Sous Vide Pig's Ears | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide Pig’s Ears

COOK TIME: 12 hours
PREP TIME: 6 hours
DIFFICULTY: Easy
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

4 pig’s ears
50g of rock salt
50ml of vegetable oil
Rice flour, for dusting

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Method

Recipe courtesy of www.greatbritishchefs.com

Pig’s ears are a tragically underrated and underused part of the pig. Cooked properly, they are a delicious savoury treat and, when fried and crispy, they make a great canape. Furthermore, because demand is low, they are usually very cheap, although you may have to order them in advance from your butcher.

METHOD

Rinse the pig’s ears thoroughly in cold running water, then dry using kitchen paper.
Rub the salt into the ears. Set aside to cure for 6 hours.
Preheat the water bath to a temperature of 85⁰C.
Rinse the pig’s ears again, getting rid of as much of the salt as possible, then seal in a vacuum bag with the oil.
Place the bag in the water bath and leave to cook for 12 hours.
Remove the bag from the bath and set aside to cool.
Once the ears have cooled to room temperature, remove them from the bag, pat dry and place in the fridge until thoroughly chilled.
Slice the cold pig’s ears into strips 1cm in thickness, then sprinkle with a dusting of rice flour.
Heat some oil to a temperature of 190⁰C, then add the pig’s ears and fry until crispy. This should take about 2 minutes.

Variations

Try mixing the rice flour with ½ tsp of cayenne pepper to give your pig’s ears a fiery kick.

For extra crunch, roll the pig’s ears in panko breadcrumbs before serving.

Serving suggestions

Crispy pig’s ears are a great addition to a wide variety of dishes. Use them to add crunch and crackle in pork dishes where the meat does not have a crispy skin.

Pig’s ears also make a spectacular canape. Simon Hulstone serves his with a tangy nasturtium and caper tartare sauce but a celeriac remoulade or a sauce gribiche would also work well as an accompaniment.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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