spicy pork rillettes

This is a Spanish-style porc rillettes (manteca colorada) from Jennifer McLagan's stellar book Fat. It's basically rillettes (slow-cooked pork belly, which is shredded potted and covered in fat — see another version or with duck) with the addition of paprika. I used sweet Spanish paprika, hot Hungarian paprika, and added some merquén ahumado, a wonderful smoked chili pepper. The result was delicious.

carnitas

I've preparing for a busy Fall so I have been trying out things that I can make in larger batches and freeze, and I have also been on a taco kick (been buying whole chickens, grinding up the meat for tacos and freezing the raw meat in small portions, rendering the fat for something delicious in the future and making stock to have on hand). The weeks of my farmer's market are numbered, so I bought a bone-in pork shoulder (just over 3lbs) and made carnitas.

I seared the meat on both sides, which had been salted a couple of hours before, in bacon grease. I then ground up one dried ancho chili with a tablespoon or so of cumin, and added that, two bay leaves, a stick of cinnamon, a quartered onion, five or six cloves of sliced garlic, and five dried cayenne peppers to the pot. I then added enough water to cover and a pinch of salt. This I cooked in the oven at 325ºF (160ºC) for about four hours (I removed the cinnamon halfwat through as it was pungent and didn't want it do dominate; this worked well). Here was the result:

 I removed the meat and strained the liquid; then shredded the pork.

Once shredded, the meat was tossed with the braising liquid and pout back in the oven for a few minutes. The carnitas were delicious with diced onion, cilantro and jalapenos; I forgot to add lime, but I think that this would have brightened the flavor a bit.

pâté de campagne

Last time that I made pâté de campagne I didn't have a source of caul fat, that gorgeous membrane surrounding the internal organs. This time, living in Chicago, I did. Above is the terrine with a caul fat lining ready to be packed with the pâté mixture. As with last time, pork liver was hard to find and I substituted (veal liver this time, beef liver last time).

The caul fat held everything together beautifully and the pâté was firm, moist and delicious. (This is, once again, a mostly-faithful following of a recipe of Jennifer McLagan's). I served this with chervil, Colman's mustard and cornichons.

Japadog, Vancouver

Okonomi dog at Japadog — Kurobuta sausage, Japanese mayonnaise, Okonomiyaki sauce, bonito flakes and fried cabbage.

Amazing. Simply Amazing.

kimchi jjigae

I recently made kimchi that was about equal parts burdock (gobō), carrot and napa cabbage. I also included dried shrimp for the first time. Like adding anchovies, it adds a je ne sais quoi to the kimchi: you don't notice the shrimp, but it improves the flavor.

I asked a friend how to make kimchi jjigae, a soup made with kimchi.

I sautéed some cubes of pork belly in sesame oil (my friend suggested bacon or spam, and I had belly in the freeezer with is just uncured, unsalted bacon) and took them out. I then added a good deal of kimchi and sautéed that. I added water, cooked for a bit and added the pork and some cubed tofu. My friend suggested dashida, which I didn't have, so I threw in a sqaure of kombu (kelp) and two anchovies. I also didn't have hot pepper paste so I squirted in a nice dose of sriracha. I let that cook on lowish until my brown rice (started while the pork was getting its first cooking) was done.

And it is delicious. The pork belly soaked up so much flavor. The broth is deep red, like a tomato sauce. And not having scallions, I topped it with pickled ramps.

rillettes de porc

Made rillettes de porc in the same style as the duck rillettes I made a few weeks back. I was very happy with how they came out. Marinated 1½ pounds of pork belly with allspice, one star anise, lemon peel, coriander seeds, a small stick of cinnamon, peppercorns and some read wine. I seared it, cooked it at 275º for 3 hours and I had a cup of slow-roasted pork belly ready to be shredded and packed into pots.