Cooking tips, tricks, and advice from professional kitchens
Posts tagged black pepper
How to make duck prosciutto at home
Jun 14th
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
Make your own fresh Cajun seasoning and rub
Jan 4th
Cajun seasoning can be purchased in basically any grocery store or supermarket these days, but if you have a well stocked spice cupboard there is no reason to buy a prepackaged mix. Using freshly ground mustard seeds, freshly ground oregano, thyme, and cumin seed along with paprika and cayenne that isn’t stale will give you a much more fragrant blend than what’s been sitting on store shelves for months.
There are literally limitless variations on the standard Cajun spice blend, with ingredients added and omitted, and combined in various ratios. Here is a simple recipe that can be tweaked to your tastes:
| 3 Tbsp / 45ml | Paprika |
| 2 Tbsp / 30ml | Salt |
| 1 tsp / 5ml | Mustard seed |
| 1 tsp / 5ml | Onion powder |
| 1 tsp / 5ml | Garlic powder |
| 1 tsp / 5ml | Cayenne pepper |
| 1 tsp / 5ml | Ground black pepper |
| 1 tsp / 5ml | Thyme |
| 1 tsp / 5ml | Oregano |
If you’re using this recipe as a dry rub, add 1 Tbsp brown sugar. As a marinade, add 2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil and substitute onion powder and garlic powder for fresh onion and garlic. Use 3 tablespoons minced onion.
For the freshest tasting Cajun blend, crush red pepper flakes and substitute for cayenne, crush mustard seed rather than using powdered mustard, and crush dried thyme and oregano rather than using powdered.
Cajun spice mix. From top, clockwise: mustard, paprika, oregano, thyme, black pepper, cayenne, salt, onion powder. Garlic omitted.