Bacon review

So I butchered and fried up some of the bacon.  The first few were so salty that I could barely eat it. And that is really saying something since I was a kid who used to lick her finger, dip it into the salt bowl and then suck on it like a Lick'em stick. Gross in so many ways, I realize that now.  But I love me some salt!  However, this bacon...

I was loathe to admit defeat on 5 lbs of pork belly, so I soaked them in water to try to draw off some of the salt.  After butchering some more the next day, I found it to be tolerable, but still a touch salty for me.  I have three remaining pieces that have been vacuum sealed and frozen.  I am going to try to soak those and add some sugar to the water.  The recipe I originally used was not quite sweet enough for my taste and I am hoping the sugar will offset some of the salt.

My big fear with soaking it would be that all the beautiful smoke flavor would be gone as well, but that was not the case.  I guess that's why it's so expensive to clean up a house fire.  A little water does not remove the aroma.

The next time I make bacon, I will use a rub instead of a brine.  I have used rubs in the past with great results.  This first time brine was not the wild success that I hoped it would be.

In the end, I took the salty bacon and made BLTA's with it.  I baked baguettes and those were a vastly better end product.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/easy-crusty-baguettes-recipe

The loaf was denser than I would have liked, but the crust was crispy and the flavor was excellent.  The dough seemed a little hard to me, so I will try a touch less dough next time to see if that lightens the crumb.

Homemade Bacon

Well shit. It's been three years since I posted?  Let's get back on this horse. And by horse, I mean pig. And by pig, I mean bacon. The gods favored me with cool weather today which means it is a perfect day to cold smoke some bacon. I started a week ago (I know, bacon is not for the spontaneous) by brining some Costco pork bellies in a solution of water, brown sugar, salt, maple syrup, garlic powder and coffee. Today I threw them in my makeshift cold smoker. How do you make a cold smoker?  You take an electric smoker that has died or an old dorm fridge. I like the old smoker because it already has a hole for the vent pipe. Get a $15 craigslist hotplate, salvage an old handleless pot destined for the trash, get a metal bucket and some heater venting from Home Depot and voila!   Cold smoker.

So I am cold smoking the bellies for 8 hours and hoping they will be ready for a BLT tonight.  The bread is rising on the counter and the fruit flies are telling me I don't have any more time on this tomato.  I will post again with results and the recipe if successful

Pesto and Fritatta

I stayed up way too late reading "The Fault in Our Stars".  The book is set in my hometown, Indianapolis.  It reminded me so much of falling in love with my first boyfriend (who is now my husband)--two precocious kids running around Indy and feeling like no one else could understand what they were feeling.  I would have stopped when Hubs went to bed, but he was watching the A's vs Angels game which went a record 19 innings.  Luckily, I finished reading at the top of the 19th.  It was however 1:30 AM.  The book affected me so much that I stayed up even later  reminiscing about old times with the love of my life.  We were sleep deprived the next day, but it was worth it.  Read the book, people!  But take some tissues with you.

Needless to say, I was dead tired the next day.  I am too old for all nighters.  I needed something easy and nourishing to make for dinner.  i turned to my old standby, pesto.  I know there are a million ways to make pesto out, but truly--you do not need a recipe.  Take a big couple of handfuls of any leafy vegetable;, this time I used basil, spinach and arugula.  Put it in the food processor with a few cloves of garlic, some grated hard cheese,  and any kind of nuts.  Pine nuts are traditional, but the pine nut mouth phenomena has hit me twice and I won't eat them any more because of that.**  I have used walnuts, pecans and almonds in the past.  This time I had pepitas and they work great.  I season with salt and pepper and grind it in the food processor until pulverized.  Pour in olive oil and process until the pesto looks smooth. How much oil?  whatever you want!  More makes it richer, but I've been pretty stingy with with oil and it's still been delicious.  I also use a bit of pasta water to thin the pesto before I toss it in with fusilli.  (or whatever shape you want.  It ends up being so delicious and filling and really only takes as long as it take to boil pasta.  Plus, I make a big batch and make a fritatta the next day.

Whip up 5-8 eggs.  Pour a bit of milk and salt in.  Toss with the leftover pasta with any veggies you have laying around the house and any leftover meats.  Bacon, chicken, roasted peppers, frozen peas.  I could go on and on.  Heat a non stick skillet with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  Sprinkle in some grated hard cheese and bread crumbs.  Pour in the pasta mixture and cooked covered on low for until the top looks set.  Then flip it over by sliding it on a plate, using another plate upside down on the top, flip and slide it back into the pan.  Cook until finished.

**For those of you unfamiliar with pine nut mouth.  It's awful.  It makes everything taste awful. Even water.  The worst!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/03/15/148682058/cause-of-foul-pine-nut-taste-befuddles-scientists

Coffee Brined Chicken

I spent the day recovering from three straight days of 4 hours or more of volleyball.  I also spent the day taking my mandatory online traffic school course.  All in all, it felt like a sick day without the nausea.  I had thrown some frozen chicken pieces in a coffee brine yesterday.  The end result was a smokey, roasty, almost caramel flavor in a very moist chicken--a winner of a recipe.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/coffee-brined-chicken-drumsticks-10000001875773/

The recipe says to use chicken legs, but I used a half of a chicken cut into pieces and the white meat turned out great.  I had some left over arugula and chard from my last CSA box and made a quick salad with a dressing of balsamic and truffle oil.  I find that truffle oil makes any salad delicious.  Usually it's pretty expensive, but Fresh and Easy has a bottle for 6 bucks.  A steal! Now I know it doesn't use real truffle extract.  Instead, it creates the aroma using a chemical compound.   However, for salad dressing it does the trick at a fraction of the price.

Tomorrow, I will set out a plate of fruit, assorted cheeses, and vegetables.  If I have the time, i want to also make some homemade chevre.  I love an occasional night of cheese for dinner.  Decadent, but delicious!

Miso and Soba noodle soup

We gorged ourselves this weekend.  First we went to the famous Donut Man shop in Glendora.

http://www.thedonutmanca.com/

This place is famous for their fresh strawberry stuffed glazed donuts, and rightly so.  Hubs, who is a known donut connoisseur, proclaimed them to be some of the best he has ever had.  If you are ever in Glendora (and why would you be??) by all means, get yourself one!

We had some pretty mediocre barbecued ribs with my folks at a whitewashed, suburban bbq joint.  Then we went to the San Gabriel Valley for dumplings

Oh my goodness.  I love me some dumplings!  Now the SGV is a mainly chinese and vietnamese neighborhood just east of downtown LA, but I am always shocked at how many people in the Los Angeles area never go there.  Perhaps they are intimidated by the unknown restaurants and lack of English.  Maybe they worry about the famous LA traffic. Whatever.  They are the ones missing out.  The food is always delicious and so very cheap.  That's two things i adore.  Delicious! Cheap!  Seriously folks.  Find an ethnic neighborhood in your city and try a restaurant where you are the only one who doesn't speak the language.  Point to whatever everyone else is eating.  Chances are you are going to have a fantastic meal.  I guarantee it will at least be an adventure.

I decided to make a healthy soup for dinner.  I heated up a pot of water, threw in a few cloves of crushed garlic, a half cup of white miso, a package of tofu i had diced up, some shredded chard and crumbled geem.   (Roasted and seasoned seaweed sheets).  I poured that over a fistful of soba noodles my newly gluten free sister had given me from her pantry.  Paired with a baked japanese sweet potato (drier and pale yellow in comparison to it's American cousin) and it made for a yummy, filling and healthy dinner.  perfect for this rainy monday night!

My Favorite Salad

I spent the day waiting for the handyman.  I own a rental property and have some guys in their early 20's renting it.  These dudes are clueless.  They've called me for ants, they ask to be late with the rent because they are "changing banks", they call me to complain about the neighbor's construction noise during weekday business hours. Hey hipsters, get an effin job and you won't have to hear the noise!  On Tuesday they called to say that their doorknob fell off. Fair enough.  The handy man came by and found that one of the pins in the original craftsman door had broken.  So he found an approximate replacement, took it home to mill it down and then brought it back the next day.  He also installed a strike plate in the frame because the original one was missing.  I get a call early this morning from the tenants telling me that the door won't lock.  So I called the handyman again and waited around until he could get to the rental.  Turns out the door locked--it was just one of those things where you had to juggle it a little.  I don't know about you, but I have lived in a ton of old houses and there is always some sort of jiggling that has to happen: door lock, toilet handle, window pane.  It's a fact of living in a crafstman.  So a wasted day.

Luckily, I had leftover baked chicken from last night, left over homemade mayo from the spanish tortilla, some bread dough in the fridge, and some fixins for my favorite salad.  I cut up the chicken with apples, pumpkin seeds and the mayo.  A little celery salt and pepper, throw the mix on the bread and presto, a delicious chicken sandwich.  And now for my favorite salad:

Throw a bunch of arugula in a bowl, cut up some watermelon into bite sized pieces, dress it with a little truffle oil and balsamic vinegar and toss.  Shave parmesean over it and you've got a fabulous side dish.  It's so easy.    Although I doubt my tenants could handle it...

Roast Chicken

So I had this gorgeous all natural organic chicken and decided to roast it simply to highlight the flavor.  I found a recipe adapted from cook's country. Basically you poke holes all over the chicken, mix together 2 tsp of salt with 2 tsp cornstarch and cover the chicken with it.  Roast it wing up at 475 for 15 minutes, then turn it so the other wing is up.  Roast another 15 minutes.  Then turn it breast side up and roast for 20 more minutes.  The juice and fat that leaks out from the holes mixes with the cornstarch to make a crusty, crispy skin.  In theory it is a brilliant idea.  i have a couple of issues however.

1.  I apparently cannot keep track of time.  For the last twenty minute roast, I went out to water my tomatoes.  I came back in and the timer had gone off and it was a wee bit smokey in the kitchen.  Ok, a lot smokey.  Where the hell are the hot firemen?  BTW, the hottest firemen in the world are located at the Echo Park fire department.  I seriously was 2 inches from walking into a light post because I was staring in awe as I passed them just hanging out and looking super hot.

2.  The skin was EXCELLENT.  However, the meat was plain.  It was also a smidge dry but I am sure it is because I lost track of time.  I wouldn't totally discard this method, but next time i will season the meat under the skin.  I like studding the chicken with garlic or placing slices of lemon or some herbs between the skin and meat.  Combining these methods I think will make a really succulent bird.

I tossed it with a kale and chard salad gleaned from my neighbors yard.  Only a few more days available to me!  I chiffonaded the leaves, thinly sliced half an apple, threw in a handful of pumpkin seeds and tossed it with some flax oil and olive oil.  Then i added a few tablespoons of a finely grated pecorino and bread crumb mix.  My sister sent me home with a big bowl of this, as she has decided to go gluten free.  More food for me!

Now I have all this left over chicken grease and I have to figure out how to utilize it.  The dog is staring at me and willing me to put it in her bowl, but I have learned to resist her cute little face.  she did get a scrap of crispy skin, though.  And she approves.