Pork Belly!

The rules for the Whole30 are no added sugar or sweeteners, including in foods you might otherwise eat. Like bacon, for example. So it has been almost 3 weeks of no bacon for me, which is a pretty long time since I am otherwise a bit bacon fiendish. Me and Brittany Griner = Bacon lovers. There is a company that makes sugar free bacon, but it is expensive and you have to order it online, and really, I was more curious about making pork belly.

Geez - Pork belly! I kind of can't believe that I waited so long to try it. It actually is not like bacon at all...I mean, bacon is made from pork belly, but pork belly roasted in the oven, with the skin all crispy and "crackling" and the fat beneath all melt-in-your-mouth creamy, is totally different. After making my pork belly, I later found this review of How to Make Perfect Crackling (and really I can't tell the difference between crackling and roasted pork belly - I think they are the same thing by a different name). I am not about to get all high maintenance because my belly turned out great, but it was an interesting comparison that is well written and funny about people's techniques to get the best crackling every time (one includes a hair dryer).

I got my pork belly from the Seward Co-op - it is shelved in the store, you don't need to get it at the meat counter. Actually, My Charming Companion bought it for me after I'd mentioned wanting some - so it was an exciting surprise to be gifted pork belly! It's about $7-8 a pound for the pastured pork.

I looked at The Clothes Makes the Girl for her recipe for pork belly, and also thought about a more Chinese spiced option. Both sound delicious, but I decided to go for a simple salt and pepper version as my initial entry point. I was not disappointed. I ate some right out of the oven with my lunch, and easily reheated some on subsequent mornings for breakfast. Oh it is just so good. And you get a lot of delicious pork fat/lard at the end! I keep using that to cook up other veggies and things, and it is amazing. More lard-like than bacon fat, but more smoky and creamy than lard too. I don't know, it is just plain good.

Making pork belly is pretty simple, but it takes some time (2 hours or so) and will likely get a bit smoky (part of the process is putting the belly into some hot heat to get the fat going and crisp up the crackling - which results in some smoke). My smoke detector went off so I had to remove the battery and open some windows. It seems unavoidable. Other recipes online reported open windows too, and some included stress about cleaning the oven afterwards. For whatever reason mine did not seem overly greasy. I don't know, I have never cleaned my oven. I've never even thought about it til now. Clearly I am not one of those people who might feel stressed about cleaning my oven after cooking pork belly.

2 lbs pork belly
1 T+ Smoked Maldon Salt (any salt would work, but Maldon is my fave)
Pepper

1. Remove the pork belly from its packaging and pat try with paper towel or tea towel or whatever you want to use. Turn belly so the fat side is up. Use a small sharp knife to "score" the fat: you want to cut just to the meat, but not into the meat. I did lots and lots of cuts all over, some people do a more precise cross hatch pattern. You are basically creating a way for the fat to bubble up to "baste" the top so that the crispy cracklings form. I also flipped the belly over and used a fork to puncture the meat side 6 or 8 times too. Next rub the salt all over the fat side of the belly.
2. Set belly in fridge, uncovered, for several hours. I stuck mine in overnight.
3. When you are ready to make the pork belly, preheat the oven to 425. I took my belly out of the fridge to bring it to room temp first, but I am not sure that it was necessary. Put the belly in the hot oven. After 30 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 and roast another hour or 90 minutes. Mine stayed in 90 minutes and it was perfect.
4. Remove belly and let sit for 10 minutes. Slice or cube, and eat! Pour off fat into jars and cool for amazing cooking fat uses.

I found two nice ways to reheat the belly: place slices in a cast iron pan and heat on the stove top, or put slices in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes or so. Both methods will release more fat from the belly and will crisp up a little more in that.

Hmong Squirrel Stew

Squirrels get a bit of a bad rap in the city. I think they seem varmint-like. I myself have been known to be a bit squeamish about squirrels - they seem ferocious in a small, toothsome kind of way. One time when I worked at the Hub Bike Co-op (in the VERY early days when it was still in its first tiny location), it was my day to "empty" the squirrel trap. We had some squirrels that would get in and tear things up, so we set a trap out and would then bike the squirrels to the river. The squirrel was terrified of course, and I had taped up the cage in cardboard, and stuck the whole thing in my messenger bag. The bike ride was only a mile or two, but I was sweating the whole way because the squirrel was screeching the whole time - on my back - and I kept envisioning it jumping out of the cage and onto me in some kind of self-protective attack mode. It released into the woods just fine, but I've harbored a small squirrel fear ever since.

Hmong Squirrel Stew! So delicious!

The first time I ate squirrel was a year or two ago, and I was a bit squeamish and preferred to refer to it as a "tree chicken." But they tasted great - like dark meat chicken - and this time I was not the least bit hesitant to cook them up. Two had appeared as roadkill right at the corner where My Charming Companion lives, and a third was somewhere on a drive he was taking last week. He was excited to skin them because I guess squirrel hides are really, really strong and make excellent rope when you dry the skin and twist it together. Strong enough that it is the preferred traditional material for stringing a bow. Woah. So he skinned them and I took the little bodies to cook.

I'd come across this Hmong Squirrel Stew recipe in the Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook blog awhile ago, and had immediately ordered the cookbook the recipe was based on from the library: Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America. It looks like a great cookbook and had some beautiful stories. This recipe is based on theirs, and it was AMAZING. The broth was delicious. If you prefer not to use squirrel, chicken would also be good, or shrimp. Really just make this tasty broth and eat it. I found that I actually thought the taste was best just after all the seasoning went in, rather than waiting a couple of hours. I am posting my revised recipe below, but click on the recipe title above for the original variation.

Squirrel meat off the bone - this is 3 squirrels

One thing to note: squirrels are tiny and have lots of bones. The ribs are more like a fish! The amount of meat on each squirrel varies of course, but it seems about 3/4 pound each. Be prepared for some tedious cleaning of the meat off the bone after you cook them. The cooking of the squirrel meat takes an hour or two, but once that is done, the soup will be ready in about 25 minutes. I made a couple of substitutions, but some key things: I think the lime leaves are important. You can get them at the co-op. I also think the lemongrass was key. I had fresh stuff in the garden, but you could use frozen/dried too. These really made the flavor unique. I didn't get galangal but upped the ginger instead.

Hmong Squirrel Stew
2-3 squirrels
2-3 T lard/ghee/bacon fat
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk of lemongrass, minced (white part only)
3 to 5 red chiles, chopped (I used a large jalepeno)
1 tablespoon minced galangal (optional)
2 tablespoon minced ginger, peeled
1 pint/2 c chicken stock
6 lime leaves, or 1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 pound bok choy or chard, chopped
1/4 pound snow peas (carrots work too)
1 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
Salt

Garnish
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (I used parsley)
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped mint

1. Put squirrels in a large pot and add enough water to cover the meat by an inch or so. Add a good amount of salt (1-2 T), bring to a boil, cover and cook for 1-2 hours, until the meat easily comes off the bone. Make sure to reserve the liquid (this is good stock for the soup), and when the squirrels are cool, pull the meat off the bones. Discard the bones and set meat aside.
2. Heat fat in a large soup pot. Add garlic, lemongrass, chiles, ginger and galangal and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add broth from squirrel cooking, plus another pint of chicken broth. You want the total broth to come out to over a quart. Also add the lime leaves and fish sauce. I love fish sauce, so I added a wee bit extra. Bring to a boil and turn heat down to simmer about 10 minutes.

Garnish plate - more mint!

3. Chop chard or bok choy (I used tyfon holland greens from the garden). I also did not have any peas, so I diced up a few carrots nice and small. Add greens and carrots/peas to soup, along with reserved squirrel meat. Cook for another 10 minutes or so.
4. Serve with garnish! The mint was delicious in here! Who would have thought - but I wanted lots of mint. I used parsley instead of cilantro and was quite content. This was so good, and so thick and yummy.

Roasted Chicken w/ Preserved Lemon and Root Veggies

Parks' "American Gothic"

I recently read the "One Read One Minneapolis" book, A Choice of Weapons, a memoir by Gordon Parks. Do you know Gordon Parks? I didn't. He is most famous for his photography, specifically American Gothic (at right), and he grew up in St. Paul. He grew up in the 30s and it is a really interesting read about race at that time in the Twin Cities (and elsewhere), and about all the crazy ways Parks survived, found ways to use his numerous talents, and create social critiques. His book actually has a forward by Wing Young Huie, the photographer who did the exhibitions of Frogtown, Lake Street, and University Ave. I thought the book was excellent. There is going to be an exhibit of Parks' work at the Mill City Museum, alongside photographs by Minneapolis high school students, in connection with the book. The exhibit opens tomorrow and will be there until spring.

The book has nothing to do with the recipe, but I do love reading while something is roasting in the oven, and I have been reading like a fiend lately. My curriculum seems to be "recent books by African American Authors." Other titles I highly recommend are Buck by MK Asante, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, and Long Division by Kiese Laymon.

I love roasting chickens in this cold weather. It's nice to have the oven on, and it tastes so much more delicious than the rotisserie chickens at the co-op. This chicken was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to use the preserved lemons I made last spring, and I had some random root veggies I wanted to cook in the chicken juices. The preserved lemon on the chicken and veggies was Ah-Mazing - it added such a nice lemony/savory touch, and the drippings/sauce was incredible. The photo here is not mine (I am in denial about the loss of my camera), but is from Martha Stewart's recipe for roast chicken with preserved lemon. She does not pre-make the preserved lemon, but makes them in the brine for the chicken. I'm sure it's good - just more fussy.

Chicken (mine was 3.8 lbs)
1 preserved lemon (or a bit more)
salt
pepper
fresh thyme sprigs
root veggies - I used carrots, turnips, and sweet potatoes
onions
ghee/butter (room temp)
olive oil

I rubbed some salt all over my chicken the night before I was going to cook it - it was my replacement for brining. No need to be sparing, I did a nice Tablespoon or two and rubbed it on all sides, and put on a good few cranks from the pepper grinder too. I then left the chicken uncovered in the fridge overnight (or a couple of hours would be fine, or not at all).

I was making my bird in the morning before work, so I took the chicken out of the fridge first thing to bring it up to room temp. I am not sure why this helps, but many of the good recipes suggest it, so I followed suit. While it was acclimating, I chopped up the root veggies and an onion into coarse, larger pieces. (I cut the carrots lengthwise down the middle and then chopped them into 2" long pieces, and cut the onion into 6ths. The sweet potato cooks fastest, whereas the turnip was the slowest cooker, so cut the turnips smaller than the carrot, and the sweet potato bigger!) Throw the veggies in the bottom of a roasting pan and toss with some olive oil and several sprigs of thyme. I only lightly salted the veggies since they'll get the drippings from the salted bird.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prep the chicken. My preserved lemons still had rind and innards intact, so I cut the rinds off (that is the really tasty part), reserving the rinds in one pile and the (somewhat slimy) lemon innards in another. I sliced the rinds so that I could tuck them in the chicken skin. Using my fingers, I separated the skin from the meat of the chicken - it pulls away and becomes like a pocket. Tuck in the sliced lemon rinds here. Next, rub some ghee all over the chicken. I rubbed the lemon innards all over the outside of the chicken too. I stuffed the cavity of the chicken with 1/2 an onion, some big sprigs of thyme, and the rest of the lemon innards. Tie the legs together and set the chicken (breast side up) on top of your veggies. If you have one of those fancy racks that suspends your chicken over the roasting pan and veggies underneath, great.

Tie those legs together; this is breast up!

Stick the roasting pan full of veggies and chicken into the oven. I cooked it for 20 minutes at 425 (the higher heat browns the skin and makes it crispy), and then turned the heat down to 350 and cooked for another 60 minutes or so. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your chicken, but you want the temp of the thick part of a thigh to come out to at least 160. (I was rushing and accidentally temp checked the drumstick, which was at the right temp, so I took out the chicken. Later I realized that the inner thigh was definitely not done and had to put the whole thing back in the oven - so be sure you check the right spot!!) Once the thigh is hot enough, remove the roasting pan from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes before you dig in. It will finish cooking all the way through and all the juices will set and it will get really tasty. During the 20 minute rest, I took the opportunity to stir the veggies around in all the juices, and also added some minced preserved lemon. Parsley would be great stirred in there too - though I did not have any.

Finally - SERVE! The meat is delicious, and I loved getting bites of preserved lemon rind in there. The veggies were soft and sweet and also great with the preserved lemon. All in all the preserved lemon was the star of the meal because it made everything else so extra special.

*If you are without preserved lemon, just slice up a regular lemon and stick the slices in the chicken cavity with the thyme (no onion is needed in that case). I'd also rub a little lemon juice on the outer skin too, and squeeze a bit onto the veggies.

Oven Roasted Eggplant "Chips" with Onions and Peppers

I picked all the last tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and peppers last night to keep them from the frost. I actually don't know if it did freeze last night, but it seems certain tonight, so I was ahead of the game. I ended up with lots of green tomatoes, and some mini-veggies: zucchini the size of my thumb, eggplants that fit entirely in my hand, etc. I was looking over my blog posts from a year ago, and at this time I was eating my last kabocha squash of the season (they were out at the co-ops by this time), which suggests to me that the whole gardening season really was 4-6 weeks behind this year. I only just pulled in all the winter squash so that they can finish "curing" in the house. The winter squash are still sort of a garden experiment, so I am hoping the curing helps them sweeten up some more.

My fave fall veggie of the last week or two is eggplant. I actually bought extra at the Midtown farmer's market last weekend (last market of the year) with the hopes of making my cousin's Georgian Eggplant Rolls (but with roasted red pepper instead of garlic). But I don't know if I'll make it because I keep eating the eggplants roasted in the oven, almost like a big chip or plank, chewy and crunchy and creamy at the same time. They are so good this way, especially with some roasted onion/peppers. Roasted tomato is also good (just toss in some thickly sliced tomato or tomato halves in the oven too).

This recipe is very loose. You can't go wrong really - just be careful not to totally char the eggplant. I gave amounts here, but really just use what you have and what you are hungry for! *I still am without camera, but here is a photo of what the eggplant should look like (these are slightly less charred pieces, so you want to go just a little longer to get them crunchy) when finished.

Roasted Eggplant "Chips"
2 med. Eggplant
1/2 c + Olive oil
Salt
1-2 peppers (red/orange is nice)
1 large onion

Turn oven to 400 degrees. Slice eggplant 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick. I do this lengthwise because I like the aesthetics of it. Pour many, many glugs of olive oil into a rimmed baking sheet or cake pan. I easily use close to 1/2 cup of olive oil just for the eggplant because it soaks it up. Let it! I used to feel sort of stingy about using olive oil or fats (pre-paleo living) and now that I am not, it is quite liberating to just pour a bunch of olive oil in the pan and let that eggplant luxuriate in it! Make sure to flip the eggplant slices so that both sides are covered in olive oil. Lay the eggplant in a single layer and sprinkle with some sea salt. Stick in the oven - bottom rack.

While the eggplant starts roasting, cut the onion and pepper into large wedges. The onion will separate of course, and that is just fine. Put both onions and peppers in a cake pan (they will not need to lay in a single layer, so they can cram in a bit) and pour some olive oil over the top again. You don't need as much here - a few glugs, and than give things a stir to coat and toss on a little salt. Stick these in the oven on the top rack.

After about 10-12 minutes, go flip the eggplant slices. They should be starting to brown/caramelize on the bottom. It's hard to get uniform pieces, so the thinner ones will be more browned than the thicker ones. They are all good. Stir the onions/peppers too. They should also be starting to char and brown just a bit. *If things are not getting a little char on them, you can also do a little broiler action here and stick each pan under the broiler for a few minutes. But it's not necessary.

After another 6-10 minutes, things should be approaching done. You want the thinner eggplant slices to be chip-like, and the thicker ones to be nice and golden with a firmer edge. The peppers and onions should be at a similar state of soft/charred.

I love eating the eggplant planks with my fingers (almost like bruschetta or a cracker) with a little onion and pepper on top. Yum! (They would probably also be good with smoked fish or pesto too...mmm!)

Whole30 and Country Style Ribs

I FINALLY got It Starts with Food from the library - after a wait of many, many months. Who knew that so many Hennepin country residents were interested in a Whole30...I should put flyers for my blog in the book when I return it! ha. I enjoyed the book's easy to read quality - and indeed did get inspired to do my own Whole30. A Whole30 is basically 30 days of eating a pretty strict diet of no grains, dairy, alcohol, sweeteners (including stevia), soy, potatoes or corn products, or oils others than olive and coconut oil. I'm excited to go for it because I have never been really strict about some of those things (other than gluten/grains and soy/corn products) and I want to see what I notice.

So I kicked things off on Sunday, promptly making a batch of ghee since I have taken to snacking on butter sometimes while cooking dinner. I also made a batch of kalua pig with kale, and, to continue a pork feast, I tried making some country style ribs in the crockpot. I think it was maybe my last package from the half pig purchase, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experimentation of some unknown-to-me cuts of pork.

Country style ribs are more meaty AND fatty than other ribs, and it turns out they aren't technically even ribs, but are more "blade steaks" or chops. (This porknography site has all you might ever need to know about cuts of pork, recipes, pork history and more. It's very informative.) Country style ribs don't always come with the bone, and sometimes have more connective tissue. What is nice for me to know is that pretty much any ribs are good slow-cooked in sauce.

My Pastures a Plenty ribs were more like the ones on the left

For my ribs: I put them in the slow cooker, poured on some homemade sauce (modified below from this recipe) and put it on low for 8 hours. I also added a little water but that turned out to be unnecessary. I wish the slow cooker had a little steam exit, because I wanted some of the liquid to cook off. The sauce wasn't thick and gooey on there, which may have been due to my not cooking it down long enough, or my adding water to the crock pot, or both. These ribs being more fatty may have also released more fat, thus more liquid. Next time I will make sure the sauce is more viscous when putting it on the ribs and will not add water, or I'll just cook the ribs in a little broth and serve them with the sauce. I did have extra sauce afterwards, and it tasted great once I cooked it down some more.

Paleo BBQ sauce *Makes enough for at least 4 pounds of ribs with plenty extra

2 T bacon grease (I actually used lard in keeping with the strict no sugar business, but it seemed to separate more. Use bacon grease if you can!)
1 diced onion
2-6 cloves garlic, minced (I omitted)
1-1 1/2 c bone broth
1 jar tomato paste (6-7 oz)
1 tsp dried mustard powder
2 T chili powder
1/2 t chipotle pepper powder
2 tsp liquid smoke (opt)
2 T apple cider vinegar
salt to taste

In a saucepan heat bacon fat. Add onions and saute until tender. Add garlic (if using) and simmer another minute. Add remaining ingredients and cook down about 10 - 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Pour over crockpot ribs, or eat with bbq!

Dinner of Champions

Well, I am feeling some MN pride for the Lynx, who won the WNBA championships in an AMAZING game last night against the Atlanta Dream. I went and watched the game at the Riverview theatre (which was showing the game for free) along with about 600 other people. It was so great, it was like being at the game but with a much smaller crowd and I could see way better, and everyone was cheering together and it just felt really exciting. The Lynx have been playing incredibly during the play-offs: amazing teamwork and lots of passing among all the players on the floor. I've really enjoyed watching them. My fave highlight (that got the cheering riverview fans to their feet) was when Janel McCarville got a steal and made a bad-ass pass to Rebekkah Brunson between her legs:

The video doesn't show it, but after the basket, there is also footage somewhere of Cheryl Reeve, the head coach, pounding on the scorers table in an excited fervor! Ah!! I'll share one more video of the Lynx - another reason why I love them: their pre-game warm-up routine. It is from the Star Tribune and it won't upload here. You can watch it from this link though.

Really, I don't have any fabulous meals to post - I just wanted to share some Lynx fandom. Tonight I'm having a venison burger with fermented pickles and tomato slices from the garden, grilled onions and mayo. This photo is actually from awhile ago: burger with raw beet, carrot and arugula salad, and I'd make that salad if I weren't feeling tuckered out. I am calling this my celebratory Lynx dinner - why not?! Yay Lynx!

Paleo Pho

Well, I ended up going up north for a super spontaneous drive last weekend, including a little hiking at gooseberry falls and some gazing at the surfers on Lake Superior. The winds were CRAZY on Saturday and the lake had some mega-waves. I guess it is pretty great surfing when the conditions are right?! The fall colors were totally stunning once I got past Two Harbors. I spent a night at my parent's cabin outside of Silver Bay, and was surround by fire-y orange trees. The misty rain weather made the colors even more vibrant. If you want to check out the fall colors, I think this week is the time to go - it was amazing. I (again!) stopped at the Northland Smokehaus for lunch, and got more corned beef to take home for dinner. Which I ate and it was as delicious as last time. Sunday was a day spent smoking lots of spice rubbed meat (mostly deer necks (3), but also a pork roast), reading, and picking and freezing tomatoes. But - this post is about the Pho I made before leaving town, at the start of the recent cold spell...

I had the recipe for Paleo Pho marked to try for awhile, and when the weather started to cool off and the forecast predicted days of rain, it seemed that pho time was here. I actually haven't had a proper bowl of pho ever, I think. I was vegetarian for so long, and most places used meat broth in their pho. When I started eating meat, it wasn't long before I also started eating paleo, and that meant no grand opportunity for the pho with meat and rice noodle experience. In any case, I'm creating my own grand opportunity - sans any memory of what it should taste like! All of the interesting spices: star anise, cinnamon, lemongrass and ginger, plus a good amount of fish sauce promise something good.

My camera is missing, so this is the photo from the original recipe!

I used some different meat than the original recipe calls for - in lieu of marrow bones, chuck roast and short ribs, I used oxtail and 4 pounds of venison stew meat. The quantity of meat came out the same, but a bit less bones and marrow-y goodness. I added in some extra broth (including some venison bone broth) so I think any difference was negligible. I found that I wanted noodles in this soup. Pho is, afterall, a noodle soup. So I tried adding wakame, and it worked out great. I'm sorry I have no photo to post, my camera is on the lamb. (Is that how you spell lamb used in that context?) Anyway - the pho was good, if a tiny bit on the fussy side. You could definitely decrease the fuss with still good results, so I encourage that (why brown the meat? just throw everything in a crock pot with some already made bone broth). Soup season is upon us! Hurray!