I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

A Two-Fer
Crispy Fried Pig's Ear
Braised Goat Neck
27 October 2011

Sometimes you, and by you I mean "I", find an ingredient that just sounds great, and so you acquire it and then have to figure out what to do with it. Often my first pass in such cases is a very basic treatment, just to learn what the item does, how it tastes before being gussied up, how it responds to basic cooking techniques and the like. Often that works just fine. Sometimes, however, I have to go back to the drawing board. Rather, I have to not re-invent the wheel, go to someone else's drawing board, and spend a little more time investigating what other people do with the ingredients.

This week I present two ingredients, one which worked well out the gate and one which required revisiting the drawing board. Goat neck roast, which although technically a new item is still basically a bony piece of meat, and treating it the way I would oxtails or something similar seemed appropriate. (And was.) Pig ears, on the other hand, are a little trickier. This is the third time I've used them. The first time they just went straight into the headcheese with the rest of the head, the second time, they just made an interesting, although edible, mess. The third time, this time, was the charm.

• a pig ear
• salt
• pepper
• a few cloves of garlic
• some onion
• a few juniper berries
• other flavors to your taste

Let the ear cool and drain. The drier it is, the less messy the next steps will be. Cut the ear into thin strips. If your ear has some fattier, meaty bits where it joined the head, cut those off as well but you can leave them in larger chunks.

Put the fatty bits into a skillet along with some cooking oil of a relatively neutral flavor. (Or, of course, you could cook some bacon and use bacon grease.) When the oil is hot, toss in some ear bits, being careful because they will spatter - and the wetter they are the more they will spatter.) I cooked mine in three batches and as soon as I put a batch into the pan I covered it until the popping noises died down a bit. When it is safe, give them a stir with your spatula or tongs, because the bits do tend to stick together. When they've browned up, remove to drain and cool a bit.

You can eat them plain, as I did, or use them almost any place you would use crispy bacon. On or in salads seems to be a popular option, but on top of soups would work well. They'd probably be good in a BLT for that matter, although at that point it would be an ELT, I suppose.

The goat neck roast was a bit of serendipity. I had actually ordered a shoulder roast, but there was an error of some kind, and I got an email saying that they didn't have the shoulder roast, but had a neck roast and did I want it anyway. Naturally, I said yes.

• 1/2 cup marinated mushrooms
• 2 carrots, cut into suitable chunks
• 1 onion, cut into eighths
• 1/2 head of garlic, each clove lightly smashed
• 4 small potatoes, halved
• 1 cup broth (I used pork, since it was to hand)
• salt and pepper
• thyme
• a goat neck roast of about 1 lb

Put the mushrooms in the bottom of your crock pot. Put the rest of the vegetables and the broth in next. Liberally treat the roast with salt, pepper and thyme. (I do this in the pot, so any slop goes into the broth.) Cook on low for six or eight hours.

Remove everything from the pot, and if so inclined reduce the broth for a sauce. Pull the meat off the bone, which should be a trivially easy task. Serve, topped with broth, reduced or not.

The wild-card in this recipe is your marinated mushrooms. The marinade used will bring a lot to the party. I make my own and they are somewhat vinegar heavy, which gives a nice acid bite to the sauce, which helps to cut the richness of the roast. If your marinade is mellower, then you could consider adding a small splash of vinegar to the mix. Or not. You could also use plain mushrooms, of course, and tweak your sauce to your taste.