March Charcutepalooza Post - The brine

Month three of the Year of Meat, Charcutepalooza. I'm waiting for them to catch up with me as I played with some of the recipes from Charcuterie - Ruhlmans and Polyen book.

January was the duck proscuitto - fabulous with carmelized onions on a pizza.

February was the bacon - I've made a few batches and (shhhh have sold it at 8 buck a pound) it is damn good!

March is the brine, but since I've made the cold smoker I made the pastrami.

And here is the finished result, pastrami on homemade rye with homemade mustard.

So satisfying!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Spaghetti Carbonara

As you might know I'm participating with a bunch of other bloggers in Charcutepalooza, a year of meat. This months challenge was the salt cure - or making bacon!

I've made the bacon.

Now it's time to cook with it. Spaghetti Carbonara is a simple recipe of bacon, cream, egg yolks, and Parmesan. A little butter and olive oil to cook the bacon, some garlic and that's it.

Put the water on to boil.

Chop the bacon.

Chop the garlic and separate the yolks from the whites.

Add 1 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs of olive oil to large pan over medium high heat.

When water comes to boil add the pasta.

Add the bacon to the pan with butter and oil. Cook until it renders some fat.

Add the garlic. Stir.

While pasta and bacon cooks stir together the egg yolks and 4 oz of cream.

When pasta is done, drain and add to the bacon mixture. Remove from heat.

Add Parmesan, and while stirring, slowly add the cream egg mix. Toss / stir to coat pasta evenly.

Plate and top with a little more Parmesan and a generous grind of black pepper.

This is a fast, simple, satisfying dinner!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt

http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener