Curse You, Bobby Flay!

Once after my husband, Kyle, had finished cleaning up the kitchen in the wake of one of my inspired cooking adventures, he proclaimed with great exasperation, "The Bobby Flay kitchen is closed!" We all laughed, and the saying stuck. If you hear the term "Bobby Flay kitchen" in the context of one that has been wrecked by an overzealous (albeit well-intentioned) home cook, just know it was Kyle who coined this phrase. I try to keep the mess under control when I'm cooking. Really, I do. But I am not always successful.

The past couple weeks I have been cooking with some of the new meats I've acquired, both cured and fresh. I'll share what I've been making as well as some photos (and even some meat-inspired art). This is fair warning, however, that my food photos are not anything fancy. I have come across some foodies out there who also enjoy creating food-photo art that manages to convey visually the deliciousness of the dish. Perfect for food blogs, it turns out. So you will have to use your imaginations with my pictures, which are more nuts-and-bolts. Apologies in advance.

One of the first recipes I have tried with the flat pancetta was bean soup. This is a recipe I have been making forever. My dad has been cooking dried beans for as long as I can remember. It's one of the first recipes I learned to cook once I was on my own, great nutrition and flavor for someone who is still looking for a job after graduating from college and/or has a gaggle of mouths to feed, both situations I happen to be familiar with. Great for ultra-tight food budgets and very easy.

15-Bean Soup with Pancetta

Ingredients:
1 lb of mixed dried beans
1/2 lb dry cured pancetta, chopped (bacon if you're not curing your own)
1 onion, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
additional meat seasoning, to taste
water

I use this bean mix, and then just throw away the seasoning that comes with it. I always season it myself with salt, pepper, and whatever other seasoning I feel like, such as cajun or burger seasonings. This dish is incredibly versatile that way. I also like the variety of the beans in this mix: some standard ones (such as pinto and red) plus some bigger ones like butter beans that swell and stand out and then also some that just fall apart (split peas) during cooking and thicken up the soup as it cooks.

Give the beans a good couple of rinses in warm water. On the third rinse, I just let the beans soak while I finish getting the other ingredients ready. I will include that water in the beans, not drain it off. Meanwhile I put the cubed pancetta in a pan to render. One thing I'm noticing about the dry cured meat is how lightening fast it renders. You absolutely cannot walk away from it. It really only takes a couple minutes to brown it. The other thing I've noticed is the low smoking point, so be sure to have the vent above your stove going.

After the meat has browned, remove most of the bacon fat, and add the olive oil and onion. Cook the onions for a few minutes. Put the beans and the water they're soaking in into a crock pot set to high. Add a little water/beer/white wine to the pan with the meat and onion to loosen up any of the meat residue left over from browning (a few seconds), then put it all in the crockpot. Add a tablespoon of salt to start and pepper to taste, plus a meat seasoning of your choice. Cook for 4-6 hours, stirring occasionally. Adjust the salt and seasoning when it's done.

Cubed pancetta

Pancetta done rendering

The finished soup with some sour cream and homemade extra spicy chili paste in the middle

I am quickly discovering the beauty of Italian peasant food. This carbonara recipe by Mario Batali and recommended to me by my cousin Bill comes via Food and Wine Magazine (online version). I had heard of eggs in pasta but never raw egg. To be honest, it sounded too rich and after trying it, I'll confirm it is a very rich dish (you don't want to eat this very often), but it is truly delicious, both in terms of flavor and texture.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Ingredients:
1 lb dry spaghetti (linguini or fettucini also work great)
1/2 lb guanciale (dry cured pork jowl); you can also use just straight up bacon -- I used flat pancetta in mine
1 c.  parmesan cheese
4-5 eggs, separated
salt and pepper to taste

Pancetta (before slicing like bacon) and eggs directly from the farm.  The deep orange yolks from free-range farm eggs makes a spectacular presentation when the dish is done. They also taste amazing!

Slice the pancetta bacon-like and brown in a pan (again, this goes exceedingly fast and can create a lot of smoke if you don't have a fan on). Drain the meat on a paper towel and set aside. Remove all but a couple tablespoons of the fat from the pan. Cook the pasta to al dente and drain, reserving 1/4-1/2 cup of the cooking water. Reheat the meat in the pan (this takes no time), add the pasta water, and then the pasta. Toss around to mix. Then add the egg whites, cheese, pepper, and salt. (The meat is pretty salty, so be sure to taste before adding any additional.) Toss/mix again. Serve pasta onto four or five plates. After making this dish, I think it would easily feed five people, but it's your choice. Make a little "nest" in each plate of pasta and then put the yolk in the center. To eat it, you just break the yolk and mix into the pasta as much or as little as you want.

To me, the dish has a very "comfort food" feel. After eating pasta all my life almost exclusively with a red or white sauce, it's hard to believe that egg and pasta could taste this good together, but they really do. Understandably, some people will have a problem with raw egg but in this dish, the white is actually cooked, and the yolk is no different from eating an egg prepared for breakfast with the yolk left runny. Quality eggs really make the dish.

Fettucini alla Carbonara

Finally, I prepared one of the deer roasts last week, which, true to one hunter acquaintance, tastes almost exactly like high-quality beef. The texture is finer, however, in my opinion. Very delicious. Makes a wonderful Sunday dinner.

Deer Roast in a Slow Cooker
1 deer roast
1 diced onion
1/4 c. worschester sauce
minced garlic, to taste (I like to use a lot)
1 can stewed, diced, or Rotel tomatoes
2 c. water

This dish is as easy as putting everything in the pot, turning it on, and waiting til it's done (4-5 hours, depending on whether it started frozen or not). As you may learn about me, I love my slow cooker. One of the main reasons is because it has the ability to turn tougher pieces of meat into a veritable feast for many with so little effort. But it also works with tender meat too, like the deer. When doing this in an oven, I was warned to not going beyond medium rare with doneness or risk making it tough.

Deer roast right before serving

And just to share, a painting I made inspired by one of my recent butchering adventures. No title yet.