Life Without the Challenge of Paper Chef ....
... is like eating plain pizza and pasta everyday. Owen of Tomatilla has handed the reins to Ilva of Lucillian Delights. Look for Ilva's announcements in February 2008.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas 2007
This beautiful ham terrine for Christmas was the end result of "bring a pork dish with a green theme". Around 12 hours went into making the aspic out of ham bones, leek, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, capsicum and peppercorns. The meat came from lean desalted pickled pork. Chilling took another 12 hours. Mashed minted peas, the green "stuff", gave the terrine the lime green. Unfortunately, the kids hated the green. Anyone for pea and ham soup from the leftovers?
For a 10 cm by 20 cm terrine, allow the following:
2 ham hocks or leg ham bones
1.5 kg pickled pork, fat removed and soaked in cold water for 4 hours
2 tablespoons peppercorn
2 celery sticks
2 carrots
1 onions
2 garlic
1 capsicum
1 leek
300 g frozen minted peas
Blanch the pork in boiling water for 5 minutes. Rinse well in cold water.
Place all ingredients, except the peas, in a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to boil and simmer for 3 hours until the meat pulls apart easily.Carefully remove the ingredients. Discard the spent vegetables.
Remove fat and grizzle from the meat. Break the meat into 2-3 cm chunks.
Skim the fat off the stock. Strain the stock and then reduce to 1 cup. Test for setting strength on a cold saucer.
Cook the peas in half a cup of reduced stock. Drain. Save the stock for future use. Mash the peas with about 1 tablespoon of the stock. Mix the peas with the meat.
To assemble, line a loaf tin with plastic wrap. Put in the meat with the mashed peas. Pour in half a cup of reduced stock. Cover the terrine with baking paper. Weigh down the terrine with another. Chill for 12 hours.
To serve, make a cherry balsamic sauce with 100g fresh cherries, 2 tablespoon sugar, 2 tablespoon leftover reduced stock, 4 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, and 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar. If like, thicken with 2 teaspoon corn starch.
... so it was, Christmas 2007.
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