Sorta Porchetta

One of my all-time favorite street foods in San Francisco is Roli Roti’s famous porchetta sandwich, served at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. For those of you not familiar with the perfection that is the porchetta, it's a loin, and possibly other cuts of heavily seasoned pig parts, wrapped inside a pork belly, which is then roasted until the inside is tender, and the outside is crispy and crackling. It’s then sliced and served on a crusty roll with salsa verde.

It’s insanely good, and something I've always wanted to try doing at home. Of course, a real porchetta feeds like 20 people, so I wanted a version that would be better suited for a smaller group. 

I decided to try using a small pork shoulder roast. The plan was to mimic the same flavors, but cook it more like pork loin, instead of the usual fork tender, falling apart state we associate with this cut. Pulled pork was not what I was after here.

It worked wonderfully, although you do need to slice it nice and thin. We’re only cooking this to 145 F. which is not high enough a temperature to break down all that connective tissue. All in all, I thought it was a very successful experiment, especially when you consider how much we scaled this down. 

What it didn’t feature however, was that crispy skin, also known as “the best part.” I wish I’d thought of it before I finished the video, but what I should have done was fried up some diced pancetta (un-smoked Italian bacon) until it was perfectly crispy, and topped the sandwich with that! That would have put this already fine faux-porchetta over the top! I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 very large portions:

2 1/2 pound boneless pork shoulder roast, butterflied open, and slashes made all over the connective tissues

olive oil as needed

1 tbsp kosher salt (2 tsp for inside, and 1 for out)

1 tbsp black pepper

2 tbsp chopped sage leaves

2 tbsp chopped rosemary

6 cloves minced garlic

zest from a large orange

2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

- Stuff, tie, salt, and refrigerate uncovered for 24 hours

- Roast at 450 F. for 15 minutes

- Reduce heat to 250 F. and roast another hour, or until an internal temp of 145 F.

For the vinegar sauce:

1/2 anchovy fillet

1 tsp hot chili flakes or to taste

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup freshly chopped Italian parsley

Bonus How to Butterfly Meat for Rolling Video! 

 

Next Up: Porchetta Impostore

Cronuts! Part 2: The Sights and Sounds

As promised, here’s the finale to our two-part cronut extravaganza! The series concludes with me frying the two batches – the first half fried as prepared in the last video, but the second half of the dough received an additional tri-fold, which resulted in a much higher, but less crispy cronuts.

Both were very good, and the second batch was more impressive looking, but I’m thinking that for a true croissant/doughnut hybrid, thinner and with less layers may be the way to go. 

Of course, if you’re going to fill yours with vanilla custard, as is the custom in NYC, then the taller, airier cronut is probably a better delivery system. Rest assured, further exploration is inevitable.

In case you’re wondering, the second half of the dough was frozen overnight, and then thawed in the fridge until soft enough to work with, so it seems as though making and freezing this would not be problem. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Note: These cronuts were fried in grapeseed oil, at 350 degrees F. for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes per side. Click here to watch Part 1.

View the complete recipe

Cronuts! The Doughnuts That Make People Go Nuts! Part 1: The Dough

I’m assuming that since you’re on a food blog you've probably heard about “cronuts,” but just in case, here’s a quick review. 

This croissant/doughnut hybrid was invented by Dominique Ansel at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. It became an overnight sensation, and now people stand in line for hours just for a chance at getting one of the precious few that are made each day.

Why all the hype? Very simple – it has the shape and flavor of a doughnut, yet features the crispy, flaky texture of a buttery croissant. What’s not to hype? Anyway, after seeing like two dozen new reports on the craze, and receiving a scary number of food wishes for it, I decided to give it a go, if for no other reason than to save a few of my NYC friends the humiliation of being Instagrammed standing in that line.

Since I’ve never tasted a cronut, what follows is purely an educated guess, but I think I got pretty close. Maybe one of you New Yorkers will mail me one, so I know for sure? My game plan was simple. Make a slightly sweet, yeasty, doughnut-esque dough, which I’d then layer with butter, using the classic croissant technique.

It’s a procedure I do all the time, as in once, back in culinary school, thirty years ago. So, instead of going by the book, or even looking in a book, I winged it, and not only that, I streamlined things too. Instead painstakingly pounding out perfectly sized slabs of cold butter, I decided to try simply spreading softened butter instead. I also threw caution to the wind, and pulled off the rare and terrifying “double fold and turn,” and lived to tell the tale.

Like I said in the video, we’ll cover the final results in Part 2, but spoiler alert…these were awesome. I did two different versions, one regular, and one with an extra “fold and turn” which resulted in a taller, and even more impressive cronut. Stay tuned!

Ingredients for 16 Cronuts:

1 package dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

1/2 cup warm water (105 degrees F.)

1 teaspoon fine salt

2 rounded tablespoons white sugar (add an extra if you want a sweeter 'nut)

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pound all-purpose flour, more as needed

6 ounces soft, unsalted, "European-style" butter (12 tablespoons)

Fist steps:

- Combine yeast and warm water, and let sit five minutes.

- Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the flour and the European-style butter, and whisk to combine.

- Add the flour, and knead for about three minutes or until a soft sticky dough ball forms.

- Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

- Roll dough out into roughly a 18 x 9-inch rectangle.

- Proceed with butter as shown!

View the complete recipe