I have previously posted and discussed both Rillettes, HERE, and Wild Boar, HERE, so I won't go into too much about them. Just click the links if you would like to learn more. What I will say is that these little one and a half inch disks of pork packed some serious flavor. The meat was cooked, on the bone, in pork fat for over five hours, low-and-slow. And as you can see, there is a good deal of fat in the rillettes as well. In case you weren't made aware, fat equals flavor.
I made the rillettes, as I just mentioned, by slow-cooking the wild boar in pork fat. After it was chilled I shredded the boar by hand, mixed in some of the rendered fat and seasoned with salt and pepper. One thing I have learned about wild boar is that you do not need to fool around with it too much. It has plenty of flavor on it's own. I rolled the meat into tubes with plastic wrap and foil and allowed them to chill over night.
I made the mustard with rainier cherries which are mostly yellow with splashes of red which resulted in the lite color. I pitted and then cooked the cherries in white vinegar with garlic, onions, sugar and mustard powder. I pureed the mixture and chilled it. I also pickled some of the cherries.
The crumble is basically a savory cookie made with butter, flower, salt and toasted caraway seeds. The dough is mixed, chilled, baked, cooled and then crumbled up. It added a mush needed textural element to the plate.
Accompanying the rillettes are pickled celery, purslane leaves (essentially a really delicious weed) and a wild foraged ramp scape.
Product:
Wild Boar - From some wooded forrest area in Pennsylvania
Organic Purslane - Queen's Farm
Organic Celery, Organic Rainier Cherries - Culton Organics
Wild Ramp Scapes - Happy Cat Farm
I made the rillettes, as I just mentioned, by slow-cooking the wild boar in pork fat. After it was chilled I shredded the boar by hand, mixed in some of the rendered fat and seasoned with salt and pepper. One thing I have learned about wild boar is that you do not need to fool around with it too much. It has plenty of flavor on it's own. I rolled the meat into tubes with plastic wrap and foil and allowed them to chill over night.
I made the mustard with rainier cherries which are mostly yellow with splashes of red which resulted in the lite color. I pitted and then cooked the cherries in white vinegar with garlic, onions, sugar and mustard powder. I pureed the mixture and chilled it. I also pickled some of the cherries.
The crumble is basically a savory cookie made with butter, flower, salt and toasted caraway seeds. The dough is mixed, chilled, baked, cooled and then crumbled up. It added a mush needed textural element to the plate.
Accompanying the rillettes are pickled celery, purslane leaves (essentially a really delicious weed) and a wild foraged ramp scape.
Product:
Wild Boar - From some wooded forrest area in Pennsylvania
Organic Purslane - Queen's Farm
Organic Celery, Organic Rainier Cherries - Culton Organics
Wild Ramp Scapes - Happy Cat Farm