Monthly Archives: March 2009

South By Southwest – The Secrets of Successful Food Blogging

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sxsw

South By Southwest–or SXSW–is a huge festival/convention in Austin, Texas based around music, movies and technology with lots of interviews and panels with famous people.   I had only one panel I wanted to attend and it was the “Secrets of Successful Food Blogging” panel.  I’m still rather unsure of myself and various aspects of writing a food blog, so I showed up with open ears and an open mind.

Panelists were Zach Brooks (Midtown Lunch), Cathy Erway (Not Eating Out in New York), Kalyn Denny (Kalyn’s Kitchen) and Addie Broyles (Relish Austin)—moderated—very well might I add—by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cupcakes Take the Cake).

The panelists talked about lots of interesting topics such as how they got into food blogging, different methods of posting, ads and whether or not Twitter is a good thing.  Maybe I should sign up for a Twitter  account!

Anyhow, I recorded the entire conversation on my iPhone and converted it into a mp3.  You can download it at the link below.  The audio level might be a little low, fair warning.

SXSW – The Secrets of Successful Food Blogging mp3 (42 MB)

Special thanks to Harmony and Brent for getting me a day pass!

Pig’s Cheek And Tongue

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To feed two.

I’ve had very positive feedback for an offal eat out date, so I’m picking May the 16th, which is a Saturday.  I hope that’s far enough in the future for everyone. The place I’m looking at is the Asia Cafe in the Asia Market located on Spicewood Spring road in Austin.  They have some very nice offal items, and authentic Chinese food.  I’ll be sending e-mail to those have already responded with the time and such.  I can’t wait!

This will be the last hogs head I buy from my local megamart.  The poor thing had been hacked at, and it was missing one of its ears.  Rather than let it go to waste, I forged on, determined to make it into a delicious meal to honor its life.  It was brined for three days and, before it was put into my stock pot, I rinsed it off very well in the sink.

In addition to the hog head, stock vegetables were added to the pot.  Carrots, leeks, celery – the usual fare.  Water was added until I covered the entire head, then a splash of red wine vinegar was poured in at the end.

The nose still peeked out a little bit, but eventually the whole head sunk down as the head simmered over a few hours.

Once the cheek began pulling away from the skull, I knew the meat was properly cooked.  Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever had to deal with a whole boiled hogs head.  Let me set the scene for you:  You have a huge pot of extremely hot liquid, and you have to pull an extremely hot hunk of meat and bone out of the liquid, all the while the meat has a tendency to fall off the bone, back into the liquid, thus scalding the ever-living snot out of you.  Not exactly fun.

Eventually I managed to open the hogs mouth and remove the tongue, and skinned it.  The cheek meat placed back into the stock to stay warm as I peeled the tongue.

I sliced the peeled tongue and cheek each in half, and served them over mashed potatoes and some green sauce.  The cheek meat was just like eating the pork belly back in January last year.  Delicious fatty goodness that melts in your mouth, leaving just an amazing mouth feel coupled with wonderful pork flavors.  The tongue was a much different texture, coarse and fibrous just as it looks. It was still tender and fantastic, just different.  The pig truly is a magical animal.

I think making the brined pork belly is a bit easier–and less likely to scald anyone–yet still just as wonderful.  But if you happen to find yourself with a whole hogs head with nothing better to do, you might consider giving this recipe a try.

One down, eighty five to go.

Offal items from around the ‘net

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I’ve recently run across two offal-centric items on the net, so I figured I’d share them with you.

First up is the blog Just Cook It, written by Alex Rushmer, whose Pork Scratchings were just featured over at Serious Eats.  Alex was kind enough to shoot me a complimentary e-mail, and mentioned that he too was starting to work with offal.

Nose to Tail Tuesday (or N3T as it shall be known from now on) is about rediscovery, thrift, culinary philosophy and, above all, taste (for a more complete break down of the ethos behind the feature see this post). If we can’t make these cuts taste sublime, or just as good as the expensive bits, then the exercise becomes moot.

Next up, I found this post over at Our Blog Ourselves where they talk about their discovery of Fergus Henderson and his philosophy about food.  It’s a wonderful post about Mr. Henderson, his background, and his restaurant.  They also talk about three recipes they made from “The Cookbook.”  Included are a few fantastic video links where Mr. Henderson talks about food.

Both are great reads and worth the time, so start a’ clicking!

Roast Quail

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The quail unfortunately falls into a kind of bird purgatory; it is not a game bird, though some describe it as such, but is now a thoroughly farmed bird, so not glamorous enough to warrant the “hands on” battling that people feel justified to exert on grouse and partridge, and is denied from joining the chicken’s gang, as it is seen to be too fiddly to eat.  Then finally, to kick the quail while it’s down, people say it has no flavor.

Put all this behind you and let me put forward the case for the joys of a bowl of thoroughly roasted quails.

I’m considering having an “Austin Offal Eaters” lunch at the Asia Cafe in the Asia Market located on Spicewood Spring road in Austin.  If enough people are interested, I’ll set a date in May.  Post a comment if you’d like to come!

This is the last recipe of the comic trio.  I’ve got to remember to bug Laura for a copy of that comic.  I’m determined to have it hanging in my kitchen.

Now, the recipe called for just ten quail, but since I was having quite a few people over I decided to triple the recipe.  Thankfully this recipe is so simple–it has four total ingredients–that tripling it was trivial.  The simplicity means that this update will be rather short.  I’m sorry about that, the next update will have a bit more meat to it, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I found these quail at my usual shopping location, MT Supermarket.  Here’s a homework assignment for you:  find your closest Asian market, and go for a visit.  You’ll find all sorts of deals and produce that might very well put your regular supermarket to shame.

I seasoned the quail heavily with salt and pepper, and then browned them in a hot pan with just a splash of olive oil in it.  I probably shouldn’t have crowded the pan so much, as that can lead to steaming, which isn’t really what I wanted.

With the quail properly browned, they were ready for the oven.  Mr. Henderson mentions in the recipe that quail are rather hardy, and are more than capable of taking a high heat.  As a matter of fact, he insists on cooking them until the legs can easily be pulled from the ribcage.  So into a nice hot oven the quail went for 20 minutes.

After the time had elapsed, I had a big pile of well done and salty quail ready to eat.  Mr. Henderson also suggested serving them with a bowl of lentils–which I forgot to take a picture of.

Sadly, it seems like I fall into that group of people that say that quail have little flavor.  Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re great to eat, and it’s fun dealing with all the little bones and such, but when it comes down to it they just don’t have a unique flavor.  I’d  say they remind me of chicken, with a slightly gamey taste.  They were sure easy to make and the presentation is hard to beat.  Who wouldn’t like to find themselves faced with a huge platter of roasted quail?  I certainly wouldn’t object, I’ll tell you that much.

One down, eighty six to go.