Gunternation

A few weeks ago we bought a pork belly from Ryan’s farms at the Honest 2 Goodness  Saturday market. Bill had seen several recipes for Red Braised Pork Belly and was keen to give it a try.

Braising meat is a fairly simple enterprise. The most effort comes from preparing the pork by blanching in boiling water for a few minutes, dunking in cold water and then cutting into bite-sized cubes (a bit challenging with a slippery pork belly). The cubes are browned in oil, then removed. The recipe called for caramelizing some sugar in the oil, but turns out it is difficult to tell when sugar has caramelized in a black pan. Caramelized or no, add in chicken stock, star anise, a cinnamon stick, a crushed nob of ginger, soy sauce, black pepper and the pork to simmer on low heat for 1.5 hours. Then remove the lid and simmer for an additional half hour to reduce the liquid. Finally, throw in some sliced spring onions and cilantro/coriander.

Such a luscious meat needs simple friends. Steamed Napa cabbage (bok choy if you’ve got it) and boiled rice worked perfectly. Many times you want a crispy fat cap on your pork belly, but in this dish the gooey fat is terrific, melting into the rice. Some recipes even suggest removing the leanest part of the pork belly, as it will not turn very tender. Bill left it on, and it worked fine. Not super tender, but had lots of flavor. Another hour of braising may help if you keep the lean strip.

We both loved this rich pork with bright Asian flavors, and as you can see below, it changed Bill’s life.

Well crap, now I have to keep the fridge stocked with red braised pork belly all the time. I’m addicted.

— Bill Gunter (@tulanian) May 1, 2012

At some point in our culinary history bread was invented, and then humankind finally found its calling–eating things on bread. Grilled cheese, peanut butter toast, shrimp toast, bruschetta, pinxtos, pan con tomate, english muffin pizzas, beans on toast, lardo melted on crostini, Brie de Meaux smeared on baguette. People + bread + all other ingredients = a whole lot of deliciousness.

In pursuit of this destiny, Bill recently made two dinners featuring things on bread.

Cannellini Crostini

One day Bill was dreaming of cannellini beans and found a recipe to serve them on crostini with feta salsa verde. I was working late that evening and viewed a picture of my impending dinner on twitter. I was so happy to come home and find the components waiting on the kitchen counter, even though my husband had already gone off to whichever thing we do that night that I didn’t do because I worked late.

This dish is hugely flavorful. The bright flavors of the salsa sing out over the luscious, comfort-food feel of the beans and the crostini’s welcome crunch. Cannellini beans are so versatile and this recipe highlights how easy and tasty they are. Bill used the leftover smashed beans to make soup the next evening.

Comté, lardon and olives

Another evening, having just read about  calzone-ish fougasse and finding some Comté in the fridge, Bill melted the cheese over olives and crisped lardon on our friend baguette. Served with some dressed greens, this was a how-can-melted-cheese-on-bread-be-so-amazing moment. The olives were key here and provided a necessary saltiness to balance the rich Comté and lardon.

I like Comté, Gruyere and all of their brethren. –Bill Gunter

Years ago Bill and I were iced into our apartment in Birmingham for a few days. Previous to WINTER STORM ’96 (as the newsfolks called it), we would have told you there was precious little to eat in the apartment. Let’s go to Taj India, we would have said. Or maybe La Fiesta. Or Arby’s. Amazing what a bit of kitchen foraging can do. I remember eating steak and baked potatoes, pecan pancakes, and a delicious multi-bean soup. We lost our hot water but we ate well.

Snow started falling in Dublin last weekend, and we happily hunkered down. Church was canceled on Sunday, so I found myself browsing through a magazine. I saw a picture of pasta with pine nuts and a fried egg. Ooooh, I said, can we have this? Sure we can, Bill said. An hour later we did.  It was lovely and we’ve added it to our pantry dinner repertoire.

Dublin, like Birmingham and Austin, doesn’t have the infrastructure to deal with ice and snow, so when things get frozen, things get freaky. Buses stop running. Sidewalks turn to glass. I’m allowed to wear jeans to work.  Cars were having trouble exiting our car park, so Bill started working at home on Wednesday. I’ve been concentrating on getting my bones to and from work in one piece, so we haven’t had an infusion of groceries for a few days. [I broke my arm on the ice last January. Remember? Of course you do because I keep talking about it. Broken. Ow.]

Bill had planned dinner for Monday (Tangerine Beef stir fry with jasmine rice) and Tuesday (Burgers with chips and beans). But then what?

Wednesday night–soup. The idea started as chicken soup (carrot, potato, chicken), but then morphed when Bill noticed a bag of Doritos (plain). Add a can of green chiles, canned tomatoes, cilantro (coriander) and lime juice–tortilla soup! A welcome treat after Colin brought me home (in a record three hours).

Thursday night–meat and potatoes. Half a honey-roast duck from the fridge. Roast it over some new potatoes and quartered onions. Serve with a vinaigrette-dressed salad. The perfect dinner after arriving home safely thanks to Dublin Bus, the DART and a layer of crunchy snow.

Friday–throw it in a pot. This afternoon Bill found some stewing beef in the freezer (from the sadly defunct Simply Sourced meat delivery service). He was looking for something to serve with couscous, so this is what he did:

1. Salted and browned the beef in olive oil and placed in casserole dish.
2. Added quartered onions to the pan and a splash of vermouth to deglaze.
3. Added chopped garlic and spices–allspice, coriander (ground seed), cumin, chile powder, thyme, turmeric, and paprika.
4. Cooked for a while, then added a few squirts of tomato paste. Allowed to thicken into a dark paste.
5. Added a can of whole tomatoes and a cup of chicken stock along with a bay leaf, a pinch of saffron, whole dried apricots, toasted almonds and a couple spoons of harissa. And a strip of lemon zest.
6. Brought to a simmer and then poured over the beef in a casserole. Added a cinnamon stick.
7. Covered in foil and baked at 165°C/325°F for an hour.
8. Stirred in a  can of chick peas, drained and rinsed.
9. Baked for another hour.

What came out of the oven was a beef and apricot tagine. Turns out the couscous was a bit old (um, 1.5 years expired), so we ate the tagine with rice. After my taxi ride home (of a basically normal duration), I entered an apartment filled with fabulous aroma. The warm spices and tender beef rang all my comfort-stew bells, and the nutty almonds and chickpeas matched well with the tangy apricots and tiny bursts of bright lemon.

We’re out of onions now, so Bill says we definitely need to make it to the store tomorrow. I brought home some milk tonight, so Bill can have his morning tea, and I’ve been thinking about cafe au lait.

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.  In Mexico it is a minor holiday at best, but in the US and elsewhere it’s a celebration of Mexican heritage and food. Since we have no Mexican heritage, it’s all about the food.

On the menu this year were tacos al carbon with refried black beans. Tacos al carbon are strips of grilled beef (I lack a grill, so these were pan-seared) on corn tortillas with one or more salsas. We had ours with a bit of cheese and sour cream. The steak came from Simply Sourced and was seasoned with smoked serrano salt I brought back from the US. The salsa is a pico de gallo I made with cherry tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and chiles (jalapeño, I think, as the package didn’t say) and a bit of lime juice and salt. The corn tortillas I also made myself. The refried beans were canned black beans cooked down with some onion, cumin and oregano–quick and dirty, but tasty. Topping everything is a light feta cheese that approximates queso fresco.

On seis de Mayo (the next day) I made a tortilla soup. I’m recalling what I did for this recipe, so your mileage may vary.

• 1 medium green bell pepper (or, even better, poblano pepper)
• vegetable oil
• 3 chicken leg quarters
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 red jalapeño chile, seeds and ribs removed, minced (leave the seeds and ribs if you like it spicier)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 qt chicken stock
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 lb new potatoes, quartered
• 1 can Mexican Fiesta Rotel tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 lime
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• Garnishes: diced avocado, shredded cheese, corn tortilla chips
• Flour tortillas

Broil the green pepper in the oven until blackened on all sides. Remove to a bowl and cover. When cooled (about ten minutes) remove the blackened skin and dice. Heat 1 T of oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until well-browned on both sides, about five minutes per side. Remove to a bowl. Drain all but 1 T of oil from the pan. To the pan add the onion, carrot and chile, cover and sweat for five minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the stock, chicken and oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is done, about fifteen minutes. Remove chicken to a bowl and let cool.  Add the potatoes, Rotel, roasted green pepper, juice of half a lime and half the cilantro. Simmer until the potatoes are done, about fifteen minutes.  Meanwhile, remove the meat from the chicken. When the potatoes are done add the chicken and remaining cilantro to the pan and heat through. Serve in bowls topped with the avocado, cheese and crushed corn chips accompanied by the flour tortillas. Squeeze on more lime juice if desired.

We enjoyed both of these dinners immensely. The tortilla soup was really good: spicy, tart, chicken-y and corny. Simmering the chicken legs in the broth gave even store-bought broth great body. I’ll definitely be experimenting more with this one.

I’ve been lamenting the lack of Mexican chorizo in Ireland for two years. The only kind of chorizo you can get here is Spanish–tasty, but nothing like the Mexican kind. Even the chorizo molletes at Taco Taco in the Epicurean Food Hall are made with Spanish chorizo. Spanish chorizo is a cured, dry pork sausage seasoned with pimentón. Mexican chorizo is a fresh pork sausage seasoned with dried chiles, oregano and warm spices such as cloves and cinnamon. Vinegar is also added for tanginess.

It finally occurred to me last week that I could make my own chorizo. Our food mules (thanks Charles and Celia!) were kind enough to bring us some guajillo, pequin and ancho (16 oz!) chile powders, so I was all set. Here’s my recipe:

• 1 kg pork mince
• 1/2 cup of ancho
• 1/4 cup of guajillo
• 5 or 6 pressed cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• a bit of water
• salt (not sure how much, I was adding it and testing the chorizo by frying as I went along)

I kept some out for the tacos and froze the rest. For the tacos I browned some chorizo with a minced white onion. To this I added some cubed boiled potato and fried it until browned and crispy. Very tasty on its own, but the key to these tacos is the avocado-tomatillo salsa. Tomatillos are another Mexican ingredient I’ve been unable to find, but last week the organic veg vendor at the St. Anne’s Saturday market had a whole crate of them! He let me have some more this week gratis because there’s just not much of a market for them. The salsa is really simple, just a few tomatillos, a chile, a clove of garlic and an avocado whizzed up in the food processor with a bit of salt. Slathered on homemade corn tortillas with the chorizo-potato filling it’s just amazing. We have my Mexican food muse, Rick Bayless, to thank for these.