Pig’s Head and Potato Pie with Pig’s Ear, Sorrel, Spinach and Parsley Salad

Introduction:

There were murmurs around the room as the compère made the next announcement. To some it was heaven, to others it was a fence-sitter and to the rest it was a face-scruncher. It was going to come from one of New York’s finest, a talent that had titillated the culinary streets of New York and had stirred the innards and keyboards of the mumblers and meanderers of the gastro-critique fraternity.

The next will be bone marrow with a parsley salad, and here to show us how it’s done is Gabrielle Hamilton from Prune Restaurant in New York – Hands together if you please.

Inspired by the nose to tail genius that is Fergus Henderson, who was also in the building, Gabrielle captivated the audience no more so by the fact that amongst all the rare and expensive ingredients being manipulated by some exquisite chefs in this Master Class in Melbourne, it would be a humble piece of bone with its gelatinous and oozy marrow, and an ever so simple parsley salad with classic vinaigrette that would shine, and turn those fence sitters in to converts and the face-scrunchers to fence sitters.

It was 2008 and this was the year that I truly started to think about the wonders of offal, or the ‘other’ parts of what we carnivores have on offer to eat, but often choose not to. As the next course of fried veal sweetbreads and bacon was served I delighted at the unctuously soft deep fried pancreas, and the horrors of being faced with tripe (the lining of a cows stomach) and onions as a child began to evolve into thoughts of experience and knowledge.

I have recently been reading a book by the excellent writer and cook Jane Grigson, a beautifully written, in-depth look at ‘Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery’, first published in 1967. It has inspired me to think more about every part of the animal and the scope for some really tasty food. In conjunction with the marvellous and ‘iconic’ The Complete Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson, I have for some while had a real desire to cook a pig’s head. And the fulfilment of such desires is aided somewhat by having access to a brilliant brilliant butcher who with a bit of luck and a fair wind can obtain virtually anything for carnivorous consumption.

Since my first enquiry of the availability, I have learnt that there are very stringent regulations on selling pigs’ heads based around the possible harmful bacteria that can sometimes be found in the pig’s mouth. As a consequence every pig’s head needs to be inspected before being released for consumption. This means that if inspectors are not present the head cannot be released. The upshot was that I had to wait about 3 weeks, but when I got the call to say it had arrived I was like a kid in a sweet shop. To do it justice, and as part of the learning process, I decided to do a slightly modified version of Fergus Henderson’s classic: Pig’s Head and Potato Pie with a Pig’s Ear, Sorrel, Spinach and Parsley Salad.

 

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