Kean women prepare it each winter with leftover scraps of pork and fat, after the traditional slaughtering and butchering of the family pig. In the old days, the bits were heavily salted so that they wouldn’t spoil as they were stored in clay jars to be used much like Maggi cubes –a common European food flavoring– throughout the year. Costas calls paspalas ‘the Kea bacon,’ but unlike bacon it is not smoked and it is already fried when you use it to flavor eggs and other dishes.

Read about Pig Slaughtering on Kea as I had described it at the Atlantic.  

The importance of this rustic flavoring became apparent when I prepared it in the kitchen of Zaytinya—Jose Andres’ Greek and Middle Eastern restaurant, in Washington DC. During my annual January visit, a few years back, we were trying traditional winter dishes from Kea and other Cycladic islands for a pork and xinomavro wine feast, and Chef Michael Costa was immediately taken by paspalas’ intense and versatile flavor. We made several batches, using pieces of locally grown pork that the chef and his sous-chefs butchered in the kitchen. Besides the Kean scrambled eggs–also called ‘paspalas’ –we filled jars with the pork confit for future use. Bonnie Benwick, the former food editor of Washington Post got enamored with it, as well as with the eponymous scrambled eggs from Kea, and  made the dish famous in her column!

HOW TO MAKE PASPALAS: 

Scraps, bits and pieces of pork meat, leftover from the more serious butchering of the pork–preferably pieces from the breast– cut into small pieces.

It is important that the pieces have enough fat on them, or that additional pieces of fat will be added. Roughly 50-60 % fat to meat.

Salt, Black pepper, Cumin, All-spice

Plenty of fresh thyme, or winter savory if you happen to be on a Greek island (!)

Place the diced pork in a thick-bottomed sauté pan and add water just to half cover. Bring to a boil in medium heat, add salt, black pepper, a good pinch of cumin, all spice and a few sprigs of fresh thyme –stand in for our very fragrant winter savory.

Cook for about 30 minutes or more, until the meat is cooked through, and very tender. You may need to add a little more water as needed.

Increase the heat to high and cook until all water is evaporated.

At this point, I found that it is easier to transfer part of the pork and its juices to a smaller, truly non-stick sauté pan, or deep skillet and brown in batches.

As the pork fries in its fat it splatters and sticks to the bottom of any ordinary pan. If it does stick, transfer the pieces to a non-stick skillet and de-glaze the pan with some water. Add the flavorful bits to the skillet with the rest of the pork to sizzle in the fat, otherwise you will lose some of the flavor.

Fry the piece of pork (preferably in batches, so that you can have more control and less splattering) until they get a nice brown, adding more thyme and taste correcting the flavor with more salt and/or pepper, as needed.
Fill jars and make sure the meat is covered with fat on top. If when it cools you realize that there is not a layer of fat at the top, melt some lard and pour a thin film over the paspalas.

Refrigerated, the Kean pork confit can be kept for up to 2 months, but you can also freeze it, if you want to keep it longer.

See the Recipe: PASPALAS from Kea: Preserved Pork and Tomato Scrambled Eggs

The post PASPALAS: The Rustic Pork Confit of Kea appeared first on Aglaia's Table οn Kea Cyclades.

But most importantly when they finally do ferment and their pith becomes soft and nearly translucent, they usually have such a strong, salty and bitter taste that their use as flavoring are extremely limited. Even few pieces added to rubs or marinades for meat or oily fish can overpower all other flavors and aromatics in a way that is not actually pleasant even for the most avid lemon lovers as myself; Costas really hates them.

So last year I had a revelation reading the recipe for ‘Preserve Lemon Chutney’ by the late chef Floyd Cardoz .

One of the victims of Covid 19, “Mr. Cardoz was the first chef born and raised in India to lead an influential New York City kitchen, at Tabla, which he and the restaurateur Danny Meyer opened in the Flatiron district of Manhattan in 1998. Soon after, Ruth Reichl of The New York Times gave Mr. Cardoz’s cooking a rapturous review,” as we read in his NYT Obituary.

His brilliant description of how to make fast and fruity fermented lemon wedges, in order to use them for his chutney, was really what I was looking for. I tested and played with his instructions –not the chutney, but just the preserved lemons— and here is what I now make and use and love!

“At the restaurant we preserve lemons all year round, and use them endlessly in salads, dishes with a north African feel, or puréed with crème fraîche, which we serve on roasted fish,” writes chef Cardoz.

I would add that these wonderful lemon pieces are complimenting my skordalia (garlic sauce), as well as potato salads, boiled greens (horta), steamed broccoli or cauliflower, and of course poached fish or chicken. I like to julienne the preserved lemon pieces and use in my salad dressings, and to flavor freshly cured olives, and all kinds of bean salads.

Fast Preserved Lemon Wedges

For 1 litre (quart) Jar

About 250g/8oz semi-coarse sea salt

6-8 lemons, well washed and cut into quarters, each quarter halved or cut into 3, depending on their size. Cut-off the thick center and seeds.

Extra lemon juice, to cover

Scatter a spoonful of salt into a one-quart (1 liter) jar. Place the lemons in a bowl with the rest of the salt and toss together well. Now simply pack the lemon pieces into the jar. Press down firmly on the fruit to release as much juice as possible. Spoon in the rest of the salt mixture from the bottom of the bowl and add enough extra lemon juice to cover.

Place the lid on the jar. Let the lemons stand for about a week or 10 days in a cool place –not the fridge. They are ready when their white pith starts to be translucent.

Transfer the lemons to a colander and rinse under running water, then soak in fresh water for 2-3 hours or overnight. How long you need to rinse them depends on the kind of lemons you used and the taste you are looking for. Our lemons do not need long soaking after I rinse them.

Drain and scatter on a tray lined with double paper towel to dry for a few hours, or overnight.

You can pack the dry, preserved lemon wedges in jars, filled with olive oil and store in the fridge or you can freeze the dried pieces in a zipper bag.

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