Norfolk chef Dan Savage of Norwich’s St. Giles House Hotel cooks up an earthy winter starter.
Pressed terrine of pigs cheek
INGREDIENTS
I large onion
3 celery sticks
5 medium carrots
1kg pigs cheeks
3 large shallots
1 leek
50g butter
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tbsp thyme, chopped
1tsp good English mustard
Sea salt and black peppermill
METHOD
Roughly chop the onion, celery and two of the carrots and place with the pigs cheeks in a large deep saucepan. Cover with water, bring to the boil and allow to simmer very gently for 4 hours. Remove the pigs cheek carefully. Strain and reserve the stock, discarding the solids. Boil the stock quickly until reduced to a third of its volume. Set aside.
Finely dice the remaining carrots, leek and shallots. Melt the butter in a hot frying pan and cook until softened without colouring. Set aside to cool and add the herbs.
Once cooled, shred the pigs cheeks using your finger tips, removing any skin or tough bits. Mix the meat, vegetable-herb mix and mustard thoroughly and season to taste.
Moisten with enough of the reduced stock to bind the mixture into a ball when pressed. Taking a clingfilm-lined terrine or other individual moulds, fill with the mix and then refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
At St. Giles, we like to serve the terrine with dressed leaves, walnut toast, mustardy piccalilli and a tangy apple jelly.
Chef's tip
Order the pigs cheeks from your good local independent butcher well in advance.
ST GILES HOUSE HOTEL & ELDERTON LODGE
St. Giles House Hotel, the impressive Edwardian pile at the heart of St. Giles Street, is the sister property to the more countrified Elderton Lodge, up at Thorpe Market, near North Walsham in North-East Norfolk. With St. Giles House’s Parisien style terrace, structured columns, beautiful townhouse architecture and Art Deco feel, new owner Rachel Roofe and her dedicated team have strived to ensure that newcomers aren’t faced by barriers of pretension or formality.
Meanwhile Elderton Lodge, surrounded by a vista of deer parkland and accessed down a long wooded drive, naturally relaxes visitors and the elegant comfort within adds to the restful ambience. One main focus of both hotels is the quality of the cooking and in passionate head chef, Dan Savage there is another common link. His busy schedule sees him running both kitchens, ably supported by equally keen sous chefs in his absence. Asking how he manages to keep the quite different cooking styles as separate identities to each hotel, he explains that St. Giles calls for city cooking, smartly presented and a bit funkier in style, whilst Elderton’s fare is more rustic, hearty and simpler, though both places are embedded with the same passion for seasonal local ingredients. At this time of year Dan loves cooking Gunton venison, grazing literally a few hundred yards from his kitchen door in the country, perhaps casseroled haunch bourguignon style with autumnal wild mushrooms or as pan fried fillet with curly kale and thyme boulangère potato. The deer, mostly fallow, are expertly butchered by the gamekeeper James Ellis, who keeps back the liver for Dan, great in a parfait style paté. Other favourite Norfolk foodstuffs for Dan at this time of year include Brancaster mussels, Swannington pork direct from farm to plate, Letheringsett flour used in their home-made bread and excellent foraged wild greens from Accent Fresh.
St. Giles House Hotel, 41-45 St Giles Street, Norwich, Norfolk
T: 01603 275180 W: stgileshousehotel.co.uk
Elderton Lodge Hotel, Gunton Park, Thorpe Market, Norfolk
T: 01263 833547 W: eldertonlodge.co.uk
