Curing Your Own Bacon at Home!

Making your own bacon at home is extremely simple and fast! Trust me, once you make it at home, you will never eat store-bought bacon!

Ingredients:

1 cup of salt, equal parts kosher and sea salt
½ cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon of coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 to 1 ½ lb. slab of pork belly

1. Start with a slab of pork belly. The one shown here is about a pound and a half. I bought it at Whole Foods for $4.99 a pound.




2.Combine all of the ingredients (except the pork belly, of course) in a bowl. Rub the pork belly with the salt mixture. There will be some salt left over. Set this aside for now.

3. Store the pork belly in a Tupperware container and cover with the remaining salt.

4. Store in the fridge for 5 days. Remove from the container and rinse off the salt. If the pork belly looks like the photo below, you’ve successfully made bacon!




5. Slice the bacon and fry in a pan!

6. If stored in an airtight container, the bacon can keep for up to 3-4 weeks. I read this somewhere because the bacon did not last more than a week and a half in my house. If you manage to keep bacon for up to three weeks…kudos to you!

Mambo-New London, CT

You could go to the most critically acclaimed restaurants and have an exquisite, flawless meal; however, there is no denying that the best food in the world is the food you grew up with. The greatest chefs don’t stand a chance against the skills of my Cuban mom and grandma!

I went to this tiny hole-in-the-wall in New London, CT called Mambo. Although they claim to be Caribbean, the term is somewhat broad. Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican cuisine are all very similar, but can differ greatly from other Caribbean Island cuisines, such as Jamaican or Haitian. I can sit here all day and describe the differences, big or small, amongst them. Instead, I am going to make you hungry…

The menu at Mambo closely resembled Puerto Rican Cuisine. The “mofongo” and “habichuelas” were a dead give away. The Cuban versions of these foods are called “fufu” and “frijoles” (see below for their descriptions). Now, I am not Puerto Rican, but the cuisine of this wonderful little island is basically the same as the food in Cuba. The ingredients and dishes are the same; we just call them different things. The food I ate at Mambo reminded me of the many home cooked meals my mom or grandma used to make. Anyway, I digress. Let me get back to making you hungry…

I ordered the chicken stew. My mom would call this “fricase de pollo”. It is chicken cooked in a tomato-based broth with onions, garlic, saffron, oregano, and cumin-the basic Cuban pantry. (Mom, help me out here. Let me know if I forgot any ingredients). The chicken just shredded apart and was packed with flavor! It was served with a side of fluffy white rice and bowl of red beans. The latter were slightly different from what I am used to eating, simply because I prefer black beans. They were also sweeter and had less cumin. Nonetheless, my meal was FANTASTIC-the epitome of Cuban comfort food!

Scott ordered the “pernil”, or shredded pork. The pork tasted exactly like the pork I grew up with. It was garlicky and citrusy and shredded apart like pulled pork, sans the barbecue sauce. He just had the white rice because I haven’t been able to fully convert him… he still won’t eat beans! ☺

If you find yourselves in Southeastern Connecticut stop by Mambo. Better yet, bring me along with you. I'll order in Spanish so that we can be treated like part of la familia.


Mofongo/Fufu: plantain mash, usually served with pork rinds and garlic
Habichuelas/Frijoles: Black or red bean soup

Tico-Boston, MA

Simply put, Tico was a colossal waste of money! Now that I told you how I really feel, let me describe the food and drinks in more details.
I ordered a pitcher of Tico’s Sangria. Now, you don’t have to be Pythagoras or Descartes to figure out this next problem. An individual glass of Sangria was $10; a pitcher was $36. If the pitcher yielded only 3 glasses of Sangria, how much did I get ripped off? I paid $2 more per glass by getting the pitcher than I would have if I ordered 3 individual glasses. I guess this restaurant doesn’t reward its customers who order in bulk. But silly me, what did I think this was, Costco? Still, the Sangria was overpriced and quite frankly, extremely mediocre.

My favorite dining partner and I opted for ordering several small plates: chorizo bites with a chimichurri sauce, quail in a mango and aji amarillo sauce, fried manchego cheese with a soy pomegranate dipping sauce, tuna tartar, shishito peppers with shallots and lime, and creamed corn with bacon and basil. The first two dishes listed above were the better ones of the bunch. They were also served on sticks, which made them fun to eat.

The chorizo plate came with three medallions of chorizo, each about an inch in diameter. These were serve with a chimichurri sauce: garlicky and parsley-y…clearly the latter is not a word, but you get the idea. The chimichurri sauce was great, as was the chorizo. Both had a very authentic Spanish taste. Priced at $7, I felt that I overpaid for my chorizo. It was great, but it wasn’t worth that much.
The quail was seared and crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. In other words, it was cooked perfectly. It was drowned in a mango and yellow pepper sauce- the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. Oh man, it was good! I have no complaints about this dish. I loved it!

I love manchego cheese. No wait, scratch that. I live and breathe for manchego cheese. I also live and breathe for anything deep-fried. I thought the union of these two food groups (yes, to me they are their own separate food groups) would make me hear angels, but instead I heard the purring of soft, fluffy kittens. For those of you who missed my subtle humor, I meant to say that the fried manchego was good- I enjoyed it, but it was not as “foodgasmic” as I expected it to be. The fried manchego bits were glorified cheese sticks, but who doesn’t love a cheese stick? I also didn’t care for the soy-pomegranate dipping sauce. It was too sweet and it didn’t complement the cheese well. I would recommend that the chef pair this sharp and delicious Spanish cheese with a romesco sauce. Sure, it is not as eclectic as the pomegranate sauce, but sometimes being a purist with your food pairings can yield amazing results.

The tuna used to make the tuna tartar was mushy. I can only imagine that mushy tuna can only mean one thing: it wasn’t fresh! I am assuming that it was made at around noon and it sat in a container until I ordered it at 6 pm. Tuna tartar, just like sushi, is only good when made to order. If it sits around too long, it’s just not good. I am not going into a lot of detail because after all, no one cares for mushy tuna.

I am noticing that shishito peppers are the latest trend in the culinary world. These light green peppers are thinner and for the most part, less spicy than a jalapeno; however, a batch of these peppers range in heat. Some are extremely spicy and some are extremely mild. It’s unusual and I love it. It’s a surprise in every bite because you never know what you are going to get! Served whole and roasted, these peppers were covered in sea salt, crispy shallots and limejuice. For those extra-spicy peppers, the lime was a refreshing element! This combination was fantastic.

And now for the catastrophe of the night, I introduced to you the creamed corn. This corn was crap. Honestly, I can’t find a witty or eloquent way to put it. I expected roasted corn- corn that had been grilled and shucked off the cob. What I got was frozen kernels, with a splash of half-and-half, a soggy-handful of bacon pieces, and 4 jalapeno rings. This dish resembled a pot-induced experiment, not a dish you would serve in a restaurant. Flavorless and mediocre! Absolute crap!

All of the above, not including tip, was a few cents shy of $100. I have never paid this much money for food that has left me extremely dissatisfied. Sure a few dishes were good, but I they are not worth returning to Tico. Under no circumstances, will I be returning to this place! I am usually very opinionated about food, so I encourage my friends to try restaurants on their own and form their own opinions; however, my dear amigos, save yourselves the time and money and go elsewhere. This restaurant is not worth your patronage.