Homemade ciabatta bread rolls that are topped with my homemade feta-like cheese.
Smoked beet salad with toasted pecans and a homemade feta-like cheese. The beets were steamed first then peeled. A dry rub made of approximately 1 part ground black pepper, 0.5 parts each ground coriander, kosher salt, and brown sugar was applied. The beets were then smoked alongside everything else for about 40 minutes. The pecans were toasted over the open fire in the fire pit. The homemade cheese was based on a recipe for an acid-set ricotta cheese. I used about 5 cups of whole milk and 1/2 cup Greek yogurt. That mixture was brought to a low simmer before the acid, in this case, white vinegar, was added to create the cheese curds. After the cheese was strained and excess whey was squeezed out It was placed in a salt brine solution for several days. I used about a 6% brine.
> Pork bellies. These were cooked in a similar style to how I would cook pork ribs. A basic barbecue rub was applied.They were cooked on the Weber kettle. Because I made an error the ambient cooking temperature was somewhat higher than I would’ve preferred. When the internal temperature of the meat reached about 175°F I started to apply barbecue sauce. I used Kinder’s Roasted Garlic sauce. When the meat was done hot honey was brushed on one slab. They were allowed to rest for 30-40 minutes. Both were very tasty though we preferred the hot honey slab. Photo by Lil
Vernor’s floats because we were not willing to bother with the extra step of blending them into Boston Coolers. The vanilla ice cream is homemade and this time turned out a bit icy. Photo by Lil
