Word on the Street..

Is that someone may be bringing by some bear meat for me. Bearsola anyone? i also have ostrich coming in today because i told my bus boy that he should learn to make a salami and he was all for it. so i told him to pick any type of animal meat and that we would make a salami out of it. Well, after much deliberation he came back to me with ostrich. Why didn't i ever think of that? Anyways, were gong to do ostrich with thyme. He wants to keep the seasoning simple with nice cubes of fat he said. And last but not least, Beaver. I have yet to find out whether it is even legal to have beaver meat or whether you can even hunt, cure, eat them. But i'm looking into it. A friend mentioned it to me and it peaked my interest. 

Wild Boar with Cardamom and Orange rind

So yesterday i had some wild boar defrosting and no plans of what to do with it. I remembered a dish we did at my last restaurant that used cardamom and orange and with no other ideas at the time decided to whip together a recipe. I was fighting back and forth whether to use green or black cardamom and after tasting the two in its raw state i decided to go with black. I also through in some ground ginger, white pepper, garlic, salt and some blanched orange rind in simple syrup to cut its bitterness. I used a decent amount of fat all hand cut into small cubes.

I have a lot of salami's hanging in beef middles and bung caps so i decided to do this salami in regular pork casings. The decision was also made because i'm running out of stock for the charcuterie bar and i need something that will be ready in a month hopefully. I was hesitant to use a lot of orange or cardamom because either of the two in large quantities could surely put you off. So i started this recipe on the conservative side and i will see how the flavors develop and tweak if necessary on my next batch. If all goes well i will post a recipe. My next salami will be a mole inspired salami.

Testina

So the last pigs head that came in had a jowl missing. So Testina was out of the question. So i made guanciale with it and boiled the head for stock which eventually gets used in this recipe. This week i got a fully intact head and just happened to have a friend come into work with me for the day who just happened to be a butcher. So while i cured some other meats he was tackling the pigs head. Now taking everything off the skull in one piece is not as eay as some may think. Scott the butcher did a perfect job except for a couple missed grooves of meat. But he did it pretty quick and he was working for free so i forgave him :) The head went into a brine for a couple days. 

     

Once brined (which isn't a neccessary step) i split the head in 1/2 and halved each jowl to fold it over the other side to balance out the fat content. i did the same thing with the meat. if you have to remove the meat and filet it to make a nice even layer of meat, do so, it wont effect the finished product. I then heavily seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, a traditional method i was told from a friend named Chris. I let that sit over night and then rolled each 1/2 head up with the rind on the outside and wrapped it in cheesecloth and tied it like a roast as tight as i could. 

I then brought the pigs stock from the other head up to a boil with a bunch of aromatics and lots of carrots as per Chris' recommendation. and poached the head for about 18 hours on a light simmer. 

Once fully cooked, i removed the two roulades and waited till they cooled a bit and then wrapped them tightly in saran wrap poing holes constantly to remove any air holes in the middle of the roll. Two rules here, you can never use too much saran 

wrap and never make too many holes to achieve a perfect roll.

Once fully wrapped, puncture a few last holes and press between two sheet trays with a good amount of weight on it. Let sit for 12 hours in the fridge, unwrap and you should be left with a nice looking testina. If its not perfect dont be too concerned. you turned a whole lot of nothing into somethin'. Slice and season with a bit of olive oil and sea salt and serve with some toasted bread. Yum!

2 Year Investment

So i received 1/2 a pastured Tamworth heritage pig the other week. I split the whole pig with a chef friend and the price was unbelievable for the quality. We bought it from John and Marcia at Blue Haven Farms and the size and colour was amazing. The ham was 35 lbs , 20 once trimmed for prosciutto, needless to say it was massive! It will definately take closer to two years of hanging, if it even makes it that far without spoiling. We will see... I like learning things progressively. So i just wanted to cure this ham with salt and nothing else. Actually, i'm lying. i through a little instacure #2 in last minute after thoughts of this beautiful piece of meat going rotten. Not that cure # 2 will give me complete piece of mind but it will definitely help. 

I used coarse salt. 4% of the weight to be exact. and 1 g instacure #2 per lb of meat. i split the salt and cure mixture into 2/3 and 1/3. I used the larger batch of salt and cure and rubbed it all into the ham. Most of it on the exposed flesh paying special attention in and around the bone as well as on the top. I also rubbed it into the skin but dont be surprised if it just falls right off!

I put the ham into a clean bus pan with a rack underneath so that the hams dont sit in there own brine. i also weighted it 10 kg of weight, in this case, a large can of sauerkraut i bought in quebec. This initial salting and weighting period will run for two weeks. Then i will gently rinse any remaining salt and repeat the process with the smaller amount of salt mixture i reserved and weight for another two weeks. Once thats done, it will go through a fermenting period and then a hanging period.  I'll keep you posted.

The black Hoof

So, the charcuterie bar is moving along well.

We are busy and i have never in my life seen so many chefs in one place at one time eating and drinking every day of the week, except for the days that we are closed, but ive heard of a few chef groups that have came down on our off days only to realize that we close tuesday and wednesday! 

Its nice to see that our vision and goals have fallen into place exactly as we saw them. Our concept was to stay open late (2am) serving food and open on every other restaurants off days (sunday, monday) and it has paid off. Its interesting to see groups of chefs walk in and realize that theres 5 other parties of cooks and industry people they know all in the same spot. By 2am it generally becomes one big shit show of drunkin' restaurant employees who at one point enjoyed there own cozy table all standing and talking to a handful of people they didn't originally arrive with. Unfortunately for me. 12-2am is my busiest time. I watch them enter, group by group, slowly filling up the tables like a 6 o'clock rush, only its 12 o'clock and its already been a long day. I start cutting bread, filling up pickle plates, i bring out my arsenal of personal cured meats as they all want the stuff i make in house, rabbit, horse, venison, bison, duck... As the night progresses, all the meat i've made that has taken me months to cure slowly dwindles by the blade of the slicer or takobiki. I continually think to myself, how much do i have left in the curing room, when will these guys stop showing up in the masses so i can get caught up, is it almost tuesday yet? 

I can get a little juiced when the orders start rolling in mainly because i am by myself and i dont like to pre slice anything. Luckily for me, most of the cooks can see my dilemma...a one man show in a small space using a white electric stove and my pots and pans from home to cook there food. I'm surprised none of them have asked if they could jump in and man a pan or two while i slice. Most of them ive worked with, so i know atleast some of them can sear foie or cook some merguez.... either way, they're happy to wait cause its almost 2am and there getting fed something other then a burrito or pizza.... cause thats my meal. After 2am, thats whats still open for me. the battles continues.

What to do...

Got one of these in today. Some wanker at the abattoir  cut off a jowl for some reason, so im not sure what i will do with it. I could do guanciale with it but to be honest im not a huge fan of guanciale, i just like the way it sounds when you say it. I'm thinking testina and its probably what i will end up doing. I could do some crazy head cheese but really who wants to go out to a nice restaurant and REALLY eat headcheese.... I got some beef tongues in today too... i'll probably pickle them in some malt vinegar... i got rabbits and horse in today too.... oh boy... gonna be a loooong week!

Beef N' Dill

A favorite of most diners and cooks is the beef and dill salami. The combination originally inspired from a japanese dumbling, then transformed into a beef carpaccio with dill and shaved frozen feta, then came the salami. The first one i did was a genoa style salami, which basically meant a lot of ground pork back fat to keep a creamy consistency. The first one i made i really didn't like it, yet everyone else loved it. I used dill seed as well as fresh and a lot of ground fat. i found the dill seed to be off putting and felt there was just too much fat in there which made it a bitch to slice nicely. It just didn't hold together enough for my liking but since everyone loved it and a lot of people thought it would go well with a nice glass of red i decided to give it another try but omit the dill seed and lessen the ground fat content. It still isn't a huge favorite of mine but the customers seem to like it and the customers always right....right? 

Smoked Venison Salami

Some people really enjoy this salami and others just really dont get it. I guess its because it doesn't have the typical salami flavor and texture. 

It has the addition of dried cherries and when smoked it takes on a really unique flavour. It doesn't take smoke like say a summer sausage or smoked mortadella, both of which really seem to take smoke and keep it. The venison is different, it takes the smoke but it stays in the background, at the same time bringing out the flavour and sweetness from both the venison and cherries. The recipe is really straight forward and the only difference is grinding the cherries with the meat. A fellow cook forgot to grind them once and it was a horrible mistake.

the whole batch was riddled with gaps and holes as the meat and cherries dried out and we ended up having to throw most of the batch out. Live and learn i guess, but it was a big batch and he as well as I was sad to see it go. Originally, we would smoke it a few days after making it, but this batch i was too busy opening the charcuterie bar i didn't smoke it till a month and a 1/2 later. From my observation, it didn't make much of a difference  however maybe its just in my head, but i do think that the smoke is a little more apparent with the later smoking, which I guess makes complete sense. 

Montreal

Prior to opening my restaurant i went to montreal to source out some good artisanal charcuterie. I tell ya, there isn't much going on in Canada, not that i have found anyways. I did come across this booth at the Jean Talon marche. They are called "Les Cochon Tout Ronds" and produce there stuff on Iles de la Madeleine which is on the east coast of Quebec. There stuff is awesome! It smells like porky farmhouse goodness. First producer ive seen who sells there stuff with nice mold on it. i let the people behind me go first as i was looking to try everything before i purchased it. First came the ventrech, which is there cured pork belly. so fatty yet doesn't smell like fridge. Then came the lonzino and coppa. Both very well seasoned and simple. Then came there figatelli, which is a shriveled up piece of salami with ground pork liver and some nice spice. 

As i tasted i was so thrilled to have found this gem that i was "balling" out of control. a dozen of these, 6 of those, 10 of these. then came the proscuitto. tasted it, it wa

s great. so i took one as well. $500 bucks later and i was off to eat at Au Pied de Cochon. 12 courses and me and my fellow cook buddy were stuffed. We left and had to sit on someones porch for 20 minutes before we could walk to the local bar. Our last course was foie gras on pankakes with potato, bacon, and maple syrup. We saw the servers laughing and giggling at us as we waited for our last course. We eventually found out that they havn't really seen anybody eat that much there before and i guess they found it funny we got served our main course and dessert all in one plate. 

Oh Blog...

How I miss you!

I am opening up my restaurant today and although i've ignored you, as soon as the storm settles i will come back to you. Eat more charcuterie everybody!!

Fennel and Cocoa Lonzino

The great thing about coming from a progressive cooking background is that you look at things in different dimensions. My last chef and mentor taught me to look at things in a different light and to always think outside the box. An ingredient wasn't just an ingredient it was more of a playground of endless possibilities. Whether it was a technique, textural contrast or a flavor combination anything was fair game. So when i initially started curing this pork loin, i was thinking traditional lonzino because I have never actually made it despite its simplicity compared to a lot of charcuterie i've made. I wasn't sure whether i was going to hang it o'natural or spice it up with cayenne and paprika. But, I already had cappicollo smothered in that spice mixture so i did not want to duplicate flavors. So, as i was rinsing the cure off after 12 days or so of curing, it reminded me of a suckling pig roast we used to rub in fennel and cocoa nibs amongst other things. Had it been my chef in my shoes, i'm sure he would have had that same moment of clarity and redirect from his initial route. So i toasted off the fennel, ground it, added about the same amount of dutched cocoa, a bit of black pepper, and some corn syrup solids and rubbed it in. I'n excited to taste the finished product. I'm hoping that it will be a nice mixture of floral grassiness from the fennel mingling well with the sweetness of the cocoa. 

Basic Lonzino Cure

3500g pork loin

125g salt

38g sugar

11.4g instacure #2

11.4g black pepper, ground

Vac Pac Machine

My last few restaurants have always spoiled me with technology. Its been a while since i've worked in a kitchen that didn't have a vac pac machine or immersion circulator to sous vide food. I new entering into this opening of a charcuterie bar that we had a tight budget and the idea of having these fun little technologies would be a long way away. Well, one day, i had had enough. The idea of preserving everything in a mason jar and wrapping logs of salt cured foie gras and terrines in saran wrap didn't sit right for me. I didn't have the money, nor did my partner but i did have one trick up my sleeve...and that was a wallet full of credit cards. I looked into leasing to own but paying an extra thousand dollars over a three year period, Which probably would have outlasted the life of the machine itself made me sick to my stomach. So, surrounded by all this restaurant equipment that could be mine with only a swipe of a card was just too tempting. So i bought a vac pac, and while i was there picked up a smoker and two Tarrison induction burners :)

Despite the $4,000 dollar purchase, which had i purchased anything else would have made my stomach weezy. I felt a weight lifted off my shoulder and dont regret it one bit. Sure i bought the cheapest one out there which just happened to be manufactured in China littered with a retro colour scheme, but this is my baby now and i plan to take care of it as if it were a Bentley!