Recipes with pigs ears

This all started with my making dog chews for Sara more cheaply than I could buy in the store (those smoked pigs ears that cost about 1$-2$ a piece), and devolved into finding whatever recipes I could that contained pigs ears...

So here they are!

Baked Dog Chews

As many pigs ears as you feel like making into dog chews
1 cup oil, olive or vegetable
   (or as a special treat use peanut or coconut)
bouillon powder
salt

Scrub the pig ears well, cleaning them under running tap water.  (I've even scrubbed them with a bit of soap.)  Using a pair of sharp, sturdy kitchen scissors, cut the ears into about three pieces each.

Dip or brush each piece of ear with oil, then place them on a baking sheet.  When all ear pieces are dipped or brushed, sprinkle bouillon powder and a little bit of salt over the sheet's contents.  Be careful not to over-salt them! (Most of the commercial ones I've bought for my dog send her running to her water dish for a huge drinking orgy after she's finished eating an ear.  I think they contain too much salt.)

Bake the ear pieces in the oven at a low 250 degrees for five or six hours.

Drain on paper towels.  Feed to your doggie one piece at a time - this is important for small dogs.  My dog would happily eat a whole ear all at once, but I doubt it's good for her.  These smaller chews are better for smaller dogs.

Tokwa't baboy is evidently a Filipino dish with pigs ears.  I haven't been able to find a recipe of it yet, though.

A casual, non pig-ear version for tokwa't baboy (pork and tofu), from Allen:  ...just get some real nice tastin pork, and cut em up into nice little cubes, then put em in a pan, add some onions and garlic, then you add some vinegar and some toyo... the amounts all vary with your preference, that's what's so good about this recipe... put on top a fire til hot, then serve... but always keep in mind, if serving a Filipino would-be-husband, use another recipe, because he might dump you for having such awful cooking.

And then in a later email:  ...just to add to that info i gave, Tokwa't Baboy is literally Tofu and Pork... so it doesn't have to be ears... a great pig ear dish you ought to try is called Sisig, which is a sizzling pig ear dish served with fried egg. Very delish with a glass of cold beer.

So now I'm in search of full recipes for both tokwa't baboy and sisig.

UPDATE!

Allen dragged out his mom's cookbook to find us a recipe. Thanks, Allen!!

Tokwa't Baboy

1/4 kilo pork
3 pieces tofu
1 head garlic, crushed
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 onions, chopped

Boil pork with some salt and water. Cook until tender then drain and cut into cubes. Fry tofu in hot oil then cut into cubes. Mix together with garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, salt and onions. Serve with the mixture of pork and tofu cubes. Enjoy! Now, your would-be Filipino husband or wife will surely love you for having been able to make such a truly Filipino dish.

Imang Doring's Sisig (non-pig ear version)

1 kilo pork cheek
2 cups water
1 cup pineapple juice
1 tsp whole black pepper
6 pieces chicken liver
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup vinegar (Paombong)
1/4 cup calamansi juice
1/4 cup pineapple juice
3-4 siling labuyo (seeded and chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil pork cheek in pineapple juice, water and whole black pepper. When tender, cool to room temperature. Debone pork cheek and put in bamboo skewers together with chicken liver. Grill over charcoal until skin part of pork is brown and crisp. Chop the pork and chicken liver into small cubes, mixing in the onions, vinegar, calamansi, siling labuyo, salt and pepper.

I imagine this would be easy enough to make into a pig ear version, but I'd rather have a Filipino-recipe-knowledgeable person help alter it, rather than my trying to do so...

Minestra (no, not minestrone) a cabbage soup....

From: aajay (@208.204.67.75) http://food4.epicurious.com/HyperNews/get/archive_swap21501-21600/21584/1/1.html

...my mother used to make. Ingredients sometimes included pigs ears, as well as spare ribs, smoked pork hocks, pepperoni hunks, green cabbage and savoy cabbage. She would also add cheese rinds (from romano cheese) towards the end. I think this was a northern Italian recipe from my fathers province of Marche. You can improvise the amounts but it's impossible to make a small amount.

Portuguese Pork with Greens

From: Lana in GA (ipereira@ix.netcom.com) http://food4.epicurious.com/HyperNews/get/archive_swap21501-21600/21584/2.html

This is a good way of cooking fatty pork cuts like belly of pork. We often add trotters or ( if you’re not squeamish ) ears. Fresh pork hocks are cheap and delicious. I often use a mixture of fatty and leaner cuts to keep the taste but reduce the fat a bit.

about 1 lb pork
coarse salt ( table salt is fine if necessary )
half a large bunch kale or collard greens
4 large potatoes
1 1/2 cups rice.

This should be started in the morning if you are using a single large piece of pork, or fresh hocks. Cover the meat with coarse salt and leave it in a covered dish in the refrigerator. If you are using smaller pieces such as sliced hocks or bellies, spare ribs, country ribs or chops, you can do it in the morning, or at lunch time. If you salt smaller pieces in the morning, however, when you start to prepare dinner it is a good idea to cover them with water, bring to the boil, then discard the water to remove the excess salt.

Rinse off the salt, put the pork into a large pan, cover with water and bring to the boil over medium heat. Skim the scum off, lower the heat and simmer for half an hour. If you are cooking trotters or ears, cook for at least an hour. Shred or chop the collard greens or kale finely, add to the meat and cook for 10 minutes. Add the peeled and quartered potatoes and the rice, and cook until both are tender ( 20 - 30 minutes).

Remove the meat and cut into small cubes, and drain the rice if necessary. Serves 4 - 6. Reheats fairly well.

I use baking potatoes in this, as we like the texture, but others might prefer the firmer texture of boiling potatoes. This is my mother-in-law's recipe, a traditional dish from Madeira. She doesn't cook the meat as long as I do ( I don't like to fight with trotters), and she actually adds some oil or lard if she feels the meat is tough, but I think there's enough fat in this already!

From: Nanna (nannar@isholf.is) http://food4.epicurious.com/HyperNews/get/archive_swap21501-21600/21584/1/2/1/1.html

REC: I´m all ears ...

The following recipes come from Unmentionable Cuisine by Calvin W. Schwabe and I haven´t tried them myself; the only ears I can recall that I have any experience with are sheep´s ears, which are here in my country (Iceland) always boiled and eaten with the rest of the head (in fact, if you served a sheep´s head without the ears attached in the old days, you were immediately suspected of having stolen the sheep and cut off the ears to remove the markings). But now for the pigs ears (no silk purses here, just tasty morsels):

Basic preparation: Clean the ears and soak them in cold water for 4 hours.

Pigs Ears (Schweinsohren), Germany

Simmer the presoaked ears in clean water for 2 hours and then dry them. Brush with melted butter; season with nutmeg, chopped marjoram, salt, and pepper. Coat with bread crumbs and fry until golden brown in hot lard. Serve with caper sauce.

Grilled Pig´s Ears (Oreille de porc grillées), France

In this French variation, cut the simmered ears in half lengthwise, dip them in melted butter, then in bread crumbs, and put them in a hot oven until crisply done.

Or for au diable, cool the simmered ears, split them lengthwise, brush them with Dijon mustard, dip in melted butter, then bread crumbs, and crisp in the oven as above. Serve with sauce diable.

Pea Soup with Pig´s Ears (Erbsensuppe mit Schweinsohren), Germany

Prepare a dried split-pea soup seasoned with marjoram and thyme (do you need a recipe for that?). Cook some presoaked pig´s ears in the soup until they are tender. Cut them into thin slices and return them to the soup.

Pig´s Ears and Sauerkraut (Schweinsohren und Sauerkraut), Germany

Simmer presoaked, salted and peppered ears for 2 hours in sauerkraut containing some caraway seeds, or simmer with cabbage. A French variant of this is to cook the ears with presoaked lentils, sautéed onions, chopped carrots, salt, pepper, a clove, and a bouquet garni, covered with water. Serve as with Erbsensuppe.

Mock Turtle Soup, England

Simmer some large presoaked pigs ears in water overnight with a clove-stuck onion, a bunch of herbs (marjoram, basil, and thyme), and a little vinegar. Allow to cool; skim off the fat and remove and skin the ears. Cut them into thin strips. Strain the stock through muslin and reduce it well over a brisk heat. Season with mace, white pepper, salt, lemon juice, and a glass of sherry. Add the ear strips and serve hot.

Feijoada, Brazil

Wash black beans and soak them in cold water. Drain them, then cook them in water until soft. Slowly fry some seasoned pig´s snouts, feet and ears, and some Portuguese sausages until nicely browned. Drain the fat. Add the meat to the beans, bring to a boil, and simmer for an hour. Correct the seasoning, skim off any fat, and serve.

Oxtail in a firepot (Queue de boeuf en hochepot), France

In the following recipe, the pigs ear is actually just a garnish:

Note from Julie:  It's also the only recipe I've ever seen which willingly uses the word "scum."

In a soup kettle place a disjointed oxtail, 2 cleaned and cut up pigs feet, and a pigs ear. Cover with water and simmer for about 2 hours, removing the accumulated scum. Add a large dice of turnips and carrots, some small white onions, and a sectioned cabbage, and simmer for about 2 hours more. Arrange the pieces of oxtail and pigs feet in a deep serving dish, mound the cooked vegetables on top, and surround them with grilled sausage links and the pigs ear cut into strips.

From: Judy/TX (@152.163.188.97) http://food4.epicurious.com/HyperNews/get/archive_swap21501-21600/21584/1/3.html

...ears another one for you (sort of)

This is what Bruce Cost has to say in Asian Ingredients:  Cook for 1-2 hours or until the cartilage is soft and crunchy. A fine pigs' ear salad is made in Sichuan province by shredding and mixing them with bean sprouts, lots of fresh garlic, and a dressing of soy sauce, vinegar and chili oil.

Cuchifrito

From:  http://www.mindspring.com/~lacocinadeflora/soul.htm

I am going to setup this recipe for a minimum of servings, it should serve at least six people if you'd like to serve more then adjust the amount of ingredients to your specific needs.

Ingredients:

1- 1 Pork stomach. (Cuajo)
2- 2 Pounds of pig ears. (Oreja de cerdo)
3- 2 Pounds of blood sausage. (Morcilla)
4- 2 Pounds of pig tongue. (Lengua de cerdo)
5- 2 Pounds of green bananas. (quineos verde)
6- The juice of six lemons.
7- Mojo as needed
8- 2 Tablespoons of adobo, more or less to taste
9- 1 Cup of Sofrito
10- 3 Tablespoons of oregano.
11- Salt and pepper to taste.
12- 3 Tablespoons of olive oil.
13- 2 to 3 tablespoons of tomato paste.
14- 2 cans of tomato sauce.

Note: As many of you know there are other parts of the pig that can be used. I think that it will be better for me to stop with what I have given you so far.

Preparation:

1- Rinse the pig stomach under cold water making sure to scrub good and hard both in and out.

2- Remove any stringy fibers and place in a pot with the lemon juice and cold water. Make sure that it is completely covered with the water and juice, and set aside.

3- Wash the pig ears in cold water. Place in a pot with cold water and set aside.

4- Wash the pig tongue under cold water scrub and scrape good, and place in another pot with cold water and set aside.

5- After at least one hour drain the water from the pot that has the pig stomach and rinse and scrub the stomach once again. After you have made sure that it is completely clean, Place it in a pot that will be big enough to hold the pig stomach, pig ears and the pig tongue.

6- Add enough cold water to cover the pig stomach place the pot on the stove with high heat. Add the sofrito, salt and pepper, and adobo, bring to a boil. Now lower heat and allow to simmer for about one hour.

7- After the pig stomach has simmered for an hour add the pig ears and tongue. You can raise the heat until it comes to a boil, and then lower to a simmer once again. Allow to cook for another two hours.

8- Once all of the above has simmered and you see that it is nice and tender, remove from heat. 9- Remove from pot set and aside and allow to cool. Save the broth and also set aside.

Sauce:

1- Pour olive oil in a saucepan and bring up to heat.

2- Stir in sofrito once it starts to bubble add tomato paste and stir. Lower heat don't let the paste burn.

3- Add the tomato sauce and stir. Once the sauce starts to boil add a little of the broth from the pot that you had set aside. Add enough, but not to make the sauce watery. You are looking for a medium to light texture. This is a good time to taste for salt. If you would like a spicy sauce, you can add hot sauce or sprinkle some cayenne pepper.

4- Allow to simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

Cuchifrito:

1- Once the cuchifrito has cooled, slice the cuajo in strips about 3/4; to 1 in wide.

2- Do the same with the pig ears.

3- Slice the tongue into medallions about 1/2; in thick.

4- Place all of the above ingredients in a large bowl or pot. Sprinkle a little mojo not to much. and mix well with your hands.

5- Lightly oil a baking pan and place the cuchifrito in it.

6- Place the pan in a preheated 325 degree oven. Allow to roast for about 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. Remember to stir and rotate from bottom to top so that it all cooks even.

7- In a separate pan or cast-iron frying pan place the morcilla and put into oven allow to roast along with the other meats.

Note:  Some cooks prefer to deep fry the cuchifrito, we have found that roasting is less of a mess and the results are just as good if not better. If you’d rather fry it be my guest.

Green bananas: This is the easy part of the dish

1- Rinse the bananas under cold water.

2- Cut off the ends.

3- place them in a pot with cold salted water and bring to a boil.

4- Lower heat and allow to simmer for about 1/2; hour or until tender.

5- when done turn off heat and leave in the pot.

Serving :

In a plate place a combination of the three meats, add a piece of morcilla and a green banana. Pour some sauce or just drizzle some mojo over it and some hot sauce.

Mojo or Mojito

Has many uses, it can be used as a marinate, dipping sauce, dressing for meats, poultry, seafood, tostones, I mean there is no end to what you can use it for. I promise after we finish with the mojito we'll start preparing and cooking, well that is once what ever we are going to cook has marinated enough to accept the flavor of what ever we used for a seasoning.

1 - Head of garlic (peeled)
6 to 8 black pepper corns.
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
1 - cup of olive oil
1/8 of a cup of white vinegar.

In order to prepare this we will start the same way we made the adobo. Once the garlic, pepper corns and salt are crushed and blended together place them in a bowl and add the olive oil and vinegar. Mix all ingredients with a wooden spoon and a funnel or something pour into a jar or an old salad dressing bottle one that has the sprinkle top you know what I mean. and refrigerate. Oh this is best used at room temperature, so if you plan to use it and I know you will, take it out of the fridge early enough.

Adobo

Adobo is a dry or semi dry seasoning used to rub on to meats, poultry, fish and other seafoods. I guess you could call it a dry marinate. So let's prepare some.

1 - Head of garlic peeled.
6 to 8 black pepper corns.
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.
1 - teaspoon of oregano.

Pour salt and pepper corns into your mortar. And slowly start crushing the pepper corns with the pestle.   Now start adding a few cloves of garlic at a time and continue crushing. Once done add the oregano and continue crushing until the final product looks like a  paste.  You can place the adobo in jar or container with a tight lid and refrigerate. Did you notice the aroma and we haven't put this in a hot pan with olive oil yet. Note: You can also use a blender to make this, if you're pressed for time.

Sofrito

4 large yellow onions (washed, peeled) and cut into quarters
2 large Green peppers (washed, seeded) and cut into quarters
2 large tomatoes (washed cored) and cut into quarters
2 heads of Garlic (peeled)
1 package of sweet chili peppers (washed seeded)
1 package of Cilantro. (rinsed in cold water make sure to remove any loose soil)
1 package of Recau (I don't know the English translation for this) rinse in the same way as cilantro
1/8 of a cup of Olive oil.
2 table spoons of Vinegar.

If you have access to a food processor with a metal blade great - if not you can use a blender, but please be careful not to over do it in the blender. Remember we are looking for texture not a green mush. Okay with that in mind lets start. Oh! I almost forgot there are people that still prefer to use the mortar and pestle to do this but we would be here all day and I know that with having to take care of the house and working during the day, well you know what I mean. If you want you can go to the corner bodega or supermarket and buy the sofrito all ready made, but its not going to taste like what we are going to make, and remember we are talking foundation here.

Place one piece each of onion, green pepper, and tomato into the processor along with a few cloves of garlic and chili peppers along with some cilantro and coriander and start the processor just trigger it on and off and continue adding the same amount until you have a fine but coarse mixture. At this time you can empty the mixture and place it in a large bowl. And continue the process until you have processed all of the ingredients. If you are using a blender you may have to add a little cold water to get the machine to start chopping.

Now that you have the mixture nicely chopped you can add the rest of the ingredients olive oil and vinegar. Mix well with a wooden spoon and store away in the manner I mentioned before.

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