RECIPE: Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle (WCN 09/2011)

We had some beautiful sweet potatoes in our mystery basket. We really just wanted to stare at them, but that would have made for some lousy radio. Fortunately I had made chili a few days earlier and thought to bring along the leftover chipotles so I could deploy one of my favorite flavor combinations.

MASHED SWEET POTATOES WITH CHIPOTLE
Sweet potatoes
Chipotles in adobo sauce
Honey
Salt
Pepper
Cream (milk, heavy cream, 1/2 and 1/2, even plain yogurt would be good)

Trim sweet potatoes, slice thick, and boil until soft. Drain and mash gently. Stir in some honey and a couple of chipotles, chopped, with plenty of the adobo hanging on them. Add a little cream, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust.

NOTES:
1.) Chipotles are pantry magic! The secret is that ridiculously tasty adobo sauce that they pack them in--far tastier than anything from a can should be. If you puree the peppers and the sauce up in a blender or food processor you can keep it covered in the fridge pretty much forever (hat tip to Bobby Flay). Start with a little of the chipotle and taste as you go; you're going for more smoky than hot.
2.) As with all potatoes, you want to mash them gently so you don't activate the gluten in them. Mash them just until they're mashed and then stir in the other ingredients.
3.) Despite the "sweet" moniker, sweet potatoes usually benefit from a little sweetening up. Honey worked well here; maple syrup would also be spectacular.
4.) You need very little cream here. If you just left it out it would probably be OK, but it will help take the hot edge off the chipotles (leaving more tangy and smoky flavor).

RECIPE: Quick Pickled Green Tomato Caprese (WCN 09/11)

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed last night's show with the folks from Grow Appalachia and their stunning mystery basket of produce. Seriously, it was so beautiful that we didn't even want to cut it up and cook it. If anything the bounty of produce led us to overreach and try to do far too much, but it wouldn't be WCN! if we didn't overdo something.

Maggie brought some lovely green tomatoes; she wasn't sure of the variety, but they apparently stay green. They were tart and delicious, so Jenny suggested pickling them. Recipes from this show are VERY rough since we were cooking on the fly, but I'll do my best.

QUICK PICKLED GREEN TOMATO CAPRESE
Green tomatoes
Rice wine vinegar
Salt
Black pepper
Honey
Fresh mozzarella
Herbs, assorted (parsley worked well)

Slice green tomatoes as thinly as possible. (A mandoline is excellent for this.) Make a brine with rice vinegar and salt--you want about a 5% brine for pickles, and a cup of liquid to a tablespoon of salt will get you pretty close. Add a big dollop of honey--more than you think, since you have a lot of sour to counteract. Add a little black pepper. Taste and make sure it's tasty.

Submerge the tomatoes in the brine. Toss them around occasionally. In 30-45 minutes they should be nice and pickly. Arrange them on a plate with chunks of fresh mozzarella and sprinkle some herbs on top.

NOTES:
1.) This would be excellent with a fresh goat cheese, feta, cojita, or any sort of young cheese.
2.) A little red pepper flake might be nice in the pickle brine as well.
3.) DO NOT use quick pickle recipes for canning! Always use tested recipes for preserving.

Back from the dead!

So the WCN! staff has really let the blog go recently, but it's time to ride again! I will be working on redesigning it, but in the meantime I'll be posting recipes from last night's show later today.

Recipe: Grilled Caesar Salad

Check it out! I'm actually posting a recipe before Jonathan did from last week's show! Although calling this a recipe is really stretching the definition of recipe--the dish is more about technique than ingredients or measurements.

July 6 was What's Cookin' Now's two-year anniversary, and we decided to go Back to the Grill to commemorate our very first show together, when we performed what J called "the ultimate in stunt-grilling"--grilled pizzas. For this show, I wanted to do something summery and delicious, and we've been rocking variations on grilled salads in Sisterville all summer, so I decided to make one of those. I wrestled my battered Weber into the back of my car (the legs fell off, facilitating the wrestling and allowing me to win the match), loaded up my produce into a cooler, and headed for WMMT.

While Jonathan fired up the grill on the back deck (charcoal, newspaper, and a chimney starter eliminate the need for spraying the coals with nasty-tasting petroleum products), I prepped my vegetables. I had an eggplant, some yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, a red onion, some pretty red and yellow and orange bell peppers, and of course, some romaine lettuce. I was going for color and flavor--but you could put anything you want on this salad. I made it again a few nights later and added asparagus.

If you're going to grill eggplant, you need to salt it first to draw out the water so it will retain its shape. I cut mine longways into planks, about a half-inch thick, then sprinkled them liberally with kosher salt and layered them in a colander to drain. This really needs to be done about an hour before you grill, although I fudged and only had about a half hour, and mine came out okay. I cut the squash and zucchini into long planks, too, and sliced the onion into half-inch slices. I cut the peppers in half, removed the seeds and stems, and smashed them flat. I wanted everything big enough to not fall through the grate--you can always cut things up after you grill them.

The easiest way to do this is to throw everything (except the onion--it'll fall apart) into a big bowl and drizzle it with olive oil, then lay it on a hot oiled grill (use a grill brush to clean the grate, and a paper towel dipped in oil and held with tongs to oil the grill), sprinkle with salt (I like to use Goya Adobo), and grill until you get some char on the edges. At that point, if the vegetables aren't tender enough for you, you can lay them on the cooler side of the grill, or wrap them loosely in foil, where they'll steam a bit and soften.

While you're grilling the vegetables, you can make the dressing. Mash one or two anchovies (and if you think you don't like anchovies, please, just try this--they're delicious) and a few cloves of garlic (I think I used three) together with about four tablespoons of olive oil. An immersion blender makes quick work of this and produces a nice creamy dressing. Add the juice of one lemon. Place an egg, in the shell, on the grill for about four minutes, turning it with tongs halfway through. This will coddle the egg--since it won't be cooked through, you may want to use a pasteurized egg. Break the egg into the dressing and blend it until it emulsifies.

Now char the lettuce. If you're serving this with a nice steak, a good time to do this is while the meat rests after it comes off the grill. Cut the romaine heads lengthwise into halves or quarters, depending on how big it is. You want a nice flat surface to char. Brush the lettuce with olive oil. This should be done over fairly high heat, since you want to char the lettuce quickly--it will wilt a bit, but should remain crunchy. Turn it with tongs to char both sides. Remove the lettuce to a large platter, top with the chopped, grilled vegetables, and drizzle with the dressing. Oh, and croutons are nice here--I used some ciabatta rolls, cut into cubes and skewered, then brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and grilled a bit until they were crunchy.

As is the case with most salads, there are endless variations on this recipe. Add potatoes and sliced steak, or garbanzo beans and parmesan cheese. Use only the small inner cores of the lettuce and make little individual salads. Add some herbs to the dressing--it's your call. Happy grilling!

Recipe: Mofongo (WCN! February 2011)

Mofongo is considered the national dish of Puerto Rico, and is the best example of criolla cuisine.  It is sometimes served on its own as a side dish, but it's usually stuffed or filled with pork, beef, or seafood, or topped with a seafood stew.  (Jenny suggested after the show that it would be awesome filled with a ceviche, and as usual, she's right.)

The key technique here is the low-temperature frying of the plantains, low enough that you soften them but don't brown them.  They will get greasy this way, but that's kind of a feature of the dish.  Make sure you let them get good and soft.

Mofongo

8 green plantains, peeled and sliced into 1" chunks
4 oz pork rinds (chicharrones)
6 cloves garlic
salt, pepper, oil

Soak plantain chunks in salt water for 15 minutes.  Dry thoroughly and fry in 325 degree oil for 10-15 minutes or until very soft.  Remove to a colander and let drain until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, mash up garlic and pork rinds in a mortar and pestle or pilon.  Add salt and pepper. (This dish requires more salt than you'd think. Most versions I had in PR were good but way underseasoned, IMO.)  Add plantains and mash until it all comes together.

Roll into a ball and serve, or make a well in the ball and fill with tasty roasted meat or stew.

Recipe: Arroz con Gandules (WCN! February 2011)

This is one of several Puerto Rican side dishes that can be described as "rice with stuff in it". In particular, this one is served alongside the pork at the lechoneras in Guavate.  One of my favorite bites we had in PR was the takeout container of this we brought with us to the airport to eat before our flight home.

I don't have a whole lot of specific measurements here, but whatever you do will probably work.

Pigeon peas can be found among the Mexican/Hispanic ingredients at your local well-stocked megamart.  So can annatto seeds; to make achiote oil, combine 1/4 cup of the seeds with 1/2 cup of corn or canola oil, simmer for 10 minutes, then strain when it cools.  It will look like yellow food coloring, and will impart a beautiful yellow color to whatever you cook in it along with a subtle flavor. (It's known as the "poor man's saffron".)  You can buy a sazon that's mostly achiote and coriander that's more traditional, but since coriander is generally frowned upon in my household, I use the regular Goya adobo seasoning.

Arroz con Gandules

1 pound medium-grain rice
2 cans green pigeon peas (gandules)
2 onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup olives, chopped
1-16 oz can tomatoes, drained
roast pork, diced (however much you have)
achiote oil
adobo seasoning

Heat the achiote oil in a skillet over medium-low heat and add all of the ingredients except for the rice, pork, and gandules.  Saute slowly for about 30 minutes, until it all sort of collapses into a cohesive mass (known as a sofrito).

Meanwhile, rinse your rice until the rinsing water is clear.  Put in a pot and cover with water to a depth of one knuckle over the rice.  Bring to a boil, then add the sofrito, pork, and pigeon peas.  Cover, reduce to the lowest possible heat, and let sit for about 20 minutes or until it's done.  Stir and add more adobo if it needs it.

Recipe: Pernil (Puerto Rican roast pork) (WCN! February 2011)

The Caribbean is full of unforgettable seafood dishes, but when I think of where island cuisine really shines, I think of pork. Puerto Rico is particularly known for its pig, as we found out when we were there in November, from the slow-roasted whole beasts of the lechoneras of Guavate to the smaller roasts you find at lunch counters all over, known as pernil.

This starts with a skin-on pork shoulder roast, the same cut my great-grandmother in Owsley County used to serve up every Sunday after church, with little potatoes roasted golden brown in the drippings.  So this dish reminds me not only of my recent travels, but of those Sundays when I was a kid at Granny Eunice's.  Isn't cooking awesome?

Pernil

1 8-10 pound pork shoulder roast, skin-on
1 quart orange juice
2 sprigs oregano
2 heads garlic
salt, pepper, oil

Place a sprig of oregano and a head of garlic in a 2-gallon Ziploc and smash it up with a hammer.  In a bowl, whisk up 1/2 cup of salt, some pepper, and the orange juice.  Pour into the bag and massage the garlic and oregano into the mix.

Using a sharp knife, score the skin and the meat of the pork in a diamond pattern, like so:

Place in the bag and brine overnight, for up to 24 hours.  Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil and put a rack on it.  Take out the roast, dry it thoroughly with paper towels, and let it sit out to air dry for a couple of hours.

Peel the other head of garlic, pluck the leaves off the oregano, and mash them up to a paste with some salt, pepper, and a little oil of some kind.  (A food procesor would work, but a mortar and pestle or pilon is perfect.)  Spread this over the entire roast, making sure to get it down in the cracks.

Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then at 325 degrees until it hits 180 degrees in the middle.  Take it out and let it rest for 30 minutes.  Don't even try to avoid picking at it.

Recipe: Orgeat and the Mai Tai (WCN! February 2011)

Tiki drinks are a whole geeky subcategory of bartending nerddom, with their own obscure hardware and software.  The ingredients themselves aren't hard to find (for the most part), but they're combined in ways that create a lot of complexity.

One of those ingredients is orgeat (or-zhat) syrup, which originated in France based on barley but is now usually an almond syrup flavored with orange flower and rose water. You can buy some commercial versions, but if there are any good ones they're hard to find and it's really easy to make at home. Kaiser Penguin's recipe was the basis for this one--I haven't changed it much.

Orgeat

(makes about two quarts)

1/2 lb almonds
2 1/2 pounds sugar
8 cups water
rose water
orange flower water (you can find these at the hippie grocery, or at a Middle Eastern or Indian grocery)

Grind almonds as finely as possible in the food processor. (You can use almond flour if you can find it, but it's more expensive that way.) Toast the ground almonds briefly in a dry saucepan, being careful not to burn them. (It happens fast.) Add the water and a pound of the sugar and bring it all to a boil.  Simmer for about ten minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let it sit overnight.

The next day, strain the syrup through some cheesecloth and return it to the saucepan.  Bring to a boil and then stir in the rest of the sugar.  Turn it off, let it cool, then add drops of rose and orange flower water to taste (a little goes a long way).

Store in jars in the fridge.  There will still be a lot of solid in it that rises to the top; just shake it before you use it.  Aside from the Mai Tai (below), you can use it in the Japanese Cocktail--1/2 oz orgeat, 2 oz brandy or cognac, and 3 dashes Angostura bitters, shaken with ice and served up with a lemon twist.  Outside the cocktail world, it's awesome in a Cafe Au Lait, and great with soda water.

--

The Mai Tai is a tiki classic, one of the drinks that put Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber on the map.  These days it has become almost a generic term for anything fruity and rummy with an umbrella in it, which is a real shame.  Cocktails like this one with so many ingredients usually blend together into noise, but the different flavors in this one play off one another so well that the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts.

I've expressed the recipe as a ratio.  As always, I suggest using a kitchen scale for cocktails.  Using 1/2 oz as your "one part" will make enough for two powerful drinks.

Mai Tai

1 part simple syrup
2 parts lime juice
3 parts orange curacao
3 parts orgeat
6 parts white rum
6 parts dark rum (I like Cruzan blackstrap--it's not traditional, but it's tasty)

Shake all ingredients except the dark rum with ice.  Pour over clean ice in a rocks glass.  Using a bar spoon or just a really careful pour, pour the dark rum on top so that it forms a layer on top.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a pineapple chunk on a toothpick and a little umbrella if you have one.  Add a neon-colored bendy straw.  (The straw is imperative, as it needs to be drunk from the bottom.)

Recipe: Sweet Potato Biscuits with Cranberry Butter

I've been chasing the Sweet Potato Biscuit for years, and this is by far the best one I've tried. This is probably because it's not a biscuit at all--it's a quickbread, or a Muffin Method bread in Alton Brown's taxonomy. The large amount of baking powder is necessary to lift the heavy dough. You don't want to stir the sweet potatoes into the dough too well--you want little bits sticking out. The cranberry butter is great with them, but my favorite topping is just plain honey.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

(adapted from Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose)

1 cup mashed sweet potato

2/3 cup milk

1/2 stick butter, melted

2 tbsp sugar

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

Heat the oven to 450 and line a sheet pan with parchment. Mix the potatoes, milk, butter, and sugar in one bowl. In another, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the wet team to the dry team and stir until combined. Using a #40 disher or a couple of spoons, lay the dough out in pieces a little bigger than a golf ball on the parchment. Bake for 12-15 minutes, watching closely for burning on the bottom. Serve hot, and in the unlikely event there are any left, store them in a Ziploc in the fridge and heat in the toaster oven as needed.

Cranberry Butter

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup leftover cranberry sauce

1 tbsp honey

Stir together. Serve alongside biscuits.

Support WMMT-FM and What's Cookin' Now!

It was about a year and a half ago when Tricia and Jenny and I started kicking around the idea of joining forces and reviving What's Cookin' Now!, WMMT's off-and-on live radio cooking show.  We had done it before separately, and we learned how hard it is to fill an hour of radio by ones' self.  But the three of us together? We'd be unstoppable!

Sixteen shows later, I think we were right.

Unlike a lot of the food media out there, we weren't created in a focus group.  We're not trying to appeal to a demographic or sell you anything.  We're just a trio of bigmouthed foodies who think there is no greater joy than creating real food with real people and for real people.

And that's what I love about WMMT--it's Real People Radio.  Its programmers are real people who want to share their record collection, or their observations about the community, or their innuendo-laden kitchen ramblings with you. In a world where so much media feels like marketing, WMMT is everything that radio should be.

WMMT's Fall Fund Drive is going on now. We don't have a show during the fund drive, but you can call (606) 633-1208, (888) 396-1208, or go to http://www.wmmtfm.org anytime to donate whatever you can to keep Real People Radio and shows like What's Cookin' Now! on the air.

Thanks! And keep on cookin'!

Thai Food Birthday Extravaganza

Today we had a family gathering to celebrate the kids birthdays. Ashley and Zach will be 21 on Oct. 20 and Crystal will be 23 on Nov. 3. Everyone, of course, requested Thai food. I thought I'd share another Thai recipe and a few pics...

Made homemade Thai Eggrolls, Toy's Chicken PotPic, boneless as requested by Zach

and Fried Beef as requested by Ashley and Crystal.

The rice on the left is sticky or glutinious rice and goes with the fried beef. On the right is jasmine rice for the pot pic.
My Birthday Babies ~ Zach, Crystal and Ashley


Grandma Toy's Pot Pic

2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces 1 Tbs fresh grated ginger
8 – 10 cloves garlic, peeled 10 -15 Thai peppers
1 tsp. chicken/onion/garlic spice mix* 2 Tbs. oil
1 can bamboo shoots 1 Tbs. fish sauce
1 Tbs. Sugar


Add ginger, garlic, peppers, ginger and spice mix to a food processor and combine until smooth, adding a little water to make a paste. Add mix to medium size cooker and cook on medium high till water is evaporated. Add 2 Tbs. oil and cook a minute. Add chicken and stir to coat. Cook on medium till chicken is no longer pink. Add bamboo shoots, fish sauce and sugar. Serve with hot jasmine rice.

* The chicken/onion/garlic spice mix is available at Asian markets. All the words on the package are in Thai so I call it chicken/onion garlic spice mix. Could substitute by using equal parts chicken buillion, onion powder and granulated garlic.

PS. I almost forgot to say thanks to Jenny and Jonathan for always talking about the deliciousness that is pan sludge. Today, the best part of my whole meal was the pan goo from the Fried Beef. omg.

Recipe: Polenta Arrabiata

Easy for camping. Even easier at home on a lazy hungry night. I can be eating this in about 20 minutes.

Polenta Arrabiata

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 small onion, rough chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large can roasted diced tomatoes

cayenne pepper flakes

salt and pepper

fresh basil, chopped (any fresh herb really)

1 tube polenta

1 Tbs. olive oil (I used a garlic chili oil)

In a medium saucepan or cooker, add olive oil and heat to medium. Add onion and sautee for a couple minutes. Add garlic and cook a few minutes more. Add tomatoes and stir. Cook until the sauce is thickened, about 10 minutes. Add cayenne, salt and pepper to taste. Add chopped fresh herbs and remove from heat.

While sauce is cooking, slice polenta into 1/2" thick rounds. Add oil to a cast iron or other nonstick skillet and pan fry polenta rounds over medium heat until crispy and brown.

Pour the spicy sauce over crispy polenta and enjoy!

Recipe: Greek Melt

Mmmmmmmm Cheesy! Fast and easy. Who could ask for more?!

Greek Melt

2 Tbs. butter
1/2 lb. Muenster cheese, chopped or sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 lemon
Warm crusty bread

In a cast iron skillet over medium-low heat, melt butter. Add cheese and garlic evenly around pan and heat until the cheese begins to bubble around the edges. Remove from heat, sprinkle with lemon juice and serve in the skillet with warm crusty bread.

WCN! This Wednesday ~ Campfire Cuisine

Tune in to 88.7 WMMT at 6pm on Wednesday September 1st

for the world's only live radio cooking show (that we know of) What's Cookin Now!

This months show finds Jenny, Jonathan and Tricia exploring the wide world of Campfire Cuisine. You will be amazed at the delicious delicacies and tasty tidbits that can be created over burning wood. Camping doesn't have to mean your stuck eating beanie weenies. potted meat and cheetos. Join 3 geeky campicureans for camp cooking tips, witty commentary, sexual innuendo and as always, yummy food.

Tricia will show us how to make an easy cheesy garlicy appetizer on the fire. Follow that up with some pan fried polenta and spicy arriabata sauce. What are Jenny and Jonathan cooking!??! Well, you'll just have to tune in to find out! Don't miss this hour full of fun and deliciousness.

Be sure to friend us on facebook. And if you like what you hear on WMMT, make a donation to support public community radio.

that's right Saturday night.

Today was a day for nesting. Cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry and more cooking. I've been thinking alot lately about Grandma Toy's Thai Eggrolls.

If you are one of the 5 people who regularly listen to What's Cookin' Now! then you already know but just in case... Grandma Toy is my husband's ex-wife/baby momma's mom and is from Bangkok, Thailand. She is a wonderful cook and gracious hostess. She invited me into her kitchen and taught me a few of her classic recipes.

I must admit that I change the eggroll recipe a little. I add carrot because I think it makes them prettier.They are more a fried springroll than an eggroll but she calls them eggrolls so I call them eggrolls too. Who am I to argue with her about Thai food names!??! Anyway, I haven't made them in forever because it takes a while when your kitchen helpers are away at college. But I was craving them... Soooo, I cooked a pound of ground beef and boiled 1/2 pound of shrimp. Chopped onion, celery, green onion and cilantro, shredded carrots, soaked and chopped bean thread, added some seasonings and got Sam to mix it all up. I ended up rolling 27 eggrolls.

Fried a few because you have to test to make sure they are good! We ate 6. Yes, 3 each for dinner and put the rest in the freezer for future easy deliciousness.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The dipping sauce is made of pancake syrup, white vinegar, sweet chili sauce and salt. Weird huh? But soooo tasty.

Then, I needed to use up a bunch of tomatoes that my nice co-worker Kasey gave me so I decided to make a from scratch spaghetti sauce. Blanched, peeled and tossed those ^ tomatoes (2nd batch was a ton of tiny tomatoes) into a pot with a little water and a little salt and put it on medium heat. A couple hours went by, stirring sometimes and adding water if needed. The more it cooked, the more seeds came out. seeds, seeds, seeds. They were everywhere. It was waay too seedy to make spaghetti sauce so I decided to try a blended tomato basil soup. Sauteed some garlic and onion in a little olive oil till it was soft, picked some basil off the back porch, chopped it up, added everything to the tomatoes and pureed the whole mess with my immersion blender.

If you don't have an immersion blender, buy one. They are affordable, handy, easy to clean and kinda fun to use. The soup turned out great. It needed a little salt, black pepper and a dash of cayenne to be perfect. And then I succumbed to the power of cheese. I added a little fresh grated Parmesan and let that melt in. It was so much more perfect-er. I'm going to take it and some good bread to share share with my sisters in the ville for lunch tomorrow. Jenny has her fancy tasting spoon and this is mine. Handmade by Appalachian Artisan Center Studio Artist Michael Holliday.

See you on the radio! Next show Campfire Cuisine. It's gonna be hot! Don't miss it!

Bacon! (Part the First)

I've done some pretty good things in my life. I've cared for thousands of sick people.  I've entertained all kinds of people with words and music.  I like to think I've been a good husband, a good son, a good friend, and a good citizen.

But if I died tomorrow, I imagine people would say one thing: "He sure made some tasty bacon."

It was only about a year ago that I dove headlong into charcuterie, using Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's excellent book as my guide.  I haven't ventured in as far as I'd like, limited somewhat by materials (and even more by laziness), but I've been floored by how good even first attempts have come out.

As it turns out, the hardest part of making bacon is tracking down fresh pork belly.  But sometimes all you have to do is ask:

This came from Food City right here in Haz Vegas.  I happened to ask the meat guys one morning while I was shopping, and they had just gotten a box of pork bellies in.  They usually sell it sliced, but you want it whole, or at most cut in half.


The pork belly is beautiful meat on one side and pig skin on the other, with that nice big seam of fat in between.  You can take that skin off at this point, and you have to if you're going to do a rolled-up preparation like pancetta.  But for this purpose, you should leave it on--it's much easier to take off after it's done, and a big hunk of cured and smoked pig skin is the best friend a pot of beans ever had.

You should trim the belly into a nice rectangle.  You can toss the trimmings with some basic dry cure (see below) to make salt pork, or save them to add to some sausage later on.  But this belly came nice and trimmed already, so all I had to do was split it in half and throw each chunk in a Big Ass Ziploc.

(Can I say how much I love the Big Ass Ziploc?  They come in two and 2 1/2-gallon sizes, and they're awesome for all kinds of things.  They're especially useful when you're traveling; for instance, you can put your laptop in one inside your laptop bag to keep it dry in a downpour.)

So next we need our cure.  You can add just about any flavor you want, but unsurprisingly, my favorite is garlic and lots of it.

Left to right, we have about nine bay leaves, a tablespoon or so of really coarse cracked pepper (use your grinder wide open, or a heavy skillet and all your aggression), about 18 cloves of garlic smashed up, and about a cup of Basic Dry Cure, which is 8 parts (by weight) kosher salt, 4 parts sugar, and 2 parts "pink salt".

Pink salt is sodium nitrite, often sold as Insta-Cure #1.  It helps preserve the bacon in several ways--it keeps it from going rancid, it preserves its red color with cooking, and it inhibits bacterial growth, especially our friend C. botulinum.  It isn't naturally pink; it's colored that way so you won't mistake it for regular salt.  It's available all over the internet, and a few bucks will buy you more than you'll ever use.

From here the process gets complicated: you mix all this stuff up and rub it all over the pork belly.

Don't worry about covering every square inch; as juice drains from the belly it will dissolve the salt and spread the flavors all over the meat. Just spread it kind of evenly on both sides.

Finally, seal up the bags and stash them in the fridge as flat as possible.

These will live in their bags in the fridge for 7-10 days, or until they're pretty firm in the middle. Every other day you'll want to flip the bags over and redistribute the cure all over the meat.  (I like to put a schedule up on the fridge for doing this, so I don't forget.)  And that's when we'll move on to Part II--when the meat hits the smoke.

Green Tomato Pickles

Every summer I fall in love. As I work to take advantage of the bounty of summer produce, I stumble on a recipe that I can't stop thinking about and talking about, a recipe that I want to run home and make again night after night.  Last summer it was dried tomatoes, and more specifically dried tomato butter, especially with a little bit of garlic and some aleppo pepper. I think this summer's winner might be green tomato pickles.

I was looking around for a quick pickle to do for this past weekend's Supper Club, and I stumbled on this recipe in Food and Wine from the Lee Brothers. (SAT time: Lee Bros. : Paula Deen :: Chuck D. : Flavor Flav.)  Green tomatoes suck up the brine so well that people couldn't believe these had only been made earlier in the afternoon.  My only quibble with Matt and Ted was that I felt they needed more sugar, but this is probably because my tomatoes were especially tart.

If you have a mandoline, it's just insane how quick and easy this recipe is.  As long as I have a source of green tomatoes, I'll definitely have a batch of these in my fridge.

Green Tomato Pickles
from Matt and Ted Lee
3 small, green (unripe) tomatoes (12 ounces), cored
1 medium white onion
1 cup water
1 cup white wine vinegar
3 garlic cloves, mashed to a paste
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar (I upped this a lot--probably two tablespoons)

Using a mandoline, very thinly slice the green tomatoes and white onion. Layer the slices in a heatproof 4-cup measuring cup. In a small saucepan, combine the water with the vinegar, garlic, peppercorns, salt and sugar and bring to a boil. Pour the hot brine over the tomatoes and onion and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, then drain and serve.

NOTE: These will keep in the fridge, drained, for about two weeks. Don't try to can these, since the vinegar solution isn't acidic enough for that; if you want to can some (and you should), find a recipe specifically for canning.

Recipe: Tomato Tart with Cornmeal Crust

I love tomatoes, and when the first ones come ripe, I want to just eat as many as I can in their pure, unadulterated form--just gulped down, sprinkled with salt, or maybe sliced on white bread with just a little mayo. A BLT, maybe. I eat them for almost every meal, in some form. And when I've satisfied my yen for just plain tomatoes, I start cooking them. I love fresh tomato sauces for pizza and pasta. Favorite quick fix: halve tomatoes and put them skin side down on a blazing hot grill. When the skins blister, slip them off of the tomatoes. Chop or puree, mix with roasted garlic and fresh basil, salt and pepper, and eat--on pasta, on pizza, or just scooped up with fresh crusty bread. But this isn't that recipe.

This is a recipe for a tomato tart. Really, it's barely a recipe--more of a preparation. I think I originally got this dish from Linda Blair (my dear friend and colleague, not the actress famous for spitting pea soup and spinning her head around), but lots of people make some version of it. It's a juicy, flavor-filled tart, good hot, cold, or room temperature, a meal on its own, but even better with a grilled steak, charred on the outside and red on the inside, sliced thinly and releasing its juices along with the tomato tart's. Maybe a simple salad dressed with a balsalmic vinaigrette on the side. I used a cornmeal crust, because it's more substantial and has a better texture to soak up the juices of the tomatoes. But you could easily use any crust, or even a store-bought pre-made one, and this would still be great.Cornmeal Crust (you might want to get the real recipe for this from Joy of Cooking if you don't make pie crusts often--after you've made a few, you get a sense of how they should feel and you can wing it. These measurements are approximate at best--I just threw stuff in my food processor until it looked right.) This makes enough for two regular sized pies or one big (11 x7?) tart.

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal (yellow makes it prettier)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 TBS salt
• 1 stick butter, cut into small pieces
• 6 TBS cream cheese, cut into small pieces (freeze it first)
  
• 5-6 TBS ice cold beer

First, be sure all these things are chilled--put the bowl and blade of your food processor in the freezer for a while, and make sure everything else is cold too--you can even freeze the butter and cream cheese. The idea is that you want the fats to stay cold and not melt while you mix the crust. That way, the little pieces of fat will melt during baking, creating little pockets and making your crust tender and flaky.

Toss the cornmeal, flour, and salt in the bowl of your food processor and whir it a few times to combine (we do love the verb "to whir" at WCN!). Add the small pieces of cold butter and cream cheese and pulse until the mixture looks like small crumbs. If you squeeze a handful together, it should hold. Again, when you've made a few crusts, you'll know how it should look and feel at this point. Humidity, moisture content of the meal and flour--all these things can make a difference, so I think it's better to learn how it should feel and then you can adjust the ratio of fat to flour/meal. Drizzle in the cold beer (I used beer for the first time last night on the show because Jonathan told me that using alcohol retards the formation of gluten, resulting in a tender crust, and I had a cold beer in my hand, and I believe everything Jonathan tells me. About food, anyway...). Add it a tablespoon at a time, while you pulse the processor, until the dough just starts to hold together and form a ball. Gather the dough and press into two disks. Wrap them in plastic and put them in the refrigerator for about a half hour (or up to one day).

When you're ready to make your pie, take the dough out and put it in the center of your pie pan (or a tart pan with a removable bottom). Use the palm of your hand to press the dough into the pan. Try to press it evenly, using the heel of your hand, but don't worry if it's not perfectly even all over. It should be fairly thin but not transparent (you may have too much dough, in which case you should pinch some out, repress the crust, and use the leftover dough to make little black bean and salsa hand pies--just press it into rounds, put a tablespoon of filling in, fold over, and crimp with a fork. Bake on parchment paper so it won't stick). Prick the bottom with a fork and bake in a 375 degree oven until it's just starting to brown around the edges and feels dry to the touch. Fill with whatever you want (besides tomaotes, this is a great crust for just about any savory tart or quiche) and bake until the bottom and sides are brown.

For the Tomato Tart (2 regular pies or one big one)

• sliced tomatoes, enough to make about two layers in your tart
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  
• freshly chopped herbs, as much as you want, from a TBS to a quarter cup or so (basil, oregano and parsley are nice. I also like thyme or tarragon--anything that's good with tomatoes)
• 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 jar mayonnaise
  

Sprinkle grated cheddar cheese over the bottom of the crust in a thin layer--the idea is that the cheese will melt and form a barrier to keep the tomato juice from making the crust too soggy. Slice tomatoes, not too thinly. A mix of colors is prettiest. Layer them over the cheese, salting and peppering as you go (I used porcini mushroom salt for a little added flavor boost, but just regular kosher salt will do) to taste. You want about two layers--more than that, and it tends to get too soggy. Sprinkle the chopped herbs over the tomatoes. Mix the mayo with the remaining cheese and spread it over the top like a delicious white-trash meringue. Bake at 375 degrees until the crust looks done and the topping is nicely browned--about 20 minutes or so. Let cool for about 10 minutes, then slice and serve. Don't expect this to sit in pretty wedges--this is a loose and juicy tart that wants to spread itself out on your plate to mingle with the other flavors there--the juice from a steak, maybe. If you have any, the leftovers are perfect for lunch the next day--or yummy eaten with a fork standing in front of the open refrigerator door for breakfast. Enjoy!

Recipe: Baba Ghannouj

OK, call it Eggplant Dip if you must.  This is another recipe that I eyeballed completely, but the basic recipe comes from Mark Bittman's indispensible How to Cook Everything.  This is usually done in a food processor, but I like the texture to be a little chunky.  You could remove the seeds and/or skins from the eggplants before you mix it up, but you don't have to.

I think it pairs up great with a little touch of feta and some good olives.

Baba Ghannouj

6 small eggplants
Juice of two lemons
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts, chopped
salt and pepper

Prick eggplants all over with a fork and lay out on a sheet pan.  Roast in a 450 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, or until wrinkly and soft.  Let cool and chop coarsely.  Put in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and mash up with a potato masher.  Stir until it's as smooth as you want it.

It's better if you let it sit for a few hours before you eat it.  Serve with plenty of warm pitas.

Recipe: Roasted Broccoli

This recipe came to me from The Amateur Gourmet, who got it from Ina Garten (aka The Barefoot Contessa).  I'm not a huge fan of Ina's show--just how many gay florists are there in the Hamptons, anyway?--but her recipes tend to be fantastic.

I generally eyeball this, but it's pretty close to the recipe.  The most important steps are to make sure the broccoli is really good and dry and to not chop the garlic up too finely (and definitely don't press it).  Ina's recipe suggests adding some basil at the end, which I didn't; I usually add a good pinch of red pepper flake, though I didn't tonight.

Roasted Broccoli
3 heads broccoli, cut into spears and thoroughly dried
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
4 big cloves garlic, sliced
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan (the good stuff)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Toss broccoli spears with garlic and 1/4 cup olive oil, along with garlic, salt, and pepper.  Spread out on a sheet pan and roast for 20-25 minutes, or until some brown bits are forming on the tips of the florets.  Return to the bowl, add the rest of the oil, the pine nuts, and the Parmesan.  Toss, correct seasonings, and eat.