“El cocinar es probar”

Now, that may sound vague and uninspiring and I can honestly say it didn’t mean a whole lot to me then.  But time has given the statement validity and today, it defines cooking for me.

As far as sustenance goes, we don’t need much. Technically, you could survive eating buttermilk and potatoes for the rest of your life.  But who wants to live like that?  Not me and probably not you either.  You wanna get better at cooking?  Fer reals?

Taste early and taste often.

• Taste your marinade (before you put the meat in it), if it tastes yummy-sour-salty, you are golden.
• Taste your sofrito after you add all the ingredients but before you add the protein to it… Is it tomato-sweet pepper-sherry goodness?  Aces.
• Taste that water the rice is cooking in, if it’s salty like ocean water, you will be pleased with the result.
• Did you over-salt something?  Try removing some of it and replacing with water or milk, cook for 5 minutes and taste again.
• Is your sauce dull and insipid?  Add some salt or a pat of butter or a squeeze of lime.

Try to hit as many of the sensations you can: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, umami.  If all else fails, salt is your friend.

When you taste as you go, you get a better understanding of what influence your ingredients or techniques have on what you’re preparing.  Like anything, the more you do it the better you get at it.  So get to it–and taste, taste, taste.

True fact: The sense of “Taste” used to be known as “Gustation”.  Talk about old-skool Spanglish!

From the Roota to the Toota, we like us some porcine anything and there ain’t no denyin. We get together several times a year and frolic in Lardland for a few hours or days (they serve drinks in Lardland). We then return to our regular lives where there are meals that have vegetables and meat from other animals. I assure you the transition is hard on both body and soul and akin to jet lag, but nothing worth anything was easy anyway.

Here’s what we started with at our latest “get together”:

• 180 lbs. of berkshire pork (2 whole pigs)
• 3 Kitchen-aid mixers with optional grinder attachment
• 10 yards, casings
• 1 caja china

I think you know where I am going with this:  We put one in the box and parted out the other into sausages and one large chile verde (I do live in California).

Like croquetas or torrejas, you don’t just make a few sausages, you make a few dozen. The infrastructure setup and take down are 80% of the deal. Even with 3 prep stations going, it was an all day affair. We made:

1. Breakfast – Sage, apple, ginger
2. Italian — Fennel mostly
3. Hot Italian — Fennel, paprika, cayenne
4. Boudin Noir — Cajun spice, with rice
5. Experimental Thanksgiving — Apple, cranberry, chive

We based most of the recipes off of Rhulman’s book Charcuterie. Several “test” patties were made of each and they were all delicious, the breakfast sausage in particular. Sausage making is REALLY easy and you should try it. You’ve probably already made it (dumplings, lasagna, etc.), you just never stuffed it into a casing before.

The roast pig was in my brother’s VERY capable hands. Years ago, he made his own caja china, based on our “family” model. Using our”family” marinade recipe, he has done up quite a few piggies in it. Since then, he has taken both oven and recipe to the next level and makes thing look effortless. The results are always the same. Pork garlic citrus delight. Let me also tell you that these Californinos cannot get enough pork, somebody needs to open a “¡Ño! Que Lechón” franchise out here.

My dad will say how back in the day when they’d make a lechón, the sought after morsels were the fatty ones. Yeah, that’s right, back when eating healthy was something you did when you were sick. Father-n-law tells me that the pigs in Cuba (also back in the day) tasted better because of their diet. Says they mostly ate Palmiche, the fruit of the Royal Palm.I didn’t really think much of that until I visited Spain and had some fine hams, finest of which was the Iberico. Turns out the Ibericos are fed a strict bellota (acorn) diet. Ok, enough talk about pigs on diets. Enjoy pork, breakfast of Campeones.

“I’m bored with Cuban food, I need a change… something new… something CRAZY!”

“Oye Mulata, can you pass the hot sauce?”

“Quien… Carajo… Took…  my…  Cilantro!?!?”