The good weather has finally arrived and light meals are starting to crown our tables. Learn how to use suckling pig in a very summery way with this rich suckling pig escabeche salad.
Escabeche is, as you may already know, a vinegar-based marinade.
This type of preparation has its origins in Persian cuisine, where they used the word sikbâg for a kind of meat stew with vinegar. The word, which was originally pronounced “iskebech”, ended up by becoming “escabetx”. This cooking technique arrived in Spain in the Andalusi period. Various authors, including Alejandro Dumas and Martinez Montiño, have described the development of escabeche recipes perfectly in their novels.
Today it is a very famous and widespread technique in Mediterranean cuisine and this week we decided to use it in a recipe that has a GOURMET twist thanks to the use of suckling pig.
It’s neither costly nor tedious to make but it does require time. Below we describe the steps you need to follow to get this summer’s best escabeche salad.
The first thing you need to do is to wash your vegetables well and cut them up for the stew. Cut the carrot and onion and/or shallot into julienne strips and halve the garlic cloves. Put them into a wide-based saucepan and leave to brown for 10 minutes with half of the oil. Use those 10 minutes to clean the shoulder of suckling pig. Remove all the fat and the skin (you can keep it for future recipes), put the meat in a frying pan and brown it on both sides. Now add the bay leaves, pepper, cloves, thyme and other liquids to the saucepan. Leave it to cook for five minutes and add the pieces of suckling pig when they have turned a golden colour. Leave the stew to cook for 45 minutes with a lid on and …. be careful! Make sure that the meat is always covered by juice.
How do you know when the meat is cooked? When the meat has completely fallen off the bone and it has changed colour, you’ll know it’s ready. Then you must turn off the heat and leave it to cool. A recommendation: don’t touch the stew while it is cooling so that the juices settle and the meat does not dry out. Once it is completely cold you can take out the pieces of suckling pig for the escabeche salad and finish deboning them. Place everything in a sealed container with the juice covering the meat up to the top and leave it in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.
After leaving it for two or three days, make your salad to taste. This time we will be using only rocket (arugula) and cherry tomatoes in different colours to give our recipe a 100% summery air, making the escabeche the star of the show.
Finally, set the table with colourful tableware for a 100% healthy, 100% deluxe and 100% summery meal.
You can find shoulder of suckling pig in our on-line store: http://www.tabladillo.es/producto/paletillas/
If you want to cook suckling pig in other ways, just take a look at our recipes: cochifrito , suckling pig canelloni , carpaccio de cochinillo, suckling pig carpaccio …
SUCKLING PIG ESCABECHE SALAD
Imprimir RecetaIngredientes
- FOR THE ESCABECHE
- • 1 kg of shoulder of suckling pig
- • 1 onion
- • 2 to 3 carrots, depending on their size
- • 5 garlic cloves
- • 2 or 3 sprigs of thyme
- • Black pepper
- • 7 cloves
- • 2 bay leaves
- • 250 ml of virgin olive oil
- • 250 ml of cider vinegar (I like its mild flavour)
- • 250 ml of water
- • 500 ml of white wine
- • Salt
- FOR THE SALAD
- • Rocket (arugula)
- • 2 tomatoes
- • Arbequina virgin olive oil
Instrucciones
Preparation of the escabeche:
1. Cut the onion and carrots into julienne strips and halve the garlic cloves.
2. Put the garlic cloves and vegetables into a tall saucepan with half of the olive oil on low heat and brown for about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, remove the fat from the shoulder of suckling pig and the skin, which you can keep for future recipes. Cut into pieces weighing about 300 gr. In a frying pan, brown the pieces on all sides.
4. Add the bay leaves, pepper, cloves and thyme and other liquids to the saucepan, leave to cook for five minutes and then add the pieces of suckling pig.
5. Cook on a very slow heat for 45 minutes without a lid. Make sure that the meat is always covered by the stock.
6. The meat is cooked when it changes colour and falls off the bone.
7. Turn off the heat and leave the meat to cool in the escabeche, without touching it, so that the juices settle and the meat does not dry out.
8. When it is completely cold take out the pieces and debone them. Place the pieces in a sealed container covered with the escabeche and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 2 to 3 days.
Preparation of the salad:
1. Remove the suckling pig from the escabeche and prepare the salad vegetables.
2. Peel the tomatoes, remove the seeds and cut them into petals. Wash and dry the rocket.
3. 13Prepare the salad dressing by mixing together the oil with a little of the escabeche liquid and the hearts of the tomatoes.
4. Serve to taste, with the vegetables from the escabeche.