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ann_oliver
COPYRIGHT © TEXT AND IMAGES ANN OLIVER 2023 UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
Austrian
sulz
or
English
brawn
I grew up in a family that loved offal. Brains, peeled of course, kidneys just fried in butter with a splash of Worcestershire sauce, lambs fry and bacon with its rich dark fried onion sauce. Then there was brawn made with pigs trotters, tongue and pork.
It was not until in my early twenties when I gained a group of European friends, Austrians, Germans and Poles that I realised there was a whole other world to offal. They considered lambs fry and bacon disgusting and went to great lengths to find a veal liver. Then they turned it into dumplings in a fine beef broth with perfectly cut vegetables of the like I had never seen before. Then there were sweetbreads and lung that for some reason our home cooking had missed completely.
The only offal dish that we seemed to have in common was Sulz which is really just a different recipe for brawn. What was completely different were the condiments. Our brawn was mainly served with chopped onion in vinegar, bread and butter cucumbers, buttered toast and hot English mustard. Sulz on the other hand came with finely chopped shallots in vinegar with a pinch of sugar, cubes of blanched potato, finely sliced dill gherkins, sometimes winter lettuce like butter lettuce and Extra Virgin Olive Oil even a smattering of capers.
I still like both condiment versions, but the European might just have a slight edge.
AO AUGUST 16 2023
COOK’S NOTE….UNABLE TO FIND THE MISTRESS AUGUSTINE’S RECIPE FOR SULZ, THE RECIPE IMAGE DOES NOT COINCIDE WITH THE RECIPE. I HAD TO USE A SMALL AMOUNT OF GELATINE TO GET THE RIGHT SET.
In praise of
pork
3 pigs trotters,
washed under cold running water
750g pork belly skin on, no bone
[basically two strips at your Chinese grocer] cut into 2 cm pieces
5g whole white pepper
100g Vine Valley white wine vinegar
1 medium brown onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 x 25 cm piece of leek
can be the green part, well washed and sliced
2 bay leaves
The end stalks from a bunch of dill
Cold water
To assemble the terrine
Approximately 750 ml strained and reduced poaching liquid
50g p/w shallots very finely chopped
20g Leonardi white balsamic
Freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
The tops from the bunch of dill, stalked and finely
Maldon sea salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
For the garnish
100g p/w shallots, finely chopped
50g Leonardi white balsamic
750g Desire potatoes,
or similar starch potato, peeled and cut into about 1 cm cubes
5g fine sea salt
Bread and butter cucumbers or cornichons
Freshly ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt
Butter lettuce for preference,
but any soil grown lettuce works
Extra virgin olive oil…we like to use the Terre Francescane Extra Virgin Olive Oil infused with Black Truffle
bistro
francais
Writing a review for a restau
Bistro
delicious
Basically, good French bistroo
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