Weekend Evaluation: Hear that Funny Sound? It's My Hooves!

When Gretchen bought me this t-shirt for my birthday a few years back I don't think she expected me to actually cook all of the parts that are delicious.

 - Rhubarb syrup –

Positive – Looking forward to rhubarb sodas once we get some seltzer in the house, but this tasted pretty good in a cocktail of brandy, aperol, angostura.

Negative – probably could be cooked down a little more so it’s more syrupy, but it’s fine.

- Rhubarb Ice Cream w/ Strawberries –

Positive – The only rhubarb at the market was from one of the newer farms at the market; so their rhubarbs a little sad looking; but the old guy was out and I planned on making this ice cream; so went for it.  Was worried this wasn’t going to taste enough of rhubarb; but they do.   Used buckwheat honey in place of some of the sugar, since rhubarb is in the buckwheat family and I’m trying to use it up; didn’t really have much of a buckwheat honey flavor.

Negative – I thought that if I let the strawberries macerate a bit it would draw enough water out to prevent them from having that frozen texture when I folded them in and put it in the freezer to set up.  Didn’t work, you really need to cook them into a jam.  I’ve done this with blueberries for ice cream before; not sure of why I didn’t think of this.  The frozen strawberries make it kind of annoying to eat, ruins the creamy texture, I think this ice cream has milkshakes written all over it; maybe a float with rhubarb soda.

- Partial English Breakfast -
- Bangers, Fried Eggs Baked beans, Toast,  –

Positive – Cooked the bangers well, were snappy and juicy; and they tasted good.

Negative – We had Batchelour's brand baked beans; I prefer Heinz, if only for the label and the connection to The Who Sell Out.  Yeah, I use baked beans from the can, but made the bangers by hand...I didn't have time to make the beans okay, and even if I had the time I don't know if I could make beans like that.

I’m all messed up with fried eggs, they’ve become something I never cook the way I want, constantly changing techniques for no reason and not getting it right.  Golfers call it the yips, right?

- Snap Pea/Parsley Pesto –

Positive - The parsley from the market is a marked step up from the recent supermarket stuff.  I had this over some radishes on a buttered English muffin for lunch on Sunday – it tasted pretty good.

Negative – Probably blanched the snap peas a little too long.  These tasted so good raw, I’m not sure why I’m bothering to cook them.

- Multigrain Sourdough English Muffins –

Positive – Got to try to make English muffins by accident.  The control panel on the oven broke while the trotter was simmering in there, so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to bake the bread dough that was rising.  Figured I’d give it a shot; worked pretty well, they had the ‘nooks and crannies’

Negative – Hard to have them hold the circular shape while putting them on the griddle, although I could have floured or oiled the baking sheet they were rising on more.  In the Joy of Cooking, they suggest letting them rise in ring molds – who has 24 ring molds?

- Confit of leek and green garlic –

Positive – Gretchen thought this was fine on her omelet.

Negative – When I first tasted this I thought it was too salty – made the switch back to Morton’s this weekend, and I’m all thrown off again.

- Pork Stock –

Positive – Byproduct of the trotter cooking, very gelatinous. Used it to cook the lentils for dinner, and they tasted good.

Negative – Had a hard time scraping off the fat this morning and transferring it to smaller containers for the freezer.

- Whole Wheat Pancakes w/ Strawberries or Bananas –

Positive – These were fine, I think I need to change my batter a little bit; could use them to be less cake-like/fluffy; that’s a preference thing.

Negative – I didn’t add the fruit early enough in the cooking process.  I think I could have gotten more in each pancake had I added them as soon as I put one down, instead of putting the four pancakes on the griddle and then adding the fruit to each one.

- Terrine of trotter over sauteed radish greens w/creamy mustard vinegrette – 

or

- Cheddar Spinach Omelet w/leek spring garlic confit -

with

- Grilled Asparagus w/ spring garlic vinegrette over lentils -

I know what you're thinking. 'Terrine?'  Why go with some French preparation when you've been doing 'English' all weekend, you should have just stuffed those pigs feet...you're probably right; but that wasn't the original plan.


Positive – I was worried about the texture when I de-boned the trotter and put it in the mold; but it wasn’t gross at all.  It did have a slightly ‘offal’ flavor, but in general it was very mild.  I held off on adding all of the fat and skin to the mixture, but I probably could have and it would have tasted even more pork-y.

Used some smoked bacon skin in the lentils and they tasted really good, mild smoke and some savory notes from the stock/bacon.

Negative- I think the braising liquid could have been more flavorful; or I could have mixed in some herbs, shallots or something with the trotter mixture; flavor was almost too mid.  I was worried that the terrine wouldn’t set up in one day; but it was so gelatinous that it was setting up before I got it in the fridge.  Although when I went to put breadcrumbs on it and crisp for service I took it out too soon.  It got a little too warm and fell apart a bit.  Bottom line - it probably could have used a full day in the fridge, or I should have taken it out of the fridge closer to when I was going to eat it.

I wasn't too annoyed about that, I've made other terrines, for example a country style pate (as part of the SY marathon dinner), so I'm just warming up for head cheese at this point.

The trotter itself completely broke apart.  Although this trotter was served in a terrine, I was thinking the skin would be intact so you can stuff the meat/gelatin/fat mixture back into it and deep fry it; and wanted to prepare the other one I have in the freezer that way. I probably let the braise simmer too hard and probably also need to cut the tendon in the wrist prior to cooking.  It tightened up (picture someone making a fist) contributed to the bone tearing through the skin.

Gretchen’s omelet filling kind of ended up at one end when I folded it; but it seemed ok for the most part.

- Bean Puree – Mixed bean, parsley, garlic, white wine vinegar -

Negative – Haven't been very creative with these lately.  The food processor is still not usable, the hand blender sucks at this.