Meat Loves Salt

Food Matchmaking: Avocado Loves Sugar

by julie on March 23, 2012, 1 comment

More often than not these days, I encounter avocado as a savory food — in guacamole, salads, or sandwiches. But I actually grew up eating avocado more like I would a fruit — that is, as something sweet, which I know some people find strange. It is still my favorite smoothie flavor. And, when I was a kid, my mom would make me this snack of avocado chunks in milk with a bit of sugar sprinkled over top, and I’d eat it up like cereal. Is that weird? :)

I guess to me avocado is kind of like butter — rich, creamy, and good both savory and sweet. I would love to see more avocado desserts — like this avocado pie!

How do you like your avocado?

Images from here and here.

Food Matchmaking: Mustard Loves Guinness

by becca on March 16, 2012, 0 comments

Do you ever come across foods that you didn’t think to put together but seem so natural after you try it? In the spirit of our blog name, we thought we’d start a new weekly “Food Matchmaking” series.

Since it’s St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow, we’re kicking things off with Mustard Loves Guinness. We actually first had Guinness mustard at the Salt tasting room in Vancouver this past Christmas and immediately went home to try making it ourselves. A little Guinness mustard would be perfect with corned beef this weekend. You can find a quick recipe here.

Images from here and here.

nasi goreng (javanese fried rice)

by julie on March 14, 2012, 0 comments

Nasi goreng, which means â€œfried riceâ€ in Indonesian or Malay, is one of the dishes I was excited about when I visited Malaysia last year. I know â€” how exciting could fried rice be, right? But when I looked at James Oselandâ€™s recipe in Cradle of Flavor and saw that it involved belacan (shrimp paste), I immediately knew I needed to try it. Unfortunately, when I got to Malaysia, the versions I got turned out to be simple fried rice with soy sauce. Nevertheless, I still like the James Oseland recipe, which is the classic Javanese version he learned from the Indonesian family he stayed with when he visited as a teenager. I will take any excuse to add shrimp paste toÂ a dish. Plus, â€œnasi gorengâ€ is just so much fun to say. :)

Nasi Goreng (Javanese Fried Rice)
Adapted from James Oselandâ€™s Cradle of Flavor
Serves 2-3

The original recipe was a bit too sweet for me, so I modified it a little by toning down the palm sugar and kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce that is a bit like molasses) and then upping the shrimp paste. :) I used the clay-like dried belacan I brought back from Malaysia, but you can substitute store-bought jarred shrimp paste, which is wet and I think more salty, so you might add less and adjust to taste. I also am too lazy to roast the shrimp paste in foil over the open flame of a burner, so I just dry toast it in the frying pan before I add the rest of the ingredients.

Be sure to use day-old rice when making fried rice of any kind. Freshly cooked rice is too soft and will clump and stick when fried.

Flavoring paste:
1 shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 tsp palm sugar (or dark brown sugar)
1-2 Thai bird chilies
2 tsp belacan (dried shrimp paste)

2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
3 cups day-old jasmine rice (I used brown rice in the photo)
1 tsp kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
Shrimp chips (optional)
2-3 eggs (1 per serving)
Kosher salt

1. If using the shrimp chips, fry them now and set aside. (See directions here for frying shrimp chips. You can also make it in the microwave, but the texture tends to be chewier that way.)

2. Heat a dry skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Dry toast the belacan until aromatic and the edges are a bit brown. Remove from heat.

3. Chop the shallot, garlic, and chilies. Pound these, along with the palm sugar and toasted belacan, with a mortar and pestle to release the juices and flavors. Grind until the mixture forms a paste.

4. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the paste and stir until the paste separates from the oil. Allow the garlic and shallot to cook but not brown. Using your fingers, break up the day-old rice and add to the pan. Stir the rice so that it gets coated in the oil and flavoring paste. Be sure to break up any clumps still left in the rice.

5. Add the Indonesian sweet soy sauce and stir to combine. Taste and add salt if needed.

6. In another skillet, fry each egg sunny side up until the white is set but the yolk is still a bit runny. (The original recipe calls for the yolk to be set too, but I prefer it runny.)

7. To plate, fill rice bowls with the rice, press to set, and then overturn the bowl onto a plate. Remove the bowl. Place a shrimp chip and a fried egg alongside the rice. If you like, you can also serve slices of cucumber and tomato with the rice.

pumpkin soup with salted pork

by becca on February 29, 2012, 0 comments

There’s a certain section of all the grocery stores here in Grenada that has a particularly pungent smell. If you follow the scent, it’ll lead you to a back corner where you’ll find an assortment of salted meats – salted fish, salted pig snouts, and different varieties of salted pork. My sister and I have always had a love and fascination for cured meats, whether it’s prosciutto from Italy, nem from Vietnam, or iberico from Spain. So when I stumbled upon some salted pork in Grenada, I knew I had to try it.

Granted, it definitely didn’t look like the kind you’d snack on with a glass of wine or with some cheese. But I was certain that it’d impart some yummy flavors to any dish that it was part of. So I threw a pack of salted pork riblets into my cart and continued on to the produce aisle. As I continued my shopping, a store clerk started chatting with me and asked me what I was making with my salted pork. I confessed, I didn’t yet know. He suggested a pumpkin soup and proceeded to give me step by step instructions on how to prepare the pork, which was confirmed by an elderly lady passing by — who, I might add, preceded her comments with “Let me tell you how to make it. I am a woman.” :)

So I came home with the pumpkin and salted pork in hand and looked through a few more recipes online. I ended up combining their suggestions with a recipe that I adapted from Hank Shaw’s recipe here. The key differences include the use of pumpkin rather than butternut squash, and substituting salt pork for bacon.

Pumpkin Soup with Salted Pork
Serves 4â€“6

I had some chicken stock left over that I had made previously with a whole chicken and some fresh thyme thrown in. The thyme adds an extra layer of complexity to the soup, so if you’d like some in your soup as well, you can feel free to throw in some fresh thyme or other fresh herbs as well.

If you’re not able to find salted pork, you can always salt your own. Any cut of pork will do, but riblets are a favorite because they have a bit of fat that flavors the soup and they’re fun to nibble on later. You can go hardcore and make “real” salt pork (takes two weeks) or just cover a piece of pork with salt and throw it in the fridge overnight. If you do the latter, you can probably get by with just rinsing the salt off. Don’t boil it before you add it into the soup or it’ll lose all its flavors and saltiness.

The traditional West Indian version of this soup sometimes includes chopped cabbage leaves. Alternatively, you can also leave out the pork riblets and season the soup with cloves, nutmeg, and some cinnamon. Chilled, this would make a refreshing soup for a summer day! This version is more heavy and substantial, which I find works nicely as a full meal with some crusty bread.

3 lbs West Indian pumpkin (also called Calabaza, but feel free to substitute with butternut squash)
3/4 lb salted pork riblets
2 small onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
5 bay leaves
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
2 Tbsp oil

1. Rinse pork riblets to wash off all the extra salt.

2. Put some water in a small pot and bring to a boil. Put the pork riblets into the water and let it boil for about 5 minutes.

3. Discard the water, rinse pork riblets, and repeat one more time. Set pork aside.

4. In a large stock pot, sautee the garlic and onions in oil over medium-high heat.

5. When the garlic and onions have browned, add in the chicken stock, pumpkin, bay leaves, and pork. Bring the mixture a boil and reduce heat to let it simmer softly.Â Simmer for at least an hour or until the pumpkin has broken down.