Pâté de Campagne

This recipe only took us a couple hours and it came out really great. We did about a third of the Ruhlman/Polcyn recipe, used chicken liver rather than pork (we'll try pork next time- its supposed to have more flavor), and just used the basic onion/parsley/garlic/spices seasoning. A "pâté de campagne" is characterized by a more coarsely ground meat and 'rustic' texture.

Step 1: Grind pork shoulder butt, chicken liver, spices.

Mix with flour, eggs, cream and brandy.

Step 2: Pour mixture into a lined terrine mold.

Bake in hot water bath.

Step 3: Remove from oven and let cool overnight.

its too hot to cook in the summer...

Grandma Cyclops

Brats!!

Stiring the ground pork/spices

Me and the hog casing

Red Shed Community Garden

We did our open hours at the community garden this morning and came home with a nice salad (not pictured), a bouquet and some fresh mint. It was a really pleasant morning, we weeded and mowed the lawn. We really should have taken some photos of the garden itself, maybe next time.

MAPLE LEAF DRINKS!

Two parts Bourbon
One part Lemon Juice
One part Maple Syrup


Mark made this for us a few days ago at they were so good we just went and got the ingredients to make them ourselves.

ECCO CAFFE

Our friend Duncan and his girlfriend Danielle came to visit a few weeks ago and left us this:

We made a pot in out french press and it was really great. Ecco was an independent cafe in Santa Rosa CA that roasts its own coffee, but its coffee is occasionally distributed by Intelligencia (which is served by the excellent cafe where Danielle worked). If you see some of this I cannot recommend it enough.

Sauerkraut = Fail

Soy Milk 1

We decided to try to make soy milk and then tofu today. The first step is finding the ingredients. You'll need ~1lb of soy beans and nigari (or gypsum salt). Here in NYC you can get both at Sunrise Mart in the east village.

The beans need to soak in cold water until they are softish (~8 to 24 hours).

More detailed instructions can be found at http://www.justhungry.com/milking-soy-bean-part-1-soy-milk

Sour Kraut 1

We decided to try Foxfire's recipe for sour kraut as part of the preparation for an attempt to make brats. They recommended adding some hot peppers for extra flavor, other than that all you need is a nonreactive container, cabbage and kosher salt.

Valentine's Mussels

For Valentine's day we made mussels a la mariniere from a Julia Child recipe. It was a lot easier then I expected, just a little cleaning and steaming.

It's the Year of the Tiger, It's the thrill of the fight...

Sausage Making 101 Part 6: Making the Links

Finally the best part, making the links. This has the most amazing technique it goes like this:

First, make the first link by squeezing the filling aside and twisting clockwise (or counterclockwise what matters is that you remember which direction you started and stay consistent).

Next, squeeze the filling to make the second link but do not twist it off.

Now, squeeze off the third link and twist it in the same direction as the first link (in this case clockwise). Twisting off the third link should also twist the second link counterclockwise.

Rinse and repeat.

Sausage Making 101 Part 5: Stuffing

Now it is time to stuff the casing

Sausage Making 101 Part 4: Mixing

Next step is to mix in the water and vinegar. Keep mixing at medium speed until it has a consistent texture.

Sausage Making 101 Part 3: Grinding

Now that the meat is diced and mixed with the dry ingredients its time to start grinding. Pass all of the meat through the small die and into a chilled bowl (to keep the fat firm).

Sausage Making 101 Part 2: Hydrate Your Casing

Meanwhile, rehydrate the hog casing in cold water (let sit for ~30 minutes) then rinse.

The "Urban-Woodsman"

We saw this article in the recent New York Magazine and both kind of laughed. The Urban-Woodsman: meatmaking, fancy jeans, flannel...sound familiar??

Pictorial Websters

Just got this book for inspiration in my letterpress class. Pictorial Websters: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities, by John Carrera. Its got some really great images and is printed from original plates made for the first Webster dictionaries. Beautiful book too.

Sausage Making 101 Part 1: Getting Started

(1) mix the diced meat with the dry ingredients

We made spicy Italian so this is pork shoulder butt with spices

Bacon for Breakfast

What sausage should I do next?

Breakfast Links?

Brats?

Spicy Italian?

BACON!

The bacon is finished cooking and is cooling now. These are some of the photos of the cooking today.

I took the pork belly out of the refrigerator when it was feeling firm (about 1 week, flipping every other day)

Generally in the United States most bacon is smoked, but it doesn't have to be. And since we haven't got the stove top smoker yet... an alternative is roasting the pork belly at 200 degrees until the internal temp is 150 degrees. Ruhlman says about 2 hours mine was closer to 3.

Next while the meat is still hot the skin need to be removed from the pork belly.

After all that is done, let it cool at room temperature and then put in away for use tomorrow morning (or tonight for BLTs...)

Brown Ale Finished

After 2 week fermenting in the Jug and 2 weeks carbonating the bottles the Chestnut Brown Ale is finished. Ended up turning out pretty well.

Brine Recipe

Due to popular demand this is the brine recipe:

The All-Purpose Brine by Michael Ruhlman:

1 Gallon Water

1 Cup Kosher Salt (important that its not iodized)

1/2 Cup Sugar

Additional Optional Seasonings as desired (we used a head of garlic, 2 lemons, rosemary, bay leaves, peppercorns...).

Heat all the ingredients, but not to boil. Then let cool before submerging the chicken, and put in the refrigerator. It's important to keep the chicken fully submerged so use a plate that will fit into the stock pot you are using to weigh the chicken down (make sure there are no air bubbles under it though).

Leave the whole 3 lb chicken in the brine for about 12 hours then rinse, dry and leave uncovered in the fridge for at least an additional 3 hours. Ruhlman says that the chicken skin should feel kind of tacky when you take it out.

Then roast or broil as you normally would. You can add additional seasoning at this point too. It's finished when the internal temp is about 160 degrees.

Bacon!

Dredging the pork belly in dry cure and brown sugar... mmm. In only one week's time it will be bacon!

The recipe is actually really easy, do as follows and you too can have home made bacon (from Ruhlman's book):

1. Make dry cure:

8oz kosher salt

4oz sugar

1oz curing salt (sodium nitrate) usually sold tinted pink

2. Buy 3 to 5 lb pork belly (I used 2.5 lbs though)

3. Dredge (cover and press into) the pork belly with the dry cure (~1/4 cup will be needed) and optional brown sugar. Put pork belly in a plastic ziplock (1 or 2 gallon).

4. Put it in the fridge and wait a week, flipping every other day. (rest of the instructions in a week...)