Paella is one of the best known dishes from Spain, although it is really from the Spanish city of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast. The name “paella” simply means “pan” in Valencian, although a paella pan is called a “paellera” … Continue reading Paella Mixta
It is not often that fresh apricots are available here, and as they were not very ripe I thought they’d be most suited to make a sauce. I decided to follow the example of Conor, the king of meat with … Continue reading Pork Tenderloin with Apricot Ginger Sauce
Scaloppine are a popular secondo in Italy because they are delicious and quick to prepare. Thin slices of meat are pounded even thinner and then served with all kinds of sauces, like balsamic, Marsala, with eggplant, mozzarella and tomato, or … Continue reading Veal Escalope with Mushrooms and Marsala (Scaloppine ai Funghi e Marsala)
A frikandel is one of the most popular Dutch fast food items. They are usually produced from “mechanically separated meat”, which means any meat that can be obtained through mechanical means from a carcass after ‘regular’ butchering has finished. To … Continue reading Frikandellen (Dutch Deep Fried Hot Dog)
As there aren’t many Mexican restaurants around here and those that are there are probably not very authentic, I don’t eat a lot of Mexican (or Tex-Mex) food that I don’t prepare myself. And so I had never before seen … Continue reading Pork Tamales
The best pork chops are those that are marbled with fat, as the fat provides flavor and prevents the chops from drying out. For this recipe I used some pork chops from iberico pig, the same Spanish pork that is … Continue reading Pork Chops in Piquant Sauce
This summertime ragù is more elegant than ragù alla Bolognese and takes less time. It is best over fresh pasta, but as seen in the photo it is great on spaghetti or other store-bought dry pasta, too. As with many … Continue reading Pork, Fresh Tomato and Fennel Seed Ragù (Ragù di Maiale al Pomodoro Fresco e Semi di Finocchio)
The second part of the soul food feast we prepared was smothered pork chops. This is a simple but tasty recipe: pork chops that are cooked low and slow in onion gravy. Of course we made this sous-vide, but you can … Continue reading Soul Food, Part 2: Smothered Pork Chops
Char Siu is pork that is marinated in a sweet spicy red sauce, and then cooked while basting with the marinade until crispy on the outside. When the pork is cooked sous-vide, the result is even more spectacular because of … Continue reading Char Siu Sous-Vide (Chinese BBQ Pork)
Two years ago I made jambon persillé for the first time, for a Burgundy-themed wine dinner. Jambon persillé is a terrine of ham hock (pork shank) with parsley. Back then I wrote that it was “quite a bit of work … Continue reading Ham Hock Terrine Sous-Vide (Jambon Persillé)
When I had made my first batch of homemade chipotles in adobo, I wanted to try them in a recipe. As a variation on chicken with mushrooms, chipotles, and cream, I prepared pork shoulder cooked sous-vide with chipotles, mushrooms, and … Continue reading Pork Shoulder Sous-Vide with Chipotles and Mushrooms
Each region of Italy has its own pasta shapes and pasta recipes. Valeggio sul Mincio, a town near Lago di Garda and the city of Verona, is famous for its Tortellini di Valeggio, tortellini made of pasta as thin as … Continue reading Tortellini di Valeggio
I dedicate this post to Richard and his Baby Lady, as they did not only inspire me to create this dish, but also taught me the techniques as well as donated the chiles used. And I also think they’d enjoy … Continue reading Chile Ancho Relleno (Ancho Stuffed with Pork)
For Christmas I got a meat grinding attachment for my stand mixer, and so I can finally make my own salsiccia. Italian pork sausage (salsiccia) is an important ingredient for many Italian primi piatti, like risotto al barolo con salsiccia, malloreddus alla … Continue reading Homemade Italian Pork Sausage (Salsiccia Fatta in Casa)
I already did two posts on Carnitas sous-vide (this post, and this post), so why another one? Well, you can never have too much of a good thing, and those carnitas are so goooooood. So what is the reason for … Continue reading Carnitas Sous-Vide with Guacamole
I’m calling this recipe “swine” tenderloin as I made it with wild boar tenderloin, but it can also be made with regular pork tenderloin. For a change I’m not cooking it sous-vide, instead I finish cooking the meat in the … Continue reading Swine Tenderloin with Balsamic Reduction
Don’t these look great? I made and posted about vegetarian stuffed round zucchini a while ago. When I saw REMCooks’ post Stuffed 8 Ball Zucchini with the round zucchini stuffed with ground meat, I was inspired to create these round zucchini … Continue reading Round Zucchini Stuffed with Pork and Chipotle
Guanciale is cured pork jowl. It is the traditional ingredient for Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Amatriciana and Gricia, but difficult to find outside of Italy. Pancetta (cured pork belly instead of jowl) can be used as a substitute, but of course it … Continue reading Homemade Guanciale
After the success of carnitas sous-vide, I wanted to try a sous-vide version of REMCooks’ recipe for carnitas. Richard cooks the pork with orange juice, lime juice, fresh oregano, fresh thyme, ground cumin, and garlic instead of with achiote paste, … Continue reading Carnitas Cooked Sous-Vide with Orange Juice
Tougher cuts of meat can be cooked sous-vide for a long time (1 to 3 days) to render them tender and keep them juicy at the same time. I’ve been cooking sous-vide for over three years, and I’ve usually salted … Continue reading Sous-vide Salting Experiment
Have you ever heard of cutlets “Palermo style” (alla Palermitana)? I hadn’t. But thanks to the blog Culinaria Italia (the blog of a Brit who lives in Puglia) I have now tried them and loved them! The Cotoletta alla Palermitana … Continue reading Cotoletta alla Palermitana
Babi Panggang is Malaysian/Indonesian for “roasted pork”. So why did I spell it with only one ‘g’ in the title of this post? Because this is the Dutch version that is only known in the Netherlands (and perhaps Belgium) and … Continue reading Babi Pangang (Pork with Sweet & Sour Red Sauce)
After my trip to REMCooks I was inspired to try some more Mexican/Southwestern food. Carnitas is a dish made of braised or roasted and then fried or sauteed pork in Mexican cuisine. Richard had served us delicious sous-vide duck carnitas, and … Continue reading Carnitas Sous-Vide
After my post about Viennese potato salad, it won’t be a surprise that my next post that was inspired by my trip to Vienna is about Wiener Schnitzel. Although this is probably the most famous savory dish from Vienna (unfortunately … Continue reading Wiener Schnitzel
The success of many recipes depends on using a good stock. Most store-bought stock has too much salt in the best case, and in the worst case even lacks flavor. Not to mention bouillon cubes… Homemade stock is easy to … Continue reading Homemade Pork Stock
Pork tenderloin is amazing cooked sous-vide, it is the most tender and juicy pork tenderloin you have ever tasted. And it is so easy to do: simply season the pork tenderloin with salt and pepper, vacuum seal it, cook it … Continue reading Pork Tenderloin Sous-Vide with Sweet & Sour sauce
Saucijzenbroodjes (sausage rolls) are a very popular snack in the Netherlands. They consist of spicy sausage meat encased in puff pastry and are usually served warm. I don’t like regular saucijzenbroodjes very much. I think it is something about the … Continue reading My Sausage Rolls (Mijn Saucijzenbroodjes)
It was no surprise at all that the first recipe of 2014 on REMCooks.com was a chile recipe. This pork dish from New Mexico seemed fairly straightforward and delicious, and I thought it would be nice to tweak it just … Continue reading Carne Adovada Sous-Vide
Pancetta is Italian cured pork belly. I had looked into making it myself before, but the recipes I found required a curing chamber. A curing chamber is a cabinet with controlled temperature and humidity. Even for me it seems over the top to own one. But then I realised that pancetta was originally invented to preserve pork belly when refrigerators had not yet been invented (let alone curing chambers), so I figured that a cellar should do the trick as well. We don’t have a cellar, but in winter our garage comes pretty close with a temperature around 16ºC/60ºF. So I compared many recipes I found online on Italian blogs, on American blogs, and in the end based my first homemade pancetta upon a Dutch blog called missFromage (I bet Shanna likes that name!).
Making your own pancetta is quite easy and not a lot of work, it just requires a bit of patience. The result was great! My first homemade pancetta has a more elegant and detailed flavor than store-bought pancetta available around here. As an added bonus it is cheaper as well. Thanks missFromage for making it look as easy as it actually is! I will definitely make this again. Continue reading “Homemade Pancetta”
Ham hocks (pork shanks) are an inexpensive cut of meat. They can be turned into something delicious by first hot smoking them and then cooking them sous-vide. This is a technique I’ve used before on ham of lamb and brisket, and I wanted to try it on a ham hock. It was absolutely delicious. A light smoky flavor, tender and juicy. Many recipes call for brining the ham hock first, but there does not seem to be a reason to do this for this preparation. The sous-vide cooking allows the smoky flavors to penetrate all the way to the core of the meat and will turn the meat completely tender without drying it out. Continue reading “Smoked Ham Hock Sous-Vide”
