Food Memories - Grandpa's Picadillo

Picadillo

I haven't posted anything for a while mostly because I have been so busy, but over the weekend my wife asked me to cook for some friends and I decided that this was the perfect time to write another post about my food memories. While I looked forward to cooking for our friends I wasn't invited. Well I was invited but movie night with "the girls" isn't my thing...

For movie night my wife planned tostadas. While it can be a classic Mexican dish I gave it the spin my Grandfather (Papi) taught me, that spin is to "make each dish your own."

Classically picadillo is ground meat with a sauce with bits of bell peppers, olives and what are generally considered warm spices like cloves, cumin, and coriander. My version is a little different I am not a big fan of bell peppers and my wife is not a big fan of olives. That is the biggest part of making a recipe your own, finding a way to add in the things you like or replace the things you might not like.

My version of picadillo uses potatoes to add a little filler to the dish, another change was the use of oregano and red pepper flakes for the seasoning. The technique of cooking the tomato paste in preparing the sauce for the picadillo is relatively simple but is also the key to developing flavor in the dish.

That being said, this is not the healthiest dish and it's not something that we eat on a daily basis. While this post is not about the tostada dish as a whole the picadillo is the star of the dish. Everything else, the guacamole, salsa, cheese, sour cream, Mexican crema casera, all of that is something you can pick and choose. But the picadillo can be unique to each cook. Part of this post comes from the fact that some people think that if it's not the way their grandmother or mother made it, its not right. There are some things where this is so true. Home-cooked dishes are the times you can give things a little twist. After all when you make something your own you are more likely to cook it again. At the same time, when you make it your own you can inspire others to cook and make each dish their own!

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs ground beef
6-8 medium white or red potatoes medium dice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium white onion finely chopped
4 - 6 cloves of garlic crushed
6 oz tomato paste
1 small jar of capers, drained
1 qt beef stock
2 -4 cups of water
2 tbsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flake
3-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste

Directions

Sauté the onions and garlic in 1 1/2 tbsps the olive oil, lightly salt the onions and garlic, this will add a layer and depth of flavor. Once complete set aside, and brown ground beef. Drain the fat from the beef and set aside. Add remainder of olive oil and return onions and garlic to the pan and add red pepper flakes just barely toasting the red pepper. Add tomato paste to cook the raw flavor out of the tomatoes. Now you can add the beef stock, oregano and Worcestershire sauce and bring the sauce to a simmer. Return the ground beef to the pot and add the potatoes to the mixture.

Let the picadillo simmer and add about 1 cup of the water, bring to a simmer, keeping an eye that the water is cooked into the sauce and absorbed by the potatoes as they cook. Keep stirring every few minutes. Continue adding water and checking if the potatoes are done. Depending on how large you cut your potatoes you will need to cook them a bit longer adding more water.

Once the potatoes are finished cooking, add drained capers to the picadillo and taste for salt.

The Dish

Once you have finished the picadillo you can use this for more than just tostada's, when we were kids this was my Papi's go to dish, this became a filling for tortas, enchiladas, or just something to put on the plate next to the beans and rice eaten with tortillas.

Anytime Papi stepped into the kitchen I remember my Grandma would call his food "pig slop," but to us kids the pigs wished they ate as good as we did. Through his dishes Papi opened a world of cooking to me that I will always enjoy. He made me try dishes as a kid that I probably would never have tried he reminded me all of the time that just because someone cooks differently doesn't make it wrong, and he awakened in me a desire to share with others the gift he shared with me. It all started in his kitchen standing on a milk crate learning how to make a simple breakfast for the family.

Grandma's Posole - Memories

"When daddy's quit staying

And the mommas quit praying

Even the children quit tryin'

God must be crying

Cause even the skies are blue"

Instantly classic lyrics but that's not my point in putting them here, I put them there cause when I heard that song I was reminded of memories. What the heck do memories have to do with Grandma's Posole? Grandma's Posole is one of the few recipes I can recite by heart. Posole is a Mexican stew with chunks of pork (or chicken) in a broth seasoned with red chilies, and made hearty with hominy. If I haven't lost you by now, please keep reading. 

Grandma has a few recipes that I just love to cook. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to find out from her how she makes them and make some of those recipes my own. Rice soup, sopa de fideo (Pasta soup), sopa de albondigas (meatball soup) and her posole are the few that I am proud of. The recipes for soup are the most forgiving (in other words I couldn't mess them up), and the posole is closest to my heart. The chunks of pork, the hearty broth, finely chopped onions, shredded lettuce and tostadas or even tortillas make this something I will never tire of, just like a classic country lyric.

The version below (with the exception of the hominy) is from scratch. In place of the scratch made chili paste you can use a 10 oz can of Las Palmas chili sauce, it works in a pinch, everybody knows my Grandma did it!

Grandma's Posole

Ingredients

Pork and broth

1 1/2 - 2 lbs pork country style ribs cut into chunks

2 tbsp oil

3 quarts water

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

salt to taste

2 large cans of hominy

Chili paste

4 cups water

2 oz dried Pasilla chilies

2 oz dried New Mexico chilies

2 oz dried Ancho chilies

Remove the seeds from these chilies for a less spicy sauce

1 chipotle pepper w/ 1 tsp of adobo sauce

1 onion sliced

Accompaniments

Red pepper flakes

Chopped white onion

Mexican oregano

Sliced lettuce

Limes

Tostada shells

Broth

Begin by heating a large soup pot and add the oil, sear off the chunks of pork meat after searing all of the pork add salt, onion and garlic to the pan and sweat until translucent. Return the pork to the pot and all 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to about medium low to achieve a slow boil. Boil for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Chili paste/sauce

In a large sauce pan bring the water to a boil and add the dried chilies without the stems and the onion. Boil until the chilies are soft. Remove the chilies and onion, these ingredients to a blender and add about 1 1/2 cups of liquid from boiling process and chipotle chili and sauce blend until smooth. Taste for salt, if you like the smokiness of the adobo sauce you can add more. Put this sauce in the refrigerator overnight so the flavors can marry.

After the pork has boiled for one hour turn off the heat and place the pot in the refrigerator overnight. This will coagulate the fat on the top of the broth making it easier to remove. The next day bring broth to a boil and add the hominy and chili paste, boil for about 30 - 45 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Accompaniments

At this point the stew is ready, however there are some cold ingredients that accompany this that bring all of the flavors to another level. All of these accompaniments can be added as you like. The spice of the red chili flakes and onion go right along with the broth making those spices blossom with each spoonful. The shredded lettuce work great to mellow those flavors, and the oregano, the floral oregano makes the pork taste even better. As for the lime, what Mexican soup whether it is chicken soup, posole or menudo doesn't taste better with lime. The tostadas bring along another element of crunch that brings the whole stew together.

This is it, you might find the task of making your own scratch made chili sauce daunting, but it really does make a difference, if you add another 1/2 cup of water and tweak the variety of chilies and you would have your own homemade "enchilada sauce".

Memories are like the cool evening breeze in L.A., you can count on them to be there just when you need them!

Shrimp & Mushroom Etoufee

I'll start this one out by saying thank you to Chef Andrew Zimmern! You posted a link to your shrimp étouffée recipe on Twitter a while back and you inspired me to make some of my own.

 First off, if you have access to fresh shrimp take advantage of it. Frozen shrimp will work. The only requirement is that you get them with the shell on. The shrimp stock is the key to this dish!

There isn't much stock but the flavors
you get are worth the time and effort

Shrimp & Mushroom Etouffee

1 lbs of shrimp
1 lbs of mushrooms
1 medium white onion chopped
3 tbsp oil
6 cloves of garlic sliced
2 celery stalks
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp Harissa paste
4 tbsp butter
¼ tsp basil
¼ tsp thyme
¼ tsp oregano
1 tbsp cornstarch ¼ cup water (for slurry)


Shrimp Stock
shrimp shells from 1 lbs of shrimp
stems from mushrooms (optional)
¼ medium onion
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
3 cups vegetable stock (water is also suitable)
1 large pinch of salt
½ tbsp cracked black pepper

In a sauce pot combine “Shrimp Stock” ingredients add a large pinch of salt and using a steaming rack place the rack on top of all of your ingredients to ensure they are submerged, bring to a boil. After boiling turn heat down and simmer for at least 2 hours. Check for seasoning and strain solids from stock. Hold aside for later.

I used my steamer basket to keep the shrimp shells submerged

In a large saute pan heat over medium high heat add 2 tbsp oil, when hot add mushrooms, onions and season with salt. After onions have softened and become translucent add garlic and and lower heat. After sauteing garlic add Harissa and tomato pastes cook until tomato paste has changed color slightly and add herbs. Set aside for final ingredients to cook.

In another saute pan melt butter and on high heat cook shrimp in one layer, avoid overcrowding the pan, and get a good sear on the shrimp but do not overcook them, actually it would be best to under-cook them.

After shrimp have cooked, add shrimp to mushroom onion tomato mixture, and add shrimp stock. Cook for about 2 minutes bringing it to a boil and breaking up tomato and herbs. Make sure there are no lumps  in your slurry and your sauce is boiling, then add the cornstarch slurry and stir continuously. You will notice the sauce thicken and get a nice sheen on it. That's when you shrimp étouffée is ready.

Serve over rice or potato celery root mash. Recipe to follow.

Potato Celery Mash

1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes
1 lb celery root
6 cups of water
plenty of salt
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup freshly chopped parsley

Quarter the potatoes, and peel and cube the celery root, once that is done add to water and salt water well. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, in other words, you can poke em with a fork and they slide right off. Drain the water.

While the potatoes and celery root are boiling, in a separate pan melt the butter and saute or gently cook the garlic in the melted butter. Do not toast the garlic it could turn bitter very fast.

Add the melted butter and cooked garlic to the drained potatoes, add the half & half and mash the mixture, just as you finish mashing add the parsley and taste for salt.

So there it is. If you try it let me know, if you like it let others know, if you don't like it, well just keep that to yourself! Just kidding about that last part. Comments and questions are welcome! 

Barrel Aged Cocktails

I sometimes laugh when I ask myself things like "Why am I the last to know about these things?" or "Why didn't anyone ever tell me about this?" And there are times when I just don't care, if its about fashion/style, you'll probably never get my attention, or even something like photography it might not even phase me that I don't know. But if its about food and drink then I have a problem!

All of that being said, why did I not know about "Barrel Aged Cocktails?" Or that they could be homemade?

One of my best friends gave me a Hudson River Barrel Aged Cocktail Kit (the kit from here on), and the results have been pretty cool. Not only that but it has given me some interesting ideas. The kit is an empty 375 ml bottle, a cork stopper and a honeycomb oak stave that has been charred. For $12.50 and shipping its a great gift. As the recipient I can say it's an awesome gift.

Now for the recipe, I use water for reasons I will disclose later, keep in mind the bottle is about 12 oz so you have space for the recipe below times 4 if each part is 1 oz. The recipe follows and I'll write more about the hooch later.

Barrel Aged Manhattan

1 part White Dog Mash #1
1 part water
1 part Cinzano white vermouth
4 dashes Fee Brothers barrel aged bitters
After thoroughly mixing the ingredients you pour the mix into the kit. Then comes the wait.
I noticed an amber hue after about three days, and the aroma began to resemble a "regular" Manhattan.

After about a week I poured the mix into my flask and have nipped at on occasion. 

To make my Barrel Aged Manhattan I decided to use Buffalo Trace White Dog Mash #1. It is a mouthful in more ways than one. At 125 proof I decided that water was needed to cut the proof of the White Dog.  Along with the "white whiskey" I decided that Cinzano White Vermouth was appropriate, too many times the sweetness of sweet vermouth overpowers the oak flavor of any bourbon. I just wanted a little sweetness to see how the charred oak would taste. Finally I used the Fee Brothers Barrel Aged bitters just for the heck of it.

That is basically it for the cocktail, but the whole process did give me other ideas.

I'm a sucker for a good cocktail but also for a good hot sauce. In the past couple of months I have been making different batches of hot sauce. Since I got the kit I thought, what would a barrel aged hot sauce taste like, should I use a fresh oak stave? Or should re-use a "white Manhattan" stave? What kind of peppers would work to make that taste good.

More cocktails came to mind, what about an oak aged martini, the earliest examples of jenever (the predecessor to modern gin) were aged in oak before being bottled. The only thing you shouldn't do is use acid or citrus to soak in the oak as it were. Another idea that came to mind was re-using an oak stave from the "white Manhattan" to flavor some tawny port or Marsala.

In any case, there are plenty of other ideas and I plan to buy some more oak  honeycomb staves to use in future projects. Please let me know if you decide to try this product and how you feel about the results in the comments area below.

Duck Prosciutto 4.0 STEP 2!

The finished product!

Before I get into the next step of my Duck Prosciutto recipe let me make one thing clear. There are some things I didn't cover in my last post.

I hate to say it but I made some assumptions about YOU the reader. I have to apologize! Don't take this the wrong way, I'm going to cover some basic stuff that you need to do or you could get sick. A couple days on the ceramic throne sick! On to the serious stuff.

Please keep your stuff clean! I mean, your cutting boards, knives, your scale, all of it, but most importantly keep your hands clean! I know it's a pain but of all things, we cross-contaminate more with our hands than with any other possible utensil!


The best way to clean your stuff? About a half a gallon of water with 2 tsp of bleach! That's it, cheap, easy and right there under the sink!

Okay now that the health and safety is taken care of on to part two of our recipe!

Things you will need:
2 salted duck breast
paper towels
butchers twine
digital scale
a small plate
refrigerator or cold dark basement
cheesecloth (optional)
between 7-10 days or 2 weeks
Plenty of hot water and soap (not OPTIONAL)

Now that your duck breasts have cured in the salt and pink salt for at least 1 day and not more than 2 days (I like 36 hours) you can take it out of the fridge and clean off the salt and spices. I wash it under warm water to clean off the salt and stuck on pieces of herbs. As you handle the it you will notice that the duck has sort of stiffened. That is the wonder of salt both the pink and regular salt doing its job!

Salted and seasoned!

Once I have cleaned off the salt dry the duck with paper towels and set them aside I move on to the scale... 

NOT! I wash my hands!

Please keep washing your hands throughout this process! You'll feel so good knowing you didn't poison someone!

After you have washed your hands, get the out the scale. I like to weigh my duck before wrapping and trussing. In doing so I find out if the right amount of drying is happening. Some recipes simply call for 7-10 days of drying. Others call for 30% of the weight to be lost in hanging and drying.

I'll be honest both ways work. I have tried each one and each one works as well as the other.

Note the starting weight of the duck breast

Moving on, using the 'tare' function place a small plate on the scale and hit the 'tare' button to zero out the weight of the plate. Note the weight of each piece of duck and record that weight. If your duck starts out at 124 grams then your duck should lose 37 grams (30% of the weight) during the course of drying.

The next step is to truss the breast, basically you are wrapping it with string to make it easier to hang, this video shows the easiest way to truss a piece of meat in the range we have with a duck breast, http://youtu.be/iDtLRqoHb9A I know the graphics and intro are hokey but the technique works.


Before you truss the duck there is another option you need to choose, cheesecloth or no cheesecloth? I am trying no cheesecloth this time around. But as with everything everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Now that you have wrapped and trussed the duck, or not! You can hang it in the fridge! How you do that is up to you! I have glass shelves in my fridge and have a hanger that I have bent into a special rig to hang my duck.






Now comes the test of your patience! You might need to wait up to 2 weeks for this to cure. If you decide to weigh your duck, the first couple of days you will see quite a bit of weight coming off your duck breast, then about 5 days into the process it will slow to a crawl. My buddy Brennan likes to feel the difference in his duck. It seems that when the duck stops feeling "squishy" it is ready, that happens in about 10 days. 

Now go wash your hands!!!

Duck prosciutto 4.0

This week I started to cure some more duck prosciutto. This project is something I could do over and over again... And it's something I will do. Over the course of the next couple of days I will keep posting my progress. For today I have done the cure! The recipe is as follows:

1 TBSP of pink salt
1 cup of salt
4 TBSP peppercorns
16 allspice berries
1tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp orange peel
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 whole duck breasts (about 1 1/2 lbs)

At this stage you need to see whether the duck breast needs to be cut or kept whole. If the breasts are a good size you can cut the whole breasts into two pieces and cure them separately. If you keep the breast whole you need to make sure all the nooks and crannies are coated in just the pink salt.

The peppercorns allspice and mustard seeds all need to be toasted in order to bloom the oils and flavors. Let the spices cool and then grind to fairly coarse grind. Then you mix your orange peels and freshly ground nutmeg along with the salt and your freshly ground spices together. Liberally coat all of your duck breast with the salt rub (if you have the whole breast don't forget to coat the whole breast) and place in a zip lock bag. Once you have done that you can pour the rest of the salt cure over the breasts and distribute that throughout the bag! Let the bag sit in a bowl or on a plate to avoid cross-contamination in case of a leak.

For the next 24 to 48 hours that can sit in the fridge.
(Here endeth part 1 of the recipe)

So just some notes on the finer points:
1. Pink salt (sodium nitrate) can be bought online or at a butcher supply. I bought mine on Amazon.com. I little bit goes a long ways. More does not mean better but you do want to coat the meat entirely.

2. The duck breast I buy are free range and I get them at Whole Foods and Bristol Farms, the only thing is you need to get them as fresh as possible and use then as soon as possible.

3. The spices can be whatever you want. I tend towards warmer spices. Cardamom cloves and allspice are my favorites. They come through in the duck when the cure is complete.

4. Thanks to Michael Ruhlman for his book Charcuterie!

Next post wrapping trussing and hanging!

Duck Prosciutto

 This was an experience!!!

Making duck prosciutto was an exercise in patience! In the end totally worth it. I have to thank my buddy Brennan for being my sounding board about all of my home cooking/curing experiences.

After experimenting with homemade bacon and brining my own Canadian bacon I decided to try my hand at duck prosciutto. After looking online for some Muscovy duck breast I settled on the duck breast from the Bristol Farms. It was kind of thin but the dark rich duck meat looked good. I won't go into details about the process today (but I will in a future blog)

I seasoned the salt with herbs before I buried the duck breast in it. So in the strictest sense what you will see here isn't really prosciutto. I let that stay in the fridge for 2 days waiting for the salt to dry out the outside of the breast.

After that 2 days I wrapped, trussed, and hung the breast in my fridge for about 7 days.

 Around the 5th day I could feel the edges harden just a bit and the squishyness of the center started to 
go away.

I didn't just go off the "feel" of the duck to decide to open up the cheesecloth. I used a scale to weigh the duck each day. When it lost about 30% of it's weight I decided to try some duck prosciutto!

Just like a week ago!

I cut the trussing and unwrapped the cheesecloth. Honestly I wasn't expecting it to look almost exactly the same as when I put it in the wrapping. But it did!

I grabbed my sharpest slicing knife to try and cut the thinnest slices possible. The skin side of the breast sliced very easily and as you sliced into the breast the harder dryer parts of the underside of the breast were a little tough to cut.

All in all I really enjoyed the experience. I definitely am going to do this again!