I know quite a few people who can make a simple meal out of pickles and steamed white rice. I’m not one of them, but Mike has a deep love for pickles and rice together, probably due to his growing up with giant jars of homemade pickles in the fridge.
My favourite cartoon when I was a kid was Strawberry Shortcake. I loved her giant hat and how everyone was named after food. I would spend countless hours inventing stories with the dolls, which I still have, boxed up in the basement of my parents’ house.
I have to warn you, even if you do get your hands on some meat glue so you can try making brick chicken, you’re going to have another problem: smoke. Chang’s fondness for searing on the element and then finishing in the oven works wonders for meat but will set your fire alarm off not once, but three times.
Pig’s head boiled for 3 1/2 hours: check. Meat and fat separated: check. Said meat and fat rolled into torchon: check. One apprehensive cook: check.
Looking at the photo of the deep fried, crispy, torchon slices in Chang’s book is looking at the loveliest photo of two perfectly cooked croquettes. I love croquettes. I love their crispy, crunchy exteriors giving way to soft, melty potato-meat insides. Based on the photo alone, I thought the pig’s head torchon would be like a uber-croquette, no filler potato, just all crispy outsides and melty, fatty, meaty insides.
The pig’s head torchon recipe doesn’t look particularly difficult, but for me, it’s the most intimidating recipe in the book. I’ll take baby octopus or fingerling potatoes over pig’s head any day.
I’ve been worried about the pig’s head ever since I read the words “farmers do not raise walking pork chops”. Intellectually I know that farmers don’t raise walking pork chops (how cute would that be?!), but living in the city, I don’t have a lot of experience with livestock and most of the meat I’ve cooked comes packaged in plastic and styrofoam. I’m sure if I did live on a farm, raising and butchering my own livestock, I’d appreciate meat more.
The Momofuku name is a registered trademark of Momofuku and David Chang. I'm just using it (fair use?) to refer to his restaurant and cookbook.
All original content and photos is © 2010 copyright & all rights reserved Stephanie Le.
momofukufor2.com is where I document the little tips and tricks I learned while cooking through the Momofuku Cookbook by David Chang and Peter Meehan.
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