Category — Food

from Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn, with additional commentary

Ruhlman and Polcyn are not kidding when they refer to this as Da Bomb.  This sausage has complex flavors that wake up your whole mouth.  I don’t want to be without some of this in my freezer.

Ingredients

• 5 pounds/2.25 kg boneless pork shoulder butt, diced in 1 inch pieces
• 1.5 ounces/40 grams kosher salt (about 3 tablespoons)
• 5 tablespoons/50 grams peeled and finely grated fresh ginger (we minced ours)
• 1 tablespoon/18 grams minced garlic (about 5 cloves)
• 2 teaspoons/ 6 grams ground white pepper
• 1 cup / 250 ml ice water
• 20 feet / 6 m sheep casings or 10 feet/3 m hog casings, soaked in warm water for AT LEAST 30 minutes and rinsed
• ice cubes (for bowl under ground meat)

Prep (can be done a day or more in advance)

1. Put the bowl from the stand mixer in the freezer.  Put the grinder attachment in the freezer.  Let them stay there as long as possible before grinding the meat.  I have the luxury of freezer space, so I put them in a day in advance.
2. Dice the pork shoulder butt in one inch cubes.  Put these in a large mixing  bowl, cover with plastic, and put in the refrigerator and allow to chill as long as possible.  I found chilling it overnight works well.
3. Soak the casings (if you’re going to use casings) in tepid water for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.  I’ve found that soaking overnight, and then changing the soaking water helps relax the casings so that they are easy to work with.

Process

1. Combine all ingredients except the water and toss to distribute the seasonings.  Chill until ready to grind.
2. Grind the mixture through the small die into a bowl set in ice.
3. Add the water to the ground meat mixture and mix with the paddle attachment until the liquid is incorporated and the mixture has developed a uniform, sticky appearance, about 1 minute on medium speed.
4. Saute a small portion of the sausage, taste, and adjust seasonings if necessary.
5. Stuff the sausage into casings and twist into 4 inch / 10 cm links, or shape into patties.  Refrigerate or freeze until ready to cook; or roll into a log, wrap in plastic and freeze; slice into patties.

Cook

1. Gently saute or roast the sausage to an internal temperature of 150 degrees F / 65 degrees C.  If you are using this loose, or in patties, saute until cooked through.

The quilt top, approximately 41 inches square

For those of you who are sick of the cured meats, and are wondering when I’ll get back to the SEW part of Slow and Sew, here you go.  I’m working on a baby quilt to give as a gift to dear friends who are new grandparents and gourmands.  I know they’ve wanted to have grandchildren for a long time, and they welcomed a new baby boy into their family just weeks ago.  This is a quilt to stay at the grandparents’ house, where I’m sure the grand baby will be introduced to a wide variety of food.

I see this quilt as a simple version of the I Spy quilt concept, and I can just imagine the cute baby sitting on the quilt and learning the names of fruit and veg with his grandfather.

The working title for this quilt is An Adventurous Palate.  Now it’s just down to quilting, binding, and a label.  I was impressed that I had 47 distinct food fabrics in my stash.  Only the bread and cheese fabrics were repeated.

The Cured Guanciale

Remember the pictures of the pig jowls?  Here’s how they looked after they dried.  They lost about 30% of their weight in drying, as would be expected.

Sliced Guanciale, Cross Section

And here’s what the cheek bacon looks like when it’s cut up in cross section.   Do you like the rosy pink hue of the fat?  I think that this stuff will flavor up stews, sauces and braises.  It might even be fabulous fried up with an egg.  I was amazed how dark some of the jowl meat got as it dried,  in comparison to the meaty areas that were surrounded by fat.

I wrapped this up, put it in zipper bags, and it’s now in the freezer, waiting for tasty inspiration.  Anyone want to try some?  Let me know.

Cured Bresaola

Remember the bresaola I was working on?  It’s done.  Unfortunately, my cross-section shot is not as sharp as I’d like it to be.  I’ve already learned what I will do differently next time (not wrap it in cheese cloth, wipe it down with brine each week during the curing/drying process).  The meat lost about a third of its weight in the drying process, as would be expected.

I hung it with a store-bought salami that had white mold on it (the GOOD mold) to prevent the growing of bad molds, and foster an environment for good mold, since molds compete.

After drying, out from under the cheesecloth

You can see that this is not necessarily appetizing looking, and there was a distinct blue cheese like smell of the white mold.    I wiped them down with a brine (salt water) to clean them up.  The picture below shows one before the brine wipe-down and the other after the brine wipe-down.

Bresaola, before and after wipe down with brine

I have not yet served these, as I want to check out my reference materials again about molds.  I’ve wrapped them in freezer paper and put them in my second fridge.  I did taste one slice, and since this was about a week ago, and I’m still alive, I’m guessing the stuff is non-lethal, but  I will be making more on Saturday, and I plan to do more regular brine wipe-downs on the second batch.

Pork Sausages With Ginger and Sage

This weekend I made sausages with casings for the first time, with some help from DH.  (Finally using my Christmas present from last year, the sausage stuffer!)  The recipe here is from Ruhlman & Polcyn’s Charcuterie book, for breakfast sausage with fresh ginger and sage.  I followed the recipe pretty faithfully, though I diced my ginger instead of grating it.   Now that we have the extra freezer and fridge, this is a lot easier- I have more room to keep the bowls and grinder parts cold.

Mise en place for Sausages

Here is my five pounds of cold pork shoulder butt, in 1 inch cubes, along with the rest of the ingredients:  salt and pepper, minced fresh ginger, garlic cloves, and minced fresh sage (from my kitchen garden, thank you!).   After mixing all of these ingredients, I chilled them while I pulled the grinder parts out of the freezer, and set up a bowl of ice underneath the mixing bowl (which had also been in the freezer).

Grinding the ingredients

Here is my DH doing the grinding.  You can see the little flecks of sage in the ground meat as it is extruded.  The grinding went much more smoothly than the last time I used the attachment.  I believe that is because the meat was colder- the cubes had been in the fridge overnight before we mixed in the spices, and since the grinder parts had been in the freezer, the whole system kept the meat colder.

The casings (hog) soaking in warm water

Meanwhile, I put the casings (natural hog casings, purchased at Mills’ Fleet Farm, aka The Man Mall) in warmish water to rehydrate and soak out the salt that they are packed in.  I changed the water a few times, and I rinsed out the insides of casings, too.  As you can see in the next photo, they do stretch, and as they re-hydrate, they  get easier to work with.

Rinsing Casings

After all the meat was ground, we added some ice water, and then mixed with the paddle attachment on the mixer, so that it got the correct sticky texture needed.

Ready to stuff in Casings

At this point, I had hauled out and rinsed my sausage stuffer, a Christmas gift from my Mum.  This one holds five pounds of sausage meat at a time, and comes with three sizes of stuffing tube.

The Stuffer

Front View of Stuffer

This part of the process is filled with opportunity for snickering and bad puns.  It also really requires both hands, so it didn’t have a good point for me to stop and photograph it.  While you may or may not agree with Julie Powell’s assertions about males being more suited to doing this work than females in her book Cleaving, it is a situation ripe for baudy humor.  It takes you right back to Junior High juvenality.

Here, however, is the result of the stuffing process- pinwheels of sausage.

Pinwheels of Porkiness

I got three big pinwheels from my five pounds of meat.  The last step was to measure out and twist the links and pop the casings to release air bubbles, then freeze the sausages.  I make approximately four inch links.  The casings I got were more bratwurst diameter than breakfast link diameter, so they look a little stubby in comparison to your average bratwurst.

These are tasty little things.  We served them yesterday for brunch with waffles.  My favorite local nine year old thought the combination was great.  (Here’s to kids with adventurous palates!  )  Of course, our realization after brunch was that 5 pounds of these is not very many.  I’ll be making more of these soon!

We finally got down to the business of planting our own plants today.  I’ve been collecting vegetable, herb, and flower plants for a couple weeks, and in the extreme heat and humidity, we decided to not wait for Memorial Day to get them in their pots and planters.

This year’s experiment is an upside down tomato plant, in one of those As Seen On TV planters.  Cheesy? yes, but one of my favorite church ladies swears by the upside down method, which she does with 5 gallon buckets.  I got the tomato plant at a fundraiser table for the local high school, so any actual fruit it bears is a bargain, since my $ are supporting some school program.

This year’s tomato varieties:  (1 plant in each variety)

Sun Gold (cherry)

Sweet Pea (currant/grape)

Gold Medal

Malachite Box

Cuor Di Bue

Mountain Fresh

Super Steak

Costovoluto Genovese

Anais Noir

Pink Brandywine

Carbon

Herbs (1 plant of each unless marked otherwise):

Basil (2)

Thyme (2)

Cilantro

Italian Parsley

Rosemary (7)

Marjoram

Sage

Other plants:

Two zucchini plants (for their blossoms)

Four nasturtium plants (for their flowers as salad garnishes)

Two Gerbera Daisy plants (to make the yard look pretty

We’ll see how it all goes this season.  I should have some pictures soon.

Our Illinois Urban Farmers

DH and I recently returned from an annual event.  Each spring we visit his parents in central Illinois, and help them plant their EarthBox planter with tomatoes for the summer.  This is tomato season #3 for them.  Longer term readers might remember them from last year, and their system of tying cages to the bench.

This year, they purchased a determinate variety of beefsteak tomato locally, and we brought another Sun Gold cherry tomato plant from Minnesota (an indeterminate variety).  We were a week or two earlier in planting the box than last year, given our freer schedule this summer.  We’re all hoping for good tomato yields and less cold and rain than they experienced last summer.

Creamy Woodsy Morelly Goodness

Now that I had the lovely morels from my foraging adventure, I decided to cook them as my contribution to a dinner party, where I was scheduled to bring an asparagus dish.  I went searching the web for something seasonal and delicious, and found a couple of recipes (here and here) that suggested asparagus and morels was a good combination.  I ended up doing my own variation of the two, trying to remember to let the ingredients be the stars, and that simplicity is a virtue in cooking those star ingredients.  The amounts of ingredients used was approximate, as I wanted enough to serve about 10 people.

Sauce Delivery Medium, Prepped For Roasting

Equipment

• 2 quart sauce pan with lid
• 2 baking sheets
• colander
• cutting board
• chef’s knife
• spoon or silicon spatula for stirring

Ingredients

• about 20 morels
• 2-4 lbs asparagus (I used both white and green because both were available)
• 1 large shallot
• unsalted butter
• beef broth
• half & half
• salt
• pepper

Prep:

1. Wash, drain, and trim asparagus.  Place in single layer on baking sheets.
2. Wash, drain, trim, and slice the morels into bite sized pieces.
3. Peel and mince the shallot.
4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Cook:

1. When the oven is hot, roast the asparagus in the oven for about 15 minutes per pan, depending on the thickness of the asparagus spears.  Thicker spears may need more time.  If the asparagus is bright green, and slightly tender after 15 minutes, remove from the oven, place on a serving plate, and cover with foil to keep warm.  If it’s too crisp, roast the asparagus for a few more minutes.
2. Melt about 3 Tbs. of butter in the sauce pan over medium heat.  When the foam subsides, add the shallot and let it soften.
3. Add the morels to the sauce pan with about 1/4 tsp. of salt and cook, so that they begin to release some water.  Add about 4 Tbsp. of beef broth, and cook, covered, for about 4 minutes.
4. Remove the lid and stir the mixture.  Bring to a boil to evaporate some excess water, if needed.
5. Lower back to medium heat, and add half and half.  I used about half a cup, but use your judgment, based on the amount of asparagus, and the sauce consistency you like.  Taste and adjust seasonings.
6. Pour sauce over asparagus, and serve.

Morels Bubbling With Broth

This was a big hit at the dinner party, despite the fact that some of the sauce was spilled due to the shallowness of the serving plate.  I’ll definitely do this again the next time I have morels available.

Connie and I had another adventure this weekend, this time near Rushford, MN, where we went foraging for wild food – the coveted morels.  Neither of us had been foraging before, but morels are delicious, and hey, it’s free food, if we found them!

Given the dangers of eating unknown fungi, and our novice skills, we enlisted the help of an expert.  Our expert was eleven year old H, whose parents own Sheep Improvement Company and sell lamb and beef at our local Farmer’s Market as O’Neill Family Farms.  Since H has gone hunting for morels many times with her family, she knew right where to take us.  As I was a passenger without a notebook, I can’t tell you where exactly we were, but I believe we were within Winona County, since we were less than 30 minutes from home, and we didn’t cross the Mississippi.  We were on Sheep Improvement Company’s land by invitation, which has pasture, woods, and guard dogs.

The first thing to know about hunting morels is that they usually grow near elm trees, and most often near dead elm trees, so we learned h0w to identify elm bark, but this may or may not be helpful, since dead trees don’t always have bark left on them.

It seemed like we were in the woody area no more than five minutes before H found our first two morels.  It helps to bring the expert!  It also helps to see what they look like in situ, so you can adjust your image while you search.

Can you find them?

Here are the first two that I found, before I picked them.  You can click on the image to see it larger.  I was a bit surprised that they were not closer to the trees, but with further thought, it makes sense- they need some sunlight.

C shows us her find

Here is Connie’s daughter C, proudly showing the first one she found.

The Joy of First Discovery

Connie was very excited to find this one with no help from H.   We spent about an hour and a half traipsing around in the wooded area, and we managed to find about 16 morels of varying sizes.  Here’s a picture of the haul.

Foraging Success!

My next assignment is to cook these beauties, and provide a recipe.  I think there may be butter involved.  Stay tuned!

If there’s nothing else we’ve learned from movies like Food, Inc. and announcements like this in the New York Times last week, we’ve learned there’s a lot of value in knowing about where your food comes from, how it is handled, and what ingredients and processes are involved.

Heather Seacrist, Farmer and Dynamo

From June through October, my vegetables and eggs are coming from Suncrest Gardens in Cochrane, WI (which is 20.3 miles from my house, according to Google Maps).  My husband and I subscribe to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) at Suncrest Gardens.  This is our fourth season.  Suncrest Gardens is owned and run by Heather Seacrist.  I hadn’t seen Heather since the first year I signed up for the CSA, and this was my first visit to her farm.  I wish I had visited the farm sooner.  I went on a rainy Friday with Connie (of My Part) so we could see what Heather’s operation is like, and to see how and what she is doing.

I am much better for the experience.  I already have entrusted Heather by eating her eggs, chickens, berries and vegetables for three years now, but I feel even better about it now, having talked to her and seen her operation.  It’s clear to me that she had an excellent business plan when she started, and she’s great at implementing new ideas as things have grown.   Her CSA now has 70 subscriptions,  so she feeds about 150 people through weekly and bi-weekly shares from her 16 acres, though not all of the acreage is in production.  (In Food, Inc., Michael Pollan quotes the average as 126 people fed per American farmer)

Heather and her crew of  interns and working subscribers serve more people with her wood-fired brick oven on Thursday Pizza Nights.

The Glamour and Romance of Farming in the Rain

Above is Heidi Carlson, a full-season intern on the farm this year, after picking asparagus from the front field.  You can see part of the barn to the left, and part of the hoop house off to the right.

The Apprentices in the Barn

These are the new crop of soon-to-be egg layers, hanging out in the barn where it was warm, with the adolescent rooster who is learning to crow.

Future Big Man on Campus

After meeting the “new recruits”, we got to see what’s growing outside the barn.  I don’t have pictures of everything, but here are a few highlights.

Coming Soon to a Salad Bowl Near Me

Here is some lettuce, mesclun, spinach, and kale.

Cupid's Sister

Here is a calf being raised for beef, already on its grass-only diet.  I can’t remember what this calf’s name is.

The Meat Chickens

The Camping Caravan for the Meat Birds

This movable shelter, surrounded by electrified net fence, allows the chickens to be inside out of rain and wind, or outside, eating bugs and grass, at their whim, but protect them from predators.  After a few days,  Heather will move the fencing and hoop house to fresh pasture.  The chickens eat up the grass and bugs, and fertilize at the same time.

The Gypsy Egg Crew

The laying hens have a similar caravan and fence arrangement, but with nest shelves.  I’m happy to see the birds out doing what they want to, knowing that I’ll have their eggs in my kitchen through the fall.

Suncrest Gardens Security Team

Here is Mama Llama (on the lookout) and her son, Rocky, who patrol the farm’s periphery, watching for and fending off predators.  Mama Llama has been known to wake Heather up with her whistling if she smells coyotes, and has the claim to fame of actually killing one by stomping it with her front legs.  Don’t mess with Mama Llama.

Hundreds of Dollars Worth of Garlic

Here is part of one of the vegetable planting beds, which has about 500 lbs. of garlic seed.  You can see the dog, (which is about 75 lbs). in the distance, as a scale reference.  Heather says garlic seed is very expensive as seed goes, and she’s gradually increasing her stocks by saving the best seeds each season, and adding a bit more.  This is all the same variety of garlic, a German type that is bred for hardiness.

Snap Peas companion planted with Oats

In some of her vegetable beds, Heather has grown crops like alfalfa and oats as winter cover crops that are then tilled into the soil before planting to provide nutrients for the soil. In this case, she is growing the oats with the Sugar Snap Peas as a means of structure for the pea vines.  As the plants grow taller, the vines will wrap around the oat plants, using them as a natural stakes to keep the pea plants upright.   The oat plants can also act as mulch, preventing weeds and erosion.  How cool is that?

In addition to the land that is in cultivation and pasture, an important part of Suncrest Gardens farm is the area near the farmhouse and barn, which is in production in a different way, as a place for Pizza Night.  What appears to be a bit of a playground is also an area for seating, for musicians, and for the pizza creation and service.  This is also an area where customers can see the animals, and learn more about how the food is grown.

Combination Sand Box and Fort Tower

New Pens for Animals

These new pens are near the barn, so that the calves and chickens can hang out on pizza night and be social with the pizza customers, since educating customers about the farm, what she grows, and the way she grows it is a big part of Heather’s mission.  She wants the kids and adults who come to her farm to see the animals, and see how their food is produced.

The Pizza Menu

On one side of the barn’s ell, you order your pizza.

Pizza Prep Area

Then Heather and her crew prepare the pizzas in this room off the ell,

The Big Smoke

and it’s into the hot wood-fired oven.  (We visited on a Friday mid-day, and the oven was still warm inside, after the previous night’s pizza fire.  Heather also uses the pizza oven to dry herbs and sometimes to bake bread.)

Pizza Pickup Location

On the opposite side of the ell is where you pick up your pizza when it’s done.  The number you were given when you ordered your pizza will be put up on display, so you can check where you are in the order line while you are waiting.  Once a month, Heather has live music on pizza night.  She said she likes live music, but forgets to go out to hear it, so she has them come to the farm instead.

I’m looking forward to taking a group of friends out for pizza this summer season.  I want to see the oven in action.

I don’t have pictures of the hoop house, or the cool root cellar, or the berry vines, and I haven’t told you any of the great stories or conversations we had with Heather about many more interesting things.  Hopefully I’ll have more photos and anecdotes later on.

It’s hard for me to summarize all my thoughts about this visit.  I’m so impressed with how well run this farm is, and about how smart, thoughtful, and careful Heather is about what she’s doing.   I feel lucky to know her, and to be one of her customers.  (No, I am not getting any of my eggs or veg for what I’m writing) Perhaps the best way to sum it up is to show you the sign you see as you go out the driveway.

Suncrest Gardens Philosophy?