The Food in my Beard

Crispy Pork Jowl Buns

2012-05-15T21:52:24Z

The last time I went to the Somerville Winter Market (FYI - there are 2 more Saturdays before it's over for the year!) I was lucky enough to find Pork Jowl at the Austin Brothers Farm stand. I have a history with Austin Brothers, I actually drove out to their farm in Belchertown, MA to buy pork belly when I made my own panchetta. I knew I had to buy the jowl and figure out what to do with it later. Don't you love impulse buys? A craving for pork buns a few days later was all I needed to get going with this recipe.

You may notice, pork jowl kinda looks like pork belly (kinda looks like bacon). That's cause they are very similar cuts of meat from very different places on the pig. Pork jowl is most commonly used to make guanciale, which is very similar to bacon.

I made a spicy-sweet chipotle braising liquid for the jowl.

In the oven for 7 hours she goes.

When it came out, I put it right into the fridge to cool and solidify a bit. If I sliced it right away, it would just fall apart. I also put the braising liquid (fat removed) into the food processor with some honey to make a smooth sticky sweet glaze.

Buns steaming away.

Fry up the pork nice and crispy.

Add the glaze and layer up the buns.

A lot of work, but man was the payoff great.

These little sandwiches were fantastic. You could really taste the beautifully raised meat from Austin Brothers, and the textures and flavors were perfect. I recommend this endeavor to anyone with a lazy Sunday coming up! Just remember, the jowl shrinks a lot while cooking!

An onion, a full can of chipotles in adobo, 4 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons molasses, a cup of orange juice, and a cup of white vinegar in the food processor make up the braising liquid. Roast at 250 for about 7 hours. Remove from the oven and place in the fridge for about an hour to cool and harden a bit. This will prevent it from falling apart when you slice it.

When you remove it from the fridge, the fat in the pan should also be hardened. Remove the fat and place the remaining braising liquid in the food processor again with some honey. It will become smooth and slightly sticky, perfect for a glaze.

Slice the jowl thick against the grain. Remove a little of the fat, but keep most of it because at this point it is meltingly tender and very tasty. Sear the pieces of jowl on all sides in some hot oil and at the last minute, add your sauce to the pan to glaze the pieces of jowl. Remove from heat.

The bun recipe is here. Top your buns with some sliced cucumbers and pickled carrots and daikon.

Fried Cauliflower in an Indian Sweet and Sour

2012-05-13T21:40:06Z

The last time I visited new york, I was lucky enough to literally stumble into a blogger event at an Indian restaurant near Madison Square Park called Junoon. Because I know the secret blogger handshake, I was able to sit at the bar tasting many of their creative cocktails and small bite appetizers. My favorite was a fried cauliflower that was tossed in a sweet and sour sauce. The owner described it to me as Indian-Chinese fusion. When I was attending a party last weekend and needed an alternative app that was also vegetarian, this was the first thing that came to mind.

A quick curry powder.

Saute the onions to brown, then add the ginger, garlic, and curry powder.

Pineapples add a really nice taste to the final sauce.

The whole thing gets pureed after simmering away for awhile.

A quick fry on the cauliflower.

We aren't frying these to make them crispy, the purpose is to cook them and give them that really nice browned cabbage flavor.

Tossed in the sauce and I packed them up to bring to the party.

Yum! Something a little different than what you expect at a casual cocktail party.

The bigger chunks worked great with the toothpicks, but for the pieces that broke up a bit, it was better to put some on a plate and use a fork.

For the sauce: grind to a powder 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon black mustard, 1 teaspoon chile flake, ½ teaspoon ajwain, ½ teaspoon cardamom seed, 2 cloves, and a pinch of cinnamon. Make a paste from 5 cloves of garlic and a few inches of ginger. Cook sliced onions and jalapenos in butter until starting to brown. Add some more butter and toss in the spices and pastes. Cook 2 minutes. Toss in about a half pineapple worth of pineapple chunks, ¼ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons molasses, and about a cup to a cup and a half of vinegar. Simmer for 45 minutes before blending smooth in the food processor. This is enough sauce for 2 heads of cauliflower.

Now just deep fry the cauliflower florets at 375 for about 2 minutes. Do this in small batches or the oil WILL overflow and you will have a fire on your hands. After you put out the fire and vow never to mention this to your roommates, toss the fried cauliflower in the sauce gently so as not to break them into smaller pieces. Serve with a toothpick. This also would taste great over rice.

Scotch Quail Eggs

2012-05-10T21:36:18Z

For some reason scotch eggs have always intrigued me. I never had one until I finally made them for tablespoon last week and I don't know why I have been waiting this long! I absolutely loved these little bite sized nuggets of awesomeness, and the best part was they didn't need a dipping sauce because the sauce is in the middle.

Mushroom and Garlic Cannelloni

2012-05-09T22:17:09Z

Mystery Meet is a fun event in Boston where you sign up ahead of time for a dinner reservation, but you don't know where you will be eating or who you will be eating with until the night before. I have attended in the past, but it actually went away for almost a whole year. Earlier this week was the triumphant return of the event and I was lucky enough to attend a fun dinner with a great group of people at Church of Boston, a bar and restaurant in the Fenway neighborhood. We dined of 4 courses of pretty fantastic stuff, but for some reason the mushroom cannelloni stuck out to me as something I wanted to make myself. It's been a bit since I broke out the pasta maker, so I dusted it off and went to work.

I used a combination of shitake and oyster mushrooms for the filling.

I was cracking up at whole foods because they had "landcress". You know, like watercress, but on land. I guess that's a thing now? Anyways, grab your cress, weather it be land, water, or even aircress, and toss it into the food processor with some chives and garlic.

Next goes an egg and some ricotta.

Whip up the pasta. I wasn't in the mood to make a mess on my counter like I normally do when I make pasta so I went with the bowl method.

A quick dip in some boiling water and these are ready to roll.

Some of the cheese mixture, followed by some of the mushrooms. Roll it up, top with some butter and parm, and bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

I put my own twists on this of course. At Church, they had a green garlic pesto, but green garlic is hard to find until the farmers markets all start next week, so I just used normal garlic with chives and watercress to add bulk. They also spooned on the pesto afterward, but I wanted to see how it tasted in with the ricotta.

I am really happy with how these came out! They had the essence from the dish at Church, but of course with my own spin on it.

Thanks to Jacki and Meesh for hosting!

Make pasta dough.

In a processor: landcress. or, you know, watercress... with one bunch of chives and 2 cloves garlic. Process till smooth adding a little olive oil. Add 1 ½ cups ricotta cheese and an egg. Process till combined. Set aside.

Meanwhile in some butter, saute 2 small onions till browned, Add some garlic and sliced up mushrooms. About 4 cups of chopped mushrooms, mine were shitake and oyster, but feel free to switch it up. Cook about 3 to 5 minutes until softened and coated (add a little more butter if it seems dry). Remove from heat and set aside.

Roll out your pasta and cut squares. Boil in salted water until al dente, about 5 minutes. Spread with some of the ricotta mixture, then add mushrooms and roll up. Place into a buttered baking dish and repeat until you have filled all your pasta or used up all your fillings. Lightly brush with melted butter and sprinkle with parm. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Serve.

Jalapeno Popper Dog

2012-05-07T22:18:56Z

Jalapenos seem to be monstrous at the grocery store compared to their size from a few years back. I used this large size to my advantage, and was able to case a whole hot dog and some cheese inside a couple of cut jalapenos. The fun thing about this recipe is that you could make a whole dozen of them easily, pop em into a zip lock, and head out to your nearest B.Y.O.M. party (Bring Your Own Meat), camp fire, or other communal grilling situation.

Make sure you grab the biggest jalapenos you can fine. Get extra just in case.

Fist cut your dogs in half and put some cheese slices in the center.

Hollow out the jalapenos and you're ready to go.

It wasn't too hard to squeeze the dog in there.

I lost some of the cheese while I was grilling this thing, but if I was paying attention and flipping it better, I wouldn't have lost as much.

You have to cook it longer to make sure the pepper is blackened and tender not crunchy. If you succeed you end up with a super tasty twist on two summer classics!

Jalapenos can vary on spice level, but if you get all the seeds out these shouldn't be too bad to eat.

Julep Margarita

2012-05-04T06:20:49Z

The Kentucky derby AND Cinco de Mayo are both tomorrow. If you can't decide weather to drink a mint julep or a margarita, do what I did and just pour both drinks into one glass.

Carrot Butter Soba

2012-05-02T22:08:04Z

A quick and healthy dinner that was still comforting to the soul was on the agenda this past Monday night, as a friend and I got together to try and unwind and detox ourselves from a particularly long week and weekend. To me, this usually means at least one of three things; vegetarian, spicy, and filled with noodles. This dish was all three. I was at the Asian market that day anyways to get some quail eggs(Aside: quail eggs are awesome, recipe coming up next week on tablespoon), so this recipe had some Asian connections, but was mostly influenced by what was on our minds and what was in his pantry, namely butter, worcestershire, and vinegar.

First scramble up some firm tofu. Brown and set aside.

Leeks get caramelized next.

Garlic and ginger in with some chile paste, then add the carrots. Cook these down a little but don't let them get soggy.

The cooked noodles and spinach go in at the last minute. And the cooked tofu.

Some pickled chiles to garnish.

This meal satisfied all our cravings and got us on our feet to attack the world the next day.

1 square of firm tofu, about 5 - 7 fairly large carrots, julienned, 4 leeks, chopped and rinsed well, 3 cloves garlic and an equal amound of ginger, all micro-planed to a paste. 1 spoonful of gochujang (feel free to use sriracha or sambol instead), 1 lb of fresh soba, a big handful of chopped baby spinach, half stick butter, worcestershire, red wine vinegar.

The tofu is cooked, then removed. Brown the leeks in half the butter. Next goes in the garlic, ginger, and chile pastes. Next the carrots. Add the rest of the butter and season with the worcestershire and vinegar. Cook till carrots soften but do not get soggy. Add the spinach and cooked noodles and tofu. Season to taste and serve.

To quick pickle the peppers, pour boiling vinegar over some chopped thai chiles. Add a smashed garlic clove and some coriander, salt, and sugar. Allow to sit at room temp for at least an hour before serving.

Cheese Taco Shells

2012-05-01T22:28:06Z

Just in time for your Cinco de Mayo party, I posted these Cheese Shell Tacos on Tablespoon. Yep, that's right. A taco with fried cheese as the shell!

Tomatillo Zucchini Chicken Pizza

2012-04-30T22:44:12Z

Visually, I was hoping this pizza would be greener, but despite the muted colors, the flavors were as vibrant as can be. The chicken thighs were slow braised in a tomatillo sauce until tender, and the whole mess was spread onto the dough in place of a traditional tomato sauce. Add some charred corn, shaved zucchini, and cojita cheese, and this Mexican inspired pizza is bright, spicy, and full of unexpected flavors.

Garlic and jalapenos start the sauce. Tomatillos go in next and then the whole thing gets blended.

Braise your chicken thighs this sauce until falling apart.

Corn in last.

A spicy and tangy sauce for a pizza. Also with the chicken and corn both IN the sauce, it is easier to put this pizza together.

Fresh shaved zucchini on top with tons of cotija cheese.

Fresh out of the oven it's a beautiful thing.

The flavors here all matched perfectly. Tang and lightly sweet tomatillos were a great contrast to the salty cheese.

The corn and zucchini got me all excited for summer too.

For the sauce - garlic and jalapeno in some oil to brown, add about 7 to 10 tomatillos and smash them down a bit. Add a splash of lime and water and cook about 15 minutes, smashing up the tomatillos when possible. Blend until smooth. Sear some chicken thighs in a pan in some oil and add the tomatillo sauce. Simmer stirring often to prevent sauce from burning. When chicken is tender (about 35 minutes), shred it up and add your charred corn. Remove from heat.

Spread this chicken/corn/tomatillo sauce on your pizza dough, top with cotija, some shaved zucchini, and more cotija. Bake as hot as your oven will go until browned nicely.

Meatball Stuffed Rigatoni

2012-04-27T00:35:44Z

It always makes me happy when I can think of a new way to present the classic Italian flavors that I grew up with. I have had the idea to try and stuff rigatoni and make a baked dish that almost resembled mini cannelloni or manicotti for a very long time. The reason I haven't made it was because I knew I needed to have the right person to help out and make this dish perfect. We finally got together this week, and the pasta came out great!

A meatball mixture with a little extra liquid and egg.

The extra liquid made it easier to pipe into the pasta tubes.

This task didn't feel nearly as tedious or annoying as I expected it to be. With 2 people working, it went pretty quick.

I initially imagined pan frying these one by one on each end to seal the meat inside the pasta. Instead, we realized that broiling them was the way to go.

We made a little border of foil to protect the sides from overcooking.

The pasta is pressed up close together in order to protect each other from the elements, just like penguins on the Antarctic tundra. Anyone else been watching Frozen Planet?

The broiling really sealed the meat into the pasta.

The noodles were slightly stuck together, nothing a fork couldn't quickly handle.

Layer it up with sauce and cheese.

After baking.

The pasta came out better than I had imagined, with the meat really securely held in each noodle.

A fun twist on classic flavors.

These guys weren't ideal for reheating though. The flavors were still there but the pasta fell apart.

Make your favorite meatball mixture. Mine is beef, turkey, garlic, parsley, and stale/dried bread that has been soaked with milk. I normally add anywhere from zero to one egg for 2 lbs of meat. Today, I added 3 eggs, along with a little more milk than usual. This was first of all to make the meat mixture looser and easier to pipe into the pasta. The second reason was so the extra egg could help bind the meat to the pasta as it cooked.

Boil the rigatoni for about 5 minutes, only half cooking it. Strain. Put a few spoonfuls of your meat mixture into a piping bag, and carefully pipe into the pasta tubes one by one. Be sure to fill the pasta because a. the meat will slightly shrink while cooking, and b. the meat at the ends of the pasta tubes is what really binds to the pasta when it is broiled.

On a lightly greased piece of foil on a baking sheet, line up your stuffed rigatoni, standing on their ends, very close together. When you are done, wrap the pasta with a strip of foil to keep everything tight, but also prevent the edges of the outside pasta from burning. Broil for about 5 minutes until the meat and tips of pasta are browned well. You will also notice that the meat has fused to the pasta. This is the hard part - cover your rigatoni with another piece of foil (no need to grease this time) and a baking pan. Carefully flip the entire thing. Remove the top baking sheet to expose the un-broiled, un-fused side of the rigatoni. Broil this side until nicely browned as well.

Some of your rigatoni will be stuck together. Using a fork, lightly separate the pasta on the baking sheet, just making sure nothing is stuck too bad. Coat the bottom of a baking dish with some (homemade) tomato sauce, and toss in some of your rigatoni. Top with mozzarella and parm, add more sauce, and repeat until all of your pasta is in the dish. Top with more cheese and bake at 400 for about 30-40 minutes until the pasta is tender, the meat is cooked, and the cheese on top is browned. Let it sit about 10 minutes before serving.

Almond Horns

2012-04-26T02:31:08Z

My Mom recently told me she was intrigued by an almond cookie called an almond horn that she tasted on a trip to New York. She wanted to try and recreate the cookie, and luckily I was around to document the event. These cookies came out great. Chewy, crisp, and filled with that delicious toasted almond flavor. The only downside was they were pretty pricey to make. We all know almond is expensive, and these cookies are basically all almond paste with little filler.

Start with some coarsly ground almonds. Really guys, no filler.

Almond paste and sugar in with the ground almonds.

After you process it a bit and add an egg white and some almond extract, it becomes nice and smooth.

Just form your little horseshoes and bake.

They don't look all that different after they come out of the oven.

My sister was happy to model for the face stuffing shot.

Oh yea, dip the ends in chocolate. Yum.

She used the serious eats recipe and found that it was just as good as the cookies she had in New York. She used almond paste instead of marzipan, but they are interchangeable.

Risotto Feta Dip

2012-04-23T23:20:03Z

Just a quick reminder, you only have one day left to vote for me as the best humor blog in the Saveur Food Blog awards! You know... if you want to or whatever. Also, check out this cool recipe for a unique dip I came up with, it's a Risotto Feta Dip on Tablespoon.

Strawberry and Roast Pork Baguette

2012-04-22T22:34:53Z

I'm lucky enough to be in Southern California this week. Here, where strawberry season is in full swing, I can't remember ever tasting a strawberry this amazing. So juicy, meaty, and sweet, they almost tasted the way fake strawberry candy tastes. I went to a farmers market and bought a ton of the plump strawberries, some local goat cheese, and baby kale, and this sandwich idea was born.

We actually got all the ingredients(except the balsamic) at the farmers market and everything was super fresh and delicious. I mixed the jus from the roast pork with the balsamic to make a tasty sauce for this sandwich.

Did I mention that the strawberries were amazing?

The bread was from the market too. Toast lightly, then balsamic.

Spread the cheese on both sides, then build the sandwich.

The colors on this sandwich are fantastically vibrant.

Cut into more manageable portions.

This sandwich has everything! Sweet from the strawberries, savory from the pork, creamy from the cheese, sour from the vinegar, bitter from the greens, and the perfect crunch from the bread.

I had a 1 lb pork loin roast. Coat with oil, salt, pepper, and oregano, and roast at 500 for about 30 minutes. Pull when it hits a little above 140 degrees, and it should carry over to a perfect 150. Collect the jus and mix with some balsamic vinegar. After the pork sits about 15 minutes, slice very thin, again collecting the jus for your balsamic mixture. Cut a baguette, spoon on some of the balsamic jus on both sides. Spread on the cheese, then layer up thinly sliced strawberries, pork, onion, and baby kale (or other bitter greens).

Sriracha and Banana Pepper Potato Salad

2012-04-19T22:26:24Z

Potato salad is not really my thing. As with anything that "isn't my thing", I like to try and think about what makes up the dish, what the reasons are that I might not like it, and how to make it better for my personal tastes. My main complaints with your common potato salad is that it's bland, has too much mayo, and has super large chunks of potato. This spicy and slightly Vietnameese inspired take on the American classic was none of these things.

First I made an herb salad with mint, cilantro, scallion, and cucumber. This goes into the potato salad after it has cooled. Put it in the fridge until then.

The start of the dressing.

Followed by a whole jar of banana peppers. I first added all the liquid, then chopped up the actual peppers and added them too.

At first I was concerned about the pink color, but the guests seemed to like it.

I make it a point to never boil potatoes for anything. Roasted just tastes way better.

A nice half mash - half chunk consistency.

After it cooled a bit, the herbs and cucumber go in.

Really tasty stuff.

Super spicy, but cooling at the same time from the cucumber and creamy potatoes and mayo.

This potato salad will bring life to your next BBQ.

Prepare 5 lbs of potatoes for roasting by cleaning and chopping into approx 2 inch chunks. Toss in salt, pepper and olive oil and roast at 350 for about an hour until fork tender. Meanwhile, chop 1 bunch of cilantro, 1 bunch of mint, 2 bunches of scallions, and one cucumber and add to a bowl with the juice of a lime and some salt. Place in the fridge for later. In a very large bowl, mix one finely diced red onion, 2 cloves minced or grated garlic, and chopped up banana peppers from a 12 oz jar. Add all the liquid from that jar as well, and 1.5 cups mayo, 1.5 cups sour cream, and about ½ cup sriracha, depending on how spicy you want it. Mix this well. When the potatoes are ready, chop them up a bit and add them right to the bowl while still very hot. Mix everything well and half mash the potatoes so the texture is smooth with some chunks. If it's too dry, add a little more mayo, sour cream, sriracha, and/or vinegar. Allow to cool for about an hour before adding the herb and cucumber mixture. Serve!

Iconic Burger (and do you think I'm funny?)

2012-04-17T21:04:20Z

Over at Tablespoon this month they are hosting The Munchie Awards which have many categories of different food items to vote for. They asked me to create an iconic burger to celebrate the burger category, and I was immediately in. I wanted to try and make the signature burger from a burger chain that opened last year in Boston called 5 Napkin Burger. Their burger was one of the best I had in 2011, and this 5 Napkin Burger I created for Tablespoon was easily the best I've had so far in 2012, and one of the best I've eaten in my life!

In other blog/internet/food related awards type news, I have recently been nominated for a Saveur Food Blog award in the category of best Food Humor Blog. Now, it's sort of an odd category, because some of the blogs are very funny, more funny than I could ever imagine being, while others like me are more food focused with a little humor sprinkled on top. You have to create an account and log in to make your vote count, so I know it might be a lot to ask, but I could really use your vote!