Fails and successes

Ok... Just some updates about my some cooking experiments:

Tacos de lengua

I made homemade tacos which were a revelation. It was pretty but not very useful to incorporate a flowered chive in a spiral fashion... There most of the time the tacos broke apart. The beef tongue (cooked sous vide for 72 hours on 60°C was very good - tasted beefy , soft with an distinct ham texture. I made a Mexican sauce with dried chili (of course reconstituted in water) and fresh poblano,  dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, cumin, coriander seeds...

Tasted surprisingly authentic Mexican! Served it with sour cream, fresh tomatoes, salted onions and freshly diced avocado.

Frozen Scotch eggs

After my Mexican adventure I just wanted to do Scotch eggs - as I had still some beef chorizo in my fridge. Eggs were slightly overlooked (too small for the recipe) but I just went ahead. I put the already shaped sausage balls (already hiding the eggs) into the freezer.

But then S. asked me to come to bed - already 5 in the morning and I forgot the unfinished Scotch eggs in the ice box. 

Tried to finish them today - but as expected the egg white was oddly  layered and watery. What a waste... Into the bin...

Lamb belly / breast

I asked at Géants the butcher to debone some lamb ribs (the meaty-fatty one).

In it went into a flavorful brine with fresh rosemary, sugar, fresh garlic, coriander, chili, salt, water) for around 10 hours. From there I rinsed it and put it into vacuum bag with a frozen mixture of more rosemary, roasted garlic, olive oil, honey (I had to freeze it, as the normal foodsaver won't work with a liquid marinade- if you have a chamber cryovac- you can skip this step) and it went into my hacked rice cooker for around 24 hours at a fairly high 67°C. Took it out- into an ice bath (which I used then to rinse the meat).

First attempt - seasoning and deep frying it: nice... Not enough salt... Overall very nice.... Not too much lambiness... crisp... slightly overcooked.

Second - breading it (still had the breading station from the blœdy Scotch eggs...) and frying it... Odd... very crispy (thanks panko)... but it taste like breaded bacon... not so good... again underseasoned!

Third - just flouring a piece and pan fry it ultra hot in little oil... again with seasoned flour with added salt and pepper... very nice... slightly crispy... but again underseasoned (damn).

Fourth and last attempt - seasoning it with salt and pepper (a lot)... frying it in ultra hot pan with little oil... salting again with Maldon sea salt... Perfect! Could not be happier... meaty, fatty, without being greasy. Taste like lamb without being overpowering with hints of garlic, rosemary and honeysweetness (without being too sweet). Voila!