Christmas Ham Hock with Pineapple and Cherries

John Barton

John Barton

30th July 2011
John Barton

Christmas Ham Hock with Pineapple and Cherries

Yields: 4–8 portions

Ingredients

  • see below

Method

Ham hock, fresh, with skin on and bone in 900 g 100% Set hock aside, com­bine all other com­po­nents for liq­uid cure and dissolve. Water 2 kg 222% Submerge hock with cure and vac­uum seal. Salt 200 g 22% Cure hock refrig­er­ated for 3 d. Brown sugar 80 g 8.8% Remove hock from brine, rinse and vac­uum seal. Sodium nitrate, optional (for color) 20 g 2.2% Refrigerate vacuum-sealed hock for 24 h. Black pep­per­corns 10 g 1.1% Cook sous vide at 65 °C / 149 °F for 48 h. Coriander seeds 10 g 1.1% Remove hock from bag and clean away any excess gelatin. Cloves 4 g 0.4% Pat dry and reserve. Pineapple juice, fresh 320 g 35% Combine juice and honey in pot. Clear liq­uid honey 80 g 8.8% Reduce over medium high heat until syrupy, about 10 min.
Reserve warm.
Deep-fry cooked pork shank in 200 °C / 390 °F oil until golden brown and slightly puffed, about 3 min.
Brush with glaze and slice to desired thick­ness off of bone.
Fresh pineap­ple, peeled 50 g 5.5% Slice 3 mm / ? in thick and punch out coins with 4 cm / 1½ in diam­e­ter ring mold. Black cherry juice (from bottled) 100 g 100% Season cherry juice as desired. It will be a sea­son­ing for the pork, so be gen­er­ous about acid­ity and sweetness. Fructose to taste Blend in cal­cium glu­cono­lac­tate and xan­than gum to fully disperse. Malic acid to taste Calcium glu­cono­lac­tate 1 g 1% Vacuum seal and refrig­er­ate for 1 h to hydrate. Xanthan gum 0.15 g 0.15% Pour into sil­i­cone hemi­sphere molds and freeze. Water 500 g 100% Combine and heat to dis­solve to make set­ting bath for cherry spheres. Sodium algi­nate 2.5 g 0.5% Heat bath to a sim­mer and remove from heat.
Drop frozen cherry spheres into hot sodium algi­nate bath.
Allow spheres to set in bath until the cen­ter of each sphere is no longer frozen, about 3 min.
Rinse spheres in hot water three times and reserve in fresh warm water until ready to serve.
Arrange thinly sliced pork with cherry spheres and pineap­ple. Serve with Brussels sprouts and sweet potato con­fit on side.

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