I'm in the process of making pancetta from Ruhlman's "Charcuterie"
recipe. The pork belly was cured for a week in the fridge with salt,
sugar, pink salt, bay leaves, pepper, thyme, and juniper berries. I
had to trim it to roll it up, so I smoked the trimmings. That made
them into a bacon-like material, which is alright by me. Rolling
pancetta for drying is hard to do by the way. It took both of us to
roll and tie it up. It's been hanging in the pantry with the door to
the kitchen shut and the window back there open for a couple of days,
but I set it in the fridge gain today since it got pretty warm here in
Cow Hill. It's supposed to get cool again tonight, I believe, so back
in the cool pantry it'll got after dinner tonight.
A meal: Slices of pancetta-cured and smoked pork belly fried crisp in
an iron skillet on toasted rye bread with mayo, sliced tomato, and
fresh spinach. That was my lunch today.
Another meal: Stewed round steak (cubed) with red wine, shallots,
garlic, thyme, mushrooms, carrots, and bacon. (The homemade bacon,
I'm so happy with) I'll serve it over noodles. Probably have some
sort of greens, too. With bacon, of course. That'll be dinner
tonight.
A third meal: Last night we went to an opening at a Dallas gallery
show featuring the work of two friends. Great show, big crowd, good
time. The gallerist had hired an accordionist, the wag. What a hoot.
After schmoozing and ogling for an hour we went to dinner here:
http://www.salumrestaurant.com/
Our table of five enjoyed ourselves immensely. Appetizers included
country pâté, foie gras, and steamed mussels. Main courses were
grilled swordfish, rack of lamb, and pan seared sea bass. We split a
bottle of pinot grigio.
All were excellent. It's good walking around on the surface of this
earth.
Almost time to cut up the beef for dinner.
Spell check wants pancetta to be placenta. Yuck.
--
modom
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