Carolina Hash; A Tasty Pork Side Dish

 

      Carolina Hash is a different type of cuisine.  Carolina style centers on slow-roasted whole hog barbeque and is one of America's oldest methods of cooking meat.  The lowlands BBQ has a taste varying from Florence and Kingstree over to Myrtle Beach, a spicy blend of vinegar and pepper is standard. The so-called Upstate along the North Carolina border is home to a thin red sauce made from vinegar and tomato, while folks in the counties along the Savannah River prefer a thick ketchup-based version.  I got this recipe from another AWACS veteran at one of the annual picnics; delicious.  

      I did not cook a whole hog but have made this before using a large pork butt roast. I smoke it using Kosmos Honey Killer Bee and Meat Church Honey Bacon.  No injection, nothing else.  About 6-7 hours.  Once your meat is shredded, chopped, and diced small you can proceed with this recipe.  You should have about 5 pounds of meat to begin with, but you can adjust the recipe as needed.  

Deboned and chopped from a 9 lb butt

Rough chopped pile o' pork

3-4 pounds smoked boneless pork butt, shredded

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

1/2 medium sweet onion diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil

1 1/2 medium sweet onion, diced

1 bag diced potatoes

½ cup ketchup

3/4 cup BBQ sauce

1/4 to 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

2 to 3 teaspoons black pepper

1 to 2 teaspoons hot sauce

6 tablespoons butter

      All these quantities are approximate and should be adjusted if needed.  You want chunky, not sloppy.   Chunk out and shred pork butt from wood pit.  Wipe a Dutch oven or deep-dish skillet clean and add 1 tablespoon of oil to it.  Heat over medium-high heat.  Add onion, garlic, and potatoes and cook until onion is soft.  Add the pork on top of the potato mixture.  Pour in 1 cup of the chicken broth and simmer until the potatoes are soft.  Add more broth if needed.  

Simmering taters and pork

Stir in the remaining ingredients and continue to simmer

      Add the ketchup, BBQ sauce, and 1/4 cup vinegar, 2 teaspoons pepper, and 1 teaspoon hot sauce.  Stir well and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes.  Taste the hash and add in more vinegar, pepper, and hot sauce if desired.  Cube butter and add to mixture.  Stir until it is melted and mixed in.  Cook till texture/doneness meets your tastes.  Serve as a BBQ side or on it’s own.  You can have it for breakfast, lunch or even dinner.  Serve with eggs or make a great BBQ Sandwich.  Makes a great leftover OTR.

Tasty, even with my crappy eggs

"I never met a meal I didn't like" 

Miss Piggy

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Colcannon and Corned Beef & Cabbage Soup

 

      We've always gotten locked into corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day and a couple of times with Guiness Irish Steaks.  This year I wanted to try something different.  Barb endured many hours of my suggestions and finally she agreed to this one.  She loves my cooking but does sometimes tire of my relentless meal planning.  "Good grief, eat a hotdog!", she says.  Love 'dat woman.    

       I am also making Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup (another first for the holiday).  Colcannon is another of those traditional poor man's tater meals from long ago.  Specializing in Yukon Golds with Cream and Bacon, it is quite tasty.  In fact, it is often referred to as Irish Mashed Potatoes, but with a bit of meat can be a casserole.  

Colcannon

3 ½ pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed

½ cup butter

½ cup half-and-half, more if needed

1/2 small Savoy cabbage, finely shredded

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon garlic powder, optional

5 strips bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces or bacon chunks

   

      Place the potatoes in a large pot over high heat.  Pour salted water into the pot until the potatoes are completely submerged.  Bring the potatoes to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork-tender.  Drain and transfer the potatoes into a large bowl.

      While the potatoes cook, fry the cabbage in a skillet over medium heat with a few tablespoons of the butter.  Add the bacon, if using, and stir for 5 minutes until the cabbage if soft and the bacon is cooked.  Set aside.

      Mash the potatoes with a masher, fork, or electric mixer until the desired consistency is achieved.

      In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook the remaining butter and the half-and-half until melted and combined, about 3 to 5 minutes.

      Pour the butter mixture into the bowl of potatoes.  Add the salt, black pepper, and garlic, and beat until light and fluffy.  Add more half-and-half, one tablespoon at a time, if needed, until the desired creaminess is achieved.  Finally, add the cabbage and bacon, stir, and enjoy!

      As stated earlier, this is often referred to as Irish Mashed Potatoes and as such lends itself as a side dish.  But the addition of any good meat (pork chunks, lamb burger, beef stew meat, even chicken, or bacon) can be an easy, tasty casserole.  For this meal we added venison sausage  

Corned Beef Cabbage Soup

      If the Colcannon doesn't fill you up, this will.  This crockpot dish is made from my homemade Corned Beef I make every fall.  This is a 2-quart RV crockpot recipe.  Adjust accordingly.

2 tsp olive oil

2 leeks, chopped (whites and light green only)

2 cloves garlic

1 medium carrot, chopped

1/2 yellow pepper, chopped

1-pound lean corned beef brisket, sliced and chopped large

2 cups of water

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp chopped parsley

1 large potato, peeled and cubed

1 cup cabbage, chopped

fresh pepper to taste

      In a skillet heat oil over medium low heat, add leeks and sauté until soft, about 4-5 minutes; add garlic and cook 2 minutes.  Transfer to the crockpot with the carrots, yellow pepper, corned beef, potatoes, pepper, bay leaf, parsley and water.

Chopped

In the pot, power on High 5 hours

      Cover and cook until vegetables are tender, 6-7 hours on low.  Arrange cabbage over corned beef, cover, now cooking on high until cabbage is tender, 45 minutes.

In the bowl, dig in

"May your pockets be heavy, and your heart be light.  May good luck pursue each morning and night"

Irish Blessing

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Venison Bratwurst

      Barb shot a very nice Axis doe early March.  Perfect for the freezer she was 90 lbs. dressed and will provide about 40-50 lbs. of meat as well as burger and brats.  This is a new twist for us this year.  We have butchered our own venison for many years, including burger and breakfast sausage patties.  This year a new arena: bratwurst.  We now have a much larger sausage stuffer (5 lb capacity) and are ready to tackle it. 

 

      First of all, we grind all of our trim meat, using extra suet for fat.  For this I use lots of trim pork fat from the summer cooking.  If I need more then I use beef fat or bacon.  All do the job.  Once I have separated all the grind we intend wrapped/frozen for burger, I mix the seasonings for the bratwurst and mix thoroughly.  You will regrind this at least once more including to add cheese if you wish.  I forgot the cheese.  This is a maiden voyage, so far....at least no icebergs.   

     I use real pork casings for this.  They are packed in salt and sealed.  I take out what I need and soak them in warm water.  Seal the rest in the bag.  Once I am ready to stuff, I fill the stuffer hopper barrel and soak casings and then place them on the fill end of the stuffer.  Yes, just like putting on a condom.  Keep the casings in the water as you feed it as it makes the case more pliable and easier to feed.  Bring it out a little bit and tie off the end.  Then begin to turn the stuffer handle so that it begins to fill the casings.  From now on it is a timing thing.  Keep turning the handle to fill the casings and keep filling casings full while guiding the casing along at a decent speed to allow filling behind it without excess pressure or it will burst.  Trust me.  Move them along into a circle (these are easier to handle).  

This hand must keep moving so the back can fill easily

      

      No matter how you stuff it, when done fill all you can into the last of the casings and tie off the end tightly.  Now you need to divide them into individual brats.  Figure your desired length and pick up sausage and flip several times to twist.  I don't individually separate them until done with smoking and before vacuum sealing/freezing.  

           Now, prick each sausage with a pin about 3 per link.  This will let steam out without busting the sausage during smoking.  Now, hang the entire string of links on the S-hooks in the smoker.  At this point the brats are cured, seasoned, stuffed, and done with the assembly process, but not cooked.  I lightly cold smoke them to impart the wood seasoning of choice.  

          For this I use my small, electric cold smoker.  This system uses a electric heater coil to heat a small pan of wood and another of water for humidity.  I fill the large pan with lump charcoal after it is heated to nearly white, then add apple chips for flavor.  This is accomplished in advance, so the pit is at smoking temp when meat is added.  The water pan is filled and left alone.  I smoke them at 100-150F MAX for up to 6 hours.  This will further season the brats, but not completely cook them.  This you accomplish on the grill or whatever for your particular recipe.  

Brats in

Brats out; 3 hours @90-120F

      When done vacuum seal and freeze till use.  After the Titanic docks I'll let you know how these tasted. 

 NOTE:  I DID A BIT OF RESEARCH AND NEXT TIME I'LL USE NATURAL COLLAGEN CASINGS WHICH ARE ALREADY ON A TUBE, REQUIRE NO SOAKING, AND FEED MUCH EASIER.  

"Sausages are like laws, it's best not to see them being made"

Otto Von Bismarck

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Sockeye Salmon Candy

 

      

      I tried this several years ago at Merinos Seafood Market in Westport, WA and loved it.  Any smoked salmon is good, but the addition of a maple glaze and crunch really takes it to a whole new level.  The perfect combination of sweet and salty/savory.  It would last a week in the fridge, but only a month frozen.  It is the perfect snack food or accompaniment to your charcuterie board.  I love sockeye salmon; of all the salmon their taste is the best.   I would like to say this is fresh, but it is March in Texas and I got what I could get from HEB.  This is a 3 pound fillet.  

3 pounds skin-on salmon pieces (sockeye salmon is the best, but large trout will work also)

1-pound kosher salt

1-pound brown sugar

1 cup maple syrup or birch syrup

      I like to cut the fish into 1-2" strips first.  Mix the salt and brown sugar together.  Find a lidded container large enough to hold the salmon; a big plastic tub works well.  Lay down a layer of the salt/sugar mixture about 1/4 inch deep.  Put a layer of salmon down on this, skin side up. Cover the salmon with more salt/sugar mixture.  If you need a second layer of salmon, make sure the layer of salt and sugar between them is thick enough so that the pieces of salmon are not touching.  Basically, you are burying the salmon in salt and sugar.  Cover and let cure in the fridge at least 30 minutes, and up to 3 hours.  The longer the cure the saltier it will be.

Cut into strips

Salt/brown sugar dry rub

      Remove the salmon from the cure, which will get wet, and briefly rinse the fish under cold water.  Pat dry with a paper towel and set the salmon on a drying rack skin side down. Let this dry in a breezy place for 2 hours, or in the fridge, uncovered, overnight.  You are doing this to form a pellicle on the salmon, which helps it smoke properly.  

Pellicled

Into the smoker

      Traditionally salmon candy is cold smoked for several days.   I use my upright electric/water/wood chip smoker here for this.  In one pan I fill with water; the other I fill with hardwood lump charcoal already lit and progressing.  Every once in a while, I spike this pan with hardwood slivers, in this batch apple.  You want to bring the temperature up gradually over the course of an hour or so and let it sit at around 165°F to 200°F for at least 3 hours, and up to 6 hours if you like your salmon candy harder and smokier.  These went for 4 hours.  

Glazed with maple syrup

      Every 90 minutes, paint the salmon with the maple syrup.  This also helps to remove any albumen -- the icky white stuff -- that can form between the fish flakes if your smoker gets a little too hot too fast.

After several glazings, done at 4 hours

      When the salmon looks good and lacquered, typically about 3 to 4 hours, remove it to the drying racks again and paint it one last time with the maple syrup.  Allow to cool to room temperature before storing.  This works very well served with cheese, crackers, cantaloupe, and/or hot peppers.  They will keep well in the refrigerator for up to a week, in the freezer for only 30 days.  Enjoy.   

Plated

"The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, they speak to me. The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me. The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dewdrop on the flower, speaks to me. The strength of the fire, the taste of the salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars"

Chief Dan George

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Humarsupa (Creamy Langostino Soup)

 

      A recipe originating in Iceland we tried it all those 40 years ago when we lived there.  Delicious yet forgot all about it till I came across it recently.  Called Humarsupa, it is a family favorite on the North Atlantic Island.  They're probably eating a bit of it these days with the volcano activity so near the small, quaint villages.  

      A relative of the lobster family, they are smaller in size and thrive in the cold waters off the coast.  Obviously, I have no access to these here, so I substituted large prawns, and they turned out just as tasty.  I made my own fish stock for this recipe. 

2 tablespoons butter

1 pound of langoustine w/shells or prawns

¾ cup dry white wine

1 yellow onion, minced small

2 carrots, chopped small

2 celery stalks, chopped small

4 cups fish stock

3 cups water

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 tablespoons butter

2 garlic cloves (finely minced)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 teaspoons paprika

1 tsp curry powder

1 cup dry white wine

6 cups seafood stock

1.5 cups Yogurt (can also use heavy cream)

¼ cup chopped fresh chives (for topping)

2 tablespoons heavy cream (for topping)

     

      In a medium-size saucepan over medium heat, heat butter until melted.  Next, remove shells from shellfish (I left the heads on) and add to pot.  Slice langostinos into 1" chunks and set aside.  Chop onion into quarters and add to pot along with carrots, celery, fish stock, water, and salt and pepper.

Peel, devein, and shell.  Put everything but the meat into the stock

Shelled, chopped langostino for the soup in a bit

Simmering the shells to make stock

      Bring stock to boil. Once boiling reduce heat to simmer and allow to simmer for 1 hour.  After stock has simmered, strain the stock into a bowl and set off to the side to be added to the soup later on.  NOTE:  I used fish stock I had made previously but kept this part intact to the recipe.  

      In a large saucepan over medium heat, heat butter and olive oil.  Once the butter and oil is hot add the minced onion and garlic  Allow the onion and garlic to soften, stirring occasionally for roughly 3 minutes.  Next, add the tomato paste, paprika, curry powder, and wine to the pan and allow to simmer for roughly 5 minutes.  Add the reserved stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

      Once soup has simmered, add shrimp and cook for another 5-10 minutes.  Remove soup from heat and allow the soup to cool slightly before stirring yogurt or cream into the soup.

      Serve immediately and top with a drizzle of cream and chopped chives.  Add additional sea salt and pepper.

       It was tasty, but the prawns were a bit overdone.  

"peta Reddast"(It will all work out ok)

Icelandic Proverb

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