Hanger Steaks are a gift from the gods. This recipe makes a little over 2 hanger steaks – I like to cut mine in half and end up with 4 total pieces (makes for more predictable and even cooking).
Rub:
2 Tablespoons ground espresso. Make sure not to get any “flavored” espresso – just a straightforward roast will do. I prefer Cafe Caribe (it’s dirt cheap and delicious)
2 Tablespoons kosher salt
4 Teaspoons brown suger
1 Tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
Honestly I’d be leaving an important part out here if I didn’t say you should also have a badass cooking pan. Either a cast iron skillet or something of high quality.
Cooking:
Make sure to bring the steaks up to room temperature to ensure even cooking. Cover the steaks completely with the rub (you should have some leftover).
Bring your pan up to medium-high heat and use either vegetable oil or olive oil. Do not use extra virgin olive oil. The burning temperature is different and you’ll end up cooking nice steaks in burnt smokey oil. Once it’s up to game temperature place the steaks into the pan.
Step 4 through 79 = DON’T OVERCOOK. I WILL DRIVE TO YOUR HOUSE AND OPEN A FIRE EXTINGUISHER ON YOUR PAN IF YOU OVERCOOK THIS.
Step 80 – Three and a half minutes on each side, around 7 or so minutes total. Place on a cutting board for 10 minutes and let it rest.
It goes without saying that the goods in this pasta are 110% reliant on the fettuccine. If you need a hand, go look at the “pasta from scratch” post. If you make this with dehydrated big box pasta it’ll turn out….decent….but not like it should. The sauce should be layered to showcase the pasta, not hide it.
Ingredients
Cherry tomatoes – one handful per serving – halved
Olive Oil – 2 tbs
Pancetta – two slices per serving – diced
Artichoke Hearts – 3 per serving
Good parmesan that you have to grate yourself
Shallot
Garlic – two cloves per serving
Butter – 1 tbsp per serving
Salt & Pepper
The beauty of this pasta is in it’s simplicity. Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it clean, and somewhat healthy and it’ll be exactly what you want – every time.
Cooking
Fry the pancetta in olive oil. When the fat become translucent and before the pork becomes brown toss in the garlic (diced) and shallot (also diced). These should cook pretty quickly and as soon as the shallot starts to turn translucent toss in the artichoke hearts and cherry tomatoes.
At this point everything you’ve done has happened in quite a hurry. You’re probably a little overwhelmed and probably moments away from burning everything. It’s ok. Lower the heat…a lot. Let everyone become friends at the point in some warmness rather than sizzling.
While you’re practicing your namaste shred about have a block of parmesan into a bowl. Go ahead and cut your butter as well and have it ready. Crack some pepper straight into the pan. Ok it’s go time.
Cook your pasta. If you’ve followed my directions and are using the good stuff it should take just a few minutes. As soon as it’s ready use tongs, or a spider to remove the pasta from the water and put straight into your pan with all the good stuff. Once the pasta is transitioned, add in all of the parmesan and the butter. Cut the heat and toss in the pan until the butter is completely melted.
Note: Pancetta always seems to be different depending on where you bought it. Some pancetta is really salty, some has a strong pepper taste, and others even have some nutmeg to them (my least favorite for this dish). Take a taste of your pasta at this point and determine if it needs any salt or pepper at this point.
Moist, flavor depth, and still light and airy. These are winners. Thanksgiving? Sure. Christmas? Ok. Tuesday? Why not.
1 Spice Cake Mix
1 Sweet potato (peeled, chopped)
1 tbsp salt
5 tbsp butter
3 Eggs
1 Cup Water
1 Jar Marshmallow Cream
1 small bag pecan halves
4 tbsp brown sugar
Candy the pecans in 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tbsp butter.
Boil the peeled sweet potato in 1 tbsp salt.
Once the sweet potato is fully cooked (somewhere around the 15 min park), remove it from the water and throw it in a mixing bowl. Add 2 tbsp butter, and 2 tbsp brown sugar. Beat on low to break up the sweet potato, then high to combine all the ingredients. You’re looking to get the mixture to be as smooth as possible.
Right about here is where you’ll want to put both the candied pecans and the sweet potato mixture into the freezer. If the candied pecans stay hot, they’ll melt the frosting. If the sweet potato mix stays hot, you’ll cook the eggs in the next step.
Once the sweet potato mix has cooled, add in the spice cake mix, eggs and water.
*Note – most spice cake mixes call for 3 eggs, 1 cup water, and 1/3 cup oil. We’ve got enough fats going on in the sweet potato mix to remove the oil from the equation. Also, when I say add the eggs I’m meaning the eggs and water it’s asking for on the back of the box – not an additional 3 eggs and water.
Beat this together first on low, then on high and put into you cupcake containers. This will cook for around 25 minutes on 350 heat.
While it’s cooking, cream the rest of your butter in a mixing bowl. Once creamed, add in the remaining brown sugar. Once those are well combined, add in your jar of marshmallow cream. Mix, well, on high. The marshmallow cream will slowly break down and become easier to work with.
Final prep:
Pull out the cupcakes when their done and put aside to cool. Once cooled, top with the marshmallow cream then one or two of the candied pecans.
A standard for Fall with the addition of a few “cheat” ingredients.
4 tbsp butter
1 yellow onion
1 leek
2 stalks celery
4 garlic cloves
3 cups peeled butternut squash
1 medium Yukon Gold potato (this type of potato is a must due to it’s unique starch)
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp thyme (or a sprig if you have fresh)
6 cups shrimp stock (make your own jabroni)
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons paprika
1 dash nutmeg
S & P
1 lb high quality shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 green onion
drumroll……….3 slices of bacon
The bacon makes this pop. Dice it up first, drop it in the cooking bowl on medium and cook till done and crispy. Remove from the pot and leave the rendered fat. Yup.
You’re going to put all of this in a blender at some point, so a rough chop is fine. Assume all vegetables mentioned below have been rough chopped.
Following your bacon goodness, melt the butter in the pot and add the onion, leeks (minus about 4 inches of the top, that part get stringy – use it to make your stock), celery, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until everyone has become friends and add in the squash and potatoes. Cook for somewhere around 10-15 minutes until everything has softened a bit.
Add the bay leaf (not chopped), thyme (not chopped if you’re using a sprig) and cream to the pot and bring to a boil. Once boil is achieved lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf and thyme (if you sprig…ged) and puree the soup in a blender until smooth. Once smooth, return to the pot and add the remaining seasonings as well as the previously cooked bacon. Yum.
Once seasoning is incorporated, drop in the shrimp and add the green onions. This only needs to cook for 5-10 minutes and you’re ready to plate.
These are incredible. Flavorful with some nice color and density provided by the sweet potato. Let’s go.
Ingredients
Beignet part:
1 cup beer (I used a pretty standard Texas beer, don’t need to go too fancy here)
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons barely melted butter. Either melt it on a double boiler or just slightly in the microwave
2 teaspoons baking powder
If you don’t have baking powder, you can make some at home if you have baking soda and cream of tartar. Two parts cream of tartar for every one part baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg white
Frying oil
Sweet Potato part:
1 medium sweet potato
3 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 cup cream cheese
1/8 cup whipping cream
Finishing Dust
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
This isn’t as much work as the ingredients list would suggest.
First, make the batter. Put all of the beignet ingredients into a mixing bowl and combine. Once combined, slowly pour in the one cup of beer (while stirring) as well as the butter (while still stirring). Once all of those ingredients are combined, store this in the fridge. This needs to rest for about 1 hour.
Next, dice the sweet potato and drop in to a pot of boiling salted water till they’re soft. Once soft, put into a larger mixing bowl and smash just as you would mashed potatoes. While smashing, include the butter, cinnamon, salt, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Once they’re well combined put this in the fridge or freezer to cool. If you have more than 30 minutes till your beignet mix has cooled, then put it in the fridge, less than 30, then use the freezer.
While you wait, create the dust by combining all of the ingredients and put in a sifter for later use. Also, go ahead and pull out your egg white and whip it until you can form stiff peaks. Finally, put a pot on the stove and get a good deep layer of oil. If you have it, go for a good 4 inches of oil. Get this to medium high heat.
Ok time for the fun part. Pull out the sweet potatoes and drop in the cream cheese and the whipping cream and mix well. Then, pull out the beignet mix and fold in the egg white. Once that’s combined, slowly mix (spoonful by spoonful) the sweet potato mixture into the beignet mix. Get them combined and with a nice orange hue.
Using a large spoon, slowly spoon the batter into the hot frying oil. Think of this like a pancake where you create the “beignet” by layering the batter ontop of itself and as it hits the oil it forms one singular body. I usually aim for about a 2 inch diameter.
As this cooks it will get a great brown color with a very slight roasted sweet potato coloring. Using a slotted spoon remove and hit with the dust. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Serve with vanilla ice cream to take it over to the top.
You can do this. Also, once you do – you’ll never look back. You’ll never look at a case of cured meats and think of them beyond your grasp. As always, let’s get to work:
I ran two duel tests. One test with Cure #1 and one test with Cure #2. This walkthrough is for pancetta cured with Cure #1, and it’s meant to be cooked before using.
First and foremost find a local butcher. Do not go through all of this work and effort and skimp on the quality of the product. Pancetta highlights the beauty of pork, not mask it. Make sure what you’re starting with matches that sentiment.
Worksheet:
Before I go any further, when in doubt, this website was my Bible: http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/. If you run into any in-depth questions or want to browse through all of the interesting comments it’s a great read.
On to the pork!
I used roughly 2.5 lbs of pork belly purchased from Salt & Time in Austin, Tx. Again, even though the worksheet says Cure #2 I made this version using Cure #1 (it’s the same measurement). Cure #2 is for pancetta meant to be eaten raw, which we’ll get to on a different post.
Feel free to tweak your recipe as you see fit other than the Cure. The Cure is .26% of whatever the weight of your meat is.
First, combine all of your spice ingredients into a bowl or baggy and use an object to ground as much as possible. Cure #1 on it’s own is not something you want to eat raw, so don’t use a pepper grinder or anything you plan on using again to grind ingredients. I like putting it all in a ziploc and running a rolling pin over it a couple of times.
From this point on you can choose to go professional (vacuum sealed bags, curing chambers, exotic spices you may have never cooked with before like juniper berries) or you can go home cook “I don’t want to invest till I get a couple test runs in” style.
The latter is the style I chose.
Meaning, using ziploc bags, a baking sheet with a cook wire rack, and a cleared out bottom shelf in my everyday fridge.
Second, once your spices are ground, completely cover the pork belly in them. Rub into every nook and cranny. Date a ziploc bag and place your pork belly in. Go ahead and pour in whatever spice rub that didn’t stick to the pork the first time. Place this beauty in your fridge and try and forget about it for 10 to 14 days.
After your 10-14 days are up, pull the pork belly out and wash as much of the spice rub off as possible. Make sure to use cold water since pork fat melts at a relatively low temperature and you don’t want that happening. Pat the pork belly completely dry and ponder existence. While pondering, decide whether you want to add another coat of rub or go simple. Many add red pepper flakes and other seasoning at this point. I went with a simple later of fresh ground black pepper – that’s it.
Prepare a cookie sheet and place a wire drying rack inside of it. Get one with as much clearance as possible (the important part here is airflow, you want there to be as much of it as equal as possible.). The cookie sheet will help keep the bottom of your fridge shelf clean from potential fat dripping or spice rub falloff. Get a piece of tape, write the date on it, and place on the cookie sheet.
Third, place your washed, dried, and re-seasoned pork belly back into the fridge on your wire rack/cookie sheet contraption.
Finally, let it slowly dry out and finish it’s curing process for a minimum of 2 weeks (I’d say max 1 month before you taste the thing). Slice thin, chop up, quick fry and toss in some homemade pasta and you’re in serious, serious business. You’re also probably now addicted to what my butcher romantically called “the good fats”.
Note: If you’re using Cure #2 your curing time is different. It usually lasts about 1 month minimum but is more often a result of the weight of the pork belly reducing by 20%.
This one has very few ingredients, so make sure they’re quality. Fresh pasta is a must here.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup chopped asparagus
4 large fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp butter
6 tbsp heavy whipping cream
3 slices of pancetta
That’s it.
Start by getting a pot of water for your pasta boiling with some salt.
First, render the pancetta a bit in a small pan. Just when they reach a nice light tan color (and before they get too crispy) remove them from the pan but leave the fat. Throw your chopped asparagus into the pancetta fat with a little bit of salt and pepper and cook quickly at a high temperature. You’re not looking to cook the asparagus the whole way through, just enough for them to pick up the flavor of the pork fat, salt, pepper and to tenderize a little bit.
At this point, dice the fresh basil leaves as fine as possible and measure out your other ingredients to have on hand. Once everything is ready and available for your use drop your pasta in the water.
Once the pasta is al dente, which if you’re using fresh pasta is going to be damn near immediate, drain the water out of the pasta pot. There’s two ways to do this. You can A) use a colander to slowly pour your pasta out while retaining about 1/8 of a cup of pasta water left in the pot or B) use a slotted spoon to hold back the pasta while you tip the pot and pour out the water to drain. Many people will judge you regardless of which route you take – I’m not one of them. End goal is pasta in your pot with about 1/8 of a cup of pasta water left in there – don’t care how you get there.
Return the pasta to the pot and cut the heat. Now, quickly drop all of the remaining ingredients you so carefully prepared ahead of time into this pot. Mix well, make everyone become friends. This should only take about 3 minutes max.
I’ve used this brine on turkey, frog, and chicken. It’s the real deal and works like a charm.
Ingredients:
1 qt buttermilk
1 shallot
3-4 garlic cloves (depending on size)
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon cumin powder
This might seem like a ridiculous way to measure things, but I like keeping it simple: This brine measurement is made for a 1 gallon zip loc bag worth of protein. Dice your shallot and your garlic cloves and mix everything in a medium sized bowl with a whisk. Once combined, pour into a 1 gallon zip loc bag and fill with as much protein as you can stuff.
Depending on what you’re making or what your desired end result is you can either wash the brine off after around 18-24 hours or you can simply pat it as dry as possible and cook with some of the brine still wanting to get involved.
You ever want turkey that goes boom? Take one of the breasts, shred, and make turkey mole enchiladas. This sauce works great in pork or chicken tacos as well.
Don’t let the long ingredients list intimidate you, while this sauce is a bit time consuming this recipe makes enough for leftovers and multiple uses so you get a lot of bang for your time-buck.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups good orange juice
1 1/4 lbs yellow onion (diced)
1/2 cup almonds (chopped)
6 garlic cloves (chopped)
4 teaspoons cumin
4 teaspoons coriander seeds
4 ounces dried pasilla chiles (tops chopped of and cleaned of seeds)
1 ounce dried guajillo chiles (tops chopped of and cleaned of seeds)
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 1/2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
2.5 ounces of pumpkin seeds (out of their shell)
1 3/1 ounce disk Mexican chocolate (see example here) broken into individual triangles
Directions:
First, in a small side pot combine the chicken broth and the orange juice. Bring to a simmer for about 15-20 minutes and allow it to reduce.
In a different, larger pot, heat the olive oil and saute the onions till the develop a deep brown caramelization (about 20 minutes). Once the onions are ready, reduce the heat to low-medium and add the almonds, garlic, cumin and coriander seeds. Mix and combine these for about 5 minutes in the warm pot. Once these are combined, add in your cleaned chiles and allow these to soften for an additional 5 minutes.
You now have two pots, and really most of the difficult work done. At this point, take your OJ and chicken broth mixture and pour into your chile pot. Add in your raisins and oregano at this point as well. Bring this all to a simmer and cover for 30 minutes.
Once the mixture has simmered for 30 minutes, cut off the heat and add in your chocolate disk pieces. Mix well and let stand for 15 minutes.
Take your mixture and pour it into a blender. Blend this really well in order to get it as creamy as possible and break up any almond or garlic bits that remain. Salt and Pepper to taste. Viola!
