A 'Taste of Elegance' Preparation - Day Two

Day Two: Today we moved forward with our preparation for monday's event. Check out the videos for the full run down....

First step: Strain the pork stock and then strain again. Once strained, I moved the stock onto the flame and proceed to clean it of impurities. Once cleaned and reduced slightly, this stock will form the base with which we braise the various parts of the hog.


Step Two: Grinding the fatback. We are calling the preparation we are presenting on monday a 'rillette', which is really stretching the terminology, but who cares. Basically what we're going to do is braise the shoulders, belly, head and tongue in the rich pork stock. Once the meats are cooked, then we're going to pick them and reform the meat into a log which we'll coat with panko bread crumbs and pan fry. Part of the flavorings we're going to add to the meat mixture is ground fat back which I think will promote the natural pork flavor, as well as, provide an amazing mouthfeel for the finished dish.


Step Three: Stomach Chips. Enough said. Watch the video.


Step Four: Making the fry oil. Yes, we're even messing with the fry oil to try and add more flavor. Actually, now's a good time to discuss how we're going about layering flavors for this particular dish. My whole idea behind this dish is that I want to make sure that the pork has maximum 'porkiness' and doesn't get lost behind another flavor that's trying to elbow in. Basically every decision we make has to have the underlying thought of 'is this going to enhance the pork flavor'? If the answer is no, then the idea gets thrown out. So, Beau's pork has a very earthy quality to it. Mushrooms also have earthy tones, so I thought perhaps we'd infuse the oil were going to fry in with mushroom stems. Done.


Step Five: Processing lard. Does anyone else's heart flutter hearing the words 'processing lard'? Anyhow, back to using the whole animal. We are taking lard from the animal and rendering it down so that we can use it to confit the yukon golden potatoes we'll be using as the base of our dish.


Step Six: Cutting brunoise vegetables: I alluded to the fact that I'll be folding 'flavorings' into the cooked pork product when I begin to roll the logs. One of the additions I'll be using is a brunoise(really damn small for the uninitiated) of carrot, leek and granny smith apple. Just thought I'd leave you with a video of how far we're willing to go in order to get an amazing dish. Seriously, cutting brunoise is a HUGE pain in the ass..... but worth it.


More tomorrow.