Crispy Pork Cheeks Croquette Recipe by Chef Igor Cikarev at The Gibson Hotel, served with spiced apple compote, parsnip espuma and crushed hazelnuts. A playful dish to entice taste buds, with textures and flavours. A recipe for real advanced cooks and food lovers.
Ingredients:
(Serves 6)
Pork Cheeks
– 4 pork cheeks
– 800ml of vegetable stock
– 2 carrots, roughly chopped
– 2 onion, roughly chopped
– 1 tbsp of tomato purée
– sea salt
– ground black pepper
– sprig of thyme
– 4 garlic cloves
– 1 bay leaf
– 50g Parmesan grated
– 20g fresh parsley
– vegetable oil, for deep frying
– 50g whole peeled hazelnuts
Coating
– 2 hen eggs
– 100g of plain flour
– 100g of Panko breadcrumbs
Parsnip Espuma
– 45g of shallots, diced
– 25g of butter
– 3g of salt
– 350ml of milk
– 100g of parsnip, peeled and chopped
Apple compote
– 200g of Bramley apple, peeled and diced in small cubes
– 1 tbsp of sugar
– 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar
– 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Method:
Pork Cheeks
1. To braise the pork cheeks, sweat carrots, onions and garlic in a large saucepan, on a medium heat until lightly golden. Add the herbs and cook for a further minute before stirring in the tomato.
2. Add the pork cheeks and stock, bring to a boil, reduce to a very gentle simmer and cook covered for 4 hours.
3. When ready remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Drain off the stock, remove thyme, rosemary and bay leaf and while still warm shred the meat into a bowl and add parmesan and chopped parsley.
4. Season with salt and pepper. Shape the pork mix into golf balls.
Coating
1. Whisk the eggs in a bowl. Place the flour and panko breadcrumbs on 2 different flat containers.
2. Cover each pork cheeks ball with flour, egg and then panko breadcrumbs, then roll again in egg and breadcrumbs, lightly coating each time. The second coating prevents any cracks when frying.
3. Heat the deep fryer to 180˚C and fry ithem for 2 minutes till golden brown.
4. Place the balls in the 180˚C oven for 4-5 minutes. When ready set aside in a warm place.
Parsnip Espuma
1. Sweat the shallots in the butter for 3 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the other ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Pour into a blender, then blitz, scrape down the sides of the jug and blitz again. Pass through the sieve.
3. Pour into a siphon and charge with 2 gas cartridges. Keep warm until needed.
Apple Compote
1. To make the apple compote, place diced apples into a pan, add sugar and vinegar and cook them until they have almost collapsed.
2. Remove the pan from the heat, add cinnamon and cool quickly.
Assembling
1. Plate a table spoon of apple compote in the middle of the serving bowl. Place the pork cheek on the top and add parsnip directly from the syphon over the croquette.
2. Drizzle around a bit of the herb oil. Scatter over with crushed hazelnuts and serve immediately.
3. Serve with spiced apple compote, parsnip espuma and crushed hazelnuts.
Igor Cikarev is the executive head chef at The Gibson Hotel. A Russian native from Riga, Igor got his start in the Latvian capital and has continued to grow his experience over the years.
Chef Igor also cooks for many of Ireland’s romance seekers on RTÉ’s popular TV show, First Dates, which is filmed at The Gibson Hotel in Dublin.
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