With a newly opened large Asian supermarket, Ottawa is being exposed to foods and groceries more common to ethnic communities in larger cities like Toronto and Vancouver. During its grand opening, the supermarket was quite the realization for many that tofu comes in more flavours and varieties than plain; soy sauce comes in several preparations from a multitude of foreign and domestic producers that bottles can fill an entire shelf; ice cream comes in exotic flavours like green tea, mango, taro, and durian; and Asian cultures commonly prepare off cuts like pig's ears and chicken feet.

Indeed, those, familiar with the Vancouver originating T&T chain, know stores have two meat displays besides a long and well stocked meat counter. One carries more standard cuts of meat. The other, glorious offal. Think beef kidneys, two kinds of beef tripe (honey comb and omasum), pig skin, pig heart, duck tongues, chicken hearts, and chicken gizzards, everything shrink-wrapped on styrofoam trays. At the meat counter, you will find more mainstream cuts of beef, pork, chicken, and duck. Interspersed amongst the chops, legs, stew meat, and roasts, you will also find pig trotters and chicken feet. Having never cooked pig's ears, I chose to challenge myself.

Previously Frozen Pig's Ears
And yes, those would be pig's trotters and tripe sneaking into the picture.

Eating cuts like ears, cheeks, snouts, tongues, and trotters means you are eating from nose to tail. This form of consumption seems to be prevalent in old world cultures whose values reflect strong agrarian origins. Raising livestock is an expensive and risky endeavor when considering both feed and care. To ensure return on investment, all the nutritive value from an animal's carcass needs to be extracted. Just about everything is edible, the question is how to cook it.

While an episode of the recently aired season of Top Chef Masters demonstrated French cuisine to be familiar with pig's ears (boiling them soft in a court bouillon), I decided to red braise them. Red braising or red cooking is a Northern Chinese cooking technique that imparts a characteristically dark colour and flavour to the slow cooked meat. At Northern Chinese restaurants, you will commonly encounter red braised pork belly.

Having purchased no pork belly, I slowly braised the ears, let them cool, chilled them, sliced them thin, and served them cold.

Red Braised Pig's Ears
Besides flavouring them, red braising softened the pig's ears, leaving a gentle cartilaginous crunch.

Recipe

Pig's ears braising in a mixture of wine, soy, sugar, and spice

One ear, retrieved after 3 hours braising, laid flat to cool

Two other ears, retrieved after 3 hours braising, laid flat to cool

Pig's ears, chilled, sliced, and served cold

What you'll need:

• 4 pig's ears
• 1/2 cup of dry sherry (a fortified wine) or rice wine
• 2 1/2 tbsp chicken marinade or dark soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 whole pieces of star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick

The following procedure involves parboiling the ears to remove scum and encourage flavours and then slow cooking them in a sweet and spice infused braising liquid.

Method:

1. Add the ears (thawed if originally frozen) to a large pot of water and place the pot on a burner set to medium.
2. Bring the mixture up to a simmer, not a rolling boil, and simmer the ears for an hour.
3. Meanwhile, place the sugar, chicken marinade or dark soy, and whole spices (star anise and cinnamon) into a slow cooker with a cup of water. Set the slow cooker to high and stir to dissolve the sugar.
4. Remove the simmered ears from the pot to the slow cooker.
5. Add as much water as needed to cover the ears and bring to a very gentle simmer.
6. Cook for 3 hours.
7. Carefully remove the ears from the braising liquid to a plate. They will be very soft and coloured brown.
8. Let the ears cool to room temperature
9. Cover with plastic and chill in a refrigerator until solid (approximately 3-5 hours)
10. Slice into slivers and serve cold.

As the Serious Eats recipe, on which this one is based, states, ear is an acquired texture as opposed to an acquired taste. Even braised low and slow for hours, the ears retain a cartilaginous crunch.

Next time, I am going to try cooking them in red chili.



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