May 11th - White Beans with Pancetta and Foccacia

I had started some pancetta and knew it would be ready this past weekend. I couldn’t find large pieces of pork belly, so I had to make do with a couple of smaller ones. I didn’t use enough garlic in my last batch of pancetta and it did taste a little off, but was mostly fine. I use the basic pancetta recipe from Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s Charcuterie but like most recipes, I’ve altered it a little to suit my own tastes. This go around I went a little overboard on the garlic and you could smell it through the bag as it sat in the fridge (I normally keep it in a zip lock as it cures). After curing for seven days, I washed off the cure (and garlic) and let them sit out to dry out some. Despite the intense amount of garlic, these ones came out quite nicely. The color is beautiful and the meat really tastes perfumed. Strangely, the garlic isn’t overwhelming and seems to tame the bay leaf which sometimes seems to strong. I made a pot of white beans with some cubed pancetta, onions, rosemary and parsley. On the side I made a batch of focaccia topped with basil and garlic. Beans and bread is still one of my favorite foods and this didn’t disappoint me.

While I was cooking I had a bottle of the current Full Sail Brewmaster’s Reserve Brown Ale. It’s a really impressive beer. It has full, smooth malt profile with a slightly dry, bitter chocolate note in the finish. The hops play a background role in this beer. It’s all about the malt in this one. It used to be available year round but got dropped from the line up many years ago, because, unfortunately, brown ale doesn’t sell well in the US. (Too low in hops? Too malty?). It would have been a fantastic beer with food, but it didn’t last long. At 6% alcohol, it’s bigger than many English examples, but it’s still an easy drinking beer.

With dinner I actually had a Hair of the Dog Fred, in honor of Fred Echkhardt’s birthday. This bottle had been lingering on the shelves of a supermarket for some time and was showing some age (not in a good way), but it was still a remarkably complex beer. Even though it’s intense and rich, it was a nice match with earthy, comfort food quality of the white beans and focaccia.

January 11th

January 11th

Even though the stove got fixed two days ago, this was the first day where I felt like I could cook whatever I wanted. I had cooked Doro Wat two days ago, but by the time I had reassembled the stove and had it working, I felt pressured for time so it wasn’t as realizing a meal as I would have liked. I had been dreaming about clams and thought about going to get some even though my last appointment at work was downtown which meant I wouldn’t being passing by the store where I normally by seafood. (I’m very particular about seafood and only trust about two or three places around town.)

Luckily my wife called while I was at my last appointment and asked if I needed anything from. I told her I really wanted clams and she agreed, so she went to go get those and some crusty bread. I got home and started to figure out how I was going to cook them. There seems to be a tradition of using pork in various seafood dishes in Portugal and Spain. I’m not sure if it’s consistent, but there do seem to be a fair amount of seafood dishes that have sausage or ham in them. Although it seems unusual at first, it is a good mix and I’m very fond of it as well. The Iberian Peninsula is not alone in this combo, but seems to have more dishes like this than other areas. Perhaps I’ve simply noticed more in Spanish and Portuguese cookbooks.

So I browned some diced home made pancetta in a pan, and then added some onion and later some garlic. I deglazed the pan with white wine and then added a little tomato paste to give more body to the sauce. I threw in a little thyme, salt and black pepper and let them reduce for a few minutes before adding the clams. I had the heat at medium and the clams steamed open in about three minutes. I would have added some parsley but it was dark and muddy outside and I didn’t feel like grabbing a flashlight to go harvest some, so I just ladled the clams up into bowls and served thick slices of crusty bread on the side. The clams were terrific but the best part is always the broth that you soak up with the bread.

Although it’s not traditional, I opened red wine with it. With the tomato and pancetta, the dish has enough body to match a red wine. A good crisp white would do as well. The wine I chose was a 2005 Step Road Black Wing Shiraz from Australia. Shiraz is the same grape as Syrah and has been grown extensively in Australia for decades. The Australian versions tend to be less austere in their youth than the ones from the Rhone valley in France. (This is a general rule. There are huge, tannic versions from Australia just as there are lighter, easier drinking versions from France.) This one is a medium bodied, with berry notes and some peppery, spicy notes. If the clams had no tomato and pancetta, the wine may have overwhelmed the clams, but the broth was hearty enough to make it all work. The wine is a good value at $10 at the local supermarket and it’s something I’d look for again. The whole meal made me realize how nice it was to have a stove back and be able to cook whatever I wanted.

Quick pasta for a weeknight

I had a bad day at work today. Not incredibly bad, but nothing really went right and I ended up going in early and leaving a little late. Still, I wanted a real meal when I got home but I didn’t feel like doing a lot of cooking. Also, I’ve been getting small amounts of grief from one of the maybe six people who read this blog. The complaint was that I don’t write enough entries and there was a mild implication that maybe I skip a lot of nights because I don’t cook something “real” every night, so here’s an example of what I cook when I’m busy but need to eat.

There are a whole variety of pastas that I can make by the time the water boils and the pasta is done. Tonight’s is one of my favorites: pancetta, garlic and a pinch of dried red chile tossed with spaghetti with a sprinkle of parmesan on top. I make my own pancetta, which is actually incredibly easy to do, roughly following Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s recipe form Charcuterie. I don’t bother with the drying. I cure it for about 7-10 days and then cut it into pieces and freeze it. Even with this shortcut method, it’s considerably better than any pancetta you can buy, unless you buy from a real butcher who makes it properly.

So if you have the pancetta, it’s simple. First bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. Next, cube the pancetta (I use about 2-3 ounces for two servings) and then brown it in a pan over medium heat to cook it and render the fat. I normally pour the pork fat off and replace it with olive oil. But that’s dependant on your cholesterol and how much you want to infuriate your doctor. Throw in 3-5 cloves of minced garlic and brown it. Throw in a little crushed, dried red chile and turn the pan off. Cook the pasta, and save about 3-4 oz of the cooking water when you drain it. Toss the pasta and the pancetta and garlic mixture. Add some pasta water to make it all slick and easy to blend. Season it with salt, if it needs it, and some fresh black pepper. Add some parsley if you have it, but tonight I didn’t bother. Dish it out and sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan. Done. Takes about 15-20 minutes and most of that is waiting for the pasta.

Need a vegetable? Have a salad on the side, or do what we did tonight. Have a good piece of fruit for dessert. We had a tiny amount of the Stilton from last Friday left over so we sliced another two pears and divided the cheese. It’s a great dessert and you can’t beat how easy it is.

What to drink with it? Well frankly, whatever you have that won’t get in the way. Simple is the way to go. Tonight I chose a homebrewed dry Irish stout. Stout is very misunderstood. Most traditional stouts, like Guinness and Beamish, are actually fairly low in alcohol. The roast barley gives it a big flavor but many people confuse that with big alcohol. Dry stout is an incredibly food friendly beer. Stout and pasta may not seem ideal, but it was a hectic day, a quick dinner and frankly, it was a fine match. The dry roast quality of the stout cut through the fattiness of the pancetta and cheese and was malty enough for the garlic and chile. Simple easy and dinner was ready in less than 20 minutes. I even had time to start curing another piece of pork belly for more pancetta while it was cooking. Beat that. Cooking a real meal doesn’t have to be hard and it sure beats using a jar of insipid tomato sauce.