Anton's Red Love is a creamy Bavarian cow's milk cheese. It is the type of cheese I had in my mind the whole time I was curing and smoking a wild boar shoulder. I thought they would go perfect together, and I was right. This combo also made a ridiculous grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
To cure the boar shoulder I rubbed it with a mix of kosher and pink curing salt and vacuum-packed it. Vacuum-packing is an economical way of curing things that are destined for cooking because you don't need to use as much cure. I allowed it to cure for 5 days in the fridge before removing it from the package, rinsing it and hot-smoking it for 2 hours to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. After it was thoroughly cooled I sliced it into little chunks for this dish and thin strips on a meat slicer for other uses.
I made the pickled mustard seeds by slow cooking them in a mixture of vinegar, water and sugar for about three hours. They will swell up a bit and the liquid becomes syrupy when they are finished.
The gnocchi is Parisian style, meaning it is made from a "Pate a Choux" which creates steam during the cooking process which leavens the gnocchi. I used rye flour here as it worked perfectly with the meat and cheese.
I put chunks of the cheese on the plate and placed it under the broiler to melt it down. The gnocchi was sauteed in pork fat along with the ham chunks, peas and carrot spheres. I made the spheres by roasting some large whole carrots and scooping pieces out with a melon-baller. I finished off the dish with some raw pea shoot greens.
To cure the boar shoulder I rubbed it with a mix of kosher and pink curing salt and vacuum-packed it. Vacuum-packing is an economical way of curing things that are destined for cooking because you don't need to use as much cure. I allowed it to cure for 5 days in the fridge before removing it from the package, rinsing it and hot-smoking it for 2 hours to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. After it was thoroughly cooled I sliced it into little chunks for this dish and thin strips on a meat slicer for other uses.
I made the pickled mustard seeds by slow cooking them in a mixture of vinegar, water and sugar for about three hours. They will swell up a bit and the liquid becomes syrupy when they are finished.
The gnocchi is Parisian style, meaning it is made from a "Pate a Choux" which creates steam during the cooking process which leavens the gnocchi. I used rye flour here as it worked perfectly with the meat and cheese.
I put chunks of the cheese on the plate and placed it under the broiler to melt it down. The gnocchi was sauteed in pork fat along with the ham chunks, peas and carrot spheres. I made the spheres by roasting some large whole carrots and scooping pieces out with a melon-baller. I finished off the dish with some raw pea shoot greens.