Friday, August 7, 2009

THIS LITTLE PIGGY WENT TO MARKET


Pigs feet, trotters, whatever, they are good. When I think of trotters I usually think of lamb shanks but hey little piggies trot on those little feet too. My dad loved pigs feet and my mom made them in the winter since it was a stew. I love them, and I also stew them. You can pick them up at the grocery store, at least you can at Bel Air. You need to rinse them off well because they split the feet in quarters and the little gritty bone dust is stuck to the meat. I don't have a recipe, this is one of those things that is just throw in what you have on hand. Today I didn't have much of anything so here is what I did. I had some frozen tomato sauce that I had made in the freezer so I got that out and put it in a dutch oven with a box of chicken stock. I threw in 2 packages of the rinsed pigs feet along with several cloves of garlic , Worcestershire sauce, what ever herbs you like ( I used thyme, oregano, rosemary, and parsley), sherry vinegar, salt,pepper. Normally I would saute a couple of onions sliced thin then add the stock and pigs feet, but like I said I was out of everything and too lazy to go to the grocery store. So, stock, tomato sauce,( you can use a medium can of diced tomatoes or a spicy one), garlic,herbs and the pigs feet and let it simmer for at least 2 hours until the feet are tender, you can probably put it in the oven to cook also but I always do it on the stove. Stir occasionally. If I had other things I'd add potatoes, carrots, celery and anything else you want. Basically it's a stew so anything goes. You can even do it Asian style and use chicken stock, 5 spice, soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic,a little sugar and ketchup and let it simmer until tender.. this is just what you have on hand, how you feel that day and your imagination. Serve over rice or noodles. The most important thing is to cook it long enough to be sure the feet are tender, it should be falling off the bone. A note to those who haven't eaten pigs feet (trotters), it is a textural thing.. it isn't meat, it's cartilage, it's soft and sticky and rich and yummy! My daughter doesn't like it because of the texture. I love it, it's a kind of pain to eat, lots of bones, but boy, are those bones good to suck on!!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this! Trotters are on lots of high end restaurant menus these days....an "offal" good phase indeed.

Take lots of pics tomorrow in Yountville!

Anonymous said...

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