Maple and Citrus Cured Salmon (Gravlax Recipe)

Gravlax is the term for fish (generally salmon) that is cured with salt, sugar, dill and can include alcohol or other ingredients. Like so many food-related subjects, there are purists and then people who are more liberal with their definitions. I’ve always been pretty liberal…

This is super-easy to make and tastes awesome too. My best advice is to buy the best piece of fish you can afford (both from a flavor and sustainable-basis). You can use the Oceanwise website to help find sustainable options.

Herbes Salées (Salt Herb Preserve) – Recipe and How-To

We’re going to start our roundup of weekend preserving recipes (there are 19 and counting – so the rest of the month will be an abundance of how-to’s and recipes) with Herbes Salées (Salted Herbs). This was one of the most requested items between Facebook and the comments of yesterday’s posts asking what you wanted to learn about. It’s also one of the easiest to explain and as we recover from a long weekend in the kitchen, I’m not shy on looking for the easy way out today.

Herbes Salées are made around the world. My influence is from the Acadians in Nova Scotia.

How to Make Breakfast Sausage Patties (Charcutepalooza)

This was our first attempt at breakfast sausage patties – I`m not sure I was thrilled with the results though I will definitely make these again and learned a lot in the process – part of which was just how easy these are to make.

Here`s what I found interesting:

It was surprisingly easy to take apart 5 pounds of butt roast and turn it into chuck using only a carving knife. I thought it was going to take a whole lot more work than it did.
The patties freeze very well.
The key to the sausage feel (and taste) is about 30% fat to meat.

Charecutepalooza – Hot Smoking Sunday!

It’s time again for Charcutepalooza. This month’s challenge involved smoke – it specifically called for Smoked Salmon.

Smoking is something that really excites me – I love the heritage and tradition that surrounds such a simple act. Dana and I have committed to getting a smoker – as soon as we have a place that we can store and use one without fear of complaint with the neighbors. For this months challenge I decided to MacGuyver my own smoker out of existing household items.

Charcutepalooza – How to Cure Pork Belly to Make Bacon at Home

This was truly down to the wire! Dana and I decided to join the year-long Charcuterie jam (aptly named Charcutepalooza) with less than 3 hours remaining in the registration process. Shortly thereafter I was on a plane to San Diego and there was little time in the month. I knew the first month was going to be a crash landing and confirmed that we’d be ok with posting on our bacon, even if it wasn’t finished curing. Thankfully this process will get easier in future months as we’ll have more lead time – and all the ingredients in advance. Read more

11 Days of Feastmas – Midday snack – Duck Prosciutto

I technically started cooking our Christmas dinner on October 28th with the Lemon Confit project. The rinds from those lemons will form a key part of our stuffing and I love that there has been a long process of curing to transform groceries into something we cannot readily purchase. I love the romance of it all…

There will be many ingredients served over the Holidays that are simply not at the market. Harvest fresh preserves, infused booze, homemade bread, samples of moose (and maybe deer). Many of these things simply take time to transform from ordinary to extraordinary and while much of our bounty was prepared months ago there is still time for you to create your own specialty items for the end of the month. Today and tomorrow’s post will present two such options.

Easy Preserves for the holidays… Lemon Confit

Back to preserving – options for local are diminishing so we’ll do the odd batch of something special – there will be 3 or 4 things made in the next month or so which will be part of our late December and early January celebrations with family and friends. Todays batch is lemon confit – some of which may end up within our Turkey stuffing or a salad.

I’ve never tried to make – or eat – lemon confit before. But I am super excited and found the process a lot of fun. It’s also the super easiest batch of preserves I’ve ever made. The entire process is very fast – although a little on the pricey side (2 jars of salt for 1.5 lemons). A different sized jar (a bigger opening to fit half-slices as recommended by my recipe) may have reduced the need for salt by some degree.

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