Pot stickers.

Since I set up Gary's doghouse a month or so ago most of the posts have been around meat-based endeavors. This is a break from Charcutepalooza. Tonight I tried something new, tried to re-purpose a trick from Iron Chef America, and I got something very right. I made potsticker wrappers. At the grocery store this morning we bought wonton wrappers for gyoza and they were disgusting little brown things that I couldn't stand to use.


I don't think the picture does them justice but the row of square wrappers are the store bought ones. They look better in the picture than they did in person. The round ones are from this recipe.

Potstickers - or gyoza - are small dumplings that have a filling of either meat, vegetable or a combination of both. The wrappers are a thin, well, noodle. You can buy them but they are so easy to make.

Potsticker (gyoza) wrappers
2 cups AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup boiling water (plus a bit more if you need it)

Use chopsticks to "whisk" the salt and flour together. Slowly add in the water while "whisking" until it will form into a ball. Add more water if it's too dry. Take the ball of dough and put it in a bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let it sit for an hour or more so that the starches can hydrate. Take the ball of dough and start kneading it (it will go very flaky on you for a while but will smooth out in about 3 minutes. Go a bit longer until it is very smooth. A total of 5 minutes. Here is the new (to me) and cool ('cause I'm a geek) part. Use your pasta machine to roll the dough out to the thinnest setting. Use a 3 inch biscuit cutter to cut out your wrappers. I got over 50 out of my ball of dough! Now make potstickers. What are you waiting for? Oh, a recipe? I'll post that later.

Corned beef short rib (step 2) Dinner a week in the making.

Yesterday was a crazy day. I worked the morning then went to a meeting in the afternoon and later in the day we had guests over for dinner. There was no way I could work out how to get the short ribs in the oven at the right time. That's when my wife said, "Doesn't the oven do the thing where it will do a time delay to start?"

So after lunch I took the zip top bag of short ribs out of the fridge. I rinsed them under cool water for a minute or so and put them in the big, heavy dutch oven. I added water to just barely cover and threw in two tablespoons of the pickling spice. I put foil over the top to prevent steam from escaping, since I wasn't going to be around to make sure the liquid was staying at the right level, and put on the lid and put it in the oven. Setting the oven required three tries and the user manual but once set I went off to my meeting.



When I got back to the house the aroma was intense. The familiar smell of corned beef was strong, but there was a difference. I want to call it a meatiness to the smell. Resisting the urge to pull the lid off we went about the rest of dinner preparations. At a total cook time of 3:45 (adjusting for the fact that the oven had to heat and the meat and braising liquid was cold), I took the pot out of the oven.

When I pulled the ribs out of the Dutch oven I noticed that the meat didn't just fall apart.



Of course I was worried that it wasn't going to be tender but the rib bones pulled out easily. I cut the tough connective tissue off the rib side and sliced it.

Foie gras is just liver. Truffles are simply mushrooms. This is just a car. This was just corned beef in the same way. There is a rich intensity that I have never had in corned beef before. The melted connective tissue and oozy fat with the salty beef created something more... It was foie gras, it was truffles, it was that car. I have made the corned beef recipe out of Charcuterie with brisket twice, but this was more. Just more.

Unfortunately none of the plated pictures came out. I am afraid it is up to you to picture the sliced short ribs, roasted new potatoes and braised red cabbage. For Corned beef short rib (step 1) click here.

Corned beef short rib (step 1)

Michael Ruhlman has a post on his blog with a recipe for making pastrami out of short ribs. Being a lover of that particular cut of meat I decided that one of my entries for the charcuterie brining challenge would be a section of short ribs turned into corned beef. My wife is somewhat iffy on long-smoked meats so corned beef is a lovely compromise.

First I had to locate an uncut section of ribs which was not easy.



With the meat in my possession it was time to make the brine. The recipe I'm working from is in the Ruhlman/Polcyn book; the only change I made was to use turbinado sugar in place of the granulated sugar. As the following pictures show, I set up my mise en place and got it in half the water as called for in the recipe. By adding half the water I can later put the same amount of ice by weight and cool the mixture down quickly.


(Clockwise from top; salt, turbinado, dark brown sugar, garlic, honey, pickling spices and pink salt.)


That was simmered until the salt and sugars were in solution. Then I weighed out a half gallon (64 oz.) of ice and added it to bring the volume up and cool down the mixture. I put the ribs into a large zipper bag and poured in the brine. Every day I will turn the zip bag to keep the spices moving.

My favorite Cajun Boudin Recipe.

I have to start this post with a little history. My mother was born and raised in a small town in south Louisiana. Many of my cousins and aunts and uncles are from that area. From the time I was 4 until 8 my family lived there as well. I truly love Cajun and Creole cuisine. So for the last two years I have been working on perfecting a recipe for Cajun boudin blanc. If you have never had Boudin Blanc it is a bit different. It is made of cooked pork and pork liver and rice aggressively seasoned and stuffed in hog casings. My initial attempt started with this recipe, which is very, very good but I have made some changes mostly to the technique. I don't take credit for the recipe that credit goes to Chuck Taggart at the Gumbo Pages.

Cajun Boudin.
Makes approximately 8.5 pounds

The Meat.
3.5 pounds pork butt cut into big chunks
1 TSP cracked black peppercorns
1 large onion cut into 8 wedges
the stems off a bunch of parsley
3 stalks celery chopped
2 bay leaves
2 TBS salt

The Veggies and liver.
1 pound pork liver sliced thin
4 slices bacon
2 medium yellow onions Diced medium
2 bunches green onions Just the white part. Cut into 1/4 inch rounds.(save the greens we'll need them)
6 Cloves garlic crushed and chopped fine

Rice and assembly.
3 cups uncooked white basmati rice
4 TBS parsley
1 TB Cayenne pepper
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp freshly ground white pepper

The Method
Preheat oven to 325. Put everything from the Meat section except salt in a pot with 4 quarts of water. Bring to a simmer and cover pot, put in oven for 3 hours. Remove pot and take out the meat with a slotted spoon. (take all of the onion and parsley off that you can.) Strain the liquid and take out 1 pint and stir in the salt until dissolved. Set aside. Keep all of the remaining pork stock.

Cook bacon in a saute pan until brown. (you can go ahead and eat the bacon, we were just after the fat.) Put in the diced onion and saute for 4 minutes. Add the green onion whites and garlic and saute for 1 minute (go less if the garlic is starting to get brown.) and add liver. Cover and cook 10 minutes or until it is starting to get tender. Pour in a 1/2 cup of the unsalted pork stock cover and cook 10 minutes longer. When the meat and liver are cool enough to handle grind into a large bowl using a meat grinder fitted with the large die. Add salted stock, cayenne, black pepper and white pepper and mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.

Bring 5 cups stock to a low boil in a 3 to 4 qt sauce pan with a tight lid. Pour in rice and stir a couple times. Return to a simmer and turn the heat to low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Pour rice out onto rimmed cookie sheet and put in the freezer for 20 minutes. Break up the clumps and add to bowl with meat. Add the chopped tops of the 2 bunches of green onions and minced parsley. Mix thoroughly. Be careful not to break up the rice too much. Add more of the remaining stock and mix it in by hand. Continue adding stock in small amounts until the mixture is quite moist but not soupy. I usually have 1 to 2 cups liquid left at the end. Stuff into 32/35mm hog casings. I do 8.5 inch links. They freeze very well and keep for months if you vacuum seal them. To re-heat you can use one of 4 methods. Oiled pan in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, (20 minutes if thawed.) steam for 20 minutes, grill or poach in a small amount of water for 30 minutes. My favorite method is the oiled pan but the traditional is steaming. Serve with french bread or saltine crackers and beer.

Like I said, my changes are to the technique. Here's what I did and why. I cook the meat covered in the oven for 3 hours so that it gets really tender and soaks up as much of the flavor from the aromatics as possible. I cook the liver covered so it stays moist and doesn't get mealy. I reserve a pint of the stock and add the salt to it so that the salt is evenly distributed. It is really hard to get the salt uniformly through the mixture. I put the rice in the freezer so the grains tighten up and don't break as badly. I have refrigerated the meat and the rice over night then put it together and stuffed it the next day to great success.

This year for my brother's birthday I made him a full batch of boudin for his present and froze it. It's one of his favorite things to eat for breakfast! Happy birthday Roy.

Guanciale is done!

Last night I pulled the guanciale out of the cellar and sliced off one end. What I found was the glistening white meat and heavy streaks of meat.



So I diced up a slice and browned it off in a dry pan over medium high heat. The smell was wonderful!



I really didn't have anything to do with it so I saved it until this morning when my wonderful wife put a bit of the fat in a pan and fried an egg in it. Before the whites set she put a few of the lardons on top. I had made some whole wheat bread Sunday and she toasted up a slice and put the egg on top. It was simple perfection. Just a few great ingredients treated well.

Guanciale update - Now with pictures of dogs.

Here we are at the end of the challenge and my big honking hog jowl is still not quite finished. I have plans for the frist guanciale meal and that is a Ravioli stuffed with kale, onions, ricotta and guanciale! I will post the recipe even if it's a crash and burn. I don't think it will though.

Now the picture of dogs!



Dexter and Gary Cooper at rest.

Pancetta and Guanciale in the cellar

On Thursday the 27th I took the jowl out of the cure and rinsed it thoroughly with cool water and dried it with paper towels.



I then made a hole in the corner of the jowl about an inch from the edge. I took a flat skewer and ran it through and then twisted it to form a nice hole. Then took a chopstick and pushed the twine through the hole.



The nascent guanciale was then taken to the cellar where it can dry and cure for 2 weeks.



On Sunday January 30th I gave the pancetta a squeeze and it was nice and firm to the touch. I rinsed it with cool water and brushed as much of the cure particles off as I could. I put 2 teaspoons of fresh black pepper evenly across the meat side. It took three tries but I finally got it rolled up tightly with no gaps. I trussed it up and put it in to join the guanciale for a nice rest.



The Pancetta may take as long at 4 weeks to finish so I am going to be patient and let it happen. There is a very bacon-y, meat-y aroma in my wine cellar but it's fading a little every day.