Pasta alla Genovese - Slow simmered pork and onion meat sauce over rigatoni

My riff on Chef John's Pasta alla Genovese recipe.

This is going to be the last meal that I crank out of my small kitchen here in Burlington, VT for a while. I do still have a couple of posts in the queue so it's not the last of my end-grain cutting board just quite yet. After those, i'll be flying back to Phoenix and spending some time with family so you may see some posts from home.

This dish takes 11-12 hours because of a 10 hour simmer. If you plan on preparing this keep that in mind. 

Pasta alla Genovese is a traditional Italian meat sauce made by slow-simmering beef and onion until they melt together and become one. My version uses pork shoulder rather than beef shoulder because that's what I had on hand. I bought 14 lbs of pork shoulder over a month ago (portioned off and frozen, don't worry) and it has really fed me well - too much pork carnitas tacos is a thing...

Here's a link to the Pasta alla Genovese recipe I used. Chef John of Foodwishes is easily one of my favorite food bloggers. His YouTube channel has over 1,000 recipes it's the first place I look for inspiration when I don't know what to cook.

My version of the Genovese meat sauce differed a bit from Chef John's, however. I mean, this is Kitchen it with Dave and not Chef John (har har). Here's where I strayed from the original recipe:

• I used pork shoulder rather than beef shoulder/chuck
• I used 7 (1 extra) large white onions rather than the combo of yellow and red
• Bacon rather than pancetta (and more of it than called for by visual inspection)
• Nixed the bay leaf (because I ran out)

Here's where I went wrong and what I'd do differently:

• Even though I used 1 extra onion, I felt the sweetness in the finished product was lacking. I later found out that ~10 onions are what many other Genovese recipes call for and I think that's appropriate. If you're thinking about cutting back on onions, don't. The onions are really what make the sauce.
• I browned my pork shoulder far too long because I was racing to cut onions and the dish had some bits of dried pork in an otherwise completely melted together sauce. Avoid this!
• Chef John mentions you may need to add water/stock to maintain the level of the stewing liquid which I found unnecessary with all the onion juices. I've made this dish a second time for my family at home and I added a cup and a half of stock because the pot was left unattended during the simmering. I think this was completely unnecessary.

Okay, enough nit-picking. The finished product is absolutely phenomenal. It's my favorite pasta dish I've ever made. The sweetness from the caramelized onion and that umami goodness from stewing the meat are perfect together. 

Process:

Get your mise en place in order so that you're not rushing to chop onions. Chef John advocates cutting an onion here and there but if you're cooking this on a day off I'd get all the chopping prepped in advance as it makes the actual cooking run smoother.

Cut pork-shoulder. 

I like to cut the pork-shoulder in 1-2 inch pieces. I tried cutting the pork shoulder smaller the second time around and I think it didn't fall apart quite as easily because of how I cut it.

This is how you should cut your onions.

Hopefully you enjoy chopping things and/or are working on improving your knife skills. Cut all your onions as shown above. You could chop them finer or coarser, it really doesn't matter as these are going to stew for hours in their own juices.

Brunoise of carrot.

You'll also need to brunoise carrot and celery. I used my julienne shortcut where I slice my carrots at a bias before cutting them into strips which can be cut further into small cubes (brunoise). This is certainly really sloppy knife-work but it was 2 am and I was getting tired!

Whatever you do, don't skip the carrot and celery. These aromatics are crucial to rounding out the delicious flavor of this dish.

Bacon strips in my dutch oven.

Time to start cooking! I used 6 bacon strips and this is certainly more tasty pork product than the recipe calls for, however, I found it rendered out a perfect amount of fat for the subsequent browning step.

Cook until the bacon strips are crunchy and then remove with a slotted spoon and RESERVE (okay, nibble on a few) them for later use. Next, you'll add in all of your meat!

Chef John's non-traditional browning technique.

Bravo to Chef John for this time-saving shortcut of chucking in all the meat at once rather than doing 3-4 batches of meat browning. You'll want to crank the heat to high and let the juices evaporate for 15 minutes before the meat is able to begin browning. This is certainly against the "rules" of classic cooking - as Chef John himself has said in the past "There are a lot of fun things to do with your meat, but crowding it is not one of them!" - but it makes life so much easier and has a great result.

Once your meat has browned, add the carrot, celery, reserved bacon/pancetta, and salt n peppa! Cook for 5 minutes on medium to get those aromatics all hot and bothered.

Then add a tablespoon or so of tomato paste, a bay leaf (if you have it), and some white wine to deglaze the pan and bring that beautiful fond back into the mix (scrape with a wooden spoon!).

Add the onions to the pot!

Now, you'll want to add in all 7 onions you cut up (Again, I feel this dish would benefit in the flavor category from adding even more onion! ~10 or so). Cover and leave untouched for 30 minutes on medium heat. Stir, replace the cover and continue on medium for another 30 minutes.

What your pot should look like after an hour of cooking.

After those two 30 minute sessions, the onions should release their juices and be quite caramelized and sweet! This is the liquid that the pork will stew in for the next 10 hours! Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot and let that flavor percolate for 10 hours. You'll want to stir the pot every couple of hours so that the bottom doesn't burn.

Go do your dishes, homework, or lust over the pasta that is coming for the next 10 hours. What you'll see at the end of that time is something that looks like this!

The final meat sauce!

What you'll end up with is a very nicely reduced and browned meat sauce that is insanely rich and softly sweet from those tender onions. It tastes incredible, and by this point, you're wishing you would've boiled the pasta 10 minutes before those 10 hours had ended.

Obviously, you'll want to do final seasoning on your meat sauce. What I did was salt to taste, add a bit of honey to amp up the sweetness from the onion, and a pinch of MSG (shhh...) to make that umami pop. I didn't try adding any vinegar/lime/lemon because I feel like this is meant to be a 2-note forward dish with sweet and umami, but I'll have to try that and report back. Maybe some balsamic vinegar to finish would tie it together nicely and compliment the onion sweetness.

Chef John used a rigatoni pasta which I decided to go on board with as the presentation of the dish looked so beautiful in his video. After buying some janky Wal-Mart rigatoni and some of this dope ass baller rigatoni, I 10/10 would splurge on good rigatoni again. That al dente feel is off the hook with the good pasta.

I bought my pasta at Healthy Living Market in South Burlington which is a fantastic grocer and puts Whole Foods markets to shame. A wonderfully thoughtfully curated grocery store for those who cook - and great beer to boot!

Fancy rigatoni #pastamoney

Here is the end product plated and ready to eat! Freshly grated parmigiano reggiano is a great finish to this dish. I always want to add basil to everything but I think a quick chiffonade of basil tossed in the sauce would take this dish to the next level after the next level it's already on.

#swerve

The best part of this recipe is that it makes a TON of sauce that can feed a small army. Have friends over for a dinner party or distribute at your leisure!

Bon appetit!

Dave

continue reading Pasta alla Genovese - Slow simmered pork and onion meat sauce over rigatoni

Video: Making a Cappuccino

Pulling a shot, steaming milk, and pouring some latte art (kinda).

continue reading Video: Making a Cappuccino

Cameroon Mt. Oku - Starbucks Reserve

Here's Cameroon Mt. Oku chilling with my beloved Rancilio Silvia.

Starbucks Reserve is Starbucks' specialty line of coffee. There's a single Starbucks Reserve store in Seattle, WA where all of their reserve coffees are roasted. Starbucks saw the rise of specialty coffee and decided to jump in with their own iteration of a '3rd wave' roastery.

I've been fortunate enough to stop by the Starbucks Reserve store and boy is it a spectacle. If Willy Wonka was slangin' Coffea arabica rather than Theobroma cacao, the Starbucks Reserve store would be his Coffee Factory. I'll make a post with photos and a few words on the experience I had on my visit there last summer.

This coffee was a gift from a very kind and thoughtful classmate. Everyone has figured out that I'm the coffee guy and know exactly what to get me when gifting.

Anyway, back to Cameroon Mt. Oku.

Tasting Notes: 
This coffee was brewed in a Kalita Wave.

Cameroon Mt. Oku hits the palate with strong spices and a smoky roast profile. It comes onto you kind of harsh but opens up with a juicy softness on the middle of the tongue. It's almost-bright, almost-sweet with some dark-chocolate bitterness.

Full disclosure, I'm not a huge fan of dark roasted coffee although Starbucks did a respectable job here. This coffee might make a tasty cold brew so i'll give that a try next.

continue reading Cameroon Mt. Oku - Starbucks Reserve

Chicken Galantine with Mushroom, Olive and Herb Stuffing

I love preparing Chicken Galantine because it is so much more of a technique than it is a recipe.

The end goal here is to butcher a chicken such that you can open it up flat with all its bones removed and have a relatively even layer of chicken meat and skin throughout. You then proceed to stuff the chicken with whatever your heart desires, tie at together neatly and cook it however you wish. 

I chose a mushroom, olive and herb stuffing because I love that the mushroom and the salty briny olives play off each other and the herbs complement and elevate the dish altogether.

This is supposed to be a kind of elegant, refined dish with a very beautiful presentation. Mine did not end up looking very pretty, but damn is it delicious!

Chicken Galantine atop a bed of arugula.

Recipe

You will need:

• A whole chicken
• butcher string
• Ingredients for a stuffing, below are the ingredients I used
• ~15-20 white button and/or small portobello mushrooms
• A handful or two of olives
• mint, basil, cilantro, thyme
• butter

We'll begin by preparing the stuffing since we want it to be at room temperature before we stuff the chicken.

Mince mushrooms and sauté in 2 tablespoons butter until nicely browned. Transfer to a bowl.

Roughly chop cilantro and olives then add to sautéed mushrooms. Chiffonade (roll the leaves up and slice) basil and mint leaves then add to sautéed mushrooms. Strip thyme leaves from stalk and add to sautéed mushrooms. Stir to combine the stuffing.

Rolled basil leaves for chiffonade.

Chiffonade of basil

Alright, the next part is the hard part.

Rather than give you a wall of text on how to properly debone a chicken, i'll give you a link to the video I used to learn how.

iPad in my spice cabinet with Jacques Pepin to walk me through butchering this chicken.

Take your time when doing this. I rushed a bit while following along and unfortunately punctured the chicken meat and skin near the legs on both sides. Also, if you chose to have a phone or tablet guide you during this process, I recommend wrapping it in clear plastic wrap so that you don't get raw chicken juices from your fingers all over your device.

A whole chicken, un-butchered. If you can find a small, young chicken at the grocery store, i'd opt for that!

All of the following steps up to the point of cooking the chicken are outlined in the video I've linked above. 

Here is the whole chicken, un-butchered. A paring knife will get 99% of the work done here, but you'll need a hefty chef's knife later on to crack the chicken's leg bones.

Chicken with carcass removed.

Here, the carcass has been removed (reserve that for stock) and the fillets are on the left. Once you flip the chicken over, there will be an area between the legs and the breasts where there isn't much meat. Here you'll lay the meat from the fillets down to make the thickness more uniform.

Add the mushroom, herb and olive stuffing evenly.

Flip the chicken over, salt and pepper the meat evenly and spread the stuffing around. Be sure to stuff some inside of the legs.

Roll up the chicken with stuffing inside.

Unfortunately, the legs got messed up!

Part of my message of keeping it light in the kitchen includes taking mistakes in stride and never giving up! Naturally, my man instincts kicked in and the solution I thought of was "bacon bandage!" If you want, you can also use some aluminum foil to create a dam... but that's no fun.

Here is the chicken bandaged up with bacon strips and tied up neatly.

Assuming you're more careful than I, you can avoid the delicious bacon bandages and skip ahead to tying up the chicken as Jacques Pepin demonstrates wonderfully in the linked video.

There were no cooking instructions presented by Jacques so I roasted my Galantine in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 F and then turned on the broiler until the skin became browned.

Finished product!

I really hope that you all give the Chicken Galantine a try! The stuffing is really what makes the dish special and, if I may toot my own horn, the combination of mushroom, olives and herbs was really awesome!

Enjoy!

continue reading Chicken Galantine with Mushroom, Olive and Herb Stuffing

Las Nubes, El Salvador - Abracadabra Coffee Co.

Abracadabra Coffee Co. is a relative newcomer to the VT coffee scene. They began roasting coffee out of Cavendish, VT less than a year ago. I was ecstatic to find their coffee at the Healthy Living Market in South Burlington, where Abracadabra's gorgeous packaging really caught my eye. It's always exciting to see the coffee community grow and to find new roasters.

Right now, there are 3 offerings from Abracadabra available at Healthy Living and I chose the Las Nubes honey process* El Salvador. (* - for a note on what "honey process" means, check out the bottom of this post.)

I brewed Las Nubes in a Chemex, Kalita Wave, and Aeropress. I had the best results with the Kalita Wave by far.

Tasting Notes:
Interestingly, I spent more time with this coffee because cups came out distinctly 1 of 2 ways while brewing.

When my Kalita Wave brew finished between 2:45-3:00 minutes, I tasted an exceptionally sweet dried mango sweetness. Perhaps some berry notes. As the coffee sits on the palate, the sweetness fades and I notice the brightness becomes more citrusy. The finish is dry and tart.

When I let my brew time stretch to 3:30, however, the sweetness becomes much more subdued while the berry notes remain. This tart berry character really reminded me of cranberry as the package's tasting notes suggests.

Overall, this coffee is fantastic. Bravo to Abracadabra on a stellar first impression. I'm excited to continue trying their coffees.

Cheers,

David


Note:

*"Honey process" coffees, also known as "semi-washed" coffees, are processed by first placing whole coffee cherries into a water bath where the mucilage acidifies and some, but not all, of the fruit is removed from the coffee seed. Kind of like a peach with the fruity flesh still stuck to the pit. The coffee seed with the remaining mucilage still attached is then dried on raised beds or patios. During this time, a fermentation process breaks down the remaining mucilage allowing it to be mechanically removed. 

The important part here is that "honey process" does not mean the gooey, golden sweetener in your pantry was ever involved in the coffee's processing. Nor does it mean that the brewed coffee will taste like honey - if it does, it isn't thanks to the processing.

continue reading Las Nubes, El Salvador - Abracadabra Coffee Co.

Video: Quick Salsa

I recently picked up a tripod for my iPhone so that I could play around with recording video. I also had too many tomatoes on hand. This video is a result of those circumstances!

Fresh, delicious salsa

Regarding the salsa, I used

• 7 tomatoes, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• Handful of cilantro, minced
• 5-7 garlic cloves, minced
• 5 basil leaves, minced
• 10 mint leaves, minced
• 2 limes, juiced
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Feel free to adjust the ingredients to your liking. 

Some thoughts on improving this salsa are:

• Roasting the tomatoes, onion, garlic and limes before chopping them up for a more complex flavor.
• Cut the limes up into slices and muddle them up for 2 minutes so that you get an interesting flavor from the oils in the zest along with the juice.
• The mint and basil aren't very detectable to me, feel free to add more or omit altogether. 

Honest and constructive criticism always welcome!

Cheers,

David

continue reading Video: Quick Salsa

Peru San Fernando - Heart Coffee Roasters - Feb 2016

There's a great multi-roaster cafe in town called Scout & Co. that features some of the best roasters in the country. I recently picked up the Peru San Fernando roasted by Heart Roasters out of Portland, Oregon. 

Heart Coffee is available at Scout & Co. in Winooski and Burlington

Peru isn't a country of origin I drink coffees from very often. I'm generalizing, but many coffees from Peru aren't outstanding due to agricultural/processing practices at origin. For that reason, you don't see specialty coffee shops with Peruvian offerings on their retail shelves nearly as often as you'll find an Ethiopian, Guatemalan or Costa Rican coffee.

Nevertheless, when I saw a Heart Peru available, I jumped at the chance to try their take on it. Heart has a reputation for sourcing and roasting phenomenal coffees from less sought after origins.

I brewed up the Peru San Fernando in a Chemex and Aeropress to evaluate it.

Tasting notes:

The San Fernando has a strong chocolatey aroma and chocolate-forward flavor profile. My first impressions as I sipped it were positive. I tasted sugary sweetness, cacao nib, hazelnut and subtle stone fruit acidity on the sides of my tongue.

As usual, Heart roasts in such a way as to minimize harsh, astringent and unpleasant characteristics and highlight sweetness. If you're looking for a comforting everyday drinker I'd highly recommend this coffee!

continue reading Peru San Fernando - Heart Coffee Roasters - Feb 2016