Category: pork

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bacon chicken food red cabbage

chicken wrapped in bacon with red cabbage and champ

chicken wrapped in bacon

Last week I watched a great series from the wonderful Hardeep Singh Kohli, Chefs and the City, where norms bring their signature dish to battle against a pro chef. One guy lost in a brazen fashion, daring to take on a French chef at something right up their street. He was destroyed, but there was something promising in his quail wrapped in bacon. I decided to adapt it to my own means.

I started with chicken breasts, skin-on, seasoned well. I then lifted the fillet and filled with a generous splurge of garlic Philadelphia before folding back over. Then the whole breast was wrapped in two pieces of bacon, seasoned again and brushed with olive oil. On a baking tray it went, into a 180 oven for about half an hour til golden brown. I made sure it rested for at least five mins before serving.

The red cabbage was proper rich: butter, brown sugar and red wine vinegar melted together then poured over the shredded cabbage and bunged in the oven.

Meanwhile, some excessive mash: potatoes boiled to tenderness of course, but on the side I was allowing some leftover double cream to infuse on a gentle heat with half an onion, some nutmeg and some peppercorns. When the potatoes were ready and drained I added butter and some of the cream, then whipped the potatoes with a fork (smoother paste through the tines you see) until they were slick and floury. I chucked in some spring onions for good measure, to give some acidity through the richness. I couldn’t resist adding a few fried crispy bacon bits on top for fun.

I sliced the chicken on the diagonal and plated it up – admittedly I wish I’d served it with a little more thought so it wasn’t three dollops of things, but it was one of the best things I’ve ever made. Really top-grade stuff.

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cabbage food pork swede

hungarian pork chops with cabbage and swede

 

Yet another Jamie winner, and yet another triumph from my friendly neighbourhood butcher. There’s three distinct parts here: pork chop, spicy cabbage, and roast swede.

Swede first: peeled and diced, tossed with salt, pepper, oil and thyme, left to roast for 45 mins.

Then the pork. I made a rub first by grinding fennel seeds, paprika, salt and pepper together in my two-ton pestle and mortar (must pic that some day), and then pressing all over my beautiful pink pork chops. Then on to a nice hot griddle, ten minutes all told, turning every couple of minutes.

When the pork was done and resting (crucial for those flavours and juices to return throughout the meat), it was time for the cabbage. I heated some oil in a hot pan, then added mustard seeds, cayenne pepper and sliced garlic until the seeds were popping out of the pan. Then shredded cabbage was quickly added and tossed in the pan until it caught slightly, blackening the edges.

It was lovely – juicy flesh, with aniseedy flavours hitting you immediately then giving way to the smoky-sweet paprika. The cabbage and swede were great counters to both of these. Enjoyed this a lot.

Categories
food mushroom pancetta rice

pancetta & pea risotto


Risotto is a deeply calming dish, both to cook and especially to eat. What amazes me about risotto is that it starts the same but can end so many ways depending on what you add.

It starts with: onions fried gently, then the heat turned up as your arborio or carnaroli rice is added. A handy tip for measuring rice: two handfuls per person. The rice needs to get hot and toasted all over to prepare it for absorbing stock. Stock should be boiling the background (thank you, last week’s chicken stock). Booze is needed here, a glass of white wine is best. Allow this to bubble to nearly nothing. Then stock is added a ladelful at a time, allowing it to reduce away until sticky. You need a bit of armwork, stirring away to move the rice off the bottom of the pan. Once the rice is tender and tasty, you can eat as is (a little dull) or add what works for you.
For me, it’s grated parmesan and butter, vigorously stirred through. In this case I added pancetta fried just beforehand, kept to one side then put back into the rice at the end. Some frozen peas and it’s ready. Eat with a spoon and a lazy grin.
Categories
food pork

roast pork

Delicious, savoury roast pork. The porky prince of Sundays. Except I had this on Saturday. Er…..

I watched Jamie’s programme on British pork, and immediately raced out for some Freedom Food British shoulder of pork from Sainsbury’s. Can’t recall ever having roast with shoulder before, usually loin or leg. So it was an experiment.
Following Jamie’s recipe, I scored the fat for crackling and smeared it with coarse salt. It went in the oven on a very high heat, then after half an hour turned it down to a normal-ish 180C. At this point the skin was all puffed up. After another hour I piled the baking tray with celery, carrots, red onions, sage and bay and plonked the pork back on top. After about another hour and a half the pork was as above, golden-dark and dripping with flavour. Crucially it was also possible to pull the meat apart with fingers – therefore done. I put the meat to one side and covered with foil to rest. (I didn’t actually eat it for perhaps another hour and a half).
Meanwhile the tray went on the hob and I put a splash of Marsala in with the veg, scraping away to get all the yummy black bits off the bottom. Once reduced I added veg stock and stirred until I was left with a thick, rich dark gravy. After pushing through a sieve I had a gloriously savoury meat juice.
Served with cabbage, carrots and – what else? – roast potatoes, it was great. Nice one Jamie – support British pigs!
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