French White "Jumbo" Asparagus

 French White Asparagus are now in season. So many great ideas come to mind... Their a great number of classical recipes. Most of the classical method begin by peeling them carefully to remove all the skin, which is un-edible. Then tie into bundles and blanch in very seasoned water or a court bouillon. Them cut the string and serve with hollandaise, glace in butter, or a la gratin. These days we peel and cook sous-vide. Typically 1% slat is a good start for seasoning, butter and maybe a sweetener. You could use brown sugar, honey, or maple sugar. Cooking is much by feel, but a good start is 85C  20 minutes for the ones that the stem is the size of a dime. 30 minutes for asparagus with a stem with the diameter of a sliver dollar. Once cooked can be grill and served with hollandaise. What do you do?

Cuban Roasted Pork- A story

It was mid June and my girlfriend Arolin asked about having a pig roast.  

I was born in Tampa, FL and my family is Cuban. So roasting a pig is a big part of my traditional culinary make-up.  As a young boy, my Abuelo Matilda (the name coming from him and I watching Harry Belafonte live on TV) began to teach me how to roast a whole pig the Cuban way. Once my grandfather moved to Tampa he had a roasting pit built in the back yard. That pit has been the center focus of Christmas and New Years for over 30 years. Ask any Cuban and they will talk about the Lechon, "Roast Pig", made for Noche Buena, 24^th December. 

The 24th of December is when we celebrate Christmas dinner. Roasting the pig began two weeks prior to Noche Buena.  For many years we had a family friend who would slaughter the pig and hang to age and firm up the meat. Two days prior to the 24th we would harvest the sour orange off the tree in my back yard to make the traditional Mojo.

This mojo is the major flavoring in making a Lechon. Once the pig reaches our home, we would create pockets with the tip of a kinfe into the ham and shoulder area. To then plunge smashed garlic and salt into. We would heavily season the pork with salt. The key is to marinate skin side down.  Abuelo always told me to be very careful not to pierce through the skin. By heavily salting the skin it would draw out moisture so to help achieve the crispy skin. Having crispy skin is very important, simply because its the best part.  After salting the pig, the prepared mojo is then poured over the entire pig and between the pockets.  The pig would then marinate for 2 days until the big day for roasting!

            As a child, sleep would not come lightly with the anticipation of starting the roast. Waking in the early hours we would to start the day long process.  We'd start by lighting the fire. My Abuelo would tell me that the fire was the most important part of cooking the pig, slow, low, and indirect heat was the key to success.  Once the we light the fire, you must let the ember turn grayish color, we lift the pig and place the pig in-between two large roasting racks on top of rebar. The pig is suspended the air from the direct fire.  The pig is always started skin side down to insure a slow render on the skin. After 2-3 hours the skin should be golden brown and ready to flip. Once flipped another 3 hours of slow roasting is needed.  When finished the meat should fall off the bone.

Needless to say, when Arolin eagerly asked to roast a pig I eagerly took the opportuntiy to share a piece of my childhood and Cuban Tradition.            

Up-holding my family traditions, I made some modification to my roasted pig. I began with finding a 40# pig from Vermont. I still seasoned my pig with a mojo but added some thyme and sage. The pit was a free-form structure made by my MIT housemates.  The day started as a small gathering that turned into a larger gathering of local cooks and MIT students talking about the science of food. We topped off the party with a left over beer keg, tomato corn salad, black beans, and yellow rice. A few Cuban cigars later, we all had a great time!

Traditional Mojo

3 cups Sour Orange Juice

10 cloves Garlic

½ Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. Oregano

2 Tsp. Cumin

¼ cup Salt

Or this is another sauce that could be used

Marinado de Batidora “Cuban Chimichurri Marinade”

1/2 bun Parsley

½ bun Cilantro

1/2 bun Oregano

3 ea. Bay leaf, fresh (dry ground)

6 cloves Garlic

1 med Onion

1 med Red Onion

6 whole Black peppercorns

1 c White Vinegar

3 C Olive Oil

Salt

Blend until smooth.

Belly Cure Black Bass

Sometimes we create new dishes or approaches out of want to change. This was out of need of using a product. After doing some research and talking with a co-worker. We decided to try a technique we read about on Ideas in Foods site. We wanted to see how the application of a cure pork product would influence the taste, texture, and aesthetics. In this test we use cured pork belly, Black bass fillet, and activa to bond the fish together. The first step is to remove the skin. Then split the Black Bass fillet down the center and remove all bones. Dust the two half with activa, glue the head to tail (ying and yang). Roll in plastic wrap and allow 2 hours to rest. Then wrap with cured belly with a light dusting in-between the belly and fish. Wrap the secure the bind of the activa.

Once Wrapped with belly, after one of resting.

toothsome

This is a slice, we found the flavor of the fish to be a little over powered by the cure belly. I feel we could have sliced the belly thiner. Also the fish had a slight, toothsome texture than normal. I think we need to re-look at the amount of the activa used. As the activa adds protein and could make in tough.

We decided to cook the log and found it to be a great application for this particular occasion. Even thou we were looking to serve raw, cooked was a great result. It gave me a different look for Black Bass and new ideas for plating. To cook; we placed the log into a 70C c-vap oven for 15 minutes, then finished by searing in a pan and butter basting.

Note- this could work with just about any fish, the best would be firm fatty fish.

Archer Red Wine Beef Shrort Ribs

Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs

12# Beef Short Rib, cut into 3' slabs

300g Prunes

300 ml Red wine

400g Onion, large dice

300g Carrots, batons

200g Turnips, large dice

250g Leeks, large dice

1# Smoked Beef Sausage

10oz Porchini Mushrooms, dried (soaked)

300g Panchetta, diced

1/2 # Marrow Bone, cut into chunks

2qt Veal Stock

1qt Beef Stock

150g Tomato Product

Thyme, Bayleaf, Parsely

150g Roux

-The day before soak the short ribs in 1 bottle red wine.

Toss the vegtables and marrow bones with salt and pepper. Roast in a 425F oven until well colored. 

Remove the short rib out of the wine, season and sear in a pan. Deglaze the pan with wine each batch of searing. Render the panchetta and remove. Add the tomato product and cooked until a paste. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Stri in the roux, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Place the meat and all vegtable into a roasting pan pour the liquid over to cover 3/4 of the way up the side of the meat. Bring to just a boil on the stove, cover with foil and brasie in an oven at 325F. This will take 3 to 3 1/2 hours, cook until tender.

Pork Belly "Ways"

Pork belly is something dear to many cooks hearts. I really love working with belly of pork or any belly. I think that the best way of showing it off is to brine, cure, slow-cook, roast, or smoke. Here are a few ways of treating belly.

This is the Sexy Pork Belly form Vermont.

• 

Not Pork- Lamb Belly

 This is cured pork belly, used to wrap terrine, monkfish tails, or roulades.

 

Moroccan Spiced Slow-roasted Pork belly with Tamrid Golden Raisin puree, pickled apple and grapes

 Slow-cooked Pork Belly, this one has been brined for 5 day 

then cooked sous-vide for 24 hours.

     Milk-fed Porchetta stuffed with mushroom spinach sausage,

 buckwheat polenta and blood orange marmalade.

 This is Slow-cooked Smokey Pork Belly, at Craigie we served the belly with braised persimmon, candied walnuts and maitaki mushrooms.

Basic Cure for Bacon

1 ea. 10# Pork Belly

360g Honey/maple syrup

200g Kosher Salt

200g brown Sugar

21g TCM

-Rub pork belly with mixture and place in a non-reactive container for 5-7 day. Flip and rub, with excess liquid produce by cure process in container, every other day. After, remove excess rub and air dry in refrigerator for 24 hour, next day cold smoke for 90 minutes. Or hot smoke until internal temp of 155 F. 

Note- the sweetners can be subsituted and herb/spices can be added.