This is a recipe from Le Champignon Sauvage (French for "The Wild Mushroom"), a restaurant here in the UK which has two Michelin stars. The chef there sources a lot of wild herbs and hard-to-find ingredients which are overwhelmingly local.
Anyway, I picked a dish which didn't have any 'crazy' ingreidient that would be too hard to find. This was pretty wonderful and a two-day affair. It was a nice light dinner with bags of flavor. I had the jones for pork belly recently and this hit the spot. Unfortunately, folks don't eat a lot of pork belly in the States. Too bad. It is incredible.
The pumpkin gnocchi was Vanessa' favorite part. We have another pumpkin here in the house. We had thought soup was it's destiny, but it might now be turned into gnocchi and put with some sage brown butter or something. Yummy.
PORK BELLY
1 kg pork belly, boned
50 g unsalted butter
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 liters WHITE CHICKEN STOCK
sprig thyme
½ bay leaf
50 milliliters olive oil
PUMPKIN GNOCCHI
400 g pumpkin, preferably Crown Prince, seeded
a little olive oil
65 g tipo '00' pasta flour or strong
½ egg, beaten
25 g Parmesan, grated
50 g unsalted butter
PEANUT MILK
50 g unsalted butter
½ onion, sliced
400 milliliters milk
50 g peanuts, toasted until golden
SQUID
18 baby squid, no bigger than 'pinky' length, cleaned
30 milliliters olive oil
few drops lemon juice
CRISP PORK BELLY
Scorch any hairs off the belly pork with a blowtorch. Heat the butter in a casserole large enough to hold the belly, then add all the vegetables and sweat for 4-5 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Add the chicken stock and herbs and bring to the boil. Add the pork and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Place in an oven preheated to 150C and cook for 4-5 hours, until the meat is tender enough to pierce easily with a knife. Carefully remove the pork from the stock and place on a tray lined with clingfilm. Cover with another sheet of clingfilm and place a heavy tray on top with a weight. Leave in the fridge overnight. The next day, trim the pork and cut it into strips 2cm thick along the length
and then into 4cm pieces. You will need 3-4 pieces per person.
PUMPKIN GNOCCHI
Place the pumpkin on a baking tray, drizzle with a little oil and cover with foil. Roast in an oven preheated to 200C until the flesh is very tender. Remove from the oven and scrape the flesh off the skin. Push the flesh through a fine sieve. Gently mix the pumpkin with the flour. Season with salt and pepper, then add the egg and Parmesan and stir until the mixture forms a loose ball. Sprinkle the worktop with flour and roll the gnocchi into 2 long sausages. Cut each sausage into 12-15 pieces and shape them into small balls. Lightly press each ball with the back of a fork to make the traditional line marks. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and drop in the gnocchi, cooking them in 3 batches. When they rise to the surface, scoop them out of the water into a bowl of cold water.
Drain well, place in a container and sprinkle with just enough olive oil to coat and prevent sticking. Turn the gnocchi over in the olive oil, then place in the fridge until needed.
PEANUT MILK
Heat the butter in a pan, add the onion and sweat for 3-4 minutes. Add the milk, the roasted peanuts and 100 ml liquid from cooking the pork belly and simmer slowly for about 30 minutes. Place in a blender and pulse - just to break up the peanuts. Leave to infuse for 1-2 hours, then pass through a sieve and season to taste.
SQUID
Heat a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium-high heat. When you can feel the heat coming off it, add half the olive oil and then half the squid. Season the squid with salt and pepper, cook for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes, then turn. Cook for 1 minute and transfer to a warm plate. Wipe the pan clean and repeat with the remaining oil and squid. When all are cooked, re-season them, adding a few drops of lemon juice.
SERVING
To finish the belly pork, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the pieces of pork and cook until golden on one side. Flip over and cook the other side until crisp and golden, then season with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and place on a piece of kitchen paper to remove excess fat.
To finish the gnocchi, heat the butter in a large non-stick pan, add the gnocchi and cook until golden on both sides. Season to taste.
Divide the squid, pumpkin gnocchi and crisp pork belly between 6 bowls. Gently reheat the peanut milk, then froth It up with a stick blender and pour it over everything.
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