Beef tamales with Turnip puree and roasted red sauce (Part3 of 4) The turnip puree...

This stuff is amazing. Great by itself, but even better with the tamales and red sauce... We are getting there... Tamale post tomorrow!

Ingredients:

• Four Turnips about baseball sized
• Four Russet potatoes
• 8 Tbs. Butter
• 2 Cups Buttermilk
• Salt
• White pepper

Peel and cut up Turnips in 1" cubes and potatoes in 2" cubes (Turnips are 'denser' and seem to take longer to cook). Boil in salted water (I make mine as salty as seawater) until done... About 25-30 mins. Add butter and buttermilk... Use stick blender to reduce to a soft 'mash'. Season to taste. Voila!

Beef tamales with Turnip puree and roasted red sauce (Part 2 of 4) The red sauce...

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted... Life is needy these days.


In installment two we are going to create the red sauce, which needs to sit a day in the fridge to develop flavor. This makes a shitload of sauce, however once you taste it, you'll be happy... Lasts a few months if you do it right too...


Ingredients:

• 15-20 Dried Chile Guajillo, stems removed and most seeds taken out... Try and leave the ribs though
• 2 Dried Pasilla Chile, stems removed and most seeds taken out... Try and leave the ribs though
• 1 Dried Ancho Chile, stems removed and most seeds taken out... Try and leave the ribs though
• 2 Tbs huaje seeds (Toasted) (They look kinda like a tamarind but skinnier. You just want the seeds... Meximart will have them fresh in the produce area)
• 2 Tbs Hulled Pumpkin seeds (Toasted)
• 1 Brown Onion, quartered
• 4 Roma Tomatoes, seeded
• 4 Cloves Garlic
• 1 Tbs Ground Cumin
• 2 cloves
• 6 cups Beef broth
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• Juice from one lemon
• 1 Tbs Flour
• 1 Tbs Lard (Fresh pork lard if you have it)
• 1 Tbs Black pepper
• 1 Tbs Kosher Salt
• 1 Tbs. Brown Sugar

Lightly toast all chilies in a dry skillet. Put Chiles, Tomatoes, Garlic and Onion in saucepan and add vinegar and 6 cups beef broth. Simmer for one hour. Ladle to half fill blender and add all other ingredients. Put towel over blender top (It tries to go all over due to it being hot) and blend till smooth. Continue until all is blended, stir well. Check for salt balance and add if needed. Strain through a course screen strainer and simmer for another hour... Add liquid as needed to get to proper consistency. Refrigerate at least 12 hours.

Beef tamales with Turnip puree and roasted red sauce (Part 1 of 4)

This is a beef shank. If you are a sheltered white-boy like me you've never seen one. They are DIRT cheap, and have beef flavor from the Gods. And you get to go to the Meximart-Carniceria to buy them!


This is like about the best thing ever. Takes a few days to make, the turnips make no sense, but put it all together and oh. Shit. Wow.


Ingredients for the Beef:

• 5-6 lbs Beef Shank. You are not making soup here, so more beef and less bone is desirable
• 5 Celery stalks, chopped finely
• 5 Carrots, chopped finely
• 2 Brown Onions, chopped finely
• 2-3 Dried Chile Guajillo
• 5-8 Garlic Cloves
• 2 Jalapenos, Stemmed, seeded, diced fine
• 4 Roma tomatoes
• 16 Tbs butter
• Bay leaves
• Flour
• Salt
• Pepper

Melt 8 Tbs butter in LARGE oven proof dutch oven. Add Celery, Carrots, Onions. Cook 3-4 minutes till translucent. Add Dried chilies, Bay leaves, Tomatoes, Garlic, Jalapenos, and about 6 cups water.... Simmer.

Melt 8 Tbs. Butter in skillet over Medium... Dry off beef shank, coat in flour salt and pepper, sear to brown... A few minutes a side... Put into Dutch oven with the Veggies.

After they are all browned and in the Dutch oven... Add enough water to cover. Bring up to a simmer, and cover. After one hour, put into oven at 275º. Remove 12 hours later.

Remove bones and any large fat pieces. Let sit to cool. Remove beef 'fat' on top. Stir together and refrigerate for tomorrow... Step 2!

Grilled Chicken breasts with ham and blue cheese

• 4 Boneless Chicken breasts
• 4 oz. Blue cheese
• 16 Ham slices, THIN!
• 1/2 Cup Salt
• 1/2 Cup Brown sugar
• Garlic
• Black pepper
• Elastic netting or Butchers twine
• Paprika

Butterfly breasts and split. Hammer out to even up and consistent 1/4-3/8" inch thinckness. Brine in salt, sugar and garlic water for 4 hours. Rinse well. Dry WELL! Lay two pieces of ham, and 1/2 oz. of Blue cheese in middle. Roll up tight like you are making a Cheech & Chong Labrador joint, and either stuff in netting (Easy) or fuck with it for a few hours and a couple extra sets of hands and tie it up. Sprinke with pepper and paprika.

To Smoke:

Let sit out and pellicle (Get sticky) for about 30 minutes. If in a hurry, put a fan on them. Smoke lightly with Hickory or Applewood at 190º for two hours. You should get  a reading of 165-170º internal. Let cool and slice.

To Grill:

Preheat half of grill on High. Lightly brush chickens with olive oil. Grill and turn on High for 5-7 minutes. Remove to 'indirect' side of grill and let cook for 45-1 hour. 

Pepperoni

Was craving some good, homemade Pepperoni to make some pizza in the coming weeks... Came up with this.

• 3 lbs. Pork Cushion
• 2 lbs. Beef Chuck
• 1.5 lbs. Pork Fat (No skin)
• 1/2 Cup Non-fat Milk (Can use dry, I usually do, just was out)
• 3 Tbs. Kosher salt
• 1/2 Cup Malbec or other good dry Spanish wine
• 4 Tbs. Hungarian HOT Paprika (I get it from LaTienda.com)
• 1 Tbs. Dextrose
• 1 Tbs. Binder (You could do without this, I just like how it holds the meat together in the slicer)
• 4 Tsp. Anise seeds (GET FRESH!)
• 1 tsp. Fennel seeds (GET FRESH!)
• 1 Tbs. Black Mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. Cure #2
• 1 Tbs. Cayenne pepper (Or, for better heat, crush up 3 Tbs. dried Chili Pequin)
• 2 Cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 tsp. Starter Culture (I used Bactoferm F-LC for this, as it has quick acidification and works well in smoker)

Semi-Freeze Pork and Beef. Grind though 1/4 plate. Run FROZEN Pork fat through Grinder alternating with a little crushed ice to prevent smearing. Toss in fridge. Add starter culture and a pinch of dextrose to  1/4 cup of bottled water (Tap water Chlorine will hamper the starter).  Grind Seeds coarsely. Mix all dry ingredients together... Put wine and milk if liquid over meat... sprinkle garlic over dispersing well. Add dry ingredients and mix well for 4-5 minutes, or until you can no longer feel your gloved hand. (Note to all reading... I WANT A MEAT MIXER!) Add started culture and mix two more minutes.

I used air-dried hog casing to stuff into this time, however you could also use beef middles (stink!), LARGE 38-40 Hog casings, OR, Edible collagen. I stuffed the air-dried casings into netting to help with supporting them, and because they looked cool.

Hang at 70-80º for 24 hours. Humidity not SUPER important yet, but I wouldn't do it during Santa Ana winds...

Put in smoker at 130º, light smoke (I used some cabernet-hickory) for 5 hours. At this time I put a pobe in the middle one, and set it for 160º. Bring smoker up to 175-180º (Any higher you will melt the fat)... Takes about another 2-3 hours...

Remove and immerse in an ice bath for 3-5 minutes. Hang for 3-5 days, 60-70 degrees, 40-50% humidity...

Freeze for an hour before slicing for best results... Or vacuum seal and fridge for a few months. Good stuff.

Mangalitsa Pork Bellies

Sorry this post is so long in coming... Been a busy month! THIS is the Mangalitsa BELLY! 4" THICK!

The flavor... Amazing. Just started some for a cure... Not sure if my normal 7 days will be enough... I don't want to inject or 'cheat'... So I think this may be a 12-14 day dry cure.... Save a little of the trim for some lardo and some braised belly sliders.... I will post more soon!