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The Art of Curing-Master Curing Salt
Asian Duck Confit with
Red Cabbage Slaw
Southeast Asian Gravlox
with Avocado Salsa
Spicy
Fried Chicken
Michael Ruhlman’s
Spinach - Arugula Salad and Warm Bacon-Shallot Vinaigrette using Housemade
Bacon
WINE NOTES
Sullivan Vineyards Red Ink: One of the more
interesting styles of wine coming from California is a meritage. Meritage
(pronounced like ‘heritage’) is American-style Bordeaux red wine, usually
cabernet sauvignon-based that is blended with different amounts of merlot,
malbec, petite verdot and cabernet franc. This wine is full of blue/black
fruits and very rich. Great with this chicken and the confit.
Louis Latour Chablis La Chanfleure: Chablis is
chardonnay from the Chablis region of Burgundy. The climate is fairly
northern and the dry, stony land gives a distinct ‘green’ flavor to these
wines -- full of flint and sour apple. Great with salted and cured fish
and meat as a wine that takes the back seat to the dish.
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Michael Ruhlman’s Spinach - Arugula
Salad and Warm Bacon-Shallot
Vinaigrette using Housemade Bacon
Serves 4
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1 pound bacon lardons (recipe for bacon below)
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1/2 cup shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
lengthwise
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1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
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10 ounces baby spinach, stems removed, cleaned
and dried
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2 ounces arugula, stems removed, cleaned and
dried
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Kosher salt to taste
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1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
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1 teaspoon good balsamic vinegar
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4 eggs, poached or hard-cooked
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Freshly ground pepper to taste
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4 slices of a good French baguette, lightly
toasted
Place the lardons in a saute pan that will hold them snugly in one
layer. Fill the pan with enough cold water to just cover the lardons.
Cook the bacon over high heat until the water has boiled off and the fat
has begun to render. Then turn the heat to medium low and continue
cooking until the lardons are crispy on the outside and tender on the
inside (good idea to taste them to make sure). Place the shallots in a
saute pan with the olive oil over high heat and cook until the shallots
begin to sweat, then reduce the heat to medium low and continue cooking
until the shallots just begin to brown.
In the meantime, combine the spinach and arugula in
a large bowl that will facilitate tossing. Sprinkle the greens with
kosher salt to taste about five minutes before you complete the salad.
When you're ready to serve, turn the shallots and bacon up to high; they
should be very hot. Sprinkle the shallots over the greens. Pour the
lardons and their fat over the greens (use only as much fat as you need
to coat all the greens; reserve the remaining fat for another use).
Toss the greens until they're nicely coated with the fat. Season the
salad with the red wine vinegar and the balsamic to taste. Divide the
salad into four pasta bowls, top with a poached egg or chopped
hard-boiled egg, and serve with a slice of a good baguette that's been
brushed with olive oil or extra bacon fat.
Bacon
1 3- to
5-pound pork belly, skin on, sides squared off to make a clean
rectangle
1/2 cup Master
Curing Salt, enough to dredge belly
Equipment: one
2-gallon zip-top bag or a non-reactive container just big enough to
hold the meat
Place the pork belly on a sheet pan. Cover it with the Master Curing
Salt, rubbing it into all sides of the belly, and dredging it so that
it's completely coated. Place the belly into the plastic bag, discarding
any cure that remains on the sheet tray. Seal the bag or cover the
belly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the belly for 5 days, flipping the
belly every other day to redistribute the cure. After five days, the
pork belly should feel stiff and dense when you squeeze it. If your
belly is very thick, more than two inches, it may feel squishy in the
center. If so, return it to the refrigerator for up to two more days.
When the belly is cured, rinse it
thoroughly under cold running water, wiping off the cure, then pat it
dry with paper towels. The belly can be refrigerated uncovered for up
to three days at this point. It's best to let the belly rest for at
least four hours to allow the salt concentration on the surface to
redistribute. (Discard the cure.) Place the belly on a rack on a sheet
tray and cook it in a 200-degree oven until it reaches an internal
temperature of 150 degrees (about 2 hours; start checking at 1-1/2
hours). When it's cool enough to handle, slice the skin off, leaving as
much fat as possible on the belly. Discard the skin (or braise till
tender, cut into strips, and fry in rendered pig fat for a tasty
snack!). Refrigerate the bacon or freeze it until ready to use. To
make lardons, cut 1/2 inch slices, then cut again into 1/2 inch batons
and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.
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