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Who doesn’t love Canada, our neighbor to the North, eh? After skiing a few times at Banff, we think that there are very few places on earth more beautiful than the Canadian Rockies. Canadians are, as a rule, truly nice people, and Canada has given us such gifts as the band Rush, Michael J. Fox, Tim Hortons coffee and doughnuts, hockey and Niagara Falls — just to name a few. So when we found out that this month’s Charcutepalooza challenge was going to be hot-smoked Canadian bacon, we were understandably excited. Thanks as always to Mrs. Wheelbarrow and The Yummy Mummy, the organizers of Charcutepalooza, for the inspiration (and excuse justification for procuring a new cooking toy.)
Homemade corned beef. Three months ago that may have been an outlandish idea, but after tackling duck breast prosciutto and our own bacon, corned beef really didn’t seem so intimidating. As we have mentioned, we are participating in Charcutepalooza, which is a year- long monthly effort to try different charcuterie challenges, organized by the amazing Mrs. Wheelbarrow and The Yummy Mummy. This month’s challenge was brining, and we decided to tackle corned beef. I unfortunately do not have lifelong memories to share of “Mom’s corned beef” — I grew up in a household of German ancestry in Central Pennsylvania, and corned beef was never on the menu. It wasn’t until I moved to Pittsburgh for law school that I encountered my first Proper Deli, and there, my first Real Corned Beef. I love it, but I have become a complete and utter snob for corned beef and have had a tough time finding good corned beef since I moved to Dallas. Could homemade corned beef be the solution? (**spoiler alert** YES!)
We made homemade bacon! Seriously — homemade bacon. As we noted in last month’s duck prosciutto post, we are participating in Charcutepalooza, which is a year-long effort by a collection of approximately 200 food bloggers to attempt and document a monthly charcuterie challenge. This month’s endeavor was salt cure — bacon for the “Apprentice Challenge” and pancetta or quanciale for the (more advanced) “Charcutiere Challenge.” The greatest part of this whole experiment? It was foolishly simple, and the end result is so delicious that we are wondering why we have never done this before. We may never buy the plastic wrapped stuff at the grocery store again. Many thanks to the folks who put together Charcutepalooza — such a great way to inspire us and others to step out of our cooking comfort zones. And now, on with the bacon! Continue reading “Homemade Bacon”
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Apparently, January is the time for new culinary experiences here at FoodieLawyer. First, we made bread. Now, we’re curing meat in our garage. We are participating in “CharcutePalooza,” which is a year-long collective effort of a group of bloggers to execute monthly challenges using “charcuterie” — a collection of ancient methods for preserving meats. Michael Ruhlman’s book on charcuterie is the guide for each of the challenges. First up, duck breast prosciutto. Continue reading “Duck Breast Prosciutto”
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Today we present two recipes in one (long) post, mostly because our last post was pretty much devoid of any culinary content. (This is a food blog, after all, folks!) First, we made a tomato sauce with spicy Italian sausage, and in the past we’ve served this meaty sauce over simple pasta. On this night, however, we decided to make some stuffed shells — a favorite Italian meal from when I was growing up. Our recipe made enough for leftovers this week, plus additional shells for the freezer for yet another meal later. Continue reading “Stuffed Shells with Italian Sausage Tomato Sauce”
A few years ago we hosted Thanksgiving here in Dallas with some of my family, and we were looking for a new side dish. We happened upon a recipe for roasted butternut squash with gorgonzola cheese. It was amazing and we’re now hooked on this dish, which is full of autumn flavors and pairs perfectly with turkey. This is one of our favorite Thanksgiving dinner side dishes. Try it, you will not be disappointed!
Continue reading “Butternut Squash with Gorgonzola”
Veal saltimbocca is an Italian dish consisting of thinly-pounded veal scallopine sandwiched with sage leaves and proscuitto, sauteed in a pan with a white wine sauce. Classic veal saltimbocca can be a bit of a challenge to prepare at home, as it involves whole pieces of veal layered with the other ingredients and cooked very gently so it doesn’t fall apart in the pan. We came across a much simpler version and liked it so much that we may never do it the old-fashioned way again! Continue reading “Easy Veal Saltimbocca”