Homemade pepperoni

The Italian sausage turned out pretty good, so I thought I might as well make some of my own pepperoni also!  After doing some recipe research online, I settled on one to start with and made a minor modification.  The recipe I used is...

1 lb ground beef
1 1/2 tsp Morton's Tender Quick
1 tsp liquid smoke (omit if you intend to naturally smoke the pepperoni)
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3/4 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp anise seeds
1/4 tsp granulated garlic

The Tender Quick was a little tricky to find, my normal grocery stores didn't stock the product.  Luckily, the Morton Salt webpage has a product locator you can use to find out who sells what in your area.  The product locator pointed me to a grocery store named Strack and Van Til located at 2627 N. Elston Ave. in Chicago.  I'd been by this grocery store many times when going to Micro Center, but never actually gone in.  It's a pretty nice place with a HUGE produce section.  Anyway, after grabbing the Tender Quick I also picked up some of the spices.  The recipes I looked at while researching pepperoni suggested using ground beef with no more than 15% fat content.  I picked up a small package (1.5 lbs) of 85/15 ground beef and headed home to start making sausage!

After making the Italian sausage, I thought it would be a good idea to crack the whole spices this time.  I measured out all of the seeds, peppercorns and crushed red pepper (increasing the amounts by 50% for the extra 1/2 pound of beef) and ran them through the coffee grinder I use as a spice mill.  The cracked spices, powdered spices and the liquid smoke were added to the ground beef and mixed throughly.  This would probably be easier done with a stand mixer, but I didn't want to clean up another thing for such a small amount of sausage.


The next step is to allow the meat mixture to chill for a while in the fridge, this makes forming the rolls easier but can be skipped if you're in a hurry and don't mind being a little messy.

To make the rolls I put a piece of plastic wrap on the counter and placed a portion of the meat mixture on top.  The meat was formed in to a loose log shape and then I started rolling it up in the plastic wrap until I had a nice, round log o' meat.  To force the meat in to a more compact shape I twisted the ends of the plastic wrap using a rotating motion with my wrists to force the meat in to a more compact log and force out as much air as possible, then the ends were tucked under to prevent the plastic wrap from loosening.  These were allowed to chill for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

The next day when I made it home from work I set the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit pulled the pepperoni rolls out of the refrigerator.  I set up a half sheet pan with a wire rack, it's important that the fat be allowed to drain away from the sausage as it renders out.  Since the uncooked pepperoni was still a little soft I initially placed it on strips of parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to the rack.  After an hour when it was time for the first turn the pepperoni was firm and had coated with rendered fat, i rolled the rolls off the parchment directly on to the rack.  This seemed to work perfectly.


While I was looking at recipes online, I found quite a few that had the same ingredient list but with wildly varying cooking times.  Some called for 8 hours at 200 degrees while others only cooked for one hour at 375 degrees.  Since I didn't want to be up til the wee hours of the morning playing with my peperoni, I decided to go convection at 200 degrees, then increase the temp to 225 after a few hours.  The total cooking time was around 5 hours with the rolls being turned about every hour or so.  Since the temperature was so low this could easily be done with my bare fingers.

 When I removed the pepperoni rolls from the oven I used paper towels to pat the remaining fat off the surface.  The surface of the rolls was a little sticky at this point, so I used a pepper mill to coat thew outside with a little more black pepper.  The pepperoni was allowed to cool for a little bit, then placed in the refrigerator on a rack to chill completely.

I sliced some pepperoni off one of the rolls the next morning when I woke up.  Pepperoni is, after all, the breakfast of champions.  The sausage was dry, firm and the surface tackiness that was present when it came out of the oven was gone.  I was able to cut some very thin slices with my santoku knife and finally taste the results of three days effort.  The resulting pepperoni is fairly spicy with much less fat present than the commercial versions I'm used to buying in the supermarket.  It tastes like, well, pepperoni.  This holiday weekend I plan on making a pizza with homemade pepperoni and the homemade Italian sausage from last week.  So far I've made fresh and dried/cured sausages, I've been looking in to fermented sausages like Spanish chorizo but that will have to wait until another day...

Homemade Italian Sausage

My parents say they can't find any good Italian sausage where they live, so each time I go down for a visit I always make it a point to pick up some good sausage and take it down to them.  I don't get to visit too often, so I thought it might be a good idea to develop a good recipe for homemade Italian sausage that they could make on their own whenever they have a taste for some.  I've been perusing various websites for ideas on the spices to use.  This page has several sausage recipes and looked like a good place to start.  Since they won't need to make a lot of sausage at a time, I made a spice mix that can be added at a rate of 15 grams per pound of pork shoulder before grinding.  The mix I've started with is...

115 grams kosher salt
40 grams fennel seed
40 grams ground black pepper
8 grams smoked paprika
5 grams ground coriander
5 grams red pepper flakes
7 grams granulated garlic
8 grams sugar
5 grams caraway seed
4 grams MSG
1 gram dried oregano

I bought a boneless pork shoulder from Whole Foods, which true to form was VERY expensive ($4.99/lb)  The 4 pound shoulder was cut in to 1/2" cubes, and mixed with 60 grams of the spice mix and 6 oz red wine (I used shiraz in this case).  I tried a little microwave trick I learned while researching a pizza sauce recipe, it involves combining the herbs and spices with the liquid, then micrwaving it at low power for a few minutes.  This process intensifies the flavors if done properly, but I added way too much liquid.  It is supposed to be a paste of spices but was more of a soup.  Next time I'll just try toasting them instead.

Once the pork had time to chill down in the fridge for a few hours I set up the grinder attachment on the Kitchenaid with the coarse plate installed.  The dice size of 1/2" worked out great, the grinder screw was able to pull the pork through without requiring any extra help.  One thing I will change for the next try is to put the liquid in AFTER the first grind and let is absorb in to the meat.  The cubes of meat just got wet with a lot of the liquid pooling at the bottom of the bowl, this cause liquid to shoot out the front of the grinder as the pork went through.  Next time I'll wait until after the first grind at least so the meat can absorb it all.  The pork was put through the a second time to get a finer grind.  I tried to use the medium plate at first, but things were going through so slowly that I changed it back to the coarse grate.  This time I did need to use the push rod to keep the meat going down to the screw.  Once ground, I put the sausage in the fridge to allow some of the moisture to evaporate out for a few hours then packed it in vacuum pouches.

I fried up a few pieces of the sausage a few hours later just to try it out.  It was good, better than most of what I've found in grocery stores, but didn't have the intensity of flavor I'd like.  It may just need more time for the flavors to marry, could be because some of the spices I used were not as fresh as they should have been and would probably benefit from toasting the spices before using them next time.  I'll try some again tonight to see if a day to 'cure' has improved the flavor.

Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen

For quite a while, Old Jerusalem at 1411 N. Wells has been the only middle eastern restaurant within walking distance of our home.  It is OK, but I can't say that I'm a real fan of the place.  I'd often drive all the way up to Pita Inn in Skokie (3910 Dempster) instead of walking the 3/4 mile to Old Jerusalem when I wanted my shawerma fix.  So last year when I heard that Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen was opening a second location in the neighborhood at 1625 N. Halsted I couldn't wait for it to open.  But I waited, and waited, and waited.  The original opening date was scheduled for March, but that came and went with the windows still papered up and no evidence of work being done.  But work was being done, I guess the build out just took a little longer than expected.  Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen has finally opened their doors, and last night we walked through the rain to give it a try!

The restaurant is well decorated on the inside and much larger than you would expect from the street.  Everything is wood and earth tones.  Walls are adorned with middle eastern art along with a wooden shelf supporting various pottery and metal vessels.  The wooden tables and chairs sit atop hardwood flooring and the restaurant is well lit with pots and lamps hanging from the rather high ceiling.  All in all, a very attractive space.  Even the bathrooms (at least the one I went in to) are well decorated, they owner obviously put a lot of thought in to how he wanted this space to look.



  


I haven't seen anything advertising that the restaurant had opened and their website still says "Opening Soon", so there weren't many people there when we arrived.  A lot of restaurants do a "soft" opening like this to work out the kinks that are inevitable at any new establishment.  We were seated immediately and out drink orders taken.  No alcohol is served, but our waitress did tell us that they are BYOB is anyone wants to enjoy an adult beverage with their meal.

When our beverages arrived, we were ready to order.  My dining companion ordered the Hummus with Portobello (Diced and sauteed mushrooms on a bed of our famous hummus served with pita) and I ordered and appetizer of 6 falafel (Chickpea fritters highly seasoned and fried to golden perfection) and a combination plate.  The falafel was very good, crispy on the outside with a moist, flavorful interior.  My dining companion reported that the hummus topped with the sauteed portobellos was also top notch.






 
The combination plate is a little different that what is listed on their on-line menu.  Instead of the fixed selection on that menu, the menu at this location allows you to select either two or three items from a list to create your own combo.  The list of options has about 10 items to choose from, I asked for beef shawarma, chicken shawarma and lamb kebob.  They apparently didn't have the lamb kebob, so I opted for the beef kebob instead.  I didn't get a list of the other items available, but they did have various kebobs (chicken, shrimp, salmon, kufta and chicken kufta are ones that I remember off the top of my head).  The combo comes with basmati rice, grilled veggies, pita bread, a salad (romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomato, mint and a tahini (I think) dressing)  and two types of sauces (a tahini sauce and a thicker garlic sauce).  I thought all the items in my combo were well done, the chicken shawarma (which in many places is dry and overcooked) was tender and juicy.  Same for the beef shawarma and beef kebob. 


Both of us really enjoyed our meal at Dawali and I'm sure we will be returning soon and often.  Hopefully next time we will save enough room for a desert or two, but the portions are so large that it may not be possible!  As it was, we took home enough food for another meal tonight.  This stretch of Halsted is becoming one of our favorite areas for restaurants in the city, made even better by the fact that it is within easy walking distance of our home.  Besides the new Dawali Mediterranean Kitchen there is Landmark Grill, Boka, Alinea, and (a couple blocks north) Taco Joint.