The Cured Ham

Three Ingredient One Pot Cooking

I realize I've focused on a couple posts recently that involve 'One Pot Cooking'. The influence of two people have weighed heavily on me. One with regard to ease, the other with cooking clean.

As I've talked about before, start simply, start with the best, and nature probably has done 75% of the work for you. Even for a one pot meal. First, start with high quality ingredients. In this case a pasture raised pig, morel mushrooms, and white onions. That's it. Of course salt and pepper and a few sage leaves. I do not use wine in the sauce, only water. I browned the pork first (total of two large slices), then the onions in a little bit of butter. Place the enameled cast iron pot in the oven at 285 for a few hours and you have deliciously tender pork and the most wonderfully rich, deep sauce one could imagine. And remember, this is simple food.

I was generous with the amount of mushrooms I used. I noticed the Italians and the French are generous with the amount of mushrooms they use, so I modeled the dish from what I've experienced in Europe. Mushrooms are a real gift. Don't be afraid to use a couple handfuls in a stew like this. I used three handfuls.

The resulting sauce or cooking liquid could then be mixed with a little tomato sauce for a pasta, or even a splash of cream; again for a pasta. The sauce itself is a stepping stone for other meals.

Pork, Fennel, and Leeks

One pot cooking is a time honored tradition. I enjoy the challenge of Dutch oven cooking when I'm out car-camping. These types of meals are relatively easy, they can feed a lot or a little (depending on the size of your pot), and are deeply satisfying full flavored meals. The title of the post pretty much sums up what is in the recipe. So here's the recipe:

4 lbs Pork Shoulder

2 Fennel bulbs

2 large Leeks

10 Sage leaves

Water just enough to fill the pot when all the ingredients are in it

Salt and Pepper

I believe you should brown all of the ingredients on the stove prior to adding the water to the pot. Color equals Flavor. I suppose you could just put all this stuff in the pot and cook it in the oven, but I don't know how richly it will taste. Anyway, once all the ingredients are browned on the stove and the water is added, put the top on your pot and place in the oven at around a 285 degree temperature for about 3 hours.

Serve it will rice, pasta, couscous, mashed potato, whatever you want really. The sauce from the pot will be loose, probably runny. If you want to make a gravy, that's up to you.

Beach Food and Wine

The Cured Ham cooked a simple meal of home-made sausage, onion laden tomato sauce (nothing like sausage and onions), fresh garden tomatoes (not store bought), fresh mozzarella and arugula, provolone cheese, fresh bread, and of course wine (thank Bruce Snyder for the wine, a magnum of Diamo Grazie 2003 from Camellia Cellars). That tube in the top left corner is a blend of fruit for the newest 8 month year old in the family.

When I actually looked at what I cooked, I really only cooked the sausage and the sauce, everything nature provided. Glad we keep planting that garden. I love summer.

Two Eggs makes Five Eggs

True to his name, my brother was hard at work in the kitchen Saturday morning...making eggs. Those meat-hooks don't feed themselves you know.

Two Eggs Lasagna

The Cured Ham isn't the only one who cooks. My brother, we all know him as Two Eggs, is a solid cook. He's recently been a fan of "One Pot Cooking", something another regular Cured Ham guest is also a fan of.

In this world of long hours and long commutes, what do you do? Lasagna!

My brother uses Trader Joe's "No Boil" lasagna sheets and a straightforward mix of ricotta cheese, ground veal and spinach for his filling. The results are as you would expect, a hearty 'one-pot' meal with plenty of planned overs for the week.

I'm thinking about turning my brother's creations into a regular feature on The Cured Ham, One Pot Meals.

The Cured Ham's Garden

Well, the first major crop from the garden is in. Sure, I did a big harvest of herbs a couple weeks ago. And we've been getting cherry tomatoes and squash for a couple weeks now, but this was the first harvest of Heirloom and Early Girl.

Attention Oregano Heads!

The following picture is Oregano, not a bag of weed. I harvested a ton of this stuff and let it dry out for cooking. Don't get me wrong, I love fresh herbs and oregano is no exception. But when I think back to childhood, I can't recall having fresh oregano on much of anything.

The labor intensive process of picking little dried leaves of oregano is another lost art here in the United States, unfortunately. I don't know how much money this would fetch in some gourmet store, but I'm sure the packaging would be prettier. I think I spent 40 minutes cutting, cleaning, and tying the oregano. After it dried, I probably spent another hour crushing and sorting out the sticks and twigs in order to get the leaves and buds for usage.

Worth every minute. Besides, I was watching the Star Wars Marathon on the 4th of July. The Force kept me strong while I sorted.

The Cured Ham makes Pizza

I may have written about my pizza making before. 90% of the time I make this regtangular, thick crust pizza, similar to what my grandmother and mother make. The biggest difference between each of ours is the sauce, although grandma's dough is sweeter because she adds a some white zinfandel with the water when making the dough. Mom's sauce tends to be a bit stronger than grandma's as mom puts less or no bell pepper, less oregano, and a red wine in the sauce.  

I will generally vary the sauce from a sweeter style like grandma's to a robust style like mom's. It really depends on my mood. For instance, today's sauce was composed of only yellow and red onions, one of my sausages, tomato, a splash of both red and white wine and oregano. Total cook time, 30 minutes on low. In true Grandma Style, I ate the corner just as it was pulled from the oven.

The second pizza was rolled thin and topped with dried oregano, black pepper, and sea salt. A hearty portion of olive oil was used to coat the dough.

The Cured Ham makes Sausage

Everyone loves sausage, but not everyone wants to make it themselves. It has been several years since I made sausage, too long between gigs. Combine the 4th of July weekend with upcoming Capitola Beach activities (since everyone is going to be there BK) it's in my best interest to refine my sausage making skills. Nothing says "Feed the Masses" like sausage (and tri-tip).

A mixture of beef, pork and lamb with only a few basic seasonings; salt, black pepper, fennel, and a bit of Turkish Aleppo pepper. The pork and beef are from a friend of mine. He had a partial share in a cow and raised the pig on his property. I did purchase Sonoma County lamb, not New Zealand. I'm also using an all natural pig casing. It's good for everyone to see what pig casing looks like. (The Pig Man Knows, don't you DK?) I'd also like to thank TL for the attachments needed for grinding and casing. Easy attachment, easy cleaning.

I tend to take the raw product shown above, and either quickly saute a piece or boil a piece to see if I've got the seasoning right, before I case everything. Usually it lacks salt and pepper the first try. Generally, I like to grill the final sausage product for a meal but on occasion the Old School Italian method of boiling sausage in red wine comes out; so it's nice to sample the raw product a couple ways.

I didn't twist-tie links this time, simply because I wanted a more family style feel to the final product.

And there is no such thing as tofu or vegetarian sausage in case you're wondering.

Spanish Cooking in Healdsburg?

The wine country, specifically, the Dry Creek Valley is a wonderful place. Surprisingly enough, Spanish cuisine is tough to find. However, small towns are all about who knows you and where you get invited to dinner. Lucky for The Cured Ham, I got invited to dinner for Enrique's Famous Paella.

I have not been to Spain (I know, I need to go). So the next best thing is for Spain to come to the U.S. and Enrique is 100% Spanish. Warmer days have come to The Valley and I thought the perfect starter wine would be a California Rose'.

Not for Enrique.

"That is not real rose', that's poison. The best come from Europe of course, Spain makes wonderful Rosado and France, Rose' I will not be drinking that". I won't mention the wine, but I can assure you it wasn't poison when I drank it.

The next test came in the form of "how to peel and eggplant". I failed that test too. I decided it would be best simply to clean up around Sommelier, Chef, and Scholar Enrique and maybe learn a thing or two about  the paella simply by watching and not talking. Luckily, I was able to take pictures. But pictures won't sum up how wonderful the meal was. Gracias Enrique.