A Little Cheeky

One of my husbands favorite meals when eating out in Spain was Carillada or for those who don't speak Spanish "hog's cheek".  As much as he would rave about it, I could never get myself to order it, or to even consider making some at home.  So when my father announced that there were some halibut cheeks in the freezer,  I had a hard time getting too excited.
I guess you could call halibut the monster fish of the ocean since it can grow to be more than 8 feet long and weigh over 700 pounds. I had no idea they could grow so big and was surprised to see the palm sized medallions sitting on the counter ready to be cooked--no way that these babies came from a guppy.

My mom decided that we would lightly bread them and fry them in a little butter.  Now in my opinion, butter makes everything edible, so I was feeling pretty good about this culinary adventure.  As I took my first bite, I couldn't believe it.  If I had not known what I was eating I would have sworn that the tender, sweet, succulent meat in my mouth was lobster.  I had no problem gobbling up the two cheeks on my plate, and diving in for seconds.

Halibut cheeks now rank up there as one of my favorite dishes, and now I can't help but wonder if maybe I missed out on something by skipping the hog jowls.