Cocido (Spanish Stew with Various Pork Cuts)

Warning: Gratuitous use of various PORK PRODUCTS in this post. Reader discretion is advised.

Huge pot o' pork

[js]
We wanted another meat dish for our New Year's Eve party to complement the lengua estofada, but we wanted something that was relatively hassle-free to prepare.

And we wanted a dish with pig's feet.


browned pig's foot

[js]
For some reason, we've decided to go offal-intensive with our Spanish-inspired menu, probably because we've been consulting the Culinaria Spain book and they do have a lot of offal dishes in there.

I wasn't sure how our offal dishes were going to be received by our guests.

It was a gamble with something so undisguisable as pig's feet -- but I figure the cocido (stew) we envisioned would have other meats beside the feet to make it more palatable to our other guests.

[ts]
Here's our version of cocido:
A hearty stew with pork shoulder & shank, pig's feet, smoked ham hock, chorizo, morcilla sausage, cabbage and garbanzo beans. Served with a "gremolata" of parsley, capers, garlic, and orange & lemon zests.

Veal & Turkey Stocks


[js]
The day before cooking, I roasted off a turkey carcass and some veal bones, then made stock.



[ts]
Our turkey stock and veal stock were ready for next day's action.

Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas), Soaking


[js]
Also on the same day, I started to soak some dried chickpeas in some water.

Day of Cooking

pots simmering away

[js]
To make the cocido, I first fried off some pieces of bacon.


blurry bacon browning

[js]
I then used some of the fat rendered from the bacon to brown off my pork shoulder and shank pieces...


pork shoulder & shank

[js]
...and pig's feet.


pig's feet pieces

[js]
I must say, while I was browning off the pigs feet, I was hit with such an intoxicating fragrance that I wanted to gobble them up then and there!



[js]
I had dusted some salt and smoked paprika on the pigs feet, and when they hit the oil...

WOWZO!

I managed to hold it together to continue on making the dish. I set the browned pork shoulder and pig's feet pieces aside, putting them into a pot for now.


huge pot with browned pork pieces



[ts]
After browning, the onions went into the pot with the good bits of crusted-on pig at the bottom. Garlic went in next.



[js]
I deglazed with a cup of white wine, and then added some turkey and/or veal stock. The browned off pig pieces went back into the pot.


brimming

[ts]
Or, more accurately, we poured the deglazed onions and liquid into the big pot o' pork.

Smoked Ham Hock

smoked ham hock

[ts]
We also threw in a smoked ham hock into our cocido, by the way, for smoky porky goodness.

BACON + PORK SHOULDER + PIG'S FEET + SMOKED HAM HOCK.

Can it get any porkier?


Two big pots o' pork.

[ts]
At first I thought we could get by with cooking the big pot o' pork as is -- ambitious, I know -- but a little boil-over told me that we had to separate the lot into two pots.

Chorizo and Morcilla Sausages

chorizo

[ts]
While the two big pots o' pork were simmering away, we prepared the other ingredients for the cocido. We fried up some chorizo...


left: chorizo; right: morcilla

[ts]
...and some morcilla (blood) sausages.

We had to look for these sausages as they were a little hard to find. We finally found some at Universal Bakery, a Portuguese establishment, where we also bought a Pudim Flan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morcilla
http://foodosophy.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/universal-bakery-vancouver-bc/

We sliced up the morcilla as well and pan-fried them, but they were very soft. Do people usually just eat them whole?

BACON + PORK SHOULDER + PIG'S FEET + SMOKED HAM HOCK + CHORIZO SAUSAGE.

Porkier!

Garbanzo Beans (Chickpeas) and Cabbage


[ts]
We stole some of the braising/stewing liquid from the cocido and cooked the chickpeas in there.



[ts]
We did the same for the cabbage, cooking them in the braising/stewing liquid as well. We layered the cabbage and chickpeas in our serving trays. (Yes, plural!)

"Gremolata"
[ts]
As our cocido was quite rich and hearty, we decided to add a high, bright note to the dish with a "gremolata".

We mixed together parsley, capers, garlic, and orange & lemon zests and served that with the cocido.

Finished Product

Our Spanish New Year's Eve Buffet

[ts]
For each serving tray, we layered the cabbage and chickpeas, then grouped together the pork shoulder & shank pieces, then the pig's feet.

We also placed the pan-fried chorizo and morcilla sausages in individual piles. We poured the broth over, then sprinkled everything with the gremolata.

Unfortunately, it was too dark to take photographs of the dish when it was finished. We cooked this the night before.

On the day of the party, I was too busy to take a picture of the trays during the daytime. By the time the party started, it was once again too dark for decent photographs!

So, if one looks at the photo, our cocido is the dish at the bottom left corner.

Here's that photo above, with labels.



[js]
I need not have worried about the pig's feet -- the pig's feet were the first to go!

In fact, we could have done it with all pig's feet and no pork shoulder, as the pig's feet were really spectacular in this dish.

I don't eat and cook pig's feet at all but I did try this dish and I was blown away by the pig's feet. They really are great!

There's meat, there's the gelatinous skin, there's good sucking on the little bony cartilage bits: eating pig's feet is quite similar to eating chicken feet.

[ts]
The broth was rich and quite heavenly. It was great slurping it down with tender pieces of cabbage, which lent their sweetness to the whole dish while at the same time were flavored with all the porky goodness. The chickpeas were also very flavorful, having bathed in that porky goodness.

The cocido was fantastic!

See the rest of our Spanish-themed New Year's Eve Menu here.

[eatingclub] Spanish
Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish "Omelette")
Roast Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Sardinas na Bangus (Milkfish in the style of Sardines)
Red Wine-braised Squid with Potatoes and Chorizo
Philippine Beef Salpicao (and a Spanish variation)
Stewed Tripe, Spanish-style
Lengua Estofada (Beef Tongue Braised in Red Wine and Veal Stock)
Bacalao con Patatas (Baked Salt Cod and Potatoes)
Salsa Romesco ("Queen of the Catalan Sauces!")
Grilled Calçots (Green Onions) with Salsa Romesco
Empanada de Pavo
(Galician-style Meat Pie with Turkey Filling), plus Turkey Cracklings!
Fideuá (Spanish Seafood Noodle "Paella")... and Paella
Cocido (Spanish Stew with Various Pork Cuts)
Slow-Roast Pork Shoulder, Two Ways

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Recipe
Cocido (Spanish Stew with Various Pork Cuts)
(scaled down version)

4 pieces bacon, sliced
2 lbs pig's feet
2 lbs pork shoulder/shank, cut into cubes

1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
Spanish smoked paprika (sweet and/or hot)
black peppercorns

1 cup white wine
stock (chicken, beef, turkey, pork)

1 smoked ham hock, approximately 1.5 pounds
2 chorizo sausages
2 morcilla sausages

1 head of cabbage, sliced
3 cups cooked garbanzo beans/chickpeas

gremolata (optional)
parsley
cilantro
capers
garlic
orange and/or lemon zest

If making the gremolata, chop parsley, cilantro, capers, and garlic. Mix with orange and/or lemon zest. Set aside until ready to use.

In a pot, sauté bacon pieces until browned. Remove from pot and set aside.

Season pork shoulder and/or shank pieces, and the pig's feet, with salt and paprika.

In the same pot, brown pork shoulder and/or shank cubes. You may need to add more oil as necessary and brown in batches. Set aside.

In the same pot, brown the pig's feet. You may need to add more oil as necessary and brown in batches. Set aside.

In the same pot, cook onions and garlic until soft. Season with salt and smoked paprika, and add your desired amount of black peppercorns. Pour in white wine to deglaze the pot: scrape off softened browned bits on the bottom of the pot.

Add the browned pork shoulder/shank cubes and browned pig's feet back into the pot. Cover with stock (or until stock is almost covering all the pork). Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer. Cooking time will take approximately 1-1/2 hours to 2 hours.

While the pot is simmering, slice chorizo sausages. Pan-fry slices in olive oil. Morcilla sausages can be kept whole. Pan-fry the morcilla in olive oil as well.

About 30 minutes before the end of cooking, add the cooked chickpeas and sliced cabbage into the simmering pot. Stir in and cook until cabbage is desired tenderness.

Alternatively, one can cook the cabbage in a separate pot with some of the braising liquid, until desired tenderness.

The stew is done when the pork shoulder/shank pieces and the pig's feet are tender.

To serve, place stew in serving vessel and add the chorizo slices and pan-fried morcilla sausages, as well as the fried bacon. Serve with the "gremolata", if desired.

Lengua Estofada (Beef Tongue Braised in Red Wine and Veal Stock)

Looks like a white strawberry, the texture. Doesn't it?

[ts]
After a Christmas gathering at our cousin's house where lengua was served, I decided that we should serve it during one of our parties at home.

When we chose Spanish as the theme for our New Year's Party, I thought, perfect! After all, "lengua" is Spanish. ;)

[js]
I remember lengua being a "festive" dish, that is, it always seemed to be a fixture in Philippine holiday parties. I remember liking lengua, but I don't recall if TS ever eating lengua herself.

Which is why I was a tad surprised when she was so insistent on doing lengua for the party. She isn't a "variety meat" kind of gal.

[ts]
I don't get why tongue is classified as offal.

It's still just muscle, people, it's not innards!

We were counting on buying cleaned and peeled beef tongues for the party, but couldn't find them. My mind was still set on serving lengua, however, so we went ahead and bought the available frozen, unpeeled tongue. How hard could cleaning it be, right?

I read up on tongue cookery in 1080 Recipes(the Spanish equivalent of The Silver Spoon), and even looked at The Silver Spoon as well.

I was ready.

Lengua Prep
[ts]
We left the tongue in the fridge to defrost for about a day, then soaked them in cold water. They weren't totally defrosted yet, but we didn't have the time to wait for that. Besides, the soaking in water would help in the defrosting anyway. They soaked overnight; actually, for about 12 hours.

Then, they were ready.

According to 1080 Recipes, one can either peel tongue before braising them or after braising them. I opted to do the former as I was afraid the flavors would not be infused into the meat with its skin still on.


"cleaning" the meat by blanching

[ts]
I brought a pot of water to boil, then plunged the tongues in for about 15 minutes. I had to do this in two batches as we had no pot big enough to contain four tongues. I imagine this is to "clean" the tongue; this technique is often used in Chinese cooking as well.


The tongue is a huge muscle! Look at that back end.

[ts]
When they were cool enough to handle, I started the task of peeling them. Well, I thought it would be like peeling the peel off of bananas, but no! Apparently, that only happens if I had peeled them after braising.

Basically, I had to peel the tongue by shaving off the skin with a boning knife. It was a little time-consuming -- the skin was a little tough and my knife could be sharper -- but I guess I got better with practice. =)


Behold, papilae!

[js]
The peeling is not the task for me. If it were me trying to peel the tongue, I would have just sliced off big slivers of tongue-skin with tongue-meat still attached to make my life a whole lot easier. We would have been left with rectangular blocks of beef tongue.

[ts]
The peeling was the most difficult part. After that, it was basically a shove-everything-into-a-pan-and-forget-about-it recipe.

Veal Stock


[ts]
We made veal stock the night before. JS simply roasted some bones until nice and brown, and placed the bones in a pot with some cold water. We simmered the bones overnight.

Braising
[ts]
In my braising pan (which in our case, was the largest roasting pan we owned), I sweated some onions and carrots. I didn't add celery because from perusing 1080 Recipes, it seems that the Spanish, or at least this cookbook author, do not use a lot of celery in their flavor base. I also added some tomatoes, but just a small amount. This dish wasn't intended to be a tomato-based one.

The tongues went in, along with the rest of the flavorings: black peppercorns, parsley, bay leaves and thyme. I also added a pinch of ground cinnamon and a couple of cloves for a little something-something. We also had half a can of anchovies lying around so I threw those in to use them up.

For our braising liquid, we did a combination of red wine (because we had about half a bottle that was in danger of turning to vinegar) and veal stock.

I added the liquids to the roasting pan, brought the mixture to a boil, then covered the pan and placed it in the oven. I let the lengua braise for about 3 or 4 hours, until they were tender.


Braised lengua in their braising liquid, cooled.
That's congealed beef fat encasing them. Beef fat! Nice.

[ts]
In our case, we braised these tongues the day before the party. That only served to intensify the flavors, we believe. They were left to cool in the braising liquid.

The next day, I took the lengua out of the liquid and sliced them. We strained the braising liquid and reduced it, adjusting the seasoning at the end.


Bad photo of sliced lengua with its sauce.

[js]
The transformation!

Sliced, they don't look anything like the tongue they started out in life as. In fact, they just look like regular old beef, except much more tender and much more flavorful.

There is nothing quite like the tenderness of the tongue: for some reason, tongue still retains a very nice chew even when very tender. It keeps its integrity and doesn't shred like brisket or short ribs, for example.

I was a little apprehensive how the lengua was going to be received at the party. Going in, I knew some people (like my father) love lengua, but given that it is not a common cut in Vancouver, I was afraid that some guests would not even be persuaded to try it.

Judging by the leftovers (we only had a few pieces left at the end of the night), I would say it was quite a success.



[ts]
The photos do not do this dish justice. So tender, so flavorful, so good!

See the rest of our Spanish-themed New Year's Eve Menu here.

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Recipe
Lengua Estofada (Beef Tongue Braised in Red Wine and Veal Stock)

This was the proportions I used for our party. Feel free to halve or even divide the recipe by 4. Our beef tongues were about 3-4 pounds each.


4 beef tongues (approx. 3-4 lbs each)

3 ripe tomatoes, large dice
2 large onions, large dice
4-6 carrots, large pieces
handful black peppercorns
10 sprigs to 1 bunch parsley
4 bay leaves
5-8 thyme sprigs
anchovies (optional)
pinch ground cinnamon
2 cloves

red wine
veal or beef stock
Use as much or as little of each liquid, as long as there is enough liquid to cover the meat.

Soak the tongues in water overnight.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the tongues and boil for about 15 minutes. Take out of the water and let cool until cool enough to handle. Discard water. Peel the tongue using a knife.

Alternatively, one can peel the tongue until after braising.

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and sweat. Add tomatoes and cook for a few seconds. Add tongues into the pot, and cover with red wine and/or stock. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring the liquid to a boil, then turn the heat to low. Cover the pot and simmer for about 3 hours, or until the tongues are tender.

Alternatively, one can also braise the tongues in the oven. Turn the oven to 350F. Place covered pot or roasting pan into the oven and braise for about 3 hours, or until the tongues are tender.

Take tongues out of braising liquid. Slice.

Strain the braising liquid. In a saucepan over medium heat, reduce the braising liquid until desired thickness. Adjust seasoning. Serve sauce with the sliced tongue.

[eatingclub] Spanish
Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish "Omelette")
Roast Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Sardinas na Bangus (Milkfish in the style of Sardines)
Red Wine-braised Squid with Potatoes and Chorizo
Philippine Beef Salpicao (and a Spanish variation)
Stewed Tripe, Spanish-style
Lengua Estofada (Beef Tongue Braised in Red Wine and Veal Stock)
Bacalao con Patatas (Baked Salt Cod and Potatoes)
Salsa Romesco ("Queen of the Catalan Sauces!")
Grilled Calçots (Green Onions) with Salsa Romesco
Empanada de Pavo
(Galician-style Meat Pie with Turkey Filling), plus Turkey Cracklings!
Fideuá (Spanish Seafood Noodle "Paella")... and Paella
Cocido (Spanish Stew with Various Pork Cuts)
Slow-Roast Pork Shoulder, Two Ways

Stewed Tripe, Spanish-style

[js]
Some people have lobsters for New Year's Day, I hear.

We had stewed tripe this year.

[js]
Since we always have our "big" party on New Year's Eve (see menu here), and our guests stay late, some even up to 3 or 4 in the morning, I am usually too tired to do anything on actual New Year's Day save lounge around in my pajamas and eat leftovers.

This year, after the clock struck midnight and we had our champagne drinks, I went to bed at around 12:30am on January 1st. I had been feeling under the weather the day of our party, with a very scratchy and achy throat.

With an "earlier" bedtime than most, I woke up earlier on New Year's Day than most. I looked around our kitchen and decided to clean up a bit.

Once the kitchen was in a semi-orderly condition, I scrounged around in the refrigerator for my prize: about a pound of honeycomb tripe I threw into our basket when we were shopping for pig parts for our New Year's Eve party.

I had planned to throw together a tripe dish into our menu -- and hence, enraging TS who had already prepared all the labels for the party -- but we had been so busy with the other dishes that I did not have the time. Besides, all I had was a pound of tripe and that probably wouldn't have been enough for 50 people.

I decided to go Spanish with my New Year's tripe dish -- we still had all the ingredients from shopping for the party, after all. I used white wine and veal stock for my stewing liquid, and bay leaves and smoked paprika for my flavouring agents. Recipe below.



[js]
This was a very satisfying dish. It's a gift to myself, let's say. I ate this with a new batch of seafood paella I made with our leftover ingredients from the night before.

Actually, I made two new batches of seafood paella; we really had quite a lot of leftover ingredients -- prawns, clams, mussels, squid, etc -- that were unused when we made our fideuá for the previous night. Fideuá post here!

Needless to say, we had to call some people over to partake in all the food!

[eatingclub] Spanish
Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish "Omelette")
Roast Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Sardinas na Bangus (Milkfish in the style of Sardines)
Red Wine-braised Squid with Potatoes and Chorizo
Philippine Beef Salpicao (and a Spanish variation)
Stewed Tripe, Spanish-style
Lengua Estofada (Beef Tongue Braised in Red Wine and Veal Stock)
Bacalao con Patatas (Baked Salt Cod and Potatoes)
Salsa Romesco ("Queen of the Catalan Sauces!")
Grilled Calçots (Green Onions) with Salsa Romesco
Empanada de Pavo
(Galician-style Meat Pie with Turkey Filling), plus Turkey Cracklings!
Fideuá (Spanish Seafood Noodle "Paella")... and Paella
Cocido (Spanish Stew with Various Pork Cuts)
Slow-Roast Pork Shoulder, Two Ways

Enjoyed this post? Why not subscribe to our blog? Subscribe via reader or subscribe via email. Thank you!

Recipe
Stewed Tripe, Spanish-style

1 lb honeycomb tripe, cleaned and cut into strips
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp smoked hot paprika, preferably Spanish
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 cup beef stock
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

Fry garlic in oil until brown but not burnt. Scoop out garlic. Add onion and sauté until translucent.

Add tripe, wine, beef stock. Add other ingredients.

Stew until tripe is to desired tenderness.

Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos

[js]
I can't believe July is over today -- and we had ambitious plans to make our July such a mucho jam-packed month of Latin food deliciousness!

Oh well. It has been a crazy month here and the last two weeks of the month has been deliriously HOT too, which no doubt contributed to the busy-ness effect.

Like our snow-filled December, when we had to wade in snow and wet slush, every little task seemed to take double or triple the effort in 30+ degree Centigrade weather, and in twenty years in Vancouver, I've never sweated so much as I had in the last ten or so days!

I'm thinking of how to segue into the topic on hand, which is our shredded beef and tripe tacos from our last taco night. I'll leave it to our handful of readers to fill in the blanks.



[js]
Perhaps it is the heat talking, because I have been craving for something light -- and something light that's not a salad. Lately, I've been strangely enamoured by the the idea of "white" or "light" beef.

I suppose the months of browning beef has finally gotten to me -- and I wanted to try my hand at the "lighter" preparations of beef.

Our "dancing cilantro beef" is a good place to start, but in that dish, the beef is braised in a bit of soy sauce, which, even though diluted with water, still results in that deep, round, caramel-y, brown flavour.

When I cooked this two or so weeks ago, it wasn't as hot as it had been in the past few days. Hence, I cooked this dish indoors.

The past week, when the temperature inside the house reached 35 degrees Celcius, I've been using our grill as our all-purpose cooking device: baking pasta out there, steaming, poaching, and braising meats. Not actually grilling, because the heat was just too intense, and I couldn't bear to stand in front of the grill for long periods of time.

Simple Poached Beef


[js]
This filling is actually a very simple poached beef dish.

I used a combination of beef cuts, oxtail and veal breast, which I blanched first to get rid of the blood and the impurities. The tripe was a tad of an afterthought, because I had also been craving "offal" and/or "variety meats" lately.

After blanching, I put the oxtail and the breast in water with an onion, a head of garlic, a teaspoon of Mexican oregano and epazote. After about an hour or so of simmering, I added the tripe (which had been washed and cleaned thoroughly), because the tripe actually needed less than hour to become tender, as it had already been partially cooked before being sold.

When everything was fork tender, I turned off the heat and let the pot cool. I did this the day before because the oxtail and the veal breast would render out fat, which I wanted to let cool and congeal so I can take most of it out.



[js]
The next day, I took the pieces and shredded by hand. I suppose one can add some of the liquid to make the filling more wet, but I didn't because I didn't want it too wet. The "wetness" I desired was just the moisture clinging to the pieces of meat. The whole thing needed seasoning and it was good to go.


Tripe-y Goodness!



[js]
This specific taco was filled with our light but oh-so-flavorful beef and tripe filling, tomatillo salsa (salsa verde), chopped onions and cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. Happiness.


[eatingclub] vancouver Tacos
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Tacos... again (July 2009)
Tacos al Pastor with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Tacos with Beer-braised Carnitas Filling
Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos

Enjoyed this post? Why not subscribe to our blog? Subscribe via reader or subscribe via email. Thank you!

Recipe
Shredded Beef and Tripe Filling (for Tacos)

2 pounds oxtail, in large pieces
3 pounds veal breast, in large pieces
half pound tripe
1 onion
1 head garlic
1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon epazote
water
salt and pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil. When boiling, add the oxtail and veal breast pieces until the outside changes color. Take beef pieces out of the water. Discard dirty water.

In a pot, add oxtail and veal breast pieces, the onion, garlic, Mexican oregano and epazote. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer for about 2 hours.

In the meantime, throughly wash the tripe to get rid of any "bleach-y" aroma. Add the tripe to the simmering pot. Simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Check the pot. If tender enough, take out tripe and cut into small pieces. Also, shred the oxtail and veal breast pieces. You may keep as much or as little of the liquid as you like. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

[eatingclub] vancouver Mexican
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Semi-Lime-cooked, Semi-Yucatecan Shrimp with Garlic Chips
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde
Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Shrimp a la Mexicana (Camarones a la Plancha)
Enchiladas Verdes
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak
Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken
Chipotle Ground Turkey on Flour Tortilla
Tacos... again (July 2009)
Tacos al Pastor with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Tacos with Beer-braised Carnitas Filling
Shredded Beef and Tripe Tacos
Duck Enchiladas with Chipotle Peanut Salsa
Blueberry Tres Leches Cake
Crab Tostada
Homemade Mexican Chorizo Sausage
Torta (Mexican Sandwich)

Pig Trotter and Suan Cai (Pickled Mustard Greens) Soup

Enchanté! It's a pleasure to meet you.

[ts]
For Boss #3's first birthday, we decided to have the celebration at home. Besides cooking our usual buffet, we also decided to order a Chinese Roast Suckling Pig.

Unlike our previous gaffe, we actually managed to procure an excellent one, with help from KN and her dad, Mr. N, who is a master Cantonese chef! Mr. N even offered to come to our house and properly carve up the pig. He had KN's husband, JK, act as an apprentice and they both carved up the roast pig.

Thanks, KN, JK and Mr. N!

After the carving was done, we decided to set the head and the trotters aside.



[js]
Roast pig heads and leftovers are usually made into paksiw na lechon. This is a stew of pig parts with a sweet-ish, sour-ish sauce thickened with chicken livers. Nowadays, most people just stew it with Mang Tomas sauce. I'm not too fond of paksiw na lechon so we decided to make something different with the pig parts.

This post of ours is a double shout-out to Jessica and Lon of FoodMayhem, as we were inspired and guided by not one, but two, of their posts! Thanks, guys!


Pig Trotter and Suan Cai (Pickled Mustard Greens) Soup


[ts]
I saw the Quick Duck and Rice Cake Soup post on FoodMayhem about 3 months ago. For reasons unknown, the "essence" of their soup really spoke to me. Rich duck, tangy pickled greens and chewy rice cakes all floating around in broth. [dreamy look] I filed it away in my head and waited for the opportunity to make something like it.

Around the same time, on the first day of December 2008, Jessica and Lon also blogged about Pickled Mustard Greens. Now, this elusive item has... well, eluded JS and I for quite a long time. We would always wish for an extra amount of this when we ate Taiwan Beef Noodle Soup, or when we ate "kwa pao".

Suan Cai (Pickled Mustard Greens )

before and after

[ts]
So, we wasted no time in making a batch. Well, OK, we wasted 16 days before making a batch, starting the pickling process on December 17. But, this sat around in the refrigerator for 3 more months before the right dish called for it.

This is very simple to do. Following the instructions on FoodMayhem, we simply washed the mustard greens, then started layering the leaves with salt. We added water to cover, then a splash of vinegar. That's it!

Match made in heaven


[ts]
Trotter, meet Suan Cai.

We just knew that the suan cai would complement the smoky unctuousness of the roasted pig trotters so perfectly that we were practically skipping as we started this soup!

Dump everything into the pot

pig trotters, suan cai and cucumber

[ts]
This soup once again utilizes our favorite dump-everything-into-the-pot method.

That there are four pig trotters, our whole container of pickled mustard greens that I sliced up (totalling one head of mustard greens) and one big cucumber, just because it had been lying around in the kitchen for a while.



[ts]
Add water to cover. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to simmer. Now walk away! We waited for about three hours or so.

Rice Cake


[ts]
It seems like such a weird craving to have, but I was really super-excited to finally eat rice cakes! I've only ever had them once before at a Shanghainese restaurant. When JS suggested that we should leave rice cakes out, I wouldn't hear of it!

The rice cakes in their uncooked form were really hard. I was a little skeptical when the instructions called for only a couple miunutes of cooking. But of course, that was the correct amount of time. I threw in the whole bag to the soup at the last moment.



[js]
The soup was delicious. The broth was rich and thick, from the gelatin in the pig's feet, which makes the acidity from the pickled greens much, much welcome. The rice cakes are bland (as they should be) and have a wonderfully springy chew. The underlying hint of smoke adds another flavour dimension.

The pig head and feet still had quite a lot of meat in them so this is a soup that is definitely filling. I am not too crazy about pig skin that has been made wet, but sometimes, the chewy texture is also surprisingly enjoyable.

[ts]
I didn't actually need the pork meat in this case. It already gave its all to the broth as far as I was concerned. That broth! The suan cai cut the richness of the pork while at the same time, the richness of the pork mellowed the tang of the pickled greens. And, those chewy rice cakes are just fun to eat.

Was this soup all that I dreamt it would be?


A dreamy spoonful.

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