered with saran wrap.
Pork Belly in Pancetta Marinade
- Every other day, redistribute the liquid that is released from the belly.
- After a week, the belly should be firm throughout, if not, let it cure for another day or so.
Once cured, take your pancetta from the brine and rinse it well. Pat dry, and cover both sides in a thin dusting of black pepper. This will help keep the bugs away. Roll and tie your meat very tightly if you wish, otherwise cut a small hole and hang the meat in a slightly cool, humid area. Mine was hung in my utility/laundry room, and I forgot to take photos. Hang unrolled pancetta for about 7 days until it begins to firm. If it gets too dry and crusty, wrap the driest bits, and put it in the fridge to dry the rest a little more. Hang rolled pancetta for 4-8 weeks, and put it in the fridge if it begins to dry out too much.
May 312010
Shark Week has nothing on this. I’ve got about 20lbs of pork sitting here that I need to deal with, so it’s PORK WEEK here at Culinary Tips. I’m not normally the biggest fan of pork. It is a cheap meat, and can handle tons of abuse before becoming completely inedible, which leads most people to show it little respect, flavour it terribly, and cook it poorly.
So now I’ve decided to take some pork and put some love into it, and what better way to start than with a whole pork belly (side).
Whole Pork Belly
Pork Belly Skin Side
A pork belly will yield the following:
- A full rack of ribs, which I ate for lunch as written in this post.
- A large piece of skin, which after being burnt or shaved, can be made into cracklings, scratchings, pork rinds or chicharrons – whatever you’d like to call them.
- A whole ton of belly meat to make bacon or pancetta.
- And some trim, which can be made into sausages. Yes, you can make sausages at home. Update: June 4 2010: I was going to post a writeup on making your own sausages, but there’s really not a lot to tell – and the camera battery was dead when I was trying to take photos. The technique I use comes from Michael Richard’s Happy in the Kitchen.
This week on Culinary Tips, I’ll post a tutorial on curing pancetta, and making pork rinds. Also, since we’re curing everything in sight, I’ll also be posting a writeup on making duck prosciutto.
If you need meat in Richmond BC, I recommend you visit Pacific Exotic Meats at 8211 Westminster Hwy. From chicken to alligator, this place will hook you up. Call ahead, (604) 273-4846, to get a price quote and make sure they’ve got what you need.
I’ve written about podcasts before, when I shared Crimes Against Food, but now I’d like to mention two niche specific audio programs that I think may appeal to a wider audience. I am visually impaired, and if I’m reading on paper for more than a few minutes suffer from intense eye strain. That said, I find Voiceprint to be a great resource. For those non-Canadians out there, Voiceprint is a ‘radio station’ staffed by volunteers that read various newspapers and magazines. It is available as a streaming audio broadcast, and as a S.A.P. broadcast on a few Canadian cable/satellite stations.
The two food related programs I check out regularly are:
Bon Appetit, which features general cooking articles, write ups about restaurants and chefs. Click here to visit the archives of past episodes.
Dining Out – From the website ‘Hear the latest trends in dining out. Discover the hot places. Listen to news and insider tips on where to eat well – and where to be seen.‘ Visit the Dining Out archives to download previous episodes.
May 212010
Bacon, a brief introduction
Bacon is a broad term given to cured pork products, but in north America, the term ‘bacon’ is almost always used to refer to cured pork belly. The cured pork may be raw, hot smoked, cold smoked, boiled or fried. Aside from the belly, back portions like fatback and loin, and side cuts can be used to make ‘bacon’. For those wondering what ‘Canadian’ bacon is, it is simply back bacon.
Is your mouth watering yet? Time to discover how (belly) bacon can be made at home, fairly easily.
Part 1: Fresh Bacon
The fresh bacon we’re about to make is raw, unsmoked belly, and must be cooked before eating, much like those cryovac packs of sliced bacon at the grocery store.
First, you’ll need to get a few ingredients:
- Pork belly – Can be found in some Asian meat and grocery stores, or at your local butcher if you’re lucky enough to be near one.
- Curing salt or ‘pink’ salt – Pink salt is sodium nitrite, a preservative used in curing meat. It prevents bacterial growth so you won’t kill anyone with botulism when they eat your cured meat. Sodium nitrite IS TOXIC and must be handled with care, which is why when it is sold as a salt blend, it is often dyed pink.
- Sugar
- A large zip lock freezer bag, and a container or tray it can fit in or on.
Raw pork belly
You can order pink salt online, or talk to your butcher. Premixed cure blends such as Insta Cure can also be purchased online.
If you have Insta Cure, or another premix, follow the labelled instructions. Otherwise, mix up a half pound of cure mix:
150g kosher or coarse salt
75g sugar
16g curing salt/sodium nitrite/pink salt
The half pound should be enough for 1 or 2 belly portions.
Here we’re making honey garlic bacon, so we’ve crushed a few garlic cloves and added some honey to the cure mix. Now it gets messy. Spread the cure mix over the surface, put the belly in the bag, and refrigerate.
Cure mix mise: Curing salt, kosher salt, black peppercorns, honey and garlic
Pork belly rubbed with cure mix
Turn the belly daily to redistribute the liquid that is going to come out of the meat. After 5 days to 1 week, the belly will be done. It is finished curing when the thickest portion is firm to the touch. Remove the bacon from the brine, and rinse off the cure. You may wish to slice off a small portion and fry it up to check the salt level. If it is too salty, blanch the cured belly in a large pot of boiling water for a minute or so.
Curing pork belly - after 1 day
Curing pork belly - after 3 days
Curing pork belly - after 5 days
Fully Cured Pork Belly
Finished Fresh Bacon
Now you’re ready to smoke!
Part 2: Hot smoked and ready to eat
I can’t say I’m going to recommend you try this next part at home. I did this because I am crazy.
I had a little portable charcoal BBQ, removed the coals, put them in a big disposable aluminum roasting pan, lit them up and let them burn down in my oven.
Turning the oven into a smoker
Dry the pork belly with a paper towel so it can take up some of the smoke flavour. Next I placed the pork belly directly on the oven rack with a tray underneath to catch the dripping fat. I smoked this in the oven for approximately 2 hours, until it reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees. The rind is then pulled off while the bacon is still hot.
Charcoal smoking pork belly
Don’t do this unless you intend on blocking the vent in your oven, and figuring out how to not smoke up your home.
Victoria and I live in an apartment with little space for a BBQ, so we can’t smoke anything in a normal, sane way. If you have a gas or charcoal grill, you’ll have no problem loading it up with wood chips and smoking your home made bacon.
