Duskie Estes & John Stewart
Chef & Salumist
Zazu Kitchen + Farm / Black pig Meat Co.
Duskie Estes was voted City Search’s Seattle Best Chef in 2000. Under her leadership, Palace Kitchen was rated by Gourmet magazine in the top five Seattle restaurants in 2000 and in the nation’s top 50 restaurants in 2001. She coauthored Tom Douglas’s Seattle Kitchen, which received the James Beard Award, 2001. Duskie was a fierce competitor on the Food Network’s Next Iron Chef, season 3 & season 5 and is a judge on Guy’s Grocery Games.
John Stewart makes the world famous Black Pig bacon and raises the pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, ducks, rabbits, & children. John is an avid salumist studying with chef Mario Batali and at the University of Iowa Meat Lab. ZAZU was named a TOP 10 best new restaurant of 2002 and was listed in the San Francisco Chronicle’s TOP 100 restaurants, 2003 – 2005. ZAZU was also included in TOP 50 restaurants in the Bay Area by San Francisco Magazine. 2008 through 2015, ZAZU has been included in the San Francisco Michelin guide. In 2009, Duskie & John received the Rising Star Chef Awards for Sustainability. Together, they were crowned “KING & QUEEN of PORC” at the Grand Cochon at Aspen Food & Wine 2011.
Hot smoked bacon BLT salad
Hot smoked bacon
3 – 5# pasture raised skinless pork belly
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons P1 (available @ sausagemaker.com)
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chili flakes
Mix your spices. Using gloves rub all over the belly. Let sit in a covered dish in the refrigerator for 1 – 3 weeks.
(The longer the better). Then hot smoke with applewood chips (see directions below).
Cut into portions and reheat in a 400 oven to serve. Place on top of cowgirl beans and smoky collards.
Glaze with honey + tabasco glaze (see below).
1) The first step to smoking meat in an oven is really wet soaked wood chips. Submerge your applewood chips in water for a few hours.
Once soaked, drain your wood chips through a colander, reserving some of the chip water in a container.
2) preheat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
3) Using a metal pan, place the soaked wood chips at the bottom of the pan, making sure there is a thin layer of water of the water on the bottom.
4) On top of the wood chips, place a raised metal baking rack. Make sure there is enough space between the chips and bottom of the rack for the smoke to flow freely.
5) Now you’re ready to place the meat onto the baking rack. The meat should be placed directly over the wood chips.
When you put the meat on the rack, make a nice tent of aluminum foil that seals the roasting pan on all sides and has room in the top for the smoke to circulate. The more tightly the foil is sealed, the more the wood flavor will penetrate the meat.
6) Place the aluminum pan in the oven and let the meat cook. let it slow cook for 3+ hours.
During the smoking process, the water may become absorbed, drying out your chips and conversely your meat. Pour some of your reserved chip water in, rewetting the chips and re-creating the film of water at the bottom.
“BLT Salad” + hot smoked bacon
Serves 4
4 heads Little Gem lettuce – washed, dried and cut in bite-sized pieces
4 heirloom tomatoes, sliced 1/3 inch thick
2 ripe avocado, pitted and cut 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup sherry vinaigrette – buy bottled or substitute sherry vinegar in your own recipe
1 recipe hot smoked bacon, diced into bite size cubes (or substitute black pig bacon! Available @ oliver’s, andy’s, big john’s, pacific, shed, mustache bakery, rosso, farmhouse…)
Directions:
Warm the pork belly in a 400 oven. (sprinkled with additional brown sugar if you like)
To plate your salad, warm the pork belly on a sheet pan in a 400-degree oven for about 10 minutes.
Toss lettuces in sherry vinaigrette. Top with tomatoes, avocadoes, and the warmed pork belly.
Zazu Kitchen + Farm / Black pig Meat Co.
6770 McKinley, #150, Sebastopol, Ca 95472
(707) 523-4814
www.zazukitchen.com / www.blackpigmeatco.com