How to cook house cured bacon

It's all the rage.

How to make pizza dough before work

How to make Waffle Cones and Ice Cream in Michigan

Vacation time in Michigan. The original DIYer, my mom, makes makes waffle cones and chocolate chip ice cream. Look for cameos by U-Pick blueberries, U-pick apricots, and gram-gram as the plonger.

How to bottle wine (Vin de Pamplemousse)

How to make habanero salsa

How to open Champagne (Cava)

How to pick a strawberry

Outdoor Falafel Station

Crépinettes on the grill

How to baste pork shoulder

How to baste a brisket

How to make a scrambled egg

Hot Dog Video Part III: Campfire Dog

In the finale, MAC and the boys go camping so that they may cook hot dogs in the proper way: Over an open fire, on a stick.

Cheers.

Hot Dog Video Part II: Enter the Smoker

But wait there's more.

Cheers.

Hot Dog Video

Wow these pictures move! My first food video.

Cheers

More Turkey Tips for Mr. McGee

In response to the recent post, Please Mr. McGee Don't Drown my Turkey, Kit from Santa Cruz sent in the following PSA:



Thanks for sending that in, Chris, it reminds me of the good times we spent parked in front of the TV on Saturday mornings.

Oh yeah, don't down your food! True thirty years ago, true today.

Cheers.

HAM burger

Do you remember the ads for A1 Steak sauce proclaiming a hamburger is not chopped ham but chopped steak? As a considered rebuttal to that 80's ad, I offer the HAM-burger. Pictured above the ground cured pork burger is dressed with mustard, ketchup, cheese, roasted jalapenos, caramelized onions in sour cream (à la Bonne Femme), tomato, lettuce and mayonaise, all set on a bun made with "Five minute a day dough."



Okay Bonne Femme says I need to take a picture of her burger too. She topped hers with a cole slaw (left over from yesterday's fish taco adventure) made with cabbage, beets, and carrots.

But I didn't set out to make hamburgers. It's been a little more than a week since we returned from our madcap EU adventure and I needed to restock the cured meats cabinet. I made up a brine (loosely based on Charcuterie's American Style Brown Sugar Glazed Holiday Ham recipe) and sunk some pork belly and some pieces of boneless ham. After three days I pulled the pieces from their salty sleep and today I tied them into roasts. While tying the roasts I ended up with some trimmings. Now if I had been really ambitious I used the cured pork trimmings in a Toulouse sausage, but I'm still jet lagged or I drank a lot of beer last night (with fish tacos!) Hey Presto HAM-Burgers. I'm smoking the ham and bacon tomorrow.

Hey check it out, I found the A1 commercial:



Cheers.

Chorizo, chorizo

Chicken chorizo hash for breakfast.

Did you read the previous post where I suggested getting a whole chicken? Did you get one? Did you make stock? Did you stuff the legs with Swiss chard and cheese? Some people may call it an obsession, but I just call it a good habit. I bought another bird, made stock, some "chikin" fingers for the boys, and... What's that? Ma are you comin' to visit? Well I got a chicken breast what should we make?

Around here we love whippin up something good for breakfast. I am particularly partial to any menu with the words huevos and rancheros on it. I figured with the leftover chicken I could whip up some ranch style hash with chorizo.

Chicken Chorizo

720 g (1lb 80z) Chicken cubed
125 g ( 4 oz) Bacon diced
8 g Salt
7 g chile powder*
5 g paprika
3 g black pepper
1 g Mexican oregano
1 clove
Pinch of cinnamon
10 g garlic minced
Vinegar (15 ml) and water (30 ml) as needed

*The chile powder plays the star roll in this sausage so use something good. I had some New Mexico powder and I ground up a guajillo. Check out Penzeys or the Spice House for your chile needs.

This is best started the night before so that the chicken has a chance to marinate. Grind the whole spices in a mill and combine with everything else except the vinegar and water in a large bowl. Rest it in the fridge overnight. The next morning run it through the meat grinder. Stir the ground mixture adding the vinegar and water so that it starts to come together. Fry it up in a pan with some red potatoes, some onion, a poblano pepper and presto! hash. Serve with homemade corn tortillas and poached eggs.

For more chorizo fun, check out this video of Novak and his ode to Chorizo:



Spring is coming.

¡Salud!

In support of sausages

A few months back I posted an interview with Chili Champion John Novak. If you weren't able to plow through the long winded, aimless transciption, One of the highlights was when I goaded John into singing a song (about sausage) he wrote for the film, Pancho's Revenge, directed by Jorge Aquirre. Jorge, the hardest working man in Hollywood and soon to be papa, sent in a couple clips of the film showing John in all his awesome talent. I think these two clips show the power and range that a sausage has in song. Go ahead look at them, they're less than 20 seconds.



Sad Chorizo



Painful Chorizo

Both of those clips where shot on Jorge's rooftop, Rivington ST., NYC, 1998.

While we are on the subject of Novak, I want to send a special thanks to Elise at Simply Recipes, for picking up John's Cream of the Crop Green Chile Recipe. Because of the link we got the worldwide attention I predicted in the interview. We still get hits daily from her website. Thanks.

And of course big thanks to John Novak, for taking the time to share his genius with us. I hope everyone feels, as I do, just a little bit brighter and a little bit lighter.

¡Salud!