The deadline for Charcutepalooza’s Grinding Challenge feel right between my law school finals and graduation this month. Some people go nuts and subsist on burgers, fries, and Diet Coke for all of exam-time; my craziness takes the opposite form – I get very routine-driven, work out daily, and graze on nuts, protein bars, and turkey burgers with za’atar-spiced roasted fennel. After all of this I couldn’t quite face a big hunk of pork shoulder. So, I tried chicken sausage!
(more…)
Passover has been past for a while. At this point many [meat-eaters] who observed it are still breathing a big sigh of relief every time they sink their teeth into a piece of bread. The hankering for brisket from the first seders, however, can also linger for a while after the holiday. Whenever I cook brisket I make a lot, and have leftovers for days. Yet I’m always bereft when the last of it is gone: I’m kind of an addict. Thankfully, I found a recipe in The Complete American Jewish Cookbook for a prune-sweet potato tzimmes made with brisket. It’s far simpler and faster than a full-on brisket, but still yields tender, flavorful meat.
(more…)
This month’s Charcutepalooza challenge is grinding. When I was reading up on sausage in Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie, however, I stumbled across a recipe for one of my favorite foods: blood sausage.
Yep, you heard right. I adore blood sausage. In all its forms. I accidentally wound up eating soondae (Korean blood sausage) in a restaurant in Queens where I ordered by pointing at an English-less menu. Halfway through the meal I realized this wasn’t your average sausage…but by that point I was hooked. Since then, I’ve never looked back, and have only forged on – to morcilla, black pudding…and now my very own homemade boudin noir.
(more…)
Charcutepalooza has been trucking along for four months now, and I’ve had an awesome time with four delicious challenges. OK, maybe it’s more accurate to say I’ve had an awesome time with three, and an interesting time with one: I have a great talent for messing up the oh-so-simple duck prosciutto with which we started. I’ve tried twice and have yet to make a successful prosciutto. Enough of my woes, though. I’ve had enough success and gotten excited enough about this whole business that I started asking myself: Why?
Why am I doing this? Why have I gotten so incredibly into it? Why do I find it so unbelievably thrilling to get down and dirty with large chunks of meat that I devote time, money, and precious space in my under-sized Manhattan fridge to this? Why do I lavish precious time and money on expensive, intensive meat projects? Why has from-scratch deli become my hobby obsession instead of, say, knitting? You may have guessed I’m going to settle in for some philosophizing. I’m going to intersperse photos from April’s Smoking Challenge BBQ pulled pork adventures amongst my thoughts to keep you entertained. A bargain: food for thoughts.
(more…)
Haudus sive agnum Particum: mittes in turnum; teres piper rutam cepam satureiam damascena enucleata laseris modicum vinum liquamen et oleum. feruens colluitur in disco, ex aceto sumitur.
– Apicius, De Re Coquinaria VIII.vi.10
Translation: Parthian kid or lamb: Put it in the oven. Grind together pepper, rue, onion, savory, pitted, damsons, laser, wine, fish sauce, and oil. Douse the meat in boiling sauce, and serve it with vinegar.
(more…)
As I mentioned yesterday in my bagels & lox post, this month’s Charcutepalooza challenge – brining – had visions of pastrami dancing in my head within minutes. With rye, mustard, and pickles, obviously. Somehow, I made it happen.
(more…)
I know I promised more South African food Tuesday when I posted my biltong, so here you go. First, we have a delicious curried beef casserole called bobotie (pronounced “buhbootee”).
(more…)