House Smoked Bacon and Sweet Honey Nectarines.

Meat-eaters will clamour for Michael Symon‘s new cookbook, that hit bookstalls, last week. It contains 120 new recipes for beef, pork, poultry, lamb, goat and game, and luckily Michael doesn’t shy away from the unpopular bits either, (the book contains great ideas for veal hearts, sweetbreads and tripe). His house bacon, though, caught my eye, as I’ve always wanted to try making my own bacon at home. Due to my kind and generous friends over at Random House Publishing, (thanks Emily! Thanks Allison!) they agreed to part with the recipe for Michael’s House Bacon from the newly released book for my blog, (you lucky readers and subscribers!) together with the Honey Nectarines recipe, which I think would be a great side-dish to any of the meat recipes in his new cookbook. Enjoy!

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HOUSE BACON
From Michael Symon’s new cookbook “Carnivore”
Michael says Bacon is like a good pair of Levi’s; it’s never goes out of style. He also says by mixing and matching your own favorite herbs and spices you can customize this recipe to suit your own tastes.
To get other recipes, or to order the book, click here. 

3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon pink curing salt
11⁄2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
6 pounds fresh pork belly

1) Mix the kosher salt, pink curing salt, and brown sugar. Thoroughly coat the pork belly with this mixture, making sure to use it all. Put the belly on a rimmed baking sheet and cover it with a piece of parchment paper. Put another baking sheet on top of the belly and weight it down with a few heavy cans or plates. Put it in the refrigerator to cure for 7 days.

2) Rinse the pork belly in cold water and put it on a baking sheet lined with a rack. Refrigerate the belly, uncovered, overnight to dry it out a bit.

3) Prepare and set a smoker to 200°F. Using apple-wood chips, smoke the pork belly for 1 hour. Continue cooking the belly in the smoker, without smoke, until it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F, about 3 hours.

4) When the bacon is done, remove it from the smoker and refrigerate for several hours. It will keep for 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 2 months in the freezer.

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HONEY NECTARINES
From Michael Symon’s new cookbook “Carnivore”
Michael says this is great with grilled meats, but also great spooned over vanilla bean ice-cream.
To get other recipes, or to order the book, click here. 

3⁄4 cup dry rose or white wine
Juice of 3 limes
1⁄4 cup honey
1 shallot, minced
12 nectarines, pitted and quartered
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

1) Bring the wine, lime juice, honey, and shallot to a simmer in a small non-reactive saucepan over medium heat. Add the nectarines and cook until the mixture is syrupy, about 20 minutes.

2) Gently stir in the mint and pine nuts. Serve hot or at room temperature.

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Photographs by Jennifer May
To order Michael Symon’s new coobook, “Carnivore”, click here. 

Get happy; fill your pantry with something you might normally buy. Make your own Ketchup.

The first thing you notice about the cookbook The Homemade Pantry, (101 foods you can stop buying and start making) is the cover. It has a texture on it that feels tactile and yet practical, so that if you were to spill something on it, while you were re-making over your entire pantry, you could just wipe it off.

I love this book, but in the beginning I wasn’t so sure. I stared at it and thought ‘what’s this book about, and why do I need it?’ but then I realized that the clever author— Alana Chernila, has written a book about all the things we have in our pantry that we buy, regardless, almost without thinking, never realizing we could just make them, instead, from scratch.

The book contains the inevitable sauces and dressings, (Cranberry Sauce, Italian Dressing), yes, but the gems in this book are the recipes we think we couldn’t possibly make, like Pop Tarts, and Granola Bars, Hamburger buns and Graham Crackers. (I want to make my own Graham Crackers!)

I can’t wait till the end of Summer tomato glut hits the farmers market, to put a big batch of Ketchup together.

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HOMEMADE KETCHUP
This recipe is from the book The Homemade Pantry, (101 foods you can stop buying and start making)
Makes 4 cups

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced onion (1 large)
5 garlic cloves, minced
6 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and cored, or three 28-ounce cans tomatoes,     drained
3 teaspoons kosher salt, plus additional to taste
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon celery salt
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
1½ tablespoons chili powder, plus additional to taste
½ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook for 1 minute, while stirring. Add the tomatoes, salt, paprika, cinnamon, cloves, celery salt, cumin, dry mustard, chili powder, and ground pepper and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Blend until smooth with an immersion blender or transfer the mixture to an upright blender in two batches and puree until smooth. If transferred, return the mixture to the pot. Add the vinegars, brown sugar, and honey. Cook over medium heat, uncovered, stirring often, until the ketchup thickens, about 30 minutes. Adjust salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste.

STORAGE NOTES: To freeze the ketchup, let cool before transferring to containers. The ketchup will stay in the fridge, covered for 2 weeks, but to freeze, place in a freezer-safe container for up to 6 months thawing in refrigerator and whisk to re-emulsify, or to can, leave a head space of a ½ inch and follow normal canning procedures. Jars will last on the shelf for 1 year.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JENNIFER MAY
To purchase the book “Homemade Pantry; 101 foods you can stop buying, and start making” Click here.

Thanks to the girls at Random House (Emily and Allison!) for allowing me to print this recipe and to include the pic! x