We are now at weight loss of 24% for the smaller of the two, and 17.5% for the larger, started a day after the others. 

The two smaller ones (after 6.5 days) have lost 19% of their starting weight.  The larger has lost just over 11%.  Stay tuned!

And off we go!  On to the next interesting thing to try.  Right out of my latest gift book Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Poleyn is Duck Prosciutto.  Apparently very easy looking.  Of course...it is easy! 
Not to replicate the recipe here, I'll basically show this in photo stages.

The end result should be in about 7 days, or when my duck has lost about 30% of it's weight (which I'm assuming is hanging weight, not starting weight before the duck breast got bathed in a mound of kosher salt).

I've actually used two duck breasts.  The first, I didn't cover completely in salt, then panicked and cut in in two, and re-packed.  I'm thinking that this is going to be over-salted, so...I bought another duck breast.



Packed it into Salt:




And waited 24 hours.  What you see here is Duck Breast #2.  The others are already hanging.

Out of the salt, you can already see the deep red color that's developed.







Ok, so the pictures could have been better.




*Edit:  Forgot to add that I dusted the two smaller ones in white pepper, and the larger one in a white pepper, paprika combo before wrapping!

Next is to wrap in cheesecloth, tie, and weigh.  Since I'm determining the 30% weight loss while it's wrapped, I think that I need to do the initial weigh-in while it's wrapped.  1 lb 3/8 (463 grams, which is what I'm really using as a weight.

 




And finally, here they are!  Hanging away in the cool breezeway, with a special water-soaked Sham-Wow hanging along the wall.  That's my humidity test/provider.  I figure if the Sham-Wow dries out fast, then it's too dry.  Either way, it's providing some moisture. I think. 

According to Michael Ruhlman's blog, the temperature and humidity don't factor too much into the Duck Prosciutto, as it has such a short aging time. 

So, here they are hanging away.  Hopefully ready for tasting next week!





Toodles.

I really need to update!

Oh, the things one learns from experimentation!

First, we had the early spring decision to grow Pepperoncini Peppers.  Yum!  Then, we have the excitement of a nice, hot summer, which peppers love!  Finally, we have the harvest.  As a wise man once said "First you sow the seed.  Then you grow the seed.  Then you eat the seed."

Time to eat the seed!  



Plenty more of these babies coming too, so I can afford a little mess up.  Who doesn't love those nice, crisp, little salad adornments?  I mildly hot pepper, which when bitten in to gives a throat-gagging shot of spicy vinegar into the esophagus! 

After searching many internet sites and such, I decided to go with a recipe from ehow.com.

After hand harvesting (yep, no farm machinery here!), I washed the peppers, gave two little slits in each to allow the juices to flow in, and soaked in a brine solution for....oh, I think I gave it 16 hours or so.  One didn't look quite right, so he was a raw taste test specimen.  Rating...6?  Good, not bad.  Not hot.  Basically, a tough little pepper.   The cute little fella is here:


Whoa, I have a nice thumb! 

Since peppers float, they needed a little help in staying down.  I think that's where my Italian heritage comes in.



After brining these shiny little jewels of the clay pot, (at which point, they already looked and smelled better), it was time to bring them to their final resting place.  A tiny little jar.  They love it there.  Really.  No vegetable activists please.

So, according to the recipe, I mixed the vinegar, garlic, horseradish, sugar, and some water.  Cooked that a bit, and prepped my jars for canning.  I crammed the peppers into the jars (note, next time cram some more in), and added the pickling liquid stuff. 

In to the pressure cooker to hopefully not blow up my house!  No fears, all was well.  I processed for 35 minutes, as per my pressure cooker instructions.  After, the came out looking fab!



As you can see...1)  I didn't add enough peppers, and 2) I don't think I hand-tightened the bands enough.  I just know that I had more liquid in there than I ended up with!

After waiting one whole day (hey, I need to try them in order to improve for the next batch), it was time to crack open a jar.

They (again) look fantastic!



Problem is...they are MUSHY!  They taste ok, but they are MUSH.   The stems fall right off, and the peppers (still in there skins) are MUSH inside!

Time for some more research to figure out how to get that "authentic" texture.  Overall, a fun experiment, which hopefully provides better results next time!

Yes, it's that time of year again for all things patriotic.  And what's more American that Hot Dogs?  Well...red, white, & blue Hots, of course!  Simplicity at it's finest (One of my favorite quotes, from the movie Valley Girl). 

All you need are:

1) Some Zweigle's Red and White Hot Dogs (or any other brand, if they exist).




2)  Blue Food Coloring, and some water.  That's it!  Nothing more needed!  Simplicity at it's finest!

Add a good squirt or two of blue food coloring to your water.



Get your Hot Dogs open.  Red, White, & White.



Take one of the White Hots, and add it to your now blue water.



Let that baby soak for a bit.  I think that the hots in the natural casing take a bit longer to absorb the blue color., but when all is done, you have a beautiful blue hot dog! 

Time to get these puppies to the grill !



Step (whatever number we are on) is to NOT, I repeat NOT drop your hot dogs after removing from the grill.  Especially, the ONE solitary beautiful BLUE hot dog that you created.

Then again, where your guests may be squeamish about eating a blue hot dog, the family dog won't have any problem at all.  Even if it was dropped, and covered in grass clippings.

Grouper, served with green beans, and Hen of the Woods mushrooms!  Yum! 

I made a mistake in preparing my grouper tonight.   Don't get me wrong, it tasted great, but it wasn't what I was looking for! 
Exhibit 1.  Le Grouper:


One thing that I did differently from last time, was I ended up marinating the fish.  I really did not intend to do this, but....in the heat of the moment, that's what I did.  I wanted to sear the fish with a nice crust.  I mixed some flour, wasabi powder, and ground ginger together.   Then..THEN...the switch.  I added soy sauce.  Lots of soy sauce!  I stirred it all up, and plopped the fish in !  Yes!  Nooooooooo!  Too late now!  Deal.



Resigned to the fact that I'm not going to get that nice crispy coating that I wanted, I decided to pan sear it still, and then finish off in a 350 degree oven.  I did this until the fish hit 140 degrees.    A glorious picture of the pan (not) searing is shown thus:



Looks great kids, doesn't it!!?  Ok, maybe not.....yet.

On to the mushrooms!  I'm going to skip the whole green bean cooking thing.  Basically cooked green beans, salt, pepper, butter.  Simple yet delicious.  On to the mushrooms!  (again).

Our lovely little bunch of Hen of the Woods mushrooms:



For these, I just cooked per package instructions.  Some olive oil, garlic, shallots, and parsley.  I think that was it!  A bit bland I thought afterwards.  Maybe could have used a little something else.  Not sure yet.  I know that mushrooms can really soak up any flavors, so I was a bit hesitant.


When all was said and done, the finished product arrived!  Not too bad after all !

Going with what I think are some of the usual spices, and one oddball..Fenugreek! 





I used the Fenugreek very sparingly.  I love it's nice maple-scent, and thought that it would go great with my spiced rum experiment!  Oh, and Experiment it is!  There are quite a few different recipes out there, so I decided to combine a few and see what happens.  The Rum being used is one bottle of Trader Vic's.

All of the above spices were used.  Well, not in those amounts necessarily!  I used a sliver of the ginger, a wisp of the fenugreek, all of the vanilla beans (split), the orange zest, cinnamon stick, then some allspice, black peppercorns, and cloves!  That's it!

From what I have read, things can overspice the mix very quickly!  I anticipate pulling the cinnamon stick tomorrow.  Maybe the ginger too...not sure yet.  The vanilla is sticking around for the long haul ! 

Day 1 has begun! 

Courtesy of a find at Wegmans, of a Cape Malay Curry sauce pouch! 

Apparently a Cape Malay Curry is a Coconut-Ginger South African curry.

First step...decide what ingredients to add.  Since I have no clue at all as to what South Africans eat, it's up to a bit of experimentation. 

Ingredients:
Cubed up chicken breast
a variety of sweet peppers
Baby Bok Choy
and some dried Paddy Straw mushrooms, which I've never heard of before (and I have at least 3 mushroom books here).

ON TO THE COOKING!!!!!!  (sorry, it's the 2nd blog post this week, and I get carried away).

First step, cut up the chicken breast into neat little dice-sized cubes.  Into a pot of about 5 TBS of olive oil these go.  Some salt and pepper and let those suckers sizzle.  Sizzle suckers, sizzle!.  Once the chicken is mostly cooked through, I take it out, and add the peppers.  Let those suckers sizzle a bit too.  Add the some chopped up Baby Bok Choy, the (now reconstituted mushrooms) and cook that for a minute or so.  Then to add back the chicken and slice open the bag of curry sauce.

Hmm......  smells kind of good!

Better put some rice on. Texmati Rice to be specific.

I put the a lid on the chicken, lower the heat, and wait.  Oh, and cook the rice.

Excelllllllllent!

After years of hearing the Cento commercial on the radio during the Sounds of Sinatra radio show every Sunday, one thing always stuck out....the singing of Tunaaaaaa Capelliiini.    Well, it just so happened that I was given a can of Ortiz Bonito Del Norte tuna, and from then on the recipe just had to happen.   So..where to find this recipe.  Well, how about...........yes........ the Cento website!  Of course! 

There, the recipe for Capellini with Tuna and Anchovy Sauce was listed.  Yes, I had Anchovies laying around.  In a jar.  Ready to go.  The entire recipe is just a few ingredients:

5 tbsp Cento Imported Olive Oil
1 dried Cento Hot Chili Pepper, diced (optional)
1 oz Cento Flat Anchovies
2 tsp Bellino Minced Garlic
2 - 28 oz Cento San Marzano Peeled Tomatoes, hand-crushed
2 - 5 oz Cento Tuna in Olive Oil
1 lb Anna Capellini

Ok, so I didn't have San Marzano tomatoes, but I did have another brand sitting around. 

This recipe was halved, as I only had 1 can of tuna fish.  Good tuna fish.  Which, on that note...tasted about the same as cheaper tuna fish.  When cooked in a tomato sauce, I'm thinking that any darn white tuna would do.  but I digress.  On to the food!

I also have lots and lots of dried peppers, courtesy of my garden.  For this recipe I used two of my cherry tomatoes.  Nice and spicy.  Overall a very very easy dish of which my wife said  (in this order)
1) It's ok, I guess
2) I'm really hungry
3) This is growing on me.

Yes, she went back for seconds
 
Le finished product: