Weekend Cooking...Review of "A Girl and Her Pig" [52]

A Girl and Her Pig by April Bloomfield
Ecco, ISBN 978-0062003966
April 10, 2012, 352 pages

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Ok, take a look at the cover.
What is she holding?
Yes, that is a pig. A dead pig.
If what I have read and seen so far holds true, many people will never get past that cover.
I assume the issue is the pig. Not the girl.
The pig.

See, I read a recipe from this book, in fact the one I made here, Bloomfield's take on a classic Portuguese dish, on a food blog somewhere and thought it sounded interesting. So I went on line to read about this cookbook and this chef, who I was not familiar with, although it seems she is the owner of several successful restaurants and quite well known in foodie circle. Many of the recipes they mentioned sounded so interesting that I thought I might just have to give in and buy the book. But first, I went on to the Hated Amazon to read the reviews and saw something I had never seen before.
Almost every review fell into one of two groups.
5 stars..loved it
1 star...hated it

Ok, they did not really hate the book, or the recipes or the chef. They never actually opened the book. They hated the cover. They think it verges on the obscene. Perhaps the criminal. Because of the dead pig.
Ok, I admit it. I eat meat. I like meat. I particularly like pork. And folks, in case those like plastic trays in the supermarket made you forget, meat comes from animals.
Like that pleasant looking pig on the cover.

OK, so less move on from the cover. Because this book is so much more than the cover. Or a pig.
It is a delightful book, full of yes, great recipes in a whole range of categories but even more than that as well. First of all, it has some of the most beautiful photographs of food that I have ever seen in a cookbook, by David Loftus. And some delightful illustrations by Sun Young Park, climbing up the sides of pages, introducing each chapter...so cute.

Speaking of chapters, this cookbook is also about a great deal more that meat, as that infamous pig might have you think. This is not a book about pork.
There are 16 chapters all together, starting at breakfast..I read one review that called her porridge recipe 'life changing'...to libations..I must say, a Gin Marie sounds interesting. In between, we have nibbles and soup, well-dressed greens and sweets. Yes, there are chapters on our meaty friends...meat without feet, birds, cow, a little lamb, swine and finally the 'not-so-nasty' bits. Oh yes, also veg (which contains more recipes than the chapter about the pig) and stocks and dressings and sauces and did I mention sweets? Sweets, many, like Banoffee Pie and Eton Mess (did I not once read that is Prince Williams favorite dessert) have a touch of her English homeland..
 
There is also a very entertaining introduction that tell a bit about Bloomfield's story and tells us her take on any number of ingredients and equipment. We also find out a good deal about Bloomfield from about a dozen little essay sprinkled throughout the book, telling fun stories about growing up in England, her family, how she became a chef (she really wanted to be a cop but missed the exam date), her early career, what makes a good pub, how to make a good cup of tea. And happily, every recipe starts with the chef giving a nice introduction to the dish, what she loves about it, how she came to make it, tips and hints and opinions. This is a very personal cookbook, one in which Bloomfield, who is a quite funny, quite likeable person, just jumps out on every page.
I am not one to sit down and read cookbooks, but for this one I made an exception.
And if you like food, and great cookbooks, so should you!

 

My Chicken Adobo
by April Bloomfield

Ingredients

1/4 cup canola oil
5 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken legs and thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 heads garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
1/2 large Spanish onion, peeled and cut into 8 wedges
1/2 cup thinly sliced skin-on ginger
10 whole black peppercorns
4 fresh or 2 dried bay leaves
1 1/2 cups unseasoned rice vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce

Directions

Heat oil in a large Dutch-oven over high heat until it begins to smoke. Working in batches, add chicken, skin-side down, to pot and cook, turning occasionally, until golden brown on all sides, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to plate and repeat process with remaining chicken.
Add garlic, onion, ginger, peppercorns, and bay leaves to Dutch-oven; cook, stirring, until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Return chicken to Dutch-oven along with vinegar and soy sauce. Increase heat and bring liquid to a boil, stirring and scraping brown bits from bottom of the pan.
Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is tender and easily pulls away from the bone, about 45 minutes. Serve.

Best served, as the author suggests, with some nice jasmine rice and just a bit of the very flavorful sauce.
Key to the dish is to brown the chicken well. I used only thighs because I am not really a fan of the drumstick. Time to get out the splatter guard if you have one. Do not rush this part, do not crowd the pan, be patient. Put some pieces in...wait at least 5 minutes, check, turn, continue 5 minutes more, check again.
Also, after browning the chicken, I had a lot of fat in the pot, from the skin no doubt, I pour most of it off, to serve another day, and then continued with the onions and garlic and ginger. Hmmm..that smells good.
I did peel the garlic (used one of those rubber tube garlic peeler things, otherwise I would have skipped it) and I did peeled the ginger.
OCD.
OK?
Oh, and yes, at the end, I put the sauce through my fat separator..you know a cup where the fat goes to the top and your pour off from the bottom..great thing. But be sure you pick out and save all that now very soft, very sweet garlic.
So all in all, I made a  rustic dish just a bit more work, but I think with cause! And a very nice result.

 

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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