Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Pasta Carbonara w/ Beef-Guanciale

Growing up in NYC and eating (PORK) was normal for me. Having a Sicilian Grandfather turned me on too many many different Italians foods which I miss and love. That being said I have not eaten any Treif in almost 18 years. About 8 months ago I saw a recipe being made on T.V. called, yup you guessed it Pasta Carbonara. I remembered eating this many times as a young man. Traditional Carbonara like the one my grandfather cooked was made with Pancetta or Guanciale (my Cured Meats). So with that I needed a meat that was high in fat and tasted divine. Hence my creation of Beef-Guanciale was born. 



Recipe 
2 whole eggs and 7 yolks
35 grams each of Pecorino Romano and Parmesano Reggiano cheese
200 grams of Guanciale chopped up (or more….Love this stuff)
28 grams to toasted finely chopped/grounded up pine nuts
50 grams of Pureeed Sundried Tom packs in olive oil
1.5 tsp of pepper 
1 lb of Spaghetti
6 Tbl or more of fat or Olive oil ( I used Schmaltz)

Although this is my recipe I decided to use Serious Eats technique for making the Pasta Carbonara. Their technique is far superior and easier than I was doing. Oh and they have a video too. 



Toast the Pinenuts and grind them up too. I forgot to take a picture of this. Ground Pine nuts give this dish a great texture. 






Measure out the Sun-Dried Tomatoes and puree using a sharp knife or a food processor. 



Measure out the cheese too.....Why two different cheeses? Pecorino Romano Cheese is made from sheep's milk and is salty, tangy and has a umami punch. Whereas Parmigiano Reggiano which comes from Cows Milk is nuttier and is a bit milder. Both cheeses together take this dish over the top. 



These are the end Pieces of the Guanciale. As you can see in the picture to the right I sliced/chopped them up into about 3/8's of an inch.





Get the eggs ready.......







Toss in the pepper…Note: if you like it very spicy add 2 tsp. 






Toss in the cheese, Ground up Pine Nuts and cheese. Mix thoroughly. 



Add about 3 Tbl. of fat to the pan and saute the Beef-Guanciale on a very low flame. The Goal is render as much fat as possible without over cooking the Guanciale.

Mean while.... You should have had the pot of salted water boiling already. Cook the pasta right to the point before al-Dente. Reserve about 2 cups of starchy water. Toss the al-dente pasta into pan with the Guanciale and toss until all the pasta is coated with the fat. If you find that the fat quantity is in adequate add some more. The pasta needs to be coated throughly. Adding extra fat is a personal thing and is glorious. 



Almost done.... Add the now Fat coated Pasta and Guanciale to the bowl that contains the eggs mixture.   Add about a 1/2 of water to the pasta and toss with tongs. Using the pasta pot you just used as a double boiler (keep it on simmer) place the bowl on top and keep folding the pasta using tongs. The goal is to thicken the sauce ever so gently without breaking the eggs. keep adding water until you achieve the desired viscosity.  


As an added bonus and it's certainly not required but I always add extra thinly sliced Guanciale to the Pasta. Add this directly to the double boiler. Do not sauté. 



REVIEW- AMAZING!!!




Sunday, April 1, 2018

Lamb Fried Matzah Balls

It's one of those recipes that came together almost by mistake. I was headed over to a buddies house for Pesach and I wanted to bring something traditional, different and special. They were serving Lamb for the Seder Meal and most likely Matzah Ball Soup. Since Seders can last a while I wanted to bring appetizers that could sustain us until the meal was served. 

I brought Homemade Matzah  which we ate a lot of during the Seder and these Fried Balls. Everyone loves Matzah and Matzah Balls so why not bring more of the same but kicked up a notch. I wish I had taken more photos but this came together at the last moment. As long as you follow the ratios of meat, eggs and matzah these babies will float after you poach them. They can be served in place of the traditional Matzah balls too….. just don't fry them. In fact if you find traditional Matzah Balls boring you will love these. I personally love Matzah Ball soup. Well truth be told I love my Matzah Ball Soup. Anyhow add what ever you want. Flavor profiles are up to you. I never make the same thing twice. I hate following recipes. 



I used two pounds of Lamb but any meat combo would work. Maybe Veal and Lamb mixed together. Chicken or Turkey? if you use Chicken or Turkey make sure to use Gribenes too. 




My suggestion is to sauté the shallots, garlic and ginger before adding to the meat mixture. Oh… you must fry in Schmaltz. I shouldn't have to tell you this but make sure to minced up the garlic and the ginger. Oy Vey!!





Add these to a food processor. Chose what ever brand  you want. If you don't like cranberries use another dried fuit. Golden raisins, peach or mango would work well too. 


Chopped Cilantro is a great addition but if you don't care for it use parsley. 







Gotta love scallions and chives. I really didn't measure either. Use as much or as little as you want. 



Everything in the bowl!!! 








 Form into balls using an ice-cream scoop. 
I used a little one. Chose your size or use your hands. You know if you are short on time make these the day before. 








Poach in salted water or stock for 45 minutes. This is the tool I used to scoop out balls. 








Scooped out and placed on large tray to cool. After they were cooled I dusted them in flour and deep fried at 375 f until golden. In this particular recipe I used Gluten free Matzah Meal and flour. Use what ever you want. 

I made several sauces to accompany these babies. I made Honey Mustard sauce, And a funky Tomato Sauce in which I used a lot of Cilantro, Mint and heavy cream. And let's not forget my Horseradish sauce. 



Sunday, March 25, 2018

Basic Matzah Balls Ratios " Yiddisher Kop "

I've been asked many times for my Matzah Ball recipe and to everyones surprise I never took the time to write it down. In fact I never make it twice the same. I just know how it should look and feel between my finger tips. I can offer some basic ratios and suggestions but in the end it's about personal preference and your Halchal especially around Pesach.



Here are the Basic Ratios with some suggestions. 
How much will this make? How big are you going to make them? 2-4 Servings for the Basic Ratio. I use a 20 ml ice-cream scoop for specificity. 

 "The Ratio of ONE" 
  • 1 Large Egg 
  • 1 TBL Liquid 
  • 1 TBL Fat
  • 1/4 cup of Matzah Meal
  • 1/4 TSP Salt 
  • 1/4 TSP Pepper 
If you can remember these ratios the rest is easy. 

Floaters or Sinkers? If you want sinkers use the basic ratios. If you want floaters I would suggest using Seltzer for the liquid or 1/8-1/4 Tsp of Baking Powder. If you want balloons use both. If you want spongy (if that's your thing) separate the yolks from the white and whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture. Use all three techniques and the balls will float out of the pot. 

More on Liquids- If you don't use Seltzer you could use Stock or water. Again this is a preference thing. 

Fat- Use a neutral oil or Schmaltz. Yea I think you know which one I prefer. If you want to go crazy take your Gribenes, freeze and process to a fine crumb and add that to your mixture. Dang this is good stuff. 

Matzah Meal- Buy some or make your own. I've noticed sometimes that the ratios are not perfect depending on the hydration of the meal. Go by sight and feel. Heck make your own Matzah and go to town. 

Salt and Pepper- This is an estimate. Are you poaching in Stock that contains salt? Salted water? 

Forming Balls- Grease your hands.

Cooking- Poach for 40-60 minutes depending on the size of the balls. keep pot covered. Uncovering the pot will produce smaller balls. 

Other things- Add other things to the Matzah Balls. I love ground ginger and dill. Add spices and herbs. Turmeric  Corainder makes a nice additon too. Go crazy and experiment. 

The Mixture- After everything is combined it needs to rest in the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes. It has to mesh together AKA hydrate. The Matzah meal has to absorb all the moisture. 








    Saturday, February 24, 2018

    Kishke meets Kasha


    If you google Kishke, you will see that it's a generic term for various types of sausages or stuffed intestines. The actual word means Intestines. The fillings could almost be anything. Sometimes just meat and grain or only grains and veggies. I've seen many versions. I guess it depends on where you grew up and what your family traditions were. I won't focus on anything but what I did. When I was growing up, I remember my Mom or my Bubbe tossing a bunch of things together, shaping them into funky looking shapes and frying them. Matzah meal is the traditional binder used in Kishke so during Passover Kishke were made often. 


    Anyhow a few weeks ago I had an inkling for Kasha Varnishkes but wanted to do something different. I love making dishes that are reminiscent of my childhood. I decided to combine my love of two recipes which are Kishke and Kasha. Was this a wise choice? Not sure yet. As of this writing, I haven't cooked them yet. 


    I had a lot of issues making the Kishke. Formulating a recipe from nothing was hard. Combining these crazy ingredients and not knowing how they were going to come out was the crazy part. This is certainly a crazy out of the box version of Kishke. It's a hodgepodge recipe. Some of these ingredients were a last minute adjustment to help with the binding. I made several patties (more like 12) testing them for seasoning and found that that they were not holding together in the pan. I had to toss in a lot of things to help them hold their shape.



    I started out with a Full Packer Brisket. My thoughts for this purchase was Tri-Fold. Separate the Flat from the Point and save the fat for other projects. This is what I decided to use the for Kishke and added 40% fat. You can use my handy dandy formula to figure that out fat percentage. 


    This is part of the flat that I will use for Bacon ( gonna make Chocolate Covered Bacon). The pic to the right is all the fat I kept. 

    I used Wolffs Kasha which is a great brand. Follow the instructions to the tee. It works great. If you can find it buy some Wholegrain Buckwheat, dry roast them and make Kasha. The Boxed Kasha is dry roasted Whole Buckwheat. I also added beef broth for the simmering part. Do this step the day before.



    I took some avocado oil and gave a quick coating to the brisket along with some pepper and gave them a quick sear to boost the flavor of the kishke.


    Here they are getting prepped for the grinder. Oh I almost forgot you need to do this all these steps the day before including the Kasha. 


    Sauté the onions and celery adding a touch of salt and pepper. You just need a little caramelization which will also add to the overall flavor. 




    I Sous-Vide the carrots at 186℉ for about 45 minutes. 




    Toss Meat, Fat, Carrots, Celery and Onion Mixture in one large container and stick in freezer. You will need to partially freeze everything. Doing this makes it easier to grind. Use this time to prep your herbs and spices etc. It's entirely up to you but I find do all of this the day before and placing this whole container the refrigerator. 



    Measure everything out based on the percentage of all the meat, fat and veggies. I.E 9351 X 1.9% = 177.677 which I round up to 178 grams.


    Place the first 12 ingredients in one big bowl. The next 4 in theirs and the last two in  their bowl. Have at least 3 quarts of ice water on hand. When I say ice water I mean a container filled with ice and water. You will be adding water to the mixer to achieve a certain texture. It needs to feel wet and thick between your fingers. Very hard to describe. You will need to fry several patties to figure out if the seasoning is correct and the texture.  



    Toss in the first 12 ingredients and mix it all up. That's right we are going to grind everything together. Again at this step you could place put everything in the refrigerator and wait till the following day too. 




    This is my grinder in action. This baby will grind 18 pounds a minute. I am not fast enough to slow it down. Having a big grinder cuts down on time and prevents meat from heating up due to it's size and speed. This took me 90 secs to do. Contrast that using a kitchen aid grinder and you're looking at an hour to grind everything up. Over that hour that hour the grinder would surely heat up and so would the meat. 


    After you grind everything up you will toss everything back into the container and refrigerate. You want everything cold again before proceeding. I normally put everything the freezeer for about 45 minutes than trasfer to the refriegrrator. This is a picture of my huge mixer. Oh and here's a link of it in ACTION.  It was an estimate but I chopped up 3 bunches of Green Onions and two bunches of Italian parsley and added them   mixer too. I should have added one more bunch each. Anyhow get your mixer going and add the Green Onions and parsley. 

    Add the remaining ingredients slowly. Add the eggs and avocado…..than add all the binders. 

    Storytime with me- So my original thoughts was to use Kasha instead of the flavorless Matzah meal for flavor. I was going to use it as the binder too (that was my hope). I knew I might have some binding issues but nothing I could not resolve with some added Non-Fat-Milk Powder and  Sodium Phosphates not to mention all the other ingredients. 
    After everything was mixed I knew I had to test for seasoning. I took out a chunk of meat fried it up to assess the seasoning. Dang it tasted awesome but it fell apart. Dang, it did not hold together as hoped. So I added some more NFM and it didn't help much. I than decided to add some Soy Protein Isolate Powder. Mind you I was only adding small amounts all the while taking notes. Anyhow this helped a little bit more. Still not there!!! What to do? I added some eggs to help with the binding. This helped me a lot. I was on to something…..so it seemed. I tested some more samples but now it through off the taste. Dang now I have to re-season and calculate percentages again. What an absolute pain in the ass. Ok try another test patty. Tasted good but fell apart. 

    OK….. I had a culinary epiphany. I was going to resolve my binding issues with Transglutaminase. But I needed to increase the protein content if this was going to work. So with complete speculation I added more eggs and more Soy. I needed to adjust the seasoning and I need to add extra fat. I chose Avocado oil because I had it on hand and it's damn good. The speculation comes in because it will take 24 hours for the proteins to bond and I won't know how it turned out until it's all been cooked. This could be a 24 lb blunder. 

    Prep the Sausage Stuffer. This time I used 65 mm Collagen casings.






     I made different sizes so I could give them away as gifts. 
    All vac sealed awaiting a SV bath. They will be cooked at 151 degrees for 4.5 hours which will cook and pasteurize them. Don't forget they need a 24 hour rest in the cooler so the proteins can bond with the TG. 

    I used a 64 L polycarbonate container. This baby is huge. You must consider water to meat ratio. The water must be allowed to circulate around the food; otherwise, it will not cook properly. I used two IC units. In addition I put two temp probes at the bottom to monitor the temp. I also used SV balls and plastic wrap to insulate and prevent water evaporation.

    Probes at the bottom connected to a butter knife so they would sink.

    My set up- I used tap water and several stock pots to bring containers temp up rapidly. Tossing in boiling water really helps expedite things. Anyhow I was concerned that tossing in 24 lbs of very cold meat would lower the containers temp down to much so I compensated by setting the temps at 165℉ initially. After temp hit 165℉ I dumped all Kishke in and the temp only dropped 3 degrees which means I had a huge amount of water to meat ratio. All GOOD!!! I set temp to 151℉, tossed in the SV balls and covered the top with plastic wrap.  Set timer at 4.5 hours. 

    After the elapsed time of 4.5 hours I place all the sausages in a large cooler with ice water and blue ice. Trying to bring down temp quickly so I can refrigerate them safely. You do not want to add warm meat to a refrigerator. I got lucky that night because it was in the 20's so I stuck the cooler in some snow and called it a night. 














    My Review - I hit a Grand-Slam!!!! Everything held together and tasted amazing. All the flavors came through meaning not one stood out. The Kasha texture and flavors were awesome but not distinct which is what I was going for. My revelation as how to bind these babies together worked very well. 
    TOP OF THE KISHKE