Pastourma Takes Patience (παστουρμά)

On many occasions I've referred to the Greek eating experience as being centered around many sample plates of foods that are shared over drinks, conversation among family and friends. Greek cuisine has alot of appetizers, usually simply prepared but the array is great and the diversity even more so.

One facet of Greek appetizers or "the meze" is the use of delicatessen meats. I remember when I was young and my mom would prepare for an entire week to prepare mezedes for the onslaught of family and friends who would drop by our house on the occasion of my father's nameday, St. Nicholas.

It's very common to see salami and other cold cuts on offer at a buffet table or as part of an array of appetizers like cheeses, bread, toursi (pickled vegetables) and the usual dips (like Tzatziki).

I've always liked deli meats be it Greek or non-Greek but today and in the future, I'm going to showcase some of Greece's deli and cured meats.

There's Kavourma from northern Greece, the Cretan delicacy of Apaki, Louza from the Cycladic Islands, Siglino from down south Mani way and today's feature, Pastourma.

From my readings, Pastourma comes from Armenian cuisine but it's widely enjoyed by Turks, some Arab countries and of course, Greece.

Pastourma made it's way to Greece through the migration of Greeks who once resided in Constantinople and Asia Minor. Some of the best Pastourma I had was when I visited Istanbul (Constantinople) a couple of years ago.

The Greeks of Asia Minor have left a permanent stamp on Greek cuisine and as many would agree, our cuisine is richer for it.

What's Pastourma? It's the grand-daddy of Pastrami. It used to be cured by frontier horsemen who would carry a type of Pastourma in their saddles during their long treks away from home. In essence, it's a beef jerky but now will get into the nitty-gritty.

Pastourma, it is said was once made of camel meat but that could be either urban legend or a fact of days of yore. Today's Pastourma is mostly made from different cuts of beef. For this recipe, I used an inside round cut of beef...lean, no silverskin and ideal size for some who wants to enjoy it with family and friends.

Pastourma takes about a month to salt cure and dry age to perfection. From my research, there are some quick-cure recipes out there but it appears the slow method garners the best results.

Pastourma is not for everybody. The crust is known as "tsimeni" or "trigonela" and it's a paste that contains garlic and spices, the predominant one being fenugreek.

Personally, I love the aroma, the taste of Pastourma. For those not in the know, fenugreek is a spice used heavily in the Orient it's from Methi leaves, which my Indian friends will attest to using in their dishes quite often.

Pastourma is best when it's sliced thinly, it has that texture of prosciutto or bresaola, very tender and buttery kind of experience. In it's rawest presentation, it's served thinly sliced on a plate with some bread and cheese and washed back with an Ouzo or Tsipouro aperitif. I've also found dry Greek reds to pair well with Pastourma.

Pastourma also makes for a wonderful omelet, which often is served as a dinner option for those late night Greek meals.

The most famous use of Pastourma has to be Caesaria Pie, which contains a filling of pastourma slices, Kasseri chese and often tomato.

Pastourma can be found at Middle Eastern markets, some Greek food marts sell it, Armenian and Turkish patronized stores will also certainly carry it. If you're in a city or town that is nowhere near any of these stores, no worries....the home version is here.

Once again, my core belief in food is sharing and I've held no recipe back and nor will I ever. I present to you Pastourma, the home-cured version...enjoy!

Pastourma (παστουρμά)
(recipe adapted from Mark Marcarian)
33 days preparation

1 piece of inside round beef (about 2 lbs)
approx. 1/4 cup sea salt (granulated)

Tsimeni
3 Tbsp. of ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp. red pepper (cayenne)
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
3-4 cloves of minced garlic
approx. 1 cup of water
cheesecloth

1. Ask your butcher for an inside round cut of beef, lean and no silverskin. Rinse and pat-dry your meat and place in a container that will fit in your fridge. Using an upholstery needle, thread some butcher's twine through one end of the meat and tie a knot so that you may later hang the meat for curing.
2. Cover the the entire area of meat with sea salt and place in your vessel. Cover with plastic wrap and use either a brick or 2-3 cans of tomatoes to weigh/press down on the meat. Place in the fridge for 3 days and turn once each day.
3. Upon completion of day 3, rinse the meat of the salt in cold water and allow it to then soak in cold water for an hour. Allow the water to drain off the meat (30 minutes) and press between some cloth towels to remove any remaining moisture.
4. Wrap the meat with one layer of cheesecloth and hang in a cool, airy place to dry for 2 weeks. My Pastourma was hung to dry in a cool, dry cellar that was 15-18C and humidity of about 60-65%. Check on your Pastourma from time to time, you might get a slight foul smell but that's okay...change the cheesecloth ( I did 3 times).
   
5. After 2 weeks, remove the cheesecloth and rinse and pat dry. Now mix all the ingredients (except the water) for the Tsimeni in a large bowl. Slowly add the water a bit at a time while you mix the ingredients until a thick, gloopy paste has formed. You'll use anywhere between 1/2 to almost 1 cup of water (the Tsimeni should be thick so that it adheres to the meat).
   
6. Put on some gloves and slather the meat with your Tsimeni mixture. Take your Tsimeni-coated meat back to where you hung the meat and allow to cure for another 2 weeks.
7. After a total of approx. 33 days, your Pastourma is ready to be eaten. Cut the Pastourma in half and slice thinly against the grain from the inside towards the outer, tapering end of the meat. You may also refrigerate or freeze your Pastourma for future use. Wrap well in plastic wrap and that for 5 minutes to soften and go on and slice what you need before placing back in the freezer.
8. Serve thin slices at room temperature as part of an appetizer plate with some cheese, some bread and an aperitif like Ouzo or a dry Greek red wine.
   

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.blogspot.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
© 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

Greeked-Up Jalapeño Poppers

Today, I'm introducing you to a new ingredient called Pastourma. Pastourma, it is said, is where the origins of pastrami came from.

Pastourma is stronger than pastrami and upon tasting this thin sliced cured beef, one immediately tastes garlic, paprika and notes of cumin and fenugreek.

The origins of pastourma come from the Ottoman/Armenian cuisine but it has remained popular in Greek circles and no doubt brought back to mainland Greece from the Asia Minor Greeks.

Legend has it the best pastourma was made from camel but today it's mostly made of beef. Greeks will offer up thin slices of pastourma as part of an array of "mezedes", in omelets or use it as an ingredient (like I'm doing here today).

If you're curious to try pastourma, some Greek & Cypriot delis will carry it, Turkish, Armenian and Middle Eastern stores will also often sell this fabulously flavoured meat.

Today, I decided to "kick up" a roadhouse/pub classic, the Jalapeño Popper. For those not familiar with bar food here in Canada & the US, Jalapeño poppers are the spicy peppers that are filled with cheese, coated in a batter and then fried. An accompaniment of cool sour cream is also often served.

I've played around with the Jalapeño popper idea a few times and although the origins of this dish are Tex/Mex, my goal was to add a Greek twist to this favorite "bar food" of mine.

In Greece, we have our own cream cheese, commonly known as "katiki domikou". Here, the cream cheese is the vehicle that delivers the Greek flavours here...mashed Feta and tiny pieces of pastourma.

As a side, I serve up a cooling and refreshing Romesco Sauce, which fairs very well with this tasty snack/appetizer.

As for the batter, I found a good fish batter works best here and after seeing wonderful results from Kevin at Closet Cooking and Nina of My Easy Cooking...I'm chiming in to add that this batter recipe rocks!

So, go out & look for pastourma and if you like it, give these Greeked-up Jalapeño Poppers a go. You'll need some readily available tools in your kitchen and beyond hollowing the peppers, this ain't no sweat!

Greeked-Up Jalapeño Poppers

15-20 Jalapeno peppers
1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature
1 slab of Greek feta cheese
3 slices of Pastourma, finely chopped

Batter
1 bottle beer
approx. 2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg (lightly beaten) salt and pepper to taste
sunflower oil for frying

Tools
piping bag/or plastic bag
paring knife
cork screw

1. First, make your batter. Add the salt and baking powder to the flour in one bowl and beat an egg in another bowl and add the beer. Now gradually whisk the flour into the beer & egg until you get a thickish pancake-like batter. Set aside and prep your peppers.
2. Using a paring knife, cut off the stem part of the peppers and reserve them (you'll cap your peppers with these later). Now using a cork screw, stick it in the pepper and gently wiggle, ream and twist inside the peppers to hollow them out.
   
3. Get a small pot of water boiling and then throw the Jalapenos in for about 3 minutes and then blanche in cold water and then drain (you may skip this step if you like your peppers crunchy).
4. In a small bowl, add the cream cheese and Feta and mash together with a fork until one. Now add your finely chopped Pastourma and mix until incorporated. Now place the cheese filling in a piping bag or a plastic bag and simply snip a small hole in the bottom corner.
5. Now fill each Jalapeno with the cheese filling, to the point of where the cheese is just slightly exposed (this will be the glue to seal your peppers with the stem parts).
6. Now "glue" the stem part of the peppers back on.
7. Get your frying hot, to an approx. temperature of 360F. Dip your Jalapenos into the batter and then carefully drop into the hot oil. Fry until golden-brown (about 3-4 minutes) and then reserve on plate lined with paper towel.
8. Serve your Greeked-Up Jalapeno Poppers with a cool Romesco Sauce.
   

Saucisson of Pork Tenderloin

Bulletin - Dec. 20, 2007

Hi Folks, I've been doing some reading on home dry salting and curing and yes, end result can be a bit salty.

What you can do is soak the tenderloins in warm water(80F) for a couple of hours and some salt will draw out.

The meat looks a little grey on the outside but the deep red colour remains in the middle, it's softer and a delight to eat.

Finally, towel dry the pork and once dried, re-wrap with the original tea towels and refrigerate for future nibbling.




HOLY $#!@.....IT WORKED!

Excuse my exuberance but I was "iffy" on if this cured pork tenderloin recipe would turn out well and it did!

I will try anything (almost) anything once, be it ceviche, carpaccio, prosciutto, braesola, tartares, sushi....bring it on!

Now I can add Jacques Pepin's Saucisson of Pork Tenderloin to the roster of adventurous eats. I followed his instructions verbatim and this was uncharted territory for me but I will relate my experiences from preparation to the final, delectable tasting of this wonderful pork.

Before I proceed, let me emphasize that if you're the type that's sheepish about cured meats or any other food that hasn't been cooked using heat, then move on...this post isn't for you. If, on the other hand you're like me, daring and willing to try something new to add a new taste experience, then stick around!

If you're the type of person that loves sausage (like me) but you're also watching your weight, this could be the answer for you. The Saucisson is a salty cured meat...like a prosciutto but it's also lean as it's a cured pork tenderloin. Just as Jacques Pepin recommends, have it with some buttered bread and a bottle of red wine and damn was this tasty!

(For the record, I will be buying some more pork tenderloin this weekend for curing)

You can save & follow Jacques method as I did but here's how I exactly made it (with some explanations he doesn't provide).

Saucisson of Pork Tenderloin

• 2 pork tenderloins, each about 1 lb., with the silver skin removed and cut off about 2-3 inches off the ends (cook the ends as Jacques recommends as the ends are thinner, become saltier and hard and barely edible)
• 1 cup kosher salt (or 1/2 cup Morton Tender Quick Curing Salt)
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp of Cognac
• 2 Tbsp of fresh cracked black pepper
• 2 Tbsp of herbs de provence

1. Put the salt and brown sugar rinto into a plastic zip-lock bag large enough to hold the 2 tenderloins and mix well.
2. Add the tenderloins into the bag, force out any air, seal the bag and gently mus the bag around to coat the meat with the salt/sugar mixture. Refrigerate overnight (or 12 hours).
3. After 12 hours or so, remove the tenderloins from the bag (discard the bag and contents) and wipe them dry with paper towels.
4. Rub the meat with Cognac then roll them in cracked black pepper and sprinkle the herbs de provence all over the tenderloins.
5. Wrap each piece of meat in a cotton cloth and use butcher's twine to to wrap and secure the cloth tightly.
   
6. Hang the tenderloins in a cool cellar or do what I did...hang it in my fridge. I cleared enough space between the salad crisper and the the shelf above it. I then tied a long piece of butcher's twine around the shelf. I then attached twine to each tenderloin, looped it through the twine that was wrapped around the shelf and tied the 2 twines. Now my tenderloins were hanging, air curing in my fridge.
7. The tenderloins will dry out in 5 -6 weeks, even less if the tenderloins are smaller than a pound each (use less salt as well if they are less than the 1 lb.). Slice thin, enjoy with buttered good bread and polish off a bottle of red!