Thursday, February 24, 2011

Kocsonya, or "Hungarian Pig's Feet Soup"

Okay. Now I know most of you looking at this post are thinking "wow that's really gross" but I'm sincerely hoping that a few of you are thinking, "Hmm that's interesting." I love this stuff. My grandmother would make it usually once a year in the winter time, because you could leave it outside to cool. Yes that's right, this is a cold soup. And not only that, when it cools down it turns to gelatin. What do you think most gelatin foods are made from?
This is a very basic soup, the only thing is it takes hours to make. You have to let it cook to break down the feet to gel. I like to eat it usually for breakfast, but I can't eat the whole thing at once. I know I like weird food, but even this one weirds me out after about 20 minutes (Even though its delicious).

Kocsonya
Ingredients (for approx 2 people)
  • 2 pigs feet. Ask your butcher to cut them in half lengthwise if it isn't already; you could even ask them to cut it into quarters lengthwise. Make sure there isn't any hair on it, and that it is thoroughly cleaned. 
  • 6 cloves of garlic, just cut in half. You don't want to cut them up any more, because they'll get really mushy anyways and you strain them out at the end. You can always add more or less to taste.
  • About 10 whole peppercorns. Keep them whole for sure. 
  • About 1 tablespoon of salt.

In a large pot, add the above ingredients. Fill with water until the feet are covered.  Set to boil. When it is boiling, turn the heat down to simmer, but still boiling. You will need to let it cook for around 4-6 hours. You might need to add a little bit of water during this time, to keep the feet under water. You can leave it covered or uncovered, I cooked it last time uncovered.
Periodically skim off the fat from the top of the soup (shouldn't be much). Make sure you well ventilate your house when you cook this! I'm not saying the smell is bad, its just not great, haha. When the meat is falling off the bone and you can easily stick a fork through it, the soup is ready.
With a strainer small enough to hold the pepercorns, Strain the juice into a bowl or shallow dish. Making sure no pepper or garlic tag along, add the meat (bones and all) to the juice. Stick this in the fridge (or outside if its cold enough) to gel. Ready to serve when gelled. To eat it use a spoon, but you'll probably be using hands as well when you get the meat off the bone.
Well if you were brave enough to cook this, bravo! I hope you enjoyed it :-)

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