Biscuits of Today

Wrestling with Pork Belly

So I did it. I finally confronted the slab of pork belly that has been curing in the fridge for over a week. I had cured it using a mix of pink curing salt, kosher salt, red pepper flakes, and rosemary. I used what I had on hand instead of running out and buying more spices because my pantry is already overflowing with odd ingredients as it is.

I had been putting off hanging the pancetta because it has to be rolled tightly to prevent mold growth in air pockets. You can wrap the slab up in cheese cloth to avoid rolling, but that almost seems like cheating. If I'm going to the trouble to make pancetta, I want to do it up right, and I've never seen flat pancetta before.

My first strategy was to start tying at the middle, but the belly didn't seem to stay rolled tightly, so I started at one of the ends, and that worked better. It took several tries of wrestling with the meat, but I was finally somewhat satisfied with my work. My arms and hands are aching from the strength it took to tame the pancetta. Pretty pathetic, I know.

Now its hanging in my shed along with some questionable duck prosciutto that doesn't seem hard yet even though its been in there for over a week. I hope my second Charcutepalooza experiment is more successful, but for now it deinfitely looks like pancetta. I guess I'll see in two weeks...

Pasta, Pancetta, and Tomatoes

I feel like I've been in limbo for the past 2 months working feverishly at a famous cheese shop in New York through the hectic holiday season,  and then a week later quickly leaving New York to make the drive to Austin.

So I haven't been cooking at all, but this week we moved into our new house (and kitchen) in Austin! The movers haven't delivered all of my cooking gear yet, so I have to keep myself in check. One of the first things I made was a simple dish that I saw Anne Burrell make on the Food Network a few months ago.  Bucatini all'Amatriciana is  a pasta dish comsisting of a delicious tomato sauce containing guanicale, red peper flakes, onion, and tomatoes over bucatini, a tube-like pasta similar to spaghetti but hallow in the middle.
 
The search for guanciale in Austin made me miss New York where I always had access to it at my job, sometimes taking the guanciale ends home for free. I settled on a slice of pancetta from Mandola's Italian Market in my new neighborhood where I also picked up some bucatini.

 I have to say, subsituting pancetta for guanciale didn't make a difference. The sauce was still so savory and lucious. Growing up, I thought I didn't like tomato sauce. Now I know that I just hate jarred tomato sauces from the supermarket. They taste dull and too redolent of tomato paste. On the contrary, homemade tomato sauces often taste fresh and bright, and they don't take much work. Yes, this tomato sauce has to simmer for an hour, but I just used that time to take a long shower and clean up a little bit. And if you put in the effort to make this, please garnish with real Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano!!!

The King of Cheeses

 That "Parmesan cheese" that comes in a green can is an abomination. How does it even get to call itself  Parmesan cheese? The real Parmesan cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano has a flavor and texture that is unrivaled by any other cheese. Parmigiano-Reggiano is an artisan product, so no two Parmesans are the same, although all meet a minimum standard eastablished by the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese consortium in Italy. It can only be made in certain parts of Italy, and it is aged 18 months to 3 years.   
In high school my family and I had dinner at a local Italian restaurant and ordered an appetizer of roasted red peppers and Parmesan cheese. I envisioned some tepid red peppers from a jar sprinkled with Kraft Parmesan cheese as that was my point of reference up until that point. On the contrary, the peppers were obviously roasted in house, and they tasted bright and fresh. The cheese was like nothing I had ever tasted before- it was hard and crumbly and dotted with bits of crystalls that crunch when you bit into the cheese. It tasted nutty, salty, yet slightly sweet with caramel tones.  I was eating real Parmesan cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and it was worlds away from the Kraft parmesan cheese in a can.

Now I always keep some fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in my fridge. I've experimented with different domestic and Australian Parmesan cheese varieties, but I just keep coming back to Parmigiano-Reggiano. Still, if you don't want to shell out the money for the real stuff, these varieties are a vast improvement over the Kraft flakes in a green can. Please don't buy it already grated because it will be more expensive and dry out faster. Use a microplane (one of my favorite kitchen tools!) to grate some here and there for cooking or over your pasta. Parmigiano-Reggiano is so dry and aged (usually about 24 months) that it takes a very long time to go bad. Just wrap it up and keep it in the cheeses drawer of your fridge. Remember to save the hard, inedible rinds to throw in your soup or stock!

Ingredients Breakdown: Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese vs. Kraft Grated Parmesan Cheese

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese: Partially Skimmed Cow Milk, Salt, Rennet

Kraft grated Parmesan cheese: Parmesan Cheese (Pasteurized Part-Skim Milk, Salt, Less Than 2% Of Enzymes, Cheese Culture, Cellulose Powder To Prevent Caking, Potassium Sorbate To Protect Flavor)Aged 6 Months

 

Make Salsa Verde at Home

Earlier this month we went to Prune to celebrate my birthday. New York Magazine describes the restaurant's cuisine as "unpretentious American home cooking" with a bit of a seasonal farm-to-table slant, meaning there were several menu items that could be easily prepared at home. We still had a great dinner by selecting items that I can't seem to get right in my own kitchen. The lamb blade chops were tender and beefy and the bone marrow appetizer was extraordinary. Marrow bones look easy to prepare, but I've never been able to get them to turn out quite right.

We passed on dishes like roast chicken with salsa verde. I've already written about how easy it is to make roast chicken, and lately I've been making salsa verde about once or twice a week just to use up the mass amounts of herbs I accumulate from working at the La Familia Verde Farmers' Market.The last batch I made included a little basil, mint, and a bunch of papalo- a pungenet herb used in Mexican cooking. The herb looks appealing with its thick, velvety leaves and gently scalloped edges, but some customers at our  market are violently repulsed upon smelling it. I think they’re just being dramatic because I find its odor and flavor pleasant. Its more pungent than cilantro, with undertones of citrus and onion. I get the feeling that its used in certain regions of Mexico as a substitute for cilantro during the summer when its too hot to grow that particular herb.

The process of making salsa verde, an Italian green sauce made of herbs, is similar to making pesto. First, I wash all of the herbs and throw them into the bowl of the food processor. Next I pulse the herbs to chop them up. Then, with the blade of the food processor running, I toss in one or two cloves of peeled garlic, a peeled shallot, maybe some capers if I have them, the juice of half a lemon and some lemon zest, and some salt and pepper to taste. Finally, pour in the olive oil in a thin stream to emulsify the sauce, and turn it off when it acheives a smooth texture and begins to turn a lighter green color. Done!

This sauce is a great way to preserve herbs because it will keep longer than if you left them fresh in your fridge. You can use this procedure to clear out your fridge and experiment with whatever you have on hand leftover from your CSA share or a recipe you made- throw in bits of parsley, cilantro, dill, scallions, garlic scapes, onions, lime, vinegar, etc. This sauce is a fantastic accompaniment to pasta with sauteed zucchini, and its delicious smeared on a steak!

Other ideas:

Chilean Sea Bass with Lentils and Salsa Verde from The Blog that Ate Manhattan

Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary and Anchovies, with Salsa Verde from Pikelet & Pie

Homemade Pasta without a Pasta Maker

One of my roommates used to have a pasta machine, so sometimes we would make delicious homemade raviolis with our friends. One dinner of raviolis stuffed with acorn squash in a sauce of brown butter and toasted peacans ranks up there as one of the best meals of my life. Now that I live in New York, I'm hesitant to fill my kitchen with seldom-used gadgets like pasta makers. So I've been happy to come across some recent blog posts about making pasta without one. Mel at Bitchin Camero shares a technique for making noodles, and Cathy at Not Eating Out in New York shows how to make orecchiette. I'm looking forward to giving these strategies a try!

Making Mozzarella with David Greco of Mike's Deli

Yesterday was the first ever Bronx Food Summit, and I think it was a big success. I was running around working at the event most of the day, but I made time to  attend a fun and informative workshop led by David Greco of Mike's Deli. I first learned about this place on the eggplant Parmesan episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  Mike's is only a 20 minute walk from my job, but it took watching a show on the Food Network to learn about it. How sad is that? Mike's is an institution in the Bronx's Little Italy, and anchors the Arthur Avenue Retail Market.  I've tried several sandwiches there, and they constantly exceed my expectations. All of their food deliciously and authentically Italian, and made with care. If you live in New York, and you've never been to Arthur Avenue, I suggest you go. IMMEDIATELY.

Mike's Deli's eggplant Parmesan sandwich, best eggplant Parmesan EVER!

Sandwich with smoked prosciutto and smoked mozzarella, also tasty.

At the workshop, I learned that the secret to their delectable sandwiches is their homemade mozzarella made fresh almost everyday. The process starts with a cheese curd from a dairy farm upstate.

   

Water is first heated on the stove with some regular, iodized salt. Davod says their cheese's secret ingredient is Bronx tap water, and when people try to recreate their mozzarella in Westchester or Connecticut it doesn't turn out the same. He also stressed using regular table salt, not kosher salt or sea salt. When the water get warm, he passes the curd through a special mandoline or guitarra to break it up.

 

Then he kneads the curd like bread or pizza dough under the water. When the curd reaches the correct texture,  he stirs it with a paddle and pulls it. He forms the cheese into various shapes like a ball, bocconcini, or a braid. The finished mozzarella is submerged in some lukewarm brine- not too hot or too cold.

  

Of course, Mike's serves their wonderfully mild and creamy homemade mozzarella as is. But they also smoke the cheese or make scamorza by brining and drying the fresh mozzarella over a period of days (this is my favorite way to eat it). They also use the leftover whey from the cheese making process to make fresh ricotta. David was generous enough to provide us with plenty of samples of all of these products, and they were fantastic. I can't wait to make another trip to Mike's and buy some cheese curd to try making my own mozzarella!