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Passion for Pork www.PassionforPork.com

Fried Pig's Tails, Beans, Devilled Quail Egg & Sauce Ravigote

Fried Pig's Tails, Beans, Devilled Quail Egg & Sauce Ravigote

Adapted from Under Pressure: Cooking Sous-Vide by Thomas Keller

Ingredients

Pig’s Tails
  • 1 thyme sprig
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 g (1/8 tsp) black peppercorns
  • 1 g (1/8 tsp) coriander seeds
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled
  • 4 pig’s tails (500 g total), cold
  • 250 g chicken stock, cold
  • 1 carrot, cut into 1” dice
  • 1 celery stalk, cut into 1” dice
  • ¼ yellow onion, cut into 1” dice
  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 65 g all purpose flour
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 75 g panko crumbs, finely ground in a food processor
  • Oil for deep frying, ~6-8 cups
  • Sel gris or fleur de sel to finish 
Sauce Ravigote (makes ~¾ cup)
  • 26 g Dijon mustard
  • 10 g finely minced shallot
  • 30 g champagne vinegar (or cider vinegar or sherry vinegar)
  • 5 g granulated sugar
  • 5 g kosher salt, or to taste
  • 90 g extra virgin olive oil
  • 90g canola oil
Quail Eggs
  • 4 quail eggs (plus a few extra if available)
  • 6 g crème fraîche (or sour cream or Greek yogurt)
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Spicy paprika
Romano Beans
  • 4 green Romano beans
  • 4 yellow Romano beans
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pinch minced shallot
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Frisée Salad
  • Frisée leaves (or microgreens or micro herbs)
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Champagne vinegar (or cider vinegar or sherry vinegar)
  • Minced chives
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation

Pig's Tails

Place thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and garlic clove on a small sheet of plastic wrap. Roll up the sachet, and cut off the ends of the roll so that the herbs are just covered.

Arrange the tails in a single layer in a large bag and add the chicken stock, herb sachet, carrot, celery and onion. Vacuum-pack on medium. Cook sous-vide at 82.2°C (180°F) for 8 hours.

Let the pig’s tails rest at room temperature just until they have cooled enough to handle. (It is important to work with the tails while they are still warm; if they cool down too much and seize up, place them, with their liquid, in a saucepan and rewarm.) Remove the tails from the braising liquid and reserve the liquid. Debone the tails: Place a tail on the work surface. Make a cut down the length and, using a knife and your hands, pull back the skin and meat to expose the bones, cutting against the bones to leave as much meat as possible attached to the skin. Use your fingers to gently remove the tail bones – they should come out in one piece. Run your fingers over the meat to find any small pieces of cartilage, and remove them. Trim any rough edges. Trim off the last 2-3 inches of tail where there is little or no meat. If there was no extra back meat then reserve the trim for stuffing the tail. Bone and trim the remaining tails.

Dampen the work surface slightly with your hand or a wet kitchen towel. Place a piece of 18” wide food-safe plastic wrap long enough to enclose a tail on the surface. Lay an opened tail across the bottom of the plastic. Season well with salt and pepper. Moisten the top of the meat with about 5g (1 tsp) of the braising liquid. (The liquid is so gelatinous that it will help to hold the tail together.) If there is shredded back meat then add about 2 Tbsp of meat to the opened tail, otherwise add the 2-3” end of the tail that had been trimmed off. Folded the tail onto itself so that the narrow end overlaps with the wider end; the final shape should be of an even thickness along the length. Roll the tail up in the plastic wrap.

Grasping the two ends of the plastic wrap, roll the wrapped tails along the counter to tighten the plastic wrap until the tails are a uniform cylindrical shape. Do not overtighten. Tie the ends of the plastic wrap off to keep the shape. Repeat with the remaining tails. Refrigerate overnight, or chill in an ice bath. Reserve the remaining braising liquid for another use, if desired.

Put the flour, beaten eggs, and panko crumbs in three separate shallow dishes. Unwrap the tails and season well with salt and pepper. Line large plate (or small baking sheet) with parchment paper.

Dip the tails into the flour, patting off any excess, then into the egg, scraping off any excess, and then into the panko crumbs. Dip into the egg and panko a second time. Handle the tails as carefully as possible so that they are evenly coated. Place the tails on the plate and refrigerate to chill and set the coating.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Heat the oil to 176°C (350°F). Be careful as you cook the tails: occasionally one may split or spit oil. Lower the tails 2 at a time into the oil and cook for 2-3 minutes, turning as necessary for even colour. Drain on paper towels, and arrange on a sheet pan. Transfer the tails to the oven to heat for at least 3 minutes, or until hot throughout.

Sauce Ravigote

Whisk together the mustard, shallot, vinegar, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Continue to whisk, slowly drizzling in the olive oil and canola oil to emulsify. Season to taste with additional salt if necessary.

Quail Eggs
Bring a medium pan of water to a boil. Bring the quail eggs up to room temperature or place them in a bowl of warm tap water while the hot water comes up to a boil. Prepare an ice bath. Once the water is boiling, Add the eggs and simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer to ice bath to chill.

Peel the eggs and cut them lengthwise in half. Remove the yolks and pass them through a fine mesh sieve or tamis into a bowl. Stir in the crème fraîche. Add additional crème fraîche if necessary, ¼ tsp at a time, until the yolks are smooth and of a pipeable consistency.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Scrape into a small pastry bag fitted with a small star tip. Pipe the yolks into the egg whites and sprinkle with paprika. Refrigerate until time to serve.

Romano Beans

Bring a large pot of salted water to boiling. (Can use the same water as was used to cook quail eggs.) Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath. (Can use the same bath as was used to chill quail eggs.) Blanche the beans in the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove the beans and chill them in the ice bath.

Cut off the ends of the beans and slice them ?” thick on a bias. Toss the beans with a light coating of olive oil, minced shallot, and salt and pepper to taste.

Frisée Salad
Toss the frisée with a light coating of olive oil, a few drops of vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, spread a spoonful of sauce ravigote onto a plate. Top with a small stack of romano beans, and place a fried pig's tail on the beans. Sprinkle the pig's tail with sel gris or fleur de sel. Mound the frisée on the tails and add two egg halves to each plate.

Yield: 4

Approximately 4 Servings

Tags: beans | pig tail | pork | quail eggs | sauce ravigote | Thomas Keller |