Ham Hock Terrine

 Too much butter, not enough meat perhaps.

To celebrate the addition of my one member - more always welcome - I have decided to make a Ham Hock Terrine.  There is no explanation for this choice other than I wanted to give it a try.  This is an Australian MasterChef recipe and as they say on the show it is a good adult breakfast together with poached egg and brioche.  This recipe uses butter which I prefer the sound of, as opposed to using gelatin.  I am planning to serve it as part of a brunch menu with warm homemade crusty bread to spread it on.

I am happy with how the terrine has worked out although I don't think my hocks gave out as much meat as I needed, as the recipe called for 250g of butter.  Having thought about it, you need to get the meat off the hock first and then add say 200g of butter to see how it comes together and add more if necessary.  I have found that if you are eating it at room temp and not having it with something hot it can be too solid in texture.

Smoked ham hocks, pretty hidous looking but once cooked, yum!

It isn't a cheap dish to make as the hocks cost £8.50 from my local butcher and they can be more bone than meat.

You can use either chicken stock or water to cook the hocks.

I chose to use water to cook the hocks and the resulting stock once sieved taste's really good with a lovely smoky edge.  Am freezing the cooking liquor to use with a different pork dish at some stage.

All tucked up wrapped in Serrano Ham and cling film.

The end result is a rich smoky terrine ideal for a summer lunch.  As a snack on hot toast it is delicious!

If you want to have a go at this recipe you can find it at this web address http://www.masterchef.com.au/eggs-benedict-with-ham-hock-terrine-and-hollandaise-sauce.htm

In the end there was too much for us so I gave a third to our friends up the road and have stuck the rest in the freezer.  Let me know if you do have a go and how it turns out.

Writers Block

So I have been doing a writing course for a few weeks now just to try and better my blog, and I am sure of two things.  One, writers block is real and two, writing doesn't come easy to me.  It's an odd thing really, it seems that if I try and force myself to write the articles for the homework we have been set I just can't pull it together.  I write different paragraphs starting in different ways to try and find a style that allows me to flow freely, but I think it still reads in a disjointed way.  I don't want to plagiarise someone else, so my head aches with trying so hard while finding it so difficult.  Perhaps it's the style of writing itself which is being asked for that is beyond me.  I don't seem to be able to write with a dispassionate voice.  I like to just be me, whether that means nobody reads what I have to say I don't mind so much - well maybe a bit.

I have learnt quite a few things which I'm putting into practice, like using my new grammar book which is actually very useful - it's amazing what you forget.  Trying not to start all my sentences with 'I' and being as factual and acurate as I can needs to be a constant.  Something that's been very interesting is meeting different people from the foodie industry that have come to talk to us about their area of expertise.  We had the restaurant reviewer Andy Lyons one week and  I particulary liked Jennifer Joyce who came to talk about her cook books and how she got published having not been a TV chef.  Although, it wasn't new news to hear that it was hard work and determination (with a good pinch of luck) that got her recipes into print.

So to make a point, instead of doing my homework like a good girl, I wrote this instead!

Here's a rant I made earlier.

Why in heavens name do some people insist on telling you everything they did to the food you are eating!  If I sit down to a meal I want to chat and perhaps comment on its deliciousness, discuss it maybe for a moment or two, but then move on to the next subject. But my husband won't let go of his captive audience and bores us all to tears with his trip to the kitchen.  You only have to give him an inch and there he is telling us about how he chopped the coriander and made an effort to dice the red onion particularly small.  Please Stop! His food is good, we all love eating it but don’t take the enjoyment away from us, by prattling on.  The kids of course think he’s funny and it’s funny that I get so cross.  But I suppose the plain truth is, is that I am jealous.  How dare he produce good food in my kitchen especially when he only cooks once in a blue moon.  Typical man.

My New Gadget

Today I got a metal potato ricer which, just in case your wondering, is the best thing since sliced bread!  I am loving it.  Now I too can have silken potatoes and no longer will the mash that I envy so much be only the domain of others. 

Of course given it is only my first time using it, (not that you'd think it should be difficult) I managed to under cook my potatoes and so have ended up with slightly grainy mash.  Perhaps some more butter/milk/cream will sort it.  But not to worry, I'll get it right next time.

An Empty Fridge

I have just been reading Trish Deseine's blog 'Feeding my World' and she was talking about getting your kids used to seeing an empty fridge, unfortunately mine are only all too used to it.  And the reason is this, I plan ahead with weekly meal plans.  As organised as it might seem, the fridge only looks full for so long and not as long as you might think.  I do my best not to buy too much quick gratification food stuffs.  Firstly because they are expensive and secondly because they never last long - hence quick gratification.  Although the kids tend to kibosh me regularly with demands for crisps, I try to ignore their pleas but even I know what simple pleasure a packet of crisps can give you!  

As always with me its onwards and upwards and so I am trying to teach myself to be a better cook.  I can't afford an intensive year long course as much as I would love it.  I have an awful lot of cookbooks on a variety of topics and my thinking is, if I have to make thing's from scratch then my understanding will be greater and hopefully my food will taste better.  Thanks to Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills of Cooking my chicken stock is knockout and a brilliant base for my soups and sauces.  Last weekend I got 5 chicken carcass's from the butcher for 50p, so there really is no excuse.  I don't add any salt into the stock base as advised by Darina, enough will get added in later.  A good vegi option is Kerstin Rodgers vegetable stock from her Supper Club cook book.  She adds in garlic cloves which I think raises the stock up a level.

 Homemade chicken stock

Too Chicken?

Happy New Year to one and all.  I haven't been in the mood to write for a while, Christmas had me cream crackered what with driving to Ireland to collect my mother, stopping off at my friends house in Kildare for a catch up drink which never ends that well for my head but I always enjoy.  Then driving back to London again.  Obviously not all in the same day but still, its tiring.

Yesterday I got a call from a chap up the road who was going shooting and wondered if I would like a bird once the day was over.  Even though I agree that it is wrong to kill a bird for sport and then not eat it, I did have difficulty with the fact that I would have to pluck the thing and I think that that was a bridge too far for me.  On this years Masterchef they had to pluck a pigeon prior to trussing it and how badly some of them did it was just upsetting!  I wouldn't want to do a disservice to the creature.  By the end of the conversation it was agreed that if the butcher took a few from him I would pay to have it plucked and the innards taken out.  So as it turns out I am too chicken to pluck a bird!

Scandilicious Krumkaker

An afternoon of making and baking - now what to make?  Scandilicious has a recipe for Norwegian Kurmkaker (cornets)  I think. I had a look to see what a cornet iron looked like, for some reason thinking it would look something like a clothes iron but longer.  It doesn't.  Rather it is an electric round press, more like a Tortilla Press.

I have been holding off making these cornets, as I couldn't be bothered to make the template.  I wrongly assumed it would take more time than the 2 minutes it actually did.  They turned out really well and taste really good although it did take me a couple of goes to get the shape going.  Now I can impress the Norwegian lot - well the kids mainly - when I see them again in the new year.

 Template and batter discs prior to cooking.

Disc's prior to rolling - if you don't do it when hot they crack as they roll.

 Finished cornets with homemade blackberry icecream, not too bad for a first go.