Okinawa · Starter
Mimigā no Pīnatsu Miso Ae
- Intermediate
- 35 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with savory depth stacked from the pantry’s bass notes, ferment tang with real depth behind it, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 2 pig's ears, about 400g
- 50ml awamori
- 20g ginger, sliced
- 60g roasted peanuts
- 40g white miso
- 20g sugar
- 20ml rice vinegar
- 10ml awamori, for the dressing
- 150g cucumber, salted and squeezed
- shima rakkyo or spring onion, to serve
The skills inside
Salting to draw the water outChilling to firm: the fridge as binderMashing & puréeing
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · nuts · peanuts · soy · alcohol
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Scrape the ears with the back of a knife under running water and singe off any bristles over a flame, wiping them away as they char.
- Simmer in water with the 50ml awamori and the ginger, lid ajar, for 90 minutes, until a skewer passes easily through the fleshy base while the cartilage at the rim still resists and clicks under the point. 90 min
- Lift out, press flat between two plates and chill until cold and firm, at least 2 hours. 120 min
- Pound the peanuts to a coarse rubble, then work in the miso, sugar, vinegar and dressing awamori to a thick, spoonable paste.
- Slice the cold ear across into 2mm ribbons, toss with the cucumber and just enough peanut miso to coat, and scatter with shima rakkyo. Dress at the last moment so it clings rather than soaks.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Salting to draw the water out 41 recipes
- Salted evenly over every surface rather than tipped on in one place and tossed once.
- Laid out so the water has somewhere to go: a colander, a rack, or a sieve over a bowl, never a flat dish where it sits back in what it gave up.
- Given real time, and there is visible liquid to show for it: a pool underneath, a drip, or a wrung handful.
- That liquid is removed. It is squeezed, blotted or poured away, and the food is dry to the touch before it goes anywhere near heat.
- The dish is seasoned knowing salt has already gone on, tasted before any more is added.
Where it goes wrong It went into the dish still wet, and was salted again out of habit. The water it was carrying dilutes and steams whatever it meets, so the result is watery and over-seasoned at once, and those are two faults that cannot be corrected in the same direction.
Chilling to firm: the fridge as binder 48 recipes
- It went cold before it was handled any further, and it went in spread flat and covered rather than as a warm mass that insulates its own centre.
- It is cold through rather than cold at the edge: tested at the middle it is as firm as it is at the rim.
- It holds its shape unsupported; it can be cut, portioned, rolled or lifted without slumping, tearing, or sticking to the hands.
- The fat in it has gone solid: it feels firm and waxy to the fingers rather than greasy and yielding.
- It survives the step it was chilled for, going into heat or a coating or a mould still holding its form rather than collapsing the moment it is touched.
Where it goes wrong It was given twenty minutes instead of the hours it needed, so it is firm at the rim and soft at the core: it slumps out of shape as it is portioned, and everything made from it spreads or breaks apart in the pan.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Grüner Veltliner or dry Riesling
- Also Right
- Champagne, or a cold lager
- From the Taps
- Crisp pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Iced barley or jasmine tea
Soy, fish sauce, and oyster sauce stack savory depth: answer it with high-acid, low-oak whites that cut salt without adding weight.
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