A Pig Head Torchon & Peanut Mole with Grilled Quail Thanksgiving
For this year’s American Thanksgiving Nicole’s mom was in town, so we decided to cook a big mix of old and new favourites — with the Pig Head Torchon being the main highlight. Torchon is basically a method of wrapping and rolling meat into a log shape and then slicing it into discs. It’s mainly known as a preparation for foie grois, so this pig head variation by chef David Chang is certainly the more economical way to go.
- Visionaries - "V-Peat" (instrumental)
- Jel - "God Thinks Funny Haha"
- Koushik - "Beep 18"
- Zucchini Drive - "Shotgun Rules" (instrumental)
wow this is intense….nice pictures too!
Nicely done. You two have fun in the kitchen, which is great to watch. Nice chemistry. The food all looks great. A truly unique and delicious looking Thanksgiving meal.
The torchon reminds me of an Italian sausage that I love, which is cotechino. Most recipes for cotechino say to fill a pork or beef/ox casing with the pork, back fat, skin & seasoning mixture–but I like to roll it in pig skin before boiling it. You can also pan fry discs of the cotechino after its been boiled, but I like cotechino chewy rather than crunchy.
I also like to use the pig skin when making braciole. Have you tried either of these?
Cheers!
We haven’t tried either of those, but they both sound great, thanks for the ideas!
The food looks gangster – as usual.
Nicole, why wasn’t your Dad there?
My dad is too foolish to retire.
That look delicious!!! that Torchon reminds me of head cheese or is it? I love head cheese.
I love your videos.
What we made is kind of like a head cheese, it’s the same meat inside, but instead of an aspic it’s surrounded by the fat and skin from the head.
I don’t eat anything off a pig, but the rest of the meal looks great! I’ve missed your videos!
I always enjoy watching you two create these crazy meals. (Perhaps they’re sophisitated and gourmet, but I’m not sophisticated, therefore they are “crazy.”) I’ve gotten so used to the pig’s heads & tails, eye balls, chicken feet, etc, that to truly shock me I think you’d have to post a video of you making meatloaf or something.
That torchon looks awesome! I have never wished for a pig’s head…until now.
It was an amazing and delicious dinner from start to finish. I had never eaten pig’s ears or quail’s eggs or even quail before. But the most fantastic and surprising thing of all was the torchon; crispy on the outside, molten on the inside. Like a croquette.
Thanks again for all the wonderful food and drinks. Love, Mom
Just found your blog and I really like it! It makes me think of “the wild chef”. Now you have another french-speaker fan but from Quebec.
For you’re personnal knowledge “torchon” in french is a rag.
sorry for my high-school english
+1 french speaking fan too, except from Southern France this time
This looks so delicious, it’s worth giving it a try. It does look like it’s prepared like foie gras. Quail and quail eggs are big here during holiday season, even though we don’t celebrate thanksgiving. (I miss the eggnog and mashed potatoes and gravy gaahhhh…So yummy.)
Thanks again for the yummy recipes guys, keep it going.
(Oh and I love the design of your website, who did it?)
Krimo.
Nicole is actually pretty fluent in French, since she was in the French Immersion program in school. However, my years of regular French classes didn’t really teach me anything
man you guys always take the craziest stuff and make it look so good. that torchon looks so good…
We love your site so much. How do yall come up with what to make? I love sharing your site with my kids so they can see where our food really starts out as. Thanks so much, it makes homeschooling a little easier! Merry Christmas!
KITCHEN POWERHOUSE!
Can’t wait to see you guys… we should definitely make dinner plans!