Saturday, 15 March 2014

Episode 3 Hassun




Death...

Grinning from ear 

To ear. 

Justice and revenge 

Best served cold. 

His breath a sentence serving life.


     Hassun is the second course of a Kaiseki dinner - so named because of the size of the plate (eight inches). This course features foods that are complements of each other in nature, artfully depicting the relationship between sea and mountain  -- or field and stream. A sort of tension/attraction - a balance of opposites.


No Food Scenes this episode. Just ears, ears, ears. So for this week, I switch from cannibal cookery to vampire bloodthirst.


      If Hannibal is tied up in court or too busy killing and mutilating to even think about cooking, it means a break for me - or does it?

      It just so happens that our neighbours, the Upyrs are hungry. (That's right, Upyrs - don't you dare go calling them vampires - or even vampyres - they are much more powerful, richer, smarter and of a much more ancient lineage...etc etc) They are shooting Hemlock Grove  in the studio down the street so I head over to their sound stage to do some food scenes.

      They want the Upyr Princeling to break the bone of his lamb shank dinner and suck out the marrow in a post-pubescent moment of suddenly discovered bloodlust. Of course, Handsome Bill Skarsgard, who plays him can't break a shank bone with his bare hands - you have to have the magical super-human strength of an Upyr to do that - so I am called in to make some fake E-Z snap'n'half ones:

Faking marrow bones out of tarelli dough painted with white chocolate colored red
Lamb shank with fake bone-which gets filled with cranberry jelly to look like bloody marrow

and the raw heart and kidney I made from jello and filled with red syrup blood spurt

     It seems they also needed a couple dozen fake hearts and kidneys for Bill to gobble as they come out of the cloned human organ machine. And they have to spurt copious amounts of blood all over the place when Bill chomps on them. So I made them out of raspberry jello - a dozen each to cover all the takes with some left over to leave in co-worker's desk drawers. I think they are having quite a lot of fun over at Hemlock Grove.

Speaking of fun chomping,

     Lots of you have been cooking along with Hannibal and some have sent me photos of the results. I thought this non-food week would be a good time to share these great efforts with everyone. Here are some of the delicious plates readers of this blog have been creating:

This one came in the day after Hassun aired:




Mads peering at their dinner -- Osso buco made by reader "Thursday St Giles"

and then I got these delicious looking photos from more Hannichefs.....


Hmmm-this one made by Joseph E in Wisconsin looks tastier than what I made for Mads ... but can you make 50 of them Joe, all the same, at midnight, with 4 hours notice - well can you? 



Ryan G sent this from LA - his version of Osso Buco made from beef  chuck - he and his wife are recovering vegetarians and didn't want to use human baby veal legs. Wise choice.

Somdutta sent this from India - she made Venison Stew (from Season 1) but used chicken and ham. Makes sense since the Wendigo is always hamming it up for Will or playing Chicken in the hall.

More Hannidinners made by readers:

Bread pudding made by Euiseok
Huevos High Life made by Euiseok



Veal heart made by DoubleTeE


Pork heart with tomato barquettes and roses by Double TeE

Fruit in Nautilus made by Joshua

Oxtail made and photographed by Joshua - see more at the link below:


Stuffed Veal Loin  Step1: Spinach stuffing       by Katerick
Loin Step 2: Cumberland sauce        by Katerick
Step 3: Stuffed loin just out of the oven       by Katerick
Step 4: Bon appetit!       made by Katerick

plus some lovely Fannibal art...

A manga interpretation by ca-illustration.tumblr.com of my interview with Freddie Lounds http://tattle-crime.com/post/55309235402/


More, please!!! From the comments I'm reading, I think a lot of you are cookin' with the cannibal. Why not share!

      Next time you cook something Hannibal - from my recipes or otherwise - I'd love to post them here (mail to janicepoon8@gmail.com) 

Next Week: You will never look at a jar of honey the same way again. Ever.





all content of this post except where noted copyright Janice Poon 2014




12 comments:

  1. Isn't the episode title "Hassun" (八寸) the second course of smaller side dishes, not Hassan a Middle Eastern name? Then again, Hannibal doesn't merely serve his guests small meals, especially bones!

    Beautiful work!

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    1. Oops, I meant that bones are never a small meal.

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    2. Thanks! I appreciate the correction!

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  3. we're cooking with Hannibal! Here's our veal osso buco from last week, with creamy Parmesan risotto and french bread with Camembert:
    http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t332/mokuyoubi/vealosso_zpscaea42e0.jpg

    Thank you so much for the recipes! Please keep them coming :D

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  4. These Huevos High Life and homemade pork sausage weren't nearly as photogenic as I had hoped (few things are on a blue plate with unmatched silverware, really) but they sure were tasty!

    http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w432/robotspierre/231a0707-70ae-490d-863b-82b19fc42005_zpsc86ee9a3.jpg?t=1395075706

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    1. Thanks Lindsay. I'll make sure I post your photo. I love huevos HIgh Life but don't feel bad at all about your "blue plate specials" they look authentic and delicious.

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  5. Last sunday I made your recipe for Osso Buco for my GF her birthday. It was really good. I served it with some delicious mushroom risotto.
    Thanks for the recipes, i'm going to try more!

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    1. Mark-
      Thanks for trying the osso buco! But don't wait for the next birthday - when you cook that's what makes it a special occasion!

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  6. Just when I thought you couldn't be any more awesome-HEMLOCK GROVE! There was a tiny spoiler in there (it hasn't posted to Netflix yet) but that's ok because you were in the service of the OTHER finest Scandinavian acting family in the US!

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    1. Oops! Sorry about the spoiler - yes the director at Hemlock Grove was joking that I would only food style for fine Danish actors. Seems like a good strategy to me!

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