Tonight, for the first performance of Gastro/Danse I've made pork rillettes per Frank Deis' most excellent suggestion. I've made it(/them?) a couple times in the past, but followed pretty much the same recipe. That is, I have used Suzanne Goin's (Lucques restaurant, Los Angeles) version which specifies three days curing time for the pork but this week I didn't have three days, so I looked around to compare what other chefs do. That satisfied me that 24 hours was sufficient, so I took that approach and followed a different recipe I found on Food and Wine's website wherein the seasoning was more breakfast sausage vs. Goin's Provencal which sounded like a nice change. but disaster struck: I blindly followed the new recipe using basically 1 Tablespoon salt per pound of pork where Goin, I realized after the fact, only used 1 TEASPOON, or a third of that amount. Of course, I only realized the problem after 24 hours had passed, my pork was ridiculously oversalted, and I had to start all over with another 12 pounds of pork and ZERO curing time.
All of which has nothing to do with this recipe, just grousing, except to introduce how I came across the idea for the apricot pickle. It too was on Food and Wine, by the same author, one Oliver Strand who was inspired by a pork rillettes he ordered at a bar in Brooklyn called Fort Defiance. I happen to be long on dried apricots at the moment and it sounded like an interesting way to use up last summer's crop.
And indeed it will be: I haven't served the two together yet, but I could eat the whole tub of pickle I made just for breakfast. I altered the recipe by adding a key ingredient I can't imagine it without: the green peppercorns, which provide a terrific savory contrast. His recipe used only a teaspoon of yellow mustard seeds--I thought that a good idea but used black. I like both the color contrast as well as the refinement of the smaller seed. I also added a bit of salt to balance the sweetness--Oliver's recipe had none. The result is a garnish and topping I think I'll be making again and again. I can just picture it, for instance, with little tornadoes of roast pork tenderloin and a creamy/winey little pan gravy.
APRICOT GREEN PEPPERCORN PICKLE
2 cups (l lb) dried apricots
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
3/4 cup water
3 Tblsp turbinado sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black mustard seed
2 tblsp dried green peppercorns
Chop the apricots, add remaining ingredients and mix. In a covered container, this should hold in the fridge for a month or more.