Roasted Pork Belly

Photo by Rob Robitaille

Growing up, I never really thought much about pork bellies, other than listening to the radio in the rural Midwest when you would hear about the price of corn, soybeans, and pork bellies.  I understood why people would care about corn and soybean prices. After all, those were, and still are, the main crops grown around where I lived. But the pork bellies baffled me. There were a lot of other animals raised on farms around us. Why didn't they talk about the price of pot roasts or chicken drumsticks?  Seemed like a conspiracy to me.  Still, we never ate pork bellies, despite their apparent importance to the economy. The only way we consumed pork bellies was in the form of bacon.  That was when Mom didn't make that insufferable Sizzlelean, but I am not even going to go down that road right now.

The first time I had pork bellies was when my Mom and Dad took me to Germany to visit Mom's family.  My uncle Bodo was a professional butcher, and an even better cook, which he also did professionally.  He would cook frequently for us during our three week visit, but I think our favorite meals were when he would fire up his homemade charcoal grill and load it up with anything he could think of.  There were sausages of every conceivable type, pork chops, spare ribs, chicken, trout, pork bellies, you name it.  If it could be grilled, it was on the menu.  But the pork bellies were special.  They were sliced just like bacon,seasoned with a dried bell pepper spice mixture, folded in half so the spices were on the inside, and then slowly grilled over indirect heat until the outsides were crispy.  That was the best thing I ate in Germany, period.  It was upon returning home that we started to by pork bellies because my dad was equally impressed with them.  I still grill them, roast them, fry them, and even smoke them with the same spice mixture my uncle Bodo used.  But, it wasn't until much later in my life that things got even better.  Pork belly roasts.

When roasted whole, a pork belly will transform into arguably one of the most unctuous, succulent roasts you can ever hope for.  Since it is essentially uncured bacon, you have some idea of the amount of fat it has, but that is also what makes it so good.  One of my favorite ways to roast it is to season the lean side with salt and 5 spices powder, then flip it over and season the fat cap with salt and rice wine vinegar.  Then I roast it for about an hour at 375 - 400, for a one pound roast.  When it feels done, I hit it with the broiler to crisp up the fat cap a bit.  It can be served along with some rice and stir fried vegetables, or simply sliced with a bit of hoisin.  You are only limited by your imagination.

Most super markets carry the sliced pork bellies, but rarely the whole side or even roast sizes.  However, they may be able to order it for you.  If they can't, fear not.  There are numerous meat markets in or near about every town and city.  Many of them have their own smoke house and if they do, they probably make their own bacon, which all starts with the belly.  In my experience, most of these markets are happy to accommodate you.  I would, however, recommend calling ahead for availability.  My favorite meat market is a few miles out of town, so I usually buy a whole side of pork belly, which is about ten pounds.  Then I cut it down into 1 pound roasts, vacuum seal it, and freeze it.  I usually have some on hand for when the urge hits me.

If you are a pork lover and haven't tried this, all I can say is, what are you waiting for?  Treat yourself.

Indespensible Chicken Stock

Photo by Rob Robitaille

Chicken stock, or any stock for that matter, is such an easy thing to make, but hardly anyone does it. There is nothing you can buy at the store that will even come close to homemade stock. The key to stock is bones. I never by boneless meat or chicken. For one, it is not worth the increase in price, and two, it is really easy to do yourself with a bit of knife skill. I always leave a little meat on the bones, too. Then, I vacuum seal the bones and throw them into the freezer until I have enough to make a big kettle of stock. Furthermore, when I cook a whole chicken, duck, turkey, or goose, I always freeze the bones for stock. It saves money, it is easy, and tastes great. Just like anything else, and stock is no exception, there are many different ways to make it depending on who you talk to.  The method I will be discussing is fairly traditional, but I have simplified it a bit so I don't have to tend it for hours on end.

Although you can make it in one day on your stove, if you start early and tend it throughout the day, I like to use my oven because you can literally set a timer and forget about it for a several hours.  Even though I love to cook, baby sitting a kettle of stock for several hours is not really my idea of fun.  To make stock, you need a kettle.  It doesn't have to be big, but I think the bigger the better so you can make more stock less frequently.  As I said, it is really easy, but not really all that fun, so the less I have to monkey with it the better.  Next, you need bones, although you can make vegetable stock, but that's a topic for another time.  When I say bones, I mean ones with some meat left on them.  I am focusing on chicken stock here, but anything that walks, flies, or swims is fair game and the process is similar with some minor adjustment in cook time and aromatics.  You will also need some aromatics (vegetables, herbs and spices) and good water.  I am lucky enough to live in a town that has really good water, but if your water is high in minerals, or just tastes like an aquarium, like some communities along the Mississippi, you may want to use filtered water.

A good rule of thumb is that 40% of your stock be made up of bones and vegetables and the rest water.  Keep in mind this is by weight.  So 4 pounds of bones and vegetables to 6 pounds of water would work fine.  Remember, this is just a guide.  You can vary this with great success, but my recommendation would be to weigh out your first couple of batches so you can get a feel for how much of each ingredient you need. Don't bother weighing your water, because as the old saying goes, a pint's a pound the world around.  Soon, you can just eyeball the ingredients with excellent results.

To kick things off, I adjust the rack in my oven so that my kettle with fit in with some room to spare on top and set it to 450 F.  Then I add my bones and vegetables to the kettle and place it in the oven.  You don't need to do this step, but I really like the extra flavor that a bit of browning adds to the bones and vegetables.  The vegetables I use are onions, peeled and quartered, celery, coarsely chopped and carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped.  Let it roast in the oven until it takes on some color and becomes very aromatic. Don't wander off during this time.

When your ingredients have sufficiently browned, remove the kettle and add the water and some seasoning.  I like a couple bay leaves and some green pepper corns.  Don't get too carried away because you never know what you will be adding this to and you don't want to have strong flavors that will clash with what you will be making, so keep it simple.  Also, you do not need to add any salt.  Since this is a liquid, salt can and should be added at the time of use.  Place the kettle on the stove and, if possible, offset it on the burner so the heat will be on one side only.  This will create a kind of convection that will help push the foam and fat to one side of the kettle making it easier to skim.  Bring it up to a lazy bubble where you only see a couple of small bubbles here and there. You do not want to reach a boil because it will make your stock cloudy.  Skim the fat and foam every 15 minutes until it it stops forming, then cover the kettle and place it in the oven at 180 F.  You can leave it in the oven for 12 hours, or more.

When your stock is done, let it cool and remove any additional fat that has collected at the top. If you refrigerate it, any fat remaining with solidify and you can easily remove it.  The only problem is, if it is really good stock, it will have a lot of gelatin that was converted from the connective tissue from the bones and you will need to warm it up so that you can strain it.  Otherwise it just kind of sits there in the sieve looking back at you like "Ha, should have warmed me, doofus."  When in a liquid, non mocking state, you can strain your stock.  I like to strain it into another kettle with a large sieve lined with a tea towel.  I have a whole stack of tea towels and their only purpose in my kitchen is for straining.  Then I gently pour it, using the lid to hold back the solids.  You can wrangle out the large solids with a slotted spoon, but it is best not to disturb it as much as possible.  In fact, stop before the kettle is completely empty because there will be some sludge on the bottom that you don't want clouding up your finished stock.  What you are left with is a beautiful, relatively clear, rich stock.  I like to freeze mine in quart sized plastic containers, although you can freeze them in ice cube trays if you want smaller portions.  Ziploc Twist 'n Loc containers work perfect.  Keep in mind that you will only be able to fill them up to about three cups to allow room for expansion once the stock freezes. The Solids left over have given their all and can can be discarded.

Now, you will find yourself with several containers of delicious stock that you can use any time.  It should keep for a couple months in the freezer, but I always seem to use it faster than that.  Once you become familiar with this process, you can start to tweaking your recipe to suit your individual taste.  Again, home made ingredients will make what you add them to that much better.

Less is More

Photo by Rob Robitaille

I love my country.  I don't want to live anywhere else.  It truly is a place where, if you want something bad enough, you can achieve it.  Being part of a country, a society, is not unlike being in any relationship.  There are ups and downs, thing you love about it, and things that tend to irritate you.  Okay, a lot of things irritate me, but this is one thing in particular.  The philosophy that bigger or more is better.  If 5 ingredients make it good, 10 will surely make it better.  If I don't leave a restaurant with a doggy bag, then I was somehow treated unfairly, despite how delicious the food was.  I feel that this is bad for food and bad for us.  More herbs and spices can tend to cover up the foods natural beauty.  Too large of a portion tends to make us overeat.  Take the French, despite what you may think of them, and look at how they eat.  These people know how to eat. It is not about quantity, it is about quality, and although some French recipes can be rather involved, most French food is not overly complicated.  They know how to let the main ingredients speak for themselves, and when they season their food, it is to the credit of the main ingredient, not the detriment.  They use these well thought out techniques to coax the food into being all it can be.

I have fallen victim to "more is better" thought process and it wasn't until I was much older, that I realized my rig wasn't on the right road.  For example, I used to have a rib rub recipe that had 15 ingredients.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not really good.  Once you put it on pork ribs, which arguably don't need that much help to taste good in the first place, then smoke them over sweet apple wood for a few hours, just how are those 15 herbs and spices going to add value.  That fact, coupled with the fact that I was sick of taking so much time just to mix up the stupid rub, was when I decided that I would redesign it.  I really asked myself, what flavors do I want with ribs.  Well, pork is the obvious answer.  Apple wood smoke is good too, otherwise I would just bake them in the oven.  So, what was the role of the rub.  Just like a movie, the ribs are the star, the smoke is the costar, and the rub ingredients are the other supporting actors.  The role of the supporting actors is just that, support.  They aren't supposed to steal the scene.  So I sat down and thought about it, and just like weeding out a closet, asked myself, what isn't adding any real value.  I knocked the ingredients down to 8 and I have to say, it kicks the hell out of the old rub, and, as it turns out, is not only good on pork ribs, but beef and chicken.  Bonus.  So, I tend to gravitate toward less ingredients.  I challenge you to do the same.  Ask yourself, what does this main ingredient really need?  Then go with it.

Now that we have talked about not overdoing the ingredients, let's talk portion size.  I don't know where this notion of huge portions came about.  Would you rather walk out of a restaurant and be so full that you don't need to eat that particular dish again anytime soon, or would you rather be thinking about the next time you get to treat yourself to it again?  I would choose the latter in a heartbeat.  Have you ever had grilled tuna collar?  It won't fill you up, but it is exquisite.  It is the best part of the fish and hardly anyone eats it.  Whenever I have tuna collar, I can't wait to have it again.  That, in and of itself, is a sensory delight.  Too many restaurants now days sacrifice quality for quantity.  We need to learn from the French.  I hate the puritan notion that by enjoying our meal it will somehow lead to bad things.  The notion that we shouldn't take pleasure in food is ridiculous.  One could argue that gluttony leads to worse things, and that is exactly what happens when you go to your local steak house.  Usually they hit you up with some bread first, and something to drink, which is probably wine or beer if you don't have to go back to work..Then they bring you a salad or soup, which is lunch sized portion.  Add a couple more beers to the mix and maybe an appetizer, and you find that you have filled up by the time your steak and monster loaded baked potato show up.  But, you came here to eat the damn steak, so you aren't going to put it in a box along with your monster loaded baked potato are you?  Hell no.  You came here for the steak so you are going to do everything in your power to clean your plate, at least the steak and part of the potato.  After which you head home and go right for the antacid, then to the nearest couch.  We have all done it, and thinking back, those memories fade fairly quickly, but over the top, killer meals, in reasonably sized portions that make you yearn for more stick in your mind.  That is the experience I want.

"Less is more" is a philosophy that I have embraced in my kitchen.  It makes cooking simpler and more fun.  I have also adopted it for selecting restaurants.  The way I look at it, it is expensive to eat out.  Not only is the restaurant expensive, but I typically need to drive 30-60 miles to get to a really good one.  So, if I am going to spend my money on a dining experience, it better be damn good.  If I just wanted to fill up, I would go to the local steak house chain and load up on bread and salad, and where is the fun in that?

Tortilla Espanola

Photo by Rob Robitaille

Eggs have to be just about my favorite food.  I am lucky enough to have steady source of farm fresh eggs.  If you have never tasted farm fresh eggs, I suggest you search them out.  Many food coops and farmers markets will have them and you will be amazed at the difference in flavor.  At first I hesitated to post this because I really don't want to have another recipe blog.  There are plenty of them, and while there are some really good ones, many are run of the mill.  I mean, I really don't need to read about how to make a pot roast.  Got that one figured out...sure do.  So, I will try to keep to the not-so-common items, which are the types of things I like reading about.  This is, what I consider, to be fairly uncommon, at least where I live.  It is very common in Spain, however.  It is essentially a Spanish omelet of eggs, potatoes, and onion.  The potatoes and onion are first cooked in a fair amount of olive oil at a relatively low temperature until they are soft, then mixed with the eggs and cooked in a pan.

The recipe is a no-brainer, but the trick to it is flipping the thing, which can be problematic because it ends up being about an inch thick and you want to flip it before it sets on the inside, which can be a recipe for a mess if you don't have your ducks in a row.  I have found that sliding it out of the pan onto a larger diameter lid, then inverting the pan over the tortilla and flipping it as a unit back over is the easiest method if you don't have a special pan.  Okay, this may seem simple and stupid, but don't forget to hold on to the lid with a pot holder or side towel.  You wouldn't be the first person to pick up a cold lid with your bare hands because you didn't think about the next step of sliding a really hot omelet on to it.  But, after screwing enough of these up during the flip, I purchased a Calphalon Frittata pan (or is it pans?) from Williams Sonoma (and yes, I got the idea from my friend Mrs. Corruption).  The best part of the pan, besides being non stick, is that they are two separate pans that can be hooked together to use for this purpose, or they can be used separately as a regular pans.  That takes the acrobatics out of the task of cooking it and turns it into something that is easy enough to make on a regular basis.

Like a lot of Spanish food, it is the simplicity that makes it so good. There are only five ingredients, so each one is celebrated instead of being covered up by something else. It can be eaten just like it is, or you can top it with some saffron aioli, which just makes it that much better.  Those are the things I like, simple dishes.

Tortilla Espanola

• 2 medium waxy potatoes, peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 eggs, beaten
• Kosher salt to taste

Heat the olive oil in a small omelet pan over medium heat. Add the potatoes and onion and cook until soft and a they have taken on a light golden color.  Don't brown them. Strain through a sieve, reserving the oil. Return about 2 tbsp of the oil to the pan and return to heat. Add the potatoes and onion to the beaten eggs. Season with some sea salt. Pour into the pan and reduce heat to medium low. Once the eggs have set on the bottom, it's time to flip the omelet. We already talked about this part, so good luck. Continue to cook until the eggs have set and the desired consistency is obtained. We like ours a bit runny on the inside, but if that bothers you, cook it all the way.  Slide it out of the pan and onto a large plate and serve immediately.  You can serve this by itself or with saffron aioli.

Saffron Aioli

• 1/2 cup good quality mayo
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1 generous pinch of saffron threads

Combine ingredients and refrigerate for 2-4 hours, stirring a couple of times during that time.  This will give the saffron time to fully add its flavor to the sauce.  It should be a beautiful golden yellow when it is ready.

Flex Your Mussels

Photo by Rob Robitaille

Strangely enough, the first time I ever made mussels was the first time I had ever eaten them.  I suppose that is kind of normal when you live in a small town with few fine dinning options.  If you want to try something new, you need to either spend a lot of time online, researching restaurants within a reasonable driving distance, or grill your foodie friends as to where they would recommend for the particular meal you are seeking.  I find that it is easier to do some research, which I would have to do anyway, then make it myself and save the time sitting in the car driving around.  Anyway, our local market built a brand new building and added a nice seafood section.  One of the things that caught my eye was the shellfish.  Not being one to walk away from a self perceived challenge, I picked up a bag of mussels and took them right home.  The hardest part of any new culinary adventure is talking yourself into buying the things.  At that point, however, I had already done my research and had a pretty good idea of how to prepare them.  Now, if you are at all squeamish, you best stop reading, because this is one of the few foods that you buy (and cook) while they are still alive.  Because of this, they require a bit of care and planning, which we will discuss.

There are several methods to cooking mussels, but I like the traditional steamed method which is basically, steaming them in a flavorful broth. There really isn't a recipe for this, as much as there is a technique, although you will see recipes for this all over the place. I enjoy them this way because the mussel is the star of the show.  They are also fun to eat with friends right from a communal bowl because there isn't a lot of chewing involved, so the conversation can keep going.  If you have never tasted mussels before, they are very rich and tender.  Not like a clam, which tend to be very firm, but more like an oyster.

If you choose to make mussels at home, I encourage you to do your research.  You will be eating something that grew up filtering its dinner out of the ocean, so you need to be informed.  After your research, if you are still confident, then go for it.  Just don't cut any corners.  You will find that, although there are a few hard and fast rules, it is really not that hard just a bit monotonous.  In fact, once you do it a couple times, it is actually not much worse than peeling shrimp.

So, go forth and boldly cook, and above all, have fun.

Steamed Mussels - The Technique

1. In a pot large enough to comfortably hold all your mussels, create a flavorful broth using some white wine, and aromatics.  I used minced shallots, minced garlic, and some thyme.
2. While the broth is simmering, clean the mussels (see instructions below)
3. Once the broth has reduced by about half or so, increase heat to high.
4. When the broth is boiling, dump the mussels into the pot and cover with the lid.
5. Cook them about 2-4 minutes, shaking the pot a few times to move them around.  Once they are all open, they are done.  Anything past that, you are overcooking them.
6. Remove them from the pot using a slotted spoon to a communal bowl, or to individual bowls or plates.
7. Finish the sauce with some butter and or cream.  You shouldn't need to add any salt.
8. Pour the sauce over the mussels and garnish with some fresh parsley and serve with some toasted bread to sop up the sauce (which is almost as good as eating the mussels, if you ask me).  You won't need any silverware since they come with their own spoons.  I may also note that this is probably a meal best eaten with people you know fairly well because it can get a bit messy.

My Advice on Purchasing Mussels

1. Buy them the day you intend to make them.
2. Figure about 1/2 pound of mussels per person as part of a meal, or 1 pound if serving as the main course.
3. Visit the seafood counter last, so you can go right through the checkout and head home.
4. Ask when they arrived at the store.  If they have been there a few days, better check out the meat section.
5. If they are fresh, ask for the ones that are still in the cooler on ice.  The less they are handled, the better.
6. Ask to inspect them.  The guys at my market are more than happy to let me do that.  The mussels should still be in the net bag, they should be ice cold.  Take a sniff because the nose knows.  They should smell of the sea.  If you close your eyes, and ask yourself, would I swim in these waters, and you answer yes, then you are ready to purchase.  If you detect any funky odors, don't buy them.  Trust me on this one.  You want FRESH!
7. Because they are alive, I have them wrapped in butcher paper, but never in a plastic bag.  Since I only have a five minute drive home, this works quite well.  If you have to travel longer than, say 20 minutes on a warm day, you should plan ahead and bring along a cooler with ice.
8. Go right home. 
9. Once you are home, the first thing you need to do is move them from the mesh bag into a clean glass or stainless steel bowl.  Cover the mussels with a couple layers of damp paper towels and stash them in the lowest shelf of your refrigerator.  They will be good their for a few hours until dinner.  

How to clean mussels

1. Pick a mussel out of the bowl
2. Make sure it is closed.  If it is open, tap it on the side of the bowl (it could just be getting some air).  If it does not shut immediately, throw it out.  This is not the time to get frugal, because in this case frugal could make you sick, or at least, ruin your meal.
3. Scrub each mussel with a firm, nylon bristle brush to remove any hitch hikers that my be attached to the shell.
4. Near the hinge part of the shell, there may be a fibrous bundle hanging out, called a beard.  If there is, remove it by simply yanking it out.  I buy farmed mussels because they are very clean and therefore hardly ever have a beard.
5. Place the clean mussel in a another bowl and repeat until they are all done.  Take your time because this is your last chance to examine them before you eat them.

Dr. Corruption and Cold Brewed Coffee



Photo by Rob Robitaille


We were invited to our good friends home for an overnight stay on Christmas Eve.  We will call them Dr. and Mrs. Corruption, because I always leave with some insidious preoccupation in the back of my mind.  After all, it is because them that I now ride a big, noisy motorcycle and my wife owns a banjo.  However, despite the banjo incident, my wife seems to be almost completely immune to their unique subterfuge.  But we won't go into that right now.  During this particular stay, I was introduced to cold brewed coffee.  Although I had heard of it before, I never really gave it much thought because I was perfectly happy with my filter cone for single cup brewing and my French press.  I learned that cold brewed coffee created a concentrated elixir that is touted to be less acidic than hot brewed coffee, and much more concentrated so you can mix it in whatever proportions you want and serve it either hot or cold.  Even in the winter, I am a cold coffee fan, so Doc mixed me up a glass of iced coffee with cream.  The coffee flavor was wonderful, and it did not have any of the harsh flavors and acidity that a very strong hot brewed coffee has.  So, there it was in my brain like so many corrupt ideas before it.  It seems that I was thinking about that coffee frequently for the next few days.

So, after realizing that this wasn't going to go away, I did a little research into how to achieve this brewing method in my home.  Although there are relatively inexpensive brewing systems to achieve this, I am not one to buy a unitasker unless I absolutely have to.  But, as I had mentioned, I have a French press.  This works just as well for cold brewing as it does for hot brewing coffee and tea.  The main difference is the time it takes to create the brew.  While hot brewing takes a matter of minutes, cold brewing takes several hours, typically over night.  Which might be why it is brewed so strong because who wants to wait 12 hours in between cups of coffee when you can brew rocket fuel and keep it in your fridge for several days?  While I do not think there is a right or wrong answer to how strong you brew it, it seems like the resounding note for doing this in a French press is about 1 cup of beans to 2 cups of cold water.  Ultimately, you can use more or less water, it will just need to be diluted more or less when the coffee concentrate is used.  I used one cup of beans, ground fairly coarsely, placed it in my French press (in the picture above) and topped it off with water to the bottom of the top silver ring.  I stirred it a couple of times, then covered it and put it in the fridge over night.  The next day, I slowly pressed it, just like I would for hot brewed pressed coffee, and poured the concentrate into another container for storage in my fridge.  Then I found a mixture that I liked consisting of one part coffee concentrate to one part cream.  To that I added a bit of sugar and some vanilla extract.  I don't think I would drink this every day because it is very decadent and rich.  After all, if I had this every day, it wouldn't be a special treat. 

So, a special thanks go out to Dr. and Mrs. Corruption for once again corrupting me in the best possible way.