The Hirshon Transcarpathian Salo – Сало

November 14, 2019 by The Generalissimo 2 Comments

Trans-Carpathian Salo Image Used by Gracious Permission of Alexandr Zaichenko

Citizens, the appreciation of fat in all its myriad forms is one of the documented super-powers of the Sublime One – the highly-saturated Glory who ALONE is TFD! – and I wish to share my love for salo, a delectable cured fat straight from Transcarpathia! I first tasted the classic Ukrainian version in Odessa, Ukraine and fell instantly in love – it spoke to me in a silken tongue of flavorsome fat but is quite different from the Transcarpathian version!

If you’re unfamiliar with the Transcarpathian region, it is the Carpathian mountain portions of Romania and Ukraine that also includes a large number of Hungarian-speaking natives – it’s also the legendary home of Vlad Dracul, aka Dracula (which some cheekily say explains the reason for the huge amount of garlic in the region’s cuisine). While Ukraine, Romania and Hungary may have their political differences concerning the region, everyone who lives there can agree on one thing – Salo (pork fat) is where it’s at and I will teach you the way to properly make it the Transcarpathian way, which is unique from the rest of Ukraine with its use of the classic Hungarian spice of paprika!

Interestingly, Transcarpathia does make its own paprika, as noted here – something that escaped even the gastronomic omniscience of TFD until today!

I found an absolutely encyclopædic description of salo at proudofukraine.com – I reprint most if it here with some corrections to their English and edited for clarity:

Salo is a white pork fat known as a national Ukrainian dish. Salo has little or no meat; it is not rendered as lard and is not necessarily cured as bacon. In Ukraine and many other countries salo and its variations are considered a main dish of the national cuisine. In the old days due to its high nutrition value, salo was an important element of people’s daily diet (100 g of pig fat amounts to 800 calories). Also, salted or smoked salo can be preserved for a long time without refrigeration. Today, due to the spread of healthy nutrition, it has become a chaser or a starter on a national festive table rather than a main course.

In Ukrainian cuisine, salo plays a very important role. It is as popular as other traditional Ukrainian dishes – borscht, varenyky, golubtsi, galushky. Ukrainian salo is a unique chaser for alcohol because it is served in slices with bread, garlic and pickles, all of which help to prevent a hangover. It wasn’t invented in Ukraine – it was first made in the territory of Italy about 3000 years ago. It was used there as a cheap high-calorie meal for slaves (TFD note: today, it survives as lardo).

The dish has been eaten in Ukraine since the 16th century. Ukraine is a country with well-developed agriculture, and pigs are easy animals to keep. The farmers sold the meat, but the salo they kept for themselves because it was easier to store and it had more calories. As a dish, it became popular because Ukrainian people were poor and could afford meat only on holidays, while salted salo was affordable the whole year. Peasants took bread with salo as the lunch during field work. If you visit Ukraine today and want to taste the dish, I recommend visiting the Modern Art Museum “Salo” in the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv. It is a museum-restaurant where you can try more than 30 varieties of the dish.

Salo is very popular not only in Ukraine, but also in the neighboring countries of Belarus and Russia. However, it is still a stereotypical attribute of Ukrainians, analogous to spaghetti for the Italians and burgers for Americans. There is a difference between Russian and Ukrainian salo – the Russian version contains bits of meat, while traditional Ukrainian salo consists of only a white layer of fat. Belarusians and Russians agree that the best salo is made in Ukraine, especially in its western region. After the Soviet Union break-up in the 90’s, Ukrainians smuggled salo into Russia and sold it at the railway stations in Moscow.

Salo plays an important role in Ukrainian culture. In Ukrainian folklore there are a lot of jokes, songs, and poems about salo. It’s hard to find a post-Soviet person who isn’t able to recite at least two or three jokes about Ukrainians and their love for salo.

For example, here is one of the classic jokes:

“Kum (friend), do you know what Russians call our salo?” – “What?” – “Cellulite”.

In Ukraine there is an annual championship “With Love to Salo” held in Lutsk (Volyn oblast, Western Ukraine). Salo lovers compete in eating salo and in cooking salo dishes (for example, large salo sandwiches called “salburgers”).

Ukrainians eat salo with borscht, fried potatoes, and always with black bread. Salo can be used as an ingredient for many dishes. For example, minced salo mixed with garlic and spices in a blender is often used as a spread for sandwiches. A mixture of minced salo and minced fried liver can be used as a stuffing for varenyky. Salo is often fried. Small pieces of fried salo are called “shkvarki”. Ukrainians add these cracklings to borsht or fried potatoes.

There are three methods for cooking salo:

Dry – using just salt and spices. The easiest and the quickest method. It will be ready to serve within 2 weeks, but storage shouldn’t be long – only 4-5 weeks.

Wet – using pickle-water. More time-consuming method, but the recipe made like this can be stored for longer.

Hot – the fatback is boiled, then it is seasoned with spices and cooled in a fridge. It can be stored for 6 months.

Transcarpathian salo is seasoned – unsurprisingly – with local hot parprika, and lots of it. I’ve simulated the flavor of it with ½ sweet paprika and ½ smoked chili flakes – the smoked flavor is atypical for this dish, but I think it works splendidly. Here is my source for the proper smoked chili – if you want the classic flavor profile, use a non-smoked, fairly mild chili flake.

Needless to say, if you are going to make a dish made 99.9% from fat, it had better be THE BEST YOU CAN GET! You should ONLY use pure, raw fatback – ideally from a Mangalitsa pig that is native to the region which is justly renowned for its fat! Thankfully, you can easily buy it here in the States – this is my source. Always serve this with dark rye bread, Russian pickled fruits and vegetables (there are several recipes on the blog for them) and with some strong alcohol – I prefer honey pepper Horilka from Ukraine, buy it here.

This is one of the easiest ‘cured’ pork products you can make – there is no messing around with curing salt, etc. – and unlike lardo, it only takes a week or so to make instead of nearly a year! Of the 3 methods, I prefer the classic ‘dry’ method and that is the recipe I am providing you with today. This is an extremely rich dish, Citizens: just slice it thin, eat it occasionally and live la vida loca! 😀

Battle on – the Generalissimo

The Hirshon Transcarpathian Salo - Сало

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Recipes

Ingredients

1 kg top-quality pork back fat, preferably from a Mangalitsa pig, or a Gloucestershire Old Spot, Berkshire, or other fatty heirloom pig breed
10 peeled garlic cloves, ground to a paste
5 bay leaves, ground to a fine powder in a spice grinder
4 Tbsp. Kosher salt
1 ½ tsp. whole black peppercorns, ground to a fine powder in a spice grinder
2 Tbsp. Hungarian hot paprika
2 Tbsp. smoked chili flakes from Daphnis & Chloe, ground to a fine powder in a spice grinder
2 tsp. nigella sativa seeds, sometimes called onion seeds or kalonji, ground to a fine powder
***
For garnish:
Russian-style black bread (recipe is on the blog)
Russian-style pickled fruits and vegetables (recipes are on the blog)
Honey Pepper Vodka or your favorite style

Instructions

Rinse the pork fat under the water, dry it with paper napkins. Wrap in parchment paper and leave in the fridge to 'cure' for 1 week. If the paper becomes too moist, replace it as needed.
Dry the salo thoroughly after one week with paper towels, re-wrap it in new parchment paper and let it sit one more day in the fridge.
Remove, unwrap and place the fat on a cutting board. Then, make 2-3 mm cuts using a knife on the top side of the fat.
Combine the garlic and bay leaf, rub into the pork fat and press into the cuts. Combine all other seasonings, rub into all surfaces of the pork fat.
Re-wrap salo in a new piece of parchment paper and put into the fridge for two more days. It is then ready to eat, but must be consumed within a month. Or, you can put it in the freezer - frozen lard is actually much easier to cut into thin slices. Serve with garnishes and booze.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-transcarpathian-salo-%d1%81%d0%b0%d0%bb%d0%be/

The Hirshon Georgian Mtsvadi BBQ Pork Skewers – მწვადი

November 11, 2019 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

The Hirshon Georgian BBQ Pork Skewers - მწვადი

Mtsvadi Image Used Under Creative Commons License From ka.m.wikipedia.org

My glorious and erudite Citizens – it has been FAR too long since I have shared a recipe from my spiritual homeland, the mighty country of Georgia! Long-time members of TFD Nation are well-aware that we have one of the world’s most comprehensive lists of Georgian recipes in English and it is my life mission to evangelize the unmatched cuisine of this culinary powerhouse of a nation! Today, I wish to share with you a simple but totally delicious recipe for Mtsvadi, aka shashlik (Шашлык) in Russian. This is a Georgian-specific version of shish kebab, one that is properly marinated and bereft of extraneous vegetables, as the good Lord intended.

Mtsvadi is a dish of skewered and grilled cubes of meat, similar to or synonymous with shish kebab. It is known traditionally, by various other names in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and from the 19th century became popular as shashlik across much of the Russian Empire. Especially given the current tension between Russia and Georgia, but true regardless of current international affairs – I’d NEVER call mtsvadi shashlik to ANY Georgian, unless you have a severely unfulfilled death wish.

As noted on georgianjournal.ge:

Properly made mtsvadi is an extraordinary dish. Preparing it is an entire ritual. Mtsvadi made outdoors, on an open fire is very special and completely different from that made at home using a frying pan or an electric cooker. This is in Georgian genes. We’ve enjoyed it since ancient times and mtsvadi is subconsciously bound to our distant ancestors’ ritual of roasting meat over a fire after a hunt. By the way, it is known that Erekle ll, one of Georgia’s greatest kings, was especially fond of eating mtsvadi in the mountains.

Mtsvadi can be made with pork, mutton or veal. Beef should be used only if all other options are unavailable. Marinating the meat in pomegranate juice before roasting makes it especially tender, juicy and delicious.

As further expounded at explorepartsunknown.com:

The eating culture is as important as the actual food. Georgians have supra, literally “tablecloth,” referring to the multitude of dishes brought to the table during a feast. There are so many offerings that the platters cover the table completely, like a tablecloth. The toastmaster, called the tamada, leads the feast.

There are no simple “Cheers!” though. Each toast turns into a philosophical discussion, lasting well into the night. Before bed, a beef stock called khash is put on the stove. Served in the morning with a pot of salt, minced garlic, and herbs, this viscous broth (seasoned to one’s personal taste) is the most restorative hangover cure I know of.

I grew up watching men douse meat in vinegar and onions before throwing it on the barbecue, which they called Georgian shashlyky. What I discovered in Georgia, however, was far removed from the mediocre Soviet version. This barbecued meat is called mtsvadi in Georgia, and it is genius in its simplicity. Dried vine clippings are thrown into a barbecue grill and burned until the coals become fragrant.

Pork neck is then skewered and basted over the fire with a mixture of red or white wine and salt. This process creates the most delicious savory crust and tender meat, just cooked, almost pink. The meat is taken off the skewer with a flatbread, which becomes soaked in pork juices. A simple red onion, pomegranate, and parsley salad is served on the side.

My version of this delicious shish is resolutely traditional – please do use pork neck meat, it is by far the best for this dish with a perfect ratio of fat to meat for mtsvadi. Shoulder is a barely-acceptable substitute. Second, you must grill these over vine cuttings for the proper flavor – if not, you are dead to me. You can buy dried vine cuttings here. I have gratefully cribbed the vine burning and meat cooking instructions from my friend Olia Hercules, the mistress of the Caucasus!

Lastly, please use my version of the spicy condiment adzhika in the recipe, as it is far better than any other version I’ve sampled. The recipe is here. My recipe for the Georgian spice blend of khmeli-suneli is here, or you can buy a pre-made version from Amazon here if you’re lazy. If you want to follow my unorthodox use of Svanetian salt in this recipe, you can buy it here.

If this is your first exposure to true Georgian cuisine – congratulations, you are in for a taste treat the likes of which you have rarely if ever experienced! Mtsvadi is a great intro to Georgian food, taking a familiar dish and giving it a unique Georgian twist!

Battle on – the Generalissimo

The Hirshon Georgian Mtsvadi BBQ Pork Skewers - მწვადი

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Recipes

Ingredients

2 ⅔ pounds of boneless pork neck meat, cut into cubes
1 white onion
1 Tbsp. coriander seeds, lightly crushed
1 Tbsp. khmeli-suneli spice mix
1 ¾ cups (or more as needed) POM brand 100% pomegranate juice
5 Tbsp. tarragon-flavored white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp. adzhika
***
For basting: 2 large bottles fruity red wine, mixed with 1 Tbsp. salt per liter
***
For garnish:
Salt (TFD loves Svanetian salt, but it is not traditional)
1 medium-sized pomegranate
1 red onion
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
pita breads

Instructions

Add the meat to a large, non-reactive bowl. Slice and add 1 white onion, the adzhika, coriander seeds, khmeli-suneli, pomegranate juice, bay leaves and salt.
Mix the ingredients. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to barbecue, remove the marinated pork from the refrigerator, discarding the marinade and solids, and thread the individual meat pieces onto skewers (Georgian: შამფური). Sprinkle the meat on all sides with coarse sea or kosher salt.
Take a big bunch of dry vine twigs and light them, making sure you keep some in reserve in case the fire dies down and you need to feed it. They will. Burn quickly and fiercely, and will produce quite a bit of smoke, so warn your neighbors if you are doing this in the city. Let the twigs burn down to coals. The meat should be quite close to the coals, and the coals glowing intensely. If they should start burning when the meat is over them, douse the fire with a touch of water.
Meanwhile mix some salt into red or white wine for basting, 2 Tbsp. of salt to 1 liter of wine.
Cook the skewers over the vine embers, turning every so often and basting with the salted wine from time to time. This can take from 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of the meat pieces and the heat of the embers. The
Remember: As the fat drips off the meat (especially with pork) it will often cause the hot coals to flame up. Watch carefully and make sure to prevent the flames from burning the meat. Remove the skewer for a few seconds if the flames are large.
Tip: Use a stick to push the coals around to put out the flame. Make sure the coals are evenly dispersed. The trick is to have all the glowing coals burning (not flaming) consistently. This method of slow-cooking the meat over an open fire not only makes the meat tender but it also will add tremendous flavor.
In Georgia, a piece of bread (shotis puri) is used to remove the meat from the skewers. The bread absorbs some of the meat juices and is eaten with the meat.
Slice the onion thinly and remove the seeds from the pomegranate. Chop some parsley and combine with the onion and pomegranate seeds as a salad to serve on the side.
Serve with Svanetian salt on the side, if you'd like, plus pita breads so people can use them to pull the hot meat off the even-hotter metal skewers!

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-georgian-mtsvadi-bbq-pork-skewers-%e1%83%9b%e1%83%ac%e1%83%95%e1%83%90%e1%83%93%e1%83%98/

The Hirshon Royal Laotian Meat and Herb Salad – ອາຫານປະສົມຫຼວງພະບາງ

November 9, 2019 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Royal Laotian Salad Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pastelaos.com

Citizens! The ancient kingdoms of Southeast Asia are redolent with legend and mystery – the ancient Cambodian Empire headquartered at Angkor Wat is just one example of many in the region! For example, the kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao (Kingdom of a Million Elephants Under the White Parasol), which existed for four centuries was in fact one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia.

Today, it is known as Laos and one of the most prized cookbooks I own was the personal notebook of the last Royal chef of Laos in Luang Phrabang. More on Phia Sing shortly, but today I share one of his personal recipes – for Royal Laotian Salad, a favorite recipe of the King!

As to the Royal history of Laos – Lan Xang (1353–1707) was one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. As noted before, it was known as the ‘Land of a million elephants under the white parasol’ – the kingdom’s name alludes to the power of the kingship and formidable war machine of the early kingdom.

Due to Lan Xang’s central geographical location in Southeast Asia, the kingdom became a popular hub for overland trade, becoming wealthy economically as well as culturally. After a period of internal conflict, Lan Xang broke off into three separate kingdoms—Luang Phrabang, Vientiane, and Champasak.

In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three territories uniting to form what is now known as the country of Laos. It briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but was recolonized by France until it won autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong.

Shortly after independence, a long civil war began, which saw the communist resistance, supported by the Soviet Union, fight against, first, the monarchy and then a number of military dictatorships, supported by the United States. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the Communist Pathet Lao movement came to power, seeing the end to the civil war and the end of the monarchy.

Allow me to quote near verbatim from a fantastic writeup of Phia Sing at the great blog ramblingspoon.com:

In the early 20^th century, Chaleunsilp Phia Sing was the royal chef at the Luang Prabang Palace. He died in 1967 at the end of a protracted illness. In his last months, he recorded the history and legacy of Lao cuisine, writing across the grids of French notebook pages.

His notes passed into the hands of the Crown Prince who, in 1974, gave Phia Sing’s remarkable hand-written recipes to Alan Davidson. Thanks to that exchange, we have today a bilingual book, Traditional Recipes of Laos, edited by Alan and Jennifer Davidson, translated by Phouangphet Vannithone and Boon Song Klausner, published in 1981 by Prospect Books.

This publication was no simple task. Each of Phia Sing’s pages in Lao was photocopied, but the lines of his original graph paper came through. So a fleet of hospitalized Lao refugees in London (following the Lao communist takeover) were employed to white out each unwanted line.

Phia Sing had one great wish: that proceeds from the publication of a Laotian recipe book would go toward a new shrine to protect the Prabang, the country’s most revered sacred object, a venerated statue that is paraded through Luang Prabang and washed in each new year’s ceremonies. At the time of publication, there was no way a shrine would come about. So instead, book proceeds have gone toward helping Lao refugees.

And we, the interested cooks and readers of the world, get a treasure: 318 pages of recipes and insights into the Laotian kitchen. Phia Sing begins with Lao eating habits and attitudes toward food (much is medicinal in nature; and ginger, central to many dishes, bears ritual significance, representing gold).

He continues with a glossary of cooking terms (eg, nian is a verb meaning to make something into a homogenous sticky mass – I love it. Every language should have a verb such as nian), descriptions of kitchen tools, types of rice, terms of measurement, sketches of ingredients, the Lao and Latin names for edible plant and animal species, and simply more downright useful information on Laotian cooking than I have ever encountered elsewhere in one handy spot.

I had come across some of Phia Sing’s recipes through Northern Illinois University. But now I have all 114 dishes. Of course, not a single recipe is altered or amended for anything but a Lao kitchen. Many recipes call for padek, water buffalo parts, giant catfish roe, flat-bottomed spring onions (phak boua lai leui) grown by the Kha people, and numerous other ingredients I will never find at home in New Mexico.

On the other hand, the Laos have long been open to experimentation and some dishes call for the French additions of butter or tomato paste. Reading Phia Sing gets my creative brain working; I’m envisioning all sorts of new concoctions to try at home. Thank you, Phia Sing.

Though he could not build a shrine for the Prabang, I hope he would take comfort in knowing, when I last saw it a few years ago, the statue was duly honored in a ceremony that drew thousands.

My copy of the original 2nd-edition cookbook is long out-of-print, but it is now back in print again after many years – you can buy it at Amazon here.

Many of Phia Sing’s recipes use ingredients totally unique to the Laotian jungle, and as such they cannot be made anywhere outside the country. This recipe for a grand ‘Yam Yai’ (mixed dish) was almost one of them, but I have substituted a far more available ingredient as noted in the recipe. I have also specified specific quantities of several ingredients that had no measurements in the recipe. Pre-shredded dried squid ( a tasty protein-rich snack, BTW) is available from Amazon here.

Citizens, as befits a royal recipe, there are no shortcuts here except where modern conveniences like ovens can replace charcoal fires for roasting certain ingredients. You will be well-rewarded for your efforts with a truly unique dish that is a genuine reflection of a country’s history and terroir. For a royal Lao feast, it would be a delicious accompaniment to Or Lam, amongst several other dishes.

Battle on – the Generalissimo

The Hirshon Royal Laotian Meat and Herb Salad - ອາຫານປະສົມຫຼວງພະບາງ

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Recipes

Ingredients

1 fried chicken breast, finely shredded
⅓ lb. boiled skinless pork belly, shredded
1 yo (a piece of pork meat, minced, mixed with flour, salt and ground black pepper, all pounded finely together, flattened into a layer about 0.5 cm thick and steamed), cut into small squares measuring about 2 sections of a finger (say, 5 cm)
2 ounces or to taste dried squid shreds, soaked in water until tender
¼ lb. fresh crabmeat—discard all fragments of shell and shred the meat finely (TFD change, the original recipe used canned crab as the capital city was landlocked)
5 quite small Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced, then fried in pork fat until light golden in colour
3 boiled (i.e. hard-boiled) duck eggs, shelled and sliced lengthways
2 duck eggs (beaten and) fried, sliced into shreds very, very finely and then minced very, very finely
2 Japanese cucumbers—take the flesh only (i.e. peel them and discard the centre part with its seeds if prominent), cut this into sections and slice the sections very thinly
(At this point Phia Sing’s recipe breaks off, as explained. Mrs Nouane Sy Sakulku, from Luang Prabang, has kindly completed it as shown below, reconstructing the rest from her own experience)
1 medium-sized bowl of bean sprouts—blanch them in hot water, then cut off their roots
¼ lb. yard-long beans, blanched and cut into pieces (TFD NOTE: can be easily replaced with string beans if unavailable)
1 canned bamboo shoot, shredded (TFD replacement for young shoots of water spinach, impossible to find in U.S.)
2 Asian eggplants—take the flesh only and chop it finely
1 heirloom tomato, thinly sliced (TFD NOTE: I would de-seed the slices)
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped including stems
3 mint sprigs, finely chopped, just the leaves
2 dill sprigs, roughly chopped (TFD CHANGE, replace with mint for original)
2 spring onions, green parts only finely chopped
1 Tbsp. Chinese sesame paste or chunky peanut butter
1 head garlic, to be placed in a charcoal fire until cooked, then peeled and finely pounded (TFD NOTE: or roasted in a a 375 degree F oven, drizzled with oil and loosely wrapped in foil, cook until fragrant)
3 shallots, to be placed in a charcoal fire until cooked, then peeled and finely pounded (TFD NOTE: or roasted in a 375 degree F oven, drizzled with oil and loosely wrapped in foil, cook until fragrant)
pork broth
1 lime, juice only
salt and fish sauce

Instructions

Put all the vegetables (potatoes, cucumber, bean sprouts, yard-long beans, bamboo shoot, eggplants and tomato) in a large serving-bowl. Sprinkle them with salt and mix them thoroughly.
Add the flesh ingredients (from chicken breast down to crabmeat inclusive). Sprinkle with fish sauce (or padek liquid), the lime juice, the pounded ingredients and the pork broth, and mix thoroughly again. Taste and check the saltiness.
Add the chopped cilantro, spring onion and mint, mix everything again, then transfer it all to a platter, garnish it with the sliced duck eggs, the dill and the very finely-minced omelette, and serve.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-royal-laotian-meat-and-herb-salad-%e0%ba%ad%e0%ba%b2%e0%ba%ab%e0%ba%b2%e0%ba%99%e0%ba%9b%e0%ba%b0%e0%ba%aa%e0%ba%bb%e0%ba%a1%e0%ba%ab%e0%ba%bc%e0%ba%a7%e0%ba%87%e0%ba%9e%e0%ba%b0/

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