Green Chile

After making the Jardiniere yesterday I still had a lot of good green chiles left, so they needed to be canned so they were not wasted.  I use green chile in everything, so I'm glad to have them.

I put them on a cookie sheet and put them under the broiler in the oven until they were blistered, then flipped them and did the same on the other side. 

While still hot out of the oven, put them in a double plastic bag and close for a while to steam the skins off.  Remove them while still hot for easier skinning and seeding. 

Here they are skinned and seeded.  Ready for a dice now. 

All diced up and the kitchen smells very good. 

Here they are after 35 minutes in the pressure canner.  Can't wait to use them. 

Jardiniere

It's the end of the garden season and I spent yesterday taking everything that was still growing out of the garden, but the potatoes-- they still have a few days before the first freeze.  I had beets, carrots, peppers (Bell and hot), and tomatoes (green and ripe).  I also had a few herbs left-- parsley, thyme, and basil.  I started looking at all of it and remembered, I've been wanting to make Jardiniere for a long time; even better that most of the ingredients came fresh from the garden.

 Lorin planted a bunch of different peppers in the spring and one of them did really well.  He didn't do a good job of keep tabs on them though, so I don't know what kind they are.  They are big and long like Big Jim and I assume they are some type of Poblano.  They also have a really nice spice level.  I used these as the base of the Jardiniere.  

 

Also included are celery, onion, green tomato, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, garlic, bell peppers, and sweet peppers.

 This is all the vegetables soaking in salt water (about 1/2 cup salt and water to cover) for eight hours.  After that rinse everything very well.

 Here it is rinsed and mixed.

 In each of the pint jars is fresh Thyme, oregano, a bay leaf and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper corns.

 Assembly line works well for me.  The fresh Thyme from the garden is in the back ground.  It is actually Lemon Thyme.  I am amazed at how lemony it really is; brings a very fresh something to food.

 Spoon it all in up to the mark at 1/2 inch from the top for headspace. 

Traditionally, Jardiniere has green olives in it too.  Some people don't like it though so I did six without and four with.  I definitely like it.  You bite into one of those and it really makes the dish for me.

After all the veg is spooned into the jars, mix about half and half white wine vinegar and olive oil.  They they need processed in boiling water for ten minutes.  They should last forever after that.  When you're ready to use the Jardiniere, just shake the jar and the vinegar and olive oil in addition to the herbs that went into the bottom of the jar before the veg makes a really nice vinaigrette.  This stuff is great as a side dish to just about anything, if you like pickled things, but is especially good with meat-- like pot roast or in a roast beef sandwich.

Smoked Meat

It's been a long time since I had the time to really get serious with the smoker, but I found I had some time on my hands recently and took the opportunity to smoke a bunch of different meats to put up for the winter.

Below, top, is a fairly traditional bacon curing.  It does have a lot of extra pepper and garlic in it to make it a little more savory, but it is still sweet bacon that my family likes best.  Below left is pork belly Lardo.  I haven't tried this before, but thought is sounded good.  I have made regular Lardo before.  The only real difference is that you use belly instead of fat back to make the lardo, so it is meaty.  Bottom right is pancetta.

 The bacon cured for just a week and then I smoked it with Mesquite for an hour with the other meats.  The Lardo and Pancetta are still curing, for a total of two weeks.  Neither will be smoked.  The Panchetta will be air dried for a week and then packaged; the lardo will be air dried for the better part of a month before it is packaged.  The Panchetta will also need to be cooked before it can be eaten; the Lardo will be sliced very very thin and eaten raw on various things.

This is the bacon again.  It takes on a really nice mahogany color because of the brown sugar and molasas.

 Lardo with all the fresh herbs from the garden showing up-- parsley, thyme and garlic mainly.

 Panchetta with some of the same herbs from the garden.

This is everything packed into the smoker.  A full briskett on top, sliced into halves.  In the middle are two pork bone-in shoulders.  On the bottom is the bacon from the pics above.  To the right are three racks of pork ribs.

 I put a dry rub on the ribs and smoked them for four hours.

 Dry rub on the briskett and smoked them for ten hours.

 Dry rub on the pork shoulders and smoked them for ten hours.

 The bacon, just out of the cure and washed and dried very well, before smoking an hour.

 Nothing better than reading a book while you tend a smoker.  Smells good.  Very relaxing.

 The ribs after four hours of smoke.

 The briskett after ten hours of smoke.  After six hours I wrapped them in foil.  You can see some containers in back with liquid in them.  These are the juices from the beef and pork that I saved from the foil after four hours of additional smoke time.  That broth is liquid gold.  It is very strong and can be used for all kinds of kitchen magic later.  It is really very close to a demi-glace.

These are the pork shoulders.  Again, I wrapped them after six hours of smoke in foil, then smoked them for an additional four hours.  Fall apart tender and good.  Had pulled pork sandwitches the next day and they were very good.

Now I have a freezer full of all this goodness.  I like it when I have spare time.

Country Pork Pate with Dried Apricots and Pistachios

Just spent a little time in Paris and had some great food, so I couldn't wait to make some French type food when I got back.  I've been wanting to make a county pate anyway, so this was a good opportunity.  Instead of grinding the pork I went to work on it with a cleaver old-school.  I wanted larger, nonuniform pieces so it looked more interesting when sliced and also provides different textures.  I've seen a lot of recipes where dried cranberries are used as the fruit component, but I had these really good, fresh dried apricots (and I love apricots-- they also go well with pork) so I used them.

I put it in the oven en a bain-marie for five hours and the smell was increadable.  After it came out of the oven I put a piece of plastic wrapped cardboard over it and then weighed it down with a gallon of milk in the refrigerator to compact it.  The next day I put it in a warm bath for a couple of minutes to loosen it up, ran a knife around the edges, and put it on a cutting board.

 After it was on the cutting board, I put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up so it would slice easily.  You can see that it did.  The pieces are great looking with the spices, fruit and nuts and smell really good.  I will freeze these so that they can be brought out a couple of hours before serving.

 Here they are vacum sealed and ready to go into the freezer.  Great for a dinner party or when company drops by unexpectedly.

This is just a close-up so you can see all the good bits in the sliced pieces.