Never heard of a charcuterie board? Well, the trend hit Europe, Australia, and Canada by storm years ago, and the boards are just now starting to become popular here. Okay, Bracha, you say. I still don’t know what they are! A charcuterie board is a super-fun first course for a special Friday night or an absolutely amazing showstopper of a Shabbos day meal, especially in the summer.
Anyway, charcuterie boards are gaining a lot of traction. Basically, you put a variety of delicious tidbits on a board. (A wooden board is cool.) Just as everyone has his or her favorite recipe for cholent, the board can comprise many different ingredients and still qualify for the name. We fill ours with meats; pickled, roasted, and fresh vegetables; and fruits. (I really like the combination of mango and candied meat.)
This course reminds me a great deal of a fondue course – a lot of people talking and enjoying themselves while trying various combinations of flavors and textures. It encourages discussion and creativity. Putting all the tidbits together is a fun family activity, too, and gets everyone’s creative juices flowing. Watch out: Discussions can get “heated” when deciding what should go with what, and what you should add next time you make the board!
Not that there is any right or wrong here. Each board can have whatever you like on it. In fact, one of the goals is to encompass various flavors, including sweet, salty, tangy, and umami. You are also looking for different textures and colors. Fresh herbs as well as fresh fruits look amazing and taste delicious. Jams are great, too.
You could start by putting olives on the board. I used Kalamata olives, but you can use any that you like: green or black, Spanish or Israeli olives or … By the way, do you know why we never get fresh olives? I wondered about this, because I was doing an event focused on the seven special species of Israel. I was thinking, why not use some fresh olives, so I tried to find some. I couldn’t! Want to know why? Because they are so bitter, they are inedible. They have a compound called oleuropein, which is extracted or altered during the brining process. After the olives sit in brine (fancy for salt water) for a certain amount of time, they become edible. How fascinating is that?
So that’s the beauty of the charcuterie board: You can have exactly what you want to eat on it. So, for instance, I put liver pate on even though I hate it. My husband loves it, though. He can enjoy that on his cracker with candied meat, while I will delight in my white fig jam and candied beef fry on a parchment cracker.
What? You don’t know what parchment crackers are? Sorry, I can’t hear you; I’m too busy chewing my parchment cracker! Actually, I didn’t know what they were either until, through some fortuitous hashgacha pratis (providence), I found myself in the cracker aisle with none other than the amazing and delightful Tzipora Frager and her equally delightful sister CV Dinovitz, who told me that this was the best cracker out there.
I have to be honest. I didn’t believe them. I put that red box into my cart with nary a hope in the world that I would like that cracker. I thought parchment was just a name. No! It refers to how thin the cracker is; indeed, it is like the thinnest parchment you could ever hope to eat. (Okay, maybe you have never hoped to eat parchment paper – but that’s only because you haven’t tried it yet.) These are now my favorite crackers. I have to hide them from my daughter, who will eat through the whole box before we can even start the recipe below.
Charcuterie Board à la Myself
1 meat cutting board
2 c. shredded BBQ brisket (e.g., Jack’s Gourmet brand)
1 package of melba toast
1 baguette cut into slices
1/2 box parchment crackers
1 jar baby pickles
1/4 head roasted cauliflower
10 roasted grape tomatoes
10 roasted white asparagus
1 bunch of grapes
1 roasted red pepper, sliced (do it yourself on your stovetop)
1 jar kalamata olives, drained and washed
4 T. Dijon mustard
1 mango, peeled, cored, and diced
6 oz. corned beef, sliced
6 oz. beef pastrami, sliced
Fig jam (if cute jar - leave it in the jar)
Onion marmalade (see recipe below)
6 oz. beef fry (find in the hot dog section)
4 oz. duck fry (find in the hot dog section)
1 T. brown sugar
1 T. maple syrup
Preheat oven to 500° F. Lay the beef fry and duck fry in a large broiler pan. (You can use a baking sheet, and put the meat on a cookie rack to allow the fat to drip off.) Sprinkle fry with brown sugar. Put aside.
Add the mini sausages to the tray. Place a small sheet of parchment paper on top of a piece of aluminum foil. Remove the corned beef from the packaging and place in the center of the parchment. Smear 1 tablespoon of mustard over each slice of corned beef without separating the slices of meat from the pile. Fold the parchment around the corned beef, then seal in the foil. Put aside the rest of the Dijon mustard for serving.
Place the broiler pan on the middle rack of your oven and the corned beef packet on the lower rack. Bake for 5 minutes. (Keep an eye on this as they can burn very quickly.) Remove broiler pan and flip over the beef and duck fry slices. Brush them with maple syrup and return to oven. Roast an additional 5 minutes. Remove broiler tray from oven and cool.
Switch oven temperature to broil. Open the corned beef packet and move it to the center rack of your oven. Broil on high for three to five minutes.
To serve: Place onion marmalade in a small serving bowl. Place remaining mustard in another small bowl. These are your dips. I really like white fig jam as well.
Put the grapes, mangoes, baby pickles, roasted red peppers, roasted asparagus, roasted grape tomatoes, and cauliflower in bowls or directly on your board. Neatly arrange each meat separately on the board. Place the crackers and breads on a plate or directly on the board. Arrange any necessary spoons or forks. You can make a family board or divide into individual mini-boards.
Onion Marmalade
3 T. sugar
1 10-oz. package diced onions
2 T. oil
2 T. red vinegar
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. salt
Sauté the onions, brown sugar, vinegar, salt, and pepper in oil on medium to low heat until caramelized (about 45 minutes). Spoon into a cute bowl to place on the board.
If you do not want to make your own charcuterie board for your special Shabbos or simcha, go ahead and order a delicious one from Sweet and Good Catering! Send us an email and we’ll get you an amazing board for your amazing Shabbos. Feel free to contact Bracha at bshor@sweetandgoodcatering.com.
