Tapas! Spanish Vineyard Dinner begins and a note about pork

Planning is underway for next week's Spanish Vineyard dinner. We will be making and enjoying both traditional and non-traditional Tapas. The most popular legend, of course, is that tapas evolved as free nibbles in the Sherry bars of southern Spain. Others credit this King or that King. More practically they acted as a convenient "top" to keep the wine flies out of your glass. Though no longer free, tapas today consist of a wide and creative variety of small dishes, typically eaten after work with a glass of cold Fino. They serve as a much needed bridge from the usually large lunch (+ siesta!) and the very, very late dinner time (10 pm or later!) Regardless of how accurate the legends are, tapas are a wonderful and delicious culinary tradition even if they aren't really a true reflection of Spanish cuisine in general.

The common ingredients used for tapas are usually more economical cuts of meat (almost always pork, more on that in a minute), seafood and preserved products like olives, anchovies, etc.
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A note on the incredible amount of pork eaten in Spain: It is literally everywhere. Entire shops are devoted to Jamon, with hundreds of hams hanging from the ceiling. Even regular supermarkets carry 5 or 6 different types of Jamon. This tradition developed for a very real and serious reason, according to The Cambridge World History of Food:

"Spanish enthusiasm for pig meat stems in part from pork’s past importance as a symbol of cultural identity. Because Moors and Jews did not eat it, Christians saw the meat as more than simple nutrition. In sixteenth-century Spain, pork eating was an acid test faced by Spanish Moriscos and Marranos who publicly claimed conversion to Christianity. Conspicuous pork avoidance could result in an appearance before the tribunals of the Inquisition."
     —The Cambridge World History of Food (www.cambridge.org/us/books/kiple/hogs.htm) 

So you have to eat your pork! As my readers (both of you?) already know, fortunately for me,  I am already a huge pork fan! So the Inquisition will have to find another reason to come after me (shouldn't be too difficult)

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Bacon /// Bacon /// Bacon Wrap up

Last night's Bacon class was a success and there are new converts to the 'Make it yourself" gospel that I am trying to "preach." Sorry if this gets a bit strong for "just" a cooking site, but I have two bees in my bonnet this morning...

First, a word of explanation on why I teach classes like bacon making and cocktail bitter making: yes, there are folks who should probably eat less bacon and other fatty meats and, of course, drink less (myself included.) However one of the best arguments for making it yourself, aside from the very positive aspects of understanding how your food is made and customizing it to your tastes, is that the quality is so much higher than the factory produced crap out there that you are satisfied with less. There will always people who have the time and inclination to be offended by a wholesome cooking class being offered at a center that focuses on bringing people together in a myriad of ways. In my experience few things work better than sharing a meal around a common table. Food as medicine, the the theory of magic "good" foods vs. bad "evil" foods has always driven me nearly around the bend. There are no magic bullets out there, folks. When you make it yourself, you know what you are putting in your body. Rather than bacon pumped full of water (which you pay the same per pound price for as the meat) and god-knows-what-else, yours contains a very few ingredients, all of which are natural and safe...

This leads quickly to the other bee... the Nitrite issue. Much of this concern has very little science to back it up. Again the fat in the bacon is much worse for you than the small, small amount of nitrates left in the finished bacon. There are more nitrates in a kale salad than your Sunday morning bacon. I could ramble on about this but I will give you a quote from cookbook author and food expert, Michael Ruhlman,

"The fact is, most nitrate we consume comes from vegetables. Nitrate we consume coverts to nitrite in our body, which is a anti-microbial agent in our guts. Sodium nitrite in bacon cures the bacon (more info in my safety concerns for charcutepaloozians) and then converts to nitric oxide, so, while I’m not chemist, I have heard others suggest that you’re not actually consuming any nitrite by the time the bacon gets to you.  Again, almost all the nitrate and nitrite in your body comes from veggies.  It’s an anti-oxidant.  Studies are coming out now saying it’s good for the heart.
A study in the Journal of Food Protection put it this way: “Since 93% of ingested nitrite comes from normal metabolic sources, if nitrite caused cancers or was a reproductive toxicant, it would imply that humans have a major design flaw.”

Read the full post here. http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/ It is very enlightening.

Morning after breakfast...

On to the Smoker!!

After seven days (the meat should feel firm ), take it out, rinse off all the seasonings under cold water and soak in fresh cold water for 6 hours or overnight. This helps to remove the extra salt but doesn’t remove the flavor from the cure. Drain the meat and pat it dry. If possible allow it to rest for 24 hours in the fridge on a cooling rack for better airflow. This helps the smoke really adhere to the meat.

Next mix up the dry rub for the cooking process. I like to add this to reinforce the flavors and add a gorgeous crust to the finished bacon. It’s important to be very careful with adding salt to this mix or it will be too salty. Spread the dry rub on a cookie sheet (with sides) and dredge the meat. The cookie sheet makes a great transport to the grill.

If you have a smoker or a grill, you can smoke the bacon. I use my Weber kettle grill and it works beautifully. Build a small fire with hardwood lump charcoal. When it starts to glow stir the coals so they sit deep in the grill. If you have a small grate in your grill place it TOP of the burning coals. Carefully place the tinfoil packet or the soaked woodchip on the grate,  replace the grill grate and put the bacon on keeping it away from the hottest direct heat. Cover the grill with the vents open, and let smoke for 30 minutes, checking after 15 minutes. Turn and repeat. Check the internal temperature, it should be 150º. If it isn’t and you are happy with the level of smokiness, you can cook the bacon in a 200º oven until its done.

Let it cool and refrigerate it until you’re ready to cook it. 

But I know. You won’t be able to wait. 

So cut off a piece and cook it. Taste it, savor it. 

Congratulations! It’s bacon!

Breakfast Bacon Varieties... Including Beef Bacon

My Breakfast Bacon uses the regular dry cure with addition of additional brown sugar and blackstrap molasses. For the October 10th class I am experimenting with both pork belly and beef shortribs.. I have tried the beef bacon before but it turned out too salty, though it was remarkably bacon-like. 

I cut the ribs off (save them OF COURSE! Never throw out flavor!! Great for stock, soup, etc...). Then dredged in the cure, and into the bag with extra sugar and molasses. The meat is a little thinner than a usual pork belly so I'll cure it for only 4 or 5 days.

Here's what the finished beef bacon looked like the first time... (the photo color is a bit too red...)

Bacon Varieties...

For my "Bacon, Bacon, Bacon" class, I've decided on Sicilian and Moroccan as the two "regional flavors." Of course not much bacon is consumed in Morocco, but the spices (tumeric, garlic, sumac, za'atar, and Marrakech Moroccan Spice from Savory Spice (www.savoryspiceshop.com/blends/marr.html) are so good with grilled or smoked meats.

For the Sicilian I used garlic, oregano, dried onion, orange peel and my foraged fennel pollen. I'll do a fennel pollen foraging post later in the year. It's one of my favorite parts of living in SoCal.

New Cooking Class Blog!

After not updating my other food blog (justlookingforonegoodmeal.blogspot.com/) for ages and my inability to get a website up I thought I'd take this route. I will be documenting my adventures in the kitchen and classroom. Should be fun!

Pork-a-polooza

Today's activities included curing 10 lbs of pork belly for my next "Bacon, Bacon, Bacon" class on October 10th at the Center for Living Peace in Irvine, CA (www.goodhappens.org). I also rendered lard and ground up the remaining bits into Asian Pork patties (recipe to follow)
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I started with one whole (really a half) pork belly.

I cut it in quarters and squared of the ends.

Dry Cure
2 ounces kosher salt
(1/4 cup Morton or Diamond Crystal)
2 teaspoons pink curing salt #1
4 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar or honey powder or maple sugar

Mix the ingredients together in a large enough pan to hold the belly. Dredge the meat in the cure mixture and shake off the extra. Put your belly in the zip-top bag, close the bag and massage it all over to rub the cure into the meat. Discard the leftover cure.

I'm still working on the flavor profiles I'm going with for the class, so stay tuned!

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 With the trimmings, I cut off all the meat and carefully cut out a couple of glands (grey vs pink). Yes, this is a little gross but necessary—besides you're already cutting up a belly...

The meat was added to some chunks of fat to be ground for Asian Pork Patties.

Asian Pork Patties
2 parts pork
1 part pork fat
2 large garlic cloves
4" piece of ginger peeled
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Cambodian Lemongrass Curry (from Savory Spice: www.savoryspiceshop.com/blends/cambod.html)


Chill all the grinder parts, and the pork in the freezer until very cold. It will help the fat not smear in the grinder. Grind the pork and fat with the largest plate. Then grind the ginger and garlic. Mix the ground meat and seasonings by hand and then regrind the mix on the smaller plate. Stir in soy and curry powder. Form into patties. Fry until cooked through and browned. Serve with sushi or sticky rice.

I added a quick sauce of Siracha, Kewpie Mayo, soy sauce and a pinch of the Cambodian curry powder.

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My final project was to render the lard from the remaining scraps and the extra package of trimmings and fat I picked up with my Pork Belly. I cut the pieces into chunks, left the skin on and added a couple of cups of water. I started it on the stove top then put it in a low oven (180º-200º) for as few hours.