Homemade Butter

Do you fall on the butter or the margarine side of the debate? There's no question where I stand, butter is the better option as it's natural, saturated fats that one's body needs. The French are well known for their diets high in fats, yet they have very low incidence of heart disease. Or perhaps you are a margarine user believing what the marketers have filled your head with, that margarine is healthy for your heart. If that's the case, do a little experiment: place a tub of Becel in a garage and let it sit there for an entire year. You'll be astounded with what you find. Looks the same as the day you put it there. Is that something you really want to consume? If you are a margarine consumer you may want to do some research and reconsider your choice. Trans fats, polyunsaturated fats, hydrogenated oils, not exactly something that you could make yourself at home.



Butter, on the other hand, is something you can easily make in your own kitchen within minutes. Have you ever whipped whipping cream in a mixer for a dessert or perhaps an Irish coffee and over whipped the cream? If you have, than you've already started the butter making process. That simple!

To make your own at home all that is required is whipping cream at room temperature, a mixer, salt, cheese cloth and cold water. Pour the cream into a chilled sterilized bowl and begin to whip.


The cream will become light and fluffy. Continue to whip until the cream starts to resemble scrambled eggs.


The buttermilk will begin to separate from the butter and if you're not watching closely you'll also find yourself having to clean up a big mess.


Once the cream has taken on a solid form, strain off the whey using cheese cloth and submerge in ice cold water and knead your butter squeezing out any excess buttermilk.


Continue this process, kneading and changing the water with fresh water as needed. Using butter pats or your hands shape the butter. You can add salt at this point; we opted for no salt and placed the extra butter wrapped in wax paper in the freezer.


We enjoyed our homemade butter on a baguette with a little sprinkle of salt. The bread was merely a hold device for the butter. Heaven!

"It is a slow roasted pork...

"It is a slow roasted pork, nothing fancy, just happens to be my favorite."

Those were the words spoken by Johnny Depp playing Agent Sands in the movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico".  One night I decided to check out the DVD Special Features and found a short where the director (Robert Rodriguez) shows you how to make the dish.  I was hooked.

Puerco Pebil

I have made this dish many, many times.  Every time, I am asked for the recipe, so here it is.  One should exercise caution when approaching this dish as in the movie a chef is killed (whacked) for making this dish too well.  Consider yourself warned.  I have very slightly modified this recipe from the one Rodriguez provides on the DVD.

Spices

You will need to make a trip to a specialty grocer as I know you don't have annatto seeds in the pantry.

You can find them at Pete's Frootique.  All the other spices are standard issue.

You should use whole spices, and grind them in a coffee grinder.  As Rodriguez points out, you'll need one dedicated for spices otherwise your coffee will start to taste like spices.

Grind the following into powder, as fine as you can get it:

2 tbsp annatto seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorn
8 allspice
1/2 tsp cloves

The Secret Sauce

In a blender, mix:

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tbsp salt
8 cloves of garlic
Couple habanero peppers (seeds removed)

Then add:

Juice of five lemons
A splash of the finest tequila you can find

Add the ground spices to the mixture on the blender.

Puerco

Cut up a good sized pork roast into cubes.  Shoulder, butt, whatever you can find.  This dish, incidentally, is also really nice with beef.  And could also be made with chicken, although I've never done that.  Put the pork into a large ziploc bag, and pour the liquid mixture over it and coat it well.

Line an overproof pan with banana leaves.

Pour in the pork, then top with more banana leaves.  Use tinfoil on top of that to seal it.

You want the seal to be as tight as possible, so no moisture escapes.

Cook at 325 F for 4 hours.

Serve on a bed of white or Spanish rice.  I've also used a fork to pull it apart and served it on tortilla chips.  I've also served it in soft tortilla's with guacamole, salsa and cheese.  I've also served it on top of a cornbread biscuit topped with a poached egg and guacamole (a fall out of your chair good eggs benedict).  This stuff is durable, versatile and very, very good.

A dish so good, you might get whacked just for making it.  Enjoy!