Carbonara is a hearty Italian dish with a short list of very bold ingredients.  The flavor of this dish really comes from two ingredients, the aged parmesan cheese and the guanciale.  If you aren't familiar with guanciale, it is a cured pork jowl (cheek).  The guanciale in this dish was from one of our Mangalitsa/Berkshire cross pigs and it was cured on the farm.   

1) Boil the fettuccini until 2 minutes prior to the suggested cook time.
2) While waiting, cut guanciale into strips.  There is more flavor in longer strips compared to it cut into cubes.
3) Finely grate 1.5 oz of Parmesan cheese. 
4) Whisk 4 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs until combined.  Add in the 1.5 oz off cheese and some fresh cracked pepper.  Set aside.
5) Use some olive oil in a cast iron pan to start browning the guanciale.  Once brown and crispy, like in the picture above, remove the guanciale and retain 3 tbls of the remaining grease/oil.
6) Retain 1.5 cups of the pasta water and then drain the pasta with 2 minutes left to cook.  Add it back into the pot with 1 cup of the pasta water and continue to cook it on medium/high heat for the last two minutes.  Once done there should still be about 1/2 cup of water in with the pasta.
7) Remove the pot from the heat.  Add the 3 tbls of oil in with the pasta.  Use 1/4 cup of the retained pasta water to mix into the egg mixture.  Then SLOWLY add the egg mixture into the pasta and mix it in constantly.  Make sure this is done slow and off the heat or you will end up with real yolky scrambled eggs. 
8) Give the sauce a couple minutes to thicken up.  Add in the guanciale and grate the remaining 1/2 oz of cheese over the top.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

1) Prepare the rice that you like or whatever you would like to accompany the stir fry.
2) Add about 1 TBLS of olive oil to a skillet and begin to cook down the shiitake mushrooms at a medium/high heat.  After about 5 minutes, add in the green beans.  At this point season with salt and pepper.  After about another 5 minutes, the green beans should be blistered.
3) Remove the mushrooms and green beans from the skillet and add in the ground pork.  Season with salt and pepper and let the pork cook undisturbed for a couple of minutes so it browns on one side.  
4) Once the bottom of the pork is brown, break up the pork and add the sliced scallions, garlic and ginger.
5) After a couple more minutes, add in the wine, soy sauce and return the mushrooms and green beans.

We served ours with a chile pepper crisp.  You can also substitute asparagus for the green beans.

This is a Southeast Asian dipping sauce.  More specifically, it originates from Cambodia.  Tuk Trey Ping Poh translates to "tomato fish sauce".  It goes great with our pork, so well in fact that we tried it on both bone in pork chops and boneless sirloins.  

The sungold tomatoes gave the sauce its yellow color.  Try different tomatoes for a unique color/flavor.

Shallots can be substituted for the onion.  Shallots are probably preferred, seeing as they more traditional in Asian cuisine. 

The green thai chili peppers gave the sauce a very low level of heat.  Red thai chili peppers, a jalapeño or any other pepper would give you a different level of heat and flavor profile.   

Everyone is familiar with beef stroganoff, however pork and mushrooms go together great as well.  This recipe uses Red Ledge Farm ground pork and foraged oyster mushrooms from the farm property.  

 1 lb Red Ledge Farm Ground Pork
100 grams Fresh Oyster Mushrooms
1/2 cup Onion 
1 tsp Garlic Powder or 2-3 Cloves of Fresh Garlic  
3 TBLS Butter 
3 TBLS Flour 
1.5 cups of Pork Stock
10.5 oz Can of Cream of Mushroom
​Egg Noodles 
Salt and Pepper 

1. Cook your egg noodles.  I used 150 grams (weighed prior to cooking) for this recipe.
2. Cook the ground pork, onions, mushrooms and garlic. The mushrooms and onions should be soft and the pork should be cooked through/slightly brown.  Season with salt and pepper just before it's finished cooking.  If you do it on medium/high heat it will take about 10-15 minutes.  If the amount of fat or water content is excessive, drain most of it off. Once finished, set aside.
3. Melt butter over medium heat and whisk in the flour.  Once combined, add/whisk in the pork stock.  (Pork Broth Blog Post) Simmer on high heat for 2-3 minutes and then mix in cream of mushroom.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. 
4. Combine all the ingredients. I garnished the dish with fresh parsley.

As always, you can be flexible with the ingredients.  I had some freshly foraged oyster mushrooms so I used them.  You can leave the mushrooms out completely and the recipe comes out great.  

In my opinion, the sous vide method (pronounced “sue-veed”) has to be the best and the easiest way to cook pork chops.  If you aren't familiar with sous vide, it is a method of cooking in which you use a hot water circulation device.  The food you are cooking is put into a bag (usually vacuum sealed) and cooked in the water at a specific temperature.  This allows you to hit a specific internal temperature without guessing.  That means no more overcooked/dry meat.   

​Below is a picture of the pork chops during the cooking process.  

Instructions 

1) Season the pork chops with salt and pepper.  Place into a bag made for sous vide.  I used a vacuum seal bag.  

2) Immerse the bag of pork chops in the 126 degree water for 2 hours. 

3) When you remove them from the bag they will be cooked but will lack color and the flavor that comes from searing.  This is known as the maillard reaction.  You can sear the chops in a cast iron skillet, on the grill or in the oven on broil.  Whatever you do, make sure its hot and sear The chops as quick as possible.  Your internal temperature will increase the longer you sear.  I prefer a final temperature of around 140 degrees for pork chops.  About 4-5 minutes in an open cast iron skillet will get you there.  

This dinner was served with macaroni salad and my favorite vegetable - broccolini.

Ramen, pho, miso..... These are all names for brothy soups.  A dish like ramen can be made many different ways.  After making ramen a handful of times and tweaking it each time, we settled on this recipe.  It is a solid base that can be easily built upon. It uses the pork broth from the first blog post. 

Ingredients
​
For the Broth
2 pints pork broth 
3 cups water 
3 tbls Soy sauce 
3 pieces of dried kelp
1 ounce of shitake mushrooms 
1 head of garlic 
2 inch section of ginger 
1 onion 

Tare 
1/4 cup soy sauce 
2 tbls rice wine vinegar 
1 tsp sesame oil 

Marinated Egg
1/3 cup water
3/4 cup soy sauce 
1 tbls light brown sugar 
2 tbls rice wine vinegar 

To Serve 
ramen or rice noodles 
green onion 
sesame seeds
​sushi nori 

Instructions

First you have to decide what you want to use for the cut of pork.  We used a skin-on Mangalitsa pork jowl this time.  Pork belly would also work well.  Something rich with lots of fat is best for this dish.  For the pork jowl, we seasoned it with just salt and pepper and cooked it sous vide at 180 degrees for 24 hours.  It was then roasted in the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes and then finished under broil to crisp the skin. 

Now that the important part is figured out, here are the rest of the steps!   

1)  If you want a marinated egg with your ramen,  you will have to prepare it ahead of time.  I prefer a shorter time marinating, around 4 hours.  You can marinate the eggs for days prior, the flavor just becomes more intense with longer time.  To soft boil the egg, boil it for exactly six and a half minutes and then place into an ice water bath.  Peel the shell off the egg and place them in the marinade.  I use a pint sized mason jar.  The marinade recipe allows for three eggs to fit pretty well in a pint size mason jar.

2) Char the garlic, onion and ginger.  Start by cutting the head of garlic in half, quarter the onion and slice the ginger in half the long way.  Broil everything until it gets an even char.  The char will help bring in more umami.

3) Add all the ingredients for the broth into a pot and bring it to a simmer.  Simmer it for about an hour to bring all the ingredients together.  

4) Prepare your tare, this will be added when serving. 

5) We used a thin rice noodle for this bowl then added the broth, sliced green onion, sesame seeds and sushi nori, pork jowl and the marinated egg.  Add the tare to taste.  I prefer about a tablespoon for an average serving.   

Have fun with this! Experiment with different flavors and ingredients Or do the opposite and keep it more simple.  My kids have just the broth with the noodles and they love it.    

   

Ingredients
1/4 cup lard
1/4 cup butter (4 tbls)
1/3 cup light brown sugar 
2/3 cup white sugar
3 over-ripe bananas
2 eggs 
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips 
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 tbls of boiling water
200 grams or 1.5 cups of all purpose flour 
 
​

Instructions
1) Make sure the lard, butter and bananas are at room temperature.  Add all the sugar to the lard, butter and bananas.  Mix/combine thoroughly.  
2) Add eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla extract, chocolate chips and baking soda and mix together.
3) Gently fold in the sifted flour just until combined.  Don't over mix.
4) Place in a greased 8.5" X 4.5" X 2.5" loaf pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 55 minutes.  

INSTRUCTIONS 

1) Grind the fat you want to render.  

2) Add the ground fat to the crock pot and set it on high.  

3) As the fat begins to melt, stir occasionally.  Let the fat simmer.  The time this will take will vary depending on the amount in the crockpot and how hot it gets.  Expect between 2 and 6 hours.  When the remaining solids start turning brown, stop the cooking process.  This means the fat has all liquified and the moisture level has dropped.

4) Strain out the solids by using cheesecloth.  You can put the liquid lard into mason jars and let it cool while at room temperature.  Once cool, freeze the lard to ensure it stays fresh. 

*If the lard has a low enough moisture content you can store it at room temperature indefinitely, however with no way to test this it's safer to freeze it.  When you are using a jar of lard it's best to keep it in the refrigerator.    

Ingredients
-5 lbs Mangalitsa/Berkshire Pork Bones
- olive oil 
- salt
- handful of parsley 
- 2 celery Sticks 
- 1 onion (quartered with skin)
- 4 bay leaves 
- 1 tbls black pepper 
- 1 tbls dried thyme 
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary 

Instructions 
​1) Coat the pork bones with about 2 tbls of olive oil and 2 tbls of salt.  Roast them at 400 degrees for one hour.

2) Put the pork bones into a large crock pot and add 12 cups of cold water.  Turn the crock pot on high and let simmer for at least 12 hours.  I usually let it go for almost 24 hours.

3) Strain out the bones.  The amount of water will certainly have decreased.  Add enough water to get to a total of 10 cups and add the broth back into the crock pot.  

4) Add parsley, celery, onion, bay leaves, black pepper and dried thyme.  Let simmer for 2 hours.

5) strain out the vegetables and let the stock chill until the fat is solidified on the top.  Scrape off the fat.  Heat the stock back up. And salt to taste, I used 2 teaspoons. Strain it through cheese cloth before filling your jars. 

This recipe will yield 4 pints of stock.

*If you want the stock to be shelf stable, it will need to be pressure canned.  It can also be frozen until you are ready to use it.