Cooking tips, tricks, and advice from professional kitchens
Posts tagged nutmeg
Make your own pancetta at home
May 31st
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.
How to Make Chai Tea
Feb 28th
Making Chai Tea
Tired of that cup of Folgers every morning? Want a little change from Starbucks? Well, next time you want a little pick-me-up, try brewing a cup (or 4, in our recipe) of chai tea.
What is Chai Tea?
For those unfamiliar with chai, it is black tea infused with aromatic spices, finished with milk and sugar. Virtually any blend of ‘sweet’ and ‘warming’ spices are a good match for chai tea. Sweet spices are those that pair well, or are enhanced by sweetness: Nutmeg, allspice, vanilla, fennel seed, star anise, cassia and cinnamon to name a few. Warming spices include peppercorns and ginger, as well as cinnamon.
There are brands of sweetened chai syrup on the market, as well as prepackaged chai flavoured teabags, but they can’t compete with the intoxicating aroma and deep flavours of real chai tea. Making the real thing is about as difficult as boiling a pot of water – you just need a few things on hand.
As with many Indian dishes, there are limitless regional differences with chai tea. Some recipes omit ginger or cloves, some add other spices, and I’ve even heard of chilies being added. Preparation methods differ as well, so remember, there is no truly ‘right way’ to make chai tea.
How do I make Chai Tea?
Ingredients for 1 Litre of Chai Tea
3 Tbsp Black tea – Use a good quality black tea. Something you would drink on its own. If you don’t have any on hand, 4 or 5 Tetley tea bags will do. I normally drink Red Rose tea, but for some reason Tetley seems to make nicer, less tannic masala chai.
Spices -
- 3 inches cinnamon stick
- 10 green cardamom pods
- 1/2 inch ginger, sliced thin
- 10 whole cloves
- 10 black peppercorns
- Place 2 1/2 cups of water, and all of the spices in a pot, and bring to a boil.
- Once boiled, cover your pot, and turn to low heat, or turn it off. Let the spices steep for 10 minutes.
- Add 1 1/2 cups milk, 2-4 Tbsp sugar, brown sugar, or honey and bring back to a boil.
- Once boiled, turn heat to low.
- Add tea leaves and steep on low heat for 10-15 minutes.
- Strain and serve.
Chai Tea - Ready to Strain
Some additional spices you may want to try adding to your chai:
- Star anise
- Dried orange peel
- Vanilla bean (or just the saved pods, after you scrape the seeds)
- Nutmeg