Recipes from Baconpalooza 2013

 Photo Courtesy of Molly Peterson

So this post is a little late. I'm so very sorry. I have had a LOT going on lately. I started a new job, which has been stressful, time consuming and very draining. It's definitely not my dream job, but as Anne Hathaway said in "The Devil Wears Prada,"-- "Here's to jobs that pay the rent." That's all I'm going to say about that right now. *** UPDATE: I no longer work at that awful job, and now I am the Lead Assistant for The Paleo Parents! Yay! I now work from home for Stacy and Matt and I love my job! See? All things work out for the best!***

So back to things I love spending time and energy on, like cooking and eating bacon. A little less than a month ago I participated in the Paleo Bacon Cook-Off for Baconpalooza. I promised to post the recipe the following week, but I immediately started my new job, and this got postponed. I am doing a guest post later this week on Paleo Parents (eek! first guest post EVER!) to re-cap all the fun details of the event, but here are the recipes I promised from my entry.

 

Photo Courtesy of Molly Peterson

You guys already have access to that fabulous BBQ sauce, and so I will divulge the simple secrets to the rest of the dish.

For the meat of the dish, I slowly braised a combination of pork butt, jowl, and belly for 8 hours. I used this combination of cuts to achieve a truly luscious blend of meat. The belly and the jowl are both fattier cuts than a butt or a shoulder, and they also tend to have more flavor. I also wanted to make a "whole hog" BBQ, so I mixed and matched cuts. This makes a HUGE batch, but you can certainly pair it down and only use a butt or a shoulder with the same method, and less rub with similar results for a smaller recipe.  

For the Pulled Pork:

2 bone-in Boston Butts

1 Pork Jowl, the top layer of fat trimmed down as much as possible (reserve for another use, like to make lard!)

1 Pork Belly, again, the top layer of fat trimmed down as much as possible

1 cup of Katy's House Rub

1 cup of purified water

1. Thoroughly coat all of the pieces of pork in the rub. Really massage it into that lucious pork! Refridgerate overnight.

2. The next day, place all of the pork in a LARGE dutch oven (I used my trusty Le Creuset) and cook for 7-8 hours in the oven at 225, until the meat is falling apart and tender. **You could probably also cook this in a crock pot, but alas, I don't have one!

3. Carefully remove the pork to drain off the excess fat and liquid. I placed the pork on top of a cookie rack, which was placed over a cookie sheet.

4. Allow the pork to cool enough to handle it, and then carefully and methodically shred the meat with two forks. This took me quite a while for all this meat.

5. Now you can store the shredded meat in the fridge until you are ready to combine it with the sauce.

Next, I combined the shredded pork with the Pete's Paleo bacon. Let me just say, this bacon is hands down, THE BEST you will find. I might be a little partial, because Pete is one of my friends and fellow classmates from culinary school, but seriously, you guys HAVE to try this stuff. One of the fabulous things about Pete's bacon, is that it's extra smoky with goes really well with my BBQ flavors. In addition, Pete ships his bacon out in SLABS instead of pre-sliced, allowing you to decided how thick you want your bacon! I decided to cut it into lardons, which is a fancy french word for a medium dice. Boy did my hand hurt after cubing up 4 pounds of bacon! I then cooked the bacon lardons in my trusty cast iron skillet, reserving the bacon grease in a jar for my own use later. ;) Perks of the job, you know! In the end, my BBQ mixture was about 60% pulled pork and 40% bacon lardons. If you are trying to pair down the recipe to feed a smaller crowd, just use this ratio. You could also just cut up any bacon of your choosing, fry it up, and add it to your pulled pork mixture.

Next, I whipped up a quadruple batch of my Paleo Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce. YUM! I combined this with the luscious pulled pork/bacon lardon mixture at the contest. That was one HUGE pot of BBQ! Mustard BBQ doesn't always look super appetizing (or photograph well on it's own), but it is insanely good. If you like honey mustard, and you like BBQ, you will love Mustard Based sauce, also known as Carolina Gold.

I also made a simple Peach Jalapeno Salsa:

Makes TWO large Mason Jars

12 ripe peaches, diced

8 jalapenos, de-seeded, and small diced

1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped

Juice of 1 lime

2 teaspoons of chili powder

a few good pinches of sea salt

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, then transfer to your mason jars. This is a fresh salsa that should be eaten within a few days of making.

Lastly, the pickled onions! So easy, so delicious

 Photo Courtesy of Molly Peterson

Pickled Onions

4 red onions, thinly sliced

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of sea salt

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, then transfer to mason jars, and store in the fridge. These will keep much longer in the fridge, up to a month. They are good on EVERYTHING from these tacos, to salads, to sardines!

The last element of the appetizer was the raw jicama shell. I got the idea from Zen Belly Blog, so head over to her post to see how its done!

That's all I am going to say for now about Baconpalooza, but be sure to look for my guest post soon!

  Photo Courtesy of Molly Peterson

  Photo Courtesy of Molly Peterson

Everyday Veggie Hash

So there is something about hash. The legal kind--just to clarify. But seriously, hash is just the best thing ever invented. It's a bunch of random ingredients cooked in ONE pan, served in a bowl, and gobbled up in a hurried fashion.In hard times, mom's across the world use hash to fill up their families and stretch small amounts of precious protein. Hash usually contains some sort of potatoes, or other starchy filler, along with onions, shredded or diced protein, and any number of veggies. You can literally put anything in hash, crisp it up in under 20 minutes, and enjoy a bowl full of simple, humble comfort food.

I make hash all the time. Sometimes I shred sweet potatoes, carrots, or plantains for the starch, or sometimes I take the time to dice them small into pretty little cubes. There are always onions involved, usually broccoli, and usually some sort of leftover protein, sausage, or bacon. Today I was feeling a little lonely because I have about 17 more days to go before Ian comes home. I know I'm being a baby, but I miss him. So I made myself some hash.

Everyday Veggie Hash
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

5 strips of good quality bacon
1 large sweet potato, small diced
1   red onion, small diced
2 cups of organic broccoli slaw (I used Trader Joe's)
2 cups of shredded Brussels sprouts (again, I used Trader Joe's)
1 tablespoon of coconut oil, or other healthy fat
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of organic granulated garlic*

Directions:

1. In a large cast iron skillet, brown the bacon until cooked. Remove the bacon to a plate, and leave the grease in the pan.
2. Add the onions and diced sweet potatoes, season with a good large pinch of salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper, and cook over medium high heat until both are starting to brown, about 5-7 minutes.
3. Add the rest of the veggies and the coconut oil, season again with salt and pepper, and cook for another five minutes until all the hash is starting to brown.
4. Chop the bacon into small pieces and add it into the pan along with the granulated garlic. Stir to incorporate and cook for just a few minutes longer until everything starts to get crusty and yummy.
5. Serve in a bowl, and for bonus points, add a fried egg on top of each serving if you wish.

This is a version of hash I made before Ian left for his corporate training. Instead of bacon, I used sausage, and instead of broccoli slaw I used diced squash and small broccoli florets, and shredded sweet potatoes instead of diced. When the hash was done, I made a few wells in the pan and dropped an egg into them to fry. I broiled them for just a few minutes in the oven until the white was set, and I served this breakfast hash up with some diced avocado on top.

This is the basic method for hash, but feel free to improvise with whatever you want. That is the beauty of hash. It's not specific, it's ever changing, but it is always filling and comforting. Don't be afraid to try it, even if it isn't the exact same as this recipe, because my "everyday veggie hash" is never the same. Get yourself a great cast iron pan, learn how to take care of it, and start to love it for it's wonderful abilities, especially when it comes to hash.

*Yes, I use granulated garlic. I had a reader question me and ask why on earth I don't always use fresh garlic. Well, honestly, I like the dried, granulated version better in some instances. A lot of good cooks, especially southern cooks, appreciate granulated garlic. I don't view it as inferior to fresh garlic at all. It's milder, sweeter, and less harsh than fresh garlic, but also incredibly aromatic and pungent. I do use fresh garlic in some instances, but more often than not, I throw in granulated garlic to punch up the flavor of a dish quickly, and I don't feel that it is a cheat at all because I truly love the flavor it adds. It is important to note that I only use ORGANIC granulated garlic, because I strongly believe that it is a better product. I hate that regular spices are treated with weird chemicals and irradiated, but I do love that many organic grocers often sell bulk organic spices, particularly Frontier Organic spices, and it is a much more affordable way of keeping your spice cabinet stocked. I'm a mason jar junkie anyway, so I always have extra crowding my cabinets, and I might as well make good use of them. So I am coming out of the granulated garlic closet and I am proud to say I love this ingredient! Ok, vent off.

So hash it up guys, and get creative. What's the worse that could happen? You enjoy your veggies? That's what I thought.

Beyond Bacon Review

Get ready, this is going to be a long one, because I just have a LOT to tell you. 

So do you remember a while back when I blogged a recipe for Salted Almond Freezer Fudge? That little quick recipe was inspired by a preview I saw of the Paleo Parent’s new upcoming book, Beyond Bacon: Paleo Recipes that Respect the Whole Hog. In that blog post, I said, “I want that book like a fat kid wants cake… and I used to be a fat kid, and I always want cake.” Guess what? Stacy read my post, and contacted me and asked me if I would like to review their book on my blog! I couldn’t believe it!

So I waited….and waited… and waited….and then one rainy day my Instagram feed started being flooded with other bloggers pictures of their review copies of Beyond Bacon. For a tiny second, I thought just maybe that other, more important bloggers had been chosen to review it instead of me (and let’s be honest, I wouldn’t blame them) but THEN MY DOORBELL RANG! My fiancé answered to the door, and tried to fool me into thinking that it was a package for him…. But lo and behold, the Paleo Parents SENT ME A COPY! As Stacy would say, “PRAISE THE LARD!” 

My love affair with pork started when I was living in Columbia, SC. Me and my fiancé had just started eating Paleo, and we also started going to our local farmer’s market and buying pastured pork from the lovely people at Caw Caw Creek. All I knew was that Mark Sisson told me that it was not only ok for me to eat pastured pork, and lard rendered from their fat,but it was GOOD FOR ME, and so being the good southern girl that I am, I just dove right in. We have bought an obscene amount of pork from these people since then.  So much so, that one time we were in line at their booth, and the person in front of us asked the farmer, “What do you recommend?” He said, “You should ask them.” (He was pointing to us!) The farmer and his crew quickly found out that we weren’t afraid to try anything they suggested. We had conversed about how I saved the bones to make stock, and he then proceeded to GIVE us some trotters (pig’s feet!) and told us to add them to our stock pot to make our broth rich and full of collagen. We have been buying them ever since.  

Since Stacy and Matt so graciously sent me a copy of their book, I have been trying to give it the best review I could. In anticipation of the book’s arrival, I stocked my freezer with pork and fatback so that I could be ready to hit the ground running! The first recipes I made were the Bacon Pumpkin Pancakes and Maple Sage Breakfast Sausage. I made them for dinner (brinner! You know, breakfast for dinner?) and even though the recipe says it serves 4-6, me and my fiancé stuffed ourselves. After we get married, we really need to start having kids soon so we stop devouring everything! We did have a LITTLE leftover for breakfast the next morning, and decided to make our own breakfast sandwiches by adding a scrambled egg. Ian’s exact words were, “Suck on that mcgriddle!” (not a great pic, but I was more interested in stuffing my face than food styling!)

What caught my eye about the recipe for the pancakes, was that there was a way to make the recipe nut free by using sunbutter (sunflower seed butter). I was excited to use that variation because I have been trying to cut back on almonds.  (There is nothing wrong with almonds, I just tend to overdo it, and I think too many almonds aggravates my gut) The pancake recipe is actually on their blog, so go check it out! It will tide you over until the whole book is available.While the pancakes were delicious, and a special treat, I know I will make the Maple Sage Breakfast Sausage over and over. I don’t have a sausage stuffer (YET- it's going on the registry for our wedding), so I just made them into patties. They were more flavorful than any store-bought sausage, and really easy to make.  I will definitely make them for company and holiday breakfasts!

The next night, I decided to make the Kielbasa with Sauerkraut and the Mashed Cauliflower with Lard. They have a recipe for how to make your own Kielbasa in the book, but I had actually just bought some from Caw Caw Creek last Saturday, and I had no idea what to do with them. This recipe was SO VERY EASY, and took ten minutes to prep and throw in the pot. I also made the Mashed Cauliflower from the “Veggies and Sides” section of the book, as was suggested to go along with the Kielbasa. As I noted on instagram, I have NEVER successfully made a mashed cauliflower recipe that I enjoyed as much, or more than mashed potatoes. This recipe was SINFULLY good. Ian licked his plate clean, and then proceeded to lick the food processor clean as well, despite my warnings that the blade from my food processor is wicked sharp. His response was, “Don’t care. You should have made more cauliflower.” 

The other bonus for the mashed cauliflower recipe is that it didn’t contain any dairy or butter at all. Instead of butter, the recipe adds lard to make this side creamy and lusciously porky. I always love to find paleo recipes that are truly dairy free, because I can serve them to my brother, Chandler, who is completely allergic to milk (like, trip to the hospital allergic, NOT just lactose intolerant). Chandler isn’t paleo yet, but I really think that once he is out of college and settled down, he might come over to the dark side…. Especially if I serve him mashed cauliflower with lard! 

Which brings me to the next recipe I reviewed -  Lard. I already had some in my fridge, but I used the last of it to make that awesome Mashed Cauliflower, so I took a slab of uncured fresh fatback from my freezer, and stuck it in the fridge so I could render some the next morning. I have rendered lard many times before, but Matt and Stacy’s method is way superior to mine, and I will be using it from now on. My lard has never been this snowy white! 

To get the full scoop on how to render your own luscious lard, go pre-order their book! Did I mention that if you pre-order it, you will be guaranteed the lowest price? Also, I heard that their first book, Eat Like a Dinosaur, sold out the first day it was released, so if you want your copy, make sure you go pre-order it! 

Why is their method of rendering lard superior to mine? Well, all I am going to say is that it leaves you with the opportunity to make Lardons, another awesome recipe from their book. Per the suggestion in the book, we used our fresh, crispy bits of fat to top a salad for lunch! Better than bacon bits by far!

Of course, with my freshly rendered lard calling my name, I had to make to make their Caramel Praline Lard Fudge, which, by the way is also dairy free. Did I mention everything in the book is dairy free? How awesome! I didn’t think it was possible to make fudge without cream or butter! Again, another incredibly sinful and delicious recipe from the King and Queen of all things pork. After you have pre-ordered the book, and it arrives, drive recklessly to the store to get the ingredients for this recipe. Ok, don't do that, just drive safely obeying all the traffic laws, but don't dawdle! It’s been a long time since I’ve had fudge, and it was well worth the wait. 

I recently made stock from Caw Caw Creek trotters, and Ian has been pestering me to use it, so I made the Egg Drop Soup recipe for breakfast. Also delicious, super easy, and sure to be a regular staple in our house, especially when I start popping out paleo babies. The Paleo Parents say that this is one of their kids’ favorite recipes. 

So, is it clear to you by now that this is my new favorite cookbook? Let me just say that I have a LOT of cookbooks, especially for a gal under 30 with a limited income. In addition to the wonderful recipes in this book, I really appreciate the sections in this book that go into detail about the art of raising pastured pork, and how it can benefit your health. Sections of this book truly read like a novel, and in fact, I spent an hour reading those sections aloud to my fiancé. The photographs and graphics are some of the most beautiful works of art I have ever seen in print. Matt and Stacy have truly honored the pig and their love and respect for the animal shows in every page. I respect this book as a classically trained chef and fellow lover of pastured pork. 

On another note, this book teaches you how to order a whole hog, something I have been longing to do for quite some time. Ian just got a new job in Virginia Beach, and so we will be moving. This new job comes with many opportunities for us both, but one thing we are excited about is the chance to buy a whole hog. It may even be our wedding present to each other. I look forward to cooking our way through this book and visiting the farms and butchers featured in Beyond Bacon as well. 

Ian also wants to thank the Paleo Parents for sending me this book.... he has been a happy boy the last few days! The hardest part of recipe testing was keeping him out of the dishes long enough for me to snap a picture! He also notes that if any other foodbloggers out there want his personal opinion of their book, and a thorough review, he would be happy to lend my services. How kind of him, right? Now if you will excuse me, I need to get back to my kitchen, my freezer full of pastured pork, and my new favorite book.