The beautiful piece of pork belly I used in the recipe below came from a new butcher in Parsons Green. They are worth mentioning here as an addendum to my "love of butchers" piece from many months back.
The butchers at the Parsons Nose supply great quality meat and game. They age their beef in store and I believe the quality of their produce to be on a par with Randalls but considerably cheaper. Their venison sausages are probably the finest sausages I have ever eaten. Here are the vital stats:
The Parsons Nose
753a Fulham Rd
London
SW6 5UU
020 7736 4492
They also gave me this 10% off voucher for Christmas purchases which I am passing on to you.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Monday, 24 November 2008
Confit Pork Belly
This recipe requires a bit of dedication and planning but will reward you with belly pork perfection - tender, moist, flesh with uniformly perfect crackling.
The word "confit" means preserved (as in "confiture") and involves slow-cooking the subject of the meal in duck fat. Only the French could invent something so ridiculously unhealthy! Now you will need quite a lot of fat, so plan to have several roast ducks or geese in the run-up to your confit or alternatively secure your fat from elsewhere.
The fat for this confit comprised:
1. a jar of goose fat from the supermarket
2. the strained and reserved fat from roasting a duck (and some duck legs)
3. a glug of olive oil (because I was short for my first confit)
4. a large tub of beef dripping
The above amounts to about about a litre and a quarter which is enough to confit a 4 portion chunk of belly pork.
Ingredients
For the confit:
a large piece of pork belly - boned and trimmed of gristle
lots of animal fat (see above)
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
a sprig of rosemary
For the salting mixture:
a bay leaf per portion
1 star anise
a sprig of rosemary
1 clove of garlic per portion
5 peppercorns per portion
60g rock salt per portion
Step 1 - Salting
Roughly chop the bay, rosemary and garlic and mix with the salt. Lightly crush the peppercorns and add the crushed peppercorns to the salt mixture.
Smear the salt mixture all over the pork. Cover the pork and leave in the fridge for 24 hours or at least overnight. If you get a chance at any point in the day, rub the mixture into the pork to make sure it has an even covering.
Step 2 - The confit
Pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees C.
Remove the pork from the fridge and transfer it to an ovenproof dish which fits the cut of pork as tightly as possible. The tighter the fit, the less fat you will need to cover the pork. Melt the fat in a saucepan and pour over the pork until it is covered. Tuck in a whole bay leaf, a sprig of rosemary and a star anise.
Cover the pork (with a lid or else tin foil) and transfer to the oven. Leave it simmering slowly in the oven for about 4 hours. Check the pork while it is cooking and if any part is sticking out, turn it over to ensure even, moist cooking. You might also want to turn down the oven if it is boiling too rapidly.
Remove from the oven and leave the meat to cool in its oil. The meat should not cool completely. See step 3.
Step 3 - Pressing
In order to ensure that the portions are neat and perfectly flat, you now need to set your portions in a press. Before the fat sets, remove the pork from the fat and wrap it loosely in cling film. Place the pork skin-side down on a flat surface and place a flat board on top of it so that the pork belly is pressed as flat as possible.
Place a heavy weight on the top board. A case of wine perhaps? Leave like this overnight. The pork skin should set perfectly flat. This will allow you to pan-fry the skin and get wonderful crackling. Once removed from the weights, the pork is now cooked and semi-cured so should keep in the fridge for at least a week.
Step 4 - Final cooking
Take the pork and cut into neat square portions. Score the rind in whichever way you want (I go for inch cubes). Take a heavy-bottomed oven-safe frying pan which is large enough to contain all of the belly portions. Get the pan hot and place the portions skin side down in the pan. Fry over a medium heat until the skin is crisp and golden.
Transfer the pan to a hot oven for 6-8 minutes with the pork remaining skin side down.
Hooray!
When you turn the belly portions out of the pan, the crackling should be perfectly crispy. Place them on a mound of mash and serve with braised red cabbage and apple sauce. Oh, and please have a glass of wine at this point, you have earned it!
The confit fat can be strained, kept and re-used a number of times. Hugh Fearnley-Whojimaflip says you can use it 3 times before it becomes too salty. I have done 2 confits, duck and pork belly. What on earth shall I do next?
The word "confit" means preserved (as in "confiture") and involves slow-cooking the subject of the meal in duck fat. Only the French could invent something so ridiculously unhealthy! Now you will need quite a lot of fat, so plan to have several roast ducks or geese in the run-up to your confit or alternatively secure your fat from elsewhere.
The fat for this confit comprised:
1. a jar of goose fat from the supermarket
2. the strained and reserved fat from roasting a duck (and some duck legs)
3. a glug of olive oil (because I was short for my first confit)
4. a large tub of beef dripping
The above amounts to about about a litre and a quarter which is enough to confit a 4 portion chunk of belly pork.
Ingredients
For the confit:
a large piece of pork belly - boned and trimmed of gristle
lots of animal fat (see above)
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
a sprig of rosemary
For the salting mixture:
a bay leaf per portion
1 star anise
a sprig of rosemary
1 clove of garlic per portion
5 peppercorns per portion
60g rock salt per portion
Step 1 - Salting
Roughly chop the bay, rosemary and garlic and mix with the salt. Lightly crush the peppercorns and add the crushed peppercorns to the salt mixture.
Smear the salt mixture all over the pork. Cover the pork and leave in the fridge for 24 hours or at least overnight. If you get a chance at any point in the day, rub the mixture into the pork to make sure it has an even covering.
Step 2 - The confit
Pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees C.
Remove the pork from the fridge and transfer it to an ovenproof dish which fits the cut of pork as tightly as possible. The tighter the fit, the less fat you will need to cover the pork. Melt the fat in a saucepan and pour over the pork until it is covered. Tuck in a whole bay leaf, a sprig of rosemary and a star anise.
Cover the pork (with a lid or else tin foil) and transfer to the oven. Leave it simmering slowly in the oven for about 4 hours. Check the pork while it is cooking and if any part is sticking out, turn it over to ensure even, moist cooking. You might also want to turn down the oven if it is boiling too rapidly.
Remove from the oven and leave the meat to cool in its oil. The meat should not cool completely. See step 3.
Step 3 - Pressing
In order to ensure that the portions are neat and perfectly flat, you now need to set your portions in a press. Before the fat sets, remove the pork from the fat and wrap it loosely in cling film. Place the pork skin-side down on a flat surface and place a flat board on top of it so that the pork belly is pressed as flat as possible.
Place a heavy weight on the top board. A case of wine perhaps? Leave like this overnight. The pork skin should set perfectly flat. This will allow you to pan-fry the skin and get wonderful crackling. Once removed from the weights, the pork is now cooked and semi-cured so should keep in the fridge for at least a week.
Step 4 - Final cooking
Take the pork and cut into neat square portions. Score the rind in whichever way you want (I go for inch cubes). Take a heavy-bottomed oven-safe frying pan which is large enough to contain all of the belly portions. Get the pan hot and place the portions skin side down in the pan. Fry over a medium heat until the skin is crisp and golden.
Transfer the pan to a hot oven for 6-8 minutes with the pork remaining skin side down.
Hooray!
When you turn the belly portions out of the pan, the crackling should be perfectly crispy. Place them on a mound of mash and serve with braised red cabbage and apple sauce. Oh, and please have a glass of wine at this point, you have earned it!
The confit fat can be strained, kept and re-used a number of times. Hugh Fearnley-Whojimaflip says you can use it 3 times before it becomes too salty. I have done 2 confits, duck and pork belly. What on earth shall I do next?
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Savoury Bread & Butter Pudding
In fact, this is quite possibly closer to tartiflette than it is to B&B pudding.
The choice of cheese is up to you. Gruyere is the obvious one for me as I love the sweet, straw aroma and flavour of cooked gruyere. Beaufort or comte will be similarly great. Good farmhouse cheddar or stilton will give a different slant. Maybe you should just use up your cheese leftovers? Neals Yard sell lovely blue-streaked chunks of cheddar for cooking at a vastly reduced price.
Serves 4
Ingredients
half an onion finely chopped
3 or 4 slices of thin-cut pancetta
250g grated cheese
half a loaf or so of buttered crustless sliced white bread
one and a half pints of full-cream milk
6 large eggs
salt & pepper
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Line the bottom of a shallow ovenproof dish with several slices of the buttered bread. Sprinkle over two thirds of the cheese and lay the pancetta over the cheese. Place the rest of bread on top.
Fry the onion with a knob of butter until softened. Once soft, stir in the milk and add a little salt (remembering that both the cheese and the bacon will have their own) and pepper. Pour mixture into the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. Then pour the milk and egg mix over the bread in the dish and place in the oven for 25 minutes.
Take the pudding out of the oven and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top. Return to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes or until golden brown.
This is delicious served with a simple salad. If you have used a milder cheese, the salad should be dressed with something tart and punchy (use wine vinegar rather than balsamic and maybe add some lemon juice). If you have used a powerful salty cheese such as stilton or strong cheddar, try a sweeter dressing made with gloopy balsamic.
Notes for gluttons
This recipe is clearly adaptable. You could try adding mushrooms, peppers or other veg. You could go italian and use basil, sun dried toms and mozzarella. No, I've got it, chicken bread and tikka butter masala.
The choice of cheese is up to you. Gruyere is the obvious one for me as I love the sweet, straw aroma and flavour of cooked gruyere. Beaufort or comte will be similarly great. Good farmhouse cheddar or stilton will give a different slant. Maybe you should just use up your cheese leftovers? Neals Yard sell lovely blue-streaked chunks of cheddar for cooking at a vastly reduced price.
Serves 4
Ingredients
half an onion finely chopped
3 or 4 slices of thin-cut pancetta
250g grated cheese
half a loaf or so of buttered crustless sliced white bread
one and a half pints of full-cream milk
6 large eggs
salt & pepper
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Line the bottom of a shallow ovenproof dish with several slices of the buttered bread. Sprinkle over two thirds of the cheese and lay the pancetta over the cheese. Place the rest of bread on top.
Fry the onion with a knob of butter until softened. Once soft, stir in the milk and add a little salt (remembering that both the cheese and the bacon will have their own) and pepper. Pour mixture into the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. Then pour the milk and egg mix over the bread in the dish and place in the oven for 25 minutes.
Take the pudding out of the oven and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top. Return to the oven and cook for a further 10 minutes or until golden brown.
This is delicious served with a simple salad. If you have used a milder cheese, the salad should be dressed with something tart and punchy (use wine vinegar rather than balsamic and maybe add some lemon juice). If you have used a powerful salty cheese such as stilton or strong cheddar, try a sweeter dressing made with gloopy balsamic.
Notes for gluttons
This recipe is clearly adaptable. You could try adding mushrooms, peppers or other veg. You could go italian and use basil, sun dried toms and mozzarella. No, I've got it, chicken bread and tikka butter masala.
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