Category Archives: pork

pork chops with bubble & squeak and creamy apple gravy

Posted by Gary in apples, cider, food, pork, potatoes, red onion

pork chops with bubble & squeak and creamy apple gravy

If there’s ever leftovers from a Sunday roast, just try and stop me making bubble and squeak. This is proper Autumn grub, with apples, cider, pork… just the kind of thing I could eat all season long. The pork here comes from Farmer’s Choice, a lovely butcher’s providing excellent meat delivered to your door.

Pork chops with bubble & squeak and creamy apple gravy (serves 2):

250g leftover mash

250g leftover cooked veg (maybe carrots, sprouts, spinach, parsnip – anything really)

1 red onion, sliced

2 pork chops

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

250ml cider

250ml creme fraiche

2 firm apples, peeled and sliced

  1. Get two frying pans on a medium heat. Season the pork chops and scatter over the marjoram.
  2. Mix the potato and veg together in a bowl and season well. Form into little patties and add a little oil to each pan.
  3. Put the pork chops in one pan and cook for 5 or so minutes until coloured on one side, then flip over. Add the onions and apples to the pan.
  4. Meanwhile fry the bubble ‘n’ squeak patties on both sides until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper before serving.
  5. When the pork chops are done, transfer to a board to rest and cover with foil. Turn up the heat and deglaze the pan with cider.
  6. When the cider has bubbled away to almost nothing, add the creme fraiche and reduce the heat right down. Stir well to combine with everything in the pan, check for seasoning and serve over the chops with the bubble on the side.

deep fried crispy pork

Posted by Gary in egg, marjoram, pork

crispy deep fried pork

Being interested in all things food mean I read a whole bunch of other blogs. Today Google Reader says I subscribe to 81 food-related RSS feeds. They range from bylined journalist columns to people just starting to write up their first things that I like the look of. On any given day a  rolodex of recipes rolls past me from all over the globe.

Someone I’ve recently latched on to is Going With My Gut. She’s been posting about a recent nose-to-tail pig butchery day and the latest post featured some crispy fried pork chops. Deep frying a really fatty piece of meat sounds insane. AND GREAT. So I did something similar, using lean pork and sliced thin like the Chinese takeaway classic deep-fried crispy beef.

It’s a little sickly so don’t serve too much of it. Very tasty though.

Deep fried crispy pork (serves 4):

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 egg, beaten

6 pork loin steaks, sliced into skinny pieces the size of your little finger

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

300ml chicken stock

1 litre vegetable oil

  1. First make the batter. Mix the flour, paprika and baking powder together with a pinch of salt. Stir in the beaten egg and add enough water to slacken to the consistency of double cream. Pop in the fridge until ready to use.
  2. Put a frying pan on a medium heat, and a pan with the vegetable oil on a very high heat. On a large chopping board sprinkle salt, pepper and marjoram. Roll the pork shreds in this mix so they are well coated. Add a splash of oil to the frying pan then fry the pork in batches. If you’ve cut them small enough you should only need to cook for a couple of minutes on each side until they are white all over.
  3. While the veg oil is getting smoking hot, add about a teaspoon of flour to the frying pan and stir well. Deglaze with the stock and allow to bubble away while you deep-fry the pork.
  4. Once the oil is smoking, dip the pork in the batter and straight into the pan. It will go golden brown in about 30 seconds, so fry in batches and drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle with sea salt and serve with the reduced chicken stock sauce.

barbecue ribs

Posted by Gary in marmite, mustard, paprika, pork, tomato and tagged with

barbecue ribs

“How to cook perfect barbecue ribs” proclaimed the headline. It would be rude not to give them a try. I knew I had most of the stuff lurking around the office, so after buying some ribs and some sandwich bags from the local supermarket I could marinade everything at lunchtime. By the time I’d got home it had plenty of time to impart flavour.

3 hours of roasting and barbecuing later, I had a pile of ribs to enjoy. What a crushing disappointment. For something labelled “perfect barbecue ribs” there was almost no BBQ flavour at all. Mildly sweet, but all the umami had gone. I note that as per Felicity Cloake’s “perfect” series she runs the gamut of celeb and other chefs to hone in on perfection. She tried Jamie Oliver’s recipe from Jamie’s America, but not the one which to my mind is superior – the one from Jamie At Home. I cooked a whole chicken with it last year, and it’s great. That’s your perfect BBQ rib sauce right there.

Barbecue ribs (serves 4):

2 racks of pork ribs

1 tablespoon Marmite

1 tablespoon English mustard

1½ teaspoon smoked paprika

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

2½ tablespoons dark muscovado sugar

  1. Mix together the marinade ingredients and rub half all over the ribs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
  2. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Pop the ribs in a baking tray and cover with foil. Cook for 2½ hours and baste from time to time.
  3. After 2 hours oven cooking light the barbecue. Once the coals have turned ashen grey, transfer the ribs to the BBQ and cook for around 15 minutes, basting as you go. Make sure they catch a little and go all crispy and gnarly. Eat with baby wipes.

aromatic melting pork

Posted by Gary in carrots, celery, milk, onion, pork

aromatic melting pork

I love pork joints a lot, but I’m in danger of doing the same thing over and over again: bung it in the oven and roast. Nothing wrong with that, but surely there’s more out there?

Lucky for me The Ginger Pig Meat Book plopped through my letterbox, packed with great ideas grounded in everyday cookery. The Ginger Pig Butcher’s isn’t somewhere I was familiar with before this book, but after reading their story I was smitten. Almost the first third is taken over to their philosophy, their approach to rearing and the disasters and triumphs along the way.

It’s also got some my favourite things – those side-on diagrams of livestock, with all the cuts and joints labelled for butchery. I love these illustrations, giving me a wry smile at the fascinating variety from each animal. Have you heard of pig’s slipper, or jew’s fillet on a cow? I know I hadn’t.

I had a pork shoulder joint in the freezer needing a bit of love, so the recipe here for aromatic melting pork jumped out at me. It’s simplicity bowled me over, as did the use of milk rather than stock for the braising liquor. After hours of cooking it falls to pieces, with chunks of moist, succulent veg round and about. It’s an old-fashioned belter, I heartily recommend the dish – and the book!

Thanks to Octopus Books for the book.

Aromatic melting pork (serves 4):

1 pint milk

1kg boned and rolled pork shoulder

4 onions, peeled and quartered

4 carrots, peeled and halved

4 garlic cloves, peeled and squashed

3 celery sticks, halved

2 sprigs marjoram

2 sprigs thyme

2 strips lemon peel

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. In a large casserole heat the milk until it’s just about to boil, then chuck everything in the pan. Make a cartouche out of greaseproof paper, then fit the casserole with a tight-fitting lid an pop in the oven.
  2. After an hour turn the heat down to 150°C. Cook for another 1½ – 2 hours until the pork can be carved with a spoon. Allow to rest for 20 minutes before slicing up and serving with the veg, spooning over the juices.

roast pork

Posted by Gary in pork

roast pork

Sainsbury’s have been listening. Late last year they conducted a whole bunch of customer research and a loud, clear message came through: please help us families keep to a budget. The result is a 7 day meal plan that feeds a family, 3 meals a day, for £50.

Along with a clutch of savvy bloggers I was invited to Sainsbury’s HQ for the launch of this meal plan. We some of the food and they explained how they wrote these plans: it would be dead easy to feed your family like this bu flooding it with cheap frozen crap and the odd ready meal, but that’s not their approach. The plan involves freshly cooked food every day, with 80% of your daily allowances (allowing 20% for drinks ‘n’ snacks) and hitting your 5 a day to boot. It’s admirable that they can hit all these targets and get to the magic £50 too.

In reality the planner gives you very tasty dinners but your breakfasts and lunches are repetitive. Expect sandwiches by the ton. Another slight downer is the wintry feel to the menu; when I raised this with them they put this down to writing the plan in February for something launching in June.

That said I can’t help but feel mean for throwing stones at such a decent stab at the idea. You get the real sense this project is a labour of love, and to include a roast dinner amongst all the food is cheering. I gave the roast pork a go, which was perfectly nice. It’s not quite the way I do roast potatoes, but they’ll do.

As a further bonus, if you film yourself trying the plan you may find yourself on TV!

Taken from Sainsbury’s original recipe here.

Roast pork (serves 4):

1kg pork shoulder slow roasting joint

1.25kg potatoes, cut into small chunks

500g carrots, peeled & sliced

500g frozen broccoli florets

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon plain flour

400ml beef stock (½ x stock cube)

1 teaspoon mustard

  1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC, fan 200ºC, gas 7. Place the pork in a large roasting tin and brush with the oil. Cook for 30 minutes, then turn down the heat to 190ºC, fan 170ºC, gas 5.
  2. Add the potatoes to the pan and cook for 1 hour, 15-30 minutes until the pork is cooked and the potatoes are crisp.
  3. Remove from the oven. Place the pork and potatoes in a serving dish and keep warm.
  4. Meanwhile, cook the carrots in a large pan of boiling water for about 4 minutes. Add the broccoli and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, until the veg are tender. Drain and keep warm.
  5. To make the gravy pour off all but 2 tablespoons of pork juices left in the roasting pan. Place on the hob, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and gradually add the beef stock, stirring. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring in the mustard.
  6. Carve the pork and serve with the roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy. Keep the leftover pork to use in sandwiches.

paella gabriel

Posted by Gary in chicken, peppers, pork, rice, stock

mallorca paella gabriel

I’m fresh back from a week in Mallorca, and besides the balmy weather, powder-fine sandy beaches and beautiful views, one of my highlights was watching an expert cook paella for me up close. I’ve never had any particular technique for paella, throwing things in and waiting for a bit. But this guy, taking his time and enjoying it (and bursting into giggles throughout) had no qualms about cooking a monstrous dish of rice for 30 people.  And he talked about different versions too, of ones specific to Mallorca, a paella negra made with squid ink, and a gutsy paella brut.

I made my version totally identical to his, even going to a Spanish supermarket to get some powdered orange colouring, and it’s really good. Fishy, meaty and completely enjoyable – though you can omit the fish if your family are as picky as mine! I’ve named this version after him as tribute to his demonstration. Make sure you serve it with sangria.

Paella Gabriel (serves 6):

4 cloves of garlic

300g chicken thighs, roughly chopped

300g pork loin, diced

2 peppers, sliced

Some mussels, opened

Some prawns

2 teaspoons powdered orange food colouring

Large splash of brandy

500g green beans, sliced

500g chestnut mushrooms, quartered

Large handful of peas

1 tin tomatoes

1 pint chicken stock

2 handfuls of rice per person

Lemon wedges, to serve

  1. Crush the garlic and mix with the meats. Add a splash of oil and leave to marinate (overnight, if you have time).
  2. Heat some oil in a large wok or paella pan. Fry the peppers and fish on a sizzling heat until the peppers are tender, then remove from the pan to one side.
  3. Add the chicken and pork and continue to fry. Sprinkle a little salt and colouring.
  4. When the meat is browned deglaze the pan with the alcohol. Allow this to bubble for a minute or two before adding the vegetables. Stir well to coat in the seasonings and then pour over the tomatoes and stock.
  5. Once the liquid had come to the boil, tip in the rice. Simmer for a further 15 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking.
  6. When the stock has been absorbed, turn off the heat and stir the fish and peppers back into the paella. Serve with wedges of lemon.

heston blumenthal’s perfect spaghetti bolognese

Posted by Gary in beef, pork and tagged with

heston blumenthal's spaghetti bolognese

I happened to read FrontLineChef’s Ultimate Spag Bol recipe one morning on Twitter and almost fell over: it sounds utterly superb. I remembered I hadn’t yet tried Heston Blumenthal’s perfect spaghetti bolognese.

Bolognese has a strange and maligned history in this country. It’s one of those quirky dishes that are echoes of the home country, like chicken tikka masala, or pizza. I’ve had many a spag bol in my time and plenty of them have made this blog. I particularly recommend Antonio Carluccio’s version which is a cracker.

As his recipes go it’s not one of his most complex; braised meat + soffritto + tomato compote slow-cooked together. I still cut a little of it out when it comes to the tomatoes – I can’t believe the ‘fresh’ tomatoes in December can be much cop so I went for a tinned variety and took it from there. That said it’s very close to the original. To save time I recommend having two decent casserole pans on the go, this will cut down time right at the beginning.

Is it perfect? Not for me. It’s far too sweet for my taste, I would prefer it far more savoury. Although it’s still very tasty and quite complex, different layers of flavours coming through as you enjoy each mouthful. In a nod to old-school spag bol the spaghetti is served under the ragu, yet the buttering it receives is fab and definitely worth a try.

Big love to the superb Bunting’s of Maldon for their excellent meat.

Spaghetti bolognese (serves 6):

For caramelised onion:

1 onion, sliced

1 star anise

For the soffritto:

3 sticks celery, diced

3 carrots, diced

2 onions, diced

8 garlic cloves, minced

For the ragu:

300g pork loin steak, diced

200g beef braising steak, diced

½ bottle white wine

300ml whole milk

For the tomato compote:

2 tins tomatoes

30ml sherry vinegar

5 drops tabasco

5 drops fish suace

For the pasta:

100g spaghetti per person

50g butter

  1. Heat some oil in a large casserole pan and fry the onion and star anise together for 20 mins until caramelised.
  2. Whilst the onion is caramelising, in another large casserole pan fry the soffritto veg in some olive oil for about 10 minutes until softened.
  3. Return to your onions. When they’re done put them to one side (discarding the star anise), add a little olive oil and use this pan to brown off the meats. Take your time with this and make sure there’s enough room for all the pieces of meat to brown, so do these in batches as necessary.
  4. Deglaze this pan with the white wine and turn the heat up. Scrape the bottom of the pan and keep this going until it’s reduced by half.
  5. When your soffritto is tender, add the caramelised onion, diced meat and reduced wine to it. Add the milk and top up with water until all the ingredients are submerged. Leave uncovered on the lowest heat for 6 hours, stirring occasionally. Add water if necessary to keep the liquids topped up. (The milk can make it appear a little granular, this won’t affect the final product.)
  6. For the compote, add all the ingredients to a little olive oil over a high heat. Cook rapidly until thick, then stir this into the rest of the bolognese. Cook for a further hour. Turn the heat off and let it rest for 5 minutes while you cook the pasta. You should check the seasoning at the point – a little extra sherry vinegar can help cut the richness.
  7. For the spaghetti, cook according to packet instructions and drain. Rinse briefly to ensure it doesn’t stick then return to the pan to warm. Toss in the butter to coat well.
  8. Serve the spaghetti by twirling around a carving fork. Add a generous serving of bolognese and top with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.

pork steaks with toulouse sausage and bean stew

Posted by Gary in pork, soup

pork steaks with toulouse sausage and bean stew

I’ve been lucky enough to have a load of Glorious! soup at my disposal at the moment. They really are delicious, I haven’t found a duffer yet.

That said, I’ve been suffering from soup overload, so I decided to use one as a sauce instead. Don’t bother with a fussy method: just fry some pork steaks, while they rest tip the sauce in the pan to warm through and thicken slightly. Perfect served with polenta.

pork and chestnut casserole with fried polenta

Posted by Gary in carrots, chestnuts, chorizo, leftovers, marsala, paprika, peppers, polenta, pork

pork and chestnut casserole with fried polenta

A real pot of leftovers, this one. Tons of stuff in the cupboard, fridge and freezer that all needed using up. Leave it in the casserole, come back hours later… lovely.

Pork and chestnut casserole:

500g pork shoulder, chopped

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

2 carrots, diced

2 courgettes, diced

100ml marsala wine

1 teaspoon paprika

2 sprigs rosemary

50g chorizo

250g cooked chestnuts

2 tins tomatoes

500ml chicken stock

For the polenta:

100g quick-cook polenta

400ml vegetable stock

5 dried wild mushrooms

  1. Preheat the oven to 140°C.
  2. In a large casserole, fry the pork in batches until browned. Remove to one side while you gently fry the onions and garlic in the same pan.
  3. When softened, turn the heat up, add the marsala wine and bubble furiously. When the wine has reduced, add the pork, carrot, courgette and paprika and give a ruddy good stir. Throw in the rosemary, chestnuts, chorizo, tomatoes and stock and stir thoroughly. Pop the lid on and leave in the oven for three hours. Check on it from time to time and add hot water if necessary.
  4. For the polenta, first grind the mushrooms to a powder in a pestle and mortar. Get the stock to the boil in a saucepan and gradually add the polenta and mushroom dust in a steady stream, whisking all the time. Continue stirring for another two minutes and turn on to a cold plate.
  5. When cool, cut the polenta into pieces and fry until browned and crisp. Serve with the casserole, drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

moorish pork chops with marinated mozzarella & tomato salad

Posted by Gary in food, mozzarella, pork, raisins, tomato and tagged with ,

A tale of two halves here: cheeky Essex boy meets Eastern-influenced vegophile.

Jamie Oliver’s current series Jamie Does… visits different cities and squeezes the food out of them. I’ve scribbled quite a few of them down, but his recent Andalucian pork chop recipe really connected with me. He cut a slit in a pork chop, then stuffed it with a juicy raisin stuffing. Mine is simplified to my store-cupboard. I couldn’t quite manage the meat pocket, my chops were more steaks and I couldn’t get enough knife in to stuff without going through. I instead plonked the marinade on top after cooking on one side on the barbecue. The flavours were there but I imagine it would be sensational properly stuffed. Next time I’ll get proper fat chops.

The other part of the dish was courtesy of Ottolenghi’s new book Plenty. I was fortunate enough to get one of these courtesy of their Twitter competition and couldn’t decide where to start, it’s stuffed with great ideas and brilliant (yet simple) invention. I started simple: mozzarella rendered to fluffy, yummy gooeyness. Fennel seeds popped in the mouth among the creamy cheese. Simply delicious.

Jamie Oliver’s original recipe for the pork chops can be found here.

Moorish pork chops with marinated mozzarella and tomato salad:

For the pork:

4 pork steaks

A handful of raisins

A good splash of sherry vinegar

A dash of extra virgin olive oil

A couple of teaspoons of thyme leaves

For the mozzarella salad:

A couple of tomatoes, cut into chunks

400g mozzarella

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

A couple of teaspoons of thyme leaves

A dash of extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

Zest of 1 lemon

  1. Fry the fennel seeds in a dry pan until they pop. Put them into a pestle and mortar and crush lightly. Add the thyme, garlic, oil and lemon zest and toss with the mozzarella. Leave this alone while you get on with everything else.
  2. Combine the raisins, vinegar, oil and thyme and leave for a few minutes so the raisins absorb the juice.
  3. Cut a slit horizontally in the side of the pork. Push some of the stuffing into the gap.
  4. Barbecue the pork on each side until nicely browned. Serve with the mozzarella and tomatoes, garnished with a drizzle of oil.