Pig Feet Stew
Overview
Pig feet, also called trotters and pettitoes, are cooked slowly in a tomato and pepper sauce until the connective tissue breaks down. It is eaten across West Africa and well beyond, and the technique is the same everywhere: low heat, long time. Trotters have thick skin and a great deal of robust connective tissue, which is exactly why they need it. Cooked quickly they are unpleasant; cooked slowly they turn soft and the collagen dissolves into the sauce, giving it a body that no thickener reproduces. That gelatinous quality is the point of the cut rather than a side effect. Cuts like this are eaten across the continent and are treated as good rather than as second best, which is worth stating plainly given how they are often regarded elsewhere. Cow foot, ponmo, shaki and chicken feet occupy the same place in West African cooking. The one ingredient worth flagging is the pinch of potash or baking soda in the marinade, which is used to help tenderise, and should be kept to the small quantity given. The source's health claims about collagen and skin have not been carried across.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Clean the meat and marinate it with one onion, the ginger, garlic, pepper, bouillon cubes and paprika.
- 2
Cook over medium heat for 45 minutes.
- 3
In a pot, heat the oil and the remaining onion until the onion is tender.
- 4
Add the concentrated tomato purée and the puréed fresh tomatoes, and cook until you have a thick red paste.
- 5
Add the meat broth, then the meat, and simmer for 15 minutes until well cooked.
- 6
Serve over rice or boiled potatoes.
Africook’s Notes
- Give it the time. Trotters have thick skin and heavy connective tissue, and low slow heat is the only way to make them tender.
- Clean the feet thoroughly first, and singe off any remaining bristles over a flame if your butcher has not.
- The collagen thickens the sauce as it dissolves, so no other thickener is needed. If it is thin, it has not cooked long enough.
- Keep the potash or baking soda to a pinch. It helps tenderise and more than that affects both texture and flavour.
- Reduce the sauce properly to a thick red paste before the broth goes back in. That step decides the depth of the finished dish.
- It is better the next day, once the gelatine has set and been reheated through.
Reviews
Be the first to rate this recipe
Cooked it? Your rating helps the next person decide whether to try it.
No reviews on this one yet. If you have cooked it, yours would be the first.
