WWBD?

What Would (a) Bacon-nut Do?

Recipes: Kombu + Freekeh cured Bacon (Beta), Bacon Bratwurst.

A few weeks back bacon enthusiasts gathered in the hip Logan Square neighborhood to sample bacon creations from some of Chicago's top chefs, to peruse porcine products from vendors and to worship at the larded altar of cured belly. Yes it was the second running of Baconfest Chicago. I can't really say I'm a bacon enthusiast, it's like saying I'm a breathing enthusiast, but breathing enthusiasts probably participate in marathons...I'm not doing that either... Even though I have pontificated about bacon in previous posts, I didn't think I needed to attend a fetish convention. That is until they announced an amateur bacon bake-off.



Oh boy, I have never entered a contest before, but I excitedly submitted my bacon bratwurst recipe. It proved very popular at Oktoberfest last year.
While I waited for an answer, I plotted my entry. The bacon I make is a pantry staple, nothing extreme or fancy, just bacon, a team player willing to lend it's smoky goodness to any situation. But now.....If I'm gonna be competing with baconphiles, I need to bring my A-game, I need a bacon with unattainable ingredients cured in a an unimaginable brine. I need to go gourmet.



Call in the Rod

So my friend Rod, has a brother, or is it a cousin, who has a farm out by Iowa City, he keeps a few hogs. Rod got one. When he ran out of room in his freezer he sent me a few packages.





Unattainable beautiful side pork ready to cure. Now for the never before imagined brine:





I knew I wanted to use some Kombu for its umami properties (I talk about kelp powder in a previous post), and I wanted to try some Lapsang Souchong tea to add smokiness to the brine. But I forgot to buy tea, so I went with my favorite smoked grain, Freekeh.

Kombu + Freekeh Brine (Beta)

2.5 L water
225g Salt
250g Sugar
150g Freekeh
22g (One sheet) Kombu (kelp)
10 g black peppercorns
5g whole coriander
5g mustard
2 fresh bay leaves (now that's gourmet!)

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive pot and boil for two minutes. Chill before using.



I covered the bacon with the brine and let it soak overnight. The next day I let the bacon air dry in the fridge before smoking. That night I fired up the smoker. I hot smoked the slices for a half an hour, just enough time to snap a publicity photo (In case I had to sign autographs at the contest).



I'm ready for my close-up.



The bacon is made time to make a contest.

[BEEP BEEP -THE TELETYPE STARTS TAPPING A MESSAGE]


Oh, Someone is ringing across the Telex. It's Andre Vonbaconvitch from BaconFest Chicago:

Hi Mac,

We love these Brats. It was SO close to making the cut. Just wanted you to know it really does look delicious - and we're sorry we couldn't include it this year. Thank you so much for submitting.

[TELETYPE STOPS TAPPING]

[Pause]

Oh.

I made the sausage anyway. Running the stuffer cheers me up. Besides I didn't want have to wear a funny bacon hat.



Drei im weggla.

I was not about to stuff bacon willy-nilly into a sausage just to impress some trenchermen, I wanted a sausage with pedigree, so I cracked open my $5 copy of Larousse Grastronomique. I found many worthy sausages that are made with bacon, but brat from Nuremburg caught my eye. Nuremberg sausages are famous for thin and short. I read on one cultural website that the tourist should say "Drei im weggla! (three in a roll!)" to order this regional specialty. Here's my recipe:

Bacon Bratwurst

4 lbs/1.8Kg ground pork
14 oz/400g bacon (coarsely ground)
27 g salt
7g black pepper
3g marjoram
3g ground mustard
1g thyme
1g mace

water

Beat together all ingredients using a really big spoon or with the paddle attachement on a stand mixer, Add upto a cup of cold water to make a smooth mixture. Stuff into sheep casings. For the authentico look, fry in an Albert Turk Forged Iron Pan, serve three on bun.



I would try again next year, but in the past month I have lost my amateur status. Happy cooking.

Cheers.

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.

Meatball Mania

Recipes:

Finnish (not Swedish) meatballs, Merguez Meatballs, Lentil and Freekeh soup.

Meatball Mania, get into it! Meatballs are a quick and easy addition to the holiday buffet table or as my Finnish friends like to call it, the bread and butter table, Voileipäpöytä. Let's get grinding.

I wrote about Finnish Meatballs last year. This time I have updated the recipe with sautéed onions and Wasa bread.



Finnish Meatballs with Pulverized Swedish Crispbread

900g/2lb Chicken ground
14g salt
5g black pepper
2g allspice
1g mace

40g (about 4) Wasa light rye crispbreads
30g onion miced, sautéed in a little butter.
5g Milk powder

120 ml/ 1/2c cold water

Grind spices and add to ground chicken. Grind Wasa and add to mixture. Stir in onion milk powder and cold water.



Form 20g (3/4 oz) portions on lined sheet bake in 400F oven for 10 minutes. I did it in two batches.

Yield: about 50 meatballs. Serve with brown sauce or make Cranberry Sauce (recipe in here)



Freekeh in Beta.

Smoked grains? sign me up. I first learned about Freekeh a few weeks ago when Noëlle Lothamer featured it on her blog simmer down! On first my taste I think it really has the smokiness of bacon. The Oxford Companion to Food reports that it's made by gathering green wheat and roasting them in the fields over an open fire. Then the kernels are shucked and packaged either whole or cracked.



Now I have only gotten one bag of this stuff, but I found a lot of stones in mine. It's like sorting beans. I lay them on a baking sheet lined with parchment, and pick through a little at a time then rinse. Noëlle reported that she didn't have much stone trouble, so I'll have to get some more bags to compare. In the meantime I think the flavor is worth it.

My first test for freekeh is lamb meatballs.



I got lamb shoulder and I had some chicken leftover and I ended up with a pretty good meatball.

Lamb and Chicken Meatball (beta recipe)

2.5 lbs 1130g Ground meat about half lamb half chicken
90 g Freekeh, sorted, not rinsed.
18g salt
2g coriander
1g cumin
1g black pepper

30g garlic minced

120ml Cold water



Process freekeh in spice grinder, then then run the powder though a sieve. Grind salt and spice together. Stir Freekeh and spices into ground meat, then mix garlic and stir in water.

Form 20g (3/4 oz) portions on lined sheet bake in 400F oven for 10 minutes. I did it in three batches.

Yield: about 60 meatballs. Serve with plain yogurt and harissa.

What's really great about meatballs is that they can be made way ahead of time and then frozen. In my own version of what the pros call IQF, I place the meatballs on a baking sheet in a single layer and freeze. Then bag em up.

It's Buffet magic.

In the meantime here's a quick (and supercheap)weeknight meal. Lentil and freekeh soup. This turned out really good:

Dice and sauté medium onion and one carrot in butter. add 4oz small lentils already sorted and rinsed. Add 1 oz of Freekeh already sorted and rinsed. Add 4 cups of chicken stock, 1/2 tsp of salt, two cloves of garlic smashed and peeled, cracked pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer until tender, about 30 mins. Serves 2-4.

Bonne Femme asked me to spend a little less time cooking. I dunno, I promised not to hide in the kitchen, and enjoy the Holidays. You do the same.



Cheers.