Pitzotl Stuffed Jalapenos: Spice Up Your Appetizers

I've gotta admit it. I love a great stuffed pepper. But, I have a particular affection for the bite-sized variety.

Jalapeno poppers are a great example. Creamy. Cheesy. Delicious. Right?  But, they're puttery to make, since they need to be battered and fried.  So, how about a slightly easier version?

These peppers are stuffed with a cream cheese and Monterey Jack cheese mixture that matches (or beats) that of the usual jalapeno poppers. It's made even more delicious with the addition of a bit of finely diced Bolzano Pitzotl, an artisan salami made from heirloom pork flavored with chiles and cocoa powder.

Just slice open the jalapenos, scrape out the seeds, stuff with the cheese mixture, and bake.

They're absolutely delicious -- reminiscent of a cross between jalapeno poppers and pepperoni pizza -- and perfect for your next party.  I'm thinking they'd even be delicious made on the grill in the summertime.

Oh, yeah.
Easy Salami Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers


Want to try one of Bolzano's salami products for yourself?
We're giving away one stick of salami away to a lucky reader. All you have to do is tell us which salami flavor you'd like to try -- and how you'd use it.

You have until NOON on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 when we'll randomly choose one lucky winner to receive a stick of Bolzano salami for your very own. Winners will be notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

Choose from the following flavors:

Pamploma Runner
RauchZwiebel 
Old School
Fin Oh Kee Oh Na 
Pig Red Salami
Pitzotl


©BURP!

Salami Stuffed Chicken Breast: Easy Company Worthy Fare

I'll admit that when we first tackled this Bolzano Blogger project, I wasn't sure exactly what we were going to make for our first recipe. Bolzano salami is delicious, but we generally eat it out of hand, as part of an antipasto platter, or prepared simply on a sandwich. So, thinking about creating a recipe that really made the most of the flavors of the meat felt like a bit of a challenge.

We were lucky enough to be given a stick of the newest flavor of Bolzano Salami -- the Pitzotl, featuring the zip of chiles and the deep dark flavor of delicious cocoa powder. So, we decided to focus on recipes that show-cased the "mole-esque" qualities of the product.

This delicious recipe features quick-brined chicken breasts stuffed with cumin garlic butter, and stuffed to the brim with Pitzotl salami, sundried tomatoes, and Queso Fresco. The chicken breasts are easy to throw together, they hold their shape thanks to a bit of kitchen twine, and they're perfect for making ahead. Both the brine and the butter ensure a deliciously tender chicken breast, and the basic filling offers just the right pop of sweet salty flavor.

The chicken breasts cook up beautifully in the oven, and when sliced into medallions, they make a fabulous presentation on the dinner plate. Pair them with Mexican rice, sauteed squash, and refried black beans. And eat the leftover medallions piled high on a sandwich with crisp lettuce, maybe a slice of melted cheese, and a bit of chile-spiked mayo.

Pitzotl Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Perfect for your next dinner party. Make it and tell us what you think!

Want to try one of Bolzano's salami products for yourself?
We're giving away one stick of salami away to a lucky reader. All you have to do is tell us which salami flavor you'd like to try -- and how you'd use it.

You have until NOON on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 when we'll randomly choose one lucky winner to receive a stick of Bolzano salami for your very own. Winners will be notified by email, so please leave your email addy with your comment if it's not included with your Blogger profile. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

Choose from the following flavors:

Pamploma Runner
RauchZwiebel 
Old School
Fin Oh Kee Oh Na 
Pig Red Salami
Pitzotl


©BURP!

Full disclosure:  The product for our recipe development was provided by Bolzano Artisan Meats, free of charge. But, all opinions expressed are our own, and we are footing the bill for the salami giveaway.

Salami Week on the Blog: Featuring Bolzano Pitzotl

We love living in Milwaukee. It's a lovely "big" small town with friendly people, a beautiful lake view, a nice dose of culture, plenty of universities to keep things interesting, and a growing food scene with some of the best artisan producers of delicious food products in the nation.

Among those artisans, we're lucky to claim Bolzano Artisan Meats, producer of seven of the finest handcrafted salamis you'll ever eat.  They are the first company in Wisconsin to bring back the lost art of dry curing, and one of the only in the nation to make their products from locally raised heirloom hogs.  Best of all,  their products are delicious.

That's why we were tickled when Scott Buer, owner of Bolzano, approached us and asked if we'd coordinate a Wisconsin food blogger project, wherein 6 food bloggers would receive samples of Bolzano salamis, and -- in return-- create two delicious recipes using the products.  We solicited volunteers, and got a great group of bloggers to participate (see the list at the end of this post).

For our part, we got to sample the newest variety of salami - Pitzotl - made with chiles and cocao. The flavor of the salami is pretty special. It's salty and spicy, with the kick of a quality pepperoni and a bit of depth we can only attribute to the addition of the cocoa.

We developed two recipes that we feel showcase the best qualities of the salami -- including some delicious stuffed jalapeno peppers (a bit like poppers), and a dinner-party-appropriate stuffed chicken breast with salami, sundried tomatoes, cumin garlic butter, and Queso Fresco.

So, this week is Salami Week on the Burp! blog.  Be sure to check back on Wednesday and Saturday for two great recipes ... and your chance to win a stick of the salami of your choice!

And don't forget to check out all the great salami recipes being featured this week on these other Wisconsin Food Blogs:

• Rebecca from CakeWalk: featuring Pamploma Runner Chorizo with smoked paprika
• Molly from Peanut Butter & Pickles: featuring RauchZwiebel Salami with smoked sea salt and onion
• Susan from Little French Bakery: featuring Old School Salami with cracked black pepper
• Melanie from From Fast Food to Fresh Food: featuring Fin Oh Kee Oh Na Salami with ground fennel seed
• Anna from Tallgrass Kitchen: featuring Pig Red Salami made from heirloom Red Wattle pork

©BURP!

Going Whole Hog: Our Experience in Pig Butchering Class

When I announced that we'd be participating in a Whole Hog Butchering Course at Bolzano Artisan Meats on Facebook last week, my friend Rena was one of the first to respond. 

 "... you are the only person i know who would be excited about a pig butchering class," she said.

And I had to laugh.  It's probably true, to great extent.  But, I don't think it would have always been the case.

If someone had suggested to me ten years ago that we'd be interested in breaking down the primal cuts of a pig, I probably would have fallen off my chair laughing.  Why on earth would anyone need to know how do that?

But, things change. And these days, we're increasingly interested in the ins and outs of the food we eat.  If we're going to consume meat, we want to know the details about it -- where it came from, how the animals were treated, and what impact our decision to eat that particular meat has on the environment. If I decide to order a portion of pig from a local farm, I'm interested to know which cuts are available to me -- and become more well informed about how to use and modify them. Likewise, when I'm buying a package of meat from the butcher, I'd like to know I'm getting the cut I requested.

More importantly, Peef REALLY wanted to see firsthand where that delicious slab of pork belly comes from.  And so, the opportunity to harvest his own bacon became a part of his birthday present.

To be honest, the experience was pretty amazing.  Although we weren't complete newbies on the topic of how cuts of meat are prepared, we did learn a great deal about the versatility of different portions of a pig -- about the options for obtaining ribs and pork chops, and why certain portions of meat are named as they are

Boston Butt, for instance, is really part of the shoulder... so why on earth is it called butt??  Well, in the early days of pork processing in the U.S., less valued pork cuts like shoulder cuts were packed into casks or barrels (also known as "butts") for storage and shipment.  Since many of these "butts" originated in the boston area, the way the hog shoulder was cut became known regionally as  "Boston butt."

If you're interested in seeing a summary of our course in photos, take a gander at the slideshow.

So, what's your perspective?  Would you take a hog butchering class?



©BURP! Where Food Happens
Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.

Roast Pork Belly: Burp! Gives Thanks

Yeah, we had pork for Thanksgiving.  But, before you start throwing your turkey carcasses at us, let me explain...

On November 27, 1998, Peef and Lo became one. That is to say, Peef and Lo got married. And if you look back, you will see that November 27, 1998 was a Friday. A Black Friday, in fact.

That's right, we got hitched the day after Thanksgiving.
So, suffice it to say, Thanksgiving has never really been an ordinary holiday for us.

In addition, you might have noticed that we have this little habit of cooking together, and we couldn't imagine any other way to celebrate our marriage than side by side in the kitchen. This results in rather non-traditional Thanksgiving feasts, and this year was by far one of the most inventive.

But more on that in a little bit...

A few months back, we were fortunate to benefit from an otherwise unfortunate event.
Our friend Scott from Bolzano Artisan Meats experienced the pangs of a busted appendix right after he'd received a hog fresh from the farm. During his recovery, he was unable to perform the work needed to transform a fresh pig into cured artisan charcuterie.  So, instead, he offered up a variety of freshly butchered pork cuts for sale to the general public.

When we got the email announcing the sale, I read through the list of available cuts. Pork belly... Picnic roast... Boston Butt...   Heh. I didn't even finish reading. The fact is, he had me at Pork Belly. Lo was excited about getting a picnic roast...but I was stuck on the Pork Belly.

"I needs one," I said to Lo (in a very whiny voice).

Fortunately, Lo loves me, and she agreed that a couple of picnic roasts and a Pork Belly would be a welcome addition to our freezer for future feasts.

One such future feast, as it happens, was Thanksgiving.

Our pork belly turned out to be a thing of beauty. Deliciously pink & beskinned, the belly had a delightful balance between fabulous meat and layers of beautiful white pork fat.  Although Lo decided it smelled a little bit like wet dog, I thought it looked pretty fabulous.

We'd chosen an Asian application from one of the latest issues of Saveur magazine -- mainly because it included step-by-step instructions for achieving a gloriously puffed and crispy layer of cracklin' pork skin -- a delicacy I've been waiting to experience for most of my adult life. 

Interestingly enough, we had most of the ingredients for the pork's marinade right in our cupboard.  All except the preserved red bean curd, which I easily procured from the Asian grocer down the street.

And then the fun began.

We poked the pork skin all over with a sharp knife (and yes, I am now coveting one of those official pork poking tools).  We scalded it with a baking soda and water mixture.  We mixed together the marinade (pausing a bit when we smelled the slighly funky odor of the red bean curd, but persisting nonetheless), and we let everything cure overnight.

On Thanksgiving afternoon, we removed our slightly funky-smelling pork belly from the fridge, placed it on a roasting rack, and set it in the oven.  About an hour later, we opened the oven door and were greeted by a sight for sore eyes.

That pork belly... well, it was positively stellar.

We broke off hunks of the crackled skin and nibbled like greedy little... pigs?   The puffed bits crackled and crunched and filled our mouths with enticingly porky flavor, while the deliciously tender meat, pleasantly caramelized and perfumed with the scent of five spice powder, melted in our mouths.

It was (dare I say it) quite nearly better than bacon.  And it was even better when paired with another of our holiday cooking projects...

...which we'll reveal to you on Friday.
Trust me when I say it's worth the wait. 

In the meantime, feel free to check out the recipe:  Crispy Pork Siew Yoke - Saveur Magazine



©BURP! Where Food Happens
Want more? Read Lo's latest ruminations at FOODCrush, her Milwaukee Magazine blog.