I Like Food. Food Tastes Good!

After 83 days in the modified fridge drying, the coppa came out. The consistency is great and the flavor is good. It was flavored with salt, black pepper, fennel, juniper berries, cloves and nutmeg. The flavor is much better than the salami. It tastes like a cured ham. I mean it is very similar to a cured ham. A cured ham is a cured hog’s hind leg and this coppa is a solid muscle taken from the hog’s shoulder. They come from different parts of the animal but in both cases you cure whole muscles instead of ground/diced meat like salami or soppressata.

The coppa is a bit too salty on its own but with some fruit or bread the salt level is nice. I wish I would have fermented it a bit longer. Next time I will ferment it for about 2 days instead of one. I currently have a salami in the fridge drying that was fermented for 2 days.  I’m excited to taste it!  Overall, I am very happy with the coppa. Tonight, I toasted some slices of bread and made a peach, onion, ginger and red pepper jam. I combined the toast, sliced coppa and jam together with a basil leaf. It was a very tasty dinner.

After 61 days of drying in the refrigerator with a high humidity and 45-50*F temp, the the two salami that I made are ready to eat. This being my first attempt at dry curing, the results are very good. The texture of the salami is perfect. This means that the drying box has the right conditions. The salami has a bit too much garlic and I don’t think I fermented the salami long enough before I put it in the drying box. It doesn’t have enough tang to it which is caused by the development of lactic acid during fermentation. Overall, I am very excited about the final product(being my first try).

Yesterday, I went to a supermarket close to me. I was searching around the meat self serve case and found some meaty beef short ribs(probably bull meat but whatever). I realized that I had never cooked them before so I bought them. I braised them in a broth made of beef stock, peaches, mangoes, serrano chilies, tomatoes, a Domain Dupage Beer and some ginger. I browned the short ribs and then created the broth and cooked them slowly in a 260*F oven for about 2.5 to 3 hours. After they were tender, I placed them under the broiler for just about a minute to crisp the fat. I then pureed and reduced the broth to make a sauce. I served the short ribs over a parsnip and chive puree. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a camera to take a photo but it was really delicious! Tonight’s meal(pictured above) Read the rest of this entry »

I have been eating a lot of sunchokes lately. Pictured above is what I cooked tonight: seared scallops, crispy sunchokes and an ancho and arbol chili sauce. Sunchokes are the roots of a species of sunflower. They are also called Jerusalem Artichokes(eventhough they have no relation to either artichokes or Jerusalem). They are sweet and have the flavor of something between a potato and turnip. They are brighter in flavor and crisper. They can be prepared in a similar fashion as potatoes. They seem to contain more water than potatoes though. Also, sunchokes don’t sit well in everyone’s tummy. They have been known to cause flatulence (not a good choice in vegetable for Fronza’s).

I couldn’t find Cory’s camera so I had to use my camera phone again….sorry. Pictured above is wild sockeye with crispy skin. Sunchoke puree. Crispy ramp bulbs with wilted ramp leaves.

UPDATE

I took down the photo because the photo quality was so bad

flat iron steak. baby bok choy, roasted garlic and crimini mushrooms.  spinach and parsley salad with apricots and goat cheese.

You know, some times I really hate my camera. One day in the late fall I was fishing by myself. There was a combination of snow and sleet pounding my already numb face but I continued fishing. I threw a perch colored lure out to a submerged rock bar and SLAM! a muskie hit my lure. I battled this fish for a few minutes and got the fish in the boat. I pick up my camera to take a picture of the fish and my camera flashes error. DAMN! Whatever, this fishing experience was one I will not forget. I didn’t care that my family thought I made up the story. It wasn’t about that. I guess tonight’s dinner was like that. I prepared one of the most adventurous meals I have ever prepared and my camera refused to work. Well, any way the meal I prepared was delicious. Pictured above(taken with my camera phone) is the pan fried grass fed beef liver, a parsley, spinach, bacon and dried cranberry salad and a roasted bone marrow and lemon sauce.

I made the dough from my sourdough starter. The pizza has a mango bacon sauce, shiitake mushrooms, onions, parsley and mozzarella cheese. I tried cutting the cheese into cubes for this one and it didn’t work that well because I used a low moisture cheese. Next time, if I can afford it, I will use fresh mozzarella.  Click on the picture below to see the crust.  I cooked the pizza on a stone in a 500* + oven.

Some people are afraid of skirt steak because they think it is very tough.  To me, it is a very flavorful and budget friendly steak.  Pictured above is pan seared skirt steak, potato, shiitake mushroom and pecorino romano cake, grapes and a lime pan sauce.  Pretty tasty!

eggs. bacon. pan fried potatoes. bacon mango sauce