IDEAS IN FOOD: Pig Head Pupusas

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We wanted to go over the top. This was the 50th Cobaya dinner. It deserved something special and we wanted to deliver a show-stopping super-delicious piece de resistance. Utilizing the talent on hand helped us realize out goal. Jeremiah is an ace with the caja china. Steve Santana, who got sucked into the culinary world by Jeremiah, is now of Taquiza fame. And I happened to be the guest chef, bringing my own special brand of creativity to the table. Jeremiah sourced some stunning pig heads. Steve is now a masa maestro and was willing and wanting to participate in our vision. The day before the dinner we set about roasting 3 split pig heads in the caja china. When they were brown and crackling, we removed them and picked all the meat. We ran the skin, meat and fat through the meat grinder. We flavored the meat with pepper vinegar and hot sauce, cilantro stems, garlic chives and soy sauce. Then we handed the farce off to Steve. He prepared a batch of blue corn masa and stuffed the pupusas with the pig heads.

For the dinner we roasted another 3 split pig heads and served them hot and crackling straight out off the caja china. A head per table, cut with scissors for ease of devouring. (Thanks to the pig head guru Tony Maws for that trick.) Every guest received a plate of griddled pupusas, charred cherry pepper salsa and kimchi curtido to compliment the freshly roasted heads. The heads were a show stopper. Just before serving they received a last minute blast of blistering heat from the blow torch to ensure optimum texture complemented by the freshly milled masa and our series of cross cultural condiments. The dish was damn delicious. And an amazingly pleasurable feat to achieve. We couldn't have done it without the help of everyone involved from the chefs to the diners.