Mesoamerica · Volume 09, The Isthmus, the Interior and the Congo Coast
Saus
Colón, Panama
Illustration
- Time
- 3 hours
- Researched
- Researched from 56 sources in the brief
As tradition built it
Saus
Serves 4 to 6. About 3 hours including a cold rest.
Ingredients
- 4 lb pig's trotters
- to taste salt, for the simmering water
- 1 head garlic
- 10 sprigs cilantro
- equal parts white vinegar, for the dressing
- equal parts lime juice, for the dressing
- a little water, to thin the dressing
- 2 white and red onion, minced
- 2 cucumber, sliced
- 2 ají chombo, chopped
- to taste salt, for the dressing
- to taste pepper, for the dressing
Method
- Simmer pig's trotters in water with salt, garlic and roughly 10 sprigs of cilantro for 2 to 3 hours, until fork-tender.
- Rinse and cool the trotters completely.
- Dress cold in equal parts white vinegar and lime juice, thinned with a little water, with minced white and red onion, sliced cucumber, chopped ají chombo, salt and pepper.
- Rest, refrigerated, before serving as a cold pickled snack.
Notes
Chicken feet or pork tail variants are also attested.
What a modern chef changes
A sous vide trotter, and a vinegar cure held for a genuine rest
Rung 04
Method
- Cook the trotters under sous vide at a temperature that renders the collagen fully tender without the meat falling apart, more consistent than a rolling boil across a batch of trotters of varying size.
- Prepare the vinegar and lime cure a day ahead and hold it cold, so the trotters go into a fully developed acid bath rather than a freshly mixed one, following Rung 4's instruction that this dish's vinegar rest is doing real work, not garnishing.
- Dehydrate a portion of the sliced cucumber and onion briefly before they go into the cure, concentrating their flavour and giving a firmer bite against the soft trotter.