Pastourma Takes Patience (παστουρμά)

On many occasions I've referred to the Greek eating experience as being centered around many sample plates of foods that are shared over drinks, conversation among family and friends. Greek cuisine has alot of appetizers, usually simply prepared but the array is great and the diversity even more so.

One facet of Greek appetizers or "the meze" is the use of delicatessen meats. I remember when I was young and my mom would prepare for an entire week to prepare mezedes for the onslaught of family and friends who would drop by our house on the occasion of my father's nameday, St. Nicholas.

It's very common to see salami and other cold cuts on offer at a buffet table or as part of an array of appetizers like cheeses, bread, toursi (pickled vegetables) and the usual dips (like Tzatziki).

I've always liked deli meats be it Greek or non-Greek but today and in the future, I'm going to showcase some of Greece's deli and cured meats.

There's Kavourma from northern Greece, the Cretan delicacy of Apaki, Louza from the Cycladic Islands, Siglino from down south Mani way and today's feature, Pastourma.

From my readings, Pastourma comes from Armenian cuisine but it's widely enjoyed by Turks, some Arab countries and of course, Greece.

Pastourma made it's way to Greece through the migration of Greeks who once resided in Constantinople and Asia Minor. Some of the best Pastourma I had was when I visited Istanbul (Constantinople) a couple of years ago.

The Greeks of Asia Minor have left a permanent stamp on Greek cuisine and as many would agree, our cuisine is richer for it.

What's Pastourma? It's the grand-daddy of Pastrami. It used to be cured by frontier horsemen who would carry a type of Pastourma in their saddles during their long treks away from home. In essence, it's a beef jerky but now will get into the nitty-gritty.

Pastourma, it is said was once made of camel meat but that could be either urban legend or a fact of days of yore. Today's Pastourma is mostly made from different cuts of beef. For this recipe, I used an inside round cut of beef...lean, no silverskin and ideal size for some who wants to enjoy it with family and friends.

Pastourma takes about a month to salt cure and dry age to perfection. From my research, there are some quick-cure recipes out there but it appears the slow method garners the best results.

Pastourma is not for everybody. The crust is known as "tsimeni" or "trigonela" and it's a paste that contains garlic and spices, the predominant one being fenugreek.

Personally, I love the aroma, the taste of Pastourma. For those not in the know, fenugreek is a spice used heavily in the Orient it's from Methi leaves, which my Indian friends will attest to using in their dishes quite often.

Pastourma is best when it's sliced thinly, it has that texture of prosciutto or bresaola, very tender and buttery kind of experience. In it's rawest presentation, it's served thinly sliced on a plate with some bread and cheese and washed back with an Ouzo or Tsipouro aperitif. I've also found dry Greek reds to pair well with Pastourma.

Pastourma also makes for a wonderful omelet, which often is served as a dinner option for those late night Greek meals.

The most famous use of Pastourma has to be Caesaria Pie, which contains a filling of pastourma slices, Kasseri chese and often tomato.

Pastourma can be found at Middle Eastern markets, some Greek food marts sell it, Armenian and Turkish patronized stores will also certainly carry it. If you're in a city or town that is nowhere near any of these stores, no worries....the home version is here.

Once again, my core belief in food is sharing and I've held no recipe back and nor will I ever. I present to you Pastourma, the home-cured version...enjoy!

Pastourma (παστουρμά)
(recipe adapted from Mark Marcarian)
33 days preparation

1 piece of inside round beef (about 2 lbs)
approx. 1/4 cup sea salt (granulated)

Tsimeni
3 Tbsp. of ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp. red pepper (cayenne)
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
3-4 cloves of minced garlic
approx. 1 cup of water
cheesecloth

1. Ask your butcher for an inside round cut of beef, lean and no silverskin. Rinse and pat-dry your meat and place in a container that will fit in your fridge. Using an upholstery needle, thread some butcher's twine through one end of the meat and tie a knot so that you may later hang the meat for curing.
2. Cover the the entire area of meat with sea salt and place in your vessel. Cover with plastic wrap and use either a brick or 2-3 cans of tomatoes to weigh/press down on the meat. Place in the fridge for 3 days and turn once each day.
3. Upon completion of day 3, rinse the meat of the salt in cold water and allow it to then soak in cold water for an hour. Allow the water to drain off the meat (30 minutes) and press between some cloth towels to remove any remaining moisture.
4. Wrap the meat with one layer of cheesecloth and hang in a cool, airy place to dry for 2 weeks. My Pastourma was hung to dry in a cool, dry cellar that was 15-18C and humidity of about 60-65%. Check on your Pastourma from time to time, you might get a slight foul smell but that's okay...change the cheesecloth ( I did 3 times).
   
5. After 2 weeks, remove the cheesecloth and rinse and pat dry. Now mix all the ingredients (except the water) for the Tsimeni in a large bowl. Slowly add the water a bit at a time while you mix the ingredients until a thick, gloopy paste has formed. You'll use anywhere between 1/2 to almost 1 cup of water (the Tsimeni should be thick so that it adheres to the meat).
   
6. Put on some gloves and slather the meat with your Tsimeni mixture. Take your Tsimeni-coated meat back to where you hung the meat and allow to cure for another 2 weeks.
7. After a total of approx. 33 days, your Pastourma is ready to be eaten. Cut the Pastourma in half and slice thinly against the grain from the inside towards the outer, tapering end of the meat. You may also refrigerate or freeze your Pastourma for future use. Wrap well in plastic wrap and that for 5 minutes to soften and go on and slice what you need before placing back in the freezer.
8. Serve thin slices at room temperature as part of an appetizer plate with some cheese, some bread and an aperitif like Ouzo or a dry Greek red wine.
   

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© 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

Ouzo-Cured Salmon

One of my new blog buddies is Laurie of Tastes Like Home, Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska. She recently shared how she cures salmon and I was immediately drawn to this method of treating salmon.

The curing method has it's origins in Sweden and the end result is called Gravlax. I love fish, love salmon, love smoked salmon and Gravlax. It was a no-brainer for me to want to play around with this approach to salmon.

Gravlax literally means "buried salmon" and the name refers to the traditional method of preparation for this food: fresh salmon was heavy salted and buried in dry sand to ferment and cure. Most Gravlax recipes involve sandwiching two fillets together with the dill and salt mixture being in the middle. I cured just one fillet and the result still was excellent.

One of my sources of new recipe ideas is to peruse the menus of Greek restaurants and often they can be a good source of inspiration for a new dish.

I've seen that a few restaurants that are reinvigorating Greek cuisine have offerings of salmon cured in Ouzo. Laurie armed me with the knowledge on how to do this.

One of the goals of this blog is to show my readers how I think Greek food should look and taste, share this rich cuisine with all of you and show that Greek food is much more than just Souvlaki and Spanokopita.

Salmon is not a fish native to the Mediterranean waters but it is often found and sold in Greece, usually imported from Scandanavia.

Here, I'm taking a non-traditonal Greek ingredient, a foreign cooking method and applying Greek flavours to it.

Ouzo perfumes the aroma of the salmon, sea salt reunites with the flesh of the fish, dill heightens the flavour of the salmon.

Curing a salmon was remarkably easy. The key to this dish is using only the freshest of fish and trusting that your final result will turn out fine and that your going to slide a piece of salmon in your mouth and savour it's oily, rich flavour.

My guinea pigs for my Ouzo-cured salmon were my parents. You should know that Greeks don't take too well to their meat being rare, they have an aversion to sushi and question any meat that hasn't been licked by the flames of fire.

What was their reaction to my Ouzo-cured salmon? "When are you making it again"?

Ouzo-Cured Salmon
(ingredient listing per pound of salmon)

1 lb. fresh salmon fillet, pin-bones removed
2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
2 Tbsp. sugar 2 tsp. cracked black pepper
1 tsp. Boukovo (red chile flakes)
1 tsp. grated orange zest
1 good shot of Ouzo
plastic cling-wrap
a heavy weight

1. If using a wild, freshly caught salmon, ensure that you have frozen the fish for alt least 7 days. Otherwise, most commercially sold salmon has been frozen at some point and you're safe from any existing parasites.
2. Although you've bought a fillet of salmon, inspect the salmon visually and with your fingers to see if any pin pones were missed by your fish monger. If you find any, you can used needle-nose pliers to remove them.
3. Place the salmon on a large piece of plastic wrap (about three to four times the length of the fillet) with the skin side down, pink flesh facing up.
4. Put the salt, sugar, and black pepper, zest, chili flakes into a bowl and mix until evenly distributed. Reserve.
5. Pour the shot of Ouzo over the fillet.
6. Spoon the mixture onto the exposed salmon flesh, making sure to cover as much of the exposed areas as possible.
7. Place the dill on top of the salmon. If the dill is too long to fit on top of the fillet, then snap off the stems or fold the dill over. If you have 2 fillets, place the second one flesh side down on top of the dill (making a sandwich of the fillets).
   
8. Wrap the salmon up well and taut with the plastic wrap and place in a vessel. The container is there to catch the juices that will seep out of the salmon during the curing process.
9. Place a heavy weight on top of the salmon ( I use a large can of plum tomatoes) and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, maximum 3 days (the longer, the better the flavour).
10. Unwrap the salmon, remove the dill and and rinse off the salt mixture and then pat dry with paper towels.
11. Use a sharp knife to thinly slice your salmon.
12. Serve it as an open-faced sandwich, as an appetizer or a first course.
    

Saucisson of Pork Tenderloin

Bulletin - Dec. 20, 2007

Hi Folks, I've been doing some reading on home dry salting and curing and yes, end result can be a bit salty.

What you can do is soak the tenderloins in warm water(80F) for a couple of hours and some salt will draw out.

The meat looks a little grey on the outside but the deep red colour remains in the middle, it's softer and a delight to eat.

Finally, towel dry the pork and once dried, re-wrap with the original tea towels and refrigerate for future nibbling.




HOLY $#!@.....IT WORKED!

Excuse my exuberance but I was "iffy" on if this cured pork tenderloin recipe would turn out well and it did!

I will try anything (almost) anything once, be it ceviche, carpaccio, prosciutto, braesola, tartares, sushi....bring it on!

Now I can add Jacques Pepin's Saucisson of Pork Tenderloin to the roster of adventurous eats. I followed his instructions verbatim and this was uncharted territory for me but I will relate my experiences from preparation to the final, delectable tasting of this wonderful pork.

Before I proceed, let me emphasize that if you're the type that's sheepish about cured meats or any other food that hasn't been cooked using heat, then move on...this post isn't for you. If, on the other hand you're like me, daring and willing to try something new to add a new taste experience, then stick around!

If you're the type of person that loves sausage (like me) but you're also watching your weight, this could be the answer for you. The Saucisson is a salty cured meat...like a prosciutto but it's also lean as it's a cured pork tenderloin. Just as Jacques Pepin recommends, have it with some buttered bread and a bottle of red wine and damn was this tasty!

(For the record, I will be buying some more pork tenderloin this weekend for curing)

You can save & follow Jacques method as I did but here's how I exactly made it (with some explanations he doesn't provide).

Saucisson of Pork Tenderloin

• 2 pork tenderloins, each about 1 lb., with the silver skin removed and cut off about 2-3 inches off the ends (cook the ends as Jacques recommends as the ends are thinner, become saltier and hard and barely edible)
• 1 cup kosher salt (or 1/2 cup Morton Tender Quick Curing Salt)
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp of Cognac
• 2 Tbsp of fresh cracked black pepper
• 2 Tbsp of herbs de provence

1. Put the salt and brown sugar rinto into a plastic zip-lock bag large enough to hold the 2 tenderloins and mix well.
2. Add the tenderloins into the bag, force out any air, seal the bag and gently mus the bag around to coat the meat with the salt/sugar mixture. Refrigerate overnight (or 12 hours).
3. After 12 hours or so, remove the tenderloins from the bag (discard the bag and contents) and wipe them dry with paper towels.
4. Rub the meat with Cognac then roll them in cracked black pepper and sprinkle the herbs de provence all over the tenderloins.
5. Wrap each piece of meat in a cotton cloth and use butcher's twine to to wrap and secure the cloth tightly.
   
6. Hang the tenderloins in a cool cellar or do what I did...hang it in my fridge. I cleared enough space between the salad crisper and the the shelf above it. I then tied a long piece of butcher's twine around the shelf. I then attached twine to each tenderloin, looped it through the twine that was wrapped around the shelf and tied the 2 twines. Now my tenderloins were hanging, air curing in my fridge.
7. The tenderloins will dry out in 5 -6 weeks, even less if the tenderloins are smaller than a pound each (use less salt as well if they are less than the 1 lb.). Slice thin, enjoy with buttered good bread and polish off a bottle of red!