Beer-drenched pig's hocks

[carioca]

Hi there!

My oven schedule got thrown out of whack today by a frustrating interlude with a Chinese copy of the 3.2 T Tirfor hand winch that I wanted to rip out a tree stump in the forno landscaping area...

Not to worry: still got the pizzas made in time for an early dinner - much better this time, quoth Bianca, looks like the oven is improving :-), and washed down with a glass or two of 1998 Victorian Chalambar shiraz. The geese and clamoring hens all got snippets from the crusts...

But I had to back my whole-grain loaves in the electric oven (pic 1) while preparing the real intended dinner, the aforementioned pig's hocks (recipe follows).

While waiting for the meat to complete the long cuisson, I thought I might usefully add the recipe to the FB collection (pic 2). If I get a good result from the forno, I'll post the 'real' snapshot, too...

Cheers,

LMH

Beer-drenched pig's hind hocks from the Nahe region

(This recipe is from the book "The 100 best German meat recipes", published in 1982 by Morion)

2 rear leg pieces, about 1.5 kg
1 tsp salt
.5 tsp pepper
1 Tblsp butter
1/8 L water
1/2 L beer
2 onions
1/8 L brown sauce

It's easiest if your butcher cuts the hocks in half and slashes the meat in a criss-cross fashion.

Rub the prepared pieces with salt and pepper and place in a roasting pot. Ad water to just cover the bottom.

Place in the middle position of your oven and sear at 250 C. Reduce temperature to about 180-200 C after 30 minutes and turn the trotters every 15 minutes and drizzle them - better: brush them - with beer.

After 1 1/2 hours, add the peeled and cut onions. Leave in the oven for another 20 minutes, then loosen the roasting residue. Return hocks to the oven, pour over the remainder of the beer and return the temperature to 250 C for 10 minutes, which makes the crackle particularly crisp (not someting I can easily do in my WFO :-) - unless I put back some glowing coals?).

Meanwhile add the brown sauce - you could use a ready-made product - to the roasting residue and allow to boil up briefly. Mix with the hocks in the roasting pot.

You could serve the meat with a warm potato salad and a beer. (Bianca used a salad from red beets, potatoes and onions.)

[carioca]

Here's the actual output of the forno, and how it looks at the table, with beetroot/potato salad as an accompaniment... the beer, BTW, is my home-brewed Coopers ale!

Cheers,

LMH

[Inishta]

Not sure how I missed this one. Looks delicious. LMH, is the brown sauce mentioned a gravy or the condiment type?