Homemade Lamb Pancetta di Agnello (Dry Cured Lamb Belly)

Lamb Pancetta di Agnello Recipe

Homemade Lamb Pancetta di Agnello Recipe. Pancetta is Italian bacon made of belly meat (usually pork) which marinated in spiced and salt cured then hung to air dried cured for several months. Agnello is Italian word for lamb; so Pancetta di Agnello is air dried and salt cured lamb belly.

Arrotolata Pancetta “Rolled” Dry Cured Lamb Belly

Rolled Lamb Pancetta di Agnello

Pancetta typically salt cured and seasoned with spices such as nutmeg, fennel, peppercorns, dried ground hot peppers, garlic, rosemarry, thyme, oregano, sage, marojam and juniper berry, then dried for at least one month. There are two basic types of pancetta, the ″arrotolata” (rolled) and “stesa” (flat). The “arrotolata” is mainly used sliced as part of antipasti (cold cut appetizer), the “stesa” is often used chopped as ingredient in many recipes.  The rolled type is typical of northern Italy,while the flat is typical of the center and south.

Pancetta of Lamb Belly

Homemade Lamb Pancetta, Worth All The Effort!!!

Lamb belly pancetta isn’t that hard to made if you got the passion on home curing charcuterie, i mean it’s not impossible to made at any amateur kitchen, but sure it need some patients and precision steps to made the lamb pancetta edible. A litttle bit of passion can create a far better delicious pancetta than any professional deli store products ever sold. Pancetta preparation is  slighly time consuming because the belly it’s needed to salt cured , air dry cured  before it’s ready to eat. Properly dried cured lamb pancetta is  save to eaten raw as thinly sliced appetizer on charuteries platter alongside other homemade cold cut charcuterie which i’ve ever made previously; Homemade Beef Bresaola, Homemade Venison Deer Bresaola Di Cervo, Homemade DuckProsciutto, Homemade Spanish Chorizo (Dry Cured Smoked Paprika Sausage), Homemade Salmon Gravlax, Homemade Tea Smoked Salmon, Homemade Smoked Duck Breast, Homemade Smoked Beef.

Homemade Cold Cut Lamb Pancetta as Antipasti

Beautifull Thinly Sliced Lamb Pancetta Charcuterie

I mention before that home curing pancetta di agnello need a precision; simply because improperly curing process can lead to food bourne poisoning called Botulism and possibly causing death, no kidding!!!. Before you considering to made your homemade lamb pancetta or any other air dry cured meat, you should know about the savety about curing  first. You had to measured the proper ratio of the ingredients, especially the amount of the nitrate preservatives which is the only known additive that effective to prevent the Clostridium botulinum growing.

Dark Red Color of Saltpetre Cured Lamb Belly Pancetta

Insta Cure no.1, also called pink salt, is colored pink and contains 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% salt. Cure no.1 is commonly used in bacon, hotdogs and other products that need less or no drying time. Insta Cure no.2 contains both sodium nitrite (at 6.25%) and nitrate (at 1%), with the remaining 92.75% being salt. Nitrates act as a time-released nitrite. Nitrates are employed in pancetta that requires longer periods of curing and drying. The time-release of nitrite continues to protect the meat over time. If you are making lamb pancetta which will be cooked, you can use cure no.1.  If you intend to make a traditional pancetta arrotolata, which is fully dried and eaten without cooking, you must use cure no.2. Eversince i lived in Indonesia and actually i’ve been too tired pursuing the pink salt, so i used old school saltpetre for  my home curing charcuterie.

Lamb Pancetta, Air Dried Cured Lamb Belly

Saltpetre Lamb Pancetta with Beautifull Marbling Dark Red Color!!!

The recommendation maximum ammout of saltpetre (Potassium Nitrate, Garam Sendawa in Bahasa) for dry curing meat is 500 ppm (part per million) or 500 mg of salpetre in 1 kg of meat. The total lamb belly weight is about 400 grams. The natural sea salt ammount for dry cured pancetta  is about 3% of the weight, you gotta take a close attention on it, 3% salt means 12 grams seasalt for 400 grams meat and 500 ppm of salpetre means 0,2 grams (200 mg) of salt petre for 400 grams meat. l also added the same ammount of palm sugar with the salt. Here’s the fun part, my digital weight scale can only measure 1 gram (1000 mg), eversince i need only 200 mg of saltpetre, so i need to put the 1 gram of saltpetre in a piece of paper and divided it into five equal part with my atm card  then using one-fifth of the the devided saltpetre. It made me thinking of myself “heck what i’m doing, my mom gonna be going crazy and beat the hell of my head because i seems like a crack addict doing their things ” lol

Marinated Fresh Lamb Belly with Curing Mixture

After measung the ammount of salt and saltpetre for curing the fresh belly, i mixed it all in and rubbed the belly with the spices to make sure all the curing mixture penetrated well into it. Nothing changes for a moment, but some liquid derived from the belly once the salt and sugar dissolved and the natural gamey aromas blend well with the spices, smells delicious already!!!

24 Hours Marinated or Cured Lamb Belly, Note the Ammount of Liquid Derived from the Belly

After the marinated and cured lamb belly sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours and flipped over several times, you may seen the liquid in derived even more now. The color of the meat is darker, while the texture is firmer, i guess 24 hours (one day) for a small 400 grams of lamb belly is enough to curing the pancetta properly, you may need more time for larger piece of belly.

Properly Washed, Drained and Patted Dry Cured Lamb Belly

The cured lamb belly washed gently over cold running water to discard the excess salt and curing mixtures. DO NOT OVER WASHED the lamb belly and NEVER SOAKED it in the water, unless the water penetrated into the meat and possibly spoiling your freshly cured pancetta, a little bit of remaining spices in the surface of the pancetta is just fine. The pancetta then patted dry with clean papper towel to remove the remaining liquid, this flat cured belly also called stesa pancetta di agnello.

Rolled and Thighly Secured Lamb Pancetta Arrotolata

The freshly cured lamb belly then rolled thighly and secured with some sewing twines. Make sure there’s no air pocket beetween the rolled lamb belly. This rolled cured lamb belly also called arrotolata pancetta di agnello. This is rolled lamb pancetta usually served raw as antipasti or appetizer after air dry cure.

Using Clean “Dry Mode” Refrigerator as Dry Curing Chamber, Pancetta Alongside Lap Cheung /Chinese Sausage

The freshly cured lamb pancetta hung to dry in a cold, good-ventilated and dark place, then left until dry and loosen 30% of it’s original weight once it freshly cured. Make sure you notes the weight of the cured pancetta before you hung it and calculate the 30 percent loss from the original freshly cured weight.  In my case, the freshly cured lamb pancetta weight is 360 grams (from 400 grams fresh lamb belly) and the 30% loss is 108 grams, which means my lamb pancetta is ready to be eaten raw when it’s weighed 252 grams.

Nice Shaped Rolled Lamb Pancetta

The rolled lamb pancetta then hung to air dry curing in the room temperature in a subtropical or even better in a cold climates country. If you living in  a tropical country like indonesia, i guess it’s impossible to left the freshly cured pancetta hung to dry curing in room temperature because it’s too hot and too humid. Hence you must use your refrigerator to dry curing it, just made sure you cleaned out your fridge before using it as a curing chamber. Simply left the pancetta hung undisturbed in the fridge door in the ideal fridge temperature (about 1– 4°C or 33 – 39°F) and the fridge humidity in “dry mode”. Do NOT OPEN THE FRIDGE TOO OFTEN since the temperature will fluctuated and made the pancetta taste funny.

Dry Cured Pancetta Losing 30% Weight, Note the the Loose Twines Due Curing Shringkage

Ready to Eaten Pancetta di Agnello

This is my lamb pancetta look a like after air dry cured in the fridge after 20 days. The lamb pancetta meat had a nice dark red colour with creamy white and firm fat covering. Nice gamey aromas with distinct spices smells comes out of it and the taste just perfect for my licking; mild gamey, fatty and sweet. The lamb meat has shrunk a lot, but i guess the fat didn’t shrunk much.

Slicing the Lamb Pancetta Thinly!

Thinly Sliced Pancetta di Agnello

To store the homemade lamb pancetta, you can kept hung in in the fridge as long as you want before it’s turn harden,or spoiled and become inedible. If you want to store the pancetta  for longer than 2 – 3 weeks, best in freezer. I don’t really know if it will go mouldy or turn racid if you leave it in the fridge for too long, but i guaranteed that i won’t be last than longer before ended out in my tummy.

Nice Fatty Lamb Belly Pancetta

Thinly Sliced Saltpetre Cured Lamb Pancetta, Ready to Eaten Raw

Fried Lamb Pancetta USING VERY-VERY LOW HEAT

Maybe you heard that nitrate are toxic, infact nitrosamines did but the nitrate all blamed for that. Nitrosamine formed when nitrate transform into nitrite then react with amino acids or very high heat. Nitrosamines are known to be powerful DNA damaging chemicals and resulting cell mutation and cancer. But don’t really bother about it, infact a single portion of spinach or celery contain more nitrosamines than you can imagine. So don’t be affraid to use salpetre once you follow the recomendation ammount consentration in your homemade pancetta because you don’t want to risk your life, but i suggest if you want to FRIYING the SALTPETRE (nitrate) CURED PANCETTA, please USE THE LOWEST GENTLE HEAT as possible to prevent the nitrosamine formation, so  NEVER  CHARRED the SALTPETRE (nitrate) CURED PANCETTA.

Recipe Homemade Lamb Pancetta di Agnello Arrotolata

Recipe Homemade Lamb Pancetta di Agnello Arrotolata

Ingredients: (Measured the ingredients according your lamb belly weight)

• 1 kg lamb belly (1.000 grams)
• 3 % salt (15 grams) 
• 3% palm sugar (15 grams)
• 500 ppm (part per million) Saltpetre  {(500:1.000.000) x 1.000 grams} = 0,5 grams (500 mg)
• 4 tablespoons Homemade Garam Marsala Powder
• 2 tablespoons    mix Italian herbs powder ( Rosemarry, Thyme, Oregano, Sage, Bayleaves and Marojam)
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 5 juniper berries, crushed

How To Make Lamb Pancetta

How To Make Pancetta of Lamb Belly

• Measure the weight of each pancetta ingredients properly
• Clean out and sterilize all of the utensils
• Mix and rub the curing salt and spices mixture to lamb belly, let is marinated about 24 hours in the fridge
• washed it gently under running water
•  drain in properly, patted dry with paper towel, set aside
• Roll the lamb belly pancetta, make sure there’s no air pocked inside, secure with butcher twines
• Note the date and measure the weight of freshly cured pancetta arrotolata
• Hang the pancetta to dry in a well ventilated place until dehyrated and losen it’s 30 percent of it’s original weight (i’m using clean, “dry mode” refrigerator)
• Thinly sliced the Lamb Belly Pancetta di Agnello and served it as charcuterie appetizer

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Recipe Crayfish Risotto with Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato with Germinated Brown Rice

Crayfish Lobster Risotto with Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato, Served with Crispy Chorizo, Cherry Tomato Confit, Sisho Leaves Tempura and Micro Herbs

Crayfish Lobster Risotto with Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato, Served with Crispy Chorizo, Cherry Tomato Confit, Sisho Leaves Tempura and Micro Herbs. Risotto is a classic Italian rice dish cooked in broth into a thick creamy consistency once the rice losen it’s starch and cooked. The broth for cooking the risotto rice maybe based of meat, seafoods, or vegetables and spiced with may kind of herbs and spices. Today i’m making risotto using crayfish lobster and then spiced it with Spanish saffron and Homemade Sun Dried Tomato.

Crayfish Risotto with Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato

Soaking Germinated Brown Rice Overnight to Let the Rice Sprouting, Smelly Nutricious Goodness!!!

I’m using germinated brown rice for making this crayfish lobster risotto. Germinated brown rice is unpolished brown rice that has been allowed to sprouted to enhanced the flavour and nutrients before cooked. The brown rice need to be soaked in warm water overnight to let the seed germinating or sprouting before cooked. Sprouted brown rice risotto is a packed with more nutrients and enzyms such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) compared to the polished regular rice. Slow and low temperature of risotto is the best way to kept the super food germinated brown rice nutrients.

My bucked of Live Crayfish or Yabbies from Hero Supermarket @Kemang, Jakarta

Tiny Cryfish Beast, Looks Delicious Already!!! Lol

Crayfish is a type of freshwater lobster that had a very delicated sweet and succulent tiny tail and clawn meat once it cooked properly. Crayfish also known as crawfish, crawdads, yabbies, or mudbugs, and in Indonesia we used to called it lobster air tawar. Crayfish lobster popularity as s source of protein and as an ornametal aquarium pets increased recently here in Indonesia. I purchased this live crayfish at Hero Supermarket Kemang, Jakarta, it tagged 22 USD for a kilo and you’ve got 4 to 6 inches size crayfish weighed about 30-50 grams for each of it. You also can purchased the frozen yabbies or crayfish on Gourmet Supermarket like Food Hall and Ranch Market in Jakarta.

Homemade Sun Dried Tomato, Sweet Fruity Tangylicious!!!

My Homemade Sun Dried Tomato give a nice tangy sweet fruity flavour into the risotto. Before using it in my risotto, you gotta made the sun dried tomato broth first. Simply finely chopped  1/2 cup sun dried tomato (i’m actually using half  sun dried tomato and half sun dried cherry tomato) and soaked it overnight in the refrigerator to soften and infused the flavour into the soaking water. Firstly in the morning, i add some water until the volume reach about 1500 ml and bring it to boil before poached the lobster. The sun dried tomato broth than reduced into half within the addition of remaining crayfish head and shell. The sun dried tomato and crayfish infused broth then strained with cheesecloth before used it to cooked the crayfish risotto.

Malika Spanish Saffron

Premium Grade-One Genuine Spanish Saffron

The is genuine premium grade-one Spanish Saffron with it’s pungent aromas and vivid red color. I was lucky enough found this Spanish saffron thread at Kemchick Supermarket Kemang, Jakarta. One small pack (1 gram) of Malika Spanish Saffron tagged 12 USD, kinda pricey but i think it’s worth every cent eversince finding Spanish saffron isn’t that easy here in Indonesia.

Crawfish Risotto with Bright Reddish Yellow Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato Color

Look out the sexy color of the  crawfish risotto, tempting bright reddish yellow from the saffron and the sun dried tomato broth. Strained sun dried tomato and crayfish shell infussien broth made the risotto clear. The saffron and sun dried tomato didn’t just added color into the crayfish risotto, but also bring delighfully tangy and pungent aromas which can manipulate the off-aromas of germinated brown rice

Well Done Germinated Brown Rice Risotto with Crayfish, Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato

Crayfish brown rice risotto taste damn delicious! the texture cooked of germinated short grain brown rice is fine and creamy just like my previously Porcini Mushrooms Risotto Recipe that using regular polished brown rice. The cooked sprouted brown rice had a mild specific scent that blend together with the saffron. I think the aromas of raw sprouted or germinated brown rice is quite strong, either you love or hate it, nothing in beetween. I personaly love the scent, the stingkier the better for me, lol. Raw sprouted rice aromas may off the appetite for some people, but once cooked the smells is reduced and becomes milder, but if you want to get rid the aromas, you may using green tea solution for soaking the brown rice.

The Crayfish Lobster Tail Meat Over Crispy Choriso and Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato Broth Risotto

Crayfish Lobster Risotto with Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato: Creamy, Aromatic, Tangy and Refreshing Flavour

Before making the crayfish risotto, you need to deal with the freshwater lobster yabbies first. Dealing with live crayfish need some precautions, first the clawn may harm you and it’s really painfull once it bitting your finger, so don’t play with it. Some people having no problem putting crawling and moving live crayfish on hard boiling hot water, but my grandma said it bring a bad karma, so she suggest to put the crayfish unconcious before cooked.  I threat  my crayfish just like i prepared my live spinny sea lobster for making Live Spinny Lobster Ceviche Recipe; so i put the crayfish on icy water bath to put it in sleep and made it’s more easy to handle.

Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato Crayfish Lobster Risotto

The Succulent and Sweet Crayfish Tail and Clawn Meat

The lobster poached in the sun dried tomato broth to infused the nice sea flavour into the risotto. The crayfish tail meat carefully extracted from it’s shell using bare hands, while the clawn using scissors to cut off the edge before plug out from the claws. My grandma suggest to toasted the crayfish shell and head with a little bit of olive oil first to let the aromas stronger before boiled it within the sun dried tomato broth to let the flavour of crayfish infused within the broth.

Homemade Fine Dinning Quality Crayfish Risotto

Now it’s the time for making the crayfish risotto, onion and garlic sauteed with butter until translucent and then the soaked germinated brown rice added and sauteed until slighly each grain covered with the butter. The chopped lobster meat and saffron then added, then a laddle of sun dried tomato broth  added into the risotto. The risotto is on the critical phase now, you need to keep stirring while bring the broth boiled and evaporated over medium flame heat stove. The sun dried tomato broth added into the risotto laddle by laddle and you allowed to added the broth only once the the previously added laddle of broth compeletely evaporated. Continously stirred the grain of the brown rice made sure all the grain cooked evenly and prevent the rice sticking in the bottom of the pan. This steps is used to prevent the risotto over- or undercooked.

Well Done Throughly Cooked Crayfish Risotto with Germinated Brown Rice

The authentic doneness of risotto rice is al dente, the short grain brown rice is tender and cooked, while the inside of the brown rice grain still got a slighly bitting sensation, but eversince my grandma used to had a compeletely tender and throughly cooked rice just like most Asian people consumes, so i made this risotto according to my grandma’s preference.

Damn Delicious Saffron & Sun Dried Tomato Crayfish Risotto!!!

After all, the crayfish lobster risotto with germinated brown rice taste damn delicious!!! it’s creamy, tender and got aromatic saffron flavour with a blend of sweet tangy flavour of sun dried tomato broth. The short grain germinated brown rice contain less amilopectin and starches compare to the arborio or carnaroli rice, thus made the germinated brown rice risotto seems not as smooth and creamy as usual,  but i  think the texture is still quite creamy and smooth when you served the brown rice risotto right away after cooked.

Recipe Crayfish Lobster Risotto with Germinated Brown Rice, Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato Broth

Recipe Crayfish Lobster Risotto with Germinated Brown Rice, Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato Broth:

• 500 grams live Crayfish (about 10-12)
• 2 cups germinated brown rice , washed with tab water and soaked in room temperature (about 28 C) overnight, drained, set aside
  
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 cup Homemade Sun Dried Tomato, (roughly shopped and soaked overnight inthe fridge with one cup water)
• 50 grams butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 50 gr (about 4 tbsp) grada padano cheese or any of your favourite
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 750 ml  sun dried tomato broth(add more water if needed)
  

Garnish :

• Homemade Dry Cured Spanish Choriso Sausage,thinly sliced, baked in the oven until crispy
• Lemon basil and black mustard micro herbs
• Daikon radish sprout
• Homemade Cherry Tomato Confit
• Homemade Basil Infused Oil

Instruction:

How to Make Crayfish and Sun Dried Tomato Infussion Broth:

1. Put the crayfish lobster to icy bath ot simply put the bag in the freezer for about 10 minutes until the  crayfish unconcious, Clean and brush the crayfish shell and clean it with ice cold water
2. In a medium size sauce pan, add some water into the soaked sun dried tomato until it reach 1500 ml, bring it to boil then reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer for about 5 minutes
3. Meanwhile, bring the sun dried tomato broth  into hard boil then poached the unconcious crayfish for about 2-3 minutes until cooked
4. Put the poached crayfish in the icy bath to prevent it overcooked, carefully extract the meat from the tail and the clawn  with scissor, set aside
5. Heat up 1 tbsp olive oil in the skillet and toasted the remaining crayfish shell and head until fragrance, turn off the heat and added the lobster shell and head into the sun dried tomato broth
6. Continue simmer the sun dried broth until all the flavour of the the crayfish head and shell extracted into the broth and the broth reduced into half it’s original volume
7. Strain the broth from the sun dried tomato pulp and crayfish shell, set aside and keep it warm before used to make the crayfish risotto.

How To Make Crayfish Lobster Risotto with Saffron and Sun Dried Tomato Broth :

1. In a heavy bottom non stick sauce pan, heat up the butter and olive oil.
2. Add the chopped onion, shallot and garlic,  stirring occasionally, until translucent but not browned
3. Add the drained germinated brown rice, saffron and stir to combine throughly and to ensure that each grain of rice is coated with butter, continue to stir for another 5 minutes
   
4. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed.
5. Add 1 cup of the broth and cook, stirring, until liquid is absorbed.
6. Repeat with a second cup of broth. After that batch is absorbed repeat with 1/2 cup amounts until the rice is tender, about 25-30 minutes total.
7. Stir in the grada padano cheese
   
8. Serve the crayfish lobster risotto with saffron and sun dried tomato both immediately with the garnish.

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Resep Ayam Betutu Bali (Salt Crusted and Banana Leaves Wrapped Roasted Balinese Spicy Chicken)

Ayam Betutu

Resep Ayam Betutu Pedas Khas Bali Isi Daun Singkong or Balinese Style Spiced Roasted Chicken Stuffed with Cassava Leaves. Ayam betutu derived from the word ayam which means chicken and  betutu is a Balinese dish of steamed or roasted chicken or duck. Ayam or Bebek betutu used to be heavily seasoned and spiced and one of the iconic dish of Bali and Lombok Island. Once you visit Bali, your vacation in Bali won’t complete unless you tried their chicken or duck betutu dish, it’s available all over the entire island, from a street-sided food stall tent to a five star hotel restaurant.

Hot and Spicy Ayam Betutu, Stuffed with Spicy Cassava Leaves and Wrapped in Banana Leaves and Salt Crust Dough

Ayam betutu varies in tastes and cooking method according into three major regions of Bali; Klungkung’s style betutu chicken is stuffed with cooking-spices and cassava leaves. Gianyar’s style ayam betutu is cooked with banana or plantain leaveas wrapping. Gilimanuk’s style ayam betutu is also very popular with its reddish color spicy spices and kicking hot  flavors. So my version of ayam betutu is a combination of what i like from every region; so my chicken betutu is hot, spicy, stuffed with spicy cassava leaves and also wrapped in banana or plantain leaves.

Balinese Ayam Kampung Betutu Panggang

The spices mixture for making ayam betutu called base genep in balinese or bumbu lengkap in Bahasa or literrary translated as complete seasoning. Basic ayam betutu base genep spices consist or shallots, turmeric, chilies, garlic, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, shrimp paste and sand ginger (lesser ginger). The spices ingredients processed and mashed into fine paste with a traditional stone mortar and pastle. Slighly different from Balinese condiments that usually using raw ingredients, Balinese spices for cooking meat used to be fried up with coconut oil until fragrance and slighly charred first before added into the raw chicken or other meat and cooked.

Roasted Ayam betutu, Balinese festive dish!

Ayam Betutu is usually served in Balinese traditional ceremonies; wedding, birthaday or other festives occation.Nowdays, you can easily found ayam betutu in the entire island. Local Indonesian tourists also used to carry ayam betutu as a gift or oleh-oleh once they left Bali from their vacation. Alongside with Balinese Style Barbequed Baby Back Ribs, ayam or bebek betutu is a must dish to try once me and my family visit Bali.

Salt Crust Roasted Chicken Betutu

The ayam betutu chicken roasted wrapped in a salt crust dough which sealed the juices and moisture on the spicy chicken betutu even better. This is the similiar purpose of encasing Homemade Chinese Beggar Chicken with clay or bread dough.  The salt crust dough can create an oven within an oven once it cook because the solid sol of Natrium Chloride with bread dough conduct and kept the heat of the oven to the chicken better than regular bread dough without any salt addition. The betutu chicken cooked for hours within it’s own moisture and this is made all the spices of bumbu base genep flavour and the natural juices of the chicken blend together into a damn delicious and tender spicy chicken.

Roasted Ayam Betutu Wrapped in Salt Crust Dough

The salt crust dough is not edible because the generous ammout of salt on it made it taste overly salty. The commom salt crust chicken usually directly wrapped the chicken with the salt crust without any barrier to let the salt infused to the chicken. The ayam betutu is already spiced and salted; there’s no need to infused more salty flavour of the salt crust into it, so then i wrapped the spiced chicken with alumunium foil before wrapped it in salt crust. The salt crust chicken is not only used as a seal for lock up the moisture within the roasted ayam betutu but also qite made an impressive presentation in the table. I guess it will be quite interesting gig to encasing the betutu chicken in front of the guesses in the dinner table. The salt crust itself is not edible because it taste over salty

My Grandma Cutting The Salt Crust Dough

Here’s the fun part; how to enjoy salt crust Balinese roasted betutu chicken. My grandma did me a favour of honourable cut up salt dough roasted ayam betutu photograph. A small knive is what it’s need to carefully cut up the roasted salt crust dough to expose the ayam betutu. Slicing the salt crust dough is quite easy, slighly contrary with what i expecting that the salt crust needed to a little bit hack to crack it open

Encasing the Ayam Betutu from The Salt Crust

The smells of banana or plantail leaves bursting out within the ayam betutu vapour once my grandma lift up the salt crust dough. I said myseld, Damn, i really desperately need steaming hot rice and sambal matah now!!!

Fragrance of banana Leaves Bursting Out!!!

My Grandma Cutting out the Excess Banana Leaves !!!

Ayam Betutu Khas Bali

My grandma then carefully encasing the banana leaves from the salt crust roasted betutu chicken  until the prescious roasted betutu chicken inside exposed. My grandma had an iniciative to cut the excess banana leaves wrapper to exposed the chicken betutu better.

Damn Delicious Ayam Betutu with Generous Base genep Spice and Young and Tender Cassava Leaves Stuffing

 This is the damn delicous Balinese Ayam Betutu, cooked in a salt crust dough made the chicken moist and tender, literrray more than just falen off the bone. The fragance of spices and banana leaves is bursting out all over the air and i even salivating once i typing this this post and remebering the smells. Just look at those generous ammount of spices paste covering the chicken betutu, spicy, hot and flavourfull, superb!!!

Roasted Betutu Chicken

Cassava Leaves Stuffed Ayam Betutu

The roasted chicken stuffing consist of young and tender cassava leaves, base genep spices and some chopped edible part of the kampung chicken viscera. The young and tender cassava leaves is removed from it’s vine, salted and bruised by rolling beetween both hand with a rolling movement. The chicken liver, heart, spleen, gizzard and intestine properly cleaned, cooked with addition of salt and kaffir lime juice then finely chopped before mixed within the cassava leaves stuffing. The cassafa leaves stuffing for the chicken must be a little bit over salty to made sure it’s will be infused it’s flavour from the inside of the chicken while maintaining the moisture during the cooking process.

Sambal Matah, Drizzed with Smoking Hot Coconut Oil!

Sambal matah is a spicy , shallots, chilies  and  lemongrass relish from Bali. Sambal matah made of thinly sliced red bird’s eye chilies, shallots and lots the tender part of lemongrass and thus sambal matah also called sambal sereh (lemongrass in Bahasa). Roasted or charred solid shrimp paste or terasi also added within the sambal matah, then just before serving, sambal matah usually drizzled with smoking hot oil and then seasoned with salt and drizzled with kaffir lime juice for extra tangy flavour. Authentic sambal matah using coconut oil, but regular vegetables oil will be just fine.You can find the recipe or sambal matah or Balinese spicy chili, shallots and lemongrass relish on my Grilled Baby Lamb Leg with Sambal Matah Recipe.

Ayam Betutu Panggang Pedas Bali dengan Daun Ubi SIingkong dan Sambal Matah

Balinese Roasted Betutu Chicken in a Bed of Cassave Leaves Stuffing and Sambal Matah

This is ayam betutu already carved, served with bed of spicy young and tender cassave leaves stuffing and sambal matah. Honestly, i didn’t carved the chicken with any knives, but i just pull the tender roasted chicken leg from it’s bone and it comes out right away easily with my bare hand. I said myself that i need more often of this salt crust roast cooking technique in my kitchen.

Spicy Balinese Style Salt Crust Chicken Betutu

Delicious Ayam Betutu Panggang Garam or Salt Crusted Balinese Spiced Roasted Chicken using a young or junvenile F or malay chicken, a native breed of free ranged chicken. Ayam kampung betutu muda panggang is a premium and rather expensive compare to the regular chicken, it’s also more lean and tough thus suits even more for long and slow cooking method. You can use free ranged chicken or spring chicken too for making this salt crust roasted betutu chicken recipe.

Resep Ayam Betutu Khas Bali

Resep Ayam Betutu Khas Bali ( Ayam Panggang Bumbu Pedas Isi Daun Singkong Dibungkus Daun Pisang dan Adonan Garam)

Recipe Bali Style Salt Crust Roasted Spicy Chicken Betutu Stuffed with Cassava Leaves

Ayam Betutu Chicken Ingredients:

• 1 ayam kampung, whole young kampung chicken ( Sping Chicken or Young Free Ranged Chicken)
• 2 daun salam, Indonesian bayleaves
• enough banana/plantain leaves to wrap the chicken (or use alimunium foil if you don’t have access to Banana leaves)
• enough alumunium foil to wrap the betutu chicken

Ayam Betutu Chicken Stuffing:

• 100 grams daun singkong or young and tender cassava leaves (you can replace with spinach or curly kale)
• 4 tablespoon or Base Genep Balinese Spice Paste
• finely chopped cooked chicken etrails (liver, spleen, hearth, gizzard and intestines)

Bumbu Base Genep (Bumbu Lengkap Bali)/Balinese Spice Paste:

• 100 grams bawang merah (red shallots)
• 6 bawang putih cloves (garlic)
• 1 jempol jahe (thumb-sized piece of ginger)
• 1 jempol kencur (thumb-sized piece of lesser galangal)
• 1 jempol laos (thumb-sized piece of galangal
• 1 jempol kunyit (thumb-sized piece of tumeric)
• 4 batang sereh (stalks of lemongrass, use only the tender white part)
• 50 grams cabe merah (cayenne chillies pepper)
• 10 grams cabe rawit merah (red bird’s eye chili pepper or more for more spicy)
• 4 kemiri (candlenuts)
• ½ sdt lada hitam bubuk (tsp freshly ground black peppercorn)
• ¼ sdt pala bubuk (tsp nutmeg powder)
• ¼ sdt jinten bubuk (tsp cumin powder)
• 1 sdm terasi bakar (tbsp charred shrimp paste)
• 1/4 sdt parutan kulit jeruk purut (tsp kaffir lime zest) #optional
• salt (to taste)
• 4 sdm minyak kelapa (tablespoons coconut oil for stir frying)

Salt Crust for Roasted Chicken Recipe:

• 800 grams flour
• 600 grams fine ground salt
• 2 egg white
• about 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 egg yolk for egg wash

How to Make Salt Crust for Roasted Chicken:

• Mix all ingredients except the egg yolk in a large glass bowl
• Knead the salt crust dough until flexible enough to flaten and wrapped the betutu chicken, add more water if the salt crust dough too fragile and easily tear up once it flaten
• Let the salt crust dough rest at least about 20 minutes covered with cling wrap plastic before using to made it more flexible

How to Make Salt Crust Roasted Balinese Ayam Betutu Chicken :
1.Put all the spice paste/bumbu base genep (except the coconut oil) into the food processor bowl and then  process until it become a thick paste.

2. Heat up 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in a heavy bottom non stick  pan, saute the base genep spice paste and bay leaves  until fragrance and cooked through, set aside 4 tablespoon for cassava leaves stuffing mixture

3. Mixed the young and tender cassava leaves , 4 tablespoons of spice paste and the chopped cooked chicken innard, set aside

4. Place the chicken into the bowl, and then mix well with the remaining base genep spice paste, rub the chicken a little bit inside out

5.Put the cassave leaves stuffing  inside the chicken cavity, set aside

6. Wrapped the chicken with the banana or platain leaves. Do a cross wise wrapping like you making an envelope parcels

7. Wrapped the banana leaves wrapped chicken betutu with alomunium foil, press the foil a litttle bit to made sure there’s no empty room beetween the banana eaves and the foil.

8. Flaten the salt crust dough and then wrapped the betutu chicken parcel with the salt crust dough, close the salt crust parcell in the chicken back bone side to make a fine thight closing and kept the excess salt crust dough for ornameltal  matter

9. Put some artifisial wings, tail and chicken head with the excess salt crust dough on your chicken, use your imagination and creation for it!!

10. Grease the salt crust chicken parcel with egg wash for a betetr presentation,

11. Put the Salt Crust Roasted Balinese Betutu Chicken into 200 C preheated oven and baked the salt crust chicken for about 2 and half hours

12.Voila, your Salt Crust Roasted Balinese Ayam Betutu Chicken is Done and Ready to served!!! Cross your finger above your head now!!!

13.Serve with rice, sambal matah, fried peanuts and a cold beer!

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Recipe Quail Confit on Stewed Lentil with Chorizo & Saffron Using Lock&Lock Heat Resistant Boroseal Oven Glass Container

Recipe Crispy Quail Confit, Served with Stewed Lentil with Chorizo and Saffron.

Recipe Crispy Quail Confit, Served with Stewed Lentil with Chorizo and Saffron. The quail leg and the breast confit or slowly cooked in oil (duck fat) in a low temperature oven until the meat fall off the bone once all the tough tissues breakdown into tenderlicious collagen. Right after the quail confit meat is tender, the skin is pan fried with a little bit ammount of duck fat until the skin side crisp up and golden brown. The lentil for serving the quail confit stewed with Homemade Spanish Chorizo or Dried Cured Sausage and Spanish saffron, alongside with other spices, herbs and the roasted quail cascass bone broth.

Crispy Quail Confit, Served with Stewed Lentil with Chorizo and Saffron.

Quail Leg and Breast Confit, Deep Fried Quail Wings Confit and Stewed Lentil

Making a delicious quail confit or other game bird is so easy. The rules of making confit is simple, simply submerged marinated quail leg and breast in 80-90ºC fat or oil for about 30-60 minutes depending the size and the toughness of the quail once it slaughtered. Never raised the oil temperature to rushed the cooking process because higher oil temperature made the water content in the quail meat boiled and evaporates, thus made the quail confit meat dried and tough even more. The oil or fat temperature for making quail confit is just enough to break down the quail meat without much drying (boiling) the water contents on it. So, basicaly the temperature and the period is the difference of deep frying and confit, confit is prolonged cooking in oil in a low temperature while deep frying is flashed dehydration cooking in oil in a high temperature.

Tender Slow Cooked Stewed Lentil with Spanish Saffron and Chorizo

Stewed Lentil with Spanish Saffron and Choriso

The lentil stewed in a browned quail bone stock and flavoured with saffron and Homemade Chorizo Dry Cured Sausage. The fragrance of saffron and smokey peppery aromas of chorizo made the lentil heartwarming and  comforting. The slow cooked stewed lentil with saffron actually best served once it cooked one day priorly to made sure all the flavour infused into the lentil, but the fresh cooked lentils is also delicious.

Tender Quail Confit Over Stewed Lentil

Moist and Tender Quail Confit with Crispy Skin

The quail here in indonesia is not specifically raised for it’s meat, but for it’s eggs. The old and not productive female quail slaughtered for it’s meat, so different from the tender quail that used to sold in the western country; the quail here is quite tough and need a slow cooking process to present it to the table. I guess the French confit cooking techniques is just perfect for cooking this tough quail or any wild game bird.

French Style Quail Leg and Breast Confit with Stewed Lentil

Resep Burung Puyuh Goreng Konfit ala Perancis maybe the best term for translate the quail confit in Indonesian.  French confit cooking technique isn’t that popular here in Indonesia, so i think this a great deal to use local Indonesian ingredients with french cooking techniques.

Easy Quail Confit in Duck Fat

Lock&Lock Heat Resistant Boroseal Oven Glass Container

Once i do my weekely groceries shopping, i spot this 630 ml Lock&Lock Heat Resistant BOROSEAL RECTANGLE OVEN GLASS CONTAINER in the Diamond Supermarket Palembang. The brochures within the heat resistance glass container told me that unlike other glasses (especially tempered glass), heat-resistant boroseal glass uses boron tioxide and silicone dioxide material that contains strong heat resistant properties which could withstand sudden change in about 120ºC temperature, thus it could be used not only in a refrigerator, a microwave and a dishwasher but also in a 400℃ oven. Normal glass or tempered glass may broken and scratches when there is a themal or physical shock even with a very small stratch. Lock & Lock uses heat-resistant glass for more safety so no need to worried your table and kicthenwares suddenly cracked or exploded and harm you. The best featured of this fancy looking  Pretty much i enjoy my new kitchen toy so i also purchased the 1L BOROSEAL RECTANGLE OVEN GLASS CONTAINER.

Lock&Lock Heat Resistant Boroseal Oven Glass Container, sorry for the lame tablet camera photograph!

The Lock&Lock 630ml BOROSEAL RECTANGLE OVEN GLASS CONTAINER tagged IDR 99.000 while the 1 L tagged IDR 127.000, pretty much a great deal because it so handy and versetile to use in the kitchen. Heat resistant glass is safe for use in the oven and microwave, expanding your range of cooking from roasted risotto, spaghetti, baking and more! even curries and stews can be easily stored in the refrigerator and reheated later.

Fine Dining Quail Confit Made in Lock&Lock Heat Resistant Boroseal Oven Glass Container

Tiny Crispy and Damn Delicious Quail Leg Confit

Tender, Moist and Succulent Quail Breast in a Fancy Rolled Shaped

I making confit with Lock&Lock Boroseal Container because the oven heat spreaded throughly by the boroseal body and made the perfect quail confit. The lid made excellent airthighness and prevent the food oxidation and made the quail meat color changes once it cured or marinated with salt, herbs and spices before cooked.

Butchered and Cured Quail Legs, Breast and Wings

The quail is butchered into 3 major parts; legs, breast and wings. The quail leg removed from the body and then the leg cut above the knee joint to made an impressive presentation of leg confit.  The entire quail breast compeletely deboned, rolled, thighten with a timy twines to kept it’s shape once it cooked. Once i just about to discard the wings, my grandma think that it will be nice and crisp up once deep fried right after confit, glad that i listen to her! Nothing going to waste, the remaining quail carcass and edible visceras browned and then boiled to extract the juice out of it to make a delicious stock for cooking the lentil.

The Quail Boiled in Duck Fat Over Stove Before Transfered to Lock&Lock Boroseal Oven Glass Container

The marinated quail leg and breast then submerged in a rendered duck fat dripping from making my Homemade Roasted Peking Duck. The marinated or cured quail and duck fat mixture then heated into small boil over a medium stove flame before tranfer it into prolonged confit in the oven, kinda usefull cheating short cut. Never hard boil or frying the quail !!! high heat will shock the quail meat and made it tough even more.

Oven Roasted Quail Confit in lock&Lock Boroseal Oven Glass Container without it’s Lid

The entire quail leg, breast and wings with rendered duck fat then transfered into the BOROSEAL RECTANGLE OVEN GLASS CONTAINER and then put it into about 130ºC preheated oven. Noted the boiling bubbles in the roasted  quail confit oil, if it’s too much bubbles comes out into the surface it means you need to lower the oven temperature. The goal is set the duck fat oil temperature about 80-90ºC. If you didn;t had any temperature gauge to measure it, simply noted there’s one little bubles; once at a time comes up to the surface, then you’ve got the perfect confit temperature.

Tender and Moist Quail Leg and Breast Confit

The quail leg and breast confit is tender enought once the meat it easily fallen off the bone. Removed the quail confit from the cooking fat and then drain it from excess oil. Removed the tiny twines  that hold up the quail  breast and now the quail leg and breast confit is ready to be flashed pan fried.

Pan Fried Quail Breast Confit Until the Skin Golden Brown and Crispy

Heat up about 1 tablespoon of duck fat in a pan and heai it up until slighly smokey. Carefully browned and seared the skin side of the quail confit until the skin is crispy and golden brown.

Deep Fried Quail Wings Confit, Crispylicious!!!

Heat up about half cup of the duck fat fo cooking the quail confit and then deep fried the quail wings confit in a medium high heat until the wings totally crispy. The quail wings is a litle bit bony and crispy, totally bring some extra bites to the dish.

Crispy Skin Quail Leg and Deboned Breast Confit with Tender Meat

This is the ready to served quail leg and breast confit!!! the meat is tender and moist, while the skin is fried until crispy and golden brown, what a damn delicious conbination!!!

Recipe Crispy Quail Confit with Tender Stewed Lentil with Saffron and Chorizo

Recipe Quail Leg and Breast Confit:

Ingredients:

• 4 quails, removed the leg from the joint and deboned the breast
• 3 clove garlic, finely choped
• 3 sprig thyme, roughly chopped
• 1 sprig of rosemarry, roughly chopped
• 1 shallot, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp freshly grounded black pepper
• 1 cup (250 mL) duck fat

Garnish:

• Black mustard micro greens
• Basil micro greens
• Radish shoots

How to Make Quail Confit:

• Mix salt, garlic, thyme, rosemarry, shallots and pepper together, spread evenly over quail legs and breast and marinate overnight.
• Rinse off marinade, rolled and thighten the quail breast with twines to maintain it’s shape while cooking
• Cover the quail with duck fat in a sauce pan and bring it to boil over medium high heat stove
• Transfer the duck fat and the marinated quail into  a BOROSEAL RECTANGLE OVEN GLASS CONTAINER then put it into a preheated 120-130ºC oven for about 45 min.
• Once cool, remove from the quail leg confit and breast from the duck fat.
• Pan fried the skin side of the quail breast and leg confit until crispy and golden brown, served it with stewed lentil with chorizo and saffron.

Recipe Stewed Lentil with Chorizo and Saffron:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 ONION, FINELY CHOPPED
• 100 grams bulk Homemade Spanish Chorizo Sausage
• 1 cup dried lentils
• a pinch of Spanish saffron
• 1/2 tsp Homemade Garam Marsala
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 cups stock from browned quail bone and edible visceras
  

How to Make Slow Cooked Stewed Lentil with Saffron and Spanish Chorizo:

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Stir fried garlic,  onion and shalots, cook until it turns golden brown.
3. Add the chorizo sausage; cook and stir until the sausage is crumbly and beginning to brown.
   
4. Add the saffrom and stir another 30 seconds
5. Pour the stock and lentil.
6. Season with salt, pepper, and homemade garam marsala powder.
7. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lentils are tender, about 40 minutes.
8. Served the Stewed Lentil with Saffron and Chorizo with Crispy Quail Confit

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