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Bonjour my friends, I’m Frankie and welcome to Club Foody! Our schedule is quite hectic
during the last month of the year. When I was a kid, every December, my mother was always
busy cooking and baking in order to be ready for the Holidays. She made pies, cakes, cookies,
treats, Tourtières, Creton, Stuffed Buns, as well as this Québec Holiday staple…
In today’s episode, I’ll show you how to make my Ragoût de Boulettes & Pattes de Cochon
which is Meatballs with Pigs’ Feet Stew! This is a feast for us French Canadians!
Simmering for hours, this dish is packed with tons of flavor! It’s a great traditional
recipe to add to your folder. So my friends, let’s get cooking!
In a large pot, we’ll add 2 pork hocks, a lot of onions, and then some mixed spice
also known in French as épices mélangées. I have a homemade recipe to make this blend
so click on the top right corner of your screen to view it. We’ll also add 2 whole cloves,
a generous amount of ground sea salt, and the same with freshly ground black pepper.
We’ll pour in water making sure the hocks are nicely covered and add a bay leaf. We’ll
bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer for 1 ½ hours.
Meanwhile, we’ll sift the toasted flour through a fine sieve sitting over a
large bowl pushing down on the hard little pieces. Last month, I showed you how to toast
flour so simply click on the top right corner of your screen to find out how. Can you use
regular flour? The answer is “no”. Toasted flour will not only give us a nice color to
our gravy but also a beautiful nutty roasted flavor. I know it takes a while to toast flour
but there are times that we just have to roll up our sleeves and make it happen because
it’s so worth it and this is the case right now! I also explain on the website other ways
to use up the toasted flour so check it out. All right, so when this step is done, we’ll
move on to the next. In a large bowl – and we’ll probably need two - , we’ll add
ground veal, ground beef and ground pork. We’ll combine the meat together. I usually
do that in a big large pot similar to the one cooking the hocks right now but because
I want to show you how to make this traditional Québec dish and for a better camera angle,
I opted for the bowl… Well, that’s why we need a second one… the meat won’t fit
unless you own these big huge commercial ones. Okey-dokey! Now, we’ll add the beaten eggs
to the meat – if you’re in the same situation as me, use one egg per bowl… basically split
all the ingredients between those two bowls okay – followed by finely chopped onions
then fine breadcrumbs, and some Dijon mustard. We’ll now season with Herbes de Provence
and Mixed Spice the same blend we used earlier for the hocks, then hot paprika which is unusual
but gives such a nice taste to the meatballs, some ground sea salt and freshly ground black
pepper. Another ingredient we’ll add is pressed garlic… it’s good for us! Now
with our clean bare hand because it works better that way trust me, we’ll combine
everything together until fairly well mixed. Before we go ahead and make meatballs, our
hocks should be cooked so we’ll remove them from the water, reduce the heat to medium-low
because we’ll be back to the pot later, and let them cool off before handling. All
right now let’s make the meatballs. Using a medium scoop, we’ll form them all and
then, with well-oiled hands, we’ll roll them nice and tight… be patient, there are
one hundred of them to do… lol! After this is done, the next step is to roll them up
in the sifted toasted flour, shake off any excess and put them back on the baking dish.
Whatever flour is left, do not throw it away – we’ll be using more later -, and we’ll
set them aside. Now back to the pork hocks that had time to cool off. We’ll clean them
up removing the skin, bones and fat, keeping the meat and discarding the rest. There will
still be a bit of fat attached to the meat so we’ll remove it as well and cut the meat
into bite sized pieces then move on to the stove. We have a lot of meatballs to cook
therefore we’ll need more water than what we have in the pot. Also let’s not forget
that we need some liquid to make the gravy – I typically use about 14 cups of water.
Next, we’ll increase the heat to high and bring the liquid to a boil. There will be
some foam on top… just skim it off and discard it. So when it starts boiling, we’ll add
the meat from the pork hocks as well as the meatballs. If the liquid cools off too much,
place the lid on to bring it back to a boil. Now what we’ll do is to add the remaining
flour by sifting it over the pot – not only will it make a nice, thick gravy but also
add a rich dark color to it. The best way to incorporate the flour is adding a little
bit and stir well between each addition. Now the amount of flour you want to add depends
on how thick you like yours – I normally go for about 4 to 5 cups. So start by adding
½ cup at a time, then let it cook for a while and later on, you can always add more if you
find the sauce is not thick enough. Next, we’ll reduce the heat to a simmer and let
it cook for 3 hours, stirring often. Keep in mind that as the ragoût cooks, the sauce
will thicken. After an hour of cooking, we want to taste and adjust the seasoning. About
half an hour later, we’ll start boiling water in a medium pot and then add the pork
sausages. We’ll boil them for about 10 to 12 minutes. By doing that, not only will they
de-grease in the water but it will also be easier to remove the casing. So when time
is up, we’ll remove from the heat and as you can see, the casing is already mostly
removed – we just have to gently scrape to get the rest of it off – and of course,
we’ll discard them. Next, we’ll add them to the ragoût and let them simmer for the
remaining 1 hour. If you want, you can always cut them in half. When the 3 hours is finally
up, I want you to taste and adjust the seasoning. It will probably need more salt and black
pepper. That’s it, we’re done…
And my friends, this is our Ragoût de Boulettes & Pattes de Cochon! This traditional Québécois
dish is so delicious! If you never had this before, it should definitely be on your list.
Served with boiled potatoes, some pickled beets and crusty bread, this is a meal your
family will enjoy.
I hope you give it a try soon and be sure to visit clubfoody.com for ingredient amounts,
directions and more info… Until next time my friends, bon appétit!
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