How to make habanero salsa

Mincing Sausage

The sausage that wasn't, EZ Chicken Chorizo and Freekeh Week.

I wanted to kick off the year with a championship worthy chitterling sausage but instead ended up with The Great Andouillette Wreck. I'll spare you the details but the link will take you to the pictures.

At the same time the family had to eat so I made up some Chorizo. I wanted something not too spicy so the boys would eat it. From a whole chicken I got about two pounds of meat and I ran that through the mincer.



Now if you don't have your great-grandmother's Universal #1 meat grinder with mincing plate, you can use a Kitchen-Aid grinder attachment or just do it by hand. Here's a link to my instructions to make sausage without a grinder.

Here's the quantities

Chicken Chorizo

2 lbs (900g) Chicken minced
10 g salt
5 g summac*
15 g Paprika
1 g dried marjoram
1 bay leaf
1 g canela (Ceylon "Mexican" cinnamon)**
20 g (4 cloves) garlic minced
5 g dry milk powder (optional)
15-30 ml cider vinegar

Nicely grind salt and spices and mix into chicken. Continue to stir while adding garlic, milk powder and finally vinegar. Allow mixture to rest a few hours before cooking in a skillet.


*Summac is a spice I just started playing with, it's used a lot in Middle Eastern cooking and it's part of the spice blend, za'atar. Straight out of the bag, the flavor gives hint of Nacho Cheese Doritos. I have also been using it on top of focaccia. I will be using it a lot more.



Anyway it's processed with salt so if you don't use it in the chorizo recipe up the salt a bit, I usually salt 7 g (1 tsp flake) per pound of meat.

**Canela - "Mexican" cinnamon, true cinnamon, Ceylon cinnamon, NOT cassia. I talk about the differences between Canela and what we Americans call cinnamon in another post about Chorizo. Find canela at a grocery that specializes in Hispanic items or visit your favorite spice merchant. OR use the brutish cassia that's in the cupboard, just use a little less than called for in the recipe.

Since I wanted this chorizo to be kid friendly it's pretty mild, feel free to jazz it up. Over the past week we have had this sausage several different ways, but my favorite way is cooked up with potato and onion for breakfast.



Freekeh Week

By Thursday of last week, Bonne Femme figured out it I was putting freekeh into all of our dinners. I love the smoky flavor of this roasted wheat (click on the picture to see a list of what I made), BUT this stuff is full of rocks and it really needs a hard sort. I spread it out on a baking sheet and go through it grain by grain. I so far have bought two packages of freekeh each having about the same percentage of debris. I will investigate further.

In the meantime I came up with a great recipe using it ground up: Freekeh tortilla.



This is a somewhere between an actual tortilla and a crêpe.

Yield about six

70g /2.5 oz/ 1/2 cup ground freekeh*
70g /2.5 oz 1/2 cup AP flour
4g / 1/2 tsp baking powder
Salt
Water
Oil for cooking

Combine the dry ingredients with enough water to make a pourable batter(a cup or more). Using an oiled non-stick pan, cook the tortilla like a pancake.



I used this savory flat bread for huevos rancheros (picture at the top). I think it's worth the hassle.

*What do I mean by hassle? Grinding freekeh. I used spice grinder to pulverize the freekeh and a fine sieve to sort it out, re-pulverize un-sifted bits, etc.

Most gluttonous gluttony coming soon, did someone say snails?

Cheers.

Tortillas Columbus

If touring taco trucks in Columbus has inspired you to roll your own, then I know of a place you should go to pick up some tortillas.

Kokis is a tortilla factory on Columbus' West side and my mom has been there enough times that she gets greeted with very friendly and familiar hello. As I was admiring the line through a window, someone invited onto floor to see the whole process. They start with corn, treat it with lime (nixtamal), then grind that into masa. the masa is fed into rollers which flatten and cut the tortillas to size. they bake in an oven then zigzag over racks then are packed by hand into plastic bags. Show up in the morning and you can get warm tortillas. While we were at Koki's my mom asked where was the best Mexican grocery store. We were directed to La Plaza Tapatia.



Living in Chicago all these years, I have been to a wide range of Mexican Groceries from Chicago Heights to Pilsen to Albany Park and La Plaza Tapatia is very very nice store. They have everything you would need for a barbacoa.



Did somebody say cookout?



I love pork tacos. We have had a lot of adventures here in Columbus, including bacon camp, the fair and butchering a whole pig. I hope to write about this stuff soon, but in the meantime take a look at the pics from this trip on flckr. Better yet, go fix yourself something good to eat.

Cheers


Kokis Tortillas
2992 Sullivant Ave
Columbus 43204
614-279-5000

La Plaza Tapatia
4233 Shoppers Lane (Behind Westland Mall)
Columbus 43228
614-276-0333

Carnitas Pibil and a lesson in the ways of BBQ

Pork tacos and a lesson in the ways of BBQ.

I am now positive that my favorite barbeque is pork shoulder rubbed with Achiote and spices. It's a preparation from the Yucatan known as Pibil. I originally started with a recipe from Rick Bayless' One Plate at a Time, but I have done it (and written about it) so many times that now it comes together on it's own. I assure you there are few things finer that a picnic of pork tacos. With fair weather finally forcasted, I decided to make pork tacos over the weekend.



Now you can try following Rick's recipe get some Achiote (annatto) seeds, try grinding them (Like grinding pebbles, very gritty, typically you make a flavored oil with the seeds) OR you can do what everyone else does in Mexico and pick up some paste. I combined garlic, salt, marjoram, thyme and Canela (Cinnamon)with the achiote and added enough olive to make a paste.







I rubbed this mixture on the pork shoulder.



I also started some sliced red onion to pickle in lime juice orange juice sugar ans salt. Overnight in the fridge for both of them.

[
[
[
[We interrupt this post to answer the MAC BBQ Hotline]

[PHONE RINGS]

MAC: Hello?

J*$h: (name obscured to protect privacy) Hey, what are you doing?

MAC: Just started marinating some pork for bbq pork tacos, wanna come over?

J*$h: I can't, got company coming, Pork tacos, that's sounds good, do you have a recipe?

MAC: Sure I'll send you Rick's.

[NEXT DAY VIA Email]

J*$H:

Hey you only sent me an ingredient list, how about some pointers?
1. Such as a basic rub I can use?
2. how long on the grill (est.)
3. will I need to add coals/wood as it progresses?
4. what internal temp?

MAC:

Sorry about that. I don't think you will have enough time to do a shoulder roast on the grill today, it takes six hours. Get some pork shoulder steaks and rub them with whatever ingredients you have that closely match rick's recipe. For Achiote seeds use paprika (and maybe a little turmeric if you got it), for the Mexican oregano use dried marjoram, black pepper, cinnamon,salt, garlic, olive oil, mix that together and squeeze in a lime and rub that on the steaks. let em sit for a while, at least while you get the fire ready.

2. You wanna cook these things as long as you can, after an hour they will be safe to eat but chewy. The longer the pork cooks the more they will tenderize, just like working a crock pot. BTW the pork should be in a pan or something so can baste them from time to time.

3. For the fire you want a small fire off to one side. You want the fire to run at 250-350F. Once you get it going you need to check it like every 20 mins. Add briquettes if the fire is going out, add wood for flavor as needed. It doesn't need to smoke like an old Chrysler tho.

Dave at weber_cam has a good dicussion about lighting an indirect fire on a kettle

4. As for internal temp, I'm going for 200F on my roast, but that is going to take forever. You pork steaks need to get to at least 160F but they wont shred until the temp hits maybe 190. You're gonna chop this stuff up for tacos anyway so pull it off when you're ready to eat. Good luck let me know what happens

[MEANWHILE Back at the Ranch]



I got some banana leaves. I Pass them over a hot grill to soften them. They darken slightly. I line a pan with the leaves, nestle the roast then cover with more leaves. Enter the smoker.



I slow cooked the pork for about six hours, I got the internal temp to about 195F. I was busy doing garden work so I shut the vents and let it sit for another couple of hours



Time to pull the pork.





I roasted some habaneros, garlic, blended it with lime juice and salt for a hot sauce.



The pickled onions are done.



It's a beautiful day to eat tacos.

[
[
[
[
[MEANWHILE J*$H writes another note on the MAC BBQ Hotline]

J*$h:

I Made the tacos - everything went fine, but mostly done in the oven. We had to meet friends at Morton, so we threw it in there for a head start (4.4 lbs bone-in shoulder) at 250. Got back 3 hours later, and it was just about done. Not realizing that, I had started the coals, so I threw it on for 40 minutes or so, just to do it. Not sure if the taste changed much. Rub was lime juice, chili, cumin, ancho chili, lots of garlic and kosher salt. A very positive experience I must say, delicious all around. Also made a corn relish I saw bobby flay make - corn, charred jalapenos, cilantro, red onion and lime juice. Good, too. And of course, autentico tortillas.

Thanks.

[Hotline disconnects, MAC is troubled but then enlightend]

A very positive experience? How can that be? I gave J*$h somewhat explicit instructions on how to BBQ and he ignored them. Maybe the lesson today isn't for J*$h but for me (and any other would be BBQ expert). It reminds me that BBQ isn't taught at culinary school. Sure they have catering classes for feeding 700 but it ain't pulling sugar at Cordon Bleu. As far as I know Careme didn't codify the technique for smoking ribs in the backyard. In fact I can only think of one rule when it comes to BBQ: Don't burn yourself (that's also a culinary school rule too). I heard about a new BBQ book whose tagline is "Everything you Know about BBQ is Wrong." While flogging foodies with funny phases may sell books, It goes against what I pontificate on this blog: If it works then it's right. I don't give two squirts about how you cooked the meat because BBQ is much more than just process. It's also about bringing being people together to eat. Make it good, make it yours. However if you are still having trouble, give me a call I'd be glad to help.

Cheers.

PS If you enjoy reading rants about BBQ (I don't), read my post Pig Pick

Chorizo

Recipe for Chorizo.

What better way to learn about culture and food than by eating sausage. In today's episode, we take a little trip South of the border as I try to understand how two cultures came together to make this magical mixture, chorizo. Olé!

Chorizo is Spanish for sausage, and there are many kinds of chorizo ranging what we know as fresh chorizo, to Chorizo Verde, to a dry cured Spanish chorizo. In America we are most familiar with the fresh Mexican rojo (red) chorizo, a salty spicy sausage that comes in long pakages. My favorite way to eat it is for breakfast fried up in a hash with peppers and potatoes. But the store packaged stuff is nasty, I want a recipe that uses few ingredients and tastes like chorizo.



Chile Paste and the Aztec Blender.

The primary flavor for the chorizo is the chile (or chilli, or chili, or pepper). While I have made sausage in the past by just using powdered peppers, I believe you get a better flavor by preparing a chile paste from dried peppers. Here's how I learned to do it in school:



Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles.



Blanch them in oil. No more than five seconds (really three), or they will they will burn, you'll get the hang of it. Make sure the oil is no more than 350F. Strain and save the chile oil.



put the blanched chiles in hot tap water, cover with a paper towel and let them hydrate for ten minutes.



Discard the hydrating water, put the chiles in a blender, add about a cup of water (I started with 3oz (90g) of chiles) and puré. Strain the mixutre.

If you watch a lot of Rick Bayless, you might have noticed that the blender gets used a lot in the Cocina Mexicano.I have often wondered how did this stuff get made before the modern miracle of the West Bend. The Matate made it all possible. It's the three legged grinding stone that for centuries has been in the center of the Mexican kitchen. Up until the turn of the twentieth century a woman in the campesino would spend a third of her life grinding food (corn mostly) on the Matate, "The bitter black stone." Check out ¡Que vivan los tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity, by Jeffrey Pilcher for a history of the Mexican kitchen.

The meat of the matter.

So you've got your flavorful chile paste what about the meat? Before the Spanish showed up, there wasn't much meat in the Mexican diet, just turkey, iguana, insects and of course fish. With the conquistadors came Mestizo cuisine, a mixture of the two cultures, the Spanish introduced pork, beef and chicken along with rice, garlic and onion. The Spanish also introduced the art of making sausage. I read in Diana Kennedy's book, My Mexico: A Culinary Odyssey with More Than 300 Recipes, "Cortes introduced cattle and pork into the valley (Toluca, famous for sausage...(and) Spanish techniques for sausage making and pork curing naturally followed."

Okay so we have the Mexican Spanish food connection. Let's illustrate it in sausage.



Herbas de olor.

Like the bouquet garni of French cooking, Mexican cuisine has amomatic herbs that serves as a seasoning base: Bay, thyme and marjoram make up the herbas de olor. In some Mexican groceries you can find these three fresh bunched together. I found these herbs in several Chorizo recipes so we will use a little bit. I would recommend trying to find fresh bunches, but in my final recipe I ended up using some dried. I also used some Mexican oregano (because I had some), if you don't have it I wouldn't worry about it too much. Mexican Oregano is not a part of the oregano/marjoram family it's actually related to Lemon Verbena.



Canela - Cinnamon.

I have known for some time that what we typically call cinnamon is actually cassia, but I hadn't known the difference. In addition when I read recipes calling for "Cinnamon, preferably Mexican" I figured there's a third version from South of the border. Mexican cinnamon is actually true cinnamon and it's imported from Asia. The difference between cinnamon and cassia is dramatic: Cassia is blunt, cinnamon is light and sophisticated. Don't get me wrong, I wont be giving up my cassia for my cinnamon buns, but using Canela, true cinnamon, in moles or chorizo makes a world of difference.



I made up two chiles pastes: guajillo and ancho. Bayless calls the guajillo the "workhorse" of Mexican cuisine, but I would guess the ancho is the most widely used. The guajillo gives beautful color, the ancho provides rich undertones, along with the spices and some garlic, I marinate the pork for an hour.

I made several batches using various combinations of ingredients, I even did a batch with added fat,but I wanted to keep things as simple as possible so I left out the added fat. In all I made about ten pounds of sausage over the past four days.







Here's the recipe:

450 g (1 lb) pork shoulder cubed
60g (2oz) Chile paste (I used 50/50 guajillo/ancho, see above for paste instructions)
2 cloves (10 g) of garlic minced.
8 g (1 teaspoon) Salt
4 g cinnamon (for cassia use less, see above)
2 fresh bay leaves minced
1 g dried thyme
1 g dried marjoram
1 g dried Mexican oregano

15 ml (1 Tablespoon) Cider vinegar

Combine cubed pork, chile paste, and garlic. Process salt, herbs and spices in a spice mill and add to mixture. After a rest, run the mass through a grinder. Kneed it adding the vinegar until it starts to come together, about one minute. Stuff into hog casings for that loganzia look.

Chorizo is cooked without a casing, use it for breakfast or for stuffing peppers or for whatever. Enjoy. I gotta get to class.

Cheers.