Pea & Ham Soup Terrine
Jul 31st, 2010 by Paul
As far as I’m concerned the best bits of a pig to make terrine is the face and feet. Full of muscles, tendons, bones and other mushy things that make for gelatinous textures when cooked down. I’ve had an idea for doing a terrine based around the flavours of Pea & Ham soup for a while and had been thinking about the recipe.
A few weeks ago with the Sous Vide summit coming up ( now since past of course … see the blog post ) I decided it would be a great dish to make given that I could prepare it a few days in advance and reduce the amount of things I’d need to prepare on the actual day of the event.
The ingredients list is dead simple… Some smoked ham hocks, Peas and some vegetables, herbs and spices. The first thing to do was soften some Onion, Carrot, Celery and Garlic in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Once this was done I added some fresh Thyme from the garden and a couple of bay leaves, some coriander seeds and white pepper corns.
After the vegetables were softened I added in 4 smoked ham hocks and topped up with water. The lid went on and I brought it up to pressure and cooked for about two hours.
While this was cooking I made some mustard butter ( mixed a softened stick of butter with a tablespoon of seeded butter ). I also blanched some baby peas quickly in salted water.
Once the pressure cooker had finished doing its thing I pulled out the ham hocks and pulled the meat and skin off the bones into a bowl. I stirring this well with a wooden spoon to break down any of the bigger bits and make sure the different textures of meat, fat and skin were evenly distributed throughout. To this I added the mustard butter and stirred more. I also added salt to season making sure I oversalted it as the seasoning dulls down when its cooled.
Oh and the stock from the ham hocks is brilliant, don’t throw it out, filter it through a cheescloth, clarify it with eggwhites if you want and freeze for soups, risottos, etc.
I then added the peas and folded it gently so as not to break the peas. This mixture went into my terrine mold and was weighted down and in the fridge overnight. After cooling and setting I took it out and cut it in half to check how it looked.
Perfect! When it was time to slice I served it with some home cured pork belly, some quince paste and some jalepeno jam made from chillis from the garden.
