We all know that our pork chops, pulled pork and bacon come from the humble pig but have you ever thought about the other parts of that humble pig? I was cruising my local Asian grocer last week and unexpectedly came across pig ears in the meat case. I admit I have never cooked or knowingly eaten pig ears before but I was age to try.
I am huge fan of Chef Cosentino and his head to tail philosophy though as a home cook, it's a bit tougher to embrace. But, pig ears in arm, I headed home to see what I could make of this latest ingredient challenge.
I have pigs ears, or so I am told.
OK fun aside, pig ears are tough, so you have to do a few things before you want to eat them. I boiled them for about 20 minutes just to get all the scum off. Then I drained them and put them on to braise with a mira poix, and some fresh garden herbs.
So I let them braise for about 3 hours until the ears were tender. I know, that's weird. Then you need to cool them completely. The next step is all about what you prefer. You can serve them braised in an asian broth at this point or opt for something different as I did, thinking that my husband was much more likely to try them if they were disguised.
When the cooled, they were easy to handle and even had a coating that seemed a bit gelatinous to me. So I mixed equal parts corn starch and flour, along with some cayenne, salt & pepper and used it to dredge the pig ears that I had sliced into thin strips.
I heated the deep fryer to 350 and set sail. I have to tell you that you MUST do this in a fryer with a lid because it splatters A LOT. more than anything I have ever fried.
At the end of the day, it's a lot of work for some very tasty crunchy bits that I used atop salads and as a guilty snack at night. I loved them, hubs was ambivalent. Was it worth the effort? OF COURSE! I always want to try something new. How about you?
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