My Version of Snout to Tail Eating

Why no posts in so long?
Simple, I didn't have an Internet connection for a while plus I felt sick.

Anyways, about two weeks ago I decided to go for it and buy the pork hocks I often see and Safeway and cook them up using a modification of this Bon Appetit recipe that can be found on Epicurious. It's a recipe for "braised and roasted pork shanks with prosciutto and porcini mushrooms" but don't worry, I didn't actually use most of those exotic ingredients. I didn't use porcini mushrooms or any mushrooms at all. I cooked about 700 grams of hock. . . I think that's almost the same as shank. There was no leek or prosciutto. The herbs were oregano and thyme. I used a famous Belgian beer shown here in place of red wine:
What did this have to do with the recipe then? Well, I followed the braise then roast method. Here are the piggy bits in their braising liquid:
I did the braising and roasting on two separate days. When the liquid cooled, I spooned the fat off the top and noticed that it was like Jello. Is that the gelatin in the animal bits?
Here's a glamour shot after it was all roasted up and placed on the braising liquid:

The one big problem? That liquid was really beer-bitter. And while I like to drink beer, I couldn't bring myself to eat much of it. I had sweet potatoes on the side, and that might have made it more difficult with the contrast. The meat was okay though. But there wasn't too much of it for all the bone, skin and fat. I guess it was tasty and okay for a three dollar experiment. It looks pretty crazy. I like that.

Anyways, the second piece that I ate the next day had less meat and I didn't want to eat the liquid and vegetables. So, I stir fried the meat and some skin (yes skin) with zucchini and onion and probably some other stuff and mixed it with rice.

This is probably extremely unhealthy and makes me feel guilty. But pork skin has some appeal.

And that's how I ate a piggy part that many people wouldn't. I hope you were amused.

2 Quick Dinners in the Colour Yellow, Plus a Random Chinese Baking Comment

I think I'm pretty behind on my blogging, not that a lot of people would notice. But, a lot of what I've been up to is food related, so I foresee three posts in the next couple of days, at least.

I talked about going to T&T Supermarket a week ago. When I go there, I like to buy Chinese-style baked goods. Last week, I got a taro bun with almonds. There weren't many almonds, but I didn't really care because I got that topping to avoid the sickly sweet "pineapple" topping on so many of the sweeter buns. Not that it's terrible or should be avoided, but I didn't feel like eating it for breakfast on Sunday. Chinese baked goods, judging from T&T's and things other people say are usually very soft. Buns like the taro bun are soft and slightly sweet. They're a nice change from other bread products.

The taro filling was purple and pleasantly sweet with a starchy texture. . . I think, it was a while ago. Anyways, I liked it. I think I may still prefer red bean filling, though. I think I'm the only white person I know who enjoys red bean sweets, I tried feeding red bean candy to my family and nobody really liked it. My sister in particular was disgusted and didn't finish her piece. Personally, I think it like it because I'm just that big of a fan of beans. If I can have bean texture in sweet form, it's fine by me. Probably the most revelatory baked good that I've bought at T&T was called "cumin bread." I only saw it once. It was a soft bread, not sweet, spiced with cumin and topped with cumin seeds containing raisins and walnuts. It was a very good breakfast. The reason it was a revelation was that it gave me the idea to spice oatmeal with cumin since if it works in a "raisin bread", why shouldn't it work in oatmeal. . . like cinnamon. That may not make sense but it's how my mind works. I'm a big fan of cumin, needless to say.

I didn't think I would have that much to say about the bun, but on to Tuesday. I made a couple of fried eggs on top of sauteed spinach and onion plus corn on the cob. First the corn,

I hadn't had corn on the cob in recent memory. Boiled and then spread with some butter, It was really good. I liked the sweetness and the sensation of biting into it. Plus, that bright sunny yellow is visually appealing. I will have to eat more corn this summer. Actually, it was kind of funny because I tried to boil the corn in a not terribly large pot. It didn't fit until i cut off some of the stem. So, use a big pot to boil corn.

On to the eggs and spinach. They were tasty as the onions were nicely caramelized. I messed up one of the eggs and broke the yolk, which was a big disappointment. I guess my point is that I looooooove runny egg yolks and the perfect over easy egg. I have a friend who is disgusted with runny yolks, but they have been a great pleasure to me since I was a kid. I remember eating over easy eggs on toast on the weekend when I was little. I used to save the yolk till the end and relish every bit. So here's a gratuitous yolk shot:

On Wednesday, I made some vegetarian comfort food, and no I'm not a vegetarian, but I find beans and legumes very satisfying. Anyways, I felt like some lentils and had leftover dried red lentils from making this soup. I decided to make a curry soup also using the remainder of my bunch of spinach. I began by sauteing about half an onion in some olive oil. Then I added two cups of water, a teaspoon of chicken bouillon (not so vegetarian after all. . . oops), and a heaping teaspoon of curry powder. I added a half cup of rinsed red lentils and boiled it for fifteen minutes. Then I added some torn spinach, probably about three cups, and cooked it until that wilted. It looked, a little bit gross perhaps:

But that doesn't mean it didn't taste good. And it did taste good, or else I wouldn't mention it. It had a good lentil texture, I guess it's the starch and protein, the leguminess. (Made up words are fine.) The curry flavour worked well and the spinach provided a nice contrast in colour and texture as well as a mild flavour. I thoroughly enjoyed eating this.

Restaurant Notes

I'm going to summarize the three other meals I had with my parents during their visit.

First off, lunch at Cafe Select on 109th. I have some ambivalence toward Cafe Select. This stems mainly from having dinner there before the Phantom of the Opera. My duck breast entree was completely inadequate for my appetite and I ended up being hungry during the show. My friend Mark was also hungry after his beef fillet entree. I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a bread basket. My other previous meals at Cafe Select included a mind bogglingly fluffy omelet and a too cheesy duck pizza.

Anyways, on Saturday I ordered the "shrimp and blue salad" featuring blue cheese, shrimp, and lettuce. This was obviously another light selection with the potential for a still empty stomach afterwards. Not that it was really "light" being heavy on the blue cheese and creamy dressing. I'm a fan of blue cheese and this salad was generous with the stuff so I was happy. The shrimp were tasty as well and the greens were fresh. Afterwards, my mother and sister were examining desserts after their hot squid salads. So, I of course got in on the action ordering a creme brulee all for myself. It was good, although I haven't eaten any other ones recently. The sugar was nicely caramelized on top and the custard part was very rich and not too sweet. Overall, I was quite a satisfying lunch.

For dinner that night, we went to Murrieta's on Whyte Ave. I like this restaurant, the food is really good. The service is good too and we were moved from the lounge area to the dining room due to a draft that I couldn't stand. To start with we had an order of steamed PEI mussels. We've ordered the mussels numerous times and it is always a generous serving with a delicious sauce around it. This time, the sauce was updated to feature a citrus tomato sauce and bacon. With the mussels, we got the complementary bread. It was a delectable mulitgrain, perfect for dipping in the mussel sauce.

Now for our mains, my mom had the duck breast, my sister had seared scallop linguine, my dad had lamb meatball spaghetti, and I had the Westcoast paella. The duck was not too large a portion and my mother appreciated this and ate it all. The seared scallop linguine featured really good scallops but my sister didn't eat it all because it was heavy on the olive oil. The spaghetti is good, I know because I've had it before, but not nearly as many times as my dad. He loves it, and it's good if you like lamb and spaghetti, which I do but I was looking to branch out. The serving seems to be slightly smaller before with six meatballs instead of eight. But really that's okay, because I always made two meals out of it before. The paella was delicious and I ate all of the rice in sweet tomato sauce. It contains a variety and seafood and chorizo sausage. I really liked being able to eat large shrimp, a little salmon, succulent scallops, and mussels in one dish with the perfect pork chorizo.

The next morning, at way too late for breakfast (about 11), we went for brunch at The Sugarbowl. I also like this restaurant both as a good place to drink beer and eat chili lime popcorn, and for breakfast and dinners like their lamb burger. On this particular morning I went with the spinach and feta omelet. It came with pan potatoes and a piece of whole-wheat toast. The potatoes were good, with some kind of red seasoning/sauce, which left them devoid of the need for ketchup. The Sugarbowl also serves pan fried potatoes with sandwiches. The toast did not come heavily buttered, unlike at most places and I enjoyed it with raspberry jam. The omelet was laden with green spinach and salty feta. I quite liked it. As if eating all that wasn't enough, my dad ordered a cinnamon bun in addition to his breakfast for us to share. I had been wondering about these big buns. They looked goooood, but I'm not usually up for that much sugar. And here's my conclusion: they are good. The cinnamon sugar on the outside is crispy and caramelized in places and the bread is deliciously soft. Go ahead and order one of those bad-boys, if you can eat it all without a sugar induced stomach ache, I'll be impressed.

You Are What You Eat

In that case, what am I you might ask? Assuming I'm not a grain, fruit, or vegetable.......I'm probably a pig. That's me....

Living in Alberta, you would think I would eat a lot of beef. Or being a North American in general, a lot of chicken. . . because everything else tastes like chicken anyways. It's not that I never eat those things, it's just that in the last couple of weeks I don't think I've eaten chicken or beef since April 13. I know I ate burgers on that day.

So if I've been chicken and beef free, what have I been eating for that all important protein? As far as animal protein goes mainly pork and a touch of lamb. I've also been eating eggs and various seafood. Plus, I've had beans in my delectable vegetarian chili. I prefer it to my beef chili. I guess that's just because I love beans. But today, I want to talk pork.

I think pork is incredibly varied in its applications. A lot of people think of bacon when they think of tasty pig flesh. I'm not really a fan of bacon, I eat it on occasion and never make it at home. I do like back bacon though, that stuff is lean and tasty. Pork is also found in sausages, hams, pork chops, pork roast, cured meats, and many other things. I would love to cause someone with a religious ban on eating pork to lapse. . . I'm a little evil like that. I also want to see vegetarians lapse.

Anyways, I went on a "special" food shopping trip yesterday. The stuff I bought mainly fell into three categories: produce, cheese, and pork. Obviously, Canada's Food Guide recommends that we all eat mainly full fat cheese and pork. I'm probably going to post about cheese later, so let's talk about the pork products.

I'm a very, very frequent sandwich eater. So naturally, I got something made of pork for my sandwiches....hot, lean capicollo. It's pretty good stuff, I like the spiciness. It beats my usual hams because of that and makes me feel like a proper Italian, even if my mom doesn't make great cannelloni all the time.

I was more excited about the sausage I got, a Spolumbo's spicy Italian sausage. This is the most decent Italian sausage I know of in Alberta. I always hear about how great the sausages are at the Italian grocery stores my uncles visit in Ontario. I haven't been there in three years, so I don't know much about them. Anyways, I was inspired to combine my sausage with a really long eggplant, pictured here:

You might notice a theme with this meal....everything is a bit phallic. So anyways, I cobbled together my culinary not-quite-masterpiece by roasting the chopped eggplant with olive oil, pepper, and salt in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes until it was a bit brown. Meanwhile in the bat cave, I partially cooked the sausage by boiling it in a frying pan. . . kinda weird I guess. Then, I cut it up and browned it in a saucepan. When the sausage was cooked, I added a chopped zucchini (phallus number 3), and a chopped clove of garlic and sauteed those a bit. Then, I added about half a cup of water to deglace the pan--that means to remove the brown tasty bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. When the eggplant was ready, I stirred it in and kept it cooking a bit longer. The end result, severed on a piece of toast because I always need me some carbs, looked like this:

It looks weird and not necessarily appetizing. You might wonder how it tasted, or you might not care. Either way, I'm going to say: it was okay. The sausage was good, but somehow I think it's better in a tomato sauce on pasta. I quite enjoy zucchini, so it's good if you like that. The eggplant though is interesting. I like it, but I could see how a lot of other people would be turned off by the texture. It can be a touch slimy, but I like unusual textures so it was good. Maybe this would have been better with couscous, but I'm out of that. Also, I think the sausage wasn't spicy enough to flavour everything like I thought it would.

I'm sure you're dying for one more pork related comment. My favourite cut of plain pork is the tenderloin--so tender, so lean, so delicious if you don't really, really overcook it like Albert and I did once. I once made this pork tenderloin with mango chutney for Leslie. I cooked the pork in the oven, not on a barbecue. It was really good, easy, and pretty impressive.

That's enough about my pig eating habits, I'm sure you agree.