French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [129]
As I have described in the introductory chapter dealing with the food of the Loire valley, rillettes and another version of the same dish, called rillons, in which the pieces of pork are much larger, are to be bought in every charcuterie and are served in every restaurant. Nowadays the final shredding of rillettes is often done by machine, but the good charcutiers will tell you that this is not satisfactory, for it reduces them to too purée-like a consistency.
RILLETTES D’OIE
POTTED GOOSE AND PORK
Few people nowadays would want to cut up a goose simply to make rillettes, but when you have, say, a leg of roast goose and some good pieces of the carcase meat left over at Christmas time, this is an excellent dish in which to use it up.
Cut the goose meat from the bones and cook it with 1 to 2 lb. of fat pork and seasonings exactly as described above, plus about 4 tablespoons of the fat saved from the goose when it was roasted.
The timing and finishing of the dish are also as for the pork rillettes.
RILLETTES DE LAPIN
POTTED RABBIT AND PORK
About lb. of rabbit meat, weighed uncooked and cut from the bone, to 1 lb. of fat pork, the whole cooked exactly as described for the pork rillettes, make an excellent little hors-d’œuvre.
GALANTINE DE PORC AU VIN BLANC
GALANTINE OF PORK WITH WHITE WINE
For this galantine the ideal cut is a hand of pork, an inexpensive joint comprising both a good proportion of lean meat and the trotter which, together with the rind of the meat, supply the necessary gelatinous elements.
An average hand of pork will weigh about 5 lb. Get the butcher to remove the rind and bone and tie the joint. Other ingredients are 2 wineglasses of dry white wine, 4 or 5 little onions and the same number of carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, a tomato, a bouquet consisting of a stick of celery, a leek, 2 bay leaves, several sprigs of parsley and a little piece of lemon peel; seasonings are a scant dessertspoon of salt, 4 crushed juniper berries, 6 peppercorns.
Split the trotter. Put it together with the rind of the pork cut into strips, and the bones from the joint, into a big saucepan in which all the ingredients will fit without leaving too much space. Add the vegetables, the bouquet, the seasonings, and the meat tied into a sausage shape. Put in the wine and enough water to just about cover the whole contents of the pan, bring very gently to the boil, skim, cover the pan, and cook extremely slowly for about 2 to 2 hours. Remove the meat, which by now should be very tender. Continue cooking the rest for another hour, then strain the liquid into a bowl and leave it to set. (With the debris a second-stock can be made for some other dish.)
Chop the meat and at least half of the rind roughly, not too small. Pack it into a fairly deep terrine or bowl of about 4-pint capacity so that it is about three-quarters full. See that it is well seasoned. Pour in about one soup ladle of the warm stock and leave the galantine to set. All this must be done while the meat and stock are still warm or the mixture will not coagulate.
This, in principle, makes the ordinary galantine, which can be sliced like a pâté. If it is for a special occasion, put the meat into an oblong tin or terrine so that it can be cut into elegant-looking slices. The jelly, which in the ordinary way is reserved for some other purpose, can accompany it. Proceed as follows:
Remove every speck of fat from the jelly when it has set. Beat the whites of 2 eggs just until they begin to froth. Put them into a saucepan with the jelly, bring very gradually to simmering point and leave over the lowest possible flame so that the liquid is only just moving, for 7 to 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave another 10 minutes. Strain through a cloth wrung out in warm water. The liquid should now be absolutely clear, and a pale straw colour. Leave it to set again.
To serve the galantine, slice it and arrange it in the centre of a long, flat dish. Surround it with