Iberian Acorn Ham

Last month, just in time for Christmas, my dear friend Nuria of Spanish Recipes sent me a package containing vacuum-sealed Iberian Acorn Ham. For those not in the know, Iberian Acorn Ham is a cured ham which is only produced in Spain the meat comes from free-range hogs that feed on only what's in the wild, including acorns.

Most of you are familiar with prosciutto but I urge to look for and try a few slices of Iberian ham. It's flavour can be described as buttery, a slight tang to the taste and a warm, brown finish as it melts in your mouth.

Iberian ham is best served when brought to room temperature and little accoutrement is needed with this fine product.

Here, I cut up some small logs of Greek Manouri cheese, wrapped the ham around it, added some greens for colour and contrast and served this with a pickled cherry pepper from our family's cellar.

No olive oil is needed here (as the ham is quite oily) but I dressed this appetizer with some lemon zest and freshly cracked black pepper. Don't forget that in the background stands oneof my mom's homemade and delicious bread rolls.

Nuria, thank you so much for your generosity, your warm friendship and always delicious food on your blog. I urge all of you to pay a visit to Nuria's site, tell her "Peter sent ya" and only visit her site on a full stomach, otherwise you'll be instantly hungry.



If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.blogspot.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author. © 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

Preserving Grape Vine Leaves

First off, allow me to wish all the dads out there a Happy Father's Day and may you never EVER again receive the gift of an ugly neck tie!

Next, a little follow up. Some people have been wondering about Petimezi, which I used in a glaze for my grilled quail.

Petimezi is made from the Must of grapes, during the harvest period. It can be found in a jar in better Greek markets, it's known as Saba with the Italians and one can often find or ask for "grape syrup" at a middle eastern market. All are one and the same.

Many of you read my blog as you love and enjoy Greek food. You also know that Greeks cook alot using grape vine leaves.

Many of us will go to a market and easily purchase a jar of these tender leaves which are packed in a brined solution. Some are fortunate enough to be able to have a local source of fresh grape vine leaves, which are used to make a Greek fave, Dolmades

There are two paths one can take to preserving fresh grape vine leaves: one is to freeze them and the other is to jar your own. For those that prefer to freeze them, Lulu at Mama's Taverna has a wonderful, easy method to which you can follow.

My "mama" likes to jar her own. It's been years since we've jarred our own grape vine leaves, due in large part to fear of harvesting grape vine leaves that might have been sprayed with pesticides.

One of the few positive initiatives of Mayor David Miller has been to ban the use of pesticides in the city. Rejoice...fresh grape vine leaves are back!

I've featured Dolmades on my blog and you can have a peek here or if that won't convince you, take a look at my friends' who loved my mom's recipe...it's a keeper.

Pixie's Dolmades

White On Rice Couple's Dolmades

Closest Cooking Kevin's Dolmades

Jenn, the Leftover Queen's Dolmades

Now let's jar our own fresh grape vine leaves.

The best time to pick these leaves are in the Spring. You want to pick large leaves (easier to roll dolmades) and the leaves will still be tender.

If you're having a peek at the recipe, you'll see what appears to be a large amount of grape leaves but no worries. For anyone that's bought jarred grape leaves from the store, you'll know that there's always some ripped and torn leaves in the jar. The home made ones are no different, there's some wastage.

Jarring Fresh Grape Vine Leaves

6 medium Sterilized Mason jars
approx 360 fresh grape vine leaves, stems snipped
1 cup pickling salt
12 cups of water
1 egg

1. Wash and pat dry your grape vine leaves and then divide them into piles of 20. Roll each pile like a cigar or multi-leaved dolma and place three rolls into each jar.
2. In a large pot, add your water and pickling salt and bring to a boil. In order to test if your brine solution is salty enough, carefully drop an egg into the brine. If the egg floats, then your brine ratio is suffice.
3. Take your brine off the heat and carefully pour the solution into each jar, enough to cover your grape vine leaves. When you're done filling up all the jars, pour more brine into any jars that have absorbed the liquid.
4. By this time, you will have noticed that the brine has changed the colour of your leaves from a vibrant green to olive hue. It's perfectly normal.
5. Using a tea towel, place the lids on each of the jars and tighten. A seal should form for each jar.
6. Store in your cellar for up to one year.
   

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!
   

Pickled Red Cherry Peppers

One of my favourite times of the year us autumn. It's mild, the evenings are cool and comfy, Canada's crops are up for harvesting and one seems to savour each day as you know winter comes all to quick.

With autumn also comes preserving, canning, pickling, jarring, salting, curing, smoking, drying. All of these methods of preserving foods were a necessity to survive the winter. Today's generation of kids does not know what life is/was like without a TV remote and all of us do not know what life is like without a fridge.

Preserving captures the essence of food. It's trapped in time, suspended - on "lay away" until desired. Through the course of autumn, I'll show you some of the ways our family preserves foods.

Today I'm showing you one of my favourites. Pickled red cherry peppers. They can be found hot and sweet and we pickle both. This pickled pepper was introduced to our family by my Aunt Aphrodite. To this date, she's one of the best cooks I've known in our family.

This recipe is not difficult and the ingredients are simple. The flavour is in the pepper. Like any direction for pickling, ensure your jars are clean & sterile, use new jar seals each year and you won't fail. Go get a bushel of Thea Dita's red cherry peppers. Have it as a side with a Fasoulada (bean soup) or Fakkes (lentil soup) or as part of your spread of Greek winter mezedes.

Pickled Red Cherry Peppers

1 large pot
1 dozen medium-sized mason jars (with lids and seals)
1 bushel of sweet or hot red cherry peppers
5 cups of white wine vinegar
3/4 cup of pickling salt
15 cups of water
1 heaping Tbsp. of whole black peppercorns
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1. Sterilize your mason jars. Click here for a easy to understand run-down.
2. Cut/trim the the stems of the peppers and soak and rinse the peppers. Allow the water the drip dry in a large basin sink.
   
3. Into your large pot, add all the ingredients (except the peppers) and bring to a boil.
4. Add the peppers in batches. As soon as you see a rolling boil, start a 4 minutes count and then remove the peppers for jarring. Repeat with remaining batches until the peppers are all boiled. Contents of the jar should just reach the neck. Pickled jars need what's called "head space".
   
5. You may try and stuff as many peppers as you can into each jar. Pour pickling juice into each jar of peppers. When done, have a look at each jar to see if more pickling juice needs to be poured in. Sometimes the peppers absorb the juice. Each jar should should have submerged peppers in pickling juice.
6. Using paper towel, wipe the rim of the jar of any excess liquid. Place seals on all the jars and tighten the metal screw bands.
   
7. Within a 1/2 hour, press your finger on each lid to see if a seal has been created. If a seal has not been created, read this and review your process and try again with a new seal on the jar.
   

Preserving Roasted Red Peppers

At the request of my Birkenstock-wearing gal-pal Katerina of Daily Unadventures in Food, I am posting my family's method of preserving roasted peppers. We employ this method fully in September when local Ontario red peppers are in season but we have also done this when say, other peppers are on sale and one can roast, preserve and eat at a later date.

If you recall, my parents come from Florina, (northern) Greece and the denizens eats lots, I mean LOTS of peppers. Living in Canada means that we rely on imports to augment our short Canadian growing season and therefore, autumn preserving is that much more important.

Let me be blunt, I really could care less for the jarred red peppers. I too find them acidic or sometimes too briny.

I prefer roasted red peppers and you can enjoy them 365 days year. How? Freeze'em!

Preserving Roasted Red Peppers

1. Set your BBQ/grill to high. One can use the stove top but the smokiness of the peppers will be absent.
2. Char your peppers all around. If you're charring large batches, place them in a large roasting pan to sit and sweat. If small batches, place the charred peppers in a plastic bag to sweat.
3. When the peppers have cooled, start packing them in zip lock bags with their charred skins still on them. This seems to protect the peppers from freezer burn.
   
4. Squeeze any air out of the zip-lock bags and seal.
5. Label your bags (hot, sweet) and the date they were frozen.
   

Arrange your peppers on a plate, salt them and pour very good extra virgin olive on them.