French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [130]
This recipe is based on one used in Lorraine for making one of their traditional feast day dishes—a galantine for which a whole sucking pig is cut up. The wine, the vegetables, the herbs and spices, all combine to make it one of the best dishes of its type I have yet tasted; but pork galantine is not a long-keeping dish so don’t choose to make it in exceptionally hot or thundery weather.
GALANTINE DE PORC À LA BOURGUIGNONNE
GALANTINE OF PORK WITH PARSLEY AND GARLIC
Make your galantine as above (it can, of course, be made in smaller or larger quantities) and when the meat is ready chopped to go into the terrines, mix with it 3 or 4 tablespoons of parsley very finely chopped with a clove or two of garlic. This makes a particularly charming looking galantine, reminiscent in appearance of the famous Burgundian ham galantine, the jambon persillé, which is one of the great specialities of Burgundy, always served at Easter, and for which a whole, uncooked ham is simmered with pigs’ feet and white wine. The jelly, mixed with parsley and garlic, is poured over the ham, which is cut in fairly large pieces and pressed down into a big white salad bowl. But, unless you have your own home-cured hams or want to cook a whole one, this is not a practical proposition for English kitchens, for it is difficult to buy half or quarter of a cured, uncooked ham; and gammon, even unsmoked, does not quite do instead.
PIEDS DE PORC PANÉS OR STE. MÉNÉHOULD
GRILLED PIGS’ TROTTERS
Pigs’ trotters are considered quite a delicacy in France and can usually be bought ready-cooked and breadcrumbed in the charcuteries, so that all you have to do is to heat them up under the grill. Pieds de porc trufflés have made the reputation of many a charcutier and restaurateur, and provide a good example of the way the humblest kind of plebeian dish can be transformed into a luxury; the cooked trotters are boned, stuffed with chopped pork or sausage meat and truffles, wrapped in crépine19 and grilled. But quite apart from the expense of the truffles, this is rather a performance to attempt at home and even penny-plain pigs’ trotters simply boiled, breadcrumbed and grilled make an excellent hot horsd’œuvre for those who do not despise cheap foods.
The method is as follows: for 4 pigs’ trotters the other ingredients are an onion, a couple of carrots, a big bouquet of parsley, bayleaf, a stick or two of celery and a strip of lemon peel tied together, seasonings and water. For the final operation, breadcrumbs, melted butter and, to serve with the trotters, a sauce tartare.
If possible, buy the trotters a day in advance, sprinkle them with coarse salt and leave them in a cool place until the time comes to cook them. Then rinse them, put them in a large saucepan with the vegetables, herbs and a little salt, and cover them completely with cold water. Bring to simmering point, take off the scum and cover the pan, tilting the lid so that steam can escape. Let them simmer for about 3 hours until you see that the skin and meat are coming loose from the bones. Take them out and leave in a dish to cool a little. Strain the stock and keep it. Cooked again with some minced beef it will make a fine jelly.
While the trotters are still warm, coat them with barely melted butter and then with dried breadcrumbs. One coating will be sufficient but it should be a very thick one and should be well pressed down. About 1 oz. each of breadcrumbs and butter should be enough for this operation.
Now the theory is that the trotters should be put straight under the grill and cooked until the outside is brown and crunchy but, in practice, this does not work very well because, under the grill of a domestic cooker, the outer coating will be cooked before the trotters are really hot, so the best system is to put them in a flat fireproof dish or in the grill pan, pour a little more melted butter over them and let them get thoroughly hot in a moderate oven for about 15 minutes. Then transfer the dish to the