One Egg Tortilla de Patata... Ostrich Egg

ostrich obligatory pacman
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I received an ostrich egg for my birthday.



It was an odd but extremely funny gift and of course presented a bit of a challenge as to what to do with it. I was very wary of going too straight forward, ie scrambled or fried egg as I wasn't sure if it would taste just like a chicken egg. I chose to make a one egg tortilla de patata. A quintissential spanish dish served in homes and bars around the country.
Basically it is cooked potato, onion and garlic salt and pepper set in egg. I added some chopped chorizo, and pancetta as well as a tsp of pimenton.
The first job was to open the egg. The family threw out reccomendations, hole saw, screwdriver, mallet, but we ended up scoring the top with a saw and cracking it open with a wooden pestle.





The egg cracked presented the contents still safely hidden behind a thick membrane (amniotic sac) which I cut into and then poured the egg into a large glass bowl. My wife about lost her lunch at that moment as the egg gurgled, squashed and slithered out of it's shell. I will post video at the end of the post cause it's not a very appetizing moment. Having said that she did take my daughter and go out to dinner instead of waiting for the tortilla. The white and yolk are very intermingled with an orangy color, It smelled sweet, almost with a hint of vanilla, strange but pleasant.
Ok then I was on my own from here. I peeled 4 yukon gold potatoes 2 onions and 6 cloves of garlic and diced them. I sauteed them in olive oil some chorizo and a tsp of pimenton.



and pancetta



I sauteed it till it was almost done, the potato still had a bit of crunch but barely. I seasoned this with salt and pepper.

I initially thought I could cook all this in my large cast iron skillet, but the side isn't very high... and I had a ton of egg. I decided to transfer it all to the oven and use my relatively new clay pot from La Tienda.
I put the empty cazuela in the oven and preheated the oven to 350. When both the oven and cazuela were at 350 I added another bit of olive oil to the pot, half the potato, the now scrambled egg and the rest of the potato.



I then increased the temp to 400 and cooked for 10 min. At 10 minutes I mixed the ingredients which were partially set and cooked for another 10 minutes. After the total 20 min it was set so I switched to low broil for 4 minutes till it looked like this.



I flipped it onto a serving platter (the tortilla is 12 inches in diameter)



I summoned some pac-man vibe with a slice





It tasted great, very close to a chicken egg, no longer sweetly fragrant as it was before but with a nice pimenton aroma. Clearly have a bunch left over for breakfast and some snacks.


The egg cracking video is below, sorry if it is gross

ostrich egg open from Eugenio Monasterio on Vimeo.

Cherry Braised Pork Chops

with thyme
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

This is a variation of the jam braised pork chops, but instead with fresh cherries and thyme as the main flavoring. I had about 2 cups of cherries in the fridge that where starting to loose their firmness so I decided to cook them for dinner. I pitted them by cutting them in half and removing the stone.



I pureed half of them (one cup) with a hand blender, with a quarter cup of white wine, half and onion, a clove of garlic and a pinch of salt.



I then sauteed the remaining half an onion with another clove of garlic and some guanciale till soft.





I then removed the onion, garlic and guancialle leaving just a bit of fat behind and seared the pork chops in the same pan.



As is usual I was flying by the seat of my pants and had not planned any specific side dish, I was about to send out my wife for some spinach when the door rang and the neighbor dropped off two big bunches of asparagus



I put it in a microwave safe bowl, sprinkled with fleur de sel (salt), olive oil and a teaspoon of water. I microwaved it a minute at a time till they where steamed and crisp (less than 3min)



When the porkchops where well browned on both sides, I removed them and deglazed the pan with the pureed cherry mix



I let the liquid reduce a bit then returned the porkchops, onions and garlic and added the remaining cherries



This cooked for another ten minutes or so and then I added fresh thyme over top



The dish was well received by the family, the fresh thyme adds great aroma and earthiness to an already very rustic dish. I thought the cherries were very good, not too sweet and the sauce was great. Thanks to the neighbors for the unexpected veg delivery.

Rabbit fricassee

polenta and rabbit
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

For dinner yesterday I made a fricassee of rabbit, in which I also mixed in some chicken (as I didn't have as much rabbit as I thought.)
I started by browning the chicken and rabbit in the same pot I planned on cooking them in. then removed them.



I then rendered some lardo (which added a ton of flavor and a good deal of salt so the dish really didn't need any extra.) and two tablespoons of flour to make a roux.



I cooked it on low heat till it was good and brown. I returned the chicken and rabbit to the pan and added some store bought sofrito, (which is basically onions, garlic, pepper, cilantro, parsley, oregano salt and pepper, so you can make your own but this stuff is pretty good.)



and I added a tablespoon of tahini on a whim for a thicker more interesting sauce



I added white wine almost to cover and a tablespoon of capers, and a handfull of small carrots. I brought it to a boil and then simmered it for an hour. I added two pinches of sugar as I thought it was a bit on the acid side.



I pan fried some polenta slices (I bought one of those premade polenta logs from the grocery store... still haven't bought corn meal)
and served it.



The rabbit was great and the sauce was rich and thick which worked great with the polenta. I think the tahini as a thickening agent did a nice job adding depth of flavor to the roux.

Acorn Edition Salumi

la Quercia box
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I received our second shipment from La Quercia today (Acorn Edition hog share). This box contains cured items.



I am probably the most excited to try the Lardo





But we also got some Coppa



Nicely marbled



Guanciale (cheeks!)



Pancetta





Looking tasty



Somehow I missed a picture of the Lonza (cured loin) but it is in there.



Now to portion it out amongst the shareholders (my brothers) and feast!

7 Links of Terror

It cracked me up today to find my blog listed on Sky Full of Bacon's (an awesome site with great video podcats) "7 Links of Terror"

I have been a fan for some time now, well written and fun posts covering mostly chicago food, but the video blogs are outstanding covering fascinating food topics.

My Terror links are
Pig head two ways part 1
Pig head two ways part 2

Pig head two ways (part 2)

pig head
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

Ok the second head I boned out,



much to my wifes chagrin, we had an angry skull.



The edible portion though as a bit more agreable



I removed the tongue, I the removed the membrane and stuffed it back in the head.



I seasoned it with garlic, salt, pepper, and wrapped it in cheescloth and tied it up and let it rest in the fridge



I then unwrapped the cheescloth (3 days later) and retied it, and roasted on the grill for 8 hours at as low a temp as I could muster, (ballpark 200-300 deg farenheit)



The skin is very crispy, I tried to render as much fat as I could at a low temp. The meat is tender and flavorfull, better than the head cheese, with awesome crispy skin.

Pig head two ways (part 1)

wash your head
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I bought a share of a cured hog with my brothers from La Quercia (acorn edition 3), the first instalment of the organic berkshire acorn finished hog included two heads (I volunteered for extra if one was available), the trotters, the tail, the heart, ribs, leaf lard, and loin. I decided to make a head cheese with the first head and a porchetta de testa with the second. This is the tale of the first head.
These dishes were greatly inspired by the following videos

Sky Full of Bacon 04: A Head's Tale from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

along with other sites. For an interesting overview of La Quercia's acorn edition watch this...

Sky Full of Bacon 10: Prosciutto di Iowa from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

We received a 70lb box full of pig parts



Inside vacuum packed were the pig parts



I washed the head in the sink paying particular attention to the ears and nose



I cut the ears off for a separate dish and wrapped the head in cheese cloth so it was easier to retrieve from the pot after cooking.



the ears I braised in a simple syrup with soy sauce, for 2 hrs, I will then chop thinly and fry,



but that's another post. The wrapped pig head was covered with water in a large pot and two onions, carrot, garlic salt sugar, a bit of pimenton, black pepper, rosemary, and thyme and brought to a boil then simmered for 4 hrs.
I removed the head onto a baking sheet and let it cool, and then further reduced the stock by half.
No pictures, but after cooling I removed the meat from the jowls, temple, neck, and face trimming the fat and skin off. this was rolled in cheesecloth a bit of the stock added then wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the fridge to cool.
The next day we sliced it



and breaded one side and browned it on both sides



The result is an incredibly rich dish, fatty and full of pork flavor. It will benefit from an acid sauce, a chimichurri or other citrus based sauce to cut the fat.
The next head I am going to bone out and roast.