Tag Archives: Pork

May 3, 2013

Slow Cooked Pork Shoulder with Fennel and Star Anise

This astonishingly tasty slow cooked pork shoulder is stuffed with fennel seeds, star anise, lemon and chilli. It is superb for Sunday lunch, but also delicious cold the next day in sandwiches. It’s also very easy to make. If you don’t have a slow cooker, then cook in a lidded casserole dish in a low (160C/Gas 2) oven for 2-3 hours until the meat is meltingly tender. Serve with a simple apple sauce, mashed potatoes and greens. The resulting gravy from the cooking stock is incredible.

Serves 2-4

Boneless pork shoulder, weight approx. 1 kg
250ml chicken stock
250ml white wine

For the stuffing

2 tbsp fennel seeds
2 star anise
1 red chilli, deseeded
3 garlic cloves, peeled
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp rock salt

1. Put all the ingredients for the stuffing in a pestle and mortar and bash the living daylights out of them to make a paste.

2. Lay the pork out flat, skin-side down, on a work surface. With a sharp knife, make deep slashes into the flesh then, with a spatula, spread the spice paste all over, massaging deep into the slashes.

3. Tie up with butcher’s string and cover with plastic wrap. Put in the fridge to marinate for 2 hours or overnight.

4. When you’re ready to cook, add the stock and white wine to a slow cooker, then the pork. Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours, until the pork is meltingly tender.

5. Remove the pork from the slow cooker and transfer to a roasting tin. Drain the stock through a sieve into a pan.

7. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 8 and cook the pork for approx. 40 mins until the skin turns to crackling.

8. Meanwhile, bring the pan of stock to the boil on the hob and reduce by half.

9. Remove the pork from the oven and allow to rest for 10 mins, then carve into thick slices.

10. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes, steamed greens, apple sauce and the stock gravy.

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Tagged as chilli, fennel, Lemon, Pork, pork shoulder, slow cooked, Slow-cooker, star anise

April 18, 2013

Sichuan Pepper & Miso Pork Belly

There is nothing like using totally authentic ingredients in your cooking and this one comes with a hallmark of quality. The key ingredient is Sichaun pepper. It is not actually pepper, but the dried red-brown berries of a type of ash tree that have a lemony, peppery aroma.

In their raw state look like pink flowerbuds and numb your tongue if you’re daft enough to lick them. But once they’re cooked down they become very soft and fragrant and impart a delicate background heat, though the more you use, the hotter your dish will be.

My pepper comes courtesy of Helena, who works part-time in my local pub. She recently came back from a month-long visit to see her boyfriend in China and was kind enough to remember my request to bring something authentic back with her for me to cook. She didn’t let me down. These peppercorns are a revelation.

I’ve cooked this pork belly in the slow cooker with a simple Sichuan peppercorn and miso paste rub. You don’t need salt as the miso is salty enough. To finish, make an aromatic gravy from the resulting stock and a swirl of honey and serve with spiced apples and potato and leek mash.

1kg pork belly
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 tbsp miso paste (I used paste from a miso soup sachet)
1 tbsp honey

For the spiced apple sauce

Knob of butter
2 Bramley apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp Chinese 5-Spice powder
1 tsp sugar
Half tsp salt

1. With a sharp knife, score the pork skin and rub the pepper and miso paste deep into the slashes. Fill a slow cooker (or casserole dish) to 2 cm deep with water, then add the pork. If using a slow cooker, cook on LOW for 5-6 hours until the pork is very tender. If using a casserole dish, cook in a 160C/Gas 2 oven for 2-3 hours. Once cooked, remove the pork and transfer to a plate.

2. Drain the stock through a sieve into a bowl or jar and put in the fridge until the fat comes to the surface, which makes it easier to skim off. Once skimmed, transfer to a small saucepan, add the honey and bring to the boil and reduce to desired consistency. If you like your sauce thicker, add 1 tsp cornflour mixed into a paste with a little water.

3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Scrape the soft peppercorns from the surface of the skin and using a sharp knife, remove the skin from the pork belly. Lay the meat and the skin side-by-side on a roasting tin and cook in the oven until the top layer of fat has rendered down and the skin turns to crackling (to be honest, I misjudged mine and left the skin in too long and it became a little, er, charred. Tasted lovely, though, and had a fantastic crunch).

4. Once cooked, carve into thick slices and drizzle with the peppery-honey gravy.

5. To make the spiced apple sauce, add the butter to a saucepan and melt over a low heat. Add the diced apples and a little water and gently cook for around 10 mins until the apples are soft and the water has boiled away. You’re after a chunky sauce. Add the 5-Spice powder and cinnamon stick and stir through. Cook for a further 5 mins. YOu can do this ahead of time and re-heat when you’re ready.

6. Serve the lot with potato and leek mash.

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Tagged as Honey, miso, miso paste, Pork, Recipe Shed, Recipes, sichuan pepper, slow cooked, Slow-cooker

April 12, 2013

Pippa Middleton’s Toad-in-the-Hole with Onion Gravy

I nabbed this recipe from Pippa Middleton’s much-maligned Celebrate book. If you ignore all the drivel about party planning and hosting, some of the recipes are really quite nice – and very family-friendly. Such as this Toad-in-the-Hole with Onion Gravy.

Pippa writes: “Buy the sausages from a local butcher and choose interesting flavours for variety. The batter is flavoured with rosemary, but you could also try a few pinches of paprika or replace the mustard powder with a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard. Dish up with a rich onion gravy.”

Serves 3 (i.e. my three kids)

6 pork sausages
6 slices Parma ham
1 tbsp olive oil
180g plain flour
3 eggs
200ml milk
1 tsp mustard powder (optional)
1 tbsp chopped rosemary (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the onion gravy

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely sliced
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
500ml beef stock

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Wrap the sausages in the Parma ham. Pour the oil into the bottom of a deep baking tray and arrange the sausages in a single layer. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 10 mins.

2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, eggs and half the milk. Gradually mix in the rest of the milk until smooth. Add the mustard powder and rosemary and season with salt and pepper.

3. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Ladle the batter over the sausages until they are three-quarters covered. Return to the oven and bake for 20-25 mins, until risen and golden brown.

4. To make the onion gravy, heat the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the sliced onion and cook over a gentle heat until soften, golden and caramelised. Stir in the mustard and pour in the stock. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce for 10 mins, or until the liquid has thickened and reduced by half.

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Tagged as batter, Parma ham, Pippa Middleton, Pork, Recipe Shed, Recipes, Sausages, Toad-in-the-hole

April 8, 2013

Twice-Cooked Gammon with Clementine & Honey Glaze

Very simple, very effective, very cheap – and very delicious hot or cold. That’s the Verdict on this fantastic Twice-Cooked Gammon with Clementine & Honey Glaze recipe. The rolled gammon joint cost me a fiver (for 1.5kg) and the two tablespoons of honey cost a few pence. And cooking couldn’t be simpler: a few hours in the slow cooker, then half an hour in the oven. Bish, bash, bosh.

I’ve served this with a mustardy potato salad, made by boiling new potatoes, then mixing them with some finely chopped onion, 2 tbsp Dijon mustard and 2 tbps mayonnaise.

Serves 2-4, with loads leftover for sandwiches and salads

1.5 kg gammon. I bought mine from the indoor market in Darlington. Check with the butcher whether it needs to be soaked in water for a few hours to remove excess salt. Mine didn’t.
3-4 clementines (or satsumas, or tangerines), peeled and broken into segments
200ml water
2 tbsp honey (I used Greek Thyme Honey, from fruit and nuts specialists Carpo, but any will suffice)

1. Put the gammon, clementine segments and water into a slow cooker and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours, until the gammon is very tender. Remove from the cooker and drain the stock into a small saucepan, through a sieve.

2. Add the honey to the stock and bring to a fierce boil. Reduce by three-quarters until you have a sticky syrup.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Put the gammon in a roasting tin and spoon the syrup over the joint. Put in the oven and cook for 20-30 mins, basting the gammon with syrup every now and then.