A Pig's tale

With everything that we are cooking at school during this module, I had to create a rule for dinner at home; meat dishes we've cooked at school alternating with vegetarian dishes cooked at home. Otherwise we would be eating meat, meat and more meat. I know for some of you that probably doesn't sound so bad, but my husband and I have been trying to eat a more plant-based diet; for health purposes and environmental reasons but also last but not least for cost reasons. Meat is expensive, particularly since I prefer to buy quality meat and usually cook with widely available but relatively expensive cuts of meat, such as beef steaks, lamb shanks or pork loin roast.
Hence, it's been quite refreshing this week to take a look at the nose-to-tail approach when consuming an animal. It is a concept which has found increasing support over the last few years amongst chefs but I believe less so with the home cook. Liver, sweetbreads, tongue, tripe, tails and other organ and muscle meats are defined as variety meats and to most of us they are probably better known as offal.

Two of the recipes this week included the challenge of transforming pork tails and sweetbreads into appetizing dinner plates anybody would want to eat. I have to say, once I got over the fact that I was dealing with offal it was actually an enjoyable and interesting cooking experience.

BBQ pork tails

Pork tails have relatively tough meat and a thick fat layer under the skin, so they lend themselves very well to braising. Braising is a cooking method, where the meat, together with some vegetables and liquid, is cooked in a covered pan in the oven until the meat is tender. In this case it took somewhere between 2-3 hrs to braise the meat. In the meantime, I prepared a BBQ sauce with which  to glaze the pork tails and serve them with a side of vinegar-based coleslaw and home-made biscuit. Voila, one tasty pork tail appetizer.

Pan-fried Sweetbread

Poached Sweetbread

The sweetbread proofed to be a bit more of a challenge because it is so delicate. I had to find the right balance between getting a crunchy texture on the outside and, at the same time, not to over cook it on the inside. I pan-fried my portion of sweetbread with a little butter and lemon juice which gave it a nice flavor, but I wasn't thrilled with the texture of the actual sweetbread. It surprised me because I thought I would like it. My mother used to sometimes prepare brains when I was a child and I remember being very fond of it. But that was years ago ....

Before we launched into our Offal adventures this week, we started on Monday with the most  fabulous beef burger and potato fries for breakfast. Prepared the 'Heston Blumenthal' way! For all of you who would like to know more about this genius of a chef, check out 'How To Cook Like Heston' on YouTube. It is food science explained in an interesting and fun way.

We prepared the burgers from scratch and we decided to grind three different cuts of meat (tenderloin, chuck and short rib) to compare the different flavors  and textures of each cut. It made for a very interesting burger tasting. The majority of us, including myself, favored the burger made with short rib. It was the most flavorsome burger I have eaten in a very long time and from now on will be my favorite cut of meat for beef burgers. Include some pickles and bacon and you've got a great, great burger.
However, no such breakfast would be perfect without a side of fries. And here again we looked to Heston Blumenthal for inspiration and prepared the triple-cooked fries. The most common way is to cook fries twice, both times using an increasing temperature of hot oil in the fryolator.  Blumenthal adds an extra step by boiling his potatoes first and letting them cool in the freezer before frying them twice in the hot oil. It creates the perfect combination of a crunchy fries with a soft, velvety center. Incredibly delicious. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Yummy, yummy!
After such a gorgeous over-indulgence at breakfast, I did not need to eat for the rest of the day.

As you can see it's been another fabulous week at school and I can't wait to get cooking again on Monday. It will be Mexican Monday with carnitas, guacamole and tacos!  One more favorite cuisine of mine.

Have a great week and happy eating.