A Time For Offal

‘Everyone who wishes to embrace the holistic, ‘nose to tail’ approach

to meat should buy a pig’s head once in a while and make brawn’

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall ‘The River Cottage Meat Book’

I did say I would and I did. I brought home a pig head today in a bucket, quartered, scrubbed (you actually have to scrub the wax out of the ears - seriously), and ready for the pot. For the last three hours it has been bubbling away with a couple of onions, half a head of celery, a few carrots, some spices (cloves, coriander, black peppercorns) and half a packet of fresh rosemary. My kitchen looked a bit like a scene from ‘Saw’ for a while, and when I tipped the head from the bucket, I did feel a bit sick. As it is, I was hoping that by now, the meat in the pot would look just like cooked meat but nope, it definitely still looks like pig head. Once it’s been in for another hour, I have to take it out and pull the meat off the bones (not really looking forward to this bit), put it into a terrine, pour over some of the cooking liquid and leave it to set in the fridge. I’m apprehensive to say the least.

As if this wasn’t enough, I started soaking some chicken livers in milk last night so I could make some pate today. I know, just call me Hugh I’ll-eat-fucking-anything Fearnley-Whittingstall. Whilst the jury is still out on the pigs head terrine (my whole flat now smells distinctly of boiled pig, and I can’t get rid of the thought that there are a pair of eyes and a severed brain in my favourite big pot), I can tell you with confidence that the pate is delicious. I used a really basic recipe; however I did two things differently to usual:

                                                                                                                                                                   

      1. I passed the pate through an incredibly fine sieve before I put it into the dish, and 

      2. I added a bit of truffle oil (it makes pretty much anything taste better).

I would like to warn you though, when I flambéed the chicken livers and brandy I nearly gave myself third degree burns. Definitely try the pate recipe. The pigs head terrine (i.e. Brawn), I’ll keep you posted. I hope you enjoy the extra photos of the pig pre quartering (we’re just crazy us chefs).

Super smooth chicken liver pate

Chicken livers (about 500g, trimmed of any white stringy bits, drained and soaked in milk for an hour/overnight)

1 onion (finely chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

Salt and pepper

100g butter

Salt and pepper

Good shot of brandy

Truffle oil (a splash)

Cooking oil (a tiny splash)

Double cream (about 100ml)

Melt half the butter and a bit of oil in a pan and fry off the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Turn the heat up and add the livers. Fry until nicely caramelised but still soft, add the brandy and light (stand back first, unless you don’t like your eyebrows). Stick in a blender and blitz, add the rest of the butter (cubed, keep it cold), pour in the cream and the truffle oil and some salt and pepper. Pour through a fine sieve into a dish, cover and put in the fridge. Once set, pour over some clarified butter (melt butter, put to one side. Clarified butter is the clear liquid that lies on top of the white milk solids). Eat with toast, or impress your friends by using to make a beef wellington.