Pork Orange Honey and Blueberry Pasta with Roasted Onion, White Wine and Cream

Sounds complicated but it isn't, quick too. My butcher is unreal and makes these mind blowing pork orange honey and blueberry sausages (you can find them here or on Facebook by searching for Aussie Smokehouse). They're like nothing I've ever eaten before, moist but not greasy at all and the fruit/honey combo works incredibly well. Although I understand that you may not be able to get your hands on them, the method would work really well with any flavoured sausage eg Italian, pork and fennel, chicken and honey etc etc. When I first made this I used 6 or 7 large mushrooms but I was out of them last night. I like to plump up the veg content when I can. As for the onion portion of this recipe, I have a thing for roasted onion wedges at the moment but you could very simply dice and saute them. Also, use whatever pasta you like but the shells catch the mince really easily.
Enjoy

1 kg pork orange honey blueberry sausages
1 onion in wedges and separated
6 mushrooms diced
1 slice bacon diced
1 stalk celery diced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 cup white wine
150ml thickened cream
1 packet large shell pasta
Salt and pepper
2 slices grilled prosciutto
1/2 bunch parsley minced
Chilli flakes or fresh
Parmesan cheese
Extra virgin olive oil



Coat onion with a little olive oil and season, roast at 180C for about 15 minutes (keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn - get some good colour though).
Put your salted pasta water on to boil.
Season and saute the garlic, celery, mushroom and bacon in 1 tbs or so of extra virgin until soft. Squeeze the sausage contents into your frying pan, break up and cook through. When cooked deglaze with the white wine. Add in the roasted onion then reduce to a simmer, reduce by half and not smelling boozie. Pour in the cream. Add half of the parsley. Check for seasoning. Cook your pasta, reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Drain and add to the mince mixture with the some of the cooking water.
Spoon into bowls and top with parsley, parmesan, grilled prosciutto, salt and pepper, chilli and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Pork Belly Porchetta

I lost my mind. The kids lost their minds. Had so much fun cooking this. Steep learning curve though.
To get the briquettes hot enough (I'm an amateur at this) it took the best part of an hour and considerable fanning and rearranging. The cook time was way longer than I anticipated too. I was expecting an hour and a half but it was closer to three hours. If you're going to try this (and you should), give yourself plenty of time and, don't rush to lower the meat down closer to the heat until much toward the end. Otherwise you will burn the outside and it will be raw in the middle and that would suck. As to why it tasted sooooo good? Well apart from the smokiness and rad crackle I think it was the combination of fennel, caraway and lemon rind. You can prep  this well in advance and it probably helps to develop the flavours too.


1 charcoal spit roaster
4kg bag charcoal briquettes
Fire starters
1 piece of pork belly long enough to roll
Kitchen sting
3 cloves garlic
1 handful parsley
1 sprig rosemary
5 or 6 sprigs thyme
1/2 handful of sage leaves
Rind of half a lemon (or so)
Salt and pepper
Caraway seeds
Fennel seeds
Extra virgin olive oil

Mince the herbs, lemon rind and garlic and mix through a little extra virgin to bind. Pat dry your piece of pork belly - make sure it is well scored on the skin side. Lay the pork skin side down, season the meat with salt and pepper then distribute the herb mixture. Sprinkle through a couple of teaspoons each of caraway and fennel seed. Roll the pork and truss with kitchen sting. Watch this video to see how. Drizzle some extra virgin over the rolled meat, season heavily with sea salt and sprinkle over some fennel and caraway seeds. Refrigerate. When needed, spike with the rotisserie spike.
Get the charcoal started. When the charcoal is white and the flames have dropped away place your meat on. Adjust the height of your spit roaster to where about your hand can just handle the heat for for or five seconds. From this point forward, just sit their and drink wine. Its mesmerizing.  After about 2 hours it should start to look like the visible meat has good colour and some crackle  is forming. Drop the height down every ten minutes or so until you reach salty, crackly perfection. Serve it with something - dunno, couldn't remember the veg...

Spaghetti Bolognaise with Mushroom and Kale

I think I have an addiction to kale. This is one of my go to recipes, I love, the kids smash it, its mostly veg. Win - win. One of the most beautiful things about this dish is, you can make it on the go. Once the onion and celery are minced and have begun sauteing, you can bgein chopping the next bit. If you have never used pork and veal mince for spag bol, you should. Two tips, 1) generally it is how you finish a dish that makes it rule - some great parmesan and great extra virgin can lift any dish from good to wow; 2) learn to love chilli - it is the business.

1 onion in small dice
1 stick celery in small dice
2 tsp minced rosemary
2 tsp minced thyme
1 handful minced parsley
1 handful basil leaves
3 cloves garlic minced
2 rashers bacon in small dice
2 handfuls mushroom minced
A few porcini mushrooms ripped (optional)
500 gms pork and veal mince
3 leaves kale, finely chopped
1 bottle of passata
1 packet of pasta
1 or 2 tbs sugar
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan cheese
Chilli - fresh or dried

Get your pasta water hot. Sauté the onion and celery over a medium high temperature in some extra virgin with the 1/2 of the garlic, rosemary and thyme. When soft throw in the bacon and fry for a few minutes. When fragrant add in the mushrooms - you may need more extra virgin. When the mushrooms are cooked add in the minced pork and veal. Cook the concoction until the moisture has mostly evaporated then mix through the kale, salt and pepper. When fragrant and beginning to soften, stir through 3/4 of the tomato passata. Add in the sugar, balsamic and remaining garlic and 1/2 of the parsley. Start cooking the pasta in salted water. Reduce the heat and simmer the sauce until the pasta cooks. If your sauce is too dry add some of the pasta cooking water into the sauce. Chop the basil and stir through, check for seasoning, adding more salt/pepper/sugar/balsamic as necessary. Combine the sauce and pasta. Spoon into bowls. Top with a sprinkling of parsley, salt, a grind of pepper, parmesan and chilli. Some crispy prosciutto is wicked too.

Salsa with Pork Belly

Tonight I had a revelation.
Pork belly sauces made from the meat juices and cream etc are nice and all but you are always left feeling heavy afterwards. Today I made a very simple salsa for some taco boats (lunch) and used the remainder on some pork belly (dinner). It is the first time I have walked away from pork belly feeling refreshed. The acidity from the tomato, lime and red wine vinegar just smashed through the unctuous pork fat. The salsa took a mere 5 minutes from start to finish. Whilst I wouldn't mess with the simplicity of the salsa, some mint probably would work quite nicely in there too. The photo is terrible as I hadn't anticipated that this would be anywhere near as great as what it was.

Pork belly
10 cherry tomatoes
1 tbs red wine vinegar
1/2 bunch of coriander
1/2 tbs sugar
1/4 of a red chilli
1/2 a red onion in dice
1 tbs garlic oil
Juice of half a lime
Salt and pepper
Salad of any description




Cook some pork belly, make sure you get some proper crackle on that shiz. Salt it hard cook it at about 30 mins per 500 gms at 180C and smash it in the last 20 mins at 220C. I find poultry scissors are great at dealing with crackling - pro tip.
For the salsa? Just blend the rest of the ingredients but leave it chunky. Check for seasoning and adjust with more salt and pepper or lime or red wine vinegar. Add salsa to pork, eat some salad (optional).

O
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Pork Rack Cassoulet with Cherry Tomatoes

I've been meaning to make this for some time now. I had intended on making it slightly differently but I left some diced lamb in the butchers. Thankfully however the apple and cinnamon pork sausages that I bought easily had enough flavour. I thought that this would have been more labour intensive than it was, it was really very simple actually, give it a crack.

1 pork rack
2 pork sausages (apple and cinnamon)
1 tin crushed cherry tomatoes
1 tin cannelini beans, drained
1 onion diced
2 cloves garlic diced
2 tsp chopped rosemary
1 slice of bacon, diced
4 or 5 bay leaves
1 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper
A little Pesto Aioli
Chives
Olive oil

Colour the sausages in the pan you are going to cook the dish in, with a little olive oil - remove to a clean plate. Saute the garlic, onions, rosemary and bacon. Pour in the cherry tomatoes and cannelini beans and the chicken stock. Slice the sausages and place them in too. Give it a good mix along with the bay leaves. Bring to a simmer, turn down to very low and let it do its thing four a couple of hours.
Oil the pork rack and rub plenty of salt into the rind. Place on a roasting tray then place into a preheated 180C oven for 25 minutes. Increase the temperature to 220C for another 15. Keep an eye on the rack that you don't overcook it or burn the crackling. Remove to a plate and allow to rest covered loosely with foil.
Check the cassoulet for seasoning adding more salt and pepper as required. Remove the bay leaves. Slice the pork rack between the bone. Spoon the cassoulet into bowls, bang on your piece of pork, drizzle over some pesto aioli and a sprinkling of chives.

Roast Pork Brined in Pear Juice

Another concept I have been toying with, brining in pear juice. I watched Heston brine a chicken a while ago and it looked great, I have also heard of brining as 'marinading with water'. Great result very next to no work. Pear and pork work very well and I thought I would see if this process worked. The information I read on-line recommended that I do so for between 2 and 4 days, Heston said overnight (it was for chicken) but I only had time for about 8 hours. The result? More moist, sweet flavour, more colour than I would have aimed for though on the crackle. Absolutely doing this again.


150 gms salt
1 litre pear juice
1.5 litres water
Pepper corns
Fresh bay leaves
Joint of roasting pork



Cover the meat in the water/juice in a large saucepan - you may need more (use 60 gms salt per litre liquid), bung in the bay leaf and pepper corns. Refrigerate until required, roast as usual (20 mins at 220C, cover then roast at 20 mins per 450 gms, finishing with the last 20 at 220C).

Papadom Crusted Tandoori Pork Chop

This was good but when I do it again I will probably crust the meat afterwards in precooked papadoms as the papadoms didn't expand nearly as much as I though they would. Regardless, these were still fun.

5 pork loin chops
1 tbs tandoori paste
1 tbs natural yoghurt
1 packet small papadoms
Olive oil or other




Blitz the papadoms in a blender to as fine a consistency as possible. Combine the tandoori and yoghurt. Coat the pork chops in the tandoori and yoghurt mixture and set aside to marinade until required. Heat about 1cm of oil in a frying pan to medium high then reduce the heat to medium. Coat one side of each chop in the papadom crumbs then place in the pan, cooking in batches. When blood starts to come through each chop, crust the remaining side and press in. Turn the pork and fry on the remaining side until firm but with a little give (usually by the time you have nice colour). Remove to a clean plate, cover and rest.
I served this with a spiced pilaf, some dobs of yoghurt, a sprinkling of coriander and some sliced chilli for Mum and Dad. I think that a squeeze of lemon would be radical too but I didn't have any...
Enjoy!

Cashew and Macadamia Nut Satay

I watched a TV chef recently smash together a satay sauce in about 2 minutes and I thought well I want to do that too. My recipe differs quite a bit from his but as my research after the fact discovered, it don't matter. I think satay is one of those 'satays are like opinions' scenarios. They can be simple or complicated. In any case, what I have done here is very very good and I can thoroughly recommend trying it. My bother in law who doesn't like satay had two helpings and was kind with his review. There is enough satay to marinade 1 - 2 kg of the meat of your choice, have enough left for being a sauce and, an additional purpose like making satay and coconut milk rice for the kids.


2 handfuls salted cashew/macadamia nuts
2 heaped tbs crunchy peanut butter
Rind of 1 lime
Juice of 2 limes (maybe more)
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb ginger roughly chopped
1/2 bunch coriander, roots and all
200 ml of coconut milk (or to taste)
1 long red chilli
1 tbs palm sugar (or brown)
2 tbs light olive oil or peanut oil
1/2 cup water


Leaving out the water, blitz the lot until it is in a smooth paste. Check for flavours and add more lime juice, coconut milk or sugar until you reach a tasty result (there should be enough salt from the nuts). Aim for a good balance of nut, sweet and importantly, lime. Pour in half of the water, blitz, check the consistency and add the remaining and more if required.

Thai Green Pork Belly with Coconut Cous Cous

Pork belly can do anything. I had some left over curry paste and I thought well, I can only try. As it turns out it works quite well indeed and is in no way overpowering. I didn't take a photograph of the cous cous as, to be honest I wasn't expecting it to be so great. The youngest Henry, absolutely smashed the cous cous. As always with pork belly, its not difficult it just requires some patience and a watchful eye at the end.

1 piece pork belly (skin scored)
1 tbs (or more) Thai green curry paste
1 onion in thin slices
5 or so mushrooms sliced
1 lemon in wedges
1 small tin coconut milk
2 cups chicken stock
Cous cous (1 cup?)
Salt
Olive oil


Rub the curry paste and salt into the skin of the pork belly along with enough oil to wet it. Scatter the pieces of onion on the bottom of your roasting tray along with the mushroom and lemon wedges. Place the pork belly on top of the veg. Pour in the coconut milk and enough of the chicken stock to come about half way up the side of the pork. Cover with foil and place in a 140C oven for 2 hours. Remove the foil and continue to roast for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, carefully remove the pork belly from the sauce, scrape off any veg from underneath then place back in the oven on a rack 2 down from under a high grill. Keep an eye on it and when crispy, remove and rest for 10 minutes or so on a clean plate.  While this happens throw a couple of handfuls of cous cous into the coconut/veg/sauce gear, remove the lemon wedges and cover with a foil. Pour any resting juice into the cous cous. Slice and serve on the cous cous. I dunno, maybe add some chopped parsley.

Chestnut and Shitake Mushroom Steamed Wontons

My wife was recently given a Spirit House cookbook for her birthday. I have heard many good things about this place and judging by the quality of the cook book, it is clearly worthy of the hype. I asked my wife to choose a starter and she chose this. Not having all of the ingredients I altered it sufficiently to consider place it here. They were slightly fiddly but really worth it.

500 gms pork mince
10 water chestnuts chopped
1 tbs fish sauce
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbs chopped coriander
1 tbs chopped basil
1 handful dried shitake mushrooms reconstituted and chopped
1 egg
1 packet wontons

Combine all of the ingredients except for the wontons. Spoon about 1 tsp of pork mixture into the middle of each wonton, wet the edges and seal. Half I sealed in a rectangle, half I sealed on a diagonal and folded like tortellini. Steam for 8-10 minutes. You can separate layers with grease proof paper cut into rounds and holes cut into it. I served this with kecap manis and sriracha - a Thai hot chilli sauce - it is amazing.

Pork Fillet Ballontine with Pesto and Fennel

 Looks difficult but it was actually rather simple. A little messing about but a very pleasing result.



1 pork fillet
3 tbs pesto
3 mushrooms
1 chilli
3 slices fennel
8 sheets prosciutto
1 tbs olive oil



Carefully slice pork fillet down the side but not all the way through then fold out the piece of meat. Lay out a piece of cling film, place the meat on and cover with more cling film. Beat the meat out using a meat mallet or a knife sharpening steal until it is about 1/2 cm thick. Halve the piece of meat. Place four pieces of prosciutto on a large-ish sheet of cling film, overlapping slightly. Place each piece of meat on the separate prosciutto sheets. Paint 1/2 the pesto on each piece of meat. Blitz the mushroom, chilli and fennel in a blender. You will need stop a few times and push the gear down to the blades. Lay the mushroom mixture in a sausage form along the top side of each pork fillet. Trim the excess prosciutto from each end. Using the cling film to help you, gently yet firmly roll the pork into a sausage shape then twist round and round until you have an even, firm sausage, tie knots in the end and refrigerate until required.

2/3 fill a medium sized saucepan to simmering then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Gently slide in a bread plate so that it points up then place in your ballontines. It may be necessary to weigh down your ballontine, I used a spatula. Every few minutes, scoop out a little water and add in some fresh water to keep the temperature from becoming too high. Cook for about 35 minutes or so. I cooked mine for 30 and felt as though they could have done with just a touch more. Remove from the pan and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Remove from the plastic wrap and fry in a frying pan until well coloured all over. If you want to, deglaze the pan with some wine and a little stock, reduce then, add a little butter and maybe some herbs or lemon.

Pork Cheek Braised with Fennel and Chorizo, Finished with Watercress and Feta

This is the very definition of sometimes food. Holy moly, so tender you could have eaten this using a brick, the fat from the crackling scrapped off like soft jelly. The butcher warned me about this. The cheek came as an entire jowl, its not very pretty to look at but it certainly did the job. Very little prep, a few hours cooking, a lot of guilty face stuffing. Oh, and I meant to poach some green prawns in the reducing liquid but forgot, it would have been great though...

2 pork jowls (score the skin)
1/3 chorrizo sausage finely minced

1 stick celery finely diced
1 carrot finely diced
1 onion finely diced
3 cloves garlic sliced
1/2 a fennel finely diced
1/2 a capsicum finely diced
1 cup bubbly white wine
1 bunch watercress
2 cherry tomatoes
1 tbs marinated feta
1 tbs caraway seeds
1 tbs salt (maybe more)
1/4 bottle passata
1 tbs sugar
Pepper
Olive oil

Heat some olive in a large frying pan to medium high. Half cook the chorizo then remove to a clean plate. Oil the pork skin, pour over the caraway seeds and salt and rub into the skin. Sear the underside of the pork jowl until it has great colour then remove to a clean plate. Throw in the veg and garlic and toss about until fragrant. Pour any resting juice into the veg, add in the chorizo, place the jowls on top and pour in enough wine to cover the veg (not watercress or tomato) and come a little up the sides of the meat. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cover with a lid and allow to simmer for 2 hours.
Preheat an oven to 140C.
Remove the lid and place the pork in the oven - it reduces the sauce and dries out the skin. Roast for an hour. Remove the dish from the oven. Take the meat from the pan and place back in the oven, under a medium high grill, 2 or 3 shelves down until crispy and awesome. Good idea to place something underneath it. In the meantime reduce the sauce over a low heat on the stove top with half the sugar and all of the passata. Mince the watercress with the feta and cherry tomatoes. Mix through half of the feta, check the cheek sauce for seasoning and sweetness and add more salt/pepper/sugar if required. If you feel as though it is too heavy, squeeze in some lemon - the feta and tomato will freshen it up though. Slice, arrange on a plate, add some sauce, top with more feta gear and serve with some great toasted bread.

Sage and Thyme Pork Belly

Only because the crackling was perfect. The crackling was still crispy the next night cold from the fridge.

1 piece pork belly, skin scored

1 handful sage leaves

1 handful thyme leaves

1 tbs salt

1/2 an onion sliced

4 or 5 mushrooms sliced

1 carrot sliced thin-ish

1 cup sparkling white wine

1 cup stock (or more if desired)

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 lemon in quarters

2 tsp (or more) sugar

Olive oil

Chop the herbs. Spread the onion on the bottom of a roasting tray, top with the sliced mushroom and carrot. Pour over a little oil. Place the pork belly on top, pour on a little oil, add on the salt and chopped herbs and rub into the skin. Pour the wine in, avoid getting any on the skin, add in 3/4 of the lemon quarters and cover with foil. Cook in a preheated 170C oven for 1 hour then remove the foil, roast for a further hour then remove from the oven. Place the veg (pulp of the lemon only) and liquid from the roasting tray in a small saucepan with the stock and garlic. Simmer while the skin crackles then blitz with a stick blender. Check for seasoning, add some sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

To crisp the skin stick the belly under the griller, two shelves down so it doesn't burn, on high, rotating it every few minutes to get an even, super crispy result. 

I served this with blanched asparagus and a sweet potato and potato mash with some marinated feta mixed through.

Semi-Saltimbocca

Nice. I saw a recipe for saltimbocca on Food Safari a few years ago and thought it looked simple and awesome. As the traditional recipe uses veal and I couldn't get my hands on any at the time I tried it with a pork fillet instead. Although I have never had the traditional version, this is successful. I recommend it thoroughly.

1 pork fillet

1 cup flour

Sage leaves

3 tbs butter

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Rind of 1/2 a lemon

Prosciutto

1 clove garlic sliced

Salt

Pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

Some good mash

Slice the pork fillet into 2cm rounds and beat out between clingfilm until quite thin. Season the flour with salt and pepper, lemon rind and some chopped sage leaves. Dust the pork slices in the flour. Place 1 sage leaf on each pork slice and top with some prosciutto, fold over a piece of meat and beat a little more to sort of seal it in place. Heat some extra virgin in a large frying pan and add a little butter. Fry the pork slices until they have nice colour on both sides.

Drain the oil from the pan and add in the remaining butter over a medium high heat. When bubbling add in the garlic and any remaining sage leaves. When fragrant pour in the lemon juice, stir then pour over the top of your cooked pork slices. Serve with good mash and some nice crusty bread. Very nice indeed.

 

Pistachio, Sage, Basil and Parmesan Crumbed Pork Loin Chops

Very easy and very quick. Crumbing is not something that I do regularly but it is a fantastic method of delivering great texture and real flavour with punch. What makes doing this so much more rewarding is making more than you need and freezing the rest to use another time - with zero prep. Choice.

4 pork loin chops

1/2 bunch of sage

1/2 bunch parsley
1/3 bunch basil

1 cup pistachios

Parmesan slices (4 or more)

Zest of 1 lemon

3 tsp porcini salt

Pepper

3 or 4 garlic cloves skin removed

1 or 2 cups bread crumbs
2 eggs beaten in a bowl

2 cups flour in a bowl

Olive oil for frying

Balsamic glaze for finishing

Lemon wedges for serving

Finely mince the sage, basil and parsley with a knife. Blitz the pistachio, Parmesan, porcini salt, pepper and garlic until quite fine. Combine the Parmesan/pistachio mixture with the bread crumbs and lemon zest. Check for seasoning. Place half the crumb mix in a zip lock bag - in the freezer (sorry, Cake quote). Dust each loin chop in flour then put through the beaten egg. Crumb each loin chop in the mixture, pressing it in until you have used it all up. Using a frying pan large enough to take all of the chops, fill it about to about 1cm with oil and heat to medium high. Shallow fry the crumbed pork until there is nice colour on the first side, carefully turn and reduce the heat to medium. Continue to cook until there is nice colour on the second side. Should only take 7 or 8 minutes. Remove to a clean plate, cover with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Place each onto a plate, drizzle with balsamic glaze and a squeeze of lemon. Serve with the vegetables of your choice.

Pork Loin With Sage and Lemon Zest

Same principal applies in this as to a thick piece of steak or even a roast, smack it with some heat and finish it in the oven. You can also do the same flavour combination with pork chops; pork, sage and lemon work very well together. If you wanted to in this recipe you could easily deglaze the pan with some wine or stock while the meat is resting to make a sauce and bung in some cream or butter or just reduce it. I opted tonight to finish this dish with a balsamic reduction I bought from a deli.

1 piece pork loin (mine was 1kg)

Sage leaves

Zest from 1 lemon

Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Baked mushrooms (I went basic)

Pan roasted potato with thyme

Steamed broccoli
Bought balsamic glaze

Preheat an oven to 180C. Season the pork loin with lemon rind, salt and pepper and coat lightly with oil. Add the sage leaves to one side of the loin, pressing them into the oil to make them stick. Heat some oil in a large frying pan to medium high. When hot add the pork loin, sage side down and sear until it has good colour, Carefully turn and repeat. When seared place on a lined baking tray (easier cleaning) and into the oven to roast for an hour. If your piece of pork is heavier or lighter, adjust the cooking time. Cook for 20mins per 450gms plus 20mins. Remove the pork to a clean plate, cover and allow to rest. I also cooked my mushrooms at the same time. I found that I needed to add a little more oil to the mushrooms toward the end to stop them from drying out.

When ready to serve, carve the pork to your desired thickness then spoon over a little of the resting juice. Arrange the pork on plates and drizzle over some balsamic glaze (or even a squeeze of lemon). Serve with baked mushrooms, pan roasted potato and steamed broccoli.

 

Rolled Pork Belly Stuffed With Almond, Date and Parsley

This only took about 5 minutes to make the stuffing and about 5 minutes to roll the belly. The fat rendered almost completely out of the meat , basting itself as it did and, as the scored skin was stretched due to the act of being rolled, it created very even crackling. Any flavour combinations you can think of that should work, will work eg; macadamia and sage, mushroom and bacon, basil and tomato etc etc. I did use some feta oil in this recipe to bind it, if you do not have it though just use another kind eg extra virgin, garlic oil or oven roasted tomato oil.

1 piece of pork belly (about 2kg)

1 handful almonds

1 handful dates, chopped

3 cloves garlic peeled

1/2 bunch parsley

1/2 tbs porcini salt
1 cup breadcrumbs (I used Panko)
1 tbs feta oil
Pepper
Salt
Olive oil
3 tsp sugar
1 cup wine
1 cup stock
Kitchen string
Roasted vegetables
Sugar snaps

Preheat an oven to 150C. Place the almonds, garlic, parsley and dates into a blender and blitz. Combine the almond mix in a bowl with the porcini salt, breadcrumbs, feta oil and pepper.

Pat the pork belly dry with paper toweling on both sides. With a sharp knife, score the skin. Lay the pork belly skin side down, length ways away from you on a cutting board. Spoon the mixture evenly over 1/2 of the meat, starting at the end closest to you. Cut a piece of kitchen string about 70 - 80cm long. Roll the pork belly over the stuffing tightly toward the non-stuffed end. Secure one end of the newly rolled pork belly tightly with a knot the begin to tie the meat. Oil the outside of the rolled pork belly, sprinkle on some salt and massage it in. Push any stuffing that has popped out back in then place in a lightly oiled roasting dish. Bake in the oven for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, crank the heat to 220C and baste the pork belly with some of the rendered fat. After 30 mins remove the pork belly (it should be crispy) to a clean plate and cover with foil. Pour off any excess fat and place the roasting tray on the stove top. Sprinkle the sugar into the tray and turn the heat to high. When the sugar starts to take some colour, deglaze the pan with the wine, scrapping up any cooked bits. Add the stock and any resting juice from the pork and reduce to your desired consistency. 

Serve with roasted vegetables and sugar snap peas. 



A bread knife makes short work of pork crackling

Glazed Sausages

My sister in-law cooked cranberry glazed turkey sausages for Christmas one year and they were wicked.  I have used this idea since to glaze corned meat and, a pork loin. The idea is simple, baste some kind of sweet sauce over the goods you want to be sticky and tasty. Here I have used a date chutney my father makes but something simple like barbecue sauce with herbs and garlic and a little oil would work very well. Another option might be bottled teriyaki marinade with some ginger and/or oyster sauce. I guess you could think of it as poor mans ribs to a certain degree. With thicker substances (like my date chutney), you may need to thin them a little with boiling water. The only other tip I would give here would be to use either a non-stick pan or line a baking tray with baking paper or the clean up will be horrendous.

6  thick pork sausages (or more)
2 tbs date chutney
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs boiling water
Smashed carrot and parsnip
Some mashed potato
Blanched sugar snaps

Preheat an oven to 180C. Smear a little oil over the bottom of a large non-stick frying pan. Lay the the sausages tightly next to each other in the frying pan. Add the date chutney, garlic and oil to a bowl. Stir in half of the boiling water to the chutney and combine. Use more water if necessary. Spoon half of the mixture over the sausages, add a lid to the frying pan (or foil if using a lined tray) and cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove carefully from the oven, baste with some more gear and place back in the oven (no lid) for a further 10 minutes. Remove, baste again and place back in the oven for a further 5 minutes.
Serve with mash, smash and sugar snaps.

Pork Knuckle in Belgian Beer

Pork knuckle rules. I have wanted to cook it for years but couldn't find a decent recipe, fortunately two chef mates of mine were trading recipes on facebook and I was pointed in the direction of this one at SBS. Cheers Cook Learn Love, Fordonfood and the German guy with the crazy beard on SBS. I have varied the recipe slightly as, the best example I tried in Germany was cooked in beer, glorious glorious beer. For the curious, pork knuckle is the pork hock pre bacon-ing process. 1 pork knuckle should be enough for 2 people.

2 small onion sliced
1 Granny Smith apple sliced
2 garlic cloves (skin on)
1 pork knuckle
1tbs garlic oil
3 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbs salt
2 stubbies Hahn White beer (a Belgian styled beer)
Chicken stock
Braised red cabbage
Rosemary and Garlic Potatoes (substitute the parsley for rosemary)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Toss the onion, garlic cloves and apple together and place in the bottom of a large pot or deep roasting dish, I used a non-stick pan. Rub the garlic oil on the knuckle, followed by the salt and caraway seeds. Stand the pork knuckle up on the onion/apple mixture and place carefully in the oven to roast for 2.5 hours. The knuckle will more than likely topple over, try to lean it against something so that the skin crisps up if it does. Top up the liquid level if it drops too low with chicken stock. Remove the skin from the garlic cloves and mush through the onion/apple mixture. Carve the meat and serve on top of the onion/apple mixture with the braised red cabbage and rosemary potatoes.

Polenta Crusted Pan Fried Potato Chunks

I saw the Hairy Bikers coat potato in semolina to roast in goose fat. It sounded like a great idea so I decided to try something similar. Takes a bit of time, about 30 minutes, but the result is real proper golden and crunchy potato. This was served with crumbed fish. The potatoes have been requested a second night in a row to go with my Pear and Lemon Pork Belly recipe.

Potato
3 or 4 tbs polenta (or semolina)
Thyme sprigs
Oil (I used canola)
Salt

Peel and cut the potato into the sized chunks you want, I went for about 2 or 3 cm cubes. Boil the potato in a saucepan with a lid for a few minutes to par cook them. Drain the water and allow the steam to dry off your spuds somewhat. Add the polenta to the potato, put the lid on and shake about gently to scuff up the potato and coat in the polenta. Add enough oil to be a few mil deep in a large saucepan and heat to medium high. Place all of the scuffed potato and the thyme sprigs into the oil and fry on all sides until there is a golden colour. Drain on absorbent paper and season with salt.